Meta-description: You may need to spend some money to get the most out of SEO.
Thankfully, you can do so without breaking the bank. Here are some budget-friendly SEO tools and services that are ideal for small businesses you can use.
Image by Diggity Marketing
As a small business owner, you may already be familiar with SEO and how important it is to your company’s growth. The challenge, now, is how you can effectively utilize SEO to your advantage. If you have been searching for services, then you’re probably aware that you’ll have to pay money but not sure how much. Fortunately, there are budget-friendly tools and services available that you can take advantage of.
It’s difficult to say what SEO services a company requires because every company is different. So, here are some strategies and services listed by category that may be just what your small business needs.
- For Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on URL and site structure, image compression, caching, and structured data.
- WordPress
If you need a mobile-friendly, optimized website without breaking the bank, WordPress is the one for you. It could be the most cost-effective SEO service for small businesses in terms of technical SEO. Sure, there are other SaaS website builders, such as Wix or Squarespace, but they don’t offer as many SEO functions as WordPress does.
Because web designers are fairly costly, WordPress is the best option.
There are numerous themes available for a great web design, many of which are even free.
- GT-Metrix
GT-Metrix is a fantastic service that will inform you of a range of technical SEO difficulties that your website may be experiencing. Large pictures and caching are the most critical issues you should address.
- Page Speed Insights
PageSpeed Insights is another tool that allows you to see the different technical issues that Google deems need fixing. The most significant aspect is the loading speed of your website.
- For Link Building
Link building is an important component of SEO services since it assists search engines in discovering new web pages and determining how well a website should rank in the Search Engine Results Pages. Here’s how you can start link building:
- Check Your Competitors’ Links
CognitiveSEO’s Backlink Analysis tool can tell you which backlinks your competitors are using to get top rankings. You can also use the Unnatural Link identification to filter out problematic links, leaving only the finest ones.
The service is also good for competitive analysis to determine how you stack up against your competitors. This might help you find websites that are ranking higher than numerous competitors, indicating that they are more difficult to obtain.
- Blog Commenting
Find websites and blogs that discuss topics related to your small business and engage with them, much like you would on social media. Just make sure that your comments won’t come off as spam.
The idea is to establish links with other blogs or websites in the field. Then you might be able to work out an agreement with them to advertise your website.
- Guest Posting
Guest posting is when you create an article under your own name for another website. You should be able to connect back to your website in most cases. You might get to know a blogger well enough to ask them for a guest article if you engage with them through blog commenting.
- Outreach
Outreach SEO is obtaining high-quality connections from off-site domains and redirecting them to your website. SEO outreach entails more than merely presenting your material to off-site publishers; it also involves your branding, marketing, and sales tactics.
However, you must first establish some form of connection. The best way, and the one I’ve had the most success with, is to be honest. Always begin by giving and never expecting anything in return. You can make a request once you’ve received a response, but don’t be aggressive.
- For Content Marketing
Keyword research, copywriting, and editorial scheduling are all part of content marketing.
- Google Analytics
Photo by Myriam Jessier
Google Analytics, arguably the most powerful free analytics tool available, analyzes almost every amount of traffic that comes to your website—where it comes from, which pages receive it, and so on.
While it’s not specifically for SEO, it’s still a useful tool for determining whether or not you’re getting traffic through organic search.
- Ahrefs Content Explorer
Ahrefs’ new and powerful tool, Content Explorer, allows copywriters and content marketers to locate the most shared and “linked-to” content on social media in any topic. This is particularly useful for those looking for new content development ideas.
- For Rank Tracking
Measuring an SEO strategy is critical for assessing whether or not a campaign is successful. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the results whether you work with an SEO service or not.
- Google Search Console
Google Search Console offers you an idea at what the world’s most popular search engine thinks of your site. It allows you to monitor and fix issues on your website, view crucial SEO data such as clicks, impressions, and average ranking position, and submit sitemaps, among other things.
- SEMRush
For monitoring your keyword rankings, SEMrush is the best rank tracker tool. Many digital marketing professionals prefer it since it is a complete SEO toolbox.
You can follow and monitor the movement of your site’s keyword rankings with SEMRush’s position tracking feature. The tool also indicates which search phrases appear in SERP elements such as featured snippets, Google sitelinks, and the knowledge panel.
- SERPWatcher
SERPWatcher is a comprehensive SEO solution that allows you to track SERPs for your company with ease. It’s also simple to use, and you can get started in a matter of minutes.
With the SERPWatcher report, you may obtain a complete picture of how your website is performing in SERPs. It displays the ranking, change in position, average position, best position, search volume, and expected monthly visits for each keyword.
- For Local SEO
When it comes to local SEO, it is possible to entirely dominate the first page of Google search results. For example, you may concentrate your SEO services on Toronto in order to penetrate Toronto-related searches.
- Google MyBusiness
As a small local business, the most crucial SEO service you should focus on is Google MyBusiness. It’s not difficult to create a Google My Business listing. Simply ensure that your keywords appear in the title and description and that all of the information is right.
However, ranking high on Google MyBusiness is more challenging, but it can be accomplished by applying a set of activities in your company, such as requesting reviews or placing ads in the local newspaper.
- Social Media
Social media sites, like Facebook, can actually score rather high in local search results for specific keywords. Make sure to take advantage of this by tweaking your Facebook title and description to contain the term you’re attempting to target. Regularly posting on Facebook can also assist you in driving visitors to your website.
It can be difficult to compile a list of affordable SEO tools and services. There’s plenty of them, but the ones in here are the most used among SEO companies. Now, it’s up to you how you can maximize them to grow your business.