A Step-by-Step Guide to SEO-Optimizing Your Small Business Website

There’s no point in spending money and time building an appealing website if your customers/clients can’t find it. So, what can you do to make your website stick out in the sea of content on the net?

It’s through SEO (search engine optimization) that your customers can find your website when they search it on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. By building your website immediately and optimizing relevant keywords, you’ll get more traffic on your page and make more sales.

That said, here are some of the steps you should take to continually optimize your website, and be several steps ahead of your competition.

Keyword Research

All SEO starts with keyword research. Make sure you understand your keywords and the present search landscape. It’s vital to do this at the start of your marketing strategy, and also re-evaluate occasionally. The figures always change, so always make sure to stay updated.

With Google Keyword Planner, start with your location and industry. This tool will you give many different search terms, how frequently they’re searched, and competition over those terms (based on the number of businesses buying ads around those search terms). Be sure to find as many suitable keywords as possible that have high search numbers but low competition.

Once you find them, write them down accurately. Any slight deviations on these keywords will harm your optimization. Utilize the keywords in all your attempts to optimize your site moving forward.

Create Links to Your Website

The more websites that have links to your website, the higher you’ll rank on search engines. Ask owners of related websites to include a link to your website. Offer to include a link to theirs, too.

Focus on getting quality links. A link to your site from a university or chamber of commerce is worth more than 20 links from inconspicuous blogs.

Combine Organic with Paid Search to Get Going

Unless you’re an SEO expert, it can take some time to see results if you’re just getting started with SEO.

SEO is a good long-term strategy, but sometimes you have to get leads immediately. That’s where paid search comes in handy. While you’re busy increasing your SEO efforts, set aside funds for paid search to keep the leads rolling in.

Even after getting a steady stream of organic traffic to your site, you can also still run a paid search.

Keep Your Page Titles Up-to-date

Most small business owners name their page titles after their business. This is alright if you have a perfectly optimized business name, but most are not. The best search terms follow the city plus service format, for example, New York City Auto Body.

Try altering your page titles so they include your number one keyword. This might be something as easy as “business name +number one keyword” but you may well be creative. Try to create a slogan that has the keyword.

Use Social Media

Social media can be a powerful tool in your SEO efforts because people also search for businesses on social media. They’ll often look up products or companies using the search function of Facebook, for instance. In addition, your business’s social media page will rank in search results when individuals search for your business or related terms.

Create Quality Content

Content is amazing for both search engines and your site visitors. The more content you’ve got, the more likely visitors will stay on your site. Again, the more content you’ve got, the more likely will search engines index more of your site’s pages.

The secret to pleasing both visitors and search engines is to put quality content on your site. Quality content may include things such as industry articles, blog posts, how to guides and tutorials, images, infographics, podcasts, videos, etc.

It may cost a lot to have quality content, but it’s definitely worth it. Your visitors will really love it that they’ll even share it, and so will search engines. This will lead to even more people visiting your website.

You can begin by simply writing blog posts, and as your audience expands, you can include other types of media in your content.

Try Getting Reviews

Even children tend to search for reviews before buying anything.

In 2017, reviews became one of the key factors of local search ranking.

Moreover, you can up your conversion rate by increasing your efforts in getting feedback and reviews from your customers/clients. Platforms may help you plan and run a review campaign. Alternatively, you may simply encourage your customers to review you on top online review sites.

Ensure Your Site is User-friendly

Build an easy-to-navigate, clean site. Make sure your visitors immediately know who you are, as well as what you’re offering.

Use plenty of headings to enhance readability and include your keywords in them. Headings stand out in search engines and can help rank you higher.

Website speed is also critical for SEO. You don’t want to irritate potential customers with a slow site.

Lastly, you’ll want to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly. Today, search engines penalize sites that aren’t easily displayed on mobile devices.

Measure Results

Free and inexpensive tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush.com, and Moz will give you more information on your site’s SEO performance.

They’ll also tell you a lot about your visitors, such as their geographical location, how they found your website (referring website, search engine, etc.), and how much time they spent on each page.

Be Patient

Keep an eye on the results from the first day, but don’t expect quick results. It usually takes several months to significantly move up the search engine rankings.

Also, keep in mind that SEO is continually changing. What works now might be useless in a couple of years. Work at it continuously and stay updated on the latest factors that affect rankings.

The Bottom Line

With this guide to optimizing your small business website, your site will be consistently producing optimal results. Make sure to evaluate those results, and work out what works for you and what doesn’t.

In addition, this list of tips is by no means complete. SEO is an unbelievably deep and constantly evolving strategy. This means there are loads of great sources available to assist you along the way.