Of all the different marketing tactics out there, it seems like the one least understood by business owners, and even many small business marketing managers, is SEO, or search engine optimization. In my experience, many business owners have heard the phrase and know that it has something to do with ranking in search engine results, but most only have a rough idea of how the practice is done. Many also feel that SEO requires extensive technical expertise and that it’s nothing they could undertake on their own. The reality is, while there are aspects of search engine optimization that do require technical knowledge, it is indeed possible for you, the small business owner looking to increase your website’s online visibility, to make significant strides with a little time and creativity.
The Basics of SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your website to help it rank higher on the search engine results page. When we talk about SEO, we are referring to organic results that come up when you use Google or Bing, and not the “sponsored” ads that appear at the top of the page. There are several disciplines within the practice of search engine optimization:
- On-page SEO includes the optimization of content, keywords, meta tags, URLs, etc. This is the best entry point for those beginning SEO.
- Off-page SEO involves the solicitation of backlinks, which are links on other websites that point back to yours, social media signals, and other formats of digital marketing.
- Technical SEO comprises the “behind the scenes” stuff like your website’s load time, mobile-friendliness, crawl errors, site structure, etc. While this part of SEO requires some technical knowledge, anyone can create a free Google Search Console account and start exploring the insights this tool offers.
Get Started with SEO: Try On-Page SEO
While all areas of SEO are important, on-page SEO is a good starting point. On-page SEO involves optimizing various elements of a web page or blog post to help boost the page’s visibility in search engine results. In addition to optimizing meta-tags, images, URLs, internal and external links, etc., a critical part of on-page SEO involves the creation of content. The idea is that, the more helpful content you publish on your site, the greater the chances the keywords on your pages will be relevant to search engine queries (i.e., the searches people are typing into Google), and thus, the greater likelihood your page shows up in search results. The good news is that anyone can get started with search engine optimization by starting a content marketing program that will help increase your website’s visibility.
Get started with these steps:
Idea Generation
At the most basic level, your aim is to come up with ideas for articles that you think would be of interest to your audience. For instance, if you represent a wealth management firm, an article detailing this year’s tax law changes would be relevant to your audience. Or if you own a hair salon, an article about the best haircuts for a person’s face shape might be well-received. Or, for that same hair salon, to better target your local audience, you might write about how to manage different hair types in your city’s climate.
Start by making a list of topics that would be interesting to your audience. Consider:
- What questions do you, or your sales team, regularly get from customers?
- What are the common issues your customers face in your industry? In the use of your products or services?
- What problems are your customers trying to solve?
- What expertise can you share that would help your customers?
- Is there any current news related to your industry that would be important for your customers to know about?
- In addition to asking these questions, do some Google searching to see what comes up when you search your types of products or services. What articles do you find? What articles or website content do your competitors write?
Keyword Research
After generating some topic ideas, the next step is to come up with keywords you can target in your articles; this process is called keyword research. A crucial part of SEO strategy, keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the terms people enter into search engines with the goal of using that information to improve rankings on search engine results. To note, some may prefer to perform keyword research first, as a way to help generate topic ideas. Or you can do both in tandem, whichever works best to help you come up with quality content ideas that interest your audience.
Before going any further in how to do keyword research though, I want to stop and say that I think it is possible to make SEO gains without doing the whole SEO keyword process, and I have seen local businesses achieve this. Let me explain: Small business owners, managers, and employees, by virtue of being so close to their customers, often have a very intuitive understanding of their customers’ interests, pain points, needs, questions, etc. As a result, it is often possible to write helpful, relevant content for their audiences based off that understanding that will, in turn, rank in local search queries.
If you’re a company that would like to start doing more SEO, but time is really at a premium or you don’t feel you quite have the know-how—or desire, let’s be honest—to perform keyword research, then keep it simple. Skip the keyword research and just write quality articles that you know your audience will find helpful. This is a much better alternative than doing no SEO work at all.
For those that want to take the step of keyword research, here’s what to do:
Make a List of “Seed” Keywords
Come up with about 5-10 broad ideas of what you’d like your website to rank for. Think of these terms as “buckets” into which you can place more-specific, related. If you are a construction company, for example, your seed keywords may something like: “home construction,” “commercial construction,” or “custom home design.”
Fill in the Buckets
Next, you will want to fill in those topic buckets with relevant keywords. For that same construction company, in your “home construction” bucket, you might place “new home builders,” “green home construction,” or “house building contractors.”
Keyword Research Tools
If you’re having trouble coming up with keywords, here are a few free tools you can use:
- Google Keyword Planner: This is a tool within Google Ads, and while you have to have a Google Ads account to use it, you don’t actually have to be running any ads.
- Ubersuggest, SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz: These popular SEO tools all have scaled-down free versions or free trials.
Or, instead of using tools like these, you can also try these tactics:
- Look at related search terms that appear at bottom of Google search results.
- Look at “People Also Ask” and Suggested Search.
- Do Google searches for your products and searches and see what comes up.
- Find blogs or even Reddit discussions.
Consider Intent
User intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google. Today, it’s more important your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve, rather than just carry the keyword the searcher used. For instance, if you search “ice cream” on Google, chances are you’re looking for a place you can get some ice cream to eat; you’re likely not looking for information on how to make ice cream. That’s how intent works. Different queries typed into search engines generally have similar intent behind them. The types of intent include:
- Navigational: When a user wants to find a specific page (e.g., Indiana University Health Bill Pay)
- Transactional: When the user intends to take an action, which is usually to make a purchase (e.g., buy iPhone 15)
- Commercial: When the user wants to do some research before buying (e.g., best running shoes)
- Informational: When the user wants to learn more about something (e.g., how to get grass stains out of clothes)
To verify the intent of this keyword, type it into Google and see what the top-ranking pages are that come up. For ice cream, the results you get are “where to buy,” so a transactional intent. This means that if your web page is about how to make ice cream, your keyword shouldn’t just be ice cream, but rather, “ice cream recipe,” for example.
Narrow Down Your Keywords
If you have too many keywords, you can use an SEO tool to help narrow them down. These SEO tools provide helpful insights on the keyword that tell you how much volume that term sees, how difficult it is to rank for, and more. You want to find keywords that have a decent amount of search volume but also don’t have an extremely high percentage of difficulty to rank for, such as more than 30-40%.
Optimize Your Content
After your keyword research, it’s time to write your content. Try to get at least 800 words, but don’t fill the page with unhelpful information just to hit a word quota. If you’re not at that word count, but you’ve fully covered your topic, and all the information you have provided is helpful and relevant, then you’ve done what you need to do. Once your content is written, follow these best practices from HubSpot on editing your content to be “SEO-friendly.” See the section titled “On-Page SEO Checklist.” This checklist details where in your article you want to strategically place your focus keywords, tips on writing meta descriptions, different composition formatting ideas, such as bullet points, that provide a better user reading experience, and so on.
Conclusion
Getting started with SEO might seem daunting at first, but you can do it. By focusing on the “entry point” of creating and optimizing your content, you can start to make strides in boosting your website’s visibility and enhancing your image as a thought leader in your industry. Start with the easy, manageable steps, and gradually increase your SEO skills from there.
If SEO is something you’d like to get started for your company, but you’d prefer not to take it on yourself, we’re here to help. Schedule a call with us today.
