Digital Solutions by Laura

seo checklist

The Essential SEO Checklist for Small Business Owners

As an entrepreneur, you know the importance of online visibility. That’s why we are drawing attention to our handy SEO checklist for small business owners to reference.  By optimizing your website for search engine optimization (SEO), you can improve your ranking in search results and bring in more traffic to your site. In today’s post, we’ll walk you through the steps you need to take to improve your website’s ranking. 

 

1) Research the right keywords to target 

One of the most important aspects to search engine optimization (SEO) is keyword research. There are a number of keyword research tools available online, such as the Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest and Moz Keyword Explorer. Once you have a list of potential keywords, you can start to create or edit your website content and blog posts.


2) Use keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions for your pages and posts 

To ensure that your pages and posts to rank well in search engines, it’s important to use keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions. A keyword-rich title is one that includes the keyword you’re trying to target. In addition to including keywords in your titles, you should also use them in your meta descriptions. Meta descriptions are the brief summaries that appear under your titles in search results.


3) Make sure your website is mobile-friendly 

If you’re running a website, it’s important to make sure it’s mobile-friendly. More and more people are using their phones and tablets to browse the internet, so if your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you could be missing out on a lot of traffic. In addition, Google specifically announced a few years ago that they would give priority ranking to mobile-friendly websites.


4) Create and publish high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience 

Creating content that is both high-quality and relevant to your target audience can be a challenge, but it’s worth the effort. After all, content is one of the most important ways to connect with your audience and build a relationship of trust. When you publish content that is truly valuable to your readers, they are more likely to keep coming back for more and convert to paying customers.


5) Include external links to authoritative websites 

Including external links can also help to improve your search engine ranking, as it shows that your content is relevant and trustworthy. It’s one more signal that the search engines look for in order to priority ranking quality content.


6) Optimize your images for search engines 

By adding relevant keywords to your images and in the alt text, you can ensure that your images are more likely to show up in search results. This can help to drive traffic to your website and improve your overall visibility online.


7) Analyze your website’s analytics to track progress 

It’s important to track the progress of your SEO efforts so that you can see what’s working and what isn’t. Google Analytics is a free tool that can help you do just that. You’ll be able to see how many people are visiting your site, where they’re coming from, what search terms they’re using, and more. This information can be extremely valuable in helping you to improve your website SEO.

There’s a lot that goes into optimizing a website for the search engines. That’s why it’s helpful to have an SEO checklist. You can download a copy for free at the bottom of this blog post.  There are 3 separate checklists included.  One for organic SEO, one for optimizing your blog posts and one for local SEO.