In this article, we look specifically at SEO for Small Businesses. You’ll get a great understanding of the key elements of SEO, but more importantly, the first 3 steps you an take as a business owner if you want to improve right now. Let go! >>>
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often thought of as a complicated, ever-changing landscape that only big businesses can afford to tackle. But the reality is, SEO is one of the most powerful tools for small businesses to increase online visibility, generate leads, and ultimately drive sales… all without breaking the bank.
Why Is SEO Important for Your Small Business?
More than half of website traffic originates from Google searches. This means that showing up on the first page of Google is a game changer.
It’s not just about being there; it’s about the credibility and trust that come with a high ranking. Customers tend to trust businesses that appear first in their search results because they feel these businesses have something valuable to offer.
If your website isn’t optimised for SEO, you may be missing out on traffic, visibility, and authority… all while losing potential customers to competitors who rank better.
The Core of SEO: What You Need to Know
To make a real impact on your SEO, you need to focus on several core areas. These aren’t one-time tasks; SEO requires ongoing efforts to stay ahead. Here are the basics:
1. Understand Keywords and Search Intent
Keywords are the phrases and words people type into Google when looking for your products or services. But it’s not enough to throw keywords on your webpage. You need to understand what your potential customers intend to find when they search…
Are they ready to buy or just doing some research?
Ensuring your content matches their intent is crucial to ranking high.
Every set of words that someone types in will have an intent behind them. It could be:
- Informational: They have a question or need to know something (e.g., “Is it worth buying a camping BBQ?”).
- Transactional: They want to buy something and are in purchase mode (Camping BBQ discounts”
- Navigational: They know where they want to go but type it into Google for convenience (The Camping Shop Hampshire)
- Commercial Investigation: They aren’t ready to buy yet but are gathering information (e.g., comparisons of camping BBQs or Reviews of Camping BBQs).
Search intent aligns with the customer journey; from discovery and consideration to purchase. Make sure your content addresses these different stages to effectively capture your audience.
Read more about short, medium and long-term marketing here (link to blog), and you’ll see exactly why this matters.
2. Improve Your Website’s User Experience
Google favours websites that are easy to navigate and offer a positive user experience. I mean, think about your own journey when searching? How irritating is it when what you are looking for isn’t easily accessed?
Factors like page speed, mobile-friendliness, clear site structure, and easy navigation directly influence your ranking.
Think of SEO as more than keywords… it’s about delivering a seamless experience for your visitors. They might find you through the keywords, but how they spend their time once they find you is imperative. Make it simple and fast for them, and you’ll be rewarded by Google in the process.
Core ranking factors include:
- Page Speed: Ensure your pages load quickly. You can check that here (link to a speed site).
- Site Design/Structure: A well-structured site helps users find what they need easily – so if you know your audience well, then you’ll know why they are visiting your site and what they want to know. So don’t deviate from that. It’s about THEM, not you.
- Content Relevance: Your content needs to be relevant and useful, and read beautifully, without confusion. Think about how you can incorporate things like video to support their journey.
- Mobile Friendliness: Your site must work well on all devices – they shouldn’t have to zoom in if they are visiting via mobile.
- Security: SSL certificates and secure browsing are essential. Who is going to want to do business with a site that can’t be trusted?
- User Engagement: Keeping visitors engaged and on-site improves your ranking. So design a journey that helps them move through a local pathway through the site, helping them with their next logical step at each point that they pass through.
Google also needs to be able to crawl and understand your site. Easy navigation, good link structure, and responsive design all help both users and Google navigate your site effectively.
Tip: Add schema markup, like Author Schema or ProfilePage Schema, to help search engines understand your content better and highlight authorship. This structured data can improve how your expertise is perceived by search engines and increase the visibility of your website.
3. The Power of Blogging
Blogging is a fantastic way to support SEO. Regular, informative blog posts that address common questions or concerns of your target audience not only improve your website’s SEO but also position your business as an authority in your field. Focus on topics that align with different stages of the customer journey, from discovery to decision-making – this aligns to those different user intents.
Blogging helps in several ways:
- Fresh Content: Regular updates show Google that your site is active.
Long-Tail Keywords: Blogs are a great way to target long-tail keywords that are more specific to your audience (and by longtail I mean “Basic & Best SEO practices for small business owners” instead of “SEO for Business” – can you see the difference? SEO for business is going to be more competitive. The more honed into the subject you make it, the better.
- Internal Linking: You can link to other relevant pages on your website, helping users navigate your content. You’ll see various links in this article – and first, I hope they help you. But secondly, they’re there to support SEO.
- Shareable Content: Blogs create content that can be shared on social media, driving more traffic to your site.
Tip: Include author bios and detailed “About Us” information on your blog to build trust.
This transparency helps users understand who is behind the content, which builds credibility and improves your E-E-A-T score (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Experience).
4. Backlink Building
Backlinks are links from other websites that direct people to your site. Google sees these backlinks as a vote of confidence.
While not all backlinks are created equal, creating valuable, shareable content can naturally attract quality backlinks over time. Consider guest blogging or creating content that others might link to.
Types of backlinks include:
- Natural Backlinks: Someone links to your site without you asking (e.g., a blogger).
- Manually Built Backlinks: You build relationships and ask partners or customers to link to your site.
- Self-Created Backlinks: Adding yourself to a forum or listing.
Tip: Improve your brand authority by getting featured in industry publications or being quoted as an expert in third-party news articles. This builds credibility and signals authority to Google, helping to improve your SEO.
The Big SEO No-Nos
SEO can be powerful, but only if done correctly. Some common pitfalls to avoid include:
- Keyword Stuffing: Repeating keywords too much can make your content look spammy, which will hurt your ranking. Please make sure you read your content back – if you think it’s stuffed too much, then your customer definitely will.
- Hidden Text or Doorway Pages: Any attempts to manipulate Google’s algorithms using dishonest methods will get your site penalised, reducing its visibility. Think about where you are using tactics like placing hidden text on your website, such as white text on a white background, or creating doorway pages that are designed to rank for specific keywords but provide no real value. These practices can severely impact your SEO performance and result in penalties from Google.
Tip: Use honest reviews and avoid deceptive practices. Building trust is crucial to SEO success. Encourage genuine, positive reviews from your customers to boost trust and improve search rankings. Avoid conflicts of interest, such as paid product reviews that aren’t disclosed.
Staying Ahead with SEO Trends
Search engines are evolving. Google’s algorithms change almost daily, meaning your SEO efforts must adapt as well.
Stay up to date with algorithm changes and best practices.
Focus on E-E-A-T:
E-E-A-T is an acronym that stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Experience. It is part of Google’s quality guidelines used to assess the credibility and quality of web content.
Here’s a breakdown:
- Expertise:
- Demonstrates that the content creator has specialised knowledge in the subject area (if this article is helping, then hopefully you’ll see mine!). You should know that content written by people with recognised expertise in a given field is more valued.
- Authoritativeness:
- Relates to the overall reputation of the website or the content creator. This can be measured by external sources, such as reviews, mentions, and backlinks from reputable sites. High-quality, industry-related mentions in respected publications or from known experts in the field boost authority.
- Trustworthiness:
- Reflects the accuracy, honesty, and transparency of the content. This also includes having clear information about the author, proper references, and secure site practices like SSL certificates. Trustworthiness is particularly important for e-commerce sites, where security and customer service are key. Who wants to part with their hard-earned cash if a site or company cannot be trusted?
- Experience:
- This additional “E” emphasises first-hand or life experience in the content being provided, and it’s demonstrated by personal insights, practical examples, and original media, such as photos or videos that show the author has used the product or visited the place. Of course, first-hand content is more relatable and is especially helpful for product reviews or how-to guides. I mean, imagine writing an article about a trip to Thailand, but you’ve never been?!
How to Demonstrate E-E-A-T
On top of what I’ve just explained, consider these as well:
- Author Bios and About Pages: Add detailed information about content creators and their qualifications to boost credibility.
- Backlinks from Reputable Sites: Get quoted in third-party industry sites to increase authority.
- Use of Original Media: Include images, videos, and screenshots showing first-hand experience.
- Transparency and Honesty: Provide accurate information, disclose sponsorships, and link to trustworthy sources.
It sounds like a lot of work – and honestly? It is.
So don’t try and do it all at once. See it as a project, with many different milestones. Just work on one thing at a time here.
Tip: Update your content regularly and include visible timestamps indicating when content was last updated. This shows Google and users that your information is current, accurate, and trustworthy.
Start Your SEO Journey Today
As a small business owner, here are the 3 things you can do right now to uplevel your SEO for small business:
- Keyword Research: Start by identifying keywords that potential customers are using to search for businesses like yours. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to determine which phrases are relevant and have good search volume but are not highly competitive. This simple step helps you understand what content to create and how to optimise your website to attract the right audience. Imagine if I am trying to attract small business owners for marketing training, but I never use any of those words on my website! How will they find me?
- Optimise On-Page Elements: Make sure each page on your website is optimised for the right keywords you’ve found. This includes optimising page titles, meta descriptions, headers, and the main content of the page – this is all the back end stuff – but trust me, it’s easy once you know how! Include the primary keyword naturally and ensure that your site’s navigation and URL structure are simple and user-friendly – hopefully incorporating those keywords too!
- Improve Your Google Business Profile: Create or update your Google Business Profile to ensure your business appears in local search results. Add accurate contact information, business hours, photos, and posts. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews. Having an up-to-date and active profile will improve your visibility, especially for local searches, and help build trust with potential customers. This is such an easy step to take, and you can also schedule posts to your Google profile, so why not make it part of your Social Media efforts, and see how you can repurpose that content for your Google Business profile?
The key takeaway from this Basic & Best SEO practices for small business owners?
SEO is not about tricking Google; it’s about creating a valuable experience for your audience and making sure your content is visible to the people who need it most.
Start with the basics… focus on understanding your audience, optimise your site for user experience, and remember, SEO is an ongoing effort.
If you’re overwhelmed, and still not sure where to start, we teach SEO in our Inner Circle Programme
The Inner Circle is our Business Owner’s Growth Club – where we focus on the implementation of the right activity that will generate leads for your business.
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, but the results are worth it for your small business’s success.
