3 Simple SEO Tips For Small Business That You Can Put In Practice Today {Updated}

According to recent research about the marketing industry reveals that more than 60% of marketers actively invest in SEO, it doesn’t matter the size of the company. Discussing marketing strategies with small business owners, the majority of them says that it is too complicated, or it is not clear how to measure the return of investment.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which for small business owners can sound terrified. But the fact is that people go online to search about their problems, look for products and services and connect with family and friends. That is why we selected three simple SEO tips for small business put in practice today.

On-page improvements

A website itself has several aspects that give hints to the search engines if there is any meaningful relationship with the topic the user is looking for. Some specific parts of a page have greater relevance in the search and deserve special attention.

Improving them means that Google has a better chance of considering you as the result of a search. This is what we called “on-page optimization”.

• Page URL

The page URL is considered one of the most important aspects of an on-page SEO as it is the address of the page. Make sure that your URL has the keyword that you want to push for. Here is an example:  www.yourwebsite.com/keyword – and not www.yourwebsite.com/?p=012.

• Title tag and meta description

The title tag is one of the first parameters analyzed by algorithms. A good title is vital for your page to be well viewed by search engines. Besides, it needs to be attractive since CTR (impressions vs. clicks) is also a ranking factor.

Think that when a user searches on Google, they type in one or more keywords that generate multiple results. But ranking is not the only goal that content should pursue. It would be best if you thought about relevance and a good CTR volume.

• Titles

Always use the HTML <h1> tag for your title. This tag must be used to organize the post and is indicated to be used for its main title. Define the focus keyword using one or more SEO tools and use it in your title. One of the first items verified by the Google search robot is precisely the keyword in the title.

Try to make clear the problem or solution that your post will solve, and remember that the title should talk to your potential client for which the content is being made. Avoid creating titles that exceed 65 characters, as they will be cut in the results.

• Subtitles

The <h2> tag should be used in all subtitles of your content and can be repeated as many times as you think necessary. The same keyword used in the title can be used mainly in the first subtitle – the subtitle that will be below the main title.

Create context around the term, break down the problem/solution that will be addressed so that the user better understands what the content is about and decide if it is relevant to him.

If your website is on WordPress, the plugin Yoast SEO is very helpful.

Fix broken links

Broken links are links to pages that have been deleted or changed, altering the original link. How about using broken links from other sites to generate links to your pages?

You will help another site fix a problem and still maintain positive user experience. Research some sites that can link to you – competitors don’t count, of course. Here are the options to do this:

• to assess whether a website has broken links, you can use tools like the Google Chrome Check My Links

See if there are any broken links that could be replaced by yours, as long as your company has content related to the subject, of course. The next step is to contact the person responsible for alerting about the error and indicate the correction with a specific link.

• And if you still don’t have content on the subject, look at the opportunity! Produce something of quality and offer it to the page manager, presenting the problem and, at the same time, the solution.

Here there is an example of how you use content to attract high-quality traffic. Double Jab is a customized boxing gloves e-commerce website. Based on the link research of competitors, they created an article about “5 top boxing gyms on the Sunshine Coast”. This article was the most read so far and created a buzz on social media.

Speed up of your website

Websites that have pages that load quickly are prioritized by search engines That is a fact! Nobody likes a slow website. This is because of the faster a website loads, the better the user experience.

Thus, to achieve a good ranking in the search results, your website must be optimized so that it does not take long when a user accesses it.

With that in mind, Google launched PageSpeed Insights, which is a tool that tests your site and shows you possibilities for improvements in its structure to decrease load times.

You can read more about how to improve the loading speed of your website in this blog post.

Author

Gabriela Damaceno is a journalist and head of online content for Media Shark, an app development agency on the Gold Coast. You can connect with her via Linkedin.