Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool that can help your small business grow. It’s the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
That’s important because it means more people will be able to find your business. SEO can help you attract new customers and drive sales.
The process isn’t complicated, but it does require some time and effort on your part, if you’re the do-it-yourself type. SEO can be used by any size business, but it’s especially important for small businesses that may not have the resources or money to spend on advertising.
Here are ten easy search engine optimization strategies that will help your small business grow.
Strategy #1: Tighten Your On-Page SEO
The first step is to fix your website. “On-Page SEO” is what Google analyzes to determine your website’s SEO score. Things like keyword usage, title tags and meta descriptions are all important on-page ranking factors.
This strategy is great for businesses that want to rank well in their own city or metropolitan area. If you have a physical business location that customers visit then this might be something worth testing out. This way, when you type in, for example, “John Smith Dentist” into the search bar of Google it will show up as an option which can increase foot traffic at your actual place of business.
The specifics of Google’s ranking factors are tightly held secrets, but the search engine giant does share best practices. Those include optimizing the code, content and HTML as well as using search engine optimization plugins correctly to help you further optimize your site for success.
Successfully optimizing on-page SEO means ensuring there are little or no mistakes in the coding such as broken links, spelling errors, incorrect tags or page titles, etc…
Strategy #2: Create Unique Content
What kind of information will people find if they search for a particular keyword? Write content around a central topic and avoid writing sentences with unrelated words. Make sure everything you write has value.
Try not to overuse keywords, but also make sure all important terms are used appropriately throughout. Yeah, that sounds contradictory, but this is as much art as science. A good rule of thumb for keyword saturation is around one to two percent. That means, for every 100 words in your blog post, your keywords should appear about twice.
Strategy #3: Link To Higher-Authority Sites
Linking out to authority sites like Wikipedia and other credible websites that will not only increase SEO value, but also help your readers. These types of links can be used as references and show Google and the rest of the search engines you’re fluent in the important topics within your niche.
You can learn a website’s Domain Authority (DA) by using free tools such as Moz, one of the most respected domain authority ranking engines available. Domain Authority is ranked on a 100-point scale, with 0 being a terrible authority ranking and 100 being the most influential.
Oh, and make sure you’re not linking to low-authority sites because the search engine optimization value will not hold any weight.
Also try linking out to related blogs or publications which are similar to yours for increased exposure. Just make sure they have a high domain rating – anything over 40 is gold!
Linking out is simple. You just place the link within your content and don’t forget to include keywords if possible (in this case, the word “keywords” is the keyword in the link).
Strategy #4: Use A Plugin
There are many SEO plugins that can help you improve your WordPress site search performance. Some of the most popular include All in One SEO Pack, WordPress SEO by Yoast and my personal favorite, RankMath, which makes it easy to add titles, meta descriptions and page summaries for each web page on your website.
An important thing to remember is that not all plugins are created equal, so do some research before choosing one. Free options may have fewer features. Paid versions might be worth considering if they offer advanced functionality above what you need.
Strategy #5: Leverage Social Media
Social media can have a huge SEO value for your website. You just need to make sure you’re using the right types of social media platforms and not spamming.
To get started, sign up with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, if they apply to your brand’s industry or niche. Then share interesting content on those channels daily so people will begin following you organically, which is beneficial for SEO purposes as well because the more followers/fans/subscribers you have increases traffic potential (plus it makes building effective backlinks easier).
The main thing about social marketing that determines whether or not SEO benefits are achieved is quality over quantity – having 100k followers doesn’t mean much if none of them engage with your posts.
Strategy #6: Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices
Google has made SEO for mobile-friendly sites a priority in the past year, so make sure your site is optimized to be viewed easily on smartphones and tablets.
Having a responsive website that fits any screen size ensures people won’t have trouble accessing or interacting with your brand while they’re out and about using their smartphone. This also works to increase SEO value because Google correlates user experience (UX) with ranking potential since it’s important for SEO success today – giving users what they want means receiving good search engine optimization benefits as well.
Strategy #7: Optimize Your Images
Optimizing your images for SEO is similar to optimizing keywords. You need to know which words are most relevant to the image, use those words in the file name and alt text, then find high-quality websites that allow you to link back.
Alt text is a little description of an image that the visually impaired can use to understand visual content online. And, while you may not think you have many visually impaired site visitors, don’t forget that Google is your most important guest. And Google can’t see images. It relies on your alt text to understand the context of an image.
And make sure your images are the smallest file size that you need to convey the information. Your iPhone camera saves images that are many megabytes large. Google likes sites that load fast, so small images will load faster and the better SEO benefits you’ll receive.
Strategy #8: Publish Regularly
This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you want SEO success, publish new content on your website regularly.
The most important thing to remember is that Google loves fresh content and will reward websites who create it with higher SEO value/ranking potential in search results because there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing good SEO benefits from work you’ve done! Good SEO takes time so make sure to stay consistent throughout the process or else everything could be for naught.
At DecemberPress, we suggest you publish at least weekly. And publishing on the same day and time will help your readers get into a regular habit of consuming your content.
And while you’re at it, allow your visitors to subscribe to your blog. SEO success is an SEO strategy that requires you to stay in front of your audience. Subscribers are the best way to do this, especially if they receive a notification each time you publish new content.
We like Mailchimp and Constant Contact for blog post sharing. These platforms, many among others, deliver new posts directly to your subscribers’ email inboxes.
Strategy #9: Participate In Online Discussions
This SEO tip may not seem directly related to search engine optimization but it’s important because sharing knowledge and participating in online discussions helps build relationships with other people who work within or share interests with your industry/niche.
These types of interactions can lead to social media shares which will help improve SEO benefits for your website since more links pointing back at your site increases ranking potential on Google – just make sure there aren’t any bad SEO practices involved.
Plus, being involved with your field is a great way to generate leads by demonstrating your expertise.
Strategy #10: SEO Is An Ongoing Process
SEO is an ongoing process that requires you to be on the lookout for SEO trends and updates. SEO success comes from being vigilant, making sure your SEO strategy stays current, finding new SEO opportunities as they arise, and adapting quickly when needed.
One of our favorite tools we use here at DecemberPress is Moz’s Open Site Explorer (OSE). This free tool helps us determine who links back to DecemberPress so we can reach out and build relationships with those people or companies – especially if these sources happen to be well-known along with having a strong social media following which means more exposure/links!
This enables us to receive SEO benefits by generating backlinks through good search engine optimization practices like guest blogging and getting all benefits from opportunities as they arise.
So there you have it! SEO strategies to help your small business succeed online with higher SEO value/ranking potential in search results. SEO is a key part of any marketing strategy so use these tips today to boost conversion rates, increase traffic, and drive revenue for your organization!
If you need help, DecemberPress can handle all of your SEO tasks, including social media management and blog-post-writing. Let’s start a conversation. Complete this short form and schedule a free consultation today.