9 Tips for Improving Your Small Business' SEO

SEO. What does it mean? In short, ‘search engine optimization’ is the process of making changes to your website design and content in order to help it appear in the search engines. By optimizing your website for the search engines, you can increase your visibility in the organic, or un-paid, search engine results.

Search engine optimization is KEY to your business being found online.

Here are nine things you can do to make your website more SEO-friendly:

Optimize your site Title, Heading and Sub-heading tags.

If you create a title without considering your keywords, you are missing out on ranking opportunities. The title should contain keywords that tell the search engines what the website or page is about and help it index your site according to those keywords.

Avoid Duplicate Content.

When you duplicate content on your website you get penalized when it comes to your rankings.

Integrate Social Media.

Search engines love social media, (and so do your prospective customers!) so incorporating social media elements into the design of your website will help it to rank better with search engines.

Use keywords in your image names.

Don’t forget to optimize your images by naming them with keywords. An image called ‘2365.jpg’ doesn’t give the search engine any information to help it be found. Rename your images with keywords that describe the picture and incorporate keywords that are important to your website.

Make it mobile friendly.

Since people are using mobile devices more and more to look up information and interact online, it is essential that your website and content are optimized for all types of devices.

Use internal linking.

Creating links from one page to another on your website is good for SEO and keeps visitors on your site longer.

Avoid Keyword stuffing.

While keywords are essential to any SEO strategy, avoid overusing them in unnatural ways. Keyword stuffing can potentially damage your rankings.

Check for orphan pages and broken links.

Always check that all your pages and links are working properly.

Produce Fresh Content.

Having a blog or an area of your site that you frequently update helps make your site look relevant and keeps your SEO game strong.

Conclusion

Making a few changes to your website can help you get found online. By using internal linking, social media elements, natural keywords, tags and fresh content, you can increase your website's ranking on Google and other search engines.