Finding faithful customers is the first step in establishing a profitable business. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to set everything up, including building a helpful website offering quality content.

However, if no one can see that website, then all that work goes to waste. Here are a few useful tips to increase visibility so small businesses can start making meaningful connections with their prospective audiences.

Strategies to Gain Visibility

There are many ways to increase brand presence online, such as social media, email marketing, and paid ads. The best tool that never seems to fail, though, is blogging. The reason why blogs seem to do so well compared to other media is that it reinforces what a company stands for and asserts authority about a certain topic. Blogs go hand in hand with SEO, which for any startup that’s still finding its audience, is a great tool to keep handy.

Creating a blog is especially useful for startups who are still introducing their brand to the world. It shows audiences a business’ capacity to dive in on niche subjects and reflects on the products or services they provide.

To put things in perspective, imagine buying a raincoat. Many users will first search what type of raincoat they should buy, then once they have enough knowledge on the topic will make their decision as to which is right for them. From the buyer’s perspective, then, it is much more assured to buy a raincoat from a company that can explain the difference between waterproof and water-resistant fabric than a company that has nothing to say at all.

That’s to say, companies that answer specific questions through blog posts gain more faithful customers and organic visibility.

Tailored Content Trumps Keyword Stuffing

When people hear SEO, they often think of a cloud of hashtags cluttered at the bottom of a website. This practice is called keyword stuffing, a technique where several keywords are “stuffed” into a post to gain higher rankings. It often comes off very spammy and usually doesn’t even answer the user’s question.

When Google began to develop its search engine, tucking these keywords at the bottom of a blog post worked, because all the search engines knew to do was collect pages with similar keywords in specific searches. However, as more people began to use search platforms, complaints were frequently leveled at the likes of Google due to the fact that keyword stuffing made it difficult to find the answer to specific search queries.

That’s when Google began to develop more elaborate algorithms that targeted not only keywords as a metric, but also how users responded to the content. A good example of this would be bounce rates, which measure how long someone stayed on a website. If the bounce rate on a page is high, it means it wasn’t useful to them, so they quickly returned to their original query to find a better answer. Conversely, if a page has a low bounce rate, that means a lot of users stayed on the website, which means the content was most likely useful to them and even had related content that interested the user as well, so they stayed longer.

In 2022, Google has given more priority to websites that create content that is useful and engaging for users. That’s why many digital marketing strategists are focusing on tailored content that answers a very niche but active crowd over a general audience that might not be very interested.

Creating targeted content that highlights the specific features that a company offers helps inform both faithful customers and interested readers. It helps people learn more about the company’s products and services. Many small business owners think that blogging isn’t for them due to the nature of their industry, but actually, blogging works well for sectors as disparate as online casinos and tech guides.

Whether the blog is about how to update iOS on an Apple device or describes new titles like Vikings Gone Wild, the important thing to remember is that the topic should be specific, as if answering someone’s question.

For example, in the first link, the blog provides a thorough guide on how to properly update an Apple device with the latest software, demonstrates the necessary steps in achieving this, and links to other solutions should further device troubleshooting be required.

This is an excellent and organic way to link build, where a website strengthens its SEO by citing itself alongside other high authority blogs. Likewise, the second link also answers a specific question because it talks about the newest titles from the company’s All-Star slots selection, listing the various unique features and benefits such games offer.

Content is King, but Engagement is Queen

Of course, writing excellent content that positions well with proper SEO strategies is all well and good, but it is only half the battle. It’s also very important to find ways to share content and engage with readers so that small businesses can continue to make targeted content to satisfy their audiences.

Readers appreciate it when businesses go out of their way to respond to their comments, whether it be at the bottom of a blog post or a comment on social media. It also provides an excellent opportunity to understand what those audiences are looking for, and how a specific business can play a part in that.

Strictly speaking with respect to algorithms, when search engines see a lot of activity on a post, they rank it higher because it is relevant. However, that doesn’t mean people can create bots to spam the comments section. The discussion has to be between real people, which is usually determined by their account activity, including posts, friends, and web history.

Final Thoughts

In 2022, the way search engines are ranking websites is centered all around the user. Not only to ensure visibility but also to maintain a good relationship with present customers and reach out to new audiences, creating rich, specific content is the best bet for any startup that wants to flourish in today’s market.