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There are billions of Google searches every day. Hoping your company will appear in one of them? It means optimizing your website. Search Engine Optimization (or SEO, for short) means helping people find your business online by tweaking certain aspects so you become more visible to Google. 

After all, they won’t choose you if they can’t find you, and the chances are good that you have a lot of competition out there. How do you increase your SEO ranking? These tips can help. 

Make Your Website Feel Amazing

User experience is at the top of any good experience with a brand, and if your website doesn’t feel amazing to users, Google is going to notice. You can make your website feel like a great place to be by focusing on a couple of things.

Another is page loading speed. If your pages load too slowly, people won’t be able to engage with your content, and that means they might click away before they ever see what you have in store for them. More than that, though, if your pages load too slowly, the search engine bots will notice fairly quickly, and that could harm your overall rankings. 

Include Great Content

Built a website in 2001 and you haven’t touched it since? The chances are good that your ranking isn’t quite what it should be, but at least part of that reason is that your content isn’t what it should be. The best content is recent, relevant to purchasers, and offers great, high-quality advice, answers, and more.

Your content should have the keywords you need to rank well, but it should also share the information visitors want most to help keep them on your website. Don’t forget that content isn’t just about text. It can also be about the video, too. Great video content can be just as engaging and important as text, so create a plan to incorporate both throughout your site. 

Make Linking a Priority

You’ve probably heard that linking is important to any SEO strategy, and you’re right. What you may not realize, though, is that it’s so much more than important. It’s absolutely essential. Your internal linking strategy should be sound. Link well throughout your site. If you link to other sites, check those links regularly. They should work well and be helpful to your visitors. Backlinks play a role, too. They’re a signal to Google that your site is an authority in its industry, so seek great backlinks that are relevant and really do help improve your image online. 

Consider All Users Equally

If a customer is looking at your site on his phone, it should look amazing. If a customer is looking at your site on his tablet, it should look amazing. If a customer is looking at your site on his desktop computer, it should look amazing. Notice a theme here? No matter where your site is being viewed, it should look great, and that takes responsive website design. Often you can create a responsive web design when you initially create your site, but if you already have a site you love, you can typically hire a developer to make it responsive. 

Optimize for Local 

There are many different types of SEO, and among them is local SEO. For small business communities, particularly those with brick and mortar locations, this is key. Local SEO is the practice of optimizing your site for those people using “near me” type searches. It can help you connect with real customers and ensure you’re as visible as possible to them. 

Some studies have found that nearly 64% of local customers use Google to find a local business like yours, so it’s particularly important right now. Optimization here starts by claiming your Google My Business listing and creating a complete profile for your company. You’ll also want to standardize your name, address, and phone number across the internet. Beyond that, simply creating content around local users can help them find you. 

For example, if you blog regularly, creating blog entries around things happening nearby can be a great way to help them find your company. 

Consider Affordable SEO for Small Business From The Right Provider

Maybe the biggest SEO tip for small business owners is to connect with a professional who can help. If you’re unfamiliar with the practice of SEO or you know you don’t have time to implement real changes in your website, working with a professional digital marketing team that understands what to change and how to do it is essential to ensure you get the visibility your company deserves. 

SEO is important, but it’s continually changing, and working with a professional SEO team can help you take advantage of those changes in a timely manner without pushing you to take time away from your customers.