If you're a small business owner, ensuring your website is optimized for search engines is more important than ever. Why? Because people are increasingly turning to the internet to find the products and services they need, and if your website isn't ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs), you're missing out on potential customers. Luckily, there are a few simple things you can do to improve your website's SEO. In this blog post, we'll review 10 essential SEO tactics for small businesses.
1. Choose the Right Keywords
One of the most important things you can do regarding SEO is to choose the right keywords. What are the right keywords? They're the words and phrases potential customers use to search for businesses like yours. There are a few different ways to find these keywords. First, use keyword research tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Moz Keyword Explorer. Second, you can look at your competitor's websites and see their target keywords. And third, you can ask your customers directly what words and phrases they use when searching for businesses like yours. Once you've identified some potential keywords, it's time to start incorporating them into your website.
2. Optimize Your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Title tags and meta descriptions are HTML elements that appear on SERPs when your website appears in a search. The title tag is the main headline of your listing, while the meta description is a brief summary of your page's content. Both of these elements give searchers an idea of your website, so it's important to ensure they're accurate and keyword-rich. If they're not, searchers may click on a different listing, even if your website ranks higher than others. To edit your title tags and meta descriptions, go into your website's backend and find the code for each page. Then, insert or edit the existing title tag and meta description to be keyword-rich and accurately describe the page's content.
3. Publish High-Quality Content
In addition to including keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions, you should also be including them in the actual content on your website—but beware! Keyword stuffing—when you stuff too many keywords into your content to get more traffic—is not only ineffective but also penalized by Google. So how do you strike a balance? By writing high-quality content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords throughout. That means writing informative, well-written, and engaging content that people will want to read (and share!). Not sure where to start? Check out our blog post on ways to develop content ideas for your small business website.
4. Optimize Your Images
Images are an important part of any website but often overlooked in SEO. Whenever you upload an image to your website, include keywords in its file name and fill out its alternate text field with a brief, keyword-rich description of the image. This will help search engines index your images properly so that they appear in image search results—and encourage people to click through to your site when they see one of your images pop up in their results!
5. Build External Links
For your website to rank highly in SERPs, search engines must see that other websites link to yours—but beware! Linking back to low-quality websites can hurt your rankings rather than help them (so link carefully!). One easy way to build external links is by creating listings on online directories like Yelp or Google My Business—simply create a profile for your business and include a link back to your website. You can also reach out to other businesses in your industry or local area and offer to trade links with them; just be sure that the websites you link back to have high domain authority to benefit your SEO efforts rather than hurt them!
6. Implement Google Authorship
Google Authorship is a quick and easy way to tie all of your online content—articles, blog posts, etc.—back to yourself as the author while simultaneously building brand awareness for yourself and your business! All you need is a Google+ account; once you have one set up, simply add a link from each piece of online content back to your Google+ profile using the rel="author" tag (you can find instructions on how to do this here). Then, add some information about yourself—a headshot, brief bio, etc.—to your Google+ profile so people know who you are when they see one of your articles appear in their search results!
7. Promote Your Content
For people who see all of this great content you're creating, you need to promote it! There are many ways to do this; social media, email marketing, paid advertising, guest blogging —the endless options! Just be careful not to go overboard; too much self-promotion can turn people off from reading y our content altogether. Instead, focus on promoting y our best stuff —the stuff that's really going to help y our target audience —and doing it in an organic, authentic way.
8. Use Google Analytics Tracking Code
Google Analytics tracking code helps you collect data about y our website visitors —where they're coming from, what pages they're looking at, how long they're staying on each page, etc . This information is incredibly valuable as it can help you fine-tune y our marketing efforts moving forward. Plus, it's free! All you need to do is create a Google Analytics account at https://analytics.google.com.
9. Set Up Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools gives you insight into how Google sees your site —what words & phrases they think are associated with it, any errors or issues they've found with it, etc. This information can be super helpful as you work to improve your site's SEO moving forward. Plus, once again: it's free! You can sign up at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home.
10. Perform Regular Site Maintenance
Finally, one last thing to remember as you work to improve your site's SEO: regular maintenance! Just like anything else, websites require regular upkeep & maintenance to function properly & optimally. That means regularly backing up files & databases; updating plugins & software; monitoring traffic & activity levels; deleting old & unused files; etc. Taking care of these things behind - the scenes helps ensure that everything runs smoothly & efficiently —which ultimately helps improve both user experience & SEO alike!
These days, good SEO is essential for any small business that wants to succeed online. But luckily, there are tons of simple things you can do to improve your site's ranking in SERPs! By following the tips outlined above —from choosing the right keywords & optimizing your title tags & meta descriptions to building external links & promoting y our content —you'll be well on your way towards increasing both traffic & conversions for your small business website! Need help getting started? Contact us today for a free consultation! We'd happily help you take your small business to the next level!