Search engines are one of the most important ways your audience will find your business. That means search engine optimization (SEO) can't be ignored: small business owners need to understand the rules and best practices for creating valuable online content.

If you take time to figure out what to know about SEO before you invest time and energy into creating online content, you'll save yourself time, money and headaches down the road. Here are six best practices to get started shaping your company's SEO.

Don't Go Overboard With External Links

There's no hard-and-fast rule for the number of external links to include in your content, but if you're adding links just to try and improve your rank, there's a chance you might sabotage your own efforts. Google's best advice regarding external links is to include them when a citation or other service to the reader is needed. These links should be anchored to relevant keyword text.

Major tech companies including Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft all offer their own personal assistants through a number of in-home and mobile devices. Like it or not, the personal voice assistant has become a significant player in driving online traffic and engagement, especially when it comes to search.

This trend is forcing marketers to understand the new challenges and opportunities that come with voice-driven search. While voice queries represent a fundamental shift in how brands target online search traffic, it isn't a doomsday scenario for your current SEO strategy. All it takes is some flexibility and a willingness to adapt to new circumstances. Here are some tips to get ahead of the curve.

You understand the importance of creating your own content, and you've been told that your content needs to feature keywords aimed at reaching your audience. But with several different factors to consider, choosing those organic search keywords can be overwhelming.

If you're not sure whether your marketing campaigns need optimizing for voice search, just ask Siri, Alexa or Cortana. They assist us with our hands-free browsing and shopping on a daily basis, thanks to voice recognition and interpretation. If you want your product or service to be found, optimize for voice search.

Why Is Voice Search Important?

It's easier for us to ask our smart devices a question than try to type into a tiny search box. Since it's predicted that 50% of all searches will come from voice and images by 2020, it's worth knowing how to make business information found when a user speaks.

At 2017's Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West Conference, digital marketing expert Benu Aggarwal revealed that 82 percent of mobile users search for local businesses, and 18 percent of local searches lead to a sale within 24 hours. This means SMBs should take voice search seriously to compete in the expanding online marketplace.

Email marketing is one of those tactics that can produce impressive results when done right, and can hurt your brand's reputation when done wrong. Send a helpful, targeted message and you just might have a customer for life; send a misdirected blast and you could see your unsubscribe rate skyrocket. 

It's not hard to see why this is the case. Just look at your own inbox and, if you dare, your spam folder. There are a lot of people trying to reach you through email, some with dubious intentions and others with a self-serving purpose. Don't be one of those senders.

The problem with most email marketing is that messages are sent purely to build awareness or make an announcement, which is unappealing to recipients who receive several such messages every hour.

Your business website needs content, so you've shared stories about product launches, helpful tips for your readers and engaging staff bios complete with professional photos. Then, silence. The website traffic is stagnant despite updating the blog each week like your colleagues told you to do. What's going on?

Chances are your content simply isn't getting indexed by search engines, which means your customers aren't finding your hard work either. Luckily, you can change that by implementing SEO, or search engine optimization.

Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can help content creators and advertisers reduce bounce rates and increase conversions with fast-loading pages. But what is Google AMP exactly, and how can small and midsize businesses leverage the technology?

In this post, we'll give you an overview of the AMP Project and actionable tips on how you can improve your digital marketing strategy for mobile.

Prioritizing Page Speed

Page speed is just one factor on a long checklist of items digital marketers need to consider when optimizing a site for search. But it's one you shouldn't overlook — your customers' time is precious and even a few seconds can mean the difference between a bounce and a lead.

Video marketing has exploded in recent years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. One study by Cisco reported that by 2021, video will represent more than 80 percent of all internet traffic. According to research by Vidyard, businesses are publishing an average of 18 videos per month.

With so much video content being created, you're probably wondering how you can make your videos stand out.

To help make sure your videos reach your target audience and generate enough ROI to keep your video machine humming, we've compiled the top video SEO tips. But first, the basics:

Rebranding a business is no small endeavor, but if you've seen the signs that it's time to rethink your design, messaging or strategy (or maybe all three), then don't put it off any longer.

In this post, the second of our rebranding series, we'll cover how to identify what parts of your brand need an overhaul based on some of the troubling metrics we covered in the first article in the series — including high bounce rates, declining engagement and a decreasing customer lifetime value.

Below, we'll discuss how these metrics correlate with different aspects of your brand and give you some ideas on what you may need to revamp:

Website Design and User Experience

A high bounce rate and poor web traffic metrics generally indicate that your website needs some work. Your site design could be to blame, and an outside opinion is the best way to determine if that's why people are turning away. Agencies can give you an expert perspective, while customer surveys can give you a firsthand impression of what your most important visitors think.

Online reputation management is more important than ever, as research proves that reviews, testimonials and social media pages hold heavy influence over a prospect's likelihood of becoming a customer. In fact, Search Engine Land reported that 88 percent of people are as likely to trust your digital reputation as they are to trust a recommendation from a friend.

Whether they're managed by you or someone else, you'll want all facets of your digital presence to paint your company in a positive light. But realistically, that won't always be the case.

In this post, we'll discuss some of the challenges to managing your digital reputation and how you can train your team to respond promptly and appropriately. Let's start with the most common problem facing brands with a digital presence: the negative review.