Neutralize the Competition: 7 Small Business SEO Benefits

Competing against established brands is challenging. It is even more overwhelming when you are a small business with limited resources. How do you beat them while managing the costs? This article highlights three key small business SEO strategies and how they neutralize your rivals:

• Keyword research uncovers hidden opportunities.
• Local search helps your message resonate with your high-value leads.
• Content builds trust.

By the end of this blog post, you will know why budget usually comes second to strategy. Read below to learn how to hold your own and even outrank big brand competitors. Let’s go!

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1. Keyword Research Uncovers Hidden Opportunities

Keywords matter to businesses of all sizes. However, if you are a small enterprise, you have to be more strategic about them. Highly competitive terms have excellent search volumes, but they:

• Are difficult to rank.
• Increase bid or advertising costs.
• Often provide low conversion rates.

Focusing on them means exerting significant effort for little reward.  The best small business SEO approach is keyword research to uncover hidden opportunities. Specifically, you can dominate and use these terms and phrases to attract the right audience.  Two excellent strategies include the following:

• Focusing on long-tail, low-hanging, and zero-volume keywords.
• Matching the keywords to user intent.

Suppose Sarah operates a San Diego boat tour. Although highly niched, she is up against tour companies that have been around for decades. These businesses have built good client relationships.   She reaches out to a small business SEO agency to help her. The team might then follow these steps:

• Brainstorm seed keywords such as “San Diego boat tours,” “fishing charters,” and “sunset cruises.”
• The SEO team uses keyword research tools to gather more data. These include long-tail variations, ranking difficulty, and search volume. They also analyze the terms’ user intent and trend.
• They organize keywords into location-based groups, such as “La Jolla” and “Mission Bay.” They also categorize them according to services. These include “fishing,” “whale watching,” and “cruising.”
• The SEO agency removes high-competition keywords such as “San Diego boat tours.” Instead, it focuses on longer phrases. One of them is “wheelchair accessible fishing charters in San Diego.” It has low competition but a good search volume.

• They further refine the list, looking at existing competitor rankings and optimization opportunities.
• Every two to three months, the SEO team repeats the research to capture new relevant keywords, emerging trends, changes in search volume, and more. They adjust their strategies as appropriate. 

Strategic keyword research brings your small business to the right audience without draining your advertising budget. 

2. Local Search Helps Your Message Resonate with High-Value Leads

Local SEO is more vital for small businesses than national brands or enterprises. Unlike your competitors, you likely operate only in specific locations. These can be cities, states, or countries. Either way, your ideal market is within the area. Further, national brands have a presence everywhere. Underperforming in one place rarely hits their bottom line. On the other hand, your marketing strategies should help you compete with established companies and hyperlocal providers. Optimizing for local search also helps you maximize these benefits:

• Customers value proximity and convenience. 
• This strategy offers a low and cheap market entry. 
• Optimizing local keywords helps with voice search and mobile optimization. 

Digital Authority Partners (DAP) has shared reliable local SEO tips. Another helpful idea is creating a schema markup to rank in the local map pack.   This markup is a code added to your website to create structured data. Because of the way it presents information, search engines understand your content better. It now knows how your keywords and copy relate to one another.  Most of all, the markup helps search engine spiders collect other relevant business information. These include opening hours, price range, images, addresses, and contact details. All of these often trigger your appearance in the local map pack, a list of three or more businesses at the top of Google’s search results. Placing it here suggests that your business is the most relevant response to the keyword. It then elevates your brand’s credibility to sales-ready leads.

3. Content Builds Trust

Do you know that trust helps you beat the competition? For one, it inspires sales. Customers are more likely to purchase from trustworthy businesses. It also improves loyalty, which explains why companies such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola enjoy longevity. Trust also enhances conversion. Your market becomes less anxious to spend money on your products and services. Additionally, it generates referrals as you transform loyal customers into brand advocates. This virtue builds authority and influence, which helps you steal a profitable market share from your rivals. However, trust is challenging to earn. This is especially true for new small businesses marketing online. How do you showcase your credibility, authority, and expertise in selling? The answer is strategic content marketing. These are different from your run-of-the-mill types of content. Instead, these are types of copy with the following features:

• Follow the industry’s best practices.
• Adhere to Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.
• Stay relevant to its targeted audience by addressing their pain points and needs.
• Offer unique perspectives that also highlight your niche experience.
• Emphasize your company’s value, mission, and purpose.
• Promote transparency, authenticity, and leadership.

Analyzing Patagonia’s Content Marketing Strategy

Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company that has mastered strategic content marketing to beat its staunchest competitors. These include The North Face, Columbia Sportswear, and Marmot.  Its unique selling proposition (USP) revolves around sustainability. Specifically, it builds on the idea that consumers help save the planet when they buy from the company.  This USP then becomes the guiding force in Patagonia’s content plan:

• Its blog, The Cleanest Line, features posts about regenerative organic certification. The FAQ section includes tips and steps on how to recycle Patagonia garments.
• It is transparent about its supply chain and business operations through behind-the-scenes stories. 
• Patagonia publishes lifestyle content, such as product guides, with outdoor enthusiasts in mind.
• The brand is well-known for environmental activism. For example, some of its published materials discuss the company’s partnership with nonprofits. It also provides deep perspectives on topics relating to sustainability, such as climate change. 

Search engines continue to refine the algorithms to ensure that only the most relevant, helpful content tops the search results. Now is the best time to reinvent your copy and go beyond peppering it with chosen keywords. Use it to highlight your USP, niche expertise, and leadership. 

Summing Up

Do you feel like David trying to beat Goliath in online marketing? You are not alone. The good news is that the shepherd beat the giant in size and strategy.  Good small business SEO helps you achieve the same outcome too. It even makes your strategies and processes more efficient. When done right, you attract high value leads and customers without straining your available resources.  Do you want to learn more about digital marketing strategies for small businesses? Digital Authority Partners (DAP) is an award-winning SEO agency. Our custom data-driven solutions have helped our clients rank first in 350,000 keywords. They have also delivered over a million qualified leads and 1.5 million monthly visitors.  Contact us to schedule a free consultation.