10 SEO tips for small businesses
Introduction
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “SEO is dead.” And I’m sure you’ve seen it on countless websites and blogs, some of which even have a list of their own tips for getting better search engine rankings. Unfortunately, most people who say this are simply wrong: Search engine optimization (SEO) has never been more important than it is today. In fact, 82% of users won’t click on your website if they can’t find it in search engines—and that’s just unacceptable! So what do you do? How can you improve your company’s SEO efforts if everyone else says that SEO doesn’t work anymore? Here are 10 tips for small business owners looking to improve their site’s position in search results:
The basics
SEO is the science of getting your website to rank highly in search engines for keywords, phrases, and topics that relate to what you do. It’s important because it helps potential customers find you, learn about your products and services, and then come in the door ready to buy something.
If you’re just starting out with SEO or if it’s been a while since you last looked into it, here are some basics:
- SEO stands for “search engine optimization.”
- The purpose of SEO is to help people find websites when they search online using search engines like Google or Bing.
- SEO works by making sure that the content on your site is relevant and high quality so that search engines will want to list it among their results when someone searches for certain keywords related to what you offer (like “plumber” or “furniture refinishing”).
Get started with SEO
The first step to getting started with SEO is to use a keyword research tool. There are many out there, but I like SEMRush or Google Keyword Planner. You can enter a keyword, and the tools will tell you what people are searching for, how many searches there are on average per month, and then provide suggestions for other keywords that might be relevant to your business.
With this information in hand, it’s time to start creating content! Make sure the content matches up with those keywords you researched (you did do the research right?) In addition to matching your keywords, make sure that it also answers questions people have about your products or services—this will help boost engagement and keep visitors on your site longer as they interact with more information related directly back into their interests.
Once you’ve created some good quality content using targeted keywords as a guidepost throughout its creation process (and once all of those pages get indexed by search engines), there are still two things left before we’re done: optimizing existing pages on our website through meta titles/descriptors as well as improving overall site structure via internal links between pages within our own platform itself.”
Focus on search intent
Search intent is the reason why people are searching for something.
It’s important to understand search intent so you can write content that addresses their needs and wants. Your primary goal when writing your content should be to help them solve their problems, and not just to fill a gap in your own site structure or keywords list.
The best way to determine what someone is looking for is by analyzing the words they use in their query. The more specific those words are, the more likely it is that they have a specific question or want information about a particular topic. So if you see phrases like “I need an SEO expert” or “what does SEO mean?” as part of an organic search term report from Google Analytics, it means that person has no idea of what they’re doing and probably aren’t going to be customers anyway!
Use keywords effectively
- If you want to be found on the web, then you need to make sure that your website is using keywords effectively.
- They should be used in:
- your title tag, header tag and alt tags (description)
- page content (content)
- meta description (description)
- URL /permalink structure
Build a strong site architecture
Site architecture is the structure of your website. It’s how you organize your content and where it lives on your site so that visitors can find what they’re looking for, easily and quickly.
A strong site architecture is one of the most important factors in search engine optimization because it makes sure that all of your pages are represented in search engine results. If a page isn’t properly linked to from other pages on your site, then Google won’t be able to find it when someone searches for anything related to what’s on that page. A successful SEO strategy means making sure that each page has an effective site architecture—one where all relevant terms and phrases have been included in text links or headings so that when people do search for them (like “how to build muscle”), those pages will show up at the top of the first page of results rather than buried deep within a result set.
To test whether or not this approach has worked well for you, ask yourself these questions: “Can my customers easily find me?” And if so: “Is there anything about my business model (or its culture) I should change?” It may seem like common sense now but it wasn’t always easy!
Build quality backlinks
Quality backlinks are the most important part of SEO. If a website links to your site, it means they recognise the value of what you have to offer and have chosen to point their readers in your direction.
It is important to note that not all backlinks are created equal! Links from authoritative websites (such as Wikipedia) carry more weight than links from low-quality websites (such as spammy directories). In other words, high quality backlinks are more valuable than low quality backlinks because they help build trust and authority for your website.
High quality backlinks also tend to be clicked on more often than others, so if you can get one from a trusted source then this could mean better visibility for your business online.
Optimize your content for search engines and users (together!)
To optimize your content for search engines and users, make sure that it is relevant to the user, written in a way that’s easy to read and understand, has clear navigation and organization, is easy to find on the page (or site), and can be shared easily.
- Relevance: If you have a shoe store and you’re optimizing your pages for “shoes,” then all of your content needs to be about shoes—not hats or shirts or whatever other random items are available in your store. It should also include words people look up when they’re looking for shoes (like “high heel” or “sandals”).
- Readability: Content should be formatted in such a way that it’s easy on the eyes—and this means more than just having no spelling errors! It also means using bullet points instead of paragraphs whenever possible; adding internal links so readers can navigate quickly; formatting headings with bold text, lists or styles; white space between paragraphs; etc., etc., etc.
Target multiple relevant keywords
This is one of the most important SEO tips for small businesses to follow. It’s also one of the easiest to implement, too! The first step is to identify your top keywords and make sure you’re using them in your content.
Once you have that down, it’s time to take it a step further by targeting multiple relevant keywords related to your business. This will help improve search engine rankings, since Google knows what those words mean and has enough information about them in its database to determine whether or not they’re relevant.
The last thing we want is for our website to rank highly for irrelevant searches! So if Google sees that we’re trying hard at targeting multiple keywords related directly towards what our business does (and only doing so), then there’s no reason why someone looking for something completely unrelated won’t click on us instead because they don’t know how else their query could be answered elsewhere.
Make sure you’re mobile-friendly and fast!
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and fast!
- Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test the load time of your site.
- If you have a WordPress site, use GTMetrix to check how fast it loads.
- Use WebPageTest to measure performance of your webpages from different locations around the world.
If you follow these tips, you can have a significant impact on your company’s SEO efforts
If you follow these tips, you can have a significant impact on your company’s SEO efforts.
You’ll be able to rank your website pages much more easily and quickly. The goal of SEO is to get as many people as possible to click through from Google (or other search engines) and visit your site. The more traffic you get, the more conversions and sales you’ll make!
Conclusion
I hope these tips are helpful for you and your business. If you’re looking to dive into the world of SEO and work on improving your site, we have a number of other blog posts that can help. If you need more information about how we can help with your SEO needs, please reach out to our team!
