How Much Time Should Small Business Owners Spend On SEO?

Time spent on SEO will vary depending on what stage of SEO process you are in. When you’re first spooling up your SEO campaign there can be a considerable investment of time needed. Remember, time spent on SEO as a general rule has a good return on investment. An effective SEO campaign is well worth your time and effort.

Optimize your website for SEO.

When you are beginning the SEO process, you will want to check out your website to ensure that it’s optimized for SEO. How do you know your website is optimized for SEO? There are several things to look at. First, does your site have simple navigation? Is it easy for users to get around? Do they know where content is and how to complete a transaction, if you offer that on your site? You want to make the user experience flow for the customer so that they are happy while they are on your site and will make a return to it.

You should also make sure that each content page is optimized for a target keyword. These keywords should be found online and placed in categories. Category pages should include all relevant links to the topic. These are also known as cornerstone content pages. This makes it easier for people to find the information they want. If your website is already built you will need review each page of your website to see if you need to go back and rename the pages and reworking the content. Each page should be titled using your keyword and a short meta description. This will be what shows up on your search engine results and is meant to encourage people to click through to your website from Google and other search engines.

Consistently update your website with fresh, new content.

If you don’t have a blog on your business website, consider getting one. It’s the easiest way to consistently add new content to your website that is fresh and new. You should update your website at least once a week. Your blog can be about business news, company news, or relevant tidbits you want to share. Think about including videos or infographics in your blog. Each blog post should be optimized for a specific keyword.

Build backlinks

This is an ongoing process much like everything else to do with SEO. Time spent on SEO needs to be consistent to yield results. When building backlinks you can use tools to help you determine pages you should be linking to and pages you want linking back to you. We have a free link search tool on our website you can try at https://www.soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html. Remember, you want quality links, not just any link. The pages you link to can increase or decrease your page authority so it’s important to choose quality over quantity.

Don’t forget social media.

Social media is a great way to get exposure online and it indirectly impacts your search engine ranking. When you post new content to your website, make sure you post it on your social media networks as well. It’s a great way to expand your network of contacts as your followers share your posts. If people believe in you and your work, they will share your information with their followers. Make sure your social media posts are consistent, relevant and engaging. With tools like Hootsuite, where you can schedule posts ahead of time, social media posting has never been easier. You should also devote a little time each week to comment on people’s comments and observations. You do not want people to feel like they’re not being heard.

How much time you should spend on SEO? As you can see that depends on your SEO goals. The time you spend on SEO depends on what tasks you are doing and what you are looking to get out of the process. To learn more about SEO, please feel free to look around our blog.