DIY SEO for small businesses- 22 tips I learned from experience

DIY SEO for small businesses- 22 tips I learned from experience

“Think of Google as the kid version of me… I loved to read. I preferred great books but I had to read something.”

I recently did an SEO project as part of my Masters programme in Digital Marketing Strategy. (Thanks as always to the master educator Z Aslam). I conducted it on my own website because, well with the opportunity to learn it may as well be about myself.?

I have put together a few tips of what I learned throughout the process about SEO from my observations that anyone who has a website can do to improve their SEO without too much technical knowledge.

Notes:

• The results in terms of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) were positive. They were by no means huge traffic in a very short space of time, but they were better than I expected at the outset. I have already seen this translated to the real world with enquiries and phone calls.
• I am not an SEO expert. Someday hopefully I will be, but for now I am still learning.?
• I used Google in my project so am only speaking about the Google search engine.?
• I did not use a paid SEO subscription- just free tools

I took lots of notes about what I noticed, but as with anything like this, for it to be a true learning it needs to be something you can tell from the top of your head, so these are things that have stuck with me (no notes used for this article).

These are in no particular order, apart from the first one, which is by far the most important:

1. SEO takes commitment. It’s a long game (but some positive results along the way will get you hooked). Image above is me on my wedding day -think of SEO as your new spouse!! You got to give a little to get a little.

2. Although you are designing your SEO for Google, remember that the whole point is to bring real people who are your audience to the website, so you must use relevant keywords within natural content, otherwise nobody will read it. I did this by ensuring my content sounded like me and was reflective of my brand’s tone of voice.?

3. Anyone can do it - it’s not hard to do, but definitely takes time. I spent many hours researching and auditing before I added a single word to my website.

4. Finding relevant keywords is hard, but:

• Step 1: to look at your different audiences and what they might search if they were looking for your business but didn’t know you from Adam. Then get an excel sheet and list all of the keywords you think of even if they sound weird.
• Step 2: start typing them in to Google and see what comes up. This helps you see who the current players are and if your keywords are relevant or not. This was the part that I learned the most from.
• Step 3: Narrow them down and choose a few to start with.?

5. Knowing your business and your audience helps so much with both keyword research and the strategy. If you know your audience you are better placed to think of the keywords that they might be seeking. Other companies may not have thought of optimising for them and that might lead to a high ranking. Put yourself in their shoes.

6. Intent, intent, intent. I did not know that this 6 letter word would make up so much of my learning. We all know that Google (and Aldi) are mind readers and know what you want before you want it. What does Google think the user is looking for when they type this keyword or phrase? For example if you type ‘graphic design’, Google thinks you are looking to learn about the discipline of graphic design so it gives you course options, FAQs about designers and what they do, some video tutorials about how to do graphic design. Not many of my competitors are ranking (well done to those that are), but if you type in ‘graphic design cork’, it is all companies similar to mine that rank as Google knows you are looking for a graphic design service in your area by adding the word Cork. *the local listing does show in both of these examples but I deal with that in a later point (I currently rank at no.3 for ‘graphic design cork’ thanks to the work I did recently)

7. Learn from your competitors. By this I DO NOT mean copy them (in fact that will probably be counter productive as you will always be on the back foot) but just observe what they are doing well in terms of SEO. Who is on page 1 and why do you think that is? What keywords are they on top for? What ones are they not and who takes their place?

8. SERPs are not just text based. When you look at each keyword, you will see the different elements that Google thinks are important for that keyword. Sometimes it thinks that users want video results so it ranks them higher- great of your content includes videos but not so good of it doesn’t, sometimes it puts the local results up top so if you do well on the local results you may rank higher than the first result on page 1.

9. Level the playing field. There are lots of SEO tactics out there that might be going after big wins or high volume keywords, but you need to first level the playing field with the basics. What are some easy wins or low hanging fruit you can start with to get up to a higher base first. Then go after the big wins. I stuck to the basics by increasing my landing pages to better reflect my services.

10. Don’t be tempted to pull the wool over Google’s eyes. It’s like my children trying to play a trick on me. It never works!! Google knows best so listen to what they say they want and try your best to give it to them. And what they want is a great website with clear content that users genuinely love and that other websites genuinely want to link to (as well as a few other things- see https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide)

11. I have mostly been talking about your website ‘on-site SEO’, but SEO also involves other websites and other ‘off-site SEO’ such as asking other relevant people to link to you. This can be done by asking clients, suppliers, etc. to link to you, by adding your website to relevant directories, by adding your website to your profile on websites that allow you to do so (Don’t ask, as always, equals don’t get). You can also be really clever and get yourself some limelight in the process, by doing some online PR and asking for a link to your website. (Although I haven’t tried this myself yet, I was recently involved in one such campaign in a graphic design role for a great campaign with an expert and very handsome (follow him to see why) SEO Mícheál Brennan, who showed me how it’s done and I was so impressed with the results’).

12. Claim your business profile on Google my business (if you are a local business) as this is what gets you showing in the local results, and once again optimise on this with relevant keywords.

13. Use the other Google products like Google search console and Google Analytics and set them up to talk to each other. Google loves data and data is your friend rather than guesswork (although as we all know, sometimes data brings its own guesswork). Google search console will help you see what keywords you are actually being found for and perhaps these may present opportunities you hadn’t thought of.

14. Audit, test, audit again, test again.. you get the idea

15. Think of Google like the kid version of me. (Pictured above- me as a kid) If you have a blog section on your website and you haven’t updated it since you posted about launching your new website in 2015, then find your inner voice and let it out. If you are talking about your business you will naturally use many of your keywords along the way. I believe in quality over quantity but quantity is a good start to generate stuff for Google to read. When I was a kid I was a bookworm, I would read so much that even in the car at night I would read one word each time we passed a street light and keep my finger on it so that I could find the next word in the one second window of light that I would have until the next light.

Think of Google like the kid version of me. I would prefer to read great books, but I had to read something. Give it plenty to read. It will thank you.

If you need help with content writing techniques, talk to Frank and Marci. They are the masters of this stuff.

16. Go incognito (click on the 3 dots at the top right and choose 'New Incognito Window') when looking at the results and check what version of Google you are using so you are comparing apples with newer apples.?

17. When writing a blog post. Write the title on a piece of blank sheet of paper, give it to someone else and see if they can figure out what your post is about. If they can- that's great- if not rewrite it. This is the 'Blank sheet of paper test' I learned from Steve Toth. (Follow Steve for lots of great tips)

18. Follow people who know about SEO- look up one of the LinkedIn groups to find lots of great people. That way their great ideas and tips will inspire you as you scroll, or if like me you like chatting to people while you procrastinate, discuss it with people who know more than you. (Thanks for the chats to Phil Teare, Steve Deane, Linda O’Connell, Eoin Flood)

19. Take plenty of notes- I know that I recommend it all the time, but a trello board is always a good way of taking notes, especially if it’s for the likes of content ideas. I have a board where I put ideas of things I might want to write about and when I blank out, I have a bank of ideas- some of which I still understand and some of which feel like the description of a strange dream.

20. Internal links- Google wants its robots to crawl around your site like it was a well designed road network. It doesn’t want any cul de sacs or places you can’t get to from the other roads. Sure what’s the point of that! It wants to start somewhere and get anywhere, so creating links from one page to another is important for the robots. And like my daughter Sara, give her what she wants or she won’t be happy. (Butter wouldn't melt in this photo)

21. In terms of the technical stuff, yes optimising your metadata and adding alt tags are brilliant, but if you know how to do that, perhaps you don’t need to read this! If you can, have a look at your website speed (https://pagespeed.web.dev/), try to keep images small, and install an SEO plugin like Yoast, and check the volume of searches on your keywords on Google keyword planner.

22. Results can fluctuate. I watched as I rose and fell and as competitors were high for some keywords and nowhere to be seen for others. You might think you are top dog and fall off the charts or think it’s not happening, but if you stick with it, you will gain in time (at least I hope so!) and you never know you might learn some things along the way. I know I did.