As a small business, you may have found it difficult to get your website to show up on the first few pages of Google. Ranking your small business website on search engines (aka being found online) is pretty important to making money, is it not? To find local customers, you want your website to be easy to find on the web. You don’t want big-name, corporate out-of-towners stealing your clients or customers!

After all, small local businesses are the heart of our community and economy, are they not?

The good news is that in 2019, Google changed its algorithm to help combat this issue directly. This development was made in order to present more diversity within the top results that appear on Google Search pages. 

The algorithm change we’re referring to limits the number of times a single domain can appear in a single SERP to two. This means that a larger website with more traffic and backlinks to boost its SEO can only appear twice on a single query.

This is great news for small businesses and those sick of being drowned out by those with deeper pockets allocated to their marketing budgets. 

So how can you, a small business owner, utilize these changes in order to get your website to rank higher? 

Here are three ways you can drive traffic, climb SERPSs, and get your local expertise into the hands of your potential clients and customers for your small business. 

Exact Match Domains and URLS

Exact match domain names are website URLs that include keywords within your business and website. For example, if you are a Chiropractor in Tampa, you might include those keywords in your domain name or URL. For example, a great domain name might be tampabaychriopractor.com. 

However, oftentimes finding an available domain name with all your keywords that perfectly describes your business as your audience would type it into a search engine is very difficult to find. Many times the domain name is already taken. 

If the domain name is taken or you were hoping to use your business name as your domain name, you can simply create landing pages with URL paths that include your keywords. For example, instead of tampabaychriopractor.com, you could have a landing page for those keywords with a URL such as myclinicname.com/tampa-bay-chiropractor. 

Studies show that this method can boost your website on Google. 

Drive Traffic Through Engagement

This tip is an easy one to beat out big-name competitors. Take advantage of your opportunities as a small business to engage with potential clients and customers one-on-one. 

To do this, simply reply to comments on social platforms, blog posts, forums, and review sites with helpful information and resource links pointing to your landing pages. 

By engaging with your viewers, you show them that you care and you are also getting backlinks to your website .

Driving engagement through social interaction leads to increased social SEO signals which in turn helps with gaining higher rankings on SERPs. 

Bonus tip to driving more engagement: Set up a chat plugin on your website! Great customer service goes a long way.

Use Long-Tail Keywords

These days, one-word keywords don’t really work in most cases so it is best to tailor your content with long-tail keywords in mind. 

Long-tail keywords are simply a string of 3 to 4 keywords forming a phrase that is very specific to your business. 

An easy way to see examples of popular search query keywords is to start typing in a keyword or phrase into Google and see what pops up under the suggested searches. 

Long-tail keywords could include location, industry-specific terms, or descriptive phrases. Don’t be afraid to get specific here!

For example, instead of using “chiropractor” as a keyword, a chiropractic clinic looking to work on their personal injury leads may want to use “Tampa Auto Injury Chiropractor” as a long-tail keyword variation. 

Choose The Right Content

We still believe content is one of the key factors when it comes to being found on the web and driving traffic to your website. Along the same lines, try to narrow your content to focus more on a specific niche you have and make sure the content you are sharing provides value to your target audience.

With most small businesses, you’ll want to focus your time and energy on getting website visitors that are most likely to convert into clients and customers. 

It all goes back to providing value, and the best way to do that is to narrow in on the type of content that would prove useful to your clients or customers. What do they need and how can you provide it to them?

By implementing these tips, you can work toward beating out bigger businesses by getting personal with your viewers. 

Providing useful and relevant content as well as stellar customer service, you can set yourself apart from the competition!