Small Business' guide to Affordable SEO Services
What Is SEO and Why Does Your Small Business Need It?
Most small businesses today might know they need a website, but very few owners know how to get the most out of their online platform. It doesn't matter how beautiful or fast your website is - if you don't provide ways for customers to find your site then you may as well not have one at all. It would be like opening an expensive store in the middle of a desert. That's where Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, comes into play. SEO is one of the most powerful tools to help potential customers find your business online. Its main goal is to increase your ranking on Google and other search engines. The higher your website's ranking, the closer to the top of a search result your website will be.
Here at Maximum Website Solutions, we offer affordable SEO services that are built for small businesses without losing out on quality. You don’t need a huge budget - just the right approach. In this post, we'll go over the main building blocks of SEO so that you'll know what to look out for when launching your future websites.
Beginner’s Guide to SEO: What You Need to Know
📄On-Page SEO
Search engines like Google use robots called "web crawlers" to automatically gather information on the Internet. They use this information to decide if a website it finds is suitable for any given search. On-page SEO means making your website easy for both search engines and people to understand. This includes:
- Using the right words (called keywords, more on these later) in your page titles, headings, and text.
- Structuring your website properly so that it is easily understandable.
- Adding clear descriptions (called meta descriptions) so Google knows what each page is about.
- Making sure images have names and alt text so that web crawlers and the visually impaired know what you are showing off.
You can think of on-page SEO as making sure your store has a clear address, attractive products displayed on the window and an open front door. It helps people (and search engines) know what they'll be able to find on your website.
🔧 Technical SEO
Technical SEO is all the behind-the-scenes stuff that helps your website run smoothly. Search engines like Google are often changing what technical features matter most for your search ranking, but tried-and-true features include:
- Making sure your site loads fast
- Responsiveness (making sure the website will adjust how it looks on mobile phones and tablets)
- Fixing broken links
- Making sure Google can “crawl” your website and read its pages by supplying sitemaps and other information.
If on-page SEO is your front door, technical SEO is making sure the plumbing and electricity inside your store are working as intended.
🔍 Keyword Research
Keyword research means finding out what your customers are typing into Google. For example, someone might search:
- “affordable web design services”
- “best dog groomer near me”
- “how to fix a leaky tap”
If your website includes those terms in the right places, you're more likely to show up for those searches. Many high-profile companies will almost always rank highly for common searches, but there are many tools which can be used to keep track of what lesser-known keywords aren't being capitalized on by your competition. Just make sure you aim for keywords that are actually being searched. For example, your website might easily rank near the top spot for a search like "fastest unicorns near me" if your website includes that keyword, but it won't be of much use since the public isn't making those kinds of searches.
🔗 Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours and help you build your reputation online. In the same way you would take notice of a company recommended to you by a trusted friend, a highly-ranked website linking to your business will tell Google, “Hey, this site is worth checking out!”
The more quality links you have, the more search engines trust your site. Backlinks can be a double-edged sword: if your backlinks are low-quality links from sketchy websites, your website's reputation will go down as well (more on this in the next section). A solid foundation of backlinks can be slow to build, but they can make the greatest difference.
⚖️ White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO
These are two very different ways to do SEO. Luckily, choosing one is easy:
- White Hat SEO is honest and follows the rules. Google and other search engines have a set of guidelines which must be followed in order to rank highly. This type of SEO focuses on real people and long-term results (this is what we do). It can be slow, but it is steady if you put in honest work.
- Black Hat SEO tries to trick search engines with spammy tactics, such as paying certain sites for tons of backlinks. It might work for a short time, but it often gets websites penalized or banned. For example, scammers would use black-hat SEO to build an attractive temporary website and steal innocent users' money or information before vanishing into the darkness once search engines catch on to their schemes.
If you participate in Black Hat SEO and your website is detected, it will be impossible to recover from the hit to your site's reputation and it (along with related sites) will never be able to rank highly again. Always choose white hat SEO. It’s safer, smarter, and better for your business in the long run.
Ready to Get Found Online?
We hope this article will have cleared up the basic building blocks of SEO, but keep an eye out for more posts going over each of its components in more detail. If you're looking for a website and still feeling a little overwhelmed, don't worry. You don’t have to figure out SEO alone - We’re here to help your small business get noticed with affordable SEO services that make sense. Our services are fully transparent and focused on real results.
👉 Book a free consultation now!
If you mention this article during the consultation, you can get 10% off your project! Don't delay - this offer is only valid for the first three projects this month!
