SEO 101 with 5 basic tips to get you started on SEO
5 basic tips for Small Businesses to get started with SEO
Or SEO 101 for short….
If you have a website for your local small business in Colorado, you've likely heard the term "SEO" on more than one occasion. You've probably also had digital marketers tell you about how you need to "optimize" your SEO if you want to be seen on the web.
But what exactly is SEO, and why is it so necessary to your website and online visibility?
Search Engine Optimization, more commonly known as SEO, is a collection of activities to improve the quantity and quality of traffic reaching your website. In a nutshell, this means writing your site's content in a manner that enhances the way your results show up when people search for terms related to your business.
Optimizing your SEO first requires a good understanding of what people search for online, how they search for it, and the combination of words they use to search for it. You must then understand how to deliver those search words and terms in a way that is easily picked up and understood by search engine crawlers.
In the following, I'll dive into the 101 of SEO for small businesses and provide 5 SEO tips to get you started.
Why is SEO important?
When your content is optimized, you help your site get seen on search engines first and among the first chosen when someone searches for your type of small business.
Just think about it: There are millions upon millions of websites out there. When it comes down to you and your competitors, SEO can persuade search engines that your content is the best solution to their problems and put you at the top of the list of results.
SEO is the best "free" way to draw attention to and bring organic traffic back to your site instead of paying for the ranking.
It can generally be broken down into four different areas:
Technical: Making sure your site loads quickly, doesn't have any broken links, and is mobile-friendly.
Local SEO: Ensuring your small business is easily found by members of your local community.
Content Structure and Keywords: Ensuring Google can read and understand your content and incorporate the phrases people are searching for.
Link Building/Backlinks: Increasing and improving the links that lead back to your site.
Think of SEO as a prize to be won: Whoever's site is the best in all of the above areas will come out on top in the search engines.
SEO is the best "free" way to draw attention to and bring organic traffic back to your site instead of paying for the ranking.
What is Organic Traffic?
Organic traffic is defined as visitors who come from search engines and "keywords" instead of paid advertising. It is the traffic most marketers work hard to increase.
This is where SEO comes in. Organic search results are ranked by the relevance of your site content versus what was typed into the search engine.
What are Keywords/Keyphrases and How Do They Affect My SEO?
Keywords and keyphrases are like search terms-- they're what people type in when looking for information on the web. They are the combination of words that solve a user's question or problem.
When it comes to your website, you should know that search engines like Google don't rank your website itself. Instead, it ranks each page on your site based on the keywords and phrases within it.
To boost your SEO effectiveness, your site must be packed with the relevant words and phrases that people are using when looking for your type of small business.
However, be careful not to overdo it. You may have come across sites from time to time with random keywords "stuffed" at the bottom of their page or other places. Head's up, this is called keyword stuffing and can do more harm than good by teaching search engines to ignore your site.
How do I improve my SEO?
In addition to doing thorough research on the keywords and phrases that take people to your site, you must also have a good mix of on-site SEO (the keywords and content on your site) and off-site SEO (the links and mentions of your site on other sites). The two of these together provide your site with authority and relevance, thus improving its rank.
5 Basic Tips to Get Started with SEO
Optimizing your SEO is more than just a one-time thing that you knock out and then forget about forever. It's a process and a lifelong project.
Your website SEO should always be relevant, easy to read, credible, honest, well-built, accurate, and optimized for mobile.
Over time as the market and search engine algorithms change, you must constantly revisit, reassess, and update the effectiveness of your content.
Five essential tips to help get started on improving your website SEO
Use links to your advantage: Make sure you constantly use internal links to other pages on your site when creating new content. Additionally, build relationships with other small businesses with similar content and ask them for backlinks to your site in exchange for a piece of content or a backlink to their site.
Keep clear titles and content: Keep your page titles short, clear, and relevant. Be clear about the topic you want to talk about, and make sure those words specifically appear in your title and on each of your pages.
Keep your URLs search engine friendly: When it comes to SEO, you want to make sure that your URLs are just as clear and concise as your titles and content. For example, using a URL such as "https://leahmarierybak.com/contact-us" will fare much better than one the internal classification such as "https://leahmarierybak.com/11649/p004.htm".
Use image descriptions: When using images on your website, add an "ALT" tag to each of them. Doing so will give you a keyword-rich description of the image behind the scenes, boosting your SEO.
Start a blog: Blogs don't only position you as an expert and draw traffic back to your site, but they are also an excellent way to pack your site with relevant keywords that boost your SEO. (Just make sure you're not making one of these 5 common blog-writing mistakes).
SEO 101 is just the start
When it comes to SEO, there's a ton to absorb and know. However, an optimized site will continue to automatically and organically direct people back to your small business website indefinitely when set up correctly. Hopefully, the SEO 101 above will give you a good head start.
By keeping your content clear, full of keyword-rich titles and phrases, and making sure that you have internal and external links back to your site, you'll see your organic traffic soar and will work your way up the search engine rankings in no time.
Hustle On,