The Savannah Chamber of Commerce is holding a digital marketing seminar series for its members over the next chunk of months, and I’m excited to share my notes with you! Sit back with a cup of coffee and read on for some thoughts on SEO (search engine optimization) and how you can make it work for your small business.

Going into this SEO for small business seminar, I knew the basics of how to create an optimized web page. I even wrote an ebook about how I use those steps to create SEO-friendly blog posts to increase blog traffic. But I also went into it with questions I had gotten from clients after their sites were built. They were getting email pitches from services promising to get them on the front page of google, spitting out all kinds of really technical jargon that was enough to make a tech savvy lady like myself start to get intimidated. Maybe I didn’t know enough about SEO?

My concerns were laid to rest at the SEO seminar, where three experts in SEO talked about those kinds of services, and how they’re trying to game the system. Google is changing how they do things to ding those types of practices – so the bottom line there is you don’t need to give those guys emailing you pitches about the front page of google your money.

How do you get on the front page of Google?

Ranking is about the fundamentals. Keyword research, great content, links, and setting up the page or blog post correctly.

My simple formula is research the phrase you want to target on a page. Use that phrase in the title. Use it in the first paragraph. Use it 1-2 more times in the text, along with like phrases that are relevant. Use it in the image name.

Click to grab our detailed guide on how to do this stuff.

As you start to try new things, don’t forget to measure the changes. Google analytics needs to be integrated into your site so you can keep track of what’s working and what’s not.

To research keywords to use, take a look at term explorer. It’s a free tool that prioritized keywords to focus on.

Some of Google’s changes are to keep a buzz going about Google. Their goal is to provide info – NOT to get people to your site. Think about how much info you get in google search now – maps, photos, etc, without having to click through to a site. Make sure the content on your site is super relevant to what you’re doing.

Link It Up

Links to your site show it’s important, and Google likes that. Focus on quality links over quantity. A few really good links from bigger more important sites are way better than a ton of links to your site from sites that aren’t prestigious at all.

Focus on getting local links if the local community is crucial to your business – cross promote with other area businesses so each gets a link on the other’s site. You could also ask local vendors you’ve worked with if you could write a testimonial for their website, with a link back to your site.

Moz open site explorer – will show current links to your site. You can put in a competitor’s url on that page and find out what their backlinks are. Then target those as well.

Another way to get a good strong backlink to your site – find a nonprofit to sponsor, and ask them to put a link to your biz on their site.

Authority is king – better to get 1 great link than 5 bad ones.

Age is important – how long have the links been pointing to you? You also don’t want too many links too quickly. Take it slow, aim for 5% growth in number of links in a month.

Content Marketing and SEO

Blogging – what is the goal for your business, what do you want your customers to do? Think about your focus for the blog.

On social media, you can develop different personas – different branding for different customers on different channels. (Example given: instagram feed focusing on younger customers, while Facebook can focus on a little bit older customers). Think about the channels you’re using, and how you can best use them for the customer. It’s all about providing value.

These days, it’s getting harder and harder to rank on Google. It’s more work. If you create more content, and you’re an authority on your topic, that’s where Google is heading. They want the most relevant info to give to the person searching for info on Google, and Google matters most because they’ve got the most market share in internet search.

IDEA: Think about the top 10 questions you’re asked about your business, and create content for your site that answers those questions.

Do one or two things really well, you don’t need to do everything under the sun (I think this applies to blog topics, social media, but also your business. Focus, young grasshopper.)

Question from audience: How does business stay informed on Google changes?

There’s literally hundreds of changes to the Google algorithm every single year – the best thing to do is stick to fundamentals, and watch your Google Analytics. You can see traffic and trends, and when you see an issue where numbers drop you can ask “what changed?”

Bottom line, focus on your business, and keep an eye on analytics. Test things, don’t rely on what you read. What some people say don’t work, might actually work.

Cutts.com – videos on what Google is doing

Mobile Responsive Sites are a Must

Mobile isn’t going anywhere – check your analytics, you’ll see about 50% traffic coming from smartphones.

On a phone, is your phone number on your site clickable? Is your address clickable to get directions from the phone’s map app?

theresponsinator.com – will show what your site looks like on every screen, from the smallest smartphone up through desktop monitors

A mobile responsive website is better than a mobile phone version of a site, and if your business is an on the go search type (restaurants, hotels, etc) think about mobile design first before desktop to ensure best possible experience in the field.

Internal Links On Your Site are Important

SEO has on page and off page factors. On page = linking to other pages of your site from the current page. Off page = linking to another site.

Use anchor text – a phrase like seo for bloggers that links to another page of your site that’s relevant to the anchor text (in this case I’m linking to my ebook on seo for bloggers.)

If you’ve got a page on your site that ranks really well and gets lots of traffic, get links on that page that point to other pages of your site that don’t do as well.

Blog is a great place to make use of anchor text.

Linking to other sites is a good thing – Google sees you as trustworthy – I care about my site visitors and I want to give em the best info possible. You want a good user experience, where they get the info they need.

Your site architecture is key – how you get people from one page to another, how you target what you want to rank for. Use each page of your site to target another phrase

YouTube

YouTube is the second biggest search engine – because it’s Google. YouTube videos show up quickly on google because it’s Google, and the search engine crawls the info quickly.

Optimize it like you would a page on your own site – pick a phrase to target. Use it in the title, use it in the description, write up a good description and in that description link to a page of your website.

In my case, I’m thinking about doing a tutorial video on a technique I use to create hand painted logos. I can write up a good description for the YouTube video, and then I can link to either my logos & branding portfolio on my website, or I could kick the viewers over to my contact page to get started on a logo of their own.

You could do a transcript of the YouTube video to get lots of crawlable text on the page

Jargon is Greek to Me

If your field uses a lot of specialized terms, or jargon, that the general public doesn’t understand, you can use a tool like term explorer to help convert those words into everyday language

Keyword Tips

Look for ones with a sales mindset, including words like purchase, affordable, buy. (example given – shoe store would want to target phrases like “buy cute shoes” to get customers that are looking to spend money)

Think about the weird phrases with low competition, targeting those will help you show up higher

Reelseo – a site all about how to get videos to rank better on Google

What About Google Plus?

Social has an effect on your ranking, so it’s a good idea to be on it. Your business page on Google Plus should have a really great header image, that gives you better chance of showing up on Google

25% of SEO is attributed to social media

Every image you post needs to have alt text

Meta data on images is getting less and less important (Note from Steph: I still think it’s important because you can attach your copyright info to the photo that way)