SEO, or search engine optimization, can be overwhelming. I used to feel that way too until I learned a few simple and effective SEO tips and tricks. These steps were easy for me to implement because the process made sense and it worked. Check out this advice for small business owners to optimize your website and improve your rankings in Google.
Table of Contents
SEO Tips And Tricks
1. SEO And Content Development
The major search engines – Google, Bing, and Yahoo – ultimate objective is to display relevant content to their users. Writing quality content is imperative if you want to rank high in the search engines. This relevant and useful content is the vehicle that drives visitors to various sites.
Content generates traffic and social interaction, which is the main goal of any website. Focus on unique content creation to optimize SEO. “Content is King,” is a phrase often used to underscore the importance of consistent, informative, and helpful blog posts and articles.
Search engines use keywords and links to rank, and where are these contained? Yep, within content! You can read post here for additional info. Quality content also goes a long way to building your online presence and brand. Amazing and engaging content is powerful so crafting it consistently is important.
2. Keep A Journal Of Possible Content Ideas
I’m a list maker and love writing down my ideas. In fact, I’m compelled to do it because If I don’t. I’ll forget, and that will drive me crazy. Write down every and any idea that pops into your head. You can expand on it later. There is no right or wrong to this strategy – just get your ideas and thoughts down onto paper so you can refer to them later.
I use my notes app on my iPhone, but anything that is immediately handy works. Jot down your failures and successes, what is working in your business and why, and what you don’t want to repeat.
Don’t skip this step. You’ll be mighty glad for that list later on.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links
3. Yoast For SEO
Yoast is a WordPress plugin to help optimize your site. Follow the instructions it provides when in the editor mode of your post. Keywords, meta titles and descriptions, internal and external links, alt tags for images, and the length of the article are all evaluated. Yoast also analyzes for readability. Pay close attention to the issues highlighted in red. You’ll want to fix what the plugin suggests to optimize your rankings.
You can see the various criteria below that Yoast analyzes:
Follow the instructions provided to obtain better rankings.
[Read More: Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool Review]
4. Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free service that allows you to obtain information regarding your website and its visitors. Inside this console is a feature where you can submit your URLs. Its purpose is to alert Google to any new content on your site. This means that every time I write a new blog post or add a new page to my site, I use the URL submission to make sure is crawled in the search engines.
Essentially, you are requesting Google to index your content as quickly as possible. Since Google is the most popular search engine, you don’t want to miss out on this amazing tool!
5. Webmaster Tools For Bing And Yahoo
Bing Webmaster Tools serves the same purpose as Google Search Console. It helps to improve your site’s search performance, and indexing ability in Bing and Yahoo. By tracking Bing you are also tracking Yahoo as it is now powered by Bing. Together they own approximately 13% of the world’s search population. You want traffic from these search engines.
Open a free account with Bing – this will allow you to verify your site and add a sitemap. You will then be able to track your website traffic, and see how well your site is performing. You’ll even receive a $100.00 credit for search advertising when you sign up, and they have a great support team available to answer any questions.
6. Comments Are Good For SEO
Comments on your blog or invite engagement and social interaction. Google loves engagement! Comments also add to your total word count which is a ranking factor for search engines. Google views comments as content. And the best part is you don’t have to write it – others are providing it for you!
Invite your readers to add their comments and questions below your post, and then actively engage with them when they do. Asking questions within your reply will encourage further engagement, and improve your rankings.
Worthwhile and relevant comments also add a degree of interest to your posts and reinforce their accuracy. A lively discussion invites more comments which, then, increases your word count leading to better rankings.
7. Social Media Help And SEO
Posting on social media helps content rank more quickly. It can also improve the amount of traffic your website receives and, thus, a better conversion rate. Social media is all about building relationships and fostering connection. This is great for any business!
Sharing your articles and blog posts on the various social media platforms is also an effective way to promote your brand. And remember that visually-appealing content is 40 times more likely to be shared so spruce up your posts with captivating images.
Social media sharing and interaction is important enough that all the big companies are using it to advertise and promote their products and services. And there’s really no reason not to use it because it’s free, and it’s easy. So go ahead and share, like, tweet, and pin, to your heart’s content!
An Online Opportunity
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Key Points
Search engine optimization is a big deal for anyone operating an online website. By following this advice for small business owners you’ll increase your chances of being ranked in the search engines. Betting rankings lead to more traffic and eventually more revenue. It pays to take the extra time to complete these steps.
What are your favorite SEO strategies? Let me know in the comments:)
Hi! Thank you very much for these SEO strategies. Starting a small business is exciting. It’s like a dream come true. There is a lot of work, but it is rewarding. And we must always pay special attention to the best practices to establish long term friendship with search engines. Your advice has been very useful. And there are a couple of things I’ll implement right away.
Hi Henry,
Thanks for your comment. Starting a business IS exciting, It’s also a lot of fun and a lot of work. Writing content can be challenging at times, which makes practicing effective SEO strategies a must, because if you’re going to put in that much time to write an amazing article, you want it to be found in the search engines!
This is a subject near and dear to my heart. We have a small business and it’s growing leaps and bounds. One problem that we have is making sure that our focus on SEO is consistent across the many websites and even for the sales pages and etc.
As you grow, that can become an issue unless you have developed a standard operating procedure and everyone involved in any content creation and publishing understands the policy and how to implement it. That means for me, training on SEO is required for current employees and all new employees.
You provided a whole host of excellent ideas that we will consider as we develop our strategy. One that stood out for me was the Yoast SEO plugin. That is one that we are using, and it does provide a lot of pointers as our people prepare the content for publishing.
The other suggestions are also helpful. All of them will be discussed by the management team as we develop our policy and operating procedures. Because we are spread across 4 countries and 14 time zones, this policy will keep our SEO actions up-to-date and consistent.
We are taking care of the basics now like using keywords that we can compete with, making sure that our images have alt tags and meta tags are completed for each post/article/product but there are other things we need to improve on. This post has provided some great suggestions. Thanks for putting it together…
Thank you so much for your comment Dave. I agree that SEO should be standard operating procedure for all website owners and anyone who creates content. I really find the Yoast plugin helpful for dialing in SEO elements, such as keywords, meta tags, internal and external links, and alt tags. It keeps me on task.
Sounds like you have an amazing company. Good for you. You obviously know your stuff!