SEO Starter Kit for New Business Owners


November 3, 2015

As a new business owner, you may already have your business plan, products and services ready to be released to the world, but you may not have a customer base yet. If you are a business with a physical storefront, your physical location may be your first priority, as it should be. However, after that or perhaps if your business operates solely online, you will need a website in order to drive traffic and attract new customers.

Having an aesthetically pleasing website is important, but almost equally as important to the appearance of your site is being able to get good rankings in search engines. This is where your website will be the most successful in attracting new customers at a low recurring cost. In order to reach good rankings in search engines, you have to establish a good foundation for your website in terms of search engine optimization (SEO).

A good SEO foundation usually comprises of a few key areas that are most important in a new website launch:

Titles

The page title is the first thing search engines read when they scan through the html code of each page of your website, otherwise known as “crawling” a website. It is important that you have a title for every page so the search engines can properly identify the topic and nature of your page. These titles should include targeted key terms relevant to the page and to your business. For example, if you are a florist in Sacramento, a common SEO title might include the key terms “Sacramento”, “florist” and your best selling flowers. It is highly recommended to keep page titles to between 50-60 characters.

Meta Descriptions

Meta Descriptions give search engines a description and written statement of what that page is about. Meta descriptions are usually text snippets comprised of 160 characters or less that are displayed in search results to help the user understand more about the page on which they are clicking. It is important that each page has a meta description, as it is your way of conveying a targeted message to your audience and to the search engines.

Content

Quality content is considered one of the most important elements of a solid SEO strategy. Most search engines now consider original quality content as their number one ranking factor on their algorithms. Before you launch your website, make sure every top-level page (such as Home, About Us, Products, Services, or any other link at the top of your website) has quality content. Quality content is generally more than 300 words and not “keyword stuffed,” meaning that in the content, you should include your targeted keywords only about 2-3 times throughout the page.

Internal Linking

Internal linking provides a way for search engine “spiders” or the bots that scan your website’s code, to navigate through your website. Think of your website as a spider web, where the more you can connect the lower level pages to your higher level pages, the more value your website has as a whole and the stronger the web is. In the content of your pages, it is recommended that you should be linking a minimum two to three times to other pages on your website. For example, if you’re talking about your seasonal flowers on your florist website, you could link the word “perennials” to the perennials you have for sale.

Audit Tools

Prior to site launch, it is highly recommended to install Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools file (known now as Search Console). Both tools assist you with making sure your website is active and will allow you to review any errors your site may have that prevent Google and other search engines from properly “crawling” or scanning your website. You will need to set up a Google account in order to have access to both tools.

Having a good SEO foundation is critical to the success of any new website launch. If you are not very tech savvy, it is best to work with an Digital marketing and web development company to get these areas in place prior to launch.

At Sales & Marketing Technologies, we have been helping businesses grow and thrive online for over 20 years. Our teams of skilled designers, developers, and marketers can get your business where it needs to go. If you’re ready to start enhancing your website or marketing efforts, contact us today.

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