A Simple SEO Checklist To Help Your Small Business Get Started
I’m a big fan of checklists. Anytime I leave the house I always make sure I have my wallet, keys, phone, and chapstick. Yes, I carry chapstick with me all the time.
A pilot has a checklist to go through before an airplane takes off.
A baker has a checklist of ingredients and steps to follow for baking a cake.
There is also an SEO checklist for small businesses that can help make sure important steps do not get missed.
SEO has a lot of moving parts.
You can write great content, but if it has the wrong keyword you won’t get the results you were after. You can pick the right keyword, but the page will struggle if the website is slow or does not work well on a phone.
That is why a checklist comes in handy.
An SEO Checklist For Small Businesses
Here is the list we will work through:
☐ Find the right keywords
☐ Give each page a clear goal
☐ Write great quality content
☐ Use the keyword in the right places
☐ Add helpful internal links
☐ Make sure the website works on phones
☐ Check website speed and site health
☐ Use the Google Holy Trinity
☐ Review the list and do it again
You do not (and should not) need to finish every item in one sitting. Start at the top and work your way through it.
Start With Keyword Research
Keyword research is the starting point of SEO.
It is also the step that gets skipped too often.
Before you start writing content, you need to know what people are searching for. You also need to know if the keyword is a good match for your business and if you have a real chance of ranking for it.
I would love to rank number one for “web design.”
The problem is that “web design” is far too broad. It would be very hard for a small company like ours to compete with every web design company, software platform, school, blog, and national brand that talks about web design.
A keyword such as “Green Bay Web Design” is much more focused. It matches what we do, where we are, and who we want to reach.
A good keyword does not always need thousands of searches. A smaller keyword can still bring in the right people.
The right person is worth far more than a lot of people who were never looking for your service in the first place.
Give Every Page A Clear Goal
Every important page on your website should have a job.
A web design page should focus on web design. A hosting page should focus on website hosting. A blog post should answer one main question.
Setting up one page rank for every service offered or keyword needed rarely works well. A page like that will almost always be tough to read.
Before you write or update a page, ask yourself a few questions: What keyword should this page rank for? Who is this page for? What question should it answer? What should someone do after reading it?
When you know the answers, writing the page becomes much easier.
Write Great Quality Content
If cheap content does rank, it will not likely hold that ranking for long.
It is too easy for another business to write better and more useful content that can take that ranking away.
Good content is clear, helpful, and easy to read. It should satisfy the questions people have and not just fill space to hit a certain word count.
Write with clear headings and shorter paragraphs. Adding in bulleted lists can also make information easier to follow. Add images that help explain the topic or showcase the work you do.
Your keywords should be in the content you write, but be certain to never force them into the text. That would be keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing makes content hard to read. It also tends to make the writing sound off.
Write for the person reading the page first. Then make sure Google can clearly tell what the page is about.
Put The Keyword In The Right Places
Once you have the right keyword, add them in all the right places.
That can includes:
- The page or blog title
- The main H1 heading
- The opening paragraph
- One or more other headings
- The page address
- The SEO title
- The meta description
- The main page content
- Image alt text when it makes sense
The keyword does not need to appear in every heading or every sentence.
It should feel natural.
A person should be able to read the page without noticing that you were trying to fit a keyword into it.
Add Helpful Internal Links
Internal links take a user from one page on your website to another. They essentially build the spider web that is your website.
The spider web that we hope the Google bots crawl again and again.
Internal links help visitors find more information. They also help Google find other pages and understand how the pages on your website are connected.
A blog about website security could link to your website hosting page. A hosting page could link to a blog that explains SSL certificates or website backups.
Whenever you publish a new page or blog, be sure to include two or three links in that content to other pages that are related or provide more insight.
While there is no set rule for exactly how many like each page should have on it, each page should have at least one. And each page should have at least one other page or post linking to it.
Make Sure Your Website Works Well On Phones
If your website is not responsive, there is a limited point in doing SEO. Google does not want to send people to a dated and poorly built website.
Your website must work flawlessly on a phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop computer. And any size of any of those devices.
The text needs to be easy to read (that usually means it needs to be larger). Buttons should be easy to tap (again, usually means larger for those of us with big fingers). Forms should work ust as easily on a phone as on a laptop. The menu should be easy to use, and nothing should hang off the side of the screen.
Google wants to show their users websites that answer their questions AND are easy to use.
Your website needs to do both.
Check Website Speed And Site Health
Your website does not need to load before someone can blink, but it should not make people wait around either.
Large photos, poor hosting, old plugins, and website errors can all slow things down.
Your checklist should include:
- Check that the website loads at a good speed
- Make sure the SSL certificate is working
- Fix broken links
- Fix pages that lead to errors
- Resize photos that are far larger than needed
- Keep WordPress and plugins updated
- Make sure Google can find the important pages
You do not need to become a website technician.
You should know who is watching these items and who you can call when something stops working.
Use The Google Trinity
Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console are a SEO trinity of great tools.
Each one gives just a little different insight into your business and website.
A Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) helps searchers find your business in Google Search and Google Maps. The full profile can take time to get fully set up but should include things like: business name, phone number, hours, website link, services, and photos. Review your profile regularly to make sure it is always up to date.
Keep asking your happy customers for reviews too. You can send them an easy link like https://g.page/r/CZg7TTn-APllEAI/review to make it easy for them to leave a review. Then when they do, be sure to always respond to each review..
Google Analytics shows what people do after they reach your website. Along with your total number of visits and hits, you’ll see which pages are visited, the site was found, and what actions users are taking.
Google Search Console shows how your website is doing in Google search results. It will show valuable information on impressions, clicks, search terms, and pages that may have problems getting listed in Google.
Your Google Business Profile helps people find the business. Search Console shows how people found the website through search. Analytics helps show what they did after they arrived.
All three are equally important. All three are equally needed.
Checked Everything Off? Start The List Again
SEO is not something you do once and then never again.
After you work through the checklist, review your rankings. Look at your impressions and clicks. Update old pages. Add new internal links. Search for new keyword ideas.
You may find a page that is close to ranking well and only needs a few improvements.
You may also find old business hours, a broken link, or a service page that no longer says enough.
A pilot does not use the checklist once and then never look at it again. I do not check for my wallet, keys, phone and chapstick one time and assume I will always have them. It happens over and over again.
Your SEO checklist works the same way.
Work through it. Make improvements. Then come back and do it again.
If you want help working through any of the items in the checklist, reach out today and we’ll be happy to explain things more. We can set up monthly plans for any small business as well to help them get started with SEO for their website.