Simple SEO for small business: what you can control (and what you don’t need to worry about)
SEO are three letters that often fill small business owners with panic. Search engine optimisation is basically what gets your website in front of the right people in search results pages. The higher up your site appears, the better chance you have of your dream client seeing it, clicking through and ultimately buying what it is you sell.
This blog post looks SEO in a bit more detail, the things to focus on that you can control, and some of the things you don’t need to worry about.
What is SEO?
At its core, SEO is about attraction and connection. That means having the right words in the places that Google will find them; a website that’s easy to navigate; and having rich, engaging, human-centred content that adds value and showcases you and what you do.
It’s also about trust and showing that other websites rate you and your content by linking to it and sending their valued audience to you.
There can be a lot more to it if you want to get into the technical details of it.
But you don’t need to, to attract Google’s attention and impress it with the quality of your website so it shows it to your dream clients when they’re searching for a solution to their problem.
It doesn’t need to be complicated
When you’re starting to dip your toe into website visibility, there are some things you should focus on because they’re the things you can control. Don’t worry about things you can’t control like trends and new names and acronyms for things that haven’t really changed.
You can’t control what anyone else does with their website. You can do research and take inspiration from others. But you can’t control how high in results their page appears.
One of the main things about banishing overwhelm is not being confused by the terms used to describe things. Website architecture brought me out in a cold sweat when I first read about it and immediately made me think it was too complicated. But actually, when I started to look into it, I realised it was basically about how pages connect and flow to each other using links and buttons.
That makes sense because if a user can’t get from one page to the next easily, they’re likely to give up and go to another website. So, using internal links (that take a user from one page on your website to another, rather than an external one that takes them to another website) to make sure users can find what they’re looking for makes it more likely they stay on your site for longer.
So, that’s a bit about what you don’t need to worry about. What are some of the things you can control?
Keywords
These are the words you use to attract Google’s attention.
When someone types “how can I get my toddler to sleep through the night” into Google at 3 am, Google looks for websites that contain that phrase, or variations of it, to add to its search results page for that particular user.
If you’re a toddler sleep specialist and don’t have those words in key places across your site, it doesn’t matter how good your services are, Google and, therefore, your ideal client, won’t find them.
Spend 20 minutes writing down the main words that describe what you do, and then type them into a search engine.
- If your website comes up first, you’re doing something right!
- If your competitors come up first, you’re using the right words.
- If businesses that have nothing to do with what you do come up first, you’re using the wrong words.
Putting your keywords in the right places
Once you’ve got the right words, you need to make sure they’re in the best places. These include:
- Your tagline, which is usually underneath your website name and tells Google what your site is about
- Page names
- Headings
- Image and page descriptions
- Your copy and content
The caveat: don’t stuff your keywords everywhere, they should be added naturally.
Going back to the toddler sleep expert, if every sentence contains “getting your toddler to sleep through the night”, not only will it put potential new clients off, it puts you on Google’s naughty step and counts against you in terms of how high your page appears in search results.
How to attract Google’s attention: Content
Having a blog section that’s regularly updated with rich, engaging content that is human-centred, adds value and informs is one of the most important components you need on your website.
Despite what you may have read on social media, blogging is most definitely not dead.
Google uses it to assess the quality of your website and the level of your EEAT (experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness). Blog posts are the best way to showcase this.
Quality is far more important than quantity. So one, well-written post a month is far better than four poor-quality posts.
Spend 10 minutes this week writing a list of all the topics you could write blog posts about. They don’t have to focus on your business. Posts about you, why you do what you do, fun facts about you and your journey to where you are now are all posts that help people get to know, like and trust you. And once people trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you.
Build your authority
When other websites rate your site, they’re happy to send their valuable audience to it. And when Google sees that other sites value yours, that gives your authority score a boost.
Backlinks from other websites to yours are a brilliant way of showing Google you know what you’re talking about.
Some quick wins to boost your authority include:
- Make sure there’s a link to your website in all of your social media bios
- Add your website to your email signature
- Blog swaps and guest posts with other business owners
The SEO Dating Challenge
SEO can be a dry topic, so I love to inject a bit of fun into it! If you’d like to learn more about the basics, and what it has in common with dating, join my free SEO Dating Challenge. It’s delivered via email over three days that look at attraction, keeping your new date interested, and building a lasting relationship with them.
The SEO Dating Challenge is free to join and a great starting point to help you get your website visible to search engines and your dream clients.
Bio
Suzy is a copywriter and the creator and editor of We Made a Wish digital adoption and parenting magazine. She’s on a mission to simplify SEO and show small business owners and entrepreneurs how to move their websites from invisible to irresistible so they attract the right people and increase sales. As a former lawyer, she knows how to cut through the noise and focus on action that sees results.
Suzy is based in the North East of England and lives with her husband and two daughters, who grew in her heart, not her belly. She’s a redhead, came 5th in the World in Sports Acrobatics eleventy billion years ago and loves a cup of tea and a good crime thriller.
You can find out all about her SEO services and resources from her website or follow her on Instagram.
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