What’s the point of having an amazing website if no one can ever find it? Enter Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In order to show up on Google in front of potential clients, you need to continually optimize your website. However, it can be difficult to know what you should be optimizing for.
Below, 8 thought leaders share small business SEO tips that made an impact on their website and, in turn, their business.
Optimize your Homepage Title Tag
When we first launched our website, we had the word “Home” in the title tag of the home page. This is a common WordPress mistake for a lot of small businesses. We updated our home page title tag to “HR Staffing Agency & Contract Recruiter” and began to see more inbound organic search traffic as a result. The most simple WordPress SEO tip is make sure that your homepage title tag says something descriptive about your core service – and not just the word “Home.”
Michael Bratta, HR Temp Agency
Increase Click-Through Rates from SERPs
To have a successful ecommerce site, you need to attract clicks from organic search. How do you stand out in a crowded search engine results page (SERP)? By focusing on elements that would inspire a searcher to click on your result. Focus on page title tags and meta descriptions – elements that a searcher reads before deciding to click. But also, include rich snippets of reviews on your site. If you have a positive rating associated with your result in a SERP, then searchers will be more inclined to click. It’s only human nature to want to be a part of something that’s “5 stars.”
Peter Babichenko, Phone Protection Kit Company
Conduct Keyword Research
Many companies will blog for the sake of creating content. They think they’re doing content marketing, but in reality, they’re making noise. Before diving into content creation, conduct keyword research to give your content a purpose. The purpose of creating content is to attract inbound traffic. How can you attract inbound traffic if you don’t understand what keywords are likely to bring them into your site? Our favorite way to do keyword research is to ask our customers. How did you find us? Oh Google? Do you remember what you searched for? Once we are equipped with those insights, we aim to create more of that content so that we can attract more customers.
Create Fresh Content
The more great content you provide, the better your SEO. Update that content and things get even better. Don’t even worry about researching keywords, just keep updating and good things will follow.
Don’t Try to Beat Google
Rank Math and not Yoast, first. Write naturally, dont try and beat Google. Do long tail keyword research.
Eric Rutin, Rutin Marketing
Do your Homework
Do your homework before you even look at a website or sign into the backend. Who are you trying to target? What kinds of things are important to them? How do they ask questions. The best SEO campaigns start with research and strategizing.
Gresham W. Harkless Jr., Blue 16 Media
Try Yoast
For beginners and advanced users, there is no better WordPress plugin than Yoast. The free version has all of the tools you’ll likely need, and the setup wizard will guide you through the basics in a quick, easy fashion. More advanced users can then use the plugin to change sitemaps, meta descriptions, titles, alt text, and more. Just don’t change anything you’re unsure about without Googling it first.
Conduct Plugin Audits
My best tip is to do a plugin audit every few months. This includes updating necessary plugins and deleting unneeded ones. Regularly updating plugins helps them perform their best and aids in preventing any security breaches. Deleting active plugins that are no longer in use helps with site speed. Having too many plugins can bog the site down.
