Generally speaking, the size of a business website is proportional to the size of the business itself. If you have a small enterprise that only sells one or two products, there’s simply no need for an exhaustive site with hundreds of sub-pages. Likewise, for a highly specialized consultancy or a boutique firm, keeping the website small and streamlined is often what makes the most sense.

No matter how small your website is, though, there are always opportunities to make a big SEO splash. Indeed, you can achieve Google visibility no matter the scope of your site or of your budget.

On-Site Optimization for Your Small Website

The first thing to consider when optimizing a smaller website is the on-site potential—the things you can do within the structure and content of your site to improve its ranking ability. We can offer several practical recommendations here.

Be Specific with Your URLs

It’s generally fairly easy to work within your content management system to designate a specific URL for each given page of your website. Within WordPress—the most popular CMS—you can name each URL whatever you like, under “Add New Post” or “Add New Page.”

What you want to do here is to select a URL that describes the content of the page in question, and perhaps also works in an SEO keyword. Keep it short and to the point; for example, a hair clinic might choose the following URL for its laser therapy services: www.ABCHairClinic.com/laser-therapy/

What you want to avoid is any URL that’s simply a long string of random letters or numbers. That’s just a wasted SEO opportunity.

Use Keywords in Strategic Places

If you’re worried about SEO, then you’ve probably already brainstormed a few strategic keywords. Having well-researched keywords is critical, but so is knowing where to use them.

Rather than worrying about hitting a certain number of keywords, or a certain keyword density, we recommend deploying them naturally and judiciously, and in particular trying to work them into page titles and section headings—i.e. H1, H2, H3 tags throughout your content. Including one or two keyword mentions in the content itself is wise, and we’d also put one in the meta description if at all possible.

Keep Your Headlines Catchy

Along the same lines, remember that a key to SEO is developing content that users will actually want to click on—and a lot of that comes down to your headlines.

Make sure your titles include keywords when possible, but also that they convey value. Ask yourself this question when crafting a title or a headline: What’s in it for the reader? How will he or she benefit from reading the content? Your headline should answer that question.

Structure for Readability

User experience is a big part of SEO these days. If you want your page to rank, it’s important to make it easy for people to read. Ideally, the structure of the page will guide the reader through it, from headline to call to action. Some specific recommendations:

- Use section sub-headings—H2 and H3 tags, etc.—to divide things up.
- Keep paragraphs and sentences short and to the point.
- Use bulleted lists when possible.
- Also include visual content—videos, infographics, GIFs, screenshots, etc.—to liven things up.

Do Internal Linking

Internal linking is a hallmark of sound SEO. For small websites, it can be tricky. Having 100 different pages on your site might mean that you can always link to a related, relevant resource; having a site of just a few pages means you have fewer potential links to choose from. With that said, always be on the lookout for times when you can direct readers to a related resource on your site—a page for a complimentary product or service, or a blog post that’s connected to the topic at hand.

Encourage Social Sharing

When people share your content on their social media profiles, that signals to Google that you’ve done something good—that your content has been found to be relevant or useful. You can’t force people to share your pages, of course, but you can make it easy for those who want to share to do so. Think about including some social sharing buttons on your site, allowing users to quickly and easily distribute your link on Facebook, Twitter, or the platform of their choice.

Additional SEO Tips for Your Small Website

There are a couple of additional recommendations we’d make, with the caveat that these may be just a bit more technical and may require you to consult with a website designer.

The first recommendation is to make sure your site loads quickly—on all devices. Mobile users, in particular, do not want to wait a full minute for your site to load. In fact, most aren’t willing to wait longer than three or four seconds. Test your site on various devices and browsers to make sure it’s quick to load—and if it’s not, do something to improve site speed. Simply removing larger files, such as images, can help a lot; if that doesn’t do the trick, it may be time to speak with your website designer.

Along similar lines, make sure the page looks good, and is easy to navigate, on all kinds of mobile devices. If your site is not properly mobilized, look in your CMS for a way to enable mobile optimization; within WordPress, for instance, this is just a matter of clicking a button. Again, if it doesn’t work, reach out to a website guru.

Where Next with Your Website?

To learn more about the steps you can take to ensure your website reaches its intended audience—no matter its size or scope—we encourage you to connect with enCOMPASS. Reach out to our Web design team now to begin the conversation.