Guide to SEO for Your Small Business Website

You’ve created a fantastic website for your small business, but when you do a search for your business name you’re nowhere to be seen. Getting your website to rank at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) is an ongoing process, and any service offering an easy fix won’t bring you long-term results. The world of search engine optimization (SEO) can be intimidating for any small business owner, but with some guidance and knowledge of initial steps and helpful tools, you can feel confident knowing your SEO strategy is on the right track.

You don’t need to be an expert to get your site ranking higher on SERPs like Google or Yahoo, but you do need to schedule time to manage your SEO just like you would more traditional marketing or advertising efforts. We’ve complied dos and don’ts that will bust some SEO myths and take the fear factor out of finding your company online.

Don’t: Create Content for Search Engines

Do: Create Content for Your Users

If copy on your site doesn’t sound natural when you read it, a search engine probably won’t find it natural either. Flooding pages with keywords can actually harm your search rankings and won’t come across as informative or reliable to people visiting your site. Creating content that is concise, valuable, and reader-friendly will help boost your search engine rankings and lead to users linking to your page and sharing on other sites.

Don’t: Forget about Key SEO Data

Do: Write Relevant Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Apart from page content, title tags are weighted most heavily by search engines. These tags show up in the top of a browser window, in SERPs, and on external sites as link anchor text – a first impression explaining what your site’s about. Limit title tags to 55 characters and keep them reader friendly while incorporating important keywords and your brand name.

Meta descriptions are similar, in that they help create a first impression for your website on other parts of the Internet. They don’t count directly toward search engine rankings, but they do help sell page content to potential readers and customers. Limit meta descriptions to 150 characters, include page content keywords, and write compelling content to entice readers to click through.

Don’t: Duplicate SEO Data on Pages

Do: Write Unique Titles and Metas

As with duplicate keywords, having identical titles and metas on each page of your site can hurt your credibility and make it difficult for search engines to index your pages correctly. Writing titles and metas for each page can be time consuming at first, but it will be worth the effort in the long run when your page ranking improves and more people can find you.

Don’t: Guess at Important Keywords

Do: Research Relevant Keywords

Knowing the keywords your potential customers are searching for is a major step in crafting your SEO strategy. Use Google AdWords’ free Keyword Planner to research keywords common to your business, product, or service.

You can also capitalize on the work your competitors have already done by using a tool called ahrefs to see which keywords bring traffic to their site. You can use these keywords as inspiration for creating relevant content on your own site.

Don’t: Let Your Site Languish in the Past

Do: Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

With more content being consumed on mobile every day, it’s best to make sure your website works well on mobile browsers. SEO boils down to providing a good user experience, and user-friendly mobile sites will help improve your page ranking. If your site is difficult to read and navigate on a smartphone or tablet, your overall search engine ranking will suffer.

Don’t: Expect Overnight Results

Do: Make SEO an Ongoing Project

Your efforts to improve your site’s SEO won’t come to fruition overnight. It can take weeks, or even months, for search engines to crawl your site and change your rank based on the work you’ve done. With this in mind, commit yourself to schedule some time each day, or week, to working on your SEO strategy. Be wary of companies and consultants that claim almost unbelievable results in a short period of time. Quick fixes might seem attractive, but your search engine ranking will suffer over time.

Don’t: Make Your Page an Island in the SEO Sea

Do: Curate Trusted Backlinks Pointing to Your Site

More than anything else, backlinks have a significant role to play in improving your search engine results. The quality and quantity of links from relevant sources leading to your site will significantly impact how you rank online. This doesn’t have to be a daunting process. Often a good old fashioned phone call to a business partner or relevant group asking to add a link to your site on their page is enough to get the job done. It’s also important to build backlinks to each page of your site you want to rank, not just your homepage, if one of your other pages is more relevant.

Like providing quality products and reliable service in the offline world, SEO boils down to writing useful, shareable content and building relationships with other trusted sites. Once you’ve delivered on these two objectives, better search engine rankings will follow.

Source: NFIB