The world of Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) can, at first glance, seem to be almost hopelessly complicated and mercilessly fickle. However, it’s not as much of a dark art as many small business owners might initially believe.

While few of us have the luxury of hiring dedicated staff who can manage our business’ web presence on a day to day basis, you will be relieved to know that not all hope is lost; in fact, by incorporating the tips that we’ll be sharing with you today, you can be on your way to boosting your online relevancy right away—sometimes without needing to spend a dime (just a little of your time will do!).

Use Relevant Hashtags on Twitter

You may already be a maverick when it comes to using the micro blogging site, but without proper foresight, all of your hard work will be going to waste. For example, you might be using hashtags to try to make your messages concise and easily understandable to people who happen to see your messages flash by on their screen.

However, by doing some prior research and seeing which tags people are already using, you will be able to potentially grow your audience significantly. So, next time you think about using “#hairstyletips”, do some research on your competitors first; it may be the case that they’re using “#easyhairtricks”, and by incorporating this into your tweets, you’ll become exponentially more visible.

Post Good Content on Your Blog

Your blogs don’t have to read like poetry in order to help your online presence grow. In fact, keeping things simple and sticking to what you know can often be a much more effective way to get seen online.

Put your heart into what you’re writing; is the topic itself interesting? Are you providing the right amount of information, so that it can be skimmed quickly but also providing worthwhile information? By breaking your posts down to smaller paragraphs, and adding some appropriate images, you can make them significantly more readable for those who stumble across them.

Link to Websites You Respect

Even if you’re not getting any traffic from others linking to your site, make sure to link (with moderation!) to sites that you genuinely respect and which relate to your field. By doing this, Google will consider it as a factor when performing its search algorithms. Over time, it can greatly increase your ranking on the search engine.

Use Well-Produced Videos

This may be the most expensive tip on this list, but it could also earn you the greatest rate of returns. Having well-made videos by someone who knows what they’re doing to promote your business can dramatically improve the way others see it.

You can get in touch with local film-makers to get a ball-park figure of how much you’ll need to spend, but many freelancers in the industry will charge a reasonable rate to help you out for a day or two. Likewise, they’ll take care of all the editing work that you don’t want to be involved in, so that all you’ll have to do is upload the video to your YouTube channel and slowly watch the number of views increase!

Mastering SEO is, as you might expect, an arduous slog and will likely result in an epic quest that grows arms and legs along the way. However, it is fascinating; what you essentially learn is a guide to mastering the internet! If you don’t want to do any of the above, though, you can always just hire a web designer who specializes in SEO to help you boost your web presence. Remember to keep checking back for more great posts you can refer to to take your business to the next stage!