How Does SEO Work? An ON-Page SEO Tutorial for Small Businesses (Part 1)

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SEO can seem like an enigma these days, and it’s difficult to keep up with the $64,000 question: How does SEO work?

But make no mistake, you can’t expect your website to be seen without it. Too many small business owners create a website and then expect it to automatically bring in leads. It doesn’t work like that.

The good news is that small businesses absolutely can play in the SEO game.

They can even outrank large corporations if they have the right SEO strategy in place!

Let’s get one thing clear…

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of abiding by certain rules and requirements laid out by Google (and other search engines) for the purpose of generating organic website traffic.

Now, what is organic is often perceived as being easy and natural; however, organic traffic only comes in easily and naturally after you put in a ton of hard work and planning.

And there is no simple formula to follow because every business is different. A business that has more competition than another business will require more time and hard work to reach first page results than another less competitive niche.

But, enough of the doom and gloom.

Organic traffic is something every business should work to achieve, and once you start getting results from it, you can expect continued success as long as you continue the work. There are some cut and dry techniques you can build into your marketing strategy to get the rankings you desire, and that’s what we’re going to dig into here.

What Is On-Page SEO for Small Business?

A successful SEO strategy requires both on-page and off-page SEO. In this article, we are going to look at on-page SEO for small businesses. To learn more about off-page SEO, click here.

On-page SEO is all of the stuff you do on your website to improve your rankings on Google. It’s the foundation of any effective SEO strategy.

How Does SEO Work? The On-Page Elements You Need to Know

Always Write for Readability

We are placing readability before all of the other tips in this article because, essentially, it is what Google is all about. The readability of a page or post makes or breaks it for the user. When a piece of content is easy to consume, it creates a good user experience, and that’s what Google wants.

Google doesn’t want its users to have to scan through hordes of content to find the answer to a question. They want it to be right there at their fingertips.

Make no mistake about it, the way you write and lay out your content is essential. Your readers don’t want to read content that is only written for search engines and not people. And they don’t want to read long paragraphs that feel tedious to consume.

And we hate to break it to you, but no one is reading your content from start to finish.

They are scanning your content in search of the answers to their questions. That means you need to make your content scannable by doing the following:

Write Awesome Content Consistently

The next important element of on-page SEO is content, and having a blog is a big part of that. Google wants to know that your site is freshly updated, relevant, and valuable.

By posting blogs on a regular basis, you keep your site fresh. But make sure your articles are highly valuable! In most cases, it is best to write longer content (at least 1,000 words) because it allows you to go more in depth on a topic, thereby providing more value.

Use Your Keywords Effectively

Back in the day, you could spam your content with lots of keywords and expect to get great ranking results. If you try to do that now, however, you’ll only achieve the opposite result. Keywords are still essential today, but it requires a thorough strategy.

Here are the ways you should utilize your keywords:

Important Tips About Keywords

Now, there are some pretty important things to note about all of this keyword stuff so that you don’t shoot yourself in the foot:

Use Internal & Outbound Links

Internal links are links within your content to other pages on your site. A strong internal linking strategy helps Google understand your website and how the pages and posts relate to each other. It allows Google to see more of your web pages so that it can rank them. It also provides a better user experience by allowing your readers to click on things they are interested in as they read your content.

Outbound links are links to other websites from your website. They help Google better understand your content, but most importantly, they improve trust in and authority of your website by association. That’s why it is essential that the outbound links you use are from quality, reputable sites.

Include Graphics

People like to view and read content that also has a visual appeal to it; therefore, Google likes when we include graphics within our content. Break up your content to include images, videos, infographics, and other graphical elements, and Google will reward you for it.

Build the Right Structure

The architecture or structure of a website is more important than most people think. A properly structured site helps Google see all of your pages and rank them in relevant searches.

Here are some of the most important structural elements to consider for your website:

In the end, SEO of today is all about giving searchers want they want: quality info at their fingertips without having to search and search; real, useful content; solutions to their problems; and up-to-date content that is accurate and high quality.

Next Step: No SEO strategy is complete without off-page SEO, so give this link a click to learn about that.

 


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About Lindsey Perron

As Thomas’ daughter, Lindsey was introduced to the world of sales and marketing at an early age. Curious about what her dad did, Lindsey would jump at every opportunity to help and ride along on sales calls. Always quick to take charge and lead the group—a trait that has only grown with time—Lindsey was frequently told by her parents that she was destined to be a manager or CEO of some sort. While working toward earning her bachelor’s degree in human services from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Lindsey interned with the UW Office of Equality and Affirmative Action and served on several councils, which gave her the opportunity to develop her persuasive writing skills, researching skills, problem-solving skills, project management skills, and more. After working as the lead teacher of the 4-year-old room at the local daycare center, Lindsey decided to switch gears and join the Viral Solutions team. In her position, Lindsey is able to help clients think through an end goal and reverse engineer it into the steps needed to achieve it.

When she’s not working, Lindsey loves spending time with family, be it traveling somewhere together or just hanging out at home.