Small business SEO: Top 5 things to increase your website’s search engine visibility
Posted March 24, 2009 – 2:22 pm
Small businesses are usually pretty terrible when it comes gaining visibility on search engines. That’s because they don’t implement the search engine optimization (SEO) basics for their websites to gain traction with search engines like Google.
This post outlines the Top 5 do-it-yourself SEO steps you can take to improve your small business website and dramatically increase your visibility on Google and other search engines.
- Use keyword-rich page titles unique to each page
- Craft informative keyword-rich page descriptions
- Use distinctive set of meta keywords for each page
- Create SEO-friendly page url’s
- Choose an SEO-friendly domain name
These 5 steps constitute SEO 101 – the basic blocking and tackling of SEO for any website large or small. Of themselves, these 5 steps will not only improve your website’s SEO visibility, they will also create the foundation for other things you may want to do later. Without the right ‘foundation’, everything else you try with your website – even pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Google AdWords – are going to be harder and more expensive.
You can probably do all of these things yourself – so long as you have admin access to your website. If you don’t have admin access, then you should maybe figure out how to get it before you pay an SEO firm a bunch of money to do this work for you – plus, doing it right takes a pretty detailed knowledge of your business that few consultants will be able to match.
All of these items relate to getting the ‘meta data’ on your small business website correct. Meta data are a set of semi-technical elements of your web pages that form an important foundation for your SEO performance. If you get your meta data correct, then you will be creating a solid foundation for additional DIY SEO efforts on your site.
1. Use keyword-rich page titles unique to each page
Google and web searchers both prefer web pages that have informative, keyword-rich page titles that are unique to each page. The page title is not the same as the heading you may be using at the top of the page to begin your content – though though the two should be closely related.
Instead, the page title is more of a behind the scenes techie thing that is the starting point for search engine spiders (the software that ‘crawls’ web pages and indexes content). The page title also shows up as the first line of each search result in Google and other search results – and you can see it at the very top of your browser in Internet Explorer and Firefox above the search bar.
Here are some examples of good page titles:
- Every Small Business Should Be a Web Publisher | WebBizGeek
- Landline and Mobile Phone Numbers in Bangalore | Call Bangalore, India
- India International Phone Cards – Calling India from Saudi Arabia with International Phone Cards
- Google Goes (Slightly) Semantic with Tweaks to Search Results
- Stone Fireplaces, Granite Flooring, Marble Flooring, Stone Flooring – Boston, MA – GerrityStone
And here are some examples of bad page titles:
- Fieldmaster Ltd Wiz Product Range
- Nomir: Onychomycosis
- DiamondTouch by Circle Twelve
- Financial Happiness
You’ll notice the group of good titles have a lot more words and that they each convey something close to a complete thought. You sort of know what is going to be on these pages just based on these pages titles. Most important, each page title purposefully uses words that are likely keywords or keyword phrases that web searchers might use to find what you are offering.
The second group of titles are all actual examples pulled from small businesses I have advised. Note that they all use relatively few words and the words don’t really make any sense by themselves. Most troublesome is that they aren’t loaded with keywords that people might use to find these companies. The titles all reflect a fairly inward, product centric focus that is very common among small businesses.
To find your page titles, either look at the top line in Internet Explorer or Firefox – or look at the page source code. Since this will be handy for some of the next tips, you can find the source code by right clicking on the page and choosing ‘View Source’ (in IE) or ‘View Page Source’ (in FF). When you do this, a new window will open with a bunch of gibberish, aka code. Type ctrl + f to open a search window and enter ‘title’ into the search box. Then search for something that looks like this:
<title>Every Small Business Should Be a Web Publisher | WebBizGeek</title>
In general, you will find this bit of code relatively near the top of your pages.
2. Craft informative keyword-rich page descriptions
Similar to page titles, page descriptions are another behind the scenes techie part of your web page that you don’t see when you are actually on your website. But good page descriptions are extremely important part of a well grounded do-it-yourself SEO program because Google uses them as a kind of short hand way of understanding the content of the entire page – and perhaps more importantly, because Google often displays these page descriptions in it’s search engine results.
Since it is what many potential visitors might see as they flash through the search results pages, it is crucial that the page description convey something meaningful that makes them want to click through to your site. As a result, the almost forgotten page description can have a major bearing on whether or not a person clicks on your page – if the page description doesn’t capture their interest in a flash, then they may well move on to the next result to see if that speaks better to them. Since Google also highlights the keywords used by the searcher, your description is more likely to pop if it contains relevant their keywords.
Page descriptions are typically a 1-sentence recap (20 or so words or less) of what the page is about – basically the 1-line executive summary. Like everything else on your webiste, your page descriptions should be keyword-rich to help the page get indexed properly by Google. They should also be customized and unique for each page so as help differentiate the page from all others on the site. The page description should also echo the content in the main body of the page – and in all the other meta elements.
As with page titles, you can find your page descriptions in the page source by searching for ‘description’. Here is an example of the code you might find:
<meta name=”description” content=”Offering the largest selection of stone fireplaces, granite flooring, marble flooring and stone flooring in Boston, MA.” />
Of course, you should also be able to see the page description, page titles, and so forth in the admin panel of your website.
3. Use distinctive set of meta keywords for each page
It sounds a bit redudant, but the next thing you want are a good set of keyword-rich keywords in what’s called the ‘meta’. ‘Meta’ is a part of the web page source code that provides Google a sort of shorthand view of the page. Page title and page description are also part of the ‘meta’ for each page.
While a certain amount of overlap is desirable and expected, the keywords used on each page should be unique as a group and tailored to echo to the specific content of the page. Using an identical set of keywords over and over again on each page is generally not a good idea - it makes your pages look the same to Google and that is a bad thing.
For each individual page, the keywords you use in the meta should be the same ones you are using in the page title, the page description, the page url, and throughout the body of the content itself. In other words, you want each page to have a coherent, self-reinforcing set of keywords appearing in every part of the page (but especially in the elements listed in this post).
To see your meta keywords in the page source code, search for ‘keywords’ in the source code to find something that looks like this:
<meta name=”keywords” content=”stone fireplaces boston, granite flooring boston, marble flooring boston, stone flooring boston, stone fireplaces MA, granite flooring MA, marble flooring MA, stone flooring MA” />
As with page title and description, you should also be able to find it in your admin panel.
4. Create SEO-friendly page url’s
The next part of your DIY SEO project is to get your website to produce keyword-rich, SEO-friendly url’s for each individual page. Your page url’s should echo the keywords you are using elsewhere – and on many web platforms, these url’s will be automatically produced for you based on the page title and domain name.
Having well formed SEO-friendly page url’s helps you in two ways. First, it reinforces your core keywords and presents a more coherent, cohesive web page to Google’s search engine spiders. Second, it conveys meaning to web searchers as they are scanning search engine results. Most web searchers will favor the search results that seem most responsive to their query – a result with a page url in normal language that echos their keywords is likely to appear more relevant than one that looks like machine code.
Here are some examples of well crafted SEO-friendly page url’s:
- www.webbizgeek.com/every-small-business-should-be-a-web-publisher
- www.callingbangalore.com/bangalore-landline-and-mobile-phone-numbers
- www.mashable.com/2009/03/24/google-semantic-tweak-search
- www.gigaom.com/2009/03/24/gizmo5-founder-skype-for-sip-is-vaporware
And here are some examples of non-SEO-friendly page url’s:
- www.fieldmaster224.co.uk/wiz.html
- www.nomirmedical.com/products/om.htm
- www.circletwelve.com/products/diamondtouch.html
- www.financial-happiness.com/public/main.cfm
Getting control over your page url’s will typically require a specific technical solution, often a plug-in module designed specifically for the purpose of generating SEO-friendly url’s. Most modern web platforms will have such plug-in modules that can be easily installed in a matter of minutes. Once in place, these modules enable a high degree of control over page url’s – usually on an automated basis with no manual intervention. However, many platforms still do not provide such capabilities easily. If your site is not already producing SEO-friendly, ask your provider if and how that can be done. If it is not readily possible, then that’s one strike against your existing technology solution.
To see what your current page url’s are, simply look in the browser’s address field when your pages load. The page url is what is in there after ‘http://________’.
5. Choose an SEO-friendly domain name
Many companies won’t be able to do much with this point, but if possible, you want to choose a domain name that helps you gain SEO traction – or at least one that doesn’t hurt you.
Where possible, you want a domain name that:
- Includes one or more of the keywords you are targeting
- Is a .com version of the url
Obviously, if you are already an established company with a longstanding website, you aren’t likely to want to change either your company name or your domain name. But if you are just starting out and/or your website is relatively new, you might want to consider it.
Having a domain name which includes one or more keywords in it helps you in two ways. It further reinforces for Google, Yahoo, et al that you are what your keywords say – a kitchen remodeler, a dry cleaner, a green design company, a massage therapist, or whatever. Also, because of the way Google highlights searchers’ keywords, it gives web searchers yet another thing to key off of if they see you in the search results. A result with a lot of highlighted terms tends to get more attention than one that doesn’t.
Having a .com url is perhaps a bit less crucial, but still preferable when there’s a choice. Not so much because Google demonstrates any strong preference for .com domains, but more because web searchers tend to believe that .com’s are more authoritative than other types of domains – .net, .us, .tel, etc. This isn’t about real reality, but rather about perceptions on the part of searchers. But since getting web searchers to click on your result instead of someone else’s is often a game of inches, every little bit helps.
The converse of this is also true: You don’t want to have a url that is somehow in conflict with the rest of your keyword positioning. Stupid example to make the point: you’re a dry cleaner who somehow ended up with the url Butchers-of-Chicago.com (perhaps because ‘Butcher’ is your last name). Since ‘butcher’ is totally different from ‘dry cleaner’ (and Google isn’t smart enough to know that it is actually your last name), something like this can throw off your otherwise carefully constructed SEO foundation. It is best avoided.
The point being: Try to get a domain name that helps you. Failing that, don’t use one that hurts you.
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As a closing point, depending on the web platform or technology you are using, it may be easy or hard to change your page titles, keywords, and other items listed here. Ideally, you have administrative access to the backend of your website and it provides a nice interface where you can tinker with these as necessary to get them right (and they will require tinkering – no one is smart enough to get this done just right the first time).
If you have a platform that doesn’t afford easy access to these elements and/or are using a provider that makes it tiresome or expensive to make changes, then you have got a potential problem and you may need to begin looking at other options for managing your website.
