In today’s search engine-oriented market, the best method to drive traffic to your website is SEO, especially without any paid marketing. For small enterprises that have a limited budget to spend on business advertising, this can be a huge advantage when facing competitors. SEO (search engine optimization) is the technique in which the traffic can build through organic search. In a world where 32 % of people click the first Google search result, SEO is a crucial part of any business.
But optimizing your website all at once can be daunting for owners of small businesses who have a lot else to do. Small changes can transform your traffic apply these six significant SEO tips are the best for any start-up businesses.
1. Monitor all changes.
No matter which SEO tips you choose to implement first, the single most important thing to do is monitor those changes. If you’re not seeking professional help, this means accomplishing the following:
1. Decide on a metric to use to monitor your traffic. Is it newsletter sign-ups, product purchases, keyword rankings, or percentage of people who return to your website?
2. Start using at least one of the recommended SEO tools to help you rank higher in Google to monitor your progress.
3. Implement one change at a time. How can you know what is working if you do everything at once?
2. Create a clear site structure.
No matter how many SEO tips you implement on your website if it isn’t structured in a way that’s easy for search engine crawlers and users to navigate. It is essential for small businesses with new websites, this means creating a hierarchy that includes:
- Pages
- Categories
- Subcategories
- Internal linking that reaffirms the site structure
- Headings
If your site structure is unclear, Google crawlers could miss some of your content, making it impossible for people to search for it in the first place. Bad site structure also leaves your visitors confused and likely to go somewhere else. This will translate to less time spent per visitor, lower conversion rates for online retailers and less traffic as Google demotes your website based on these statistics.
3. Prioritize content creation.
In 2019 the top SEO marketing trends is Creating quality content, whether you’re a small or large business. Here are a couple of things to remember:
- Google algorithms consider content quality more than ever before. This means creating content that matches your keywords, headlines, and meta descriptions.
- There are more chances of Long-form content will rank higher than the short form.
- Writing should appeal to readers, not robots. Google algorithms are getting so sophisticated that they penalize content for keyword stuffing, a tactic designed to appeal to algorithms rather than people.
- Content doesn’t just mean text, either. Videos have significant engagement, and photos are equally important.
Keep in mind that the ideal content for your website will depend on your type of traffic. Test out different styles and monitor traffic to see what your audience wants from your website.
4. Focus on building both internal and external links.
In SEO a constant process is Building a network of internal and external links. Whether you’re an entrepreneur with a less-than-perfect existing site or you’re a small business building a brand new one, one of the best SEO tips is to structure your links a little every day.
Use internal linking to create site structure: For the newbie, it’s important to internally link every new piece of content. Otherwise, it becomes orphaned content. This means that it’s disconnected from the rest of your site. Orphaned content is difficult for Google crawlers and visitors to find. If a piece of content isn’t connected to the rest of your website, crawlers can either miss it or will consider it less important, thereby ranking it lower.
5. Delete anything that slows down your site.
Website speed plays a vital role in gaining and maintaining traffic and it is One of the top SEO tips. Google has made it known that site speed is a factor in ranking websites. And research also shows that a half a second delay in page load time translated to a 20% decrease in traffic. For entrepreneurs, this means that cutting out elements that slow down your website is key to customer and search engine satisfaction. Here some effective tools include:
- Compressing images
- Cashing your browser
- Getting rid of unnecessary elements in CSS
- Stop using JavaScript
6. Always consider mobile-first.
Google rolled out mobile-first indexing in the summer of 2018. But designing websites for mobile has been a focal point for web designers since mobile traffic outpaced desktop in 2016. Still, whether you’re designing a website or creating content, it’s important to design a mobile responsive website – even if you’re designing it on a desktop computer. This means placing even more emphasis on mobile UX and mobile-oriented site structure.
It doesn’t matter where you are in the process of optimizing your website; make sure that you approach it efficiently. Monitor everything you do so that you can replicate your success with future businesses.
