Small Business SEO: A Beginner鈥檚 Explainer for Owners
There鈥檚 a reason why our cultural default when anyone has a question is to say, 鈥淕oogle it.鈥� Using search engines is second-nature for most of us, but have you ever thought about why and how you find the answers you鈥檙e looking for when you Google something?
Welcome to the world of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is how webpages earn top spots for user queries鈥攁nd your small business can use it to connect with the right customers. In this post, we鈥檒l hone in on local SEO for small businesses, and why this is still an effective channel for your small business鈥檚 digital marketing in an AI-dominated digital world.
What is SEO?
Research shows that almost turn to Google to research before making a purchase. That鈥檚 a huge segment of the overall market. Your customers are searching for you, and SEO is how you make sure you show up for them.
There are a lot of factors that go into how Google awards websites with top ranking spots on a search engine results page (SERP), which is the page you land on after you enter a search query. Google has stated that it prioritizes 鈥渉elpful, reliable, people-first content鈥� and outlined the EEAT acronym as a guideline, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
The EEAT guidelines are good to keep in mind when creating any content for your website, including locally focused pages that highlight your business as a top provider in your community. Targeting geographically-specific keywords is known as local SEO. This tends to be a better strategy for small businesses, rather than pursuing highly competitive, national keywords.
For instance, if you run a , a target local keyword might be 鈥渕assages near me.鈥� When people search for that term, or any other, the top three search results capture of clicks through to their websites. Your goal is to rank in the top three, or even five, search results to capture users looking for your goods and services.
To help you do that, we鈥檒l walk through three areas of SEO that you can apply to your business鈥檚 website: technical SEO, organic search, and conversion optimization.
Technical SEO
The first step in implementing an SEO strategy is to prepare your website. In addition to aesthetic design choices, it鈥檚 important to incorporate technical SEO into your web design process. Technical SEO basically means making it easy for Google and other search engines to find your website and connect it with the keywords you want to rank for. It鈥檚 also about making your website user-friendly and easy for users to navigate.
Your should provide the technical infrastructure you need for success. Continuing with our earlier example, a massage therapist might need the following features from their website to support operations:
- Service menu
- Gift certificates and membership packages
- Online booking
- Reviews and testimonials
Look for a website builder that allows you to add these features to your site. The platform you choose should also offer mobile-friendly and fast-loading websites. In particular, page load speed is one of the most important factors in technical SEO, and improving it is one of the best ways to signal to Google that your site should rank higher.
For existing websites, here are a few spot checks you can do to support your site鈥檚 technical SEO:
1. Check that your webpages are indexing.
Indexing means Google has found your pages, which is how it begins to rank them. Uploading a site map can help Google navigate how your pages relate to each other and find all of the content you鈥檝e worked so hard to create. You can also use the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console to confirm this and submit pages manually for indexing by selecting 鈥淩equest Indexing.鈥� Google may naturally index your page, but it鈥檚 a best practice to go ahead and submit any new pages you publish for indexing manually.
2. Fix any broken links.
When potential customers click on a link to your website, you want them to find what they鈥檙e looking for. If customers click a URL and encounter an error page, it can lead to frustration and loss of revenue for your business.
From Google鈥檚 perspective, broken links also disrupt signals and undermine how much Google trusts your site. The good news is that you can fix broken links. First, run a report in Search Console identifying broken links (marked with code 404), then use a 301 redirect to link to the correct, live URL.
It鈥檚 also important to manually review the links in your published content to ensure that you are sending users to the right page.
3. Ensure web accessibility.
Web accessibility is the practice of ensuring that all users can navigate your site and access its content. This is a perfect example of how user experience aligns with Google鈥檚 priorities for high-ranking sites. s accessibility report is a great starting point for specific pages.
General best practices include providing text alternatives (like scripts for audio recordings and videos, and image alt-text) for non-text content and never including flashing elements on webpages, as two initial steps for optimizing your site.
Organic Search
For small businesses, your primary focus for organic search will likely be local SEO, which is the practice of optimizing your entire website or specific pages to rank for search terms that are geographically relevant, like 鈥渕asseuse near me.鈥� recommends this approach since local SEO is a 鈥渟trategy that increases your business鈥檚 visibility in local search results in Google.鈥�
A great first step is creating or updating your , which is free and helps you show up on Google Search and Maps. On the profile, you can add images, update your hours, and post answers to frequently asked questions.
Optimizing for Conversions
Conversion optimization is the final leg of the race and is vital to helping your website finish strong in your SEO strategy.
Determine what your goal is for visitors to your website. Is it that they sign up for your newsletter? Request a consultation? for an upcoming event? Sign up to watch a webinar? Purchase a product? Book an appointment? Once you have your goal, consider how to entice visitors to take that next step.
You can employ call-to-action (CTA) buttons to guide visitors down the sales funnel and toward your goal. CTAs should be relevant to where they appear on your site, visible, action-oriented, and not overly wordy (stick to two to four words). On the home page for a massage therapy business鈥檚 website, CTAs might be 鈥淐heck out our services鈥� and 鈥淏ook Now.鈥�
Positive reviews are also a great asset for your site, especially when featured on your home page and product pages. You can pull reviews from your Google Business Profile or ask happy customers if they鈥檇 be willing to share a testimonial.
By implementing these SEO improvements to your website, you鈥檙e making it easier for new customers to find you鈥攖heir new favorite local business! Once customers walk through your door, you can wow them with your stellar products or services and show them that you鈥檙e a business worthy of patronizing, but it all starts with a strong SEO strategy.
