What Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Will Do For Your Small Business
As a small business owner, you are used to juggling multiple things at the same time. One of those things that you’re likely juggling is ensuring that you have a balanced marketing mix, budgeting for the marketing elements that have the biggest impact on your business. SEO in Marketing is one area that every small business leader should include in their marketing strategy.
What is SEO?
SEO meaning is Search Engine Optimization. Moreover, the SEO meaning in layman’s terms is choosing the right words that your ideal customer will search for when performing a query search (think googling words such as “caterer near me”) and then structuring them correctly both on the front and back end of your site. These words will act as the foundation of the written copy wherever it appears as it relates back to your site (think ad’s (print and digital, social media, blog posts, FAQ’s, etc)
What are the SEO Basics?
Whether you are large company or just starting out, regardless of your industry type, every business should focus on the following basic key elements in Google SEO:
- Have a list of targeted keywords you want to rank for and start using them throughout the copy of your entire website. Blogs are a good place to start with them.
- Ensure that your site is properly structured. This means that you have a clear menu, every page is linked within your site appropriately (no orphan pages – means that the url is discoverable but free floating in your site and not linked appropriately. No deadlinks – page can’t be found error).
- Ensure that your website is fast loading. Check your site’s speed at https://gtmetrix.com//. Delete any unnecessary plugins. Optimize video and photos by compressing them. Ensure that your site is properly cached.
How do I incorporate good Google SEO on my website?
After you have included the basic search engine elements (from the list above) to your website, it is important that you also consider the following elements (We suggest utilizing Google Analytics and Google Search Console to get the best understanding of how your website is performing):
- Ensure that your site is crawable and indexable. In order to do this you will need to create a sitemap (explains how your pages /and posts are set up within your site and how they relate to one another) for your website and submit it to Google Search Console.
- Your site is mobile friendly. This means that the elements in your website display correctly and efficiently on mobile devices. This means that the text is easy to read on mobile devices, the clickable elements aren’t too close together (meaning that when someone wants to click on one button, they don’t accidentally click another), and the content fits within the screen (doesn’t go outside the screen’s view). We recommend Google Search Console to test your site’s mobile friendliness.
- Your site returns a good user experience. Although broad in scope, it means that you have studied how users interact with your site and the typical journey they take from one page to another so that you can optimize your site to best fit their needs.
- Your ad’s are running parallel with your targeted keywords. All of your ad copy should include targeted keywords and sets that your site is ranking for / want’s to rank for. Be intentional with your ad copy to include these keywords.
- Optimized Google Business Profile GBF (formerly Google My Business). Ensure that your business shows up on Google Maps, is claimed, has recent geo-tagged photos, all possible attributes are filled out, questions are asked and answered and you are employing a local business schema code in the header of your website.
What can I expect for traffic from my optimized SEO?
Due to Google’s Algorithm, optimized SEO is a long run game plan. Although changes won’t occur overnight, you can expect to see online visitors coming to your site based on the keywords you optimized for being the same ones they performed a query search for and then chose your website as the best probable match (this can be viewed in places like Google Analytics and Ubersuggest).
Looking for help with your SEO and don’t know where to start? We provide a full list of SEO services. Get a FREE SEO consultation today!
