Onsite search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which businesses optimize their websites to have it rank high in the search results of Google or other search engines to help gain more website traffic. SEO is critical to small businesses as search engines provide millions of users per day answers to questions or solutions to their problems. Below we have provided a detailed overview of key onsite SEO tactics to implement to help your website rank higher.

Optimize Your Meta Descriptions

A meta description is less than 300 characters that includes the primary keyword at the beginning of the description. This will help search engines understand the content and it will be displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs).

1. Create a meta description that includes relevant keywords.
2. Get rid of duplicate meta descriptions as they can lower your ranking.
3. Remove double quotation marks and all non-alphanumeric characters from the meta description.

Make Your Website User-Friendly

1. Make sure your content is easy to read by having short paragraphs, varying sentence lengths, images, and bullet points.
2. Write content in an inverted pyramid style by having the most valuable information at the top and follow it up with the less important information. This will help keep most of your relevant keywords in the first few sentences on your website which will help boost your SEO.
3. Analyze and improve website design by creating a web page that is easy to navigate through. A website that is easy to navigate increases the time a visitor stays on your website. Create a navigation bar that is structured, clear, and, one that remains present when moving from one web page to another. You want visitors to keep scrolling through your website and learn more about your company.

Optimize for Voice Search

Voice search is a voice recognition technology that allows people to perform searches by speaking into a device. Google voice searches have increased drastically over the years. It is important to implement these new digital marketing strategies to increase SEO.

1. Write content that has long-tail keywords which are three and five keyword phrases that are specific to what you are selling. Voice searches use long-tail keywords when they search for information through Google.

Create a Website that is Mobile-friendly and Responsive

1. It is important for your content/website to be available and display well on all devices including a mobile phone.
2. Understanding how your content will display on a variety of mobile devices is important to SEO. It is important to have a website that can be easily navigated through any size screen, especially as the percentage of mobile users continues to increase.

Create Effective Content

1. Create content that is valuable to your potential customers that will build trust with your readers.
2. To make your content more intriguing to the potential reader include at least one image or video to the page of content. This will also show search engines that the content is informative and valuable to increase SEO.

Include Backlinks 

1. Backlinks are links to a 3rd party’s website/web page. Include links to other sites that are ranked high to make your website rank even stronger (make sure the links open in another browser tab so that the visitor does not leave your website). Additionally, links to highly ranked websites can increase SEO and bring in more website traffic.

These onsite SEO tactics will help your small business rank higher in search engines to increase website traffic. Websites that rank high in search results are perceived as more credible and trustworthy. SEO is an important tactic to employ when growing a small business.