SEO for Small Businesses: How to Compete with Big Brands Online

What is a SEO

SEO stands for Search engine optimisation, which ranks local businesses listings, video media, websites, web pages and content. Higher ranking in the search engine will improve positioning and usefulness of multiple types of content in the organic search results. SEO allows to highest ranked digital content to be discovered and accessed more easily by the chosen public, increasing your websites organic traffic. Crawlers are used in search engine to gather information across the web to hold in their big database also known as 'index'. There is three types of SEO on-page, off-page and technical SEO they all contribute to help search engine discovery. What Is SEO? Search Engine Optimization Best Practices - Moz 

SEO for small and medium-sized businesses its a challenge to compete against major company's, but with the correct strategy in place you can  outsmart the bigger businesses.

Focusing on long-tail keyword means less competition but still highly relevant to the search being made. Reason for doing this is because large brands normally dominate short, highly competitive keywords, but by using long-tail keywords this can result in more qualified traffic.

Example: This approach by a show retailor in Nairobi is a great example of focusing on long-tail keywords, instead advertising their product with 'buy shoes online' they use 'buy handmade leather shoes in Nairobi' this method narrows down competition and attracts consumers looking for specific products.

  

Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses 

Connect with your target audience early - Being able to reach your target audience early in their buyer journey provides a great opportunity and increase awareness for your business and can lead to more business over time. Having relevant content can make connecting with your target audience easier and create trust with you brand, this can lead to more traffic which you can turn that traffic into clients or customers.

Competitive Advantage - you are able to reach more people and produce more leads and sales by improving your online presents and by ranking higher in search results, by doing this, the business may improve your market position and compete with bigger businesses in the industry you operate in.

Conclusion: Small Business can compete with Big Brands

Big brands might seem like they hold the upper hand over small businesses but small businesses can still succeed in SEO by focusing on niche markets, high quality content and long-tailed keywords which will promote them in a local search and leverage their agility. Focusing on SEO strategy will allow small businesses to build strong relationships with your target audience which will attract more qualified traffic, and rank higher than larger competitors in your space. Putting a creative and strategic plan in place with your resources that suits your businesses can not only compete but improve the digital landscape.