Small Business SEO

When it comes to Small Business SEO basics the old KISS (kept it simple stupid) is the #1 rule. To get your website’s foundation properly optimized you need to have the following:

•           Keyword Research

•           Content Implementation – “is this information valuable, would I want to read it?”

•           Meta Tags

•           User-Friendly Design:  “would I want to use this website?”

•           Quality Link Building: Quality over quantity

Keyword Phrase Research for:

Using analytics data, AdWords data, or any other data sources you may have, identify which keywords to target based on volume of potential searches vs. perceived likelihood of goal completion. What I mean (especially for keyword phrases) is that you look at the keyword’s intent.

Is it informational, transactional or navigational? Are there dual meanings for the search EX: "Cars West Palm Beach" can be a search for someone seeking a new car, an old car, car prices, etc.

Content Implementation:
Use the keyword phrases you found in your copywriting.

With key phrases in hand its time to tailor your content to include those keywords sprinkled in. Ask yourself “would I read this?” If the answer is no try again. Every page should have a single objective so tailor your content accordingly. For example, this post is about small businesses SEO and five tactics to help get your site ranked.

Meta Implementation: (Titles & Descriptions)

Meta information is an important part of any SEO strategy, use the same keywords you’re targeting on a page for your metadata and make sure you follow all best practices.

User-Friendly Design:
Ask yourself “would I want to use this website?”

Website design is the most subjective section of SEO, the most important elements of web design are: Is the website easy to use? Is the path to conversion clearly visible? Nail those two elements and your website will already be well optimized. There are however some design conventions that most of the web implements.

The four conventions being:

* Logo of the website is a home button and is located top left.

* Phone Number and address on the top right of the website.

* Horizontal navigation

* Responsive web design

Having all the above elements on your website will ensure good user engagement and a higher chance of converting a visitor into a customer.

Quality Link Building:
Quality overQuantity Web Links

Link building is still arguably the most effective tactic to increasing organic search results; it’s also the most dangerous since black hat link building tactics can irreversibly cripple your websites rankings. Building natural links is a very difficult and often unsuccessful task. The best advice I have for local businesses looking to link build is to reach out to your community.

If you have the budget, sponsoring an event like a 5k or blood drive can have big social sharing and link building opportunities. Use the local outreach you planned on doing anyways to your advantage. As a small business, you should stay away from reciprocal link building, paying for links, links from completely irrelevant businesses, and using “spammy" link directories.

Small business SEO is a complex ever changing field that intimidates most small business owners. However, just by using the 5 building blocks above will get your small business moving in the right direction. There are countless techniques and best practices that can be implemented to help your SEO efforts, but with these 5 you can be rest assured that you have at least covered your foundation.

Steve Steinberger
www.klicktwice.com

561-281-8330