SEO Guide for Small Business

Posted On: June 24, 2021

Want to learn more about the SEO guide for small business?

Have you ever wondered what is SEO?

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It helps increase the quality and quantity of organic traffic to a website through search results. In simple terms, SEO makes a website more ‘attractive’ to the search engine. SEO boosts the visibility and searchability of a website making it easier to be found.

How do search engines work?

Search Engines have ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ (small pieces of codes) that scan or crawl your website. These spiders gather information about your website which they then save in databases. When someone searches for content similar to that found on your website, the search engine retrieves that information from the database and shows it to the searcher.

The information gathered by the spiders helps the search engine understand what the website is about. This makes it easier for the search engine to deliver relevant content to the searcher.

If I had SEO done for my website when I developed it, why do I need to do it again?

Conducting an SEO audit on a website, is like going to the doctor for a well visit. You go for an annual physical to the doctor, just to make sure your body is functioning as it should. Similarly, you have a SEO audit done on a website to make sure it is working as intended.

In the online world, change is constant. Search algorithms change, Google rolls out upgrades round the year, newer devices are connected online every day, more websites are developed daily, more people sign up online and start using the internet. Sometimes all this change may adversely affect your website’s performance causing it to break, slow down or not show up in a search. To avoid that, it is recommended that every business should have an annual SEO audit done for their business website.

You have an SEO audit done, what next?

Once you have identified the problem areas that need improvement you can create an action plan to correct them. This is needed because it helps keep your website in up to date with the latest web development and ahead of the competition.

Coming back to the doctor’s visit analogy. Now that the doctor has conducted an exam and written the prescription, you need to implement the recommendations. Similarly, when you get the SEO audit report, you need to have someone implement the recommendations.

What are the benefits of SEO to a small business?

Local SEO helps in increasing customer engagement – Local searches are rising. To make sure that your business shows up in a local search, it is important to list it correctly on Google. Google has made it easier for business owners to list their businesses online. This can be done using Google My Business. Google My Business is a free tool provided by Google which can help business owners create a business listing on Google, gain visibility on search and maps leading to increased customer engagement.
SEO helps increase visibility and brand awareness – SEO helps your website by making it easier to be found in search results.
SEO increases organic traffic – Organic traffic means the traffic you do not have to pay for. As your website becomes easier to find in a search, the chances that more people will visit your website increase. This increase in traffic is good for the website.
SEO leads to good User Experience – One of the areas an SEO audit checks a website for is responsive design. A website is said to have responsive design when the website adjusts smoothly to various screen sizes. When a website is viewed on a mobile or on the screen of a handheld device, the contents of the website should be easy to read. These websites are also known as mobile friendly websites. As the use of mobile devices increases, so does the need of mobile friendly websites. The easier to read a website is on a mobile device, the more likely a user is going to visit the site or read the site and its contents.

Conclusion

This article, SEO Guide for Small Business, aims to explain SEO and its benefits to small businesses. SEO is not a short term fix, but rather a long term strategy that takes months of dedicated hard work to bring results.

We would love to hear from you! You could reach the author of this article Anandi Merchant with questions about SEO and digital marketing, or see her website.

Anandi has helped us at Authentic Journeys with SEO Audits, which have helped us with organic search results. See some of the SEO achievements we have noticed in 2020:

12 Articles with High-Ranked Keyword Strings on Cross-Cultural Business Topics

American Culture and Language Blogs with High SEO

Thank you for your guest post, Anandi. Take a look at the Top 7 Guest Blogs of All Time here on Authentic Journeys.

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