Many service-based small businesses gain traction due to word-of-mouth referrals and community presence, but lack when it comes to content marketing for SEO. Unfortunately, small businesses are much slower to adopt marketing strategies than newer startups or corporate companies. However, small businesses need to compete to get their services to a wider audience, too. And according to several studies, the foundation is there. Most Americans would prefer smaller businesses in order to support local economy and receive more personal service. With 543,000 new small businesses sprouting each month, pressure to compete is fierce.

Some treat SEO and content marketing as if they’re two separate entities, but the truth is, they overlap and blend together to make a perfect pair. Without one or the other, your strategy effectiveness diminishes. One really couldn’t exist without the other. Whether you run a roofing business or locksmith business, your service-based company can benefit from the right content marketing SEO.

Explore What Works

Before you embark on your content marketing journey, find out what works for you. Begin by analyzing the content that’s worked for you thus far by evaluating your webmaster tools and Google Analytics. Search queries and top-trafficked pages will give you insight into what’s performing best. Additionally, look for inspiration in similar small businesses in other small towns and cities. Take a look at how they’re conveying the brand, and even explore small businesses outside of your competitors.

Create a Content Marketing Calendar

A content marketing calendar helps ensure timely content for your business, keeping you organized month to month. One of the biggest challenges with content marketing is the ability to create a content marketing strategy that sticks. There are several online resources that offer content marketing templates for public use; take advantage of these tools and use them as a springboard to create your own calendar. In addition to the organizational benefits of a content marketing calendar, it also helps create alignment between writers and internal teams.

It’s All About Keywords

SEO sets the requirements, and those requirements are fulfilled by content marketing. One of the most important aspects of SEO is keywords. You’ll need to research and utilize them properly in your content if you ever want your website to rank higher in SERPs. Once you’ve conducted thorough research and determined what keywords to target, disperse them throughout your content sparingly. You may have an SEO agency take care of this for you, but if you’re opting for the DIY-method, take heed: keyword stuffing will knock your page right out the ballpark.

Using Linkbacks In Your Content Marketing

Linkbacks can significantly increase traffic, and one of the best ways to get linkbacks is to have great content. Why is this so important? Because Google doesn’t judge every website equally. Having 100 linkbacks from low-quality websites is just as valuable as having a single linkback from one quality source. Linkbacks also have the potential for a positive snowball effect by spreading awareness for your website and creating a bigger audience. This means that you should refrain from putting up content for the sake of putting up content. Assert yourself as a valuable resource within your community.

Gather Great SEO Content

For service-based businesses, you may feel limited in what content you can offer. The first order of business is to ensure that your service pages are optimized based on the keywords you’re targeting. If you don’t fancy yourself a good writer, you can easily hire a freelance SEO writer for your website pages or SEO agency to create a front-to-back customized strategy. You don’t have to be a technical business owner to do achieve SEO. What you do depends on your budget, but do your research before you make any decisions. Sometimes higher costs translate to higher sales and long-term results.

Aside from your service pages, we highly recommend creating a blog. A blog is the perfect opportunity to house a plethora of quality content. Your blog could include:

• Relevant industry news
• Company updates
• Holiday deals and other promotions
• How-to topics
• Frequently asked questions

Don’t be afraid to have fun with your blog and mix things up a little. For example, if you own a pawn shop business, creative blog posts might include: “10 Amazing Artifacts Found Buried In Backyards” or “Why You Should Take A Metal Detector To The Beach.” Remember, your content serves a dual purpose: to house powerful SEO and provide valuable content to your visitors.