How do I setup SEO for my small business?

Search Engine Optimization Marketing

A Comprehensive Guide to Setting Up SEO for Your Small Business

What is SEO and how does it help my business?

Having a robust online presence is essential for the success of any small business. One key element in achieving this is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). We will guide you through the essential steps to set up SEO for your small business and improve your visibility on the web.

Understanding the Basics of SEO

Keyword Research:
Begin your SEO journey by conducting thorough keyword research. Identify relevant keywords and phrases that potential customers might use to find products or services similar to yours. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can assist you in discovering high-performing keywords. If you prefer, hire a SEO Agency to do all the work.

Keyword Research Example

On-Page SEO:
Optimize your website’s individual pages for search engines. Ensure that each page has a unique and descriptive title tag, meta description, and URL. Integrate target keywords naturally within your content, headers, and image alt tags to create relevant internal links. Pay attention to the overall readability and quality of your content.

Quality Content:
Content is king in the world of SEO. Create engaging, informative, and valuable content that resonates with your target audience. Regularly update your website with fresh content, such as blog posts, articles, or videos. Google rewards websites that consistently provide relevant information.

Optimize your website’s technical SEO

Mobile Optimization:
With an increasing number of users accessing websites on mobile devices, ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Google prioritizes mobile-responsive websites in its rankings. Test your site’s mobile using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

Site Speed:
Improve your website’s loading speed as it directly impacts user experience and SEO. Compress images, utilize browser caching, and consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to enhance your site’s speed. Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool can help you analyze and optimize your website’s performance.

Google Page Speed Insights Example

SSL Certificate:
Secure your website with an SSL certificate to establish a secure connection between your server and users’ browsers. Google considers HTTPS as a ranking factor, and it also instills trust among your visitors.

Improving Off-Page SEO

Link Building:
Acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable websites in your industry. Guest posting, outreach campaigns, and creating shareable content are effective strategies to build a strong backlink profile. Focus on quality rather than quantity, as Google values relevance and authority.

Social Media Presence:
Leverage social media platforms to amplify your online presence. Share your content across various channels and engage with your audience. Social signals, such as likes and shares, indirectly impact your SEO by enhancing brand visibility.

The Importance of Local SEO

Google Business Profile:
For small businesses targeting local customers, optimizing your Google Business Profile(GBP) listing is crucial. Ensure your business name, address, and phone number are accurate. Encourage customers to leave reviews, as positive reviews can boost your local rankings on Google’s map pack.

Local SEO and Google Business Profile

Local Citations:
List your business on online directories, ensuring consistency in your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information. This builds credibility and authority for your business in local search results.

Monitoring and Analytics

Google Analytics:
Implement Google Analytics on your website to track user behavior, traffic sources, and other key metrics. Regularly analyze this data to make informed decisions and identify areas for improvement.

Google Search Console:
Utilize Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance in Google’s search results. Identify and fix any crawl errors, submit sitemaps, and receive valuable insights about your site’s visibility.

Example of Google Analytics Dashboard

Continuous Optimization

Regular Audits:
Conduct regular SEO audits to identify and address any issues affecting your website’s performance. Check for broken links, update outdated content, and ensure that your SEO strategies align with evolving search engine algorithms.

Stay Informed:
SEO is an ever-evolving field, with search engines regularly updating their algorithms. Stay informed about industry trends, algorithm changes, and emerging SEO techniques. Follow reputable SEO blogs and attend relevant webinars to stay ahead of the curve.


Setting up SEO for your small business is a continuous process that requires dedication and strategic planning. By understanding the basics of SEO, focusing on technical aspects, embracing off-page and local SEO strategies, and consistently monitoring your website’s performance, you can enhance your online visibility and attract more organic traffic to your website.

Remember that SEO is a long-term investment, and the results may take time, but the benefits to your small business are well worth the effort. Start implementing these small business SEO tips today and watch your local business climb the search rankings.

Hiring a reputable SEO agency to help your small business can turbo charge your website. Give us a call at Baggies Web Solutions, 214-446-2240 or click the contact us button in the bottom right of the screen.

9 Things to Consider When Hiring a SEO Company.

Computer showing website analytic dashboard.
Are you ready to get the results you desire? Call Baggies Web Solutions at 214-446-2240 or go to our contact page and fill our our form.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important aspect of any business’s online marketing strategy. It can help drive traffic to a website and improve the website’s visibility on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Many businesses opt to hire an SEO company to help with their internet marketing efforts. However, not all companies are created equal.

Here are some things business owners should look for when choosing an SEO company.

1) Experience and Expertise

When choosing an SEO company, it’s important to consider their experience and expertise. Look for a company that has been in business for several years and has a track record of success. You want a company that has experience working with businesses similar to yours and can provide examples of successful campaigns.

2) Transparency

Look for an SEO company that is transparent about their strategies and techniques. They should be willing to explain their process and provide regular updates on their progress. You want to avoid companies that use black-hat techniques, such as keyword stuffing, link farming, or cloaking, as these can result in penalties from search engines.

3) Customized Approach

Every business is unique, and so are their SEO needs. Look for a company that takes a customized approach to each client. They should take the time to understand your business and its goals, and create an SEO strategy that is tailored to your specific needs.

4) Communication

Communication is key when working with an SEO company. Look for a company that is responsive and easy to communicate with. They should be available to answer your questions and provide regular updates on their progress.

5) Results

Ultimately, you want an SEO company that can deliver results. Look for a company that has a proven track record of improving website rankings, driving traffic, and increasing conversions. Ask for references and case studies to get a sense of their success rate.

6) Price

Price is always a consideration when choosing an SEO company. While you don’t want to sacrifice quality for price, you also don’t want to overpay for services. Look for a company that offers competitive pricing and has a clear pricing structure.

7) Up-to-Date Strategies

SEO is an ever-evolving field, and strategies that worked a few years ago may not be effective today. Look for an SEO company that stays up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in the industry. They should be knowledgeable about Google’s algorithms and the latest updates, and be able to adjust their strategies accordingly.

8) Local SEO Expertise

If you have a local business, it’s important to choose a company that has expertise in local SEO. Local SEO involves optimizing your website for local search results, such as “plumber near me” or “restaurant in [city name].” Look for a company that has experience with local SEO and can help you improve your visibility in local search results.

9) Reporting

Finally, look for a company that provides regular reporting on their progress. They should provide detailed reports on website traffic, rankings, and other metrics that are important to your business. This will help you track your ROI and make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.

In conclusion, choosing the right SEO company is essential to the success of your online marketing efforts. Look for a company that has experience, is transparent about their strategies, takes a customized approach, communicates well, delivers results, offers competitive pricing, stays up-to-date with the latest trends, has expertise in local SEO, and provides regular reporting. With the right SEO company by your side, you can improve your website’s visibility, drive traffic, and increase conversions.

Are you ready to get the results you desire? Call Baggies Web Solutions at 214-446-2240 or go to our contact page and fill our our form.

What is My Website’s Bounce Rate?

Bounce Rate
Of all the analytic metrics out there, one of the ones I get asked the most is “What is a bounce rate?”. This metric is one of the most confusing and often-times misleading numbers on your entire SEO report.Bounce Rate
 

How do you calculate bounce rate?

 
Bounce-rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who only viewed 1 page. If someone finds your website via a search engine, clicks on it, goes to the site, views your page, then goes off to another site, that is registered as a bounce.
 

Is a high bounce rate good?

 
That depends on the function of your website. If you have a news site with tons of content, blogs, articles and pages, a high bounce rate is bad. It means you are not getting your message across, or people are having trouble finding what they need at first glance. If you have a service oriented website where the main goal is to generate a phone call or send a message, a high percentage is not bad. Someone could be needing an HVAC contractor and as soon as they see the phone number, they call and schedule an appointment. In this scenario, the website did its main job, but your bounce rate is directly affected by it.

Google Reverses Update of Longer Meta Descriptions

Google Reverses Meta Descriptions Update

Google Reverses Meta Descriptions Update

Leave it up to Google to reverse one of the biggest visible changes to search engines in many years. Back in the beginning of the year, they announced that they would begin showing around 320 characters underneath the titles when you perform a search on their website. This was a big change, as the number of websites shown above the fold and on your screen would have shrunk by 2-5 (depending on your screen size). That meant that if your website had longer description tags, it would take up more space and valuable real estate on the already crowded search engine results pages.

Reducing Meta Descriptions

In a surprising decision, Google has reduced the number of characters shown in meta descriptions on the search engine results page from ~320 back to ~160. While this does not mean the end of the world, it does mean that your descriptions will cut off, sometimes mid-sentence.

Recently, Google has used the description tags as a suggestion, instead of a definite. For instance, if someone searches for a very specific thing and the page that relates to it does not have that term in the description, Google will randomly take the liberty of replacing it with content from the page that does.

Why are metas important?

Titles and Descriptions are the first impression that searchers get when perusing the list of websites to click on for their particular search. Well-written and descriptive meta tags entice users to click on your site, so spending the time to write and rewrite them is worth it. If you have the best website in the world, but poorly written, or missing metas, your website will miss out on traffic from search engines, as you have not given searchers a reason to click on your site. Metas are one of the most important factors driving traffic to your website.

3 SEO Benefits of Business Blogging

The business blog has become practically a must-have for any business looking to expand their online presence. Beyond the fact that it’s a popular vehicle for information among readers, blogs also add massive amounts of SEO value to your site. This means greater online visibility for your business, more qualified leads, and more sales.

So, how do blogs achieve this marketing miracle? When done right, a well-written business blog helps to optimize your site for both search engines and human readers, and brings them both to your website.

Here are the top 3 SEO benefits of blogging for your business:

1. Fresh content is search engine food.
Any website that has continuously updated content is one step ahead of the competition. Posting a new blog every other day (or more!) is a perfect way to signal to the search engines that you take an active approach with your website’s content and will rank you higher than if your content is stale and rarely updated. Posting a blog with links to other sections of your site bolsters the crawl-ability of the pages, which in turn increases the SEO benefit to your entire site.

2. It adds keyword-rich content to your site.
Writing a well thought out, blog post, with keywords that you’ve done research on, is one of the most effective SEO tactics available today. It creates a page that is dedicated specifically to that one keyword, so anytime someone searches for the keyword that you’re focusing on, you will have a greater chance of being clicked on. Searches using these keywords often take people right to a specific blog page, so include them to boost your blog’s SEO power. With the ability to devote an entire page of your website to a one keyword or phrase, you can easily tell, via your SEO Reports, the traffic that is being brought to your site.

3. It brings you backlinks.
Perhaps the greatest SEO benefit that a blog can offer your site is the links it will bring from other sites. Blogs are where people tend to engage with your company. They comment on your posts and link to them from their own blogs. They also leave their own links with their comments.

Whether it’s through social media, blog comments or links to your blog from other sites, backlinks increase your authority with search engines, making you more visible to readers and helping you spread your content throughout the Web. It is the marketing miracle achieved by an optimized, well-written and authoritative blog.

Baggies 47 can help you write your blogs and increase your presence in the search engines. Blogging is one of the most effective and economical ways to increase traffic to your site. If you want to boost the SEO power of your website, spread your company’s message and showcase your authority to potential buyers, a blog is a must-do. Contact us today and see the difference it makes!