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SEO Content Tips for SMBs 2021

Posted By Salma Eraki on January 7th, 2021 in Search Engine Optimisation

Heading into 2021 could be challenging for small and medium businesses due to the pandemic’s impact on the market. Marketing budgets may continue to be scarce for some businesses as a result of shutdowns and restrictions, especially with the second wave on the rise. So how could companies take advantage of this situation?

During the pandemic, and as long as it lasts, one should not become too overwhelmed to advance his SEO performance, mainly because an online presence is more crucial than ever with people spending more time indoors. A great way to do so is by optimizing your website’s content using up-to-date guidelines and trends.

Here are some essential tips to keep in mind when creating your SEO content writing strategy as an SMB business in 2021!

SMBs-SEO-in-2021

Increase brand authority and awareness

Brand authority is a vital element when it comes to SEO. SMBs can strengthen their brand’s authority through unique and compelling content. To do so, it’s important to focus not only on the company itself but also on empowering the human beings behind them.

You can do so by pushing content about and via an authoritative figure with experience in the industry, like the CEO or the founders. This helps strengthen brand identity and build a strong following, especially for niche products or services.

A singular voice can be more trustworthy and authoritative, mostly if it belongs to an expert with an impressive bio. Another way to emphasize authority is through using first-person pronouns like “I” or “we” representing your company.

Keyword research optimization

If you’re starting your SEO efforts, keyword research is vital to the process. Even if you have already conducted keyword research before, you have to optimize it and update by looking at new keyword opportunities and refreshing the data.

To successfully optimize for keywords that will benefit your website’s performance, you need to understand your audience’s evergreen content needs. This type of content will add value to your website and can drive traffic for years.

Meanwhile, do not ignore trending keywords and use them as an opportunity to create unique and valuable content to solve the searcher’s problem before most of your competitors. Also, make sure you target related keywords; they can show more relevance and help send stronger signals to search engines.

And remember always to track progress to make sure your optimizations or edits are working as you anticipated or not. It is vital to track progress and continually revamp older content throughout the year.

Title tags and header tags

Title tags remain a very strong signal for SEO in 2021; it helps search engines and users understand what your page is about. Your title tags must engage users while also abiding by SEO guidelines to increase your ranking chances.

You need to include your target keyword in the title tag and keep it short; between 50-60 characters because Google typically cuts everything after 60 characters. It is also advised to use numbers, brackets or parentheses in your title tag. For the meta descriptions, try using a brief sentence, less than 160 characters.

Header tags help break up the body content into subtopics which provides structure and makes it easier to browse. Headers are also vital for ranking for featured snippets; especially in listicles or how-to guides. To optimize your header tags, make sure you target high-value related keywords in them.

Internal linking and image optimization

Internal links are an essential factor in SEO-friendly content; they send strong signals to Google regarding the relevance of the page and its value. Use internal linking naturally and when relevant, do not overuse them to avoid looking spammy. When linking in an article or blog, make sure your anchor text includes a target keyword relevant to the page you’re linking to.

Image optimization is the only way search engine bots will understand your photos and present them in photo searches when relevant. Using unique image titles and alternative text when adding images to your site will help your page appear in image search queries, while also making it easier for search engines to crawl your page and understand its context.

Content optimization

Here are some quick tips to help you write perfectly optimized content:

Make sure your content is easy to browse, read and understand. Overly complicated content may not work well for mobile users and may also turn some of your audience away.
Avoid long paragraphs.
Forget about keyword density, use your target keywords and related keywords genuinely and when relevant.
If a keyword doesn’t make sense for a particular topic, do not force it into your content.
Recommended SEO content length may vary depending on the type of content, niche, topic and many other factors. However, what we all agree on is longer pieces of content do perform better in most situations.
Use bold, italic and bullet points to highlight certain areas or to structure your content wisely.

Try following these tips to up your SEO game in 2021, and if you need professional help from an SEO agency in Dubai, contact us now!