A Small Business Owner’s No-BS Guide to SEO

Every guide to SEO that’s worth its salt will tell you the same thing: there’s no one-step solution to turning up higher on search engines overnight, and if a marketing agency tries to tell you otherwise, they’re not the agency for you. With that said, there are absolutely steps you can take to start improving your website’s search engine performance as soon as possible. Today, we’re going over the simple DIY SEO steps you can take to boost your business’s SEO and lay the foundation for a successful digital presence. Let’s get started.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of helping your website turn up higher in search engine results organically. Because what audiences are searching for is always changing that there are new businesses entering the market every day, SEO is an ever-evolving process. One thing, however, remains constant: content is the end-all, be-all of good SEO. When we say content, we mean all of the means by which you share information with your audiences on your website: web pages, blog posts, eBooks, infographics, and even visual elements like video, photo, and graphic design contribute to your search engine performance. Let’s dive a little deeper into how you can produce more SEO-savvy content with a minimal time and money commitment.

For SEO purposes, keywords represent the terms that your audience is likely to be searching for that are relevant to your business and the services you provide. SEO is the process by which you incorporate these keywords into your website’s content so that it matches up with what your audience is searching and turns up as a top search result for them. Each written content piece you produce (that is, each blog post, landing page, infographic, and so on) should have one specific focus keyword. This is a short term (typically about 2-5 words) that matches what your audience is likely to be searching for online. For example, if you post a blog entitled “8 Useful Tips to Help Boost Productivity at Work and at Home,” a great focus keyword for it would be “tips to help boost productivity.” The same goes for landing pages: if you want your family medicine practice’s website, for instance, to turn up high in search results for physicians in your area, then you should write a series of location pages. For each of these pages, the focus keyword should include a different city where you offer services: “family medicine in Tampa” and “family medicine in Clearwater” are both great focus keyword examples for location pages like these. Focus keywords can sound intimidating, but think of them as a short thesis statement for every piece of content you produce: they represent the main topic you are covering in that content piece, keeping your content focused and precise.

UX, or user experience, refers to how intuitive your website is for visitors to navigate, even if it’s their first time scrolling through your pages. Search engines evaluate your website’s readability, click-through rates, and customer retention times in order to determine the overall quality of the content you’re sharing. The better you perform in these categories, the more likely it is that the search engine will recommend you as a top search result. Optimizing user experience is an ongoing task; it requires constant testing and improvements in order to truly impress. With that said, making sure that your website has a clean, visually appealing design; short, clear copy that’s well-organized and engaging; and well-edited photos and videos is a great way to set a solid foundation for user experience.

In order to be truly effective, no one SEO initiative can exist in a vacuum. Posting informative, keyword-minded content pieces consistently and maintaining a well-designed website are two essential pillars of any successful digital presence. However, in order to truly maximize your SEO and make sure your website turns up on the first page of search results for as many keywords as possible, the best thing you can do is work with a team of professionals who know their stuff. Working with an agency will maximize your content output, ensure that your website is constantly being optimized, and give you access to detailed data to evaluate your performance all the time – all at a fraction of the cost it would take to hire a full-time, in-house team of SEO professionals.

We hope this brief guide to SEO has been a helpful resource in charting out an effective jumping off point for your business to make the most of its digital presence. If you’re ready to take your website and content to the next level, we’re here to help. Set up a free consultation with us to get started.