SEO Practical Tips And Advice For New Businesses
Building Your SEO From The Ground Up
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can seem an elusive and complex subject, especially if you are new business starting out. Most of your time and resources are spent doing whatever your business does to function and grow. Yes, there are many elements to SEO and they do take some time and effort but not all of it is as complicated as it first may appear.
As well as the work Yoke does with building a business brand identity, we also help small business’s with their SEO. We have helped businesses build their websites and go from not coming up in a Google search, to being within at least on the top page (if not at the top) for their relevant key words. Resulting in more business!
We understand that budgets can be tight when you are starting out - so we’ve put together some useful tips on how you can start ranking on search engines (such as Google) and start getting your business on the map, to draw in more customers.
What is SEO and why does it matter?
Let’s start with the basics. Apologies if this is a little too obvious, but we wanted to start at the beginning to help demystify the topic.
SEO is all about improving your website's visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to name a few. When someone searches for a product or service related to your business, ideally you want your website to appear at the top of the search results, or at least as high up as you can get it. That's where SEO comes in.
As of January 2024 the top 3 internet search engines are Google with 93.75% of the market followed by Bing 3.85% and Yahoo! 1.28%. Whether we like it or not, let’s just say it matters if Google thinks our website is relevant or not. We need to show Google that if they direct people to our businesses website, they will have found what they are looking for. If Google consistently does this then they will ‘stay at the top of their game’ so to speak.
As a business we need to give Google as much information as we can about our business as possible, and what our customers think about our business. There are lots of cost effective ways of doing this. Below we have broke them down to level of importance, so you can prioritise and make the most of your precious time.
Building My SEO - Where do I Start?
Claim Your Google My Business Listing: This is crucial for local businesses as it directly impacts local search visibility and credibility. Most business’s start on a local level and even if you haven’t got a website yet, this should be your first port of call to getting the show on the road. Here is a link where it guides you step by step on how to do
Keyword Research: Before building your Business’s website - Understanding and targeting the right keywords lays the foundation for your SEO efforts. Keywords are specific words or phrases that people use when searching for information, products, or services on search engines like Google. For instance if you were a cake maker in North Wales, this list below might be the kinds of words/phrases, you would want to get in the titles and body copy of your website. There are many more places you can apply these keywords into the backend of your website so establishing what your’s are is a crucial first step.
“Cake maker North Wales"
"Custom cakes North Wales"
"Birthday cakes North Wales"
"Wedding cakes North Wales"
"Celebration cakes North Wales"
"Special occasion cakes North Wales"
"Local cake baker North Wales"
"North Wales cake designer"
"Bespoke cakes North Wales"
"North Wales cake shop"
Building your website and ongoing quality content: Yoke build high quality websites for businesses that not only wow their customers but also signal to Google and other search engines that they need to point people to their website. If you don’t at this point have the budget to have website built for you, then here are some things to keep in mind if you are building & maintaining it yourself.
Keywords: Choose relevant keywords for your business.
Quality Content: Create valuable and original content.
Simple Structure: Organise your site with clear navigation.
Mobile Compatibility: Ensure your site works well on mobile devices.
Page Titles and Descriptions: Write descriptive titles and meta descriptions.
Optimised Images: Use descriptive filenames and alt text for images.
Internal Linking: Link related pages within your site.
External Links: Link to reputable sites when relevant.
User Experience: Focus on providing a positive user experience.
Regular Updates: Keep your site fresh with new content or updates.
Connect To Google Search Console: The tools and reports available in Search Console assist in evaluating your website's search traffic and performance, resolving any issues, and enhancing its visibility in Google Search
What else can I do to help search engines find my website?
Now you have done all you can do to optimise your website, there are many things you can do to increase your chances, so that each engines will send custom your way. Off-page SEO refers to the actions taken outside of your own website to improve its search engine rankings and visibility. Here are some things you can do ongoing that will keep you climbing up the ranks.
Link Building: Building strong, high-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant websites.
Content Promotion: Spread the word on social media, through email newsletters, and in online communities. The more people see your content, the more likely they are to share it and link back to it.
Social Media Engagement: Some people love social media some people, let us say are not keen. Whatever your feelings, it is in this day and age a way of interacting with many potential customers. Plus you can also insert links to your website for free!
Online Reputation Management: Keep an eye on what people are saying about you online and respond politely to both positive and negative feedback. A good reputation builds trust, and the increases the likelihood of search engines sending their customers your way. Instagram, Facebook, X, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc are all great tools - Pick which ones suit you and make the most of them.
Local SEO: If you're serving a local market, make sure your Google My Business listing is up to scratch and get listed in local directories. Being visible in local searches can help drive more traffic to your website from people in your area. Start very local, for instance Colwyn Bay then North Wales, Cheshire, Liverpool, Manchester
Brand Mentions: Keep track of where your brand is being mentioned online and reach out to websites that talk about you but don't link back to your site. Every mention helps to build awareness and credibility.
Video and Image SEO: Don't forget about your multimedia content! Optimise your videos and images with descriptive filenames and tags to make them more discoverable in search results. It might not be the top priority, but it's still important for enhancing user experience.
Just keep going with your SEO efforts and you will see results!
At the beginning when you are starting out it can feel a little overwhelming looking at the long list of things to do to get your business recognised by search engines. For the first few weeks it may even feel like it’s not working, maybe even some self doubt might start to trickle in.
This is where it is important to keep going. Be as persistent as you can with the time and resources you have to keep taking things off that list. Trust the process and you will find your hard work will pay off. It may take a couple or even a few months but it will be worth it!
Sorry, the salesy bit - Need some help with your SEO?
Hopefully this blog has given you at least an overview of some of the ways to get your business recognised by the major search engines. As mentioned persistence and continuity is key and you can do all of this yourself!
However if you do need any help with some of the items on that list, please reach out to us at Yoke and we would be happy to help. We love helping business grow and are proud to say that we have been a part in helping some businesses appear on that first page and also help them stay there.
Yoke Creative Agency specialise in creating and developing brands. We love working with new and establish business’ locally in North Wales, Cheshire and across the UK. Please have a look through our website to see some of the businesses we’ve helped and to learn more about our services. Feel free to book in a discovery call, we would love to hear from you!
