Most small business owners understand how important it is to optimize their website for maximum search engine visibility. Actually executing good SEO is a daunting prospect, though, especially for those with no particular technical background in this field. Not only is SEO a big concept, touching on everything from website design to social media savvy, but it’s also ever-changing. What counted for good SEO in 2015 may not be as effective in 2016. Simply put, it can be hard to keep up, especially for small business owners who already have a million other things on their plate.
This, quite frankly, is why hiring an agency makes sense. For business owners not yet ready to make that step, though, there are some simple and timeless steps you can take to position yourself for better SEO success. This is by no means a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization; rather, you can think of it as the preliminary steps you take on your way to a deeper, more robust understanding of Google optimization best practices.
Install Google Analytics. Good marketing is always accompanied by good reporting; without key metrics in place, you simply have no way of knowing if what you’re doing is getting results. Google Analytics is both free and valuable. Installation is easy, too.
Add your site to Google Search Console. Another crucial tool for search analytics.
Check the speed of your website. Do so on a variety of devices—laptop/desktop, tablet, and mobile. If the site takes more than two or three seconds to load, you need to have it redesigned to be faster, plain and simple. Slow loading times, especially on mobile devices, lead to high bounce rates and many missed opportunities.
Enable SEO settings on your content management system. Whether you’re using Wordpress, Joomla or something else, you’ll want to make sure you have a plug-in that lets you add a page title, a meta description, and other key SEO fields. There are plenty of good plugins like this available.
Scan your site for broken links. Assuming your small business site is pretty small, you can probably just do this manually. Fix any links that lead to nowhere, as they’re bad for your rankings.
Write good page titles, headers, sub-headers, etc. Make it easy for your readers (and the search algorithms) to know exactly what your page is all about. Try to ensure smooth and logical navigation with on-page titles. These titles represent a good place to work in keywords, too, so long as they are natural and unforced.
Claim business profiles on social media sites. Sign up for company pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+. You may not end up using all of these profiles, but it’s smart to claim the relevant accounts before someone else does.
Develop content. This is ongoing, and not necessarily easy, but so important: You need to engage users and provide search algorithms with fresh content on a regular basis. That means blogging and posts from at least one or two of those social media accounts.
Truthfully, the list could go on and on—but these initial points provide some things to think about. To learn more about the best practices for search engine optimization, don’t hesitate to contact the enCOMPASS crew at your next convenience.
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