Small business SEO tips and tools
Search engine optimisation can be the most intimidating aspect of digital marketing for a small business.
Why?
Plug the term “basic SEO” into Google and you’ll get 200 million results. 200 million, just for the basics? Seems like a lot.
The truth is, SEO isn’t basic. It’s a technical process, and getting results out of it requires consistent effort.
Big businesses can use big budgets to pay big agencies to do their SEO (and hope that the big bill is worth it).
Small business SEO is about doing more with less.
And you can still do a lot on a budget, even if some SEO agencies might tell you otherwise.
Here’s a few tips and useful tools that won’t blow your budget to smithereens.
Part 1: SEO tips for small business
These tips are all designed to deliver maximum value at minimal cost.
That means no schmick, all-in-one SEO tools that cover all bases—for a hefty subscription.
You can leave those to people like me who provide SEO services.
Now, I need to make something clear.
Nothing on this list is free.
Not free!? This news is more disappointing than the final season of Game of Thrones
Think about it. Even if a tool or method doesn’t carry a dollar cost, there’s still an investment to be made: time.
First you have to learn the thing, and then you have to do the thing.
So if you’re looking for recommendations on how to do SEO without investing anything, this isn’t the post for you. You will still have to do some things.
But if you want some actionable tips and proven tools? Keep on reading.
Tip #1: Understand search intent
Search intent is one of the pillars of SEO.
What is it? Search intent is the thought that initiates every search.
This is a deep topic that could span many blog posts of its own. So today, I’ll only cover the basics.
Why is understanding search intent important?
If you understand search intent, you’re on your way to understanding how Google decides to rank things.
And that allows you to make your website more relevant, and more rank-able.
That’s going to save you a lot of wasted time and effort.
There are three main types of search intent: informational, navigational, and transactional.
Here’s how each one works.
Informational search intent
An informational search is trying to answer a question or expand knowledge on a topic.
Note: informational searches make up the majority of internet searches.
*Statistics vary (as they often do on the internet), but it’s typically said that up to 80 percent of searches fall into the bucket of informational/knowledge-based searches.
That’s why informational searches use the most diverse language, like below:
“Poached chicken recipe”
“Best lunch in Sydney CBD”
“How old is Donald Trump?”
Navigational search intent
A navigational search is trying to navigate to a specific website. Navigational searches look like this:
“Kmart”
“Outlook”
“Buzzfeed”
From an SEO perspective, you don’t need to worry about showing up for these unless they are your branded keywords, ie. your business name and any variations. You definitely do want to show up for those.
Someone searching for “Canva” only wants to log in to Canva, they don’t want to see your shop full of canvas shoes. Sorry, canvas shoe shop owners.
Transactional search intent
A transactional search is made with a clear intent to buy. Transactional searches look like this:
“Myer gift card”
“12 pack tennis balls”
“Grocery delivery Melbourne”
Okay, so what does all that mean for your website and boosting your SEO?
It means you need to consider and review the search intent behind a keyword before targeting it.
You won’t get Google to put a square peg in a round hole.
Remember, if Google thinks a searcher is looking for a list of pasta recipes, it isn’t going to show them your web page selling jars of pasta sauce.
So have a look at the top 10 results for a keyword and see whether your content matches up to them. If it’s completely different, chances are it’s not going to rank for that search term.
Tip #2: Show your Google My Business listing some love
Your Google My Business listing is where many potential customers will first encounter you, and the quality of your listing will influence whether they choose your business, or a competitor.
You should keep your listing stocked with as much quality and up-to-date information possible, remembering to do things like:
Ensure your listing is regularly updated with your business’s core information, and that the details match exactly what is on your website and any other listings. So, don’t have your address showing as [1/23 Pennycoat Lane] in one place, and [Unit 1, 23 Pennycoat Ln.] in another
Actively encourage customers to leave you Google reviews. Ask them directly, or use a follow up email to share a review link. Reviews are a powerful component of local SEO; everyone loves a good review
Respond to reviews—positive and negative. Responding to reviews can be daunting, but doing it shows the world that you’re a conscientious business owner; you care about your customers, and your listing. A negative review can potentially harm your business, but if you respond in a calm, professional and clear manner, other browsers will appreciate that and are likely to downplay the importance of the negative review
When you nail that response to a tricky review
Tip #3: Make sure your web pages have internal links
This one’s a bit techier, but to use an analogy, links are the roads that your users travel along as they navigate your website. Without them, they’ll get stuck.
Links help Google (and other search engines) understand the relationship between the web pages on your site.
If you have pages that have no internal links (ie. links between pages on your website, like from the homepage to a service or product page), then any SEO “juice” that your site receives will not be passed along to the pages with no internal links. The link-less page probably won’t be found by users, either.
These pages are called orphan pages and it’s best to avoid creating them.
You can find orphan pages using Screaming Frog’s free SEO spider tool (more on that below).
What’s the benefit?
A more accessible website for your users, and a more clearly structured website for the search engines.
Need help with SEO for your small business? Hit the button and drop me a line.
Next, let’s see what to put in your budget SEO toolkit.
Part 2: SEO tools for small business
For my small business SEO toolkit, I’ve selected SEO tools that:
are free to use, or;
provide a “freemium” experience that’s actually useful (not just gimmicky bait designed to lure you into a subscription), or;
are affordable (no costly subscriptions)
Writer’s Note
The list below simply contains my picks for the best value SEO tools. Nothing more. There are no affiliate links present here.
Disagree with my choices? Leave a comment and let me know.
Now, let’s get to that list. We haven’t got all day.
Hurry up and get to the free stuff.
Free/Freemium Keyword research Tools
These tools are either free-to-use or have a free version that provides real value.
Google Trends is more like a keyword inspiration tool than a traditional keyword research tool.
It’s fantastic for brainstorming when you kick off your keyword research.
Unlike paid keyword tools that prove their value with loads of metrics for each keyword, Google Trends goes in the other direction. It has a simple visual representation of a search term’s popularity and trend over time.
Tip: use Google Trends to see when annual highs and lows are for some of your business’s keywords.
Free tool with an engaging visual style that’s great for generating long-tail keyword ideas for your blog. There’s a premium version but the free version is more than good enough.
They’ve added more paid features to this tool over time, but the free version is still a decent starting point for generating keyword ideas. Another similar option is Keyword Finder from Mangools, but it’s only free for 10 days before you’ll need to start paying.
Free tools for on-page SEO
On-page SEO covers those things on the webpage that tell the search engines what the page is about. This includes the page titles, headings, meta description, content and links.
These tools will help you do on-page SEO better, and make a website that’s clearer and easier to navigate.
This is a super useful Chrome extension that gives you an instant overview of a webpage’s on-page SEO. It’s great for checking titles, headings, meta descriptions and links without leaving a web page.
Writing some titles and descriptions up for new web pages? Want to check that some existing pages display correctly in Google? Use this accurate tool that shows you exactly what your webpage looks like when it shows up in the search engine results page (SERP).
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider crawls your website that provides detailed reports on key SEO factors for each page. The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs.
This one’s only for users of Wordpress, but it’s a no-brainer if your website is on that platform. It’s simple to use and helps you make a site that’s easier to navigate, and better optimised for the search engines.
The best value (paid) keyword tool
At some point you’re probably going to be faced with the option of investing in a paid tool to go beyond the basics of keyword research, or paying someone else to use one.
If you want the best value paid keyword tool, there’s only one choice in my opinion:
This tool used to be free, but moved to a pay-as-you-go model last year. There’s an initial cost of around 10 AUD to add some credits, but they’ll last you a long time. Think months, not weeks.
What’s so great about Keywords Everywhere?
You get loads of keyword suggestions and metrics without having to leave the search results page
The recently added trends feature lets you see when a keyword’s seasonal peaks and troughs are, at a glance
It’s convenient and simple to use, and slots seamlessly into your normal Google workflow
Google’s SEO Toolkit
Google has its own arsenal of powerful tools that you can use for SEO, and the most relevant ones are all free to use. I’ve already covered Google Trends, but what about the rest of the Google offerings?
Google Search Console is where you’ll find some of the most accurate data on your keyword rankings, indexing issues and more. It’s a must.
If you’re reading this, you likely already have a Google My Business account set up. If you don’t, drop me a line and let’s get you started. This is where you’ll control your local listing (hours, contact details, photos), drive user reviews, and see how you’re doing in localised searches.
Over time, Keyword Planner has become increasingly geared towards marketers running ad campaigns, so compared to other keyword tools, the experience is pretty fiddly. In fact, it’s so fiddly, the first time you try to use it you’ll probably think you can’t unless you run a paid campaign. That isn’t the case, and it’s still a powerful keyword database, but there are easier ways to do keyword research.
Google Analytics can seem pretty overwhelming when you first encounter it, but it isn’t half as complicated as it looks. Use it to see how people interact with your site, and where you can improve. Check out my intro to Google Analytics post for more details.
Google!
One of the best ways to quickly check your SEO remains in Google itself. Using a simple search modifier, you can play “customer” —put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
Here’s a quick tip to see what your web pages look like to people who find you in Google:
Use the [site:] search operator followed by your domain to see all of the pages Google has in its index for your site.
Like this:
site:yourdomain.com
Browse the results to see how your web pages look in the Google search results, making notes of anything that could be negatively impacting your site.
A few things to look for include:
Pages with truncated titles (this happens when the page title is too long—use SERPsim to remedy)
Low quality or missing meta descriptions (a meta description should entice you to click)
Outdated or redundant pages—click through to the higher-numbered pages of the search results and you’ll be surprised at what ancient and weird pages you might find from your site
All of these things can be turned into quick wins that contribute to improved click through rate and more organic traffic.
And that’s it for today! I hope you found these tips and tools useful.
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Thanks for reading.