Things changed a little over a year ago. Google released a new way of ranking search engines, and if you are struggling to adapt, you are probably struggling to stay afloat in the search engine rankings.
The days of cramming your website with lots of high ranking and important keywords and getting lots of traffic are over.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, has changed in the past year for everyone, not just small businesses. The changes affects the big company websites as well. The good news is you really don’t have to hire an expensive SEO firm to “optimize” your website.
The bad news is, you can’t really neglect your website.
What does this mean for you and your small business website?
While there are some tricks to SEO that should not be ignored, the bottom line is the search engines have adapted and become smarter. They no longer reward keyword rich websites just because you put the keywords in your “meta tags.”
Some websites would engage in what is known as “black hat” methodology that would include putting various highly searched keywords in their websites even though the website did not have anything to do with those terms.
To combat that, Google, and the other search engines, adopted a strategy that ensures your website has those keywords in the content.
There are three simple things that a small business website can do to maximize his or her SEO.
First, the small business owner have a content-driven website.
By that, I mean that the website should be updated frequently with good, relevant content about the subject or subjects in which the small business owner is most familiar with and an expertise.
Further, your categories and structure should be based on the keywords found in your content. It’s simple. If you are financial consultant, and you know a lot about managing finances, then your keywords should center around the content and become the basis for your websites’ architecture. Your navigation menu should include keywords that take readers directly to the content about your keywords.
Second, your website should have good social sharing or cross platform integration.
The search engines place a high value on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. Keep that in mind. Your website should encourage others to share your content on these social media websites given it visibility across multiple platforms.
One way to do this is the include social media share buttons on your websites, especially at the end of a post. Another way is share your content via your own social media networks giving others the opportunity to see your content. Social media etiquette is important, so don’t be spammy when sharing your content and always share other’s content as well!
Third, build your website on a platform like WordPress.
WordPress is the ultimate platform in combining traditional SEO strategies with the ability to run a content-driven website that inherently provides social media integration.
My specialty is setting up WordPress websites.
If you are interested in building a WordPress website which will provide for a more content-driven website with greater social media integration, contact me today!