1. Create a Google My Business account
Google has made it very easy for your business to be found online. One of the ways that they have done this is with their My Business account. Simply login to your businesses’ Google account, go to “google.com/business” and click on the Start button. The process is easy and quick and will allow your business to show in local search results.
2. Blog and then blog some more
Content creation is one of the number one ways to push your website higher in search rankings. A good rule of thumb for blogging is to keep your posts between 300-500 words, make sure that the content is relevant to your business and then share your posts on all of your social media channels.
3. Use friendly URLs
Make sure that your URL path is “friendly,” meaning that it tells search engines and customers what your page is about. For example, if you have a dog grooming business, your URL for services should look like “www.doggrooming.com/services” and not “www.doggrooming.com/?page_id=59”.
4. Use a local SEO plugin
One of our favorite SEO plugins is Local SEO by Yoast. This plugin help you embed a Google Map on your page and improves the usability of your contact page. A one year license is only $69 for a single site and well worth the price.
5. Add your target location area to your website title
This is another trick that makes it easy for customers and search engines to see where your business is located and also location served. To change your site title (on WordPress), click on Settings -> General and fill in the Site Title and Tagline for your site. See the example below from the 3Circle Website.
6. Complete a Meta Description for each page
Your meta description is the content under your business name in a Google search. If you don’t fill this in yourself, Google will do it for you from your page content. The problem with that is you have no control over what Google picks so it may be selections from your menu and not at all what your page is about. We recommend a plugin like Yoast SEO for WordPress for meta description and keywords.
7. Encourage reviews of your business
Links from quality websites is one of the top ways to bump your search result listing. Review websites like Yelp can really help with this. Encourage your customers to submit a review of your business regularly.
8. Create content for other websites
Ask if you can write a guest blog post for a business or organization in your field or location. This will create a backlink to your website that can help boost your search presence. It also helps create relationships with other businesses that can be beneficial for you both.
9. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Google places a high value on mobile-friendly websites. In fact, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you can be penalized in search results. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it might be time to consider a website refresh
10. Check your Google Analytics account regularly
Google Analytics can provide a wealth of information such as where your website visitors are accessing your site from, search queries and more. Understanding this information can help you target locations and keywords that you might not be using to your advantage.
One caveat: SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. Don’t expect to see results overnight. A good SEO strategy can take time to implement and tweak. If you need help with your website SEO, please give us a shout!
