Top tips to improve your SEO in 2024
An area of marketing that many business-owners struggle with, is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Wild member Eleanor from Webzang, hosted a workshop with us all about improving this for your business. Grab a notebook, and read on as we share some actionable SEO tips that you can work into your marketing for 2024.
What is SEO and why is it important?
Search Engine Optimisation covers a lot of different areas making you feel overloaded with technical language, but all it really means is to make your business look it’s very best for Google.
There are actually 20+ search engines but we tend to focus on Google because it’s the biggest (Pinterest works as a search engine too, but that’s a topic for another time). In 2023, Google dominated with 91.61% of the market share when it comes to search engines of choice. To put that into perspective, the second choice had only 3.38%.
The purpose of SEO can be split into 3 sections:
Visibility. You want to make sure Google knows you exist, and that it shows your website to as many people as possible.
Traffic. You want to make sure as many people as possible click that Google listing, and be sent straight to your website.
Design & Content. You want to make sure those people spend time on your website, and end up buying what you’re selling.
Here are some action steps covering each section, that you can put into place easily to kick-start the SEO for your business. Wild members head to the library to download a supporting resource for even more SEO tips.
Visibility
Set-up a Google Account
This is just a Gmail account in your business’ name, and only takes a couple of minutes to do. Even if you don’t use it (you might have your business emails through a different provider), Google likes businesses who are also their clients.
Create a Google Business listing
The This is the little card that shows up in search results that is full of your business details. Whether you have a shopfront or not, this is both helpful for customers, and gives you an extra gold star in Google’s eyes.
Submit your web sitemap to Google
This is another way of telling Google who you are, what you do, and what your business website is all about. You need to get set-up on Google Search Console first but you only have to submit your sitemap once (unless you’ve made some important changes).
Traffic
Set your site title and meta description
This is what shows up as the snippets when you search Google. By default it shows the first words on the page, so aim to customise these for every important page on your website. Make them work better for your keywords.
Check your site speed
You don’t want potential clients to get bored before they’ve even got a chance to read what you do, let alone to buy something. You may be slowed down by large video files, unoptimised imagery, or even outdated plug-ins.
Set-up Google Analytics
This tool tracks lots of data about the people coming to your website, so you can make informed changes. It’s very helpful to know how many people are visiting you, what they’ve searched to find you, which pages they like, and where they drop out.
Design
Build a mobile-friendly website
Google indexes your mobile site first. Did you know that? It makes sense because 80-90% of all web traffic is viewed on mobile, but as small businesses, often our websites are designed desktop-first. Remember smaller screens are arguably more important to consider!
Have clear navigation
People need to get around your website with ease. They should be able to find what THEY need from you, and find what YOU want them to know. Quirky page titles and links hidden down the page aren't going to help you get those all-important conversions.
Consider the accessibility of your site
Your website should be usable by a diverse group of visitors, accessing it from a variety different ways. To start with, check that you have a passing colour contrast for better legibility, your images have alt text for screen-readers, and add transcripts for your videos.
Content
Optimise with keywords on every page
Choose a keyword per page as the focus for that page, and make sure that’s exactly what you are talking about on said page. Not only does it help you write with clarity, Google will pick-up the theme and be confident in showing your page on search results that are for that topic.
Name all images on your site
Just like screen readers, Google only sees your site as code/text. That’s why having RKV0613.jpg as your filename isn’t helpful...Google literally doesn’t know what that is. And because ALL the text it reads counts, naming your images well can help your SEO, as well as your accessibility rating.
Consider having a blog
No matter your niche, a blog can help to reinforce what your business is all about to both your audience and to Google. Updating consistently shows that you are relevant, writing about topics your audience are interested in helps with community building, and each new post allows for targeted keywords.
Search Engine Optimisation is a big part of marketing and can feel pretty techy and complicated if you’re looking at everything all at once – but we’re here to help you be less overwhelmed. There are lots of different things you can do to improve your business’ SEO but if you go through these easy steps, you’ll have a great starting point for getting into habits that are good for your business and sustainable for you as a human!
Keep an eye on our Instagram for more tips and tricks to help you do business with ease and if you’d like a little more information about your business' specific SEO situation, you can book a free SEO Check from Eleanor. Wild members, you can watch the full workshop, Google Juice: Understanding SEO, in the Wild Library.