This is a question I get asked a lot by people and clients. There isn’t really one answer I can give so I’ve put together a very simple and easy to follow list that you can start using today to get to the top of Google. I’ve based all these SEO tips around businesses in the United Kingdom, Kent as this is where Developer Rocket is based!
When starting out, it’s pretty much impossible to get to the top of Google without paying for ads. All of these tips can help you appear at the top and right in front of your customers.
Google Maps and Reviews
This is one of the easiest ways of getting seen pretty much straight away. To do this you need to sign up to Googles “My Business”, this is a completely free service that allows you to add your business to Google Maps, start getting reviews and track your search traffic.
The signup process is really simple, just following their simple steps will get you on their system. And they will send you a letter in the post which will confirm your location by giving you a unique code. When you set things up you’ll be asked what industry you’re in and what keywords you want to use so that people can find you. For example, if you search, “web design” while on Google Maps you’ll find Developer Rocket on the map! This is really useful if someone in your area is looking for some local.
When people see you have lots of reviews from real customers, they trust you, and are much more likely to contact you. Make sure whenever you finish and do a great job ask your customer for a review to build the trust of potential future customers.
What’s the cheapest way to make a website? Follow the link to find out
Google Messenger | How does it work? (Side note)
A useful tool that a lot of people don’t know exists is the Google Business app which allows you to get live messages from your customers directly from Google. This makes it a lot easier for a customer to just send you a message and you can respond nearly instantly as it pops up on your phone. This feature is great for the younger generation as everyone is using mobile devices more.
Backlinking/Guest posts
Backlinking is simply getting links from other websites to yours. You can do this by asking other websites or blogs if you can feature on their website. This will draw more customers to your website which actually being high on Google. You can write guest posts on peoples websites to generate more traffic. If you feature on, what Google calls, a high authority website, then your SEO will be hugely increased.
Neil Patel writes lots of great posts about increasing SEO here is one that talks about how you can increase your number of backlinks when you have none yourself. This also talks about how the quality of the backlink and be hugely beneficial to you. It’s worth a read! https://neilpatel.com/blog/build-high-quality-backlinks/
Backlinking is a sure way of increasing traffic on Google and it will increase the amount of website traffic you get.
Business Directories
Whenever speaking to a new client that is just starting their business, I tell them to join every business directly you can find. This is a free way of increasing traffic and people to find your business. Simple Google “Free Business Directories” and you will be shown a list of hundreds of free places to promote your website.
Below is a list that I recommend:
Many people use these Business directories to find a local business. So it’s important to show as much detail as possible to sell yourself to potential customers.
Social Media
Using social media can be the fastest way to get traffic to your website. Setting up a business page and sharing it with your friends, where they share it with theirs can quickly gain you a lot of followers. Don’t be embarrassed to ask people to promote you on their social media, its often friends that help you start out!
Worldwide, there are over 2.50 billion monthly active users (MAU) for December 2019. This is an 8 percent increase in Facebook MAUs year-over-year.
https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
With the huge numbers of people using Facebook every day you are going to get views from people. We get messages all the time on Developer Rocket’s Facebook page, it’s often a place where people search for local business. So its 100% worth doing!
Summary
To summarise to get quick, free traffic to your website there are a few things you should be doing. Register on Google My Business and get yourself on Google Maps. Ask people to review your business. Ask other websites and blogs if you can guest post and start generating high-value backlinks. Get on as many free business directories as you can. And finally, use Social Media of all kinds to get your websites and business attention!
A better way to get more traffic consistently and organically is to just create relevant content. This could in the form of a blog post (this works great for us), Youtube videos, constant social media presence and keeping up to date with your website.
Read more about this here on one of our previous blog posts: