If you’re a small business owner, can we just level for a minute? You’ve got a lot on your plate. Like THE MOST. You’re probably writing the emails, updating your website, posting on social media, responding to inquiries, handling the discovery calls, etc. ALL THE THINGS. And if you don’t have a team, you’re doing this all on your own. Not the mention the actual hours spent doing the thing you actually started your business to do. Figuring out the SEO strategy for your small business may not making the cut.
It’s easy to understand how SEO gets put on the back burner. I get it. It can feel overwhelming when you’re first getting started. But here’s the thing — if you never actually get to your business’s SEO strategy, you are missing out. In a MAJOR way.
If you could be showing up in the search results and you’re not, you’re missing out on that business. Full stop. So listen, your business deserves an SEO strategy.
If you want the job done fast and off your plate, you can work with an SEO consultant like me. A consultant takes the guesswork out of the equation, giving you a full blown analysis of your website (what’s working, what needs to be fixed, etc), a list of (very specific, very custom) keyword opportunities that are both doable and profitable for your business to rank for, and a complete roadmap of how to achieve and keep those prime ranking spots.
Ideally, every business has an SEO consultant — even if it’s just for a few months to get things off the ground. But that’s not always in the budget, especially if you’re just getting started. And that’s ok. You can still make headway with your SEO strategy by setting the right foundation and keeping these basic tips in mind as you launch new products, write copy for your website, and grow your business.
These small business SEO tips are quick, easy to understand, and can be game-changing for your visibility on Google.
Small Business SEO Tip #1: One keyword per page.
Here’s the short of it: you need one keyword per page on your website.
Why? Two reasons.
1) We’re not trying to confuse Google. Google needs to understand exactly what the purpose of your page is in order to rank it. If you’re trying to rank for two different keywords on the same page, Google just assumes you’re not doing either of them justice.
2) We’re not trying to confuse people. Remember, an organic search visitor is very different than, say, someone who finds your website from your social media. A search visitor may have ZERO context for your brand, and they came in with a *very specific* question or need. If the page doesn’t fit their intent, they will bounce. That’s a bad experience for someone to have with your website, and it sends a signal to Google to drop you down in the rankings.
When it comes to SEO keywords, the goal is clarity and focus. You want to completely unpack the content a user would find helpful based on their intent.
That *does not* mean your website won’t rank for multiple keywords! It can and should. I want to see your website rank for hundreds and even thousands of keywords. But each individual page should be focused on just one primary keyword (any auxiliary keywords should just be variations of that primary keyword).
So what kinds of keywords should you be optimizing for? Glad you asked!
Small Business SEO Tip #2: Focus on long-tail keywords.
Not all keywords are created equal. When you’re a small business, you are just not going to be able to beat out websites like Etsy and Wikipedia. The good news is that you don’t have to. That’s not the space you want to be competing in. You CAN rank in the search results for valuable keywords. The key is to go after the right ones.
For most small businesses, my advice is to focus on specific, niche, longer keyword phrases or questions that directly relate to your brand and the service you provide, instead of going after flashy, high-volume, single-word keywords.
Remember this: it’s better to rank #4 for a keyword with 400 searches per month than #20 for a keyword with 4,000 searches per month. (A 2020 study found that 95% of searchers never go past the first page of Google.)
Here’s what I mean by a “long-tail keyword” vs. a more generic keyword. Let’s say you’re a website designer. You probably will not be able to rank for “website designer.” It gets a ton of searches per month but is also very competitive and difficult to rank for. But you COULD rank for local keywords or long-tail queries like “how to find a website designer” or “what are the best website hosts.”
Most long-tail keywords have less competition which means you’re more likely to rank in higher positions on Google. Bonus: they also give you the chance to prove your expertise and build trust with a prospective client.
Small Business SEO Tip #3: Optimizing old content > writing new content
This is one of my favorite tips because it is a great way to work smarter, not harder. If your website has been around for a little while, you probably have old pages of content and blog posts that haven’t been touched (or seen) in a while.
Here’s why optimizing is so valuable:
- You already have this content, so you’re not having to start from scratch.
- You’ll improve your ranking position faster because Google already has a history with this URL and the content on it.
- Google prioritizes showing content that is “relevant,” meaning that the more updated an article is, the better.
- You’ll be more likely to stand out from your competition if you have the most up-to-date information.
Here’s the hot take when it comes to SEO in the year 2024: you don’t have to “blog consistently.” Believe me, I love a good blog. It’s one of my favorite areas to work on with small businesses. But having your existing articles up to date is way more important for your SEO than whipping out new content once a week.
When I worked as an in-house SEO consultant for a large financial company, this was the biggest part of our content strategy. We literally planned our content calendar around optimizing old articles first, then any extra resources went to writing new articles. And it worked. Within months, we had taken articles that weren’t even on the first page of Google to top-ranking positions. The impact was HUGE, and it took half the time it takes to write something new.
I believe the best kind of blog strategy is a curations of top-notch, thorough, regularly updated, SEO-optimized articles that speak to who you are, what you offer, and the people you’re trying to reach.
You can build on this over time with new articles and continue to expand your subject matter expertise, but if you have limited time and resources, focusing on nurturing what you already have. It’s like gardening: better to have a few carefully chosen and nurtured plants that thrive than a garden of neglected varieties that you can’t maintain.
When it comes to SEO content, we’re looking for articles that continue to bring in traffic month after month, year after year, not hit-pieces that get traction for a week and then never get an eyeball on them again. It’s just a way better use of your time to invest in quality > quantity.
Small Business SEO Tip #4: Lean into your unique voice and perspective.
SEO is not writing for robots. I get really passionate about this because I think so many people think SEO is just about trying to manipulate Google into ranking you higher. No, no, no! If you want to rank higher, you content has to be helpful and enjoyable to real people. That means writing like a REAL PERSON.
Did you know how many times you use the keyword on a page is not actually important for SEO?
What is important: meeting the user intent (AKA what the searcher expects and wants to see).
It’s a way bigger deal to give the searcher a good experience on your site than to meet some kind of keyword quota (in fact, using your keyword too many times can actually cause Google to penalize you).
In Google’s most recent algorithm updates this year, this has been a HUGE theme. People like content that is unique, fun to read, and opinionated. They are more likely to read longer, navigate to other parts of your website, and buy with you. All of those actions send signals to Google that your website delivered (yay, you!). And that moves you up in the rankings, which means more people discover you and your brand.
YOU are the most important ingredient. No other brand or business out there can replicate what is unique about you. Don’t underestimate the value of including your unique voice, your expertise, your hilarious story, your point of view. That’s what real people and Google want to see.
Small Business SEO Tip #5: Real people > search engines. Every time.
All the tips here really come back to this foundational point. SEO is about real people. It’s not about search engines.
So if you’re ever torn between doing something “for Google” or doing it because it makes sense for potential clients…choose the client experience every time. What you’ll find is that prioritizing the user experience actually is exactly what causes great SEO results. Here’s what I mean.
Ultimately, all Google wants is for real people to have great experiences with their search engine. They want people to come back and keep searching. Their job is to make sure that people are getting what they need and want when they search.
Enter your website. If your pages are sending mixed messages about which keywords you’re trying to address, if your services and packages are confusing, if your navigation is clunky and someone can’t find what they’re looking for, they’re going to bounce. They’re going to move on to the next search result. And that tells Google a lot. Featuring your website is no longer good for them.
But let’s say someone lands on your website and they spend some time there. They read the whole page they landed on, then check out your other recent blog, navigate to your services page, and then send you a message. Whoa. What a win (for YOU and for Google). Check, check, Google says. This person had such a good experience that they didn’t even come back to the search results page. That website must have given them exactly what they were looking for. Up in the rankings you go.
SEO optimization is all about fine-tuning your website and your content so that people are having that great, meaningful, ready-to-invest experience. It starts with understanding what searchers are looking for and then meeting it.
Competitive analysis, keyword research, technical updates, link-building — all those terms you hear about with SEO are important because they help us understand and serve the real people on the other side of the Google search.
You’ve Got This.
I hope you start to implement some of these small business SEO tips TODAY in your business. Which one stood out to you? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re not sure how to get started, get in touch! Whether it’s a complex SEO issue or just a simple question, I love talking about the nitty gritty and believe there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Every business owner deserves to have an SEO strategy that is totally custom to them and the specific keywords they can and should be ranking for. If you’re not sure what that looks like for your specific business, I can help. You don’t have to go it alone!
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