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SEO For a Small Business - Everything You Need to Know

Writer's picture: Harry SmithHarry Smith

Turning your passion project into a full-time gig? Then you should probably know a thing or two about SEO for a small business.


SEO for small business

Starting up a business can be difficult, and without the right online presence, you may find it very hard to carve out your own space and sell your products or services.


To effectively do this and see your new money-maker thrive, you need to master SEO. It can be hard and it can take time, but with the right skills in your arsenal, it’s definitely possible.


By using the right online tools available to you, the right skills and know-how, you can create and implement a strong small business SEO plan.


Follow our top tips and pieces of advice and you’ll have everything you need to start your own SEO project.


What is SEO?


If you’ve started up a website for your small business, it’s likely you’ve heard of SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. But what is it? Now that’s a difficult question to answer.


It’s a big combination of market research, keyword research, writing, website building, link building and creating a reliable, trustworthy resource. If it sounds like a lot, that’s because it kind of is. But don’t worry, it’s completely doable.


To put it in simpler terms, this is the practice of creating a website in such a way that search engines, like Google, approve of what you’re doing. If Google likes you and the content you produce, then you’re more likely you’ll be able to rank highly for keywords that really matter to you.


For example, if you’re a baker in Harrogate and you’ve created your website in the right way, you should appear on the first page of Google when someone searches ‘baker in Harrogate’.


For a small business SEO plan, that’s pretty much the crux of creating a strong strategy. Create a good website that Google trusts by following some simple guidelines, and you should be rewarded with high rankings.


Let’s check out all the most important things you should consider when beginning your SEO plan for a small business.


Small Business SEO essentials




Website


Google is all about making sure the searcher has a good experience, otherwise people wouldn’t use it as their search engine any more, so that’s worth bearing in mind when you create your site.


With that in mind, try to ensure your website runs well. It should be fast, easy to navigate and not overly complicated.


As a small business, it’s unlikely you’ll have any huge images or loads of pages to manage, so speed isn’t a big issue.


In terms of navigation, just be sure to keep it simple. When you’re previewing your site, get friends and family to try it out to highlight any kinks or areas where you think you may need to simplify things.


Content


This is a big one for small business SEO. When you write your content, it should demonstrate to the reader why they should choose you. But on top of that, you also have keywords to consider.


Now, if you were a large business with a big blog and lots of product pages, there would be a huge range of keywords to rank for and lots of keyword research to perform. However, as a small business, you need to ensure you’re hitting the most important ones to you, and they can often be figured out pretty easily.


For example, as we mentioned above, if you’re local, ensure you’re mentioning where you’re local to. A garage in Eccleshall should use the keyword ‘garage in Eccleshall’ a couple of times, so your local customers can easily find you.


When it comes to content SEO for a small business, there’s a huge number of posts, pages and blogs that can be written to support growth and drive traffic, but you need a little more technical knowledge for that. For a start, make sure your content is well written and easy to read, that you keep in mind important keywords like what you sell and where, and from that, things should start to fall into place.


If you really want to drive traffic through your content SEO plan, our SEO course can help.


Don’t forget about the meta


When creating a new post or page, you may have come across a section called meta description and meta title. These are important as search engines crawl this information to present to readers. So, it’s important both the meta title and the description provide an accurate representation of the page or post.


In terms of meta title, you should be fine to match that to the actual page title. For the description, aim to write a couple of sentences, no more, on what your post can offer your reader. Don’t forget to keep those keywords in mind as that helps google to further ensure you’re offering a relevant page.


Get tool savvy


There are loads of free tools out there, designed to help you get the most out of your website. You can see which pages are doing well, where your traffic is coming from and even the type of person you’re attracting to your site.


With this information, you can replicate good pages, find out how well your SEO is going and even tailor your marketing plan with more effective content.


There are a great range of options out there that are free or reasonably priced, so you don’t need to spend loads to gather some truly game-changing data. Check out Google Analytics and Google Search Console to get started.


Learn more about SEO for small businesses


To learn more about SEO and maximise the traffic heading to your website check out our cost effective SEO marketing services. We cover everything you need to know, all the way from planning the content on your site, through to analysing your results.


What’s more, our SEO services for small businesses are specifically designed for those of you starting out with a new venture, so it’s none of the jargon.


We’re experts in our field. Let us guide you through all the complicated bits, so you can get your new business site driving traffic and generating sales.


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