If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by SEO jargon, you’re not alone. As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard about the importance of SEO, but with so many terms and strategies thrown around, it’s hard to know what’s relevant for you. Let’s break it down, so you can understand the different types of SEO and which ones might make the most impact for your business. Your SEO begins with your website, your foundation for your online presence.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by SEO jargon, you’re not alone. As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard about the importance of SEO, but with so many terms and strategies thrown around, it’s hard to know what’s relevant for you. Let’s break it down, so you can understand the different types of SEO and which ones might make the most impact for your business. Your SEO begins with your website, your foundation for your online presence.

Before diving into specific strategies, it’s important to know where you stand. A website review identifies what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. It’s like a health check-up for your website, covering things like usability, content quality, and technical issues. 

Keywords are the terms people type into search engines when looking for products or services. Effective keyword research helps you target the right audience. It’s not just about choosing popular words—it’s about understanding your customers’ intent and creating content that matches their needs. This is how you connect to people searching for your services, the keywords are used to craft your content and website so it is relevant to your audience.

This focuses on what’s on your website: the content, headers, meta descriptions, and even image tags. On-page optimization ensures your site is clear, relevant, and easy for both visitors and search engines to navigate.

Think of technical SEO as the foundation of your website and your marketing. It includes things like site speed, mobile-friendliness, and fixing broken links. These factors might not be visible to your visitors, but they play a huge role in how search engines rank your site.

If you run a business that serves a local area—like a shop, restaurant, or service-based company—local SEO is key. This involves optimising your online presence so customers nearby can find you, especially through Google Maps and local search results. This could be landing pages targeting a specific area or ensuring your Google Business Listing is accurate and up to date.

Backlinks are links to your site from other reputable websites. They act like votes of confidence, showing search engines that your content is trustworthy. Building quality backlinks takes time but can greatly improve your website’s authority. How you approach this is key, when do you give links back to other sites, how do you do that?

Not every type of SEO will apply to every business. For example:

• If you’re launching a new website, start with a website review and keyword research.
• If your site is already established but isn’t ranking well, technical SEO and on-page optimisation might be the priority.
• If your focus is on local customers, local SEO is essential.
  

SEO doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Focus on one or two areas that align with your goals and build from there. Even small improvements—like speeding up your website or creating content around high-value keywords—can make a difference. OSiM has determined that the best approach is to tailor a plan for your business. One that is flexible and reassessed monthly or even more often as your business grows. Working with our team we will create an approach that prioritizes the items that you require to improve your SEO. One month could be content updates, next month backlinking and we will keep you up to date, provide reports and walk with you to get you better found in search engines. To learn more about the OSiM approach to SEO, email glen@osiminteractive.com now.