Home » Small Business SEO: An Actionable Strategy guide for Growth

Small Business SEO: An Actionable Strategy guide for Growth

by davidhostler2020
small business seo

I’m sure you have had experience with how frustrating it can be to search online for a potential business partner, product or service only to find dozens of less than useful results littering the first page of your search. You are not alone, as the internet is flooded with sites who are looking to beat out their competition in search engine rankings. The reason for the frustration, however, is that often times these well ranked results provide very little insight into what you were actually looking for. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a sure-fire way to click on the first result and actually find what you need?

Well, guess what? There is.

Not only can SEO result in a plethora of new clients and customers for your business, but it can also mean increased traffic to your site and more conversions as well! Just think about how much easier it would be to boost your online presence if the process didn’t take an advanced degree in rocket science.

There is good news, however, and it comes in the form of something called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. While most people think that SEO and website optimization is a difficult and complicated process, it can actually be quite simple- with little to no cost involved! For this reason we have compiled a list of some of the simplest and most effective Small Business SEO tips that you can start implementing into your site content immediately:

1. Update Your Site Content Regularly

Keeping your website fresh and relevant is one of the easiest ways to optimize your site for the search engines. Search engines rank sites based on authority, and by updating more often you will not only make sure that your site is “alive” with fresh content, but you will also be providing the search engines more opportunities to rank your site higher.

2. Use Keywords Strategically

One of the first steps to optimizing your site for search engines is writing a list of keywords that define your business and what it provides. This list should then be strategically placed throughout your site content. The best way to find the right keywords is by doing a search for keywords similar to what you provide and checking out what ranks on page one of the results. Once you have a handful of good candidates, place them in your copy with care – too many can cause your site to look spammy and if they don’t fit in naturally, your readers will become annoyed and leave.

3. Use Relevant Images

While most people would never think of optimizing a website with images, they can actually be an important piece to the search engine optimization puzzle. When you use relevant images on your site, make sure that you either place them behind a text link or include the alt tag, as this will help you to rank higher in the search engines.

4. Check Your Site for Broken Links

We’ve all been there – we click on a website and nothing happens. While business owners may think that their website is beyond repair if they have broken links, this is not always the case – many times a broken link is nothing more than a simple mistake. By investing the time necessary to fix these errors, you will improve your search engine rankings by ensuring that all of your links load properly and function as they should.

5. Get Social!

While social media may not always be an easy site for business owners to navigate, it can be an important piece of the optimization puzzle. By leveraging social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you can increase your site’s authority by gaining a wider audience – just make sure that these links are always relevant to your content!

6. Use Importance Indicators

When it comes to optimizing a website, people will often use phrases such as “click here” or “read more” to indicate that there is relevant content on the page. While these terms may seem helpful (and they are), it can actually hurt your optimization efforts, as search engines will see them as spammy and irrelevant. Instead of using words like this, you should instead use importance indicators such as “further info” or “more details”, which will help the search engines to better optimize your site.

7. Try Paragraphs and Headings

While this may seem like common sense, it actually can be a bit more complicated than you would think. The main idea behind using paragraph breaks is that by breaking up large blocks of text into smaller chunks, you are giving the search engine spiders more opportunities to index your site. The same goes for using headings throughout your copy – not only do these help to break up large blocks of text, but they also help with on-page optimization.

8. Deliver High-Quality Content

By its very definition, search engine optimization is meant to boost the rankings of high quality, relevant content on the web. While there are many ways that you can optimize your site for search engines, none are more important than creating interesting and informative content that truly adds value to your readers.

9. Don’t Forget Your Title Tags!

While it may seem like a bit of an afterthought, your page title is actually a key piece to the optimization puzzle. When you compose your page title, you should always be sure that it is relevant to the content on the page and contains some of your primary keywords. Not only will this help with rankings, but it will also give readers a better idea of what the page is about – which in turn leads them to stay on your site for longer periods of time.

10. Use Meta Descriptions

While meta descriptions are often overlooked by webmasters, they are one of the most important pieces of on-page optimization that you can implement on your website. Not only will including a relevant meta description help you rank higher in the search engines, but it also gives you a chance to “sell” your site to potential visitors.

11. Optimize Your Images!

As mentioned previously, relevant images on your website should always include either a text link or an alt tag – but did you know that optimizing your image filenames and alt tags can actually be important pieces of the optimization puzzle? Not only should you name your image filenames based off of their relevant keywords, but if possible, try to include additional keywords within the alt tag itself. Doing so will not only help with on-page optimization efforts, but it can also help improve your site’s CTR (click-through rate) in the SERPs.

12. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly

For many business owners, optimizing a website for mobile devices can seem like a daunting task. However, if you follow the tips outlined in this article, you should have no problem making your site mobile-friendly and increasing its overall value. For additional information on how to optimize your website for mobile devices, please feel free to check out other articles on our blog.

Finally, it should be noted that while these tips are meant to help you optimize your site for the search engines, they are also great for building high-quality backlinks through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Thanks again for reading, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding this article!

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