Are you a small business or nonprofit on page five of Google? I get it. It can be difficult to be on the first page and it takes a lot of intentional effort to be favorably seen by Google’s “PageRank”, but if you put in the time (or money if you’d prefer) it can be achieved!

Here are FIVE ways to increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO is a fancy term for ranking higher on Google).

1. Blogging

I know this is difficult, but blogging regularly will help your SEO whether you are trying to improve your Showit SEO, Squarespace SEO, or WordPress SEO, and it drive traffic to your website (which is one way of improving SEO). Google sends out robots to scan every website and they check the content and keywords on our websites so the more often we blog, the more the bots will come; if you are using those keywords in a strategic way your blog/ page will move up on the results list.  You should be blogging at least once a week. This can be done by using the first day of the month to schedule your one or two blogs a week for the month. Using a blog calendar can be very helpful. If this seems way too overwhelming for you, hire someone to write blogs that are specific to your niche and then repurpose that blog content for future blogs! I helped a photographer with all her wedding blogs one summer and it was so much fun! You can find many people out there who would be willing to do this. You can also use the information in your blogs for your newsletter, as social media captions, or you can create PDFs to capture email addresses and then send them that info!

2. YOAST

If you are trying to improve your WordPress SEO, get YOAST! This is a SEO plugin and it optimizes your site (makes google rank site better for specific keywords).  The YOAST app lets you enter keywords that are specific to your niche and area for each and every page on your site and each blog post.  A few tricks when you are doing this – don’t use the same keywords on every page and site, this will be a red flag to Google and you won’t pop up on as many searches.  Also, speak conversationally! You don’t need to use a dialect that isn’t natural for you, YOAST will find keywords that you would actually use in blog posts.

3. Google Keyword Planner Tool

Are you in a rut of figuring out which keywords to use? Google keyword planner is a FREE tool that you definitely need.  Sign up for an Adwords account, but you don’t need to publish an ad. Go to google.adwords.com and from there use the planner tool for keyword combinations that people in your area are using when they search for a photographer or real estate agent, or whatever service you provide in your area. This tool will even give you variations of keywords. For example, if you type Spokane real estate agent, it will also tell you how many people in that area (20 mile radius) are actually searching for those 4 keywords.  This is important because if you choose keywords that a lot of people are using, you probably won’t rank very high. Conversely, if you choose keywords no one is using on their website so you pop up on page 1 of Google, there is a good chance no one is using that series of words to search. If you are first getting started, go for the low or medium, but make sure people are still searching for those keywords. Make a list of those keywords you want to use and then for each blog post, use one of those keywords (but be truthful). The goal is to find keywords that are highly searched for, but have low or medium competition.

4. Google Business

This is my little secret to success because SO MANY people with online businesses don’t utilize it. You know when you search on Google at the top there is a map? Yeah, that is a Google My Business Listing. Whether your website has good SEO or not is irrelevant. By having a Google business you immediately jump to page 1 on search engine rankings.

Clients can now find you by searching your business name or organically (website designer near me). I go in to the HOW in this VIDEO.

5. Site Title + Meta Descriptions

Using Squarespace? Go to Marketing -> SEO and under site title add your business name (obviously) AND a brief description of who you are/ what you do. Under the Site Title you will be able to add in the meta description. This is a 50-300 word summary of your company with keywords that people will use to find you. Think industry, services, and location ie. Chicago light and airy wedding photographer.

Using Showit? Go to your home page and on the right side you will see SEO settings where you can edit your Site Title. Meta description is more about you + a call to action right under the title.

Need more?

I love using different Free tools to test my website. Some examples are:

1. Nibbler
2. UberSuggest/ Neil Patel
3. SEM Rush

These are some of the simple tips that will help your dream client be able to find you – – and get you on the first page of Google! If you are wanting even more ACTIONABLE SEO tips, check out my SEO course!