The presence of your online brand is commonly referred to as Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a range of activities you can do to bring desirable traffic to your website. Checking your Google Analytics account to find out you are getting 15 users per week can be discouraging, but don’t give up! If you fit into any of these categories, we have some tips for you:

1. Your website stinks
2. Relying on Referrals
3. Poor SEO
4. No time to keep it updated
5. No money
   
   

Your Website Stinks

If your website stinks, don’t give up just yet! Developing your website is a process, and it doesn’t need to be perfect before showing it to the world. If we all waited for our websites to be perfect before sharing them, there would be no websites.

Pro tip:
Firstly, don’t strive for perfection. If it stinks just because it’s your first website, pull up your socks and be proud of what you have built. A good website along with a strong brand should be constantly evolving. If it has been stagnant and not updated for a long time, it might be time to find a professional.

Relying on Referrals

Getting your existing sales only off referrals is very rewarding and indicates you have a lot of value in what you’re offering. That said, if you are looking for ways to sustain growth and uphold your reputation, your brand needs special attention, backed by a website that reflects the strength of your brand.

Poor SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) encompasses your website and all your digital platforms connected to it, so if nobody is looking at your website, it’s a guarantee that you have poor SEO. When lacking a presence on search engines, there are several steps that need to be taken to bolster you to the top of the search results.

Digging deeper, you may be lacking in onsite SEO because of poor technical structure, keyword strategy, or poor performance. All your off-site SEO activities like PR, communications, social media, and backlinks also play a major role in your results.

Pro tip:
If hiring an SEO specialist or agency is not an option for you, start by looking at your audience’s ‘search intent’. What questions are they asking and how does your website provide an answer to those questions? SEO also spans far beyond the internal makeup of your website, you may need to expand your outreach and have a good look at all your other digital platforms, social networks, reviews, and the websites linking back to yours. If you have a strong social media presence; are each of your posts linking back to the website?

No Time to Keep it Updated

This is by far the most common excuse for a lack of attention or maintenance. You are busy and you are focusing on other things…. Rightfully so! Everyone running a small business has been guilty of this at times, but your website deserves attention and care. If you don’t have the time to take good care of your website, you need to find someone that is willing to help you out.

Pro tip:
Be reasonable with your goals. If updating your website has been on your to-do list for the last 6 months, then it’s clear that it’s not a top priority for you to keep it updated. For small business owners running your own websites, you should be committing at least 10 hours per month on SEO tasks to make noticeable progress, and having an expert jump in could save you from the headaches.

No Money

When designing and developing a website with no money, focus on having a solid plan for organic growth without SEO tools. Building a fresh website without the resources needed can be exhausting, and if you are in your early stages of building your first website without any previous experience, there are not going to be any shortcuts. Be prepared to spend your time in cycles of learning, creating, and getting feedback before you launch.

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