Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners
If you're a small business owner or an independent artist, you've probably heard of SEO and how it can transform your online presence. But what exactly is SEO, and how can you make it work for you? In this blog, I'll break down the essentials of SEO and explain you how even simple changes can bring more traffic to your website.
So, what the heck is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is the practice of optimizing your website to improve its ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs); aka showing up higher on Google. When done right, SEO helps your target audience find your website when they search for products, services, or content like yours.
For small businesses and artists, strong SEO can mean the difference between being discovered or staying hidden in the vast online world. It's a cost-effective way to attract organic (free) traffic to your website, increase your visibility, and ultimately grow your audience.
Key Features of SEO
SEO might seem complex, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By focusing on creating quality content, understanding keyword strategies, and optimizing your site for users, you can start making an impact online.
Let’s break down the core elements of SEO that you can start implementing today:
Create Quality Content
High-quality content is the foundation of any SEO strategy. Focus on creating valuable, engaging content that resonates with your audience. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, or portfolio pieces; you have to make sure you’re answering questions and solving problems for your audience.
Google loves content that is informative, original, and well-researched. Provide value in ways that answer questions that your audience might look up and let the search engine do the rest of the heavy lifting.
Once people are connected to your site, the SEO doesn’t stop there. The user’s experience is a big deal when it comes to ranking your website. Google prioritizes websites that are easy to navigate, load quickly, and are mobile-friendly. Ensuring your site is visually appealing, quick to load, and accessible on all devices will boost both your rankings and user engagement.
To learn more about the importance of user experience, read this brief blog UX & UI: What do they even mean?
Understand Your Keywords
To get your website in front of the right people, you need to know what they’re searching for. This is where keyword research comes in. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Moz can help you find terms related to your niche that people are frequently searching for.
Keywords that an electric guitar e-commerce store ranks for
Once you have a list, naturally incorporate these keywords into your titles, headings, and content.
Optimize On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is about tweaking elements on each page of your website to make your website easier to understand and SEO-friendly. Google has to crawl millions of website results in factions of a second to provide people with their results. Your position in the SERP is based on an average score of many factors.
To make this easier for Google, we have to provide as much information as possible in the areas Google checks and ranks results by.
Title Tags: Use clear, descriptive titles for each page.
Meta Descriptions: This brief summary appears below your title in search results. Make it compelling! This might be automatically generated by your website or Google, but you can also take it into your own hands to write your Meta Descriptions.
Alt Text for Images: Describe your images for better visibility in Google Image Search. When media is uploaded it is purely the file name, which should be descriptive of what the image is to start with, if not make sure to rename it after uploading and add the Alt Text for it while you’re there. This also makes your website rank higher for accessibility for people who have to browse the web differently.
Headings: Organize your content with H1, H2, and H3 tags. Like for this blog, I’m using the header text format for my key article segments so Google can quickly and easily see what I’m writing about.
Informative Copy: Google isn’t going to share your website with someone if you’re not providing them value. This is why it’s important to make content that clearly answers questions that your audience would search. Using blogs is a great place to organize this info and create short pieces targeted to specific questions. Not only does each blog have all the features mentioned above, they can also be categorized and tagged.
While we do things to optimize for the search engine, overall we really want to optimize for users’ experience on our website and make information easy and intuitive for them to find.
Don’t Forget Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is about increasing your website’s authority online. A key way we do this is with Backlinks, which act like a vote of confidence in your website. When reputable sites link to your content, it tells Google that your site is trustworthy and valuable.
You can network with other local businesses, artists, or bloggers to get backlinks to your website. If you are an authorized dealer of certain products, ask them to list your website under their list of locations for those products. Chances are they already have a page of their website with “Authorized Locations” or “Partners” that list the other businesses that stock their things. If you are part of any foundations or charitable organizations, make sure they list you as a partner and you reciprocate the favour and list them on your site too.
The easiest way to create backlinks to your site is by setting up a Google My Business profile and list your business on Google Maps. Even if you don’t have store hours for people to come by for, this is a great hub to list your website, social media, key offerings, and more to people local to you. Many leads come from people just calling Google Maps listings for more information. In a similar vein, you can create Yelp, TripAdvisor or TrustPilot pages for your business. Not only do these contribute to your SEO and backlinks, they also host customer feedback. Having reviews for your business is a huge boost to your authority ranking and tells Google that you’re a valuable source to share with searchers.
Perpetually Improve Your SEO
SEO is an ongoing process and one that is easier done as you go, rather than all at once. Keep in mind best practices and always label pages properly, use headings to break up content, and record alt text for images. It’s the latter that’s easy to fall behind on but can make a huge impact.
Like all ongoing processes, tracking progress is key to continual improvement. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your traffic, see what’s working, and adjust your strategy as needed.
SEO doesn’t deliver instant results, but consistent effort over time will pay off. Remember, SEO is about building long-term visibility for your brand. Keep learning, tweaking and growing—you'll soon see the rewards!
If you want help auditing your website’s ranking or implementing SEO practices (or simply want to discuss your brand’s online presence) send me a message!
