Jules Brim of Marketing Mixology and me have been good buddies for a while now, she’s a lovely human, a huge fan of all things marketing and it was a no-brainer to have her over on my blog today sharing her 5 SEO considerations for new pages on your website.
It's a fantastic topic and one that every business owner really needs to consider and act on.

Without further delay, over to Jules!…

SEO is a HUUUUUGE subject, so today we are just going to concentrate on five simple ways you can implement some SEO best practice for your small business website. 

We all know that a large part of SEO is content creation - getting that juicy, knowledgeable content out there for your target market to consume. But when it comes to getting it online where do you start? Here are my top five SEO considerations for adding fresh content to your website.

1 | Keywords 

Before you start creating your new page or post, think about the keywords and phrases you want to rank for. 

These words and phrases will need to be woven into the content you are writing as well as the metadata and alt tags as all of these places will help search engines know what your content is really about.

Whilst you won’t immediately pop up at position number #1, it is essential for SEO. Not adding your chosen keywords to these areas may keep you from ranking by other means.

Keywords can range from broad terms such as “Pizza” to long-tail keywords such as “Pizza restaurants that sell Fiorentina pizza”. 

When it comes to keywords, long-tail tend to bring in lower search volumes than a broad term but they tend to have a higher click-through rate as they usually have more clearly defined intent.

If you need help selecting your keywords Google has a great keyword research tool as do Moz (https://moz.com/explorer#index). Alternatively, perhaps think about engaging with your audience on social or via an email to see what content they would like to see.

Once you have your target keywords it’s time to look at … 

2 | Content

Content that ranks the best with Google has a high level of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (also known as E.A.T.) and provides real value to your audience. 

It’s also important to ensure that your chosen keywords are woven into the copy. Think about how your target audience will read the content and how you can quickly reassure them that the page they are on has the information they are looking for on it. 

Generally speaking, it is a good idea to try and get your chosen keywords or phrases into your content at least two to three times and if possible use it in your H1 and H2 tags (heading 1 & 2). This will not only help your content to rank but will also improve the readability of your content. 

3 | Meta Data 

Meta titles and descriptions are the snippets of data that show up in your search results. They can heavily impact a page's CTR (click-through-rate) which in turn can positively impact your page's ability to rank. If your keywords aren’t in this space you are diluting their potency. 

Meta Titles 

Your meta title should reference your keyword and brand as well as giving an accurate description of the content of the page.. 

You only have 60 characters max to work with so it needs to be concise.  A great template to use for creating your meta titles is: 

• Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

e.g Pizza Delivery & Takeaway in Cambridge | Pizza Palace

Meta Descriptions 

If you don’t set your meta description Google will take the first 155–160 characters of your copy and use them instead which means they might not make sense or entice people to click through.

Write your meta descriptions as if you are writing an advert, remember to add in your keyword/phrase. If you have scope within the character limit insert in a call to action such as “sign up now!” “Shop now” “Read more”. 

e.g Having a Takeaway? Enjoy one of our delicious award-winning Pizzas, freshly made with local ingredients today. Free delivery within 5 miles of CB1. Order now >

4 | Images

We all know a picture paints a thousand words so make sure you use high-quality images throughout your content. 

Ensure they are optimised for web in terms of file size so your page loads quickly and your visitors aren’t waiting around for that fab content to load and that you have added an alt tag. 

The alt tag enables visually impaired users using screen readers to better understand an image and helps search engine crawlers index an image properly. It’s important to add them for readability and for SEO best practice purposes. 

When it comes to alt tags you have 125 characters to work with. Use the space to both describe the image and include the keyword you are targeting. Don’t feel you need to add “a pic of” because as it’s alt text it is automatically assumed it relates to an image.

5 | Spread the word 

So, experts out there tend to argue that social media can improve your SEO rankings – it’s not strictly true but they do work hand in hand with each other. 

My advice would be to share your content as part of your wider marketing plan, not with the specific idea that social media will boost your rankings.

Share your content on social – not just once but a few times, repurposing the content and sharing different key messages you are covering to entice clicks. 

If you have a Google My Business profile (you should have one, it’s a great free tool!) share the content as a post on there too. 

If you send out email newsletters or comms make sure you pop a call to action on them to get people reading and sharing your content. 

Depending on the type of content and the target audience, think about reaching out to influencers asking them to share your content (this is also known as outreach).

One tip for the road … track success

You’ve taken time to write your content and get it out into the world so it’s important that you check in on how successful it’s been. 

If it’s worked really well, build on that content. Think about creating a series in the same vein (e.g top ten, top tips for … etc). If it hasn’t landed as well as you thought it may do, think about tweaking the keywords or conducting some further research with your target audience to find out more about what they want to see. 

In terms of tracking success, Google Analytics is a free tool that monitors your web traffic and gives you insights into what keywords people used to find you and how they engage with your content. 

We know one of the main goals of content creation is to increase rankings but think about the other goals too. Has the content been created just to inform or is there also as a call to action that people need to answer, such as visiting the contact page on your website? 

All of this can be tracked via GA giving you a better picture of how your content is being consumed enabling you to adapt your content strategy accordingly. Hurrah! 

Thanks for reading and if you need help with your content strategy or need some more advice on SEO best practice for small businesses please do get in touch. www.marketingmixologyservices.com/contact

Hey! I’m Jules of Marketing Mixology and I guide businesses through the weird and wonderful world of marketing to helping them to better manage their marketing and make the most of their budget.