A Beginner’s Guide to SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which sounds super techy, but it’s really all about making sure search engines understand your website. It’s like a friendly guide for Google, Bing, or even smaller engines like DuckDuckGo, telling them, “Hey, this site is relevant and awesome. Show it to people!” The better optimized your site is, the higher you’ll rank, meaning more visitors and more eyes on your business (yay!).

1. What Can SEO Do for My Website?

Good SEO can take your site from invisible to well-known. You can optimize your website generally with basic changes like adding keywords, or you can also optimize for specific audiences using local SEO services. Every SEO strategy you use makes it easier for search engines to notice you. Higher rankings = More Visibility = More Leads = Increased Opportunities for Sales. It’s as simple as that!

2. How Can SEO Impact My Overall Business?

SEO doesn’t just bring people to your site; it brings the right people. Think of it as getting your business card into the hands of the exactly the kind of customers you want. With the right SEO strategy, you get more clicks, more leads, and, hopefully, more sales!

3. SEO Doesn’t Happen Unless You Make It Happen

SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of deal. It requires a little TLC, but don’t worry—you don’t need to be a professional to get started. With just a few tweaks, you can see your site climbing the ranks.

1. Add Alt Text for Images

Alt text is simply a tiny description for the images on your site. This can be helpful for search engines (and your visually impaired visitors) to have additional context for what the page is about, what information is included, and what content you have that people might be looking for. It can also boost your ranking as it provides additional places to include keywords that potential clients might be searching for. For instance, if you have a photo of your delicious cupcakes, you might use alt text like “chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles.” Easy, right?

2. Keep Your Website Simple and Easy to Navigate

Search engines need to be able to quickly recognize your website hierarchy (what’s important vs. what’s less important), understand what you offer (so they can show that to people searching for it), and see what value you provide. But another part of your SEO ranking also comes from how long visitors stay on your site and how often they visit. So creating an environment where they want to come back again and again signals to search engines that your content is valuable and people want to see it.

If you were to walk through your own website right now as though you were a customer in a store, what would your experience be? Could you find what you were looking for quickly and easily? Is the purchase process easy to navigate and user-friendly? Is the information they need to make their choice readily available and easy to read?

Asking these kinds of questions will help you to find ways to improve the experience for your users. Making your site as clean and simple to use helps visitors understand what you offer and find what they need, which increases the chances they will come back again.

3. Write Blogs (Yes, They Still Matter!)

⭐ Pro Tip: Blogs aren’t dead.

Search engines are businesses too. The better results they provide to users, the more likely those users are to come back to them in the future, so they are motivated to find out what content is seen as valuable by their users.

When you write about topics your audience cares about, visitors are more likely to stay on your page longer, return more often, and share your content with others. These kinds of interactions show that visitors value your content. The more search engines see these kinds of trends, the more they will want to show your content to other visitors in their search results.

So a well-written blog that gives value to your visitors, not only helps to improve your standing with search engines, but it also helps to build trust and connection with your audience.

4. Optimize for Mobile

Did you know that 45% of web traffic in North America comes from mobile devices? (Read the full Forbes article here). So as you are designing and building your website, be careful to make sure your website looks and functions well on al different screen sizes.

As a site shifts to fit different screen sizes, other things have to shift as well. Mobile optimization is the process of making sure these shifts are done in a way that keeps both the visual and functional sides of your site as consistent as possible, regardless of the screen size.

Because of the high percentage of traffic viewing sites on smaller devices, most website builders have some form of mobile optimization automation built into their program, but beware that not all are created equally… We would suggest periodically testing your site on a few different devices to see what your customers are seeing. This way you can quickly catch issues and get them fixed.

Humans have a hard enough time deciding where to put their money. Don’t add unnecessary barriers to that process with a bad mobile experience!

5. Use Keywords Naturally in Your Content

Keywords are the phrases people type into search engines. Including them in your site’s content helps search engines match your site with relevant searches. There are a lot of tools you can use to create keyword strategies, but one quick way to get started (and for free) is to do a Google search for something that you offer (think “SEO packages for small businesses” or “how to increase website traffic”).

When the results come up, scroll down until you see “People also ask”. This is a list of questions visitors have searched for that are relevant to your initial search. This means they should also be relevant to your product or service! Use these as guides while writing your content and try to answer those questions.

But remember to always be sure you do this in a natural way. Obvious attempts to cram keywords into content just gets annoying… and you don’t want to annoy the people who will potentially be providing you with a paycheck.