SEO Basics for Small Business Websites

What the Experts Say
The experts offer great advice, based on tons of research, but us little guys are far too busy trying to run our business to be able to devote the time needed to follow their long list.

What I Say
First, there is NO secret sauce, just hard work, especially in the beginning! Create your website and content to achieve the best user experience ever! Here’s an abridged list of SEO basics. If you have time on your hands and really want to know more, head over read the latest guide at MOZ.

SEO Basics in 15 Simple Steps

1. SEO Basics begins with a SEO ready website. Make sure it’s very fast. Verify your theme and SEO plugin are properly configured and set up to use the proper tags and schema. I highly recommend the free version Rank Math SEO plugin.
2. Determine your audience and consider personas. You already know who your customers are, so this is easy.
3. Create a list of targeted keywords that align with your business offerings. Include a few phrases based on common language your customers use—especially those related to their pain points, passions, and major frustrations. You don’t need a huge list; focus on identifying your top 20 to 50 keywords. Start by assessing which keywords you’re already ranking for and build from there.
4. Since you don’t have a lot of time or money to spend, focus on keywords with low search volumes. When first starting, you won’t be able to compete with the big dogs, so don’t waste time trying.
5. Organize your website pages and posts based on your keyword list, using broader keyword phrases as category or parent pages. This structure will help create a clear hierarchy that enhances SEO and makes navigation more intuitive for users.
6. Select long-tail keywords for your child pages and blog posts, ensuring each content piece is placed under the appropriate category or parent page. This will help keep your site organized and improve SEO relevance.
7. Now, create your content. Your keywords will be your titles, or at least part of your titles. You will know what to write about because you already know your topics.
8. Ensure your content is helpful, easy to read, accurate, and informative. Focus on providing solutions to problems. Aim for more depth than just 350 words—no sales pitches, and avoid keyword stuffing.
9. Your website should be easy to navigate for both humans and search bots.
10. Share links to your pages and posts gradually on your social media channels. Avoid posting them all at once; instead, space them out over time and mix in other types of content without links in between.
11. Include links to your website on your Google Business account, all social media pages and anywhere you are allowed to add a link. I don’t care if it’s a no follow link. Do it anyway!
12. You need some back links. Start an outreach to bloggers with decent domain authority. Never buy back links, but there’s nothing wrong with hiring someone to do the outreach for you. Don’t get a bunch of back links all at once.
13. Set up a Google Search Console account and be sure to submit your sitemap.
14. Check your analytics every month or two. See what’s working and what’s not. I’ve been very successful reverse engineering. I find what works and apply it to other pages and posts that are not getting traffic.
15. Choose your battles and don’t get greedy! You are NOT going to win at every keyword you want. You may even rank for a different keyword than intended. It’s usually best to just accept the results, follow our SEO basics and move on.

That’s all there is to it! Stick to best practices—no shortcuts. Building a high-performing, SEO-optimized website is a continuous process of refining and repeating. If you’re looking for expert help to get everything set up just right, I’m here to assist!