We’ve discussed the many ways you can improve your SEO and we’re sure by now you know the importance of Search Engine Optimization to your overall success as a small business owner. However, SEO is as diverse as any other concept, and requires a real keen understanding of what your goals are in order to apply the tactic that is most likely to yield to your success. What? You may think. Sounds complicated. But really, it isn’t. It’s just a matter of figuring out what your priorities are as a business owner and how you can make that a reality with SEO. So today we are going to discuss different tactics that are proven effective in SEO and how you can determine which types—or combination of types—will work best for you.

1. Content, content, and more content: We’ve mentioned previously the importance of content in driving more users to your website, especially in this competitive marketplace. Small businesses in particular are forced to compete with powerful brand-names that have the funds necessary to advertise themselves extensively in paid search, and develop the reputation needed to be perceived as valuable by search engines across the web. However, with good enough content, even small businesses can adequately compete with larger brands, granted that content is targeted to the right audiences in the right channels. Just be sure that for whatever content type you choose in whichever social media channel applies, you are promoting content that is fresh because Google can and often does penalize for content they perceive as unoriginal. And you don’t want to get hit with an algorithmic penalty as you are trying to improve your search engine ranking.
2. Social Media: A great way to improve your SEO is through social media. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have all been proven effective in driving SEO, with LinkedIn being the #1 channel which B2B marketers have generated the most leads from, according to a report from Oktopost. But in order to fully succeed with these tools, it’s extremely important that you identify your target audiences and the channels that would be best suited for appealing to those audiences. We will elaborate on this later, but by using analytical tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Twitter Analytics, you can get the insight you need to properly target your consumer-base on each of these channels and determine what kinds of content are most appealing to those audiences.
3. Keywords Galore! At this point, we are hoping you are the Kings and Queens of keywords, because we’ve talked enough about using them in our posts. Finding those keywords which your competitors are not using is paramount to experiencing success, but also using keywords which properly represent the quality of your content is important as well. You want users to come to your website not only because of the products & services you have to offer, but because of the way those goods and services are described on your website. This could make the difference between whether your ad is triggered when someone makes a search for quality athletic shoes, as opposed to just sneakers, helping you tune into a rather niche market for your products.

In terms of discerning what tactics would be best suited for your SEO, this really boils down to whether you are willing to take out the time needed to determine what tactics will generate the greatest results. We hope that you understand the importance of observing your data, and in the likely chance that you do, especially after reading this article, we suggest you ask yourself two questions as you begin observing the traffic that surrounds your website.

1. In what areas does my SEO need to be improved?
2. In what areas can I potentially generate greater results with SEO?

These are two great questions, but in order to get the answers, you really need to use a variety of tools to extract the data which will tell you what direction you must go in.  Such methods include Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Twitter Analytics, and Facebook Insights. For example, if you are using Google Analytics and you notice your current keywords are generating lower page-views than before, it’s safe to say you need a more targeted group of keywords to drive your SEO. Or if you notice in Google AdWords, the demographic with the highest CTR for your lipstick ad is middle-aged Latina women in New Jersey, you can begin curating content that will appeal to that target audience (especially in social media channels where that demographic mainly resides which you can also discern with tools like Twitter Analytics and Facebook Insights.) Ultimately, the possibilities are endless here—but it just takes an understanding of what your goals are and what combination of SEO tactics will help you accomplish them. And really, the data is there to tell you what direction you must go in, that is, if you start asking yourself the right questions about your SEO.