Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your small business website cannot be ignored. It’s crucial to use SEO to get your website showing up in relevant searches for your business. In a recent post I reported on a Google
Places listing. This listing is important for your business when potential customers are looking for a business or service based by location. When a searcher is looking for a product or service and location is not entered in the search criteria, how does your website stack up? Using a SEO company to help you can be costly and finding expert SEO providers is not easy. Here, in this extract of an article written by Aaron Sperling, are some ideas for DIY SEO for your small business website.
I can recommend three relatively straightforward steps that will likely increase your website’s search engine rankings, and thus make it easier for people to find your business.
Identify your keywords. Start by building a list of the keywords that you think potential customers will use in searches to find your business. Once you have your list, use a keyword tool like Google AdWords to determine the frequency that those keywords are used and to find other related keywords. With this information, you’ll be able to quickly identify the most important keywords for your business.
Use your keywords in your website. For each page on your website, figure out which keywords you want to target, then use those keywords in both the page content and the meta-data (the title, description and keywords of the page, which search engines use to determine what the page is about). Then, create links on other pages of your site to this targeted page, using the selected key words in the link title.
External link building. When other websites link to your site, it indicates to search engines that the content on your site has value, and that boosts your SEO. For that reason, external link building is perhaps the most important aspect of SEO – but it can also be the most difficult, because you have limited control. It’s best to focus on the things that are in your control, such as your Facebook and Google+ pages, Twitter feed, blog, and Yellow Pages listings. Be sure to link to your website from all of these channels.
SEO is an ongoing process, so it’s essential that you monitor your keywords, stay on top of Internet trends, and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Have you applied any of these basic examples of SEO for your small business website? For external link building, one thing that I look at periodically is free directory listings. There are hundreds if not thousands of free directories on which you can list your business. As a start google ‘free directory list XXX’ where XXX is your country or state. See what turns up and start listing. By being listed on these directories your website is given more google credit and your website will slowly rise up in the search results.
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