SEO for Small Business

Published on September 24, 2012 by: James H. Hobson

Keyword Research

Before any positively effective SEO work can be implemented a business must have completed a thorough keyword research process. Because the purpose of SEO is to affect high search engine ranking it makes perfect sense to target the keywords that are highly relevant, and that are known to have high traffic. There are many free, online keyword research tools including those offered by Google, Yahoo and other sites. In consideration of the critical nature of having completely accurate keyword research a business owner may want to hire an SEO company to provide a refined keyword list.

SEO Page Title

The page title that is a within the website’s code, and located in the “head” area is an extremely important part of an SEO strategy. Every website page should have a unique title, and each title should be less than 70 characters in length. Ideally a title should be comprised of two to three word key phrases, separated by commas or vertical bars (“pipes”). Presently there are thoughts that each page title should end with the company name in order in improve branding and identification.

SEO Page Description

Like the page title, the page description for each page should be a unique sentence or two that is an accurate portrayal of the information on the page with a minimal, if any, inclusion of promotional language. In terms of the number of characters the page description should be limited to less than 150 characters. Starting the page description with a two to three word key phrase is recommended. It is highly advisable to not make frequent changes to the page descriptions as it may deemed to having been done for search engine optimization, and not for user benefit.

Link Titles and Image Alt Tags

The quality of your coding, especially as it pertains to usability, is something to which you should pay attention and that takes very little effort to put into place. Your link titles and image alt tags should be accurate, and should not be used for keyword stuffing. The inclusion of title attributes and alt tags provides a visible text message when users place their cursor on a link or image.

SEO Backlinks

Backlinks are a critical component in the SEO game. As search engine algorithms evolve the source of backlinks and how they are acquired becomes a more complicated process with specific regard to achieving high organic ranking and avoid being hit with search engine penalties. Current algorithms consider link velocity, which is the consistency of the pace at which the links are required. Acquiring links “too fast” may be deemed to be “unnatural link building” and bring algorithmic based ranking penalties.

XML Site Map

Unlike the viewable site map page that you should have on your website, an XML sitemap is a special type of file that helps a search engine to identify the individual pages that make up the website. Additionally the XML sitemap can contain information regarding the last date the page was updated, the relative importance of each page and other data that would be important to search engines.

The typical business owner can achieve moderate success from doing their own search engine optimization, however the best results can be achieved by hiring an experienced Atlanta SEO company.