Summary: Though millions of apps are there on the app stores, only 0.1% of those launched make it to success. Most of the time the biggest issue is marketing to ensure mobile apps and websites reach their intended user base. Below enlisted pocket-friendly SEO strategies will ensure you will have what it takes to get found online.
However big or small, all businesses work to increase sales and develop their brands. Be it a small physically run store or huge conglomerates offering global services. As the internet opens up the whole world as a tentative market, its assets in the form of a website, mobile apps as well as other digital entities are all future-visioned business endeavors in this direction.
As ‘Google’ spearheads more than 90% of all products found and searched on the web; this is where all businesses want to be seen and shared. SEO or search engine optimization includes several technology-led strategies wherein, a website or a mobile app becomes more searchable on these search engines, mostly eyeing for the top slots of the first page for search results. But, achieving this successfully is not so simple. Digital marketing requires inclusion of several strategies, if possible at a lower cost to ensure these goals are achieved. Let us try and enumerate these strategies:
Be mobile-friendly:
This is not only the most important aspect of marketing, but your complete online presence as a company. Remember that, there are more than 4 billion smartphone users globally, that spend more than 4 hours in a day of their time on average on these phones. The trend of online searches has already inclined towards smartphones, rather than computers and websites. So, if you are thinking of developing a website, rather than a mobile app; no issues! But, do get a responsive website developed that looks good on all screen sizes. It shall also help you gain brownie points for its look and feel in the eyes of the viewer.
Market Research:
Huge conglomerates won't even develop a needle without extensive market research. So how could you get into fastest-growing small businesses, without one? Yes, we understand that gathering a team for market research and surveys could prove quite expensive for small businesses with limited funds. The way out is that instead of doing complete market surveys directly with the users, you could research about your competitors. Infact, you should try and delve into all development and marketing strategies of your industry leader. Understand and analyze what has been working for them. Have a look at their SEO and analyze its pros and cons. This will help you gain insightful knowledge about your industry as well as user expectations from it. You could then devise a much more effective marketing and growth strategy.
Strategize your Targets:
If you own a business for which you require mobile application design guidelines or a website, there are two ways to top the search engine pages. One is organic, through content in time and the other is inorganic through paid ads. Small businesses can also maneuver inorganic SEO with targeted marketing and ads on Google search engine and as well as social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, etc. These platforms tend to charge you, only when a user clicks and opens your ad. It would help you gain viewership at a faster pace and help your brand climb SEO ranks at a faster pace.
You need ‘keywords’:
Google or for that matter any search engine, does not read your complete content to make its search listings. Rather, it looks for specific keywords that the users might be looking out for. It is thus, more than important that you have these keywords included and tagged within your online content. Moreover. this strategy does not involve any additional money, as you would have to get content created anyways. But, nonetheless, it is one of the most important aspects of getting featured on search listings.
Another important keyword related strategy proven quite effective these days , has been looking for, inserting and tagging long tail keywords. It will help you decrease your Pay-per-click advertising cost as well. Think about it, if you choose keywords like ‘t-shirt’; it would have millions of businesses vying for it. But, ‘women’s t-shirts’ shall have lesser competition and ‘women t-shirts in white’ would have still lesser businesses vying for it, leading to lower marketing costs.
Effective Blog Posts:
Content is the biggest tool for all SEO related strategies. You could hire a freelance or in-house writer to create blog posts with varied content on current industry issues, trends, etc. Once written, links of these blog posts can also be posted on your social media handles, wherein your followers shall be able to view and read them. Your blog should be ideally:
More than 1000 words in length, providing in-depth descriptions of the topic.
Do not forget to insert appropriate keywords and backlinks to other blogs on your website.
Insert images, videos and infographics for better affectivity.
These strategies have proven quite useful to increase page traffic and brand visibility.
Create an effective Video:
This might mean some amount of cost. But, trust us, it would be all worth the task. As per current Google terms of search, content with video content, tends to rank higher amongst the searchability listings. If you have a mobile app, you would need a video to explain its working on the landing page of the app store itself. Videos have proven as an effective App Store Optimization tool as well. But, you should also be aware that insertion of too many videos within the content of your website, might make it too heavy and slow to load, again leading to loss of customers.
Look for Reviews:
When a user gives feedback in the form of reviews, be it good or bad (because, eventually some bad ones will arrive too!); it helps your company to stay within communications of users and thus, stay in focus. It could be directly on your website, app landing page or your mail or some social media handle. Positive reviews also form an important strategy aspect of App stores searchability. Always, remember to reply to them in a positive and timely manner. Also, they would help you understand the user mindset and plan out your updates based on the same.
These SEO strategies lower User Acquisition Costs
There are various other strategies and technologies that can make your brand more searchable and closer to your intended viewers. Some are the obvious ones like developing and including a sitemap and some involve decision making like inclusion of big data and its applications in functionalities. But, most of them would involve some amount of money. So, it's completely up to you to choose and evolve in time with them, as and when you are ready. Till then as a small business, the above stated strategies will help you effectively sort all your digital marketing woes.