Investigate the cheaper route to online marketing success: optimise your website to improve your performance in organic search results. In this series of blog posts for small businesses, we demonstrate how search engine optimisation (SEO) can increase your client base and therefore your turnover. We also focus exclusively on the techniques which are most suitable for SMEs.
In our on-page SEO post we looked at changes you could easily make to your website, from meta descriptions to page titles and images. Next, we focused on off-page SEO, which includes techniques to improve your site's reputation elsewhere on the web. The third and final instalment in our SEO tips for small businesses outlines Technical SEO.
Why bother with SEO? Why not just use paid ads?
Consumers are more clued-up than ever, valuing organic content more than paid advertising, as it is seen to be more authentic. Whether this is on Instagram or Google search results, many people will skip over paid content and move straight to organic content.
Use Google ads to launch a new product or a new website, but then focus on promoting the page elsewhere to drive traffic to your site.
Google ads are not a good or cost-effective long-term marketing strategy for an existing website.
What is 'technical' SEO?
Instead of on-page SEO, think of technical SEO as on-site SEO. Instead of a marketing activity, it is more closely linked to work done by web designers and developers.
As a small business owner, you most likely won't be able to action all the points on your own. However, by understanding the key tactics of technical SEO you can make better decisions regarding your site. This includes knowing when to seek additional support.
With Technical SEO, you're improving functionality to improve how Google's algorithms rate your site. Google knows its users want fast sites, no broken links, and so on.
Technical SEO tactics
1. Page experience
Google announced this new ranking factor in 2021, with metrics it calls 'Core Web Vitals'. The metrics focus on load speed, responsiveness, and visual stability - we'll spare you the acronyms! Using Google's Search Console, ensure your site scores well for page experience on both desktops and mobiles.
2. Page load speed
Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool will tell you exactly what is slowing your site down. Use this info to make an informed decision. Is it time to get a developer involved? Or, it may be simple things you can easily sort yourself, such as making images smaller. Keeping images under 300KB, apart from a banner which can be up to 1MB, is a good start. Minifying HTML, CSS and JS also helps.
3. Structured data
If you have structured data, it will take up extra space in your Google result. For example, product reviews, prices, and product names can all appear underneath the page title and description. There's no reason not to use it! Visit schema.org to learn more, and also read up on structured data markup in Google's Search Central.
In this example of search results for recipes, the number of reviews, cooking time and calorie count feature in the search result.
Because the structured data labels each individual element of the recipe, users can search for your recipe by ingredient, calorie count, cooking time, and so on.
4. Keep it tidy
Set up 301 redirects if you delete a page. Ensure there are no links which lead to a non-existent page, resulting in a 404 error. Make sure all images are appearing, and so on.
Focus on a clear site structure, with short URLs.
5. Sitemap
Many CMSs will have this inbuilt, but if not, you can upload a sitemap at Google's Search Console.
6. Mobile-friendly
If you're redesigning your website, always use a mobile-first strategy; the majority of internet searches are done on mobiles.
7. Get HTTPS
Even if your site is purely informational and not transactional, get a SSL or TLS certificate installed on your website. Your web hosting provider can help, or you can request a certificate from an issuing authority and install it yourself.
8. Hreflang tag
If you have a multilingual site, make sure Google knows what language each page is.
Improve SEO, boost sales
Easier said than done, we know! However by improving SEO, you're working to drive the RIGHT kind of traffic to your site. As hard as you try with Google ads, half the time people who make it to your site haven't even read the ad title and are looking for something completely different to what you have to offer. This will lead to a high bounce rate and no return on your marketing spend.
By focusing your on-page SEO efforts on keywords and content which are relevant to your business, and considering the various stages of the customer buying cycle, the traffic which comes to you will be more likely to convert. Off-page and technical SEO support your on-page efforts, improving search performance overall.
We know you work incredibly hard to deliver great service and a great product! You simply need to deliver your content to the right person to stand a good chance of winning a sale. And when you improve your visibility in search results, we're sure new customers will find and love you too. #TeamSmallBusiness
