If you don’t have a website in 2019, does your small business even exist?
Probably not.
Eighty-eight percent of consumers now do online research before they buy a product or service. Which means having an online presence is crucial if you want to succeed.
But how do you make sure your business gets in front of the right people online?
Well, you need to optimise your website for SEO.
Ready to get started?
Here’s our small business SEO optimisation guide for beginners.
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. Its goal is to make it easier for potential customers to find you online.
When someone searches the internet, search engines (usually Google) return the most relevant results. The results are ranked in order of priority. So, the first result is the most relevant, and so forth.
The problem is that there are usually thousands of search engine results pages, or SERPs. But 90 percent of people won’t look past page 1.
So where does that leave you?
Well, that’s where SEO comes in.
SEO aims to help your small business rank as highly as possible. This way, customers are more likely to find you and, so, do business with you.
The more a search engine knows about your business, the greater your chances of ranking at the top of the search results. So, the main idea behind SEO is to make it as easy as possible for search engines to:
Let’s say a customer is looking for a gluten-free bakery in Edinburgh. They log on to their favourite search engine and look up “gluten free bakeries in Edinburgh”.
The search engine will use a program called a web crawler to scour the internet for related content. It’ll then make a list of the most relevant web pages. So, if you run a bakery in Edinburgh and have gluten-free options, you’ll want to make sure search engines know this.
Of course, while this is the basic idea, there’s a lot more to SEO. Google uses more than 200 factors to decide how websites rank in search results. And while some factors are common knowledge amongst SEO specialists, others are controversial or even pure speculation.
That said, if you stick to the following basic principles, you can’t go too far wrong:
The biggest benefit of SEO is that it helps you get found more quickly on the web.
Think of it this way: a letter can reach its intended recipient only if it’s addressed correctly. Well, if your online presence were a letter, good SEO is the right address and a first-class stamp.
But SEO also has other small business benefits. In particular:
Many SEO techniques are relatively simple to implement and cost little or no money. But the results can be staggering.
Consider this. 62.2 percent of users will click on an organic search result (one web page search engines think is relevant to your query). By contrast, only 2.8 percent of users will click on a paid advert
SEO-friendly websites are fast, easy to navigate, useful and easy to read on any device. This encourages users to stay, browse and make a purchase.
By contrast:
It doesn’t matter if your competitors are bigger or have more resources than you. If your website is SEO-optimised, it’ll rank better and get more exposure than a website that isn’t
Good SEO makes you more visible online. Which means you’ll get in front of more potential customers
SEO specialists can make or break your website. Reputable professionals will help you boost your online presence. But if you pick someone that uses dodgy practices (called black hat SEO), you could quickly find yourself plumbing the depths of page 20.
So what should you look for when choosing an SEO specialist?
Here are four tips:
1. Have a goal in mind
SEO is a vast area, so you need to get specific. Do you want to rank better for certain keywords? Make your website more user-friendly? Or, perhaps, increase your backlinks? Knowing what you want to achieve will make it easier to choose the right specialist
2. Discuss the process
How does the SEO specialist plan to reach your goals? What keywords will they target? Which techniques will they use? And, most importantly, will they track performance and measure results?
3. Ask them: “Can you get me to rank at the top of Google? And how long will it take?”
These are trick questions. There are no straightforward answers. So if an SEO specialist is overpromising, there’s a good chance they’re inexperienced or plan to use black hat tactics. Either way, they’ll do more harm than good in the long run.
4. Is it easy to communicate?
Does speaking to the SEO specialist make you feel confident? Or do they leave you with more questions than answers? SEO is a long-term project, so you need to choose someone you’re comfortable communicating with.
All set?
Time to conquer Google’s page one.
The Microsoft 365 team is focused on sharing resources to help you start, run, and grow your business.
Business Insights and Ideas does not constitute professional tax or financial advice. You should contact your own tax or financial professional to discuss your situation.
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