A Few Quick Tips for SEO

I get asked about SEO a lot. It can be very intimidating to the small business owner, but there are some things that can be done that are simple and inexpensive.

Don’t be intimidated. You won’t break anything if you do it wrong. You can always try again.
Focus on the basics which are actually pretty simple. With websites like wordpress you can use a SEO plugin to help.
SEO doesn’t have to take too much time.
Always start with installing Google Analytics & Webmaster tools.

• These tools allow you to track how the things you are doing are impacting your website.
• Don’t get scammed by SEO companies.
  Unfortunately there are many companies out there that will charge you a lot of money and either not do any work or do spammy SEO that will make your site rankings worse.
• All links to your site are not created equal.
  Links to your site are rated by Google. Some links are good links and will help your ranking, but some links are bad and will lower your ranking. How can you tell? Well, if the links come from a SEO company promising you 400 backlinks to your site then they will probably hurt more then help. You can also log into your Google Webmaster tools and it will tell you a little about your backlinks.
• There is a difference between meta keywords and meta descriptions.
  Keywords are still important, but not in the way it once was. It use to be you could put a list of keywords (like this: seo, search engine optimization, website, web development, web design) and those keywords would help people find you in a search in Google. Now keywords are only important to create your descriptions. Meta descriptions are sentences that are placed in the code or plugin of each page of your website that show up in search results.
• You can not tell your ranking by googling yourself
  Google customizes all searches, so if you go to the same website over and over (i.e. your own) then Google will show you that website first, BUT it won’t show up first for everyone else.

Don’t overwhelm yourself, take it slow and know that you can always fix it!