Small business owners often have a variety of questions when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), especially since it can be complex and time-consuming. Here are some of the most common questions they tend to ask:
- What is SEO, and why is it important for my business?
- Answer: SEO is about optimising your website in order to allow it to rank higher in search engine results (like Google) for relevant keywords. Higher search engine rankings usually lead to more visibility, website traffic, customers or clients. It’s important because it helps you compete with other businesses online and allows potential customers to find you more easily.
2. How long does it take to see results from SEO?
- Answer: SEO is a long-term strategy. Typically, small businesses can start seeing some results in 3 to 6 months, but more significant changes might take 6 to 12 months. It depends on factors like competition, the quality of your website, and how well you implement SEO.
3. Do I need to hire an SEO expert, or can I do it myself?
- Answer: While you can learn and implement basic SEO techniques yourself, hiring an SEO expert or agency can save you time and help you achieve better quality with faster results. If you have the time and willingness to learn, some DIY SEO is certainly possible and useful, but professional SEO services can bring expertise and advanced strategies. Bear in mind that you are unlikely to be able to change the code of the website yourself (which is often required to get the basics of your site right to start with).
4. How much should I budget for SEO services?
- Answer: SEO costs vary widely based on your goals, the level of competition in your industry, and the size of your business. Small businesses might spend anywhere from £100 to £5,000 each month on SEO services. You can also find one-time SEO audits for around £100 to £500. It’s important to choose an SEO provider who fits your budget and aligns with your goals.
5. What are keywords, and how do I choose the right ones?
- Answer: Keywords are the words or phrases that potential customers use when searching for products or services online. To choose the right ones, you should research keywords that are relevant to your business, have a decent search volume, and aren’t overly competitive. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush can help with this research. I usually offer this service for free using Google's Keyword Planner and an Excel spreadsheet.
6. What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
- Answer:
- On-page SEO refers to the changes you make directly on your website, such as optimising your content, improving page load speed, and using proper headings and meta tags.
- Off-page SEO involves activities that have nothing to do with changing your website, such as building backlinks from other reputable sites and establishing social links.
7. Do I need a blog for SEO?
- Answer: A blog can be an excellent way to improve your SEO. Regularly adding new, high-quality content with relevant keywords helps your site stay fresh and improves your chances of ranking for various search terms. A blog also offers a way to address customer questions, provide value, and establish your expertise in your industry. This is one area where a little bit of effort on your part can reap rewards. Even if you only post a minimal amount of information about the projects you have completed for your clients you will have gained some benefit from providing fresh content. Also, your potential clients will then be able to see the types of work you undertake.
8. What is local SEO, and do I need it?
- Answer: Local SEO is the practice of optimising your website to rank well for location-based searches (e.g., “Chinese restaurant in York”). It is especially important for small businesses that serve specific geographic areas. Setting up a Google My Business profile, getting reviews, and optimising your website for local keywords can help you attract more local customers.
9. What is the role of backlinks in SEO?
- Answer: Backlinks (links from other websites to your site) are a major factor in SEO. Google views backlinks in effect as “votes of confidence” for your site. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your site is likely to rank. However, it's important that these backlinks come from reputable, relevant sites.
10. How do I measure the success of my SEO efforts?
- Answer: You can measure success by tracking metrics like organic traffic (how many visitors come from search engines), keyword rankings, conversion rates (how many visitors become customers), and bounce rate (how many visitors leave your site quickly). Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can provide detailed insights into your performance.
11. What is mobile optimisation, and why is it important for SEO?
- Answer: Mobile optimisation ensures that your website is user-friendly and functions well on mobile devices. Since a large portion of web traffic comes from mobile (more than 50%), Google now considers mobile-friendliness an important ranking factor. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you may lose rankings and customers.
12. What are meta tags and meta descriptions, and how do they affect SEO?
- Answer: Meta tags are pieces of code in your website's HTML that describe the content of a page. Meta descriptions are short summaries that appear in search engine results. Well-written meta descriptions can improve your click-through rate (CTR), which can indirectly improve your SEO. Although meta tags don’t directly affect rankings, they are important for user experience.
13. Should I focus on Google or other search engines for SEO?
- Answer: While Google is the dominant search engine, focusing on optimising for Google is usually the best approach. Other search engines like Bing and Yahoo account for a small percentage of search traffic, but there are some cases (like in certain countries or demographics) where optimising for them could make sense.
14. What is the role of user experience (UX) in SEO?
- Answer: User experience (UX) plays an increasingly important role in SEO. Google wants to provide the best experience for its users, so sites with fast load times, clear navigation, mobile responsiveness, and low bounce rates tend to rank better. Improving your website’s UX is not only good for SEO but also for customer satisfaction.
15. How does content marketing relate to SEO?
- Answer: Content marketing is a crucial part of SEO. By creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content (such as blog posts, videos, or guides), you can attract organic traffic, target specific keywords, and build backlinks. The more valuable your content, the more likely it is to rank well and be shared, which helps your SEO.
16. Should I use paid ads along with SEO?
- Answer: Yes, combining paid ads (like Google Ads) with SEO can be an effective strategy. Paid ads can bring immediate traffic while you work on improving your organic rankings. The two strategies complement each other, especially if you are targeting competitive keywords or new products.
17. What is technical SEO and why does it matter?
- Answer: Technical SEO involves optimising the technical aspects of your website, such as improving site speed, ensuring proper indexing, fixing broken links, and creating an XML sitemap. These technical factors help search engines crawl and understand your site better, which can improve your rankings.
Please bear in mind that your website is not a static entity. The environment in which it exists may evolve over time.
Examples of this include:
- The hosting provider is very likely to be periodically updating the technical infrastructure that supports your website. Usually, this will be for the better but not necessarily so, and changes on the part of your hosting company may have unwanted consequences for your website.
- The browsers that your end clients use are constantly evolving with new technology and there is potential that a website that once worked well in a specific browser may not work properly in a new version of a browser.
- Links that are on your website, linking to other websites may well become broken as other websites are moved or taken down altogether. You will have no notification of this happening unless you proactively do the work to find these broken links but your website may suffer if it has too many outgoing broken links.
- Incoming links to your site, which once gave you some link juice may no longer work if you have deleted pages or moved pages. This can be remedied but requires some work to both find these broken links and to repair them.
You probably would need help from a specialist SEO expert to address some of these issues as they are not easy for the lay person to identify.