Quick and Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses

For many the mystery of SEO can seem complex and foreign. If you are running a small business you may feel that SEO is too much for you to tackle on your own, and too expensive to hire out for. We are happy to say that SEO does not need to be complicated. Even more so, utilizing the SEO strategies laid out below can have a truly large impact on your small business.

1. 1. Make sure you set up a Google My Business Account and claim your physical address if you serve people locally . This will allow you the potential to appear in local search results when users near you are searching for your type of business. It’s also best to fully optimize fill out everything when setting this up.

 

1. 1. Make sure your website is mobile friendly. There are many simple plugins for different CMS’ that can allow you to do this simply and fairly quickly.

 

1. 1. Utilize Google Search Console. This is a free tool offered by Google that will keep you updated on your website’s performance in Google Search and any errors the Google bots come across. You can get started here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

 

1. 1. Keep  up with Industry News. Things can change rapidly within the SEO world. Find a few SEO blogs such as Search Engine News and Search Engine Land and follow the newest trends and updates, to ensure that your website is in compliance.

 

1. 1. Maintain   a Blog and Fresh Content . Relevant, fresh content can help you rank for your targeted keywords. Make sure you are not just creating content for SEO purposes, but that the content is useful and interesting to the readers of your website. It should also help answer the questions they have (the search intent). If you do decide to start and maintain a blog, make sure you update it at least once a month.

1. 1. Use a clear URL structure on your website.  Visitors should be able to have a strong idea of what the page is about by looking at the URL.
      1. Good Example:  http://landscapingcompany.com/service-offerings
      2. Bad Example:  http://landscapingcompany.com/123-landco-offer

 

1. 1. Utilize  internal linking to better optimize your website. Linking internally between relevant topics and themes on your website is not only helpful for Google and other search engines to understand what your website is about, but also helpful to users as they navigate their way through the website.

 

1. 1. Install   and utilize Google Analytics for your website. This free tool from Google will show you all of the different traffic types, and how much of it, is coming into your website. It also reveals different locations visitors are coming from, the keywords they use to find the website in the SERPs and which pages on the website are getting the most traffic. You can also set up goal and conversion tracking to see how effective different forms and other items are on the website. You can get started here: https://analytics.google.com/analytics

 

1. 1. Encourage  Reviews on Google My Business, Facebook and Yelp . Reviews not only help to drive conversions, but they also help with your local visibility in the Google Map Pack and SERPs. 

 

1. Write a  unique title tag for every page. Try to naturally incorporate keyword phrases related to the page.