Are struggling to find customers online?
Like many small business owners, I bet you set up your company to tackle a problem. Maybe it was to provide emergency plumbing services. Maybe it was to sell custom earrings or offer great Chinese food to your town.
These are problems that customers are facing and they’re looking for answers. That’s why your business needs to be appearing online in search engines like Google.
The best way to appear on Google is with a little thing called Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO). This will bring more customers to you website.
What is Search Engine Optimisation
Google uses algorithms to sort content based on how likely it is to meets the needs of a customer’s search. The more relevant a result is, the higher it sits at the top of the list.
Search Engine Optimisation is the steps you can take to get listed in more searches and get listed higher in the ranks.
As long as you have set your site to appear in Google, you will be ranked. So SEO is important because you want to appear in the best possible spot.
Google is very good at returning what customers need in the search results. Most people only ever visit the first page of results. If you’re not there, you’re not being seen.
That’s why it’s important to invest time into getting SEO right on your site.
SEO tips for your small business
Luckily, these days, Search Engine Optimisation doesn’t have to be hard.
Here are some quick tips to help you better optimise your site for Google.
Tip 1: Speak your customers language
As small business owners, we know everything about our business.
But that means we forget that all the words we use are jargon, and don’t make any sense to anyone not in the industry.
Customers speak a different language to us. It’s true! And that’s what they’re typing into Google.
If you’re a local plumber, you’re far better off having headings like ‘Repair Toilet’ and ‘Fix Leaky Sink’ than Domestic (e.g. a domestic plumber). Because most people looking for plumbers for their home aren’t using that word. Only plumbers looking to differentiate from their ‘Commercial’ services use that words.
Your site should have headings that match what your customer is typing in. And your content should use the words that they are using.
Your website is not about you. It’s about your customer. And how you can solve their problems.
Tip 2: Keep it organised
In 2013, I went on a bit of a minimalist streak and threw away all my stuff. And I, like a lot of people, was inspired by Marie Kondo and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Organising a home is a lot like organising a website.
Your website should be simple, easy to understand, and easy to navigate. It should be clear from clutter. When a customer arrives on your website, it should be obvious how they can achieve what they want to do.
Now, Google are the masters of this. The homepage of Google makes it super clear what customers can and should do. They’ve got a search box, a button, and that’s it.
Now, you don’t have to go as simple as Google and strip out all the text. But you should organise it all in a way that makes sense.
Start with the top categories and move down. All your pages should be in a logical hierarchy that reflects the way your customers would search for information.
e.g. For a furniture store.
It’s better to have a top-level category like Bedroom & Mattresses than a top-level category called red.
It is more likely that someone searching wants to see all the beds together, rather than all the red furniture together.
If it makes sense to your customers, it will make sense to Google. And they’re the ones who are ranking you.
Tip 3: Get people linking to your site
The best way to improve your SEO is to have other people talking about you, and linking back to your website.
The more links you have, the higher you climb. And the more important the people are that link to you, the faster you’ll climb.
A relevant link from University of Adelaide is much better than a link from a spammy Russian blog.
There are two quick ways to get started:
a) Ask people you know
Friends and family members with websites are a start but look at your business network.
Are there businesses who you have collaborated with or support that could link you? What about local business directories or government organisations that have mentioned you?
These all could be linking back to your site.
b) Link to it yourself
The pages on your website should all interlink if it’s relevant. It’s very easy to do, you highlight the text and click the insert link button.
You should also include it on any other sites you run, like social media pages. These won’t necessarily improve your rank, but it will improve traffic to your site.
You should also look to get your site listed on Google Maps.
Final thoughts on small business SEO
SEO is an important step to get your business found in Google.
By following these steps: creating content that matches your audience’s searches, organising it in a way that makes sense, and getting people to link to you – you’ll climb up the Google ranks and grow your business.
