SEO Tips for Small Businesses

SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Most of us call it the Internet, but when talking about SEO, perhaps it’s more appropriate to call it the World Wide Web. Google refers to its own SEO algorithms as ‘spiders’ after all. It’s not hard to visualize these little spiders moving through the vast webs of information, deciding which sites are the most valuable, and conversely, which sites should be avoided.
Small businesses often have modest marketing budgets. One way to save money and get the most out of search engine optimization is to build a search-engine-friendly site from the get-go. Google’s spiders use sophisticated methods to rank websites, and these methods are always evolving, but there are a few constants that you should remember when building your own SEO-friendly site.

1. SEO spiders can ONLY crawl across text – They don’t recognize or see JavaScript menus, image maps, or image links. If you feel that you must use these when building your site, make sure to include a set of text links as well, either in a sidebar menu or as a navigation menu below the fold.

2. Content is King – Quality content is a key to SEO success, but quantity is as equally important. Add new content frequently in order for the spiders to consider your site relevant. But don’t error on the side of oversaturation. If you upload new content too quickly, the spiders may consider you a spammer and put your site on a blacklist. One of the best ways, as a small business, to keep your content fresh and relevant is to include a blog on your site. An excellent idea would be to have the CEO update the blog regularly. What better way to increase your site’s credibility than by having the voice of the company post and respond to reader comments?

3. Links are Queen – When adding new content, try to link back within your own site. Internal links are an easy way to increase traffic to your individual pages. When adding external links, make sure you link to sites with similar content to yours. Quality is more important than quantity. Links from .edu domains are generally given more weight over the other types of domains.

4. Avoid “Click Here” links – If you want your visitors to get more info about “Our Los Angeles Office” then use those words in your links. This is a clear keyword phrase that is easily searchable. Never use the ambiguous “Click Here” which has absolutely no unique value and might as well be invisible to search engines.

5. Optimize your photos and videos – The best way to make your photos visible to spiders is to add keyword rich captions using the “ALT” tag. Make sure to use “image” or “picture” in these ALT descriptions in order to get best search results. Videos and images are ranked by the text and context that surrounds them. Therefore, make sure the text and headings are keyword rich and relevant.

6. Beware of shared servers – If you are on a shared server proxy with a spammer or a bad site this can negatively impact your own rankings. Make sure to do a blacklist check, and if necessary, move to a new hosting company.

7. Make your URL search-friendly – Name your URLs with clear keywords, as opposed to a long list of numbers or other classifications. For instance our own https://www.alt-creative.com/services is much easier to understand than if we had used an in-house classification, such as https://www.alt-creative.com/11658.htm.

8. Self Monitor – Use tools like Alexa or Google toolbar to monitor your page rank. You will want to track where your visitors are coming from and what keywords they are using to search for your site.

If you want to learn more about how we can help your small business improve your page rankings, contact us.

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About the Author:

Born in Los Angeles, Blair Strasser is a business and marketing enthusiast that enjoys sharing his knowledge through his writing. He is also Founder and CEO of eMerchantBroker and passionate about technology. @BlairStrasser