SEO for Small Business
Search Engine Optimization aka SEO is often confusing. Many people fail to understand that it is everything done to a website to make it easier to find online, to get it more attention, and to get it to rank higher. When professionally performed for your small business website it will have a much better chance of being noticed by people who want the goods or services you offer. That’s why it makes sense to hire someone to make sure all the parts of it like keyword analysis, creating content, and building backlinks are all done the right way. You want your website to be successful for your business.
Keyword Analysis for SEO
Keyword analysis means finding out what words people use to search for goods or services you offer. When people search for your goods or services online, the your search Specialist wants to know what words and phrases they are using. Knowing this helps you understand what they are looking for and how they are looking for it. This process involves more than just looking at words that Google suggests or taking a quick look at the results you get when you use Google’s Keyword Tool. Often you will see the same word is showing up over and over again. Or words that you are not interested in or words you don’t want showing. Why does it happen? Because even though Google is the market leader with incredible amounts of data to utilize and they use machine learning, Google is still an imperfect machine and not a human.
How does this relate to your local business? For a small business website, you want keyword phrases your customers think of and use when searching for what you offer. For example, if your business is “automotive repair,” you don’t want to target “automotive rental.” You would not just use “automotive” because Google might attach all sorts of words to that that will do you no good. That is why using a phrase or phrases is needed. Correct keywords specifically explain what you do. Customers may search for “local car repair (your city)” or “best auto repair shops near me.” Using just one word can be too broad and not get profitable results. Plus, it is a waste of time for you and your customer. Make it easy for your customers to find you and what you offer.
Quality keyword research involves studying the market and the business to discover the best possible matchups. Without properly researched keywords, your search engine optimization could fail. You will not get the results you want and need.
Optimize the Content of your Website
What does website content mean? I can tell you it is certainly something you want to understand. When someone searches for your business, they want to see what you offer. What they are looking for is what you offer. With that in mind, you want to make sure the content of your website is what they wanted. You want your business to succeed for you and the customer searching. While searching through your website, they need to see the keyword phrases you decided are best for your customers to find what they want. If they are looking for “fix my flat tire,” they don’t want to read about “cat toys” or see that phrase. It is useless to them.
On your page, they need to see their search phrases. You know, the target phrases. You want them to read the info on your page and think, “Hey, this is just what I was looking for!” All of this is part of the bigger picture.
When your keywords and your content match up with the wants and needs of your customers, you will be a hit with your customers! Providing good related content helps the search engines give you a good ranking. When someone searches on Google for your business, you will earn a top ranking for this phrase.
A business must provide good content targeting good keywords on its website. Otherwise, it will be ignored by the search engines. Epic fail! They are not going to rank on page 1. And the goal is always to be on page 1. Think about it, how often do you check out page 2 or 3 or 30? That rarely happens. Again, a business that provides good content for its website will rank higher in the search engines. A big part of doing this is making sure your website is attractive to the search engines resulting in desired rankings.
If your website is properly designed, built, optimized and your information is good, the search engines love you and rank you highly. The best way to do this is to ensure you have the appropriate website content. Include keywords, but do not stuff by using your keywords too much. Your website content should use multiple phrases that the search engines are seeking. It needs to be easy to read. You have to ensure that they rank you for the correct keywords too. If your website is about providing “business information,” you need to provide “business information” to the search engines in multiple variations of phrases in the content on your website.
Boring Content is Bad
Not only should you make sure you are ranking well for these phrases, but you have to ensure your website content is also engaging. With engaging website content, more chance you have of pulling in multiple visitors to your site. It becomes a win-win situation for your business.
Also, think “search engine friendly” content. You may be wondering what in the world is “search engine friendly” content or a “search engine friendly” website? To pull in and rank for multiple phrases, you need to ensure that your website is easy for people to use and is large enough. Meaning you need to ensure that the page you are writing for the search engines is easy to navigate and has enough content. The larger the webpage, content-wise, the easier it is for the search engines bots to read those multiple phrases and see that they make sense. Providing valuable information in your content, information that your visitors are looking for while making it easier for them to find it, the more visitors you will have to your website. And the longer they will stay.
The Importance of Backlinks
Backlinks are when a website links to your website. Backlinks are another essential component. There are different types of links and various ways to get links. I’ll be brief because, with linking, link strategies, link juice, types of links, and more, it is easy to go deep into the techno rabbit hole.
Think of the internet as a big city with many different neighborhoods. Naturally, there are good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods. You want your website to be in a good neighborhood with good neighbors. Links help the search engines decide this. You don’t want a spammy site filled with information that has nothing to do with your business linking to your website. That’s a bad neighbor. You want a quality website that has information related to your website content linking to you. That’s a good neighbor. The more good neighbors link to your website, the more your neighborhood gets better and better.
How Do I Find and Get Good Links?
There are various ways to get these good links from quality websites that will give your site the boost that it needs. Social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, your local Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, local business directories are a few examples of places that can link back to your site and are good for SEO.
Having your NAP the same on every social media outlet, directory, etc., is essential. NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. Make sure your NAP is consistent, exact everywhere.
The SEO Take Away
Having a website that truly serves your business and the customer is not a simple matter of slapping a bunch of stuff together and hoping for the best. Your website is your ambassador. An attractive, professionally executed site is how you make sure the right customers find, visit, and take action on your website.
Having an expert planning and performing quality work is how you grow your success online. Here at Infobankmedia SEO, I’m happy to help you get where you want to be. Contact me for a no-pressure consultation. Your first consultation is free.