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How to write SEO friendly content for your small business website

Trust Your Brand

Posted: Mon 28th Nov 2022

Well-crafted, considered content is key to the effective online promotion of your products or services. And, if you want potential customers to find you on Google and other search engines, your content must also be SEO friendly.

In this blog, David García Ruiz, director at Trust Your Brand, shares some tips.

Write for your customers, not you

To cut through the noise and stand out online, you need to reach out to your customers by writing content that has them in mind.

Take some time to think about your ideal customer. How old are they? What is their financial situation? What are they looking for? What do they care about?

This simple exercise is worthwhile because it allows you to step outside of your intimate knowledge of your brand and see it through your customers' eyes.

The resulting copy will be more effective, more compelling and is more likely to turn into sales and click through.

If you are employing a copywriter, this information will be helpful to them and result in more targeted, effective copy.

What's your story?

Weaving a story into your content is a great way of eliciting connections with your customers. Storytelling and narrativisation are strategies used by marketeers to enhance the identity of a brand and to convey relatable messages about its values.

Marketing speak aside, people like stories and respond to them emotionally.

If you are initially unsure, a customer case study is a good place to start. A well-chosen case study paints a picture about your brand, your values and your authenticity.

Use effective headlines and compelling content (and don't forget to SEO them)

Does anyone read things from beginning to end when they are browsing online? No. We scan. Scan for keywords and headings to find out if it's worth an extra scroll or a click.

As we battle with ever-diminishing attention spans, a good headline needs to be pertinent to your customer, unique and attention grabbing.

And in order to push your site up the Google rankings, you must include all the right keywords in your online content - in your headlines, blogs, listings and home page - everywhere you have an online presence.

Don't assume you know the search terms people use. Some research into the keywords used to reach the kinds of products you sell is vital.

Whether you do this yourself or pay for this service, you will be surprised at the different ways people search and the search terms they use.

By doing this research you will develop a reliable, effective list of keywords that you can in turn interweave into your content.

For example, imagine that you sell moisturiser for dry skin. You will be surprised by the number of people who are looking for your products, but, instead of typing 'moisturiser for dry skin' into Google, use different keywords such as 'skincare for dry skin' or 'dry skin cream'.

Don't be heavy handed and overfill your content with keywords. Too many keywords result in a clunky, unnatural sounding text that will stop that highly coveted connection between your brand and your customers.

Do not underestimate metadata

Before potential customers visit your site, they will likely type words related to your business into Google and other search engines. The very first thing they will see in their search results is your website's metadata (the snippet of text that describes what a web page is about).

It is important you include keywords in your metadata, not only in relation to search engines (one of the factors when ranking results), but also to your potential visitors.

If you include the terms that they use in their searches, they will know that they are on the right path to buying what they are looking for.

Would you like to increase your online visibility? Then it is time for you to put into practice some of these tips (or hire a professional copywriter) to produce awesome content that will also boost your rank on search engines!

Relevant resources

Trust Your Brand

Born and raised in Spain, David García Ruiz has lived in the UK since 2011 and runs his translation business from Swansea. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, as well as an Associate Member of the Institute of Translation & Interpreting.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content is solely that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of Grow London Local. Grow London Local accepts no liability for any loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication. We recommend that you obtain professional advice before acting or refraining from action on any of the contents of the content.