If you own a small business, chances are you’re not getting the SEO results you’ve been hoping for. One reason could be that you’re not using the right tools in the right way. Here I’ll answer a number of common questions in order to help you get started on SEO for a Small Business.

A lot of people think search engine optimization (SEO) is only important for huge corporations and corporations that sell big brands. They aren’t wrong. But for those businesses that don’t need the extra income from SEO… like law firms, restaurants, or other small firms that don’t need as much traffic as those types of businesses.. then you don’t need to worry about SEO as much as other types of business. Bummer right? I know… and it sucks. But luckily for us, there is a way around this: the Internet has given today’s small business owner a chance to literally compete with the big dogs — and here’s how we do it: we optimize our websites

SEO is no longer an industry for large corporations. Small businesses are embracing the internet to drive their online presence with strategies designed specifically for this ever-changing digital landscape.

There are people who would argue that making a small business on the Internet requires no SEO. In fact, I have met a number of people who have found success through promoting their products and services, many of which were being sold without even a single Google AdWords campaign. However, the truth of the matter lies in this simple statement:

They’re fantastic at what they do, but when it comes to marketing their business online, they’re amateurs, to say the least. (Sorry, Martin & Gary!)

Estimated monthly organic traffic to their website via Ahrefs Site Explorer.

I’m not saying this to be mean. As I said, they’re busy—they don’t have time to learn SEO.

But even if they did, they’d likely face the same issues as many other small businesses:

They don’t have much technical expertise: SEO isn’t that complicated, but “being good at computers”—as my Nana would say—is a definite requirement if you’re doing this yourself.
They don’t have the budget: Knowing what needs doing is only half the battle. Hiring marketing staff to do the work is the other more expensive half.

Everything above sound familiar?

This article focuses on simple, low-cost and quick wins, many of which need only be done once to have a positive lasting effect. I’ll also talk about outsourcing some of this stuff, so you have more time to focus on the crucial business activities that put money in your pocket.

Still, I’m going to assume that you already have the absolute basics covered in that:

You have a website.
You’ve already installed Google Analytics, Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, etc.
You’ve claimed or created your Google My Business listing (if relevant).
You get some traffic—not necessarily from search engines.
You’re a local business with only a few locations or are in a service-based industry.

Let’s go.IMPORTANT NOTE

This guide is for small business websites with ~30 pages or fewer (excluding blog posts).

Got a bigger website than that? Check out our SEO basics guide.

Before we get started

First things first—we need to cover a few more basics.

Let’s begin by making sure that Google has your website indexed.

Being indexed simply means that Google is aware of your website. It doesn’t necessarily mean you rank for anything worthwhile, but it does mean there’s a chance of your site popping up when people search for relevant queries.

Not indexed = no chance of ever ranking for anything.

Luckily, there are two easy ways to check whether your site is indexed.

The first is with Google Search Console.

Search Console > Coverage

The valid number of pages should be roughly equal to the number of pages on your site.

Not a Search Console user? You should be. It’s free, so sign up.

The other, slightly less accurate way is to go to Google.com, then search for site:yourwebsite.com.

If Google returns at least one result, they know at least part of your site exists. If they return roughly the same number of results as pages on your site, then they likely have all pages on your site indexed—which is good.

If there are no results, then Google has no clue that your site exists.

NOTE. It looks like First Sight Videos has 2,800 pages indexed in Google. That’s worrying. I wouldn’t expect them to have more than 30–50 pages on their site. This is something we’ll tackle later.

You can also use the same query in Bing to check for indexation there.

Bing results for site:firstsightvideos.co.uk showing only 50 results compared to Google’s 2,800+

Not indexed? Read our guide to submitting to search engines.

Before we move on to the “meat” of this guide, I also recommend starting a website crawl in Ahrefs Site Audit. It only takes a minute or two to set-up, and it’ll make life easier as we progress through this guide.

Here’s Sam Oh explaining how to do this:https://www.youtube.com/embed/LjinWqfGyVE?autohide=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&wmode=transparent&autoplay=0

NOTE. This part is entirely optional. Don’t panic if you’re not yet an Ahrefs customer.

It’s also worth checking that your website is mobile-friendly using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Google reported in 2015 that over half of their searches come from mobile devices, so this is no longer a luxury—more a necessity.

This is what you want to see:

Not seeing that? Consider hiring a freelancer to edit your CSS to make it mobile-responsive.

Now let’s get started with this SEO stuff!

1. Create a logical website structure

Here’s what Google says in their article listing steps to a Google-friendly site:

Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.

In plain English, that means that your site should make sense to navigate. Your homepage should link to your other important pages (about, content, services). Your services page should list and link to pages describing individual services. And so on.

This may sound obvious, but I’ve found that with small business websites especially, this often isn’t the case.

Things usually start pretty logically, but as they add pages over time, things fall apart.

How do you fix this? The trick is to try to look at your website with fresh eyes and make sure it has a logical structure. Start at your homepage and see if you can logically find—and navigate to—all your important pages quickly and easily.

Let’s do this for First Sight Videos. (My brother’s business).

I’ll start on their homepage and check their main navigation menu. Things look pretty good here until we get to the blog menu item…

On rollover, a drop-down appears with links to all blog posts—which is no fewer than 28 posts!

Not only does this look messy, but it breaks down the logical structure of the website.

This is a prime example of what I said about things starting logically and slowing disintegrating over time. I know these guys are filming weddings regularly, which they then blog about. This menu has clearly gotten out of hand without them realizing, and is definitely something to fix.

Your website may not have this same issue but there are probably other similar ones. So the best thing to do is grab a pen and paper and start mapping out an ideal structure for your site. You could also use a free visual sitemap creator like this one.

It should be relatively easy if you have a small site.

Here’s my proposed structure for First Sight Videos:

Made with Slickplan.

Let’s also take a quick look at the site footer—which is present across all pages on the website.

Here, we see another issue that plagues a lot of businesses who’ve been taken in by not so great SEO advice over the years:

There’s an irrelevant link to elsewhere on the site using keyword-rich anchor text.

Such links aren’t always an issue, but it’s clear that this is done solely for SEO purposes.

If you have any links like these, remove them. They’re not helping. They just make your site look spammy to Google and visitors alike.Sidenote. Even if you still trust old-school SEO advice, this particular link makes little sense because it links to another page on the site using keywords that are likely more suited to the homepage. Looking to outsource?

Not sure how to implement these changes yourself?

You can get a freelance developer to do that. It shouldn’t cost much for changes like these, especially if you’re using a popular CMS like WordPress. I recommend looking on UpWork or People Per Hour.

For example, this guy charges £10/hour (~$13) for WordPress maintenance:

Site structure adjustments aren’t complicated, so 2–3 hours of this guy’s time would likely be more than enough.

NOTE. This is just an example to show how quickly and cheaply you can find freelancers to solve such issues. Always shop around and make sure to check reviews and feedback before hiring anyone.

2. Keep your site free of broken pages and links

Broken stuff on a website is never good. Not for visitors, and not for SEO.

Think about it: what does a website with broken pages and links say to you? Most likely that it’s rarely updated, neglected, and that the site owner doesn’t care about keeping their website functioning properly.

Let’s start by finding broken (404) pages.

Here’s what Google says about these:

While it’s normal to have Not Found (404) errors, you’ll want to address errors for important pages linked to by other sites, older URLs you had in your sitemap and have since deleted, misspelled URLs for important pages, or URLs of popular pages that no longer exist on your site. This way, the information that you care about can be easily accessed by Google and your visitors.

Here’s a simple way to find all broken pages in one fell swoop:

Site Audit > Internal pages > 4XX page

Sidenote. Didn’t run a crawl yet? Go to Site Explorer > Best by links > add a “404 not found” filter. Results may not be as accurate as when using Site Audit, so that’s something to keep in mind.

It looks like there is only one dead page on First Sight Videos.

But there’s one other thing you’ll notice there—that broken page has one referring domain, meaning it has backlinks from one website.

Such links are bad because they waste “link equity.“ That effectively means that votes (links) to your site aren’t counted because they lead to a dead end.Sidenote. That’s a crude explanation. I’m trying to keep this as straightforward and jargon-free as possible. Read our guide to Google PageRank to learn about more of the reasoning behind this.

You can fix these in two ways:

Reinstate the dead page (if you deleted it by accident)
Redirect the dead page to an appropriate alternative (i.e., either the new location of that page or a similar page or post)

If the page has no referring domains, it’s generally okay to leave as is.PRO TIP

Make sure to update any internal links to broken pages that you find.

You can see all internal links to broken pages in Site Audit.

Site Audit > Internal pages > 4XX page > No. of inlinks

NOTE. You can also use the Internal backlinks report in Ahrefs Site Explorer. However, it’s better to use Site Audit if possible.

You should also fix broken outbound links on your website.

Site Audit > External Pages > External 4XX

NOTE. You can also use the Broken links report in Ahrefs Site Explorer. It is, however, preferable to use Site Audit for up-to-date results.

These are problematic for the same reason. You’re linking to dead pages which effectively wastes link equity—or PageRank—and contributes to poor user experience.

Fix them by removing or updating the links.
Sidenote. If you’re not ready to get a paid subscription with Ahrefs, you can try our free SEO toolset.

Recommended reading: How to Find and Fix Broken Links (to Reclaim Valuable “Link Juice”)Looking to outsource?

Download the CSV for the relevant report in Ahrefs and send it to a freelancer.

Tell them to update each link where possible. Otherwise, ask them to remove them.

This shouldn’t cost much for small websites with few errors. Here’s an hourlie I found in minutes on People Per Hour where the guy will fix up to 100 broken links on a WordPress website for £14 (~$18):

3. Make sure every page has an enticing meta title and description

Every page on your website needs a unique meta description and title.

These are what you typically see in the Google search results:

Sidenote. Google sometimes changes these dynamically, so they can sometimes differ from the title and meta description that a website sets.

Not only should every page on your website have a unique meta title and description, but they also need to:

Not exceed the length at which Google begins to truncate them in the search results.
Entice search engines users to click-through to your site.
Contain your target keyword (optional—but recommended)

Check your tags using this tool. Just paste the URL in and hit fetch.

It’ll then show you the meta title and description for that page.

Here’s how to deal with the issues that may arise:

Non-existent: Add them.
Too long. If you’re using the recommended tool above, it tells you if your meta title and description are too long (see the red highlighted text in the screenshot above). Shorten any that are.
Boring/unenticing: Ask yourself—if I saw this in the search results when searching for this business, would I be likely to click it? If the answer is no—rewrite.
Don’t include your target keyword: This is most important for homepages, product/service pages, and blog posts. It’s not a big deal with contact or about pages, etc. But only include it if it naturally fits—don’t shoehorn keywords in there. Read our full keyword research guide if you’re not sure what keywords to target.

It looks like the homepage for First Sight Videos has a meta title and description, but the description is too long (indicated by the red highlighted text).

I’d also say that they’re not so enticing—they’re stuffed with keywords.

In other words, they both need rewriting. I won’t go into the nuts and bolts of doing this in this article as we already have a full guide to crafting the perfect title tag, but here’s one that would almost certainly be better:

Sidenote. I’m not lying about the places they’ve been featured. They really have been covered on all of those sites. Never lie to entice the click—that’s clickbait, and it’s straight up unethical.

That’s one page sorted but what about the rest?

The issue with the method above is that it’s time-consuming. You have to check meta tags, by hand, across all the pages on your site. Let’s solve that.

If you started a site crawl in Site Audit at the start of this guide, it should now be done.

To view issues related to meta titles and descriptions, go to:

Site Audit > Internal pages > HTML tags

Here, you’ll see any problems related to your HTML tags—including titles and meta descriptions. Click on each issue to see affected pages.Looking to outsource?

No time to rewrite 30–50 meta titles and descriptions? Hire a freelancer to take care of it.

Here’s a gig on People Per Hour—15 title tags and meta descriptions for £40 (£2.66 each):

That took me all of two seconds to find. There may be even better offers out there.

4. Polish your written copy

Most pages on your website will have some written copy—and this needs to be on point.

Google looks at the content on a website to help understand whether that website or web page is a good result for a particular query. If there is little or no content on your web pages—or if that content isn’t well-optimized—then they’re going to have a difficult time doing that.

That’s not to say that you have to write 2,000-word essays on every page.

Some pages might warrant that, but others might be okay with a couple of hundred words.

Generally speaking, here are some SEO “rules” for website copy:

Include some copy on every page. How much? That’s up to you—I’d personally recommend at least 100–200 words as a general rule of thumb.
Use one H1 tag on each page. This serves as the heading of the page. Quite often, this is the same as the meta title—but it doesn’t have to be.
Use H2-H6 tags as appropriate. These are subheadings. Use them to create a hierarchical structure of importance on each page. Learn more about these tags here.
Don’t shoehorn keywords into your copy. Be aware of the keywords you’re targeting, but don’t force them where they don’t belong—and certainly don’t overuse them!
Make sure spelling and grammar are on point. More on this in a moment!

PRO TIP

Don’t forget that all copy should be engaging and well-written if you actually want to attract new clients or customers. If that isn’t currently the case, you may wish to hire a professional copywriter to rewrite it.

This isn’t so much an SEO tip as a conversion rate optimization and branding tip.

For most small businesses, the homepage is going to be the most crucial page copy-wise.

Let’s audit the existing copy on firstsightvideos.co.uk.

First impressions—there doesn’t appear to be much copy at all.

It’s not until you scroll way down that you see some more…

Let’s break this down:

First, the format of that header (“welcome and thanks for visiting first sight videos”) looks worrying. I doubt it’s an H1 tag—as it should be. I’ll use this tool to check.

Suspicions confirmed; the H1 is actually in the footer! That’s not great.

Second, the main chunk of copy on the homepage looks out of place. It’s about a specific wedding they’ve filmed and would make more sense as part of a blog post. It’d make more sense to have something like this on the homepage:

Third, the copy includes no keywords, synonyms, or anything that might boost “topical relevance” on the page. (No clue what this means? Read our on-page SEO guide.)

If you have any of these issues on your site, they need fixing.

But there’s one more issue that often plagues small business websites—spelling and grammar.

Now, in the interest of transparency, here’s what Google’s John Mueller said when asked if spelling and grammar impact SEO:

Not really. […] It is more a matter of how it is received from a user point of view. If you are a banking web site and you have terrible English on it, then I assume users will lose trust in your web site. But for other things, it is the way the web just comes.

I’ve highlighted that middle part because it sums up why grammar and spelling are crucial.

If your website is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, nobody is going to trust you. Not only does that have a direct effect on business, but it will also lead to poor user engagement signals like low time on page, low dwell time, etc.Looking to outsource?

Not great with spelling and grammar?

You can hire someone on People Per Hour or another freelancing website to polish your copy. This usually isn’t too expensive. Here’s a gig where the freelancer charges £10 (~$13) to proofread 800 words:

Say that you have ~20 pages on your site with 400 words each on average, you’re looking at ~£100 ($130) for the lot. Not bad!

5. Get citations by listing your business in relevant places on the web

Google doesn’t only look at the copy and structure of your website when determining where you should rank. They look at many off-page SEO factors too—one of which is citations.

Here’s a definition of citations from our guide to local SEO:

Citations are online mentions of your business, which usually display your business name, address, and phone number—collectively known as NAP (Name, Address, Phone).

For example, here’s a citation for First Sight Videos on Yell.com:

Here’s why you should care about citations from an SEO point of view:

Citation signals are one of the top local ranking factors. Moz says that this is the case for Google’s “snack pack” and “regular” organic search results.
Google isn’t the only search engine people use. Imagine that you’re looking for a local plumber. You might use a search engine like checkatrade.com, which specializes in helping users find trusted tradespeople in their local area.

So where do you start?

Perhaps the most important citation of all—at least from the perspective of ranking and appearing in Google for relevant terms—is Google My Business.

Why so important?

Have you ever Googled a business and seen something like this in the search results?

That’s known as the “map pack,” and there are two things you should know about it:

It often appears at the top of the search results for local terms. This means that it pushes down the “regular” organic listings. Even if you rank number one in organic search, you will often still get beaten by the map pack.
It pulls data from Google My Business listings. These are free business profiles from Google. In their words, “Your Business Profile appears right when people are searching for your business or businesses like yours on Google Search or Maps.”

I wrote this guide on the assumption that you already have your Google My Business profile set up (go here if not!), but setting up a basic profile isn’t everything. You also need to make sure it’s optimized.

That means doing things like:

Choosing the right category (very important!)
Adding more categories
Uploading relevant photos
Adding your opening hours
Adding details about individual services
Adding additional phone numbers
Adding relevant amenities
Etc.

I’m not going to go any deeper into Google My Business optimization here as I go into a lot of detail in chapter 2 of our local SEO guide. Check that out if you want to learn more.

Still, Google My Business isn’t the only place you should be listed.

It also pays to list your business in the other “big” directories (Hotfrog, Acxiom, Thomson Local, etc.), and also relevant industry-specific directories that are likely to send business your way.

For the big directories, you can use a service like Moz Local.

Just enter your business name and Moz will check which of the “big” recommended directories you’re already listed on, and which you should create profiles on.

Here are the results for First Sight Videos:

It looks like they’re missing listings on quite a few of the major directories.

As for industry-specific directories, one of the easiest ways to find these is with the Ahrefs Link Intersect tool:

Go to Link Intersect
Paste in a few of your top-ranking competitors’ homepages
Select URL mode for each of them
Add your site to the “But doesn’t link to…” field
Hit “show link opportunities”

That will unveil sites that link to multiple competitors, but not you.

Most of the time, a lot of these sites will be relevant industry or local directories where you should also be listed.

Via Ahrefs Link Intersect Tool

Looking for more ways to build citations? That’s something I cover in-depth in chapter 3 of our local SEO guide.Looking to outsource?

Some may disagree, but I would recommend staying clear of generic cheap “citation building” hourlies on freelancing websites. Most of them are low-quality.

Instead, make a list of the sites you want to be listed on, then hire someone to submit your business to those sites.

6. Ask for links from the businesses with whom you’re affiliated

Link building—it’s something we have to talk about.

Links are the foundation of the original PageRank formula, which is the formula on which Google is based. Google has also admitted that links are one of the top three ranking factors (as of 2016).

Furthermore, when we studied almost one billion web pages, we found a positive correlation between referring domains (links from unique websites) and traffic.

referring domains vs organic search traffic ahrefs content explorer 1

Sidenote. Correlation ≠ causation. However, in this instance, it’s pretty safe to infer at least some causation here as the fact that links are important is no secret.

The problem? Link building can be daunting, especially for small business owners.

So, I’m not going to cover any elaborate strategies. I’m simply going to recommend one thing as a starting point: ask for links from businesses with whom you have existing relationships—e.g., suppliers, stockists, etc.

Look at this page:

This is a “stockists” pages. Lots of businesses have these—they list and link to all of the businesses that stock their products. Think about whether you sell any third-party products. If you do, these pages are an easy source of links.

Find them by Googling something like:

site:brand.com intitle:"stockists" OR intitle:"where to buy"

NOTE. Replace brand.com with the website of the brand whose products you sell.

If you find any pages like the one shown above, reach out and ask if they’d be open to listing you there too.

Don’t sell other brands’ products? Look for similar pages from your suppliers and other businesses you work with.

site:brand.com intitle:”our customers” OR intitle:”our clients”

Example of a page from a local accountancy where they list their clients.

Struggling to find any such pages? There’s always the option of providing such businesses with testimonials. These often end up getting featured on their sites along with a link.Looking to outsource?

You just need to provide clear instructions to the freelancer you’re working with and supply them with the names/websites of the businesses with whom you’re affiliated.

However, I would recommend sending the emails yourself (or having one of your staff do it).

Here’s why:

There usually aren’t that many emails to send.
Finding someone who’s good at outreach will often take more time than just doing it yourself, especially for one-off tasks like this.

Top 100 Small Business SEO Services

Sticky navigation menu desktop

NEED HELP SELECTING A COMPANY?

Home
chevron_right
SEO
chevron_right
Small Business (<$10M)

Top Small Business SEO Services

November 2021

Looking for a top small business SEO firm?

Finding an SEO company can be challenging. However, investing in SEO is imperative if you have a website and want your customers to find your business online.

Check out our directory of Small Business SEO services. Browse reviews and ratings and scan by industry or specialty to find the company that’s the best fit for you. (And, if you want personalized recommendations, tell us about your project.)

List of the Best Small Business SEO Companies In The World

sponsored 1 Paper Box SEO Overall Rating Based on 7 Clutch Reviews 5 Scheduling 5.0 Quality 5.0 Cost 5.0 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $1,000+ 2 – 9 Employees Pittsburgh PA Paper Box is a digital agency based in Pittsburgh, Pa. The agency, founded in 2015, has a team of less than ten that provides SEO services to small and midmarket companies and institutions in various industries. Clients Pac-12 Wild Earth Uncle Bud’s Hemp DocVerify Industries Notable Project A real estate investment firm hired Paper Box to grow its organic rankings and overall online presence, as well as generate leads by building ethical links and citations designed to increase organic traffic. This engagement generated the desired links, traffic, and leads for the firm. “It’s not easy to build quality links and the team got some really good ones. We also noticed an increase in traffic and leads that can directly be attributed to their work.” – Founder, Real Estate Investment Firm
sponsored 2 Let’s Canoe Worked with Let’s Canoe? Leave a Review Visit site $1,000+ 2 – 9 Employees Billings MT Launched in 2020, Let’s Canoe is a SEO services firm. The firm focuses on search engine optimization, conversion optimization, marketing strategy, digital strategy, and more and has a small team. The firm is based in Billings, Montana. Industries
NEED HELP SELECTING A COMPANY? Based on your budget, timeline, and specifications we can help you build a shortlist of companies that perfectly matches your project needs. Schedule a free consultation with a Manifest Analyst.

Ignite Visibility

Overall Rating Based on 93 Clutch Reviews 4.8 Scheduling 4.9 Quality 4.8 Cost 4.7 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.9 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees San Diego CA

Ignite Visibility is one of the highest awarded digital marketing agency in the industry, specializing in digital marketing strategy, SEO, paid media, social media, email marketing, analytics, Amazon, and CRO. Ignite Visibility has used the same strategies they use for clients to become a four-time Inc. 5000 company (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020). Ignite Visibility is led by leading industry expert John Lincoln, has over 110 full-time employees and offers a proprietary digital marketing forecasting system allowing clients to consistently hit quarterly goals. Clients Tony Robbins Sharp Healthcare The Knot World Wide National Funding Notable Project

Ignite Visibility helped a large storage company with digital marketing and SEO.

“The traffic to the website increased 10 times and the bounce rates decreased by 80%. Knowledgeable and professional, Ignite Visibility established a smooth process, while their ability to give their full attention to clients earned them trust.” – SEO For Large Storage Company

WebFX

Overall Rating Based on 233 Clutch Reviews 4.9 Scheduling 4.9 Quality 4.9 Cost 4.6 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $1,000+ 250 – 999 Employees Harrisburg PA

WebFX is a performance-focused digital marketing agency with services designed to increase qualified leads, phone calls, and transactions for clients. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Harrisburg, Penn., they have over 250 digital marketing, design, and development experts who serve customers through SEO, PPC, web design, and more. They also have partnerships with Google, Facebook, Bing, Salesforce, and more. Clients Verizon Auntie Anne’s 1&1 Subway Industries Notable Project

WebFX worked with a substance abuse facility to increase client contact and revenue by redeveloping the facility’s website. The facility reported that WebFX communicated clearly and delivered projects quickly and consistently.

“Call volume increased nearly 100% and business has been expanding, bringing profit.” – Admission Counselor, Substance Abuse Facility

Big Leap

Overall Rating Based on 67 Clutch Reviews 4.8 Scheduling 4.8 Quality 4.8 Cost 4.6 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.8 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees Lehi UT

Big Leap is a digital marketing agency in Lehi, Utah. With over 13 years in the industry, Big Leap helps companies sustainably grow in organic reach and lead generation. They specialize in SEO marketing, content marketing, reputation management, social media marketing, conversion rate optimization, and marketing automation to match their clients’ needs. Clients Avis Budget Car Rental Pluralsight Nu Skin Empire Today Industries Notable Project

Big Leap helped a skin care company after negative media attention. Big Leap took over and changed its website, created keyword lists, infographics and social media content that has helped the client come back into a favorable light.

“They’ve significantly improved our ranking on Google in previously challenging markets…Other agencies we’ve worked with haven’t been able to budge our online position, so we’re very happy with the results thus far. It’s helping our leadership team overcome issues involving prospective employees or purchasers of our products.” — Director of Digital Marketing, Skincare Company

Straight North

Overall Rating Based on 107 Clutch Reviews 4.7 Scheduling 4.7 Quality 4.7 Cost 4.5 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.7 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees Chicago IL

Formed in 1997, Straight North is a full-service internet marketing company specializing in SEO, PPC, website design and development, email marketing, and graphic design. With 100+ full-time, in-house employees, they help B2B and B2C companies of all sizes generate sales leads and e-commerce revenue in the lucrative but highly competitive online marketing space. They offer a collaborative business style, technical expertise, deep experience in multiple verticals, team-based campaign execution, transparent reporting, and an unwavering focus on maximizing their clients’ ROI. Clients Keyence Dickey’s Barbeque Conduent Donnelly Financial Solutions Industries Notable Project

Straight North worked with a high-profile, professional sports franchise to set up a remarketing campaign to increase brand awareness and drive revenue. The client found Straight North accessible and transparent and is looking forward to continuing the four-year relationship.

“Straight North provides suggestions and is very engaged in our work.” – E-Commerce Manager, Professional Sports Franchise

Coalition Technologies

Overall Rating Based on 60 Clutch Reviews 4.9 Scheduling 4.8 Quality 4.8 Cost 4.6 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.9 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees Culver City CA

Headquartered outside Los Angeles in Culver City, CA, Coalition Technologies specializes in SEO and PPC but also offers web design, e-commerce development, and WordPress development. With additional offices in Austin, TX and Seattle, WA, Coalition Technologies has grown to a team of 100+ since its founding in 2009. Clients PayPal Natori Harvard Whataburger Industries Notable Project

An online clothing retailer was not satisfied with its previous marketing agency and hired Coalition Technologies to help with design, development, and Google AdWords. The partnership is ongoing, with Coalition Technologies responsible for all design, development, reporting, and marketing.

“Coalition Technologies has been great to work with. We’ve used them for countless projects, website redesigns, and other tasks. They always deliver!” – President, Online Clothing Retailer

Victorious

Overall Rating Based on 71 Clutch Reviews 4.9 Scheduling 4.9 Quality 4.9 Cost 4.6 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.9 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees San Francisco CA

A San Francisco, CA-based SEO services company, Victorious has been around since 2012. With a team of 25 employees, they deliver huge returns for their clients. They offer help clients with on-site and local search optimization, link building and content development. Clients SoFi Groupon Yahoo Spotify Industries Notable Project

A non-profit noticed they lacked a structured and defined strategy for SEO. They hired Victorious to redesign their website’s backend, improve the user experience, and optimize it for search engines. Victorious also performed keyword research to update meta descriptions across the site and improve blog content.

“Humility and knowledge and understanding of their area was really good. They’re willing to listen and take the time to get to know who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. I appreciate that.” – Mobilization Director, Non-Profit

SocialSEO

Overall Rating Based on 93 Clutch Reviews 5 Scheduling 5.0 Quality 5.0 Cost 4.8 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees Greenwood Village CO

SocialSEO is a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO, PPC, and social media. With three offices in Colorado – Denver, Colorado Springs, and Boulder – and a fourth office in Phoenix, SocialSEO and its team of nearly 70 employees has been committed to helping clients rank in search engines and market their brand since its founding in 1996. Clients Jaguar Gaiam Cadillac Cherry Creek Shopping Center Industries Notable Project

SocialSEO helped a real estate education businesses improve its organic SEO strategy. The client sells online real estate courses and needed to rank in search results to be found by potential customers. Their main challenge was marketing their courses across states since real estate regulations vary by location. SocialSEO guided the client through launching a new responsive website and blog. As a result, the client saw over 140% growth in its target markets.

“SocialSEO was engaged and was one of the few groups who had actually done research about who we were. … I’ve worked with other SEO people in the past, and there seemed to be a foggy, gray area in which we were never really sure of what was being done. … I think that SocialSEO is doing a great job of communicating at different levels of the team.” – Marketing Manager, Real Estate Education Business

SEO Brand

Overall Rating Based on 65 Clutch Reviews 4.9 Scheduling 4.9 Quality 4.9 Cost 4.8 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.9 Visit site $1,000+ 10 – 49 Employees Boca Raton FL

SEO Brand is a Boca Raton, FL-based agency with a special focus on technology-infused SEO. The agency has offices in Miami, Pennsylvania, Paris, and Montreal and provides services such as blog management, content marketing, public relations, and website development. The agency also offers Amazon-specific services, helping clients get found on Amazon through comprehensive keyword analysis and informed product descriptions. Clients Ceridian Mont Blanc Sotheby’s International Realty LG Industries Notable Project

SEO Brand helped a DJ company build its online presence. The project included creating and maintaining a website and Facebook page and music and image licensing.

“They helped me direct my focus and allowed me to be more creative while they do the dirty work and actual marketing.” – Owner, DJ Company

SEO Inc.

Overall Rating Based on 20 Clutch Reviews 4.7 Scheduling 4.7 Quality 4.7 Cost 4.7 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.8 Visit site $1,000+ 10 – 49 Employees Carlsbad CA

SEO Inc. is an internet marketing company based in Carlsbad, CA – right outside San Diego. With over 20 years, of experience, the team of nearly 500 employees specializes in organic SEO for small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses. Clients PG&E Corporation 20th Century Fox Tacori Teleflora Industries Notable Project

A cigar retailer hired SEO Inc. to increase organic traffic to its website and improve new customer acquisition and retention. The cigar retailer wanted to accomplish this goal organically, instead of using paid search. The partnership is ongoing and the Director of Sales appreciated SEO Inc.’s communication, expertise, and tailored research and approach.

“They’re not a typical robot client company. We’ve dealt with many vendors, and one of the things that distinguish SEO Inc. from others is the fact that they don’t simply read answers out of a book. Instead of telling us what the rest of the world is telling us, SEO Inc. is digging out an actual clientele base.” – Director of Sales Analytics, Cigar Retailer

Search Engine People

Overall Rating Based on 14 Clutch Reviews 4.9 Scheduling 4.9 Quality 4.9 Cost 4.3 NPS/Willingness to Refer 4.9 Visit site $1,000+ 50 – 249 Employees Pickering Canada

Search Engine People Inc. is a digital marketing company based in Pickering, Canada. The company, founded in 2001, has more than 60 employees and provides SEO, PPC, content marketing, conversion optimization, and digital strategy services. Search Engine People Inc. serves small and larger-sized companies in various industries that include business services, consumer products & services, and financial services. Clients RE/MAX Subaru Intuit PwC Industries Notable Project

An emergency water damage and disaster response company hired Search Engine People Inc. to provide PPC services to help grow their brand in their competitive market. Search Engine People worked closely with the company to ensure that the latter has the needed digital structure to promote both organic search and PPC. Based on what they found in the company’s digital structure, Search Engine People also refined key words and spending, and continuously analyze data to determine best practices and execute them. The ongoing engagement generated an approximately eight-to-one ROI on web marketing spending.

“They are very proactive in their approach, reviewing data and presenting new ideas to test, learn and roll out.” – President, Emergency Water Damage and Disaster Response Company

Delante

Overall Rating Based on 84 Clutch Reviews 5 Scheduling 5.0 Quality 5.0 Cost 4.9 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $1,000+ 10 – 49 Employees Kraków Poland

Delante is an online marketing agency founded in 2014. Headquartered in Krakow, Poland, Delante has just over twenty employees. Delante’s services include SEO, PPC, social media marketing and content marketing. Clients Dr. Irena Eris Protech Botland Silvair Industries Notable Project

Delante developed and implemented SEO strategies for an online furniture store. They performed a website audit, conducted keyword analysis, and executed link-building initiatives to increase brand awareness, organic traffic, and sales. Delante identified valuable keywords and augmented organic traffic by 200%.

“Since the cooperation with Delante started, the organic traffic is steadily growing. ” — Owner, Online Furniture Company

Infront Webworks

Overall Rating Based on 50 Clutch Reviews 5 Scheduling 4.8 Quality 5.0 Cost 4.9 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $1,000+ 10 – 49 Employees Colorado Springs CO

Based in Colorado Springs, CO, Infront Webworks specializes in web design development, and hosting services. Its marketing department provides SEO, marketing, and advertising assistance. A Google Certified Partner, Infront Webworks aims to boost website traffic for small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses. Clients YMCA (Denver Pueblo Boulder) Goodwill Industries Notable Project

A local PR firm hired Infront Webworks to optimize its website with organic SEO and paid media. The campaign helped the PR firm increase its ranking in Google search results, and the partnership is ongoing. The President of the PR firm lauded Infront Webworks for its flexibility, relationship-building, and SEO knowledge.

“They had a whole team meet with us in-person, via conference calls, or in our office. They are very professional.” – President, PR Firm

Logic Inbound

Overall Rating Based on 31 Clutch Reviews 5 Scheduling 5.0 Quality 5.0 Cost 5.0 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $5,000+ 10 – 49 Employees Seattle WA

Logic Inbound is a digital marketing company based in Seattle. The company, founded in 2016, has a team of around 15 that provides SEO, PPC, and web design services. Logic Inbound serves enterprise and smaller-sized companies in the medical, business services, and e-commerce industries. Clients Advanced Liposuction Center Washington Association of Naturopathic Physicians ClickBank Saorsa (medical devices) Industries Notable Project

A dental products company hired Logic Inbound to provide SEO services. These services include optimizing the company’s website by implementing Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager, FB Pixel, and other tools; laying out SEO improvements and content recommendations; and executing these improvements at proper times. This engagement resulted in improvements in organic search rankings for their specified keywords.

“I enjoyed how everyone on the team, from the founders to my POC, were personally involved and willing to help out.” – E-Commerce General Manager, Dental Products Company

Direction

Overall Rating Based on 13 Clutch Reviews 5 Scheduling 5.0 Quality 5.0 Cost 5.0 NPS/Willingness to Refer 5.0 Visit site $1,000+ 2 – 9 Employees McLean VA

Direction, Inc. is a digital marketing agency based in Washington D.C., with an office in Great Falls, Va. Established in 2016, Direction, Inc. has 15 employees and primarily works with small and mid-market businesses in a variety of industries. Their services include SEO, PPC, web design, content marketing, and social media marketing Clients DARO Apartments The Vintage Silver Tax Group Swank Law Offices Industries Notable Project

Direction carried out a targeted digital campaign for a luxury apartment building in Washington, DC. The building had just transferred ownership, and the new owners were stuck with negative reviews due to past management’s failures. The Direction team provided robust on- and off-page SEO to elevate more relevant results above old reviews, and launched a new flagship review site to gain reviews of the new management.

“Our organic rankings began to significantly increase almost immediately, and our rankings have already improved because of the blog. Because it’s so content-rich, it will continue to improve our online presence and rankings.” —Owner, Rental Property Management Firm

CONCLUSION

A lot of small business owners wish they had more time to do the things which make them happy, like their hobbies and new ventures. On top of that, how do you get your website and social media sites ranked high in Google and Facebook? It’s an important question which you should be asking yourself.

When you talk about technology to a small business, they think about updating their website or maybe working on a new marketing initiative. You’re not going to have much success promoting a new marketing initiative if your business isn’t first on people’s minds. My goal with this article is to show you how optimizing a website will dramatically improve a little business’ chances of being seen by potential customers.

Seo for a Small Business