SEO is just as important for small business owners as it is for large businesses. It's all about being found by your customers in the search engines. According to Biz Journal, 97% of people learn more about a local small business online than anywhere else. Search Engine Optimization can be a difficult, time consuming task to undertake on your own, but these simple SEO tips for small businesses will help you get started!

Let's get right into it so that you can start improving your website's SEO!

1. Stop using Flash on your site

Flash videos can be a powerful way to incorporate professional visual design and information into your website. It can alo be used to create stand-alone games or navigation tools, but it does not share code with other programming languages so it follows its own conventions. They are, however, problematic for SEO because they do not conform to code conventions used by search engines and are not easily read or understood by Web-searching algorithms. Flash can also slow down your website's speed, which has a direct effect on your SEO ranking.

It would be better to avoid using as Flash on your website as much as possible.

2. Use keywords in your page titles, headings, and links

Keywords are the words or phrases that your website is optimized for because you want to rank for them. This means that when people search for these keywords, you want to show up in their search results.

And it’s not just about getting them to visit your site; you also want them to click through and become a customer (or an email subscriber, or whatever goal they might have). Keywords help with rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc., because those services use algorithms that reward pages with relevant keywords. So it pays off in both traffic and conversions when you put effort into including the right words in titles, headings, links—anywhere on your site where it makes sense.

Don't Use Too Many Keywords Though

Keywords are important and should be included throughout your website, not to mention they also help with conversions because they drive traffic to your site.

However, there is a point of diminishing returns where including too many keywords can actually hurt the performance of your page because it becomes keyword stuffing which confuses search engines and turns people off from visiting your page since it looks spammy. It's important not to go overboard when using SEO as a strategy for marketing or else you'll end up hurting yourself more than helping yourself!

3. Make sure your website loads quickly by reducing the size of images or videos

Your website speed is one of the key factors that will determine your site ranking. If you want to rank higher in Google results then it's important to make sure that you're not slowing down your load time by having large images and videos on your page.

If you want a faster loading page, there are many things that can be done: optimize image sizes, compress videos and files, or even use an image replacement techniques. The point is to do what you need to do so that visitors don't see any delays when they land on your homepage.

Using a program such as Squoosh, can help you reduce simple files such as your images quickly and effectively. Did we mention its FREE?

4. Optimize Your SEO for mobile devices

Mobile devices now account for more than 50% of internet traffic and the time spent on mobile is steadily increasing year by year.

Your SEO strategy has to take into account that most people search for what they want on their phones first. If you haven't already taken steps to optimize your SEO for mobile users, then you're likely missing out on potential customers who are looking for your business online right now.

5. Use Google Analytics to track traffic ranking and conversions

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that provides insights on traffic sources, top pages, popular search terms, conversion rates, and more. It’s easy to use and it’s completely free! You can set goals in Google Analytics for things like “visits” or “sales.,” and much more.

How does it work?

You simply need to sign up with your email address to get started. Once you have signed up, you will be provided with a code which needs to be placed on every page of your site so that Google can track the data from each page of your website. This includes all external links as well. When someone visits your site, Google Analytics records the data. You get to see all of this data in your own account on their website!

And now with the new Google Analytics G4A update, there is even better tracking available to business owners.

What does it do?

Google Analytics provides insights on traffic sources, top pages, popular search terms, conversion rates, and more. It’s easy to use and it’s completely free! As mentioned above you can set goals in Google Analytics for things like “visits” or “sales.,” and much more. One thing that is great about this tool is its ability to track changes over time so you can compare how your marketing efforts are working out month-to-month (or year-to-year). This means you have access to detailed reports with everything on your website.

6. Create a blog

Blogging is a great way to generate new content, attract new readers and keep current readers engaged. It also provides an easy platform for building links that point back to your site.

Search engines love fresh content, so if you are looking for higher rankings in organic search results then it pays to blog on a regular basis. Not only will blogging help your SEO by bringing more visitors to your site but it can also help you build authority with Google because of the links pointing back at the site which helps the PageRank score and therefore increases its ranking in SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

7. Get Backlinks to Your Website

If you are looking to get more traffic for your website, then backlinking is one of the best ways to do it. It’s a way that you can generate interest in your business without having to spend money on advertising.

There are two different types of backlinks.

Do-follow

No-follow

The first is a do-follow link which passes along a certain amount of power or ranking strength to the site it links to, but does not guarantee that there will be any direct increase in traffic for your own website. The second type is nofollow and this kind of link doesn’t pass on power as a regular do-follow one would.

So it's important to only work towards gaining do-follow links that pass on value to your website. Don't be fooled by scams and no-follow backlinks.

Small Business SEO Tips for Beginners

Through this article, you have learned how important it is to use keywords and optimize your website for mobile devices. You also know about the power of Google Analytics and what it can do for you to help monitor website traffic rankings or conversions rates. Don't forget about keeping file sizes down, avoid using flash, and how a blog can help boost your SEO rankings. Finally, we discussed backlinks in order to get more traffic and help increase keyword rankings.

These are just a few ways that you can implement some simple SEO tips to increase your ranking and bring in more business. If you're looking for more SEO tips for small businesses, help auditing your website or need SEO services, send us a message. We would love to help you out!