It was fifteen years ago when I took my first job in corporate marketing and my boss, who was launching a new website at the time, told me “Your goal is to find out how we can get listed at the very top of Google.” Ten months later, I realized that was not going to happen with limited knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) and no training whatsoever. At the time, SEO was still brand new, and pretty much every other business (big and small) were trying their best to figure out the basics of getting their websites ranked on Google and stay at the top. This was long before the days of Instagram and Twitter and many businesses were simply paying to be at the top; those who didn’t weren’t even aware of paid ads. As more companies became aware of paid Google ads, though, marketers realized the value of organic SEO. Customers and businesses alike realized when you see something like “this is sponsored” above a company’s URL, the brand loses a sense of authenticity.

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As more companies began to learn the strategies behind organic SEO, professionals began getting certified in Google Analytics just to learn the tricks of the trade. And while I never did go for the certification, I learned the hard way – through trial and error, experience in corporate marketing, the agency world, and finally with my own business – some of the best ways to boost your website’s visibility on search engines organically. That’s why I decided to put together a brief guide for those of who still know very little about organic SEO, along with tactics that can be easily implemented today.

It’s All in The Keywords

Let’s start with the basics. What exactly is search engine optimization (SEO)? SEO is the process of improving your site’s ranking in search results. Whether your customers and prospects are using Google, Bing, or Yahoo, the overall concept is the same, but the strategy you decide to implement depending on each search engine may be slightly different.

First thing’s first: put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Say want to search online for a creative agency in the Washington, DC metro area. You would probably open up Google and type into the search engine something along the lines of “creative agency Washington, DC metro” at which point you’ll receive thousands of hits. The companies listed at the top will likely be some of the better-known agencies because they have the marketing dollars to ramp up their SEO strategies to the max. They have paid ads, and their specific keywords are all over the internet. Why? Not only is their own site optimized with all the right keywords, but customers, websites, and media outlets are constantly using those same keywords in the content they create, which also increases their search engine ranking.

All that said, it doesn’t mean you can’t get to the top of Google as a small business. In fact, it’s most definitely easier today than ever before to do so with the right strategies in place. It’s all about being as specific as possible with your keywords, but also having enough of a variety of them that truly speak to your brand, and putting them everywhere you possibly can online. So where do you start with keywords? We’ll begin with some basic guidance from Squarespace, which is where www.swcreative.org is hosted.

Brainstorm a List of Keywords

To start, create a list of keywords people might be searching for to find sites like yours. Don’t hold back at this stage; you’ll refine the list in the next step.

Target audience – Think about the type of person you want to attract to your site. What do they want? What problems do they have? It might help to ask other people, like friends or coworkers, what they’d enter in search engines if looking for your content or services.
Your product – List each of your products or services, and add multiple words that describe it. Even if you don’t sell items, your product is whatever someone receives by visiting your site, like information about parrots.
Your brand – List words that describe what your site and brand is about, like your company name, your industry, and your specialties.
Competitors – Take a look at your competitors’ websites. What words do they use? What words do they avoid? What words do you search for when looking for their sites?
Synonyms – Think of different ways of saying any of the keywords on your list. For example, 4th of July, Fourth of July, July 4th, July 4, and July Fourth are all different keywords.
Related words – Type the words you’ve come up with in Google, and review the related searches it suggests. Add these to the list if they relate to your site.

There are so many free tools available today to help optimize your site, and will give you ideas for keywords to do so. SEMRush is just one tool available that offers a free trial so you can get an idea of how it works.

Incorporating Keywords Into Your Site

Now that you have a laundry list of keywords you should be using, you’ll want to incorporate them into your site in the most inconspicuous way possible. You can do so by adding them in your “About Us” section, your blog, product descriptions, and anywhere else there is text. As you add more and more text to your site, include the keywords and phrases you’ve put together from your list. These keywords help search engines display your site as relevant to the people looking for those search terms. Here are some other tips from Squarespace about where you should include keywords:

Your Site Title. The site title is the name of your site, which could be your own name, a business's name, the name of your blog, or your personal brand. The site title usually appears in the header or top corner of each page of your site. You can replace it with a logo. The site title may appear in browser tabs, search engine results, and social shares, depending on your SEO title format, which is why you should optimize it if possible. Here are some more tips from Squarespace about SEO for your site title:

Keep the length to 70 characters or fewer.
Each page on your site should have a unique SEO title.
You can add SEO titles and descriptions to certain collection items, including blog posts, products, and events.
You can customize how the titles display in browser tabs and in search results.

Your Site Description. Meta descriptions, also known as search descriptions, are short pieces of text that describe your site's content. Search engines show meta descriptions below the page title in search results if they can't find site content that's more relevant to a visitor's search terms. For control over how your meta descriptions appear in search results, you can edit these fields:

SEO site description - Represents your homepage.
SEO description - Represents individual pages or collection items, like products and blog posts
Page description (version 7.0 only) - Appears on your site in some templates.

Add a site description - Add a short (50-300 characters), relevant, readable description of your site to your SEO site description. This text may appear below your site title in search results, depending on what your visitors are searching for.
Add SEO descriptions - Ensure each page on your site has a unique SEO description. The text should be short and readable (50-300 characters), and describe the content of the page. You can also add SEO descriptions to individual blog posts, products, and events.
Check your page and title formats - Control how your page titles appear in browser tabs, social shares, and search engine results. You can set this for page titles, the homepage, and collection items (such as blog posts or products).

Optimize Your Headings With Keywords

Use heading text formatting to organize pages. Like titles, search engines typically give headings a higher priority. Clear headings that describe the content that follows make it easier for search engines to detect the major themes of your site. At the same time, they help visitors skim your page and quickly find the information they're looking for.

As a general rule, you should use headings in descending order to funnel visitors from the broadest information to the most specific. Keep in mind:

Ensure you're using heading sizes consistently on the page and across your site.
When possible, avoid using headings to create formatting effects, such as pull quotes.
Don't use the same text for multiple headings.
Optimize your headings with keywords.
As long as headings are structured and consistent, you can use the same type of heading multiple times on a page. Refer to the screenshot below for an example.

As your site evolves and as you add or edit content, ensure that your site stays as friendly as possible for search engines.

Optimize new content

Make updates strategically - Continue optimizing your site by following these content best practices.
Redirect changed or broken links - If you change the URL slug on a page on your site, create URL redirects to forward visitors who go to the old URL to the correct page.
Continue updating and adding content - Updating your site often helps search engines view your site as an active site. One way to regularly add content to your site is to start blogging.

In our next post, we’ll talk about other ways to add new content that can be optimized for your website and keep you at the top of the Google ranks.