Small business SEO, or search engine optimisation, can often feel like a daunting task. With so many different factors to consider, it’s no wonder that many small business owners find themselves overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. However, SEO is an essential component of any online marketing strategy, as it helps drive traffic and sales to your website. That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive small business SEO checklist to make the process a bit easier.
The checklist covers everything from keyword research to technical optimisation, and it includes tips and best practices to help you improve your website’s search engine rankings. By following this checklist, you’ll be well on your way to making your website more visible to your target audience and driving more traffic and sales to your business.
Small Business SEO Checklist
Keyword research
Before you start optimizing your website, it’s important to know which keywords you want to target. By targeting the right keywords, you can ensure that your website is showing up in search results for terms that are relevant to your business.
Here’s a small business SEO checklist of things to keep in mind when doing keyword research:
- Identify your target audience: Before you can start researching keywords, you need to know who your target audience is. Who are they, what are their interests and what are they searching for?
- Use keyword research tools: There are several keyword research tools available, such as Google’s Keyword Planner, that can help you find and select the best keywords for your website.
- Look for long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that are less competitive and more targeted. They are more likely to convert into sales or leads.
- Analyze your competitors: Look at what keywords your competitors are targeting and try to find opportunities to target similar keywords.
- Check keyword search volume: Look for keywords with a high search volume and consider targeting them to drive more traffic to your website.
- Analyze search intent: Look for keywords that indicate the searcher’s intent, for example, if they are looking to buy or find information.
On-page optimisation
Once you have your keywords, it’s time to optimise your website’s content and structure.
This includes:
- Title tags: Make sure each page on your website has a unique title tag that includes your target keywords.
- Headings: Use headings (H1, H2, H3) to organize your content and include your target keywords.
- Meta descriptions: Write a meta description for each page that includes your target keywords and gives a brief summary of the page’s content.
- Content: Make sure your website’s content is high-quality and includes your target keywords.
Technical SEO
In addition to optimizing your website’s content, it’s important to make sure your website is technically optimised for SEO.
This includes:
- XML sitemap: Create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google so they can easily crawl your website.
- Robots.txt: Create a robots.txt file to tell search engines which pages on your website they should and shouldn’t crawl.
- Redirects: Make sure all broken links on your website are redirecting to the correct pages.
- Mobile optimisation: Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and has a responsive design.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank in search engines.
Here’s a few small business SEO checklist for backlinking:
- Research competitors’ backlinks: Use tools such as Ahrefs or Majestic to research your competitors’ backlinks and see which websites are linking to them. This can give you an idea of which websites you should try to get links from.
- Create high-quality content: One of the best ways to get backlinks is by creating high-quality content that other websites will want to link to. This can include blog posts, infographics, videos, or other types of content that are informative and valuable to your target audience.
- Reach out to other websites: Reach out to other websites in your industry and ask if they would be willing to link to your website. This can include websites that are similar to yours or websites that have a similar target audience.
- Submit to directories: Submit your website to online directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, and other relevant directories to get backlinks.
- Guest blogging: Reach out to other websites in your industry and offer to write a guest blog post. This will give you the opportunity to get a backlink to your website and increase your visibility.
- Monitor your backlinks: Use tools such as Ahrefs or Majestic to monitor your backlinks and make sure that any links that point to your website are from high-quality, relevant websites.
Analytics
Analytics is an important step in any SEO strategy, as it helps you understand how your website is performing and where you can make improvements. By setting up analytics on your website and tracking key metrics, you can get a better sense of how your SEO efforts are impacting your business.
Here’s a checklist of things to consider when setting up analytics for your small business website:
- Install Google Analytics on your website
- Set up goals such as tracking sales, newsletter sign-ups, or contact form submissions
- Track website traffic, including the number of visitors, where they’re coming from, and how they’re interacting with your content
- Measure bounce rate, which is the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page
- Track conversion rate, which is the percentage of visitors who take a specific action on your website
- Measure time on site, which is the amount of time that visitors spend on your website
- Track mobile vs desktop access to your website
- Regularly check and analyze the data to identify trends and make adjustments accordingly
Conclusion
In conclusion, small business SEO is an essential component of any online marketing strategy. By following a comprehensive checklist, small business owners can improve their website’s search engine rankings and drive more traffic and sales to their business. The checklist covers everything from keyword research to technical optimisation and analytics, and it includes tips and best practices to help small business owners understand how their SEO efforts are impacting their business. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so it’s important to regularly check and update your website to make sure it’s optimised for search engines. By following the checklist and making small business SEO a priority, small business owners can stay ahead of the competition and improve their online visibility.