Basically, everything these days starts with digital. From buying cars, pets, cosmetics, or houses, to starting relationships, to seeking legal advice, your business needs an online presence if you want to be found by potential and returning costumers. That being said, when all the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Edmonton are thinking the same thing and vying for the same customers, it’s crucial to stand out online to attract local customers and compete with larger brands. Digital marketing plays a critical part in helping SMBs thrive by increasing visibility, improving search rankings, and driving more sales. Three key areas of digital marketing focus can make a big impact a business’s online success. Those areas are on-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO), technical SEO, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
On-Page SEO: Optimizing Your Website and Writing Your Local Edmonton Success Story
Think of on-page SEO as the foundation of your new, successful digital marketing strategy. On-page search engine optimization involves optimizing website content and making structural improvements to ensure that search engines such as Bing and Google are able to understand your business and rank it higher in search results. A local Digital Marketing specialist is the perfect resource to help you ace your on-page SEO. Here’s how on-page SEO can benefit a local SMB like you:
- Keyword Optimization – Using relevant keywords (such as “Edmonton electrician” or “local bakery near me”) in titles, meta descriptions, and content helps search engines match your site with user queries.
- Content Quality – Creating valuable, locally relevant content, such as blog posts, service pages, and FAQs, helps engage visitors and improves rankings. It can also help educate your customers about what you do and why they should rely on you for the goods or services you provide.
- Mobile Friendliness – With more consumers searching on their phones, a mobile-responsive website improves user experience and search engine rankings. According to The Ecomm Manager online business resource, over 75% of online store visits are done via mobile devices, and ecommerce transactions and orders are completed approximately 65% of the time on mobile.
- Local Business Listings – Ensuring your name, address, and phone number (NAP) is consistent across directories like Google My Business helps greatly with local SEO, and makes a big difference when customers can search for a business offering what they are looking for “near me.”
Technical SEO: The Engine Powering Your Online Presence
Technical SEO goes beyond content and zeroes in on the back end of your website, enhancing performance and crawlability (referring to the search engine bots ‘crawling’ your website for ease of use and relevance – not referring to you army-crawling around looking for new ways to attract customers). Businesses of any size, but especially small and medium sized ones that neglect technical SEO risk lower rankings and missed opportunities. Key aspects of technical SEO include:
- Website Speed – A slow website can frustrate users and negatively impact rankings. Optimizing images, enabling caching, and using a content delivery network (CDN) can improve load times.
- Secure Website (HTTPS) – Google prioritizes secure websites. Installing an SSL certificate ensures your site is safe for users.
- Structured Data Markup – Adding schema markup helps search engines understand your content, and adding things like meta tags, meta titles, and rich snippets to the back end of your site are like adding a table of contents for Google.
- Fixing Broken Links – Nobody likes going to a website and seeing an error that the page they were excited to visit doesn’t exist anymore! Broken links hurt user experiences and can tank search engine rankings. Regular audits help identify and fix these issues.
- XML Sitemaps & Robots.txt – Ensuring search engines can crawl and index your website properly improves discoverability.
Does all this sound like a foreign language? Contacting a local digital marketing company who can translate for you can set you on a path to SEO success.
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PPC: Reaching Local Customers – Fast!
While SEO builds long-term success, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising provides immediate results by placing businesses at the top of search results. For small businesses looking to drive leads quickly, PPC is an essential part of a digital marketing strategy.
Here’s why:
- Targeted Local Advertising – Google Ads and social media platforms allow businesses to target specific locations, demographics, and customer interests, meaning you can choose to sell your gluten free, vegan energy bars to customers west of the Henday.
- Budget Control – SMBs can set daily budgets and adjust spending based on performance, ensuring cost-effective campaigns.
- Immediate Visibility – Unlike organic SEO, PPC ads appear (almost) instantly at the top of search results (once Google completes it’s learning phase which usually takes about a week or two), bringing in traffic your way immediately.
- Remarketing – Retargeting ads help re-engage users who visited your site but didn’t convert, increasing brand exposure and conversion rates.
Combining SEO and PPC for the Best Possible Results
For the best return on your marketing efforts, it’s smart to consider using both SEO and PPC together. Think of the two aspects of digital marketing like the Tortoise and the Hare. SEO chips away, slow and steady, and builds a strong, long-term foundation for your online presence. PPC ensures businesses remain competitive in search results, and achieves quick results to get you found faster. Having an SEO strategy and building out content directly related to your PPC ads makes your ads more relevant and makes your site more cohesive. Together, Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per Click advertising maximize visibility, increase conversions, and can help SMBs (like you!) thrive in local markets and beyond.
Conclusion
Digital marketing has become an essential component of success strategies for small and medium-sized businesses, and is essential for any organization wanting to make an impact in their local market and reach their target audiences. By investing in on-page SEO, technical SEO, and PPC, Edmonton SMBs can boost their online presence, attract more local and long-distance customers, and compete with larger companies who might otherwise dominate your corner of the market. If you’re ready to grow your local Edmonton business, now is a great time to get on board with digital marketing!
Need help optimizing your digital marketing strategy?
Contact local digital marketing experts to start improving your online presence today!
