SEO tools for small business are essential part of strategy to grow organically via search by leveraging content marketing and backlink building.
My assumption is that everyone who comes online to promote their business knows there is cogent need to be easily found when prospects use search engine to seek information.
But, for those who do not know the significance of being found organically through via search results, I will explain the BIG reason with this simple analogy.
People search because they want something. They may not know what exactly. But they already have a need to be met, immediately or later.
Prospects may not know where to get what they need. Optimizing your website and content for search means you are positioning your business where people searching for what you offer can easily find and identify with you.
Much as a website can be propelled to the top of search results using effective Pay per Click strategy, web visitors trust organic search results more than paid.
Google said 70% of people searching click on top organic results, while 30% click on paid search results.
SEO tools for small business make organic search campaign more effective and more measurable. If you plan, execute your SEO strategy yourself, you will need SEO tools to measure your progress.
If an agency handles your organic search campaign on the other hand, you still can go pennywise on them by learning this SEO tools to be able to appropriate reports they send to you periodically.
Why does small Business Need to Use SEO Tools?
To make it easier to track the growth of your business that is being contributed by organic search, it is good to identify scalable SEO KPIs and match them with suitable business goals.
Let’s say your business goal is to get more brand awareness. You want to get into the minds of more prospects, right?
Your SEO KPIs will include New Sessions, Organic Traffic, Organic Source/Medium, Pageviews via Organic Sources and more
All these SEO metrics will be available on Google Analytics, of course. Google Search Console too will fetch you organic search analysis on traffic and backlinks, click through rate and so on.
But, SEO tools for small business that I am about to share with you helps you break down the impact of these vague SEO metrics on your business.
What will SEO Tools for Growth of Small Business?
SEO tools for small business to improve growth organically, in this piece, will cover search engine optimization aspects such as Technical SEO, Content Optimization, Backlink Analysis, Rank Tracking, Link Building.
So, take some chill pill.
You are about to learn SEO tools you can use to grow your small business, for FREE!
Related Post: Benefits of Local SEO
SEO Tools for Small Business: Technical SEO
Technical SEO, without wielding so much jargons against you, basically sorts out the communication between your website and search engines.
With Technical SEO properly taken care of, search engines will get the right information from your website in order to display relevant message to prospects who query search engine for answers.
When your Technical SEO is on point, your web visitors and leads will be more targeted, highly target. This happens because you would have used the right snippets to pitch your business to to search engines.
It is what search engines pick from your website HTML tags (snippets) that your prospects find when they query search engines.
Are we good?
What SEO Tools can Small Business Use for Technical SEO?
SEOptimer is my preferred Technical SEO tool for small business on this one. I have used a couple of SEO tools to troubleshoot technical issues with client website. But, I find SEOptimer more comprehensive
SEOptimer allows you to troubleshoot Technical SEO problems, plus a little bit of On-page Optimization issues with your website. This should be the basis of organic search campaign.
Why do I think so?
Doctors do not prescribe treatment unless a patient has been diagnosed and taken through relevant tests. Right?
If so, you must diagnose your website SEOptimer, in order to ascertain what are technically wrong with your website.
The icing on the cake is that SEOptimer is very very easy to use.
You know what? SEOptimer has Chrome browser extension. This means, if you install the browser extension once, you can troubleshoot your small business website from within your web browser as many times as you want to.
How do I check Technical SEO problems with my Website?
- Log onto www.seoptimer.com
- Type your URL in the search bar
- Eg: www.wdc.ng
- Press ANALYSE
You will get report on Technical SEO problems bothering on
- Homepage Title Tag
- Homepage Meta Description Tag
- Header Tags
- Keyword Consistency
- Image Alt Attributes…..
To use SEOptimer Chrome Extension
- Click on SEOptimer Chrome Extension
- Install it on your web browser
SEO Tools for Small Business: Content Optimization
Content Optimization comprises finding keywords you can favourably compete for and using such keyword(s) at the right places within your content.
There are several and very popular SEO tools for keyword research. I will choose one that I consider not so common here.
Am I permitted to do so?
Thanks in advance for allowing me.
What SEO Tools Can Small Business Use for Keyword Research?
Bloomberry. It is great SEO Tool for keyword research, especially question keyword, because it checks Amazon, forums and Reddit to find questions that people ask about topics of your choice.
Bloomberry is super useful and FREE. It is web-based. No downloading or paid subscription required.
How to Keyword Research with Bloomberry?
- Log on to blooberry.com
- Type in Topic or Content Idea
- Press GO
One good thing about question keywords provided by Bloomberg is that you can see the sources of these keywords.
Why Do You Need Question Keyword Sources?
After creating your content and optimizing it for the keyword, go to these platforms, search for your question keyword. Participate in the conversation with your content.
Answer the question or other questions that might have ensued in the course of the conversation. And then, you link up your content for further reading.
This will increase your brand awareness and number of back links.
SEO Tools for Small Business: Backlink Analysis
Backlink Analysis is critical to small businesses’ organic search campaigns. This is so because search engines rely on backlinks to determine the credibility, relevance, and authority of your website.
Since the number of backlinks to a website does not solely determine its organic ranking, it is advisable for small business owners to know SEO tools they can use to analyze the quality and relevance of backlinks to a website.
SEO tools for small businesses to analyze backlinks help you find out the quality of backlinks. The quality of a backlink comes from the Domain Authority of the linking website, the Page Authority of the linking web page.
What makes a Backlink Quality?
For a backlink to be considered quality, it should:
- Be from a trusted source
- Be within content
- Be relevant to the linked page
- Use relevant anchor text
- Send regular traffic to the linked page
What SEO Tool Should Small Business Use for Backlink Analysis?
Serpstat. Ahref, CoginitiveSEO among other SEO tools are great for Backlink Analysis, but I choose Serpstat in this piece for the sake of free access.
What are the features of Serpstat?
Serpstat shows Backlink Analysis covering:
- Referring Domains
- Referring Pages
- Domain Zone
- New Backlinks
- Lost Backlinks
- Anchor Text….
What I find really fascinating about using Serpstat as a free SEO tool to analyze back links for small business is Domain Zone.
Domain Zone in Serpstat shows if you have highly regarded backlink types such as .edu and .gov backlinks to your website. .edu and gov backlinks from relevant websites that can give you moderate organic traffic will save the life of your website.
Trust me on this one.
Go after these backlinks, and get them pointing at your website.
You would be too glad you did!
SEO Tools for Small Business: Rank Tracking
Advanced Web Ranking gives you fresh rankings daily, weekly, as you ask for it. Your keywords are tacked for desktop, mobile and local searches. Keyword tracking reports are accessible from any device.
To stay ahead of the organic search game, you’ve got to keep track of keywords you rank for on the go.
As you keep track of keywords you rank for, you also want to keep track of keywords that your toughest competitions rank for. You never can tell, your competition may be fighting hard to rank for the exact keywords you rank for in order to take your place in organic search.
Advanced Web Ranking and other SEO tools for small businesses will watch your back with keyword tracking, as the battle for organic search ranking gets tough and tougher.
Why use Advanced Web Ranking for Keyword Tracking?
Advanced Web Ranking is the first web-based organic search rank tracker that is capable of delivering localized rankings with the best accuracy. AWR cloud is backed by geolocation proxies from Trusted Proxies.
SEO Tools for Small Business: Link Building
Link building is a different ball game on its own. It cannot be fully covered now and here. But the aspect of link building I would like to focus on is Link Prospecting.
Link prospecting for link building is like scouting.
It is similar to when guys send out messages on social media or radio shows, looking for someone special to hook up with it. Anyone asking for a soulmate in public domain always sounds very polite, soothing and as romantic as possible.
Have I done this before?
Let’s gist in camera. Lol!
So, now that you have an idea of link prospecting, let’s move on.
Link prospecting is usually the early stage of a backlink-building campaign, where you look out for link sources that are relevant to your business. You want to know how helpful the links from these sources will be to your website.
You could launch into the deep by searching for link sources based on chosen topics, content ideas or keywords. While you could be more targeted by scouting for your competitor’s link sources?
Why Should You Consider Your Competitor’s Link Sources?
Websites linking to your competitor already have content that is relevant to yours. They are aware of your product/service and have already identified with your market. This takes care of the relevancy of links pointing to your website.
Besides, your competitor’s link sources already have your kind of target audience.
What SEO tool Should Small Businesses Use for Link Prospecting?
Dibz. Dibz is an advanced link prospecting tool designed to save you time, and simplify the process of link building and influencer opportunities research. It makes link prospecting easy for both business owners and SEO experts.
Dibz is free for the first seven days, in which you get a quality link building and influencer prospects, take advantage of the in-built SPAM algorithm, lucid insights about your link prospects, and email addresses of your link prospects.
READ ALSO: How SEO Blog Posts Work: SEO Blogging Strategy for Small Business
Having learned about these 5 free SEO tools for growing small businesses, you should be able to champion your own organic search course starting today at least. No one becomes an expert on their first attempts.
Give these SEO tools a try, you will be amazed at how much you could influence the growth of your business through organic search.