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Thoughts

My musings and opinions on all the issues that tiny businesses face. From frequently asked questions I come across each week, to hot topics of the moment, if you have a question or issue, you’ll find the answers in this section.

The SEO Basics You Need To Know

SEO is a topic which seems to send people into tail spin if they’re not particularly technically minded, but as a business owner, I found that it was something I needed to get to grips with if I wanted to make my website work for me, and there seemed to be so much conflicting advice out there, I wanted to put all the information I found, in one place to help others be a little clearer on SEO for small businesses too.
Many business owners create or have have a website created, and then think sales will magically appear. Unfortunately not - you need the power of SEO to help you.

Before you do anything else, make sure you have registered for your Google My Business page, and submit your website sitemap to the Google Search Console. You do this by typing in your web address as https://www.mcnealmethod.com/sitemap.xml, no complicated codes!

So What Is SEO?
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, and in a nutshell, this means helping your website to be found more easily by search engines. Search engines such as Google have to crawl through millions of websites to bring back the most relevant and accurate results for their users, and they use supremely complicated algorithms to do this. Their software and programs ‘crawl’ over your website to see if it matches what their user is looking for, and if it isn’t obvious, easy or relevant, then you don’t stand much of a chance.
If you optimise your website well, then your site will have increased traffic because you increase your visibility. Make sense so far?

There are three types of SEO you need to consider:

ONSITE SEO

Onsite SEO is concerned with what’s actually ON your website and it’s pages, and this helps search engines to understand what your website is all about.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO INFLUENCE THIS:
Onsite SEO is all about key words, key phrases and content.
The step before using keywords, is to research them properly!
You need to find the keywords that people would use to find you, and get in-tune with your ideal clients.
For example, if my ideal clients are searching on Google for SEO BASICS then this post would hit that spot wouldn’t it! You can use free sites to help you with your research. Ubersuggest, a tool on the www.neilpatel.com website is a great tool, or you can sign up for a free Google Adwords account.
You need to find a balance between keywords which are well used, but where you’re not competing with billions of others using the same ones.
Putting in the work at this stage will REALLY help you!

Make sure that you use them where ever you can and make the most of every opportunity. Within your content itself, make sure that you use the key words and phrases, use them in your headings and titles, and throughout your website. Repetition is important but only as much that is natural, not spammy!

OFFSITE SEO
This exists to strengthen the authority of your site. Essentially it is telling search engines that you are trusted, being talked about in a great way, and are an authority in your field.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO INFLUENCE THIS:
Back links are where other websites add a link to yours. All backlinks matter BUT the more popular the website that mentions you, the better this will work. If you can get a mention on the BBC website, as opposed to your mate Dave mentioning you on his, that would be ideal!
You can ask suppliers, influences, clients, associates etc to mention you on their sites, you can write guest posts for a website which deals with your industry etc, but remember to use a link to a relevant page NOT just your homepage, so the link should be www.mcnealmethod/blog rather than just www.mcnealmethod.com.
Mentions which aren’t links are also important, as search engines do recognise that people talk in normal language not hyperlinks!
Social media plays a part in this too, so all the work you do on your social media platforms does count towards this too, as does registering your website with directories etc.

TECHNICAL SEO
This isn’t as scary as it seems, I promise! This is what makes your website readable to search engines and gives users a good experience of your website. If search engines go through your website and it’s too slow, has broken links or pages, is difficult to navigate or doesn’t load well on a mobile device then you’re already on a back foot.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO INFLUENCE THIS:
Check your website with a free tool, such as www.seobility.net or www.sitechecker.pro and you’ll get a free report back telling you how you score, any issues and what needs attention.
Other things to consider are the structure of your site; if you have images with wording overlaid, that won’t help. Make sure you have clear sections or indexes for content, use bullet points and paragraphs rather than huge chunks of text running on.

So the three types of SEO and what you can do to help yourself with these areas are all there for you, but you also need to think like a search engine while you’re going through this process.
Search engines such as Google as concerned with ‘user intent’ and making sure they bring the right results back to the user. Remember they are a search engine, and that’s their job!

If you’re in the business of training false lash technicians, then one of your key phrases might be ‘best lash extensions’. If you type that phrase into Google, then you’ll get reviews, guides and articles mainly, but you’ll also get a section on the results called ‘People Also Ask’. Those questions should form the titles of your blog posts, and your key phrases too!

In summary, there is a lot you can do to help your self without spending a penny at this stage!
Good luck!