No matter what your site is for, it’s not going to do much good if no one can find it. You can market and promote all you want, but for your site to really succeed over time, it needs to show up in search engines. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is all about improving your site’s visibility on search engines. It’s not just a one-time thing or a button you press—it’s an ongoing effort that keeps evolving.

If your website isn’t search engine “friendly,” it won’t show up in search results. So, how do you fix that?

The answer is SEO.

SEO, or search engine optimization, involves all the free things you can do to make your site more appealing to search engines and help it rank higher in search results.

There are three key things to consider with SEO: quality, quantity, and organic.

Quality: You want to attract the right visitors to your site. For instance, if you run an e-commerce store selling bird feeders, you don’t want people looking for hammers. You want traffic that could lead to a sale.

Quantity: You want as many people as possible to visit your site. Organic SEO helps you attract traffic without paying for it.

Now that you know what SEO is, you might want to search for your business keywords and see where you rank.

Installing Google Search Console on your site can provide valuable data on which keywords are driving the most traffic. Also, check out your competitors to see how they’re ranking and what they’re doing.

Remember, it’s important that your site is appealing to both visitors and search engines—that’s the art of SEO. Rankings won’t happen overnight, and SEO requires time and patience. But it’s free, and the benefits are well worth the effort!

When you Google something, the pages that show up are called SERPs, which stands for “search engine results page.”

There are two main types of SERPs: paid and organic. Paid results usually appear at the top and are powered by Google Ads. Also known as Pay Per Click (PPC), Google Ads lets you bid on keywords so your website can show up at the top for those terms. The cost of these keywords varies based on demand and search traffic.

The first recommendation we usually make to our clients is to get an SSL certificate. SSL stands for “Secure Socket Layer” and essentially protects you and your customer’s information on your website.

If your website currently does not have an SSL certificate, web browsers will display a warning to your site users that your website is not secure which will turn away visitors. 

How to add an SSL Certificate to your site:

Squarespace SSL

WIX SSL

WordPress SSL

A Google business listing is essentially Google’s local listing platform. You can register for free, include all of your business information, and is incredibly useful for local search results as it helps you show up on Google Maps. We have written a How-To previously that you can find here “How to create a Google My Business listing“.

If your site looks good on your computer, it needs to look just as good on a mobile phone. As more users turn to mobile devices instead of traditional desktops and laptops, don’t lose out on traffic because your website is too slow or not mobile-friendly.