SEO More Important to Small Businesses

Small businesses are used to getting buried in search results. Many small businesses don't know that a call to their agency can improve their standings by using a process called Search Engine Optimization. Especially for retailers selling online, getting on the first page of Google can prove tremendous results in sales.

Some easy changes you can make now:

*Yes, you have a catchy domain name, but does it tell people exactly what you sell? The reason being, search engines look for keywords in a domain name that are related to the products or services a user is searching for.

I, personally disobeyed this rule. When I'm stuck on something, that's it. I've wanted to use the name 'Rock Candy' since I was three years old. Always trust your instincts. I think through branding and more clever ways to optimize SEO, you should pick the name you want versus a name based on what Google will do. The easy road is not always the best one.

But if you are selling something such as baby gifts for example, having those words as part of your domain name will help SEO instantly.

*Also, I said I would never blog. I thought it was something narcissists did, until I tried it. And maybe I'm still a narcissist, who knows. But I learned that if you make your blog useful, people will come back. But mostly, people usually don't have time for reflection in our crazy world. When I blog, and think about a topic I knew nothing about when I first started in the industry, it just flows, and even I learn something that relates to the value of the services I provide. Look, you own your own business. Do what you are good at and trust the experts to do the rest. People aren't taught SEO in college, so don't feel like these are things you should know--seek help and you can find the time to do what you love. This just happens to be what I love (and yes, I seek therapy).

So try blogging--Google actually "sees" activity. Keep your blog on your own web site so that keywords in your blog give your rankings a boost. But don't just blog to blog, make it relevant, because when people comment that counts as "activity" to a search engine like Google.

Work with your agency to have them improve your SEO--they will check out more than what I just mentioned, including the keywords in the text, titles and coding on your site to make sure you get top billing.

That's all for today.