Having a website is essential for a small business, but it’s only helpful if people can find it.
That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in, and it plays an important role in the future of your business.
The problem: as a small business owner, you have a limited amount of time to spend optimizing your website. You probably don’t have a digital marketing team to help you either.
The solution: With that in mind, I’ve created a list of proven tactics to boost your website SEO on your own.
Notice that I said “proven”. Not all of these are easy, and most of them will take time to show results. Be patient and track your progress (see the last section for this).
Let’s get started.
Know What Your Audience Searches
Understand what words people use to find your business, product, or service online. Use those words on relevant pages on your site to attract potential customers.
Keep in mind that what you want your website to rank for in search results and what your customers and potential customers want to know can vary drastically. It’s important to do keyword research to understand what they need.
In Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, they cover keyword research in depth. If you’re not sure where to start, head over to the keyword research section to learn more about it.
Once you find the right words to use, add them to important elements on your website like the title tag, headings (H1, H2, etc.), body copy, bolded text, alt text, and more. But you don’t want to go overboard. You just want to make sure people know what your page is about when they’re skimming.
Take a look at this graphic. This page is optimized for chocolate donuts. You can use this to understand, on a high level, how to optimize a page on your website.
Don’t stuff a bunch of keywords into your page. When you read it, the language should sound natural like you’re having a conversation. When you’re talking to a person about chocolate donuts, that word and similar words (like donuts, best donut flavors, etc.) will be heard.
Give Visitors Enough Detail
Every page on your website should be valuable to your visitors. Give them enough info to choose you over a competitor.
This might seem obvious, but many small businesses don’t consider the impact of their content on their search rankings. I often see a list of services on a page, but no details. Sure, I can see that you offer printing services, but what kind of material can I get? Can I only print on paper or do you print signs in addition to brochures? Do you have designers too?
Think about the questions your potential customer might ask (or has already asked) and answer it on that page. Making that information accessible might encourage a person to call your business instead of the print shop down the street because it seems easier to work with you.
Make URLs Descriptive
Imagine this: you’re looking to adopt a puppy. You go to Google and search for “adopt a puppy” and the only two results you get are:
- domain.com/adopt/puppy
- domain.com/postid=45723&kw=puppy
Which one do you think will get more clicks?
If you answered #1, you’d be correct!
Even though the second option has a keyword, the rest of the path looks questionable. You can’t be sure what kind of page you’ll land on. The first URL makes it clear. You go to a page filled with adorable puppies that are available for adoption. People like this and so do search engines.
Link to Relevant Pages
When you link to another page, search engines learn that there is useful information on that page related to your topic. Think of it as a vote of confidence for that content.
External Links
For example, when you get to the next section you’ll notice that I link to a few external articles. I’m doing this so you can get detailed information from an expert on that topic.
Internal Links
It’s also favorable to link to pages on your own website to help people find information faster. Search engines like the ease of access created by internal links.
Backlinks
What is it: A link to your website from another website
Example: When your local tourism bureau’s website links to yours because you participated in an event in town
Search engines use these links as a way to determine if your website is useful.
IMPORTANT: What you need to know about backlinks
This is an SEO tactic that gets abused frequently… mostly because it’s effective. BUT Google knows if you’re taking advantage of the system, and they will take action on your website.
Remember that not all backlinks are equal.
- Links should come to your site naturally.
- A link from your local newspaper or city website is WAY better than a link from a random PR website.
- DON’T pay for them!
- DON’T trade them!
The bottom line: don’t try to cheat. Earn your backlinks.
Secure Your Website with HTTPS
Have you ever seen the “not secure” warning when you attempt to visit a website? Google wants a safer, more secure web and made a push a few years ago to ensure that businesses followed suit.
In Google’s support documentation, they state:
“HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site. Users expect a secure and private online experience when using a website. We encourage you to adopt HTTPS in order to protect your users’ connections to your website, regardless of the content on the site.”
Surprisingly, there are still businesses that have not obtained an SSL certificate. In particular, small businesses.
Making sure your website is secure is important for a few reasons:
- Confidentiality: This protects the communication between you and your website visitors on the internet.
- Verification: HTTPS reassures users that your site is safe from hackers and that your website hasn’t been modified by anyone who shouldn’t have access.
- Authentication: When a website is secure, you know that when you go to ducksinrows.com, for example, you were supposed to be there. No one sent you to a fake website.
- SEO Boost: Security is a ranking factor so Google uses it to determine how you rank in search results. But this really shouldn’t be the reason you choose to secure your site.
If you want to secure your website, get in touch with your hosting company (Go Daddy, Bluehost, Dream Host, HostGator, etc.). They can help you out.
Local Promotion
If you are not using Google My Business and Bing Places, get your butt over there right now and set up an account. This is an easy process and will help people find you when they’re using Google or Bing to search for your business information or similar products/services.
Pro Tip: Start with Google My Business because once that is set up and verified, you can import your profile to Bing so you don’t have to do it twice.
This profile shows up in search results and provides more information like the business phone number, address, website, social profiles, etc. without you leaving Google or Bing.
Pro Tip: If you have Google Analytics, add UTM tracking to your website link so you know how many people click it from your profile.
Track Your Results
Know how your website ranks now and keep track of how it ranks over time. You need two things to make this happen: Google Search Console and a spreadsheet.
Go set up a Search Console account if you don’t have one already. (You only need to follow steps 1 and 2 in that list.) If you’re setting up a new account, it will take time for data to populate so check back in a few days.
Before you start making changes to your website
When you start seeing data in Search Console:
- go to the Performance report (in the sidebar)
- Choose a short date range (28 days)
- Export the data into a spreadsheet
- Save the spreadsheet
After you make changes to your website
- Submit your updated page URL in the Inspect Element search bar at the top of the page.
- Click Request indexing.
Every month, export your results from the Performance report and pay attention to the pages you’ve updated. Do they have more impressions or clicks? A higher CTR? A better position? When these metrics start to improve, you know you’re doing something right! Improvements mean that more people are seeing your website on Google!
