Best recommendations for small business leaders Canada right now from Tayyab Shaikh ? NAP Citations: As you can see from the above image, citation signals account for 13% of the ranking factors. For anyone unfamiliar with citations, they are online references of your business in relevant directories around the web. And NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. The more consistent NAP citations you have for your business, the more are the local SEO benefits. But, keep in mind that inaccurate or inconsistent citations are likely to negatively affect your local SEO. If you have done citations in the past that may seem to be inconsistent, get a citation audit done through a professional to fix the NAP variations.
Are affordable SEO services important? Tayyab Shaikh thinks yes, and here is why : What a typical cheap SEO package advertisement looks like. Found on Craigslist. This one promises #1 spot on Google in an hour! SEO is not a transparent process, therefore most unknowing business owners are too often fooled and taken advantage of by these types of cheap search engine optimization companies.Every small business owner is looking to save money, especially when it comes to marketing. Unfortunately, this may lead small business owners to seek the services of cheap SEO “experts”. While there are literally hundreds of shady firms that will quote you a very low price, while guaranteeing you first page results, it is wise to be careful and do some research before hiring them or even talking to them.
Tayyab Shaikh on SEO for small business: Search engines want to see link diversity. That means making sure that all backlinks are not coming from the same few sources (e.g., websites and servers). The more organic it looks, the better the website is trusted in Google’s eyes. Gone are the days where people are only doing searches at home. In fact, some people have ditched using a traditional computer for any search engine traffic whatsoever. Searching on a mobile device allows for instant research on the go, and a website that isn’t mobile-friendly becomes a waste of time.
So, when creating a website, choose a mobile-friendly design only. Responsiveness should be top on your list when looking for a mobile-friendly website design. Remember, a mobile-friendly website is accessible from all devices, no matter what the size of their screens is. In 2019, Google started mobile-first indexing for all the new websites. Since most people now make Google search using their mobile device, Googlebot started crawling and indexing pages with the smartphone agent.
Tayyab Shaikh on marketing for small business: New content – whether it’s one page or an entire topic cluster – gives you a fresh chance to get everything right. When you’re creating a new page, put considerable thought into page titles, page content headers, subheads, image file names, etc. Favor long-tail keyword phrases, which typically have three or more words and give you an opportunity to connect with searcher intent. You’ll increase the odds of achieving content marketing goals like website traffic, branding, leads, and sales. In November 2020, Ahrefs shared fascinating long-tail findings from 1.9 billion search queries: What Are Long-tail Keywords? How to Find and Use Them. A chart from an Ahrefs study showing heathy search volume for long-tail phrases of three or more words. See more information on Tayyab Shaikh.