SEO specialist Silvia Del Corso sat down with the Magnet Monster team to explain the different strategies for small & large businesses when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation.

How does SEO strategy differ for small or large businesses?

Approaches to Search Engine Optimisation can be quite different for small and large businesses.

We know that most people never take the time to scroll past the first SERP. Therefore, SEO is an aspect of marketing that simply cannot be ignored.

To clarify a few basic concepts, before highlighting the differences in the approaches of small and large businesses to SEO, I would like to quickly collect

The SEO strategies that every business has in common.

The goal is the same for any business: reach that first search engine results page (SERP) and increase your profit while doing so.

Here are some of the components that can never miss, planning SEO for any size of business:

• Brand definition. Know your unique selling proposition, and make sure to develop your messages around your brand that are consistent with your own tone of voice.

• Keyword research and optimisation.

• Identifying and fixing any technical SEO issue, including site map indexing and structured data.

User experience, since it is renowned how much it impacts ranking (factors like page speed, working links, mobile friendliness, etc).

• Definitely part of the UX, but so much important to deserve an independent point: high-quality content.

• Security, another unmissable element.

• Images optimisation.

• High authority and quality backlink profile.

Social proof (social media can be a powerful tool to gain new link building opportunities).

So, how do small and large businesses reach this destination?

From my nearly 10 years of experience as an SEO Specialist, I recommend as the main point that small businesses should become extremely aware of their true competitors. They should select their playing field wisely, using smart efforts.

Keywords are a good example of this.

Long-tail keywords are the most effective for small businesses that cannot rely on the resources to quickly create a strong backlink profile. Longer phrases like “children designer clothes in London” is an example of how you should approach creating a long-tail keyword at this stage.

Small businesses should also have their target persona (audience) very clearly in mind before starting the SEO process, as this process is much easier to define for them than for bigger organisations, especially if their audience is local.

This connects another very important point for a  small business: unless they’re 100% online, local SEO should play a crucial role in their SEO efforts. Once again, it’s about choosing smartly your playing field and whom you want to outrank and compete with.

Content is the vital fuel of a site’s ability to rank in search. Without well-crafted content, there’s no reason for search engines to send traffic your way.

Here’s where small business owners struggle more often: they don’t have the same amount of resources as enterprises do to create it.

Here’s when you, as a small business owner, need to be aware of your own potential:

• How much (time or money, outsourcing) are you ready to invest in this vital process?
• Also, what are your strengths? Do you prefer creating video content or writing down your thoughts and considerations? Do you have a partner or assistant who likes a particular format? Find your own way: it will suit your business nicely.

Large business will dedicate a part of their workforce considering these elements wisely.

The same regards design: UX is a key to SEO, we said. While enterprises can afford to hire in-house designers and coders to take care of this for them, small businesses should prioritise on watching out for the unprofessional impression that broken links and misspellings create, first. They would send off Users right away and crawler bots would acknowledge this.

Summarising, as a small business owner, take your time to understand your audience and strategies: this is the real prerequisite to winning the competition in the game of search.

About the Author:

Silvia Del Corso has been working as an SEO Specialist for nearly a decade, helping business owners get their websites found better on Google for keywords that will drive them targeted traffic to their websites.

She founded PinkSEO.Marketing in West London, consulting and training business owners on Search Engine Optimisation.

When she’s not assisting her clients, she loves to talk and write about SEO and attend networking events in London.

Follow Silvia on LinkedIn here.