SEO: it’s one of those acronyms that you may have heard, but aren’t totally sure what it is or how it pertains to your business. Perhaps you have a basic idea of what SEO is but are too busy to learn the intricacies of working with Google’s algorithms.
Most small business owners ignore SEO in favor of prioritizing other marketing tools. Merchants who do master the fundamentals of SEO, however, see benefits in growing their customer base and becoming more visible online. Read on for the basics of what SEO is and how to create your own SEO strategy.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is the process of making your website “rank,” or appear higher in search results, for specific key words in order to bring more traffic to your website.
A key word is a word or short phrase that a search engine uses to figure out what your website is all about. “When you perform a search, Google looks for pages that contain keywords relevant to your search. This doesn’t always mean it’ll return results that contain the exact phrase you search for—Google is smart enough to return results that match the intent of your search, if relevant,” explains one SEO marketing expert.
SEO is a different beast from SEM, or search engine marketing. SEO is a must-have for businesses of all sizes: it’s free, and can drive more customers to your website or physical location. While SEM requires buying certain key words, SEO is all about being thoughtful about the content you offer online. Social media, listing your location on Google Business, and linking to your site on forums like Quora and Reddit all help your SEO ranking.
[Read more: Understanding PPC Advertising and What It Can Do for Your Business]
In order to master SEO, it’s important to understand the basics of how search engines work.
How do search engines work?
Most good SEO strategies focus on Google. However, some of these tips might be slightly different if you’re working with Bing or an overseas platform like Baidu.
There are three primary functions that a search engine is built to carry out:
- Crawling, which means searching the internet and reading the codes and content of each webpage (URL).
- Indexing, where the search engine organizes content found during the crawling process. When a page has been indexed, it can be displayed in response to a search query.
- Ranking, which is delivering the best possible result to answer a search query in the order of most relevant to least relevant.
There are more than 200 factors that Google’s algorithms use in the crawl phase to index and rank a webpage. Broadly speaking, the algorithms look for five search signals:
- Meaning, or the intent behind a search query;
- Relevance of the content as it relates to the search query;
- Quality, or content that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness;
- Usability, a more technical term we get into below;
- Context, or signals like the user’s location, past search history, or settings that provide more relevancy data points.
Think of usability as the accessibility of your content from a technical standpoint. “When all other signals are relatively equal, content that people will find more accessible may perform better,” wrote Google. “For example, our systems look at page experience aspects like mobile-friendly content that loads quickly, an important consideration for mobile users.”
Google used to use three search signals in its algorithm; today, these five drive website traffic. Be aware that these signals may further evolve, and regularly check to see if Google and other engines have updated their algorithms.
Content, key words, and relevance for SEO
One way to boost your website ranking is by focusing on the relevance and content factors that Google’s algorithms search for in the indexing and ranking phases.
[Read more: 5 Best Ways to Grow Your Business with Content Marketing]
This area is where small business owners can really shine. Creating great content that Google search will rank highly is all about knowing your customer. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your customers looking for when they come into your store?
- What problem does your product or service solve for a consumer?
- What questions do your community members ask you all the time?
SEO is a must-have for businesses of all sizes: it’s free, and can drive more customers to your website or physical location.
Answers to these questions can be used to create content on your webpage. Try setting up a blog, including an FAQ page, or offering an e-book through a link on your website. Keep your website updated regularly with news about sales, new products, opening hours, and more.
The use of certain key words in the content you create factors into your search ranking. Think about the kind of language your customers use when searching for your business. For example, a customer might search for “how to grow tomatoes” instead of “gardening store with tomato seeds.” A gardening store that offers a blog post on how to grow tomatoes with tips and links back to the store’s location, hours, or e-commerce page will rank highly. That customer is also likely to spend time reading and exploring that webpage, thereby causing the search engine algorithm to improve its ranking. Use keywords that you think your customers will search for throughout your website to encourage the search engine to index and rank your page correctly.
The mechanics of SEO
Hiring a professional or agency to handle the more technical aspects of SEO—such as the coding that goes into optimizing your webpage—might offer insight and ease when first starting out. Things like header tags, backlinks, optimizing page speed, and making your page mobile-friendly can be accomplished with enough research and time, but are likely best left to the experts.
Most SEO agencies or experts charge a monthly retainer fee. It varies how much an SEO partnership will run you, but it shouldn’t be higher than $5,000 per month. Check out this guide to SEO pricing from the experts at Ahrefs for more information.
Best free and paid SEO tools for beginners
Before you invest in any paid SEO tools, start with three free resources from Google. Because Google is the dominant search engine, understanding the tools it offers can give you a solid foundation on which to build a more advanced strategy.
- Google Search Console (GSC): This is your direct line to Google. It tells you exactly which key words you rank for, how many people click your site, and if Google is having any trouble reading your pages.
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4): While GSC tells you how you reach people, GA4 tells you what they do once they arrive on your website. It’s vital for tracking if your site traffic actually turns into sales or leads.
- Google Keyword Planner: Housed inside Google Ads (you don’t need to run ads to use it), this is the most reliable way to see search volume, or how many people are actually searching for your specific topics.
Once you’ve mastered the free tools and find yourself needing more features, consider some of these popular paid tools.
- Ahrefs, good for competitor research.
- Semrush, for SEO rank tracking.
- Mangools, an all-in-one tool for beginners.
- Surfer SEO, SEO with AI built-in.
- Ubersuggest, a free SEO tool from expert Neil Patel.
On-page vs. off-page SEO: What’s the difference?
As you get deeper into developing your SEO strategy, you may hear the terms “on-page” and “off-page” SEO. “On-page SEO refers to things you can do on a webpage to improve its search engine rankings,” wrote Semrush. “[Off-page] SEO refers to things you can do outside your website to improve its search engine rankings.”
On-page SEO involves many of the activities we’ve discussed in this article, such as creating content for your blog, writing an FAQs page, and making sure your website is mobile-optimized. Off-page SEO focuses more on improving your website’s reputation by getting other sites to link to yours, managing reviews, and promoting your business on social media.
Most experts recommend starting with on-page SEO, since your website is under your control. Off-page SEO often requires reaching out to media outlets, partners, or customers to mention and backlink to your page, discuss your business, or leave reviews. Off-page SEO helps with search signals like quality and relevance, but it’s a more time-consuming strategy.
Small business SEO wins
Not sure where to get started? Here are some SEO wins that nearly every small business can achieve.
- Sign up for Google Search Console to learn about your site.
- Make sure your site is easy to navigate.
- Give your site a unique title and meta description.
- Check to see if your content is clear, organized, logical, and easy to understand.
- Focus on getting reviews, since they’ve been proven to play a leading part in search rankings.
Keep an eye on your website traffic to see how SEO can improve your ranking and help your small business grow. Over time, with a little patience, you should see some significant results.
How to track and improve SEO performance over time
There are many, many metrics that can tell you with precision how well your site is performing. At the beginning, however, focus on two KPIs: total impressions and top queries. Total impressions tells you how many people are seeing your brand in their search results while top queries tells you the specific search phrases that people are using to find your page.
These two things can help you improve your SEO. To start ranking higher, make sure you use the top key word queries across your site. Answer common customer questions by regularly posting on your blog or updating your FAQs page. Keep your business hours, photos, and reviews current; responding to reviews is a great way to show your page is active and relevant. And make sure your page runs smoothly on all technical aspects.
Maintain your page by asking for more reviews and refreshing your page content regularly. Keep yourself up to date with recent SEO news to track how algorithm changes could impact your ranking.
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