The use of SEO in small businesses in Canada is a common trend in today’s industry. With numerous engine searches available on the internet, finding the right niche is necessary for small businesses to remain at the top of their game.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enables the clients to find your business on popular search engines such as Google or Bing. This drives necessary traffic into the website, making the business rate higher and gain visibility on the products and services being offered. As a result, the businesses generate more income through making sales, getting a return on investment.
In Canada, small businesses have employed digital marketing tactics through SEO to match their competitors and secure their place in the local space. SEO helps Canadian businesses get new customers and increase brand awareness. When seeking to understand SEO, there are various parameters that small businesses should follow to garner more visitors.
How to grow small businesses with SEO
The success of SEO is dependent on several factors:
- Selection of keywords
Identifying the right keywords to use is vital in SEO. The keywords should be common words that clients will type on the search bar to find the products or services that the small business is advertising.
The selection of keywords is dependent on the budget of the business. The business can start with five or fewer keywords to be visible to prospective clients. It is advisable to come up with a list of potential keywords and check them on Google AdWords to validate the keywords and ensure they are used frequently during online searches.
Using the keywords strategically is vital to prevent their excess usage. You wouldn’t want the content to be too saturated with keywords that it loses its meaning. After choosing the specific keywords, creating content is the next step.
- Content creation
The use of content in SEO is vital for the success of small businesses. By coming up with interesting and factual content, the client can sift through the website and find the information they are looking for while observing other products and services that the business is offering.
It is advisable to get the best content creators available to curate factual and informative pieces about the business. Creation of content ensures the keywords are visible and used throughout prompting results to pop up when they are searched online. Content should be recent and up to date to enable clients to get the answers they are looking for.
- Optimization
Without proper optimization SEO will not work for your business. Optimization requires placing the company’s keywords correctly in a way that makes sense and is easily visible to anyone visiting the website.
Optimizing the keywords correctly will enable the business to rank highly on search engines. This is done by adding the keywords persistently on the web site’s URL, page and making them presently visible through the first page.
- The use of backlinks
Backlinks are metadata that allow the website to capture hidden content and capture the demographic data of the clients. Businesses that use backlinks often gain traction on their website. This is done by requesting their fans, supplies, or partners to link their keywords on the website to help gain traction, and bump the site up on the search engine results.
When other sites use your website links on their sites, clients can access your website from different areas. Businesses often swap links with others to enable their links to be available on different sites and increase their website visibility. However, consider the quality of the backlinks from particular websites which have traction and user accessibility.
- Social media usage
Social media is a huge tool for SEO marketing. Various clients search information through social media to be able to find links and information on what they are looking for. Therefore, making sure the social media profile for your business ranks at the top is vital in driving traffic towards the page or website.
- Measuring results
There are tools available that measure results and give the business information on their performance; for instance, how many visitors they have had on their page, their location, which area they visited, and how long they have stayed on the website. Google Analytics, SEMRush, and Moz are a few tools that offer the services above.
SEO pricing guide in Canada
The cost of SEO must be cost-effective to maximize returns and focus on client reach and participation. This cost is influenced by location, type of company, and the target market or niche of the company.
When paying for SEO, the business is assured of a variety of services from website design, keywords to tracking and reporting. The bigger the website in need of optimization, the more premiums the business will pay.
Businesses with a wider international niche will also pay more for them to advertise worldwide. Local small businesses in Canada may find their premiums cost-efficient due to the focus on the Canadian market. For instance, an average of around CAD 3000 is expected monthly for small businesses in Canada.
The costing of SEO is dependent on the needs of the business and is based on various models:
- Performance-based SEO
This model requires the business to only pay for the results they get. The payment can be anywhere between $900 to &1800 CAD, and this model is focused on generating traffic and bumping up the company’s ratings.
- Monthly based SEO
This model ensures the business has access to all the activities required to increase their rating and online authority, by offering a long-term solution. Agencies that offer these create backlinks, create premium content and enhance the social media activity around the business. This model helps create the business brand over time making it a more permanent option.
- Hourly based SEO
Small startup businesses consider this model as is cost-effective and manageable. Startups have low content on their website which slowly buildups as they progress. Therefore, this model is cost-effective and is between $90 to CAD 200 per hour.