SEO Guide for Small Businesses (Part 2)

Previously, in SEO Guide for Small Businesses (Part 1), I emphasized on identifying the user intent. For businesses to thrive online, as an owner, you need to stop focusing on your own intent to sell products and services. Instead, you need to understand how online search works and I huge part of that is Search Engine Optimization.

In this blog post, the aim for you is to have the key knowledge. When you hire or talk to an SEO expert, you will know what he is discussing about. Moreover, I will talk about certain SEO principles of SEO that every small business should focus on.

Okay, just to be clear, this is not to bombard you with a lot of information. This is for you to understand the following:

• What these SEO principles are.
• How these principles affect search.
• What you should be thinking about when you develop SEO strategies.

So, let’s get on the list of SEO principles….

Work on Your Links

Links, in SEO, are very important. It is a good signal that a website is doing well. So, for you, as a small business owner, you also need to develop link building strategies. Whether you are posting links on your site or on another site, you should think through of what links to post.

In fact, even for pros, link building is challenging task. To get into the right direction, you should know a few things right off the bat.

Why Are Links Essential?

In its very essence, a link is seen as vote of confidence, meaning another website vouched for your website’s trustworthiness.  Naturally, some websites will gain more ‘votes’ over other websites. When a website adds a link to your site. This created link passes to you what’s called a PageRank, and if you’re not familiar of this, read more on the SEO Terms that You Need to Know About (Part 1).

The purpose of link is give your content a ‘thumbs up’. The more links a website gets, the more it gets stronger. So, the link means better, meaning it has more weight.

Basically, what I am trying to point out is that… if a link gets more clicks, the greater importance it has.

What Do You Look for in Links?

So, what should you know about the many links pointing to your website?

I’m not going to mention specific details, but these are some of the guidelines to follow.

Is there a purpose behind the link?

If there is no reason aside from link building, then, it carries no importance. Do not bother adding links if it has no clear goal to begin with.

If you are the user, would you click the link?

Put yourself on the shoes of the users. If you can’t even see yourself clicking the link, then, they will most probably NOT click the link as well. If you are not satisfied with contents of the link, then, the users will NOT too.

Do your direct competitors have a link on that site as well?

Seeing your computers get a link from a website is NOT always to tantamount a good sign. It is still best to use your common sense in evaluating the links. More tips will be discussed on SEO Guide for Small Businesses (Part 3).