Supporting locally owned businesses is a great way to accelerate the post-pandemic economic recovery. As important as community support is to the survival of a small business, the people who own those businesses must make a concerted effort to connect with consumers and inspire that support. Technology can help business owners do that in a variety of ways.

Pay attention to mobile rankings. The SEO solutions experts at SEMrush report that roughly 72 percent of domains change rankings by one place on mobile compared to desktop, while 52 percent change by three places. That's a significant drop-off as more and more consumers utilize mobile search engines when shopping. The popularity of mobile searching is something small business owners should take seriously and strongly consider when devising their optimization strategies.

Strengthen your social media presence. A 2020 study from the social media marketing firm Sprout Social found that nine in 10 consumers will buy products from a brand they follow on social media. Small businesses can use that to their advantage by strengthening their social media presence, devoting some time each day to promote their offerings. Businesses also can encourage in-store customers to follow them on social media.

Prioritize customer service. Interactions with a real person will likely always remain consumers' preference when they have questions or concerns about products H and services. But that doesn't mean small business owners cannot still expand their customer service offerings to include customer relationship management software (CRM) and chatbots, both of which can improve customer relations. asbel