Introduction
Sometimes building a business empire and maintaining it, is the same thing. This is mostly the case for SMEs also known as Small to Mid-size Enterprises. In today’s world, SMEs are making an effort in building its business and you never know when it is truly created. The competition is such that you have to work hard to create or to keep your edge over your competitors. One thing that SMEs do to bring more traction to their business is to go online with it. The local market is so saturated that these entrepreneurs are trying to tap into the digital market. The digital market never truly saturates so your market can be anywhere. It depends on how far you are willing to provide your services. Ongoing digital, it is important to focus on SEO as it becomes a whole new problem for SMEs. We give all SMEs a capsule answer from Chris Rodgers, CEO of Colorado SEO Pros.
Voice Search Optimization Strategy
Chris said that starting in 2020, there is a high chance of increased use of voice searches. People are always searching up stuff on Google and other search engines. However, now they use their voice rather than their fingers to search for data. This raises many questions as to what to do to feature at the top of voice searches. As a creator, the most you can do is to keep your content relevant. You know the technicalities of your business and there is no one better than you. Try to get the pulse of your potential customer. Understand what a person may search for on the internet. Try to build up content in the direction of the customer’s question. Chris also shed some light on a study that focussed on voice search ranking factors. The study gave some interesting insights that led to the following lessons:
1. Focus on Standard search results
Many times, voice searches will show results similar to standard searches. It usually features those sites at the top that will normally appear in a standard search result. So don’t try to crack your head around voice search results. Try to come up with quality content for standard search results. This will automatically improve your voice search ranking.
2. Featuring Rich Snippets
Try to understand SERP features and work towards rich snippets. Come up with the strategies that would give you an entry in rich snippets.
3. Create fast loading pages
Your website should not take a lot of time to load. Test the speed of your website and remove elements that slow it. This will enhance the user experience. Fast loading pages increase the chances of featuring the website at the top of search pages.
Guidelines for Voice Search Optimization
1. Focus on what a customer might visit the page, instead of stuffing your content with keywords. Make it look natural instead of spamming content with keywords. Add additional keywords that might be relevant for SEO.
2. Include a section called FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or PAA (People Also Ask). Try to answer the question in the best way possible. Work towards getting featured in rich snippets of search result pages.
3. Try to understand what schema markup is. Use markups like local business schema, FAQ schema, etc.
Biggest Challenge for SMEs
According to Chris, SMEs don’t know how SEO works. This can restrain the success of the digital business. This is because SMEs don’t understand how to go with their website and content in an online business. Many of the SMEs that approach Chris have a very disintegrated marketing strategy. This limits their success in SEO. Chris suggests that SMEs should try to research SEOs for the sake of their business.
Ideal Platform for SMEs
Chris does not feel that there is only one ideal platform for SMEs to grow their business. He was not in line with the idea of limiting your business to just one platform. Even so, to pick an answer he chose for email marketing. According to him, email marketing does not come with huge expenses. It can be very efficient in bringing clients if you have a good email list. Next in line for him was SEO for its effectiveness in bringing traction to online businesses.
Chris’ Take on White Hat SEO
Chris doesn’t consider his company to be a 100 percent white hat in its SEO. His company deals with link-building campaigns, which are a partially grey hast. There are very few companies that are totally white hat SEOs in nature. People think only a few factors decide the search rankings. However, many small factors play a key role in SEO. You can contact an SEO company to know more.
Consumer Search Predictions and Advice for SMEs on SEO
Chris feels the Voice search will play a significant role in search results. Therefore, he advises SMEs to build their content as per customer queries. Try not to focus a lot on keywords. Build your way towards rich snippets of SERP. Understand how a product flows from producer to consumer in the digital world. Do your research about digital business to optimize your website. Also, come up with marketing plans that support your website.
