Do you struggle with your social media or search engine optimisation? Digital wizard Erin of Young Folks Digital knows everything there is to know about digital marketing. She shares her wisdom with us by offering her best and most practical tips on SEO and social media for small business.
How can a small business improve their SEO?
When it comes to SEO – that is: search engine optimisation – there are a lot of “snake charmer” types and spammy emails promising to “fix the critical errors and get you to number one on Google” so it comes as no surprise that a lot of small business owners have put SEO in the THB (too hard basket).
While SEO is absolutely specialist skill set with a great deal of strategy and technical knowledge required, there are a number of things you can do to help drive more quality traffic – that is, the kind that converts – to your website.
It all starts with knowing your customer and working out how they search for your product or service. Selling vegan food in Frankston? How are people searching for this? “Vegan food” on Google Maps? “Vegan cafe Frankston” on Google Search? And what about your brand name, or location?
The next step is to optimise your website so that it comes up (AKA: ranks) for these kinds of search phrases. This ensures your business is appearing in search engine results for relevant terms – like the products you sell, service offering, or brand name.
All that effort building up brand and product awareness through other marketing channels won’t be as effective if your website doesn’t come up when someone searches for your brand name – eek!
What can small businesses do to make social media work for them?
Be social! And by that, I mean use social media to connect with your audience and actually engage in conversation – just like we do via our personal profiles.
When it comes to growing your business, social media platforms can be incredibly effective. But it's easy to forget that the primary purpose of social media is to, well, be social.
Small business owners can harness the power of social media by sharing content that educates, inspires, or entertains, *and* by engaging with their audience. Publishing your post and leaving isn’t really being social, is it? And the social algorithms take two-way engagement into account – which is a good thing if you use it to your advantage.
Whether you’re posting on the fly or planning out your content and scheduling in advance, it’s important to keep it relatable. Keep it human. Brands are made by people, for people, after all.
You can find out more about Erin and Young Folks digital at the below links;
https://www.facebook.com/youngfolksdigital
