I know SEO is confusing, and there are 50 different steps to take to have the “perfect” post to rank well on Google. But I promise it doesn’t have to be that complicated! I have 5 stress-free, easy SEO tips for small businesses to help get your business ranked on Google (or other search engines) and will help you make sense of SEO.
Write blog posts
These seems to be something that people know they should do, but they don’t have the time or motivation to do it. But I promise it will help with your SEO and get more clients to your site! I know it takes time, but you don’t have to blog very often. I recommend once a month. If you really don’t have the time, I do write blog posts for clients and there are lots of great copywriters out there that you can use!
So why do blog posts help with SEO? There are many reasons, but for one, it shows Google that your site is active. You’re probably not adding pages or editing copy very often, so if you don’t touch your site frequently, Google might think that your site and business aren’t active. Publishing blog posts shows Google (and your audience) that your site is still functioning.
You can also use blog posts to rank for more keywords and attract more clients. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, you can use blog posts to show off weddings you’ve photographed in different locations to rank for those location keywords. Or you can write posts about the best spots for engagement photoshoots in your area. Think about what your ideal client might be looking for, and the possibilities are endless!
Use long tail keywords
Long tail keywords are simply keywords that are a few words or short phrases. So it would be something like “art museums in Florence” rather than “Italy.” For your blog posts or pages, it is a lot easier to rank for long tail keywords that one word keywords. For example, it’s going to be near impossible to rank for “interior designer.” But ranking for “beach house interior designer in Cape May” is going to be much easier.
Plus, the more specific you are, the more you’re going to attract your ideal clients! You’ll get a whole array of people searching for “interior designer,” but the people searching for the type of interior designer you are or the location you serve will bring in quality traffic and clients.
Fill in meta descriptions
Meta descriptions are the snippet of text that you see underneath the page’s title on a page on Google. It’ 150 to 170 characters (although Google has changed that a few times), and it tells Google and your audience what your page or post is about. I recommend doing a short, enticing summary to get people interested in reading more, and use your keyword once to show its relevance to your post.
If you’re on WordPress, I recommend using a plugin called Yoast to fill in your meta description and for guidance, and if you’re on another platform, most do have built in meta description capabilities (contact me if you’re having trouble finding it). If you need some ideas for writing meta descriptions, you can simply look up something in Google and see what other people are doing.
Write for your audience, not Google
So after I told you to find good keywords, I’m telling you not to focus on keywords! I’ve found that many people think keywords are the end-all-be-all of SEO, so they only focus on working their keyword into their posts as many times as they can. Please don’t do that! Your audience AND Google appreciate quality content (as scary as it sounds, Google reads and comprehends like a human now), and Google will also know if you’re keyword stuffing and it could hurt your ranking.
If your posts or pages are starting to sound robotic because you’re trying to work in your keyword as many times as possible, you’re going to lose the audience you already have and any new readers you get from Google aren’t going to stick around.
So don’t stress about keywords; write quality, meaningful content and your audience and Google will appreciate it!
Share on social media
Yes, social media can help SEO! (Especially Pinterest) And you should be sharing your posts on social media to bring traffic in anyway, so this isn’t something extra that you’ll have to do. Sharing on social media shows Google that your site is active and that people are visiting your site from social media. Google knows all (yes, really), and if you have Google Anayltics set up (which I hope you do!), you can even see that Google knows that people are getting on your site from specific social media links.
It’s especially helpful if people in your audience share your posts, too. It shows Google that your audience thinks your posts are helpful and quality content, and plus, the more they share, the more traffic it will drive to your site!
If you still find SEO confusing and these easy SEO tips for small businesses are too daunting, contact me with any questions you have! I promise I can help you see how stress-free SEO can be.
This is a great article, Julia!!! It’s the perfect length and I just learned a few things!! Thank you and please keep these kinds of helpful posts coming.
Thank you so much! 🙂
Such great SEO tups – thank you!
I hope they help! 🙂