Smart Small Biz SEO

On July 1, 2024, Google Analytics 4 properties will have fully replaced Universal Analytics properties, as previously announced.

On 07/01, Google will begin turning off all Universal Analytics services and Universal Analytics APIs, which means Universal Analytics properties will be inaccessible through the Google Analytics front-end and APIs.

If you haven’t completely migrated to Google Analytics 4 properties, you'll want to do that ASAP.

If you're a maintenance client of mine, I've already done this for you.

Do you have a local business? If so, one of the best things you can do to attract new customers is to setup and optimize your Google Business Profile. Optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) will improve your visibility in local search results and attract more potential customers. Here are key steps to effectively optimize your profile:

✅Claim and Verify Your Profile: Ensure you've claimed and verified your business on Google My Business. This step is fundamental for making any further updates or optimizations. Be sure your NAP (Name, Address and Phone) is consistent with your website and other social sites.

✅Complete Every Section: Google values completeness. Fill out every part of your profile, including business name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, categories, attributes, and services. This helps Google match your business to relevant searches.

✅Choose the Right Business Categories: Be precise when selecting your business categories and subcategories, as they heavily influence the types of searches your GBP appears in. The primary category is the most important, but don’t neglect to add relevant secondary categories.

✅Add High-Quality Photos and Videos: Regularly update your profile with high-quality images and videos of your products, services, team, and premises. Businesses with photos receive more clicks, directions, and calls. For my SEO clients, I try to add photos and videos once a week or more.

✅Collect and Respond to Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on your profile. Respond to all reviews, whether positive or negative, in a professional manner. This demonstrates that you value customer feedback and helps to improve your business's visibility and attractiveness.

✅Use Google Posts: Regularly publish posts to your GBP to engage with your audience. You can share updates, offers, events, and more. This content can improve your profile's visibility and encourage more interactions. I regularly share blog posts or other local information for my SEO clients.

✅Add Products and Services: If applicable, list your products and services directly on your GBP. This helps customers understand what you offer and can improve your profile's relevance to searches. DO NOT add your services as products. I now a few GBP who have gotten delisted recently because of this. If you sell services, list them under services. If you sell products, list them under products.

✅Optimize for Keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your business description, services, and posts. Think about what your potential customers might be searching for and include those terms to improve your search visibility.

✅Keep Information Up-to-Date: Regularly review and update your profile to ensure all information is current. This includes hours of operation (especially for holidays), contact information, and any changes to products or services. I update my client's accounts weekly.

✅Track Insights: Utilize Google Business Profile Insights to track how customers are finding your profile, what actions they're taking, as well as other key metrics. Use this data to adjust your strategy and improve your profile's performance.

✅Engage with Q&A: Monitor and respond to questions in the Q&A section of your GBP. You can also proactively post frequently asked questions and their answers to provide valuable information to potential customers.

Remember, consistency across the web is crucial. Ensure your business information is consistent across all platforms, including social media, your website, and other directories. This consistency helps improve your credibility and search engine ranking.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, step-dads, bonus dads, men who stepped into the dad role and pet dads.

I've spent the last two days running month-end reports for my website clients. This month, I wanted to do more extensive reporting so I can provide solid recommendations on how to increases website traffic.

All of my clients are interested in increasing organic traffic via SEO so I spent a lot of time this month looking at their website ensuring no broken links, the site is running fast, each page has a meta description, each image has an alt attribute and that they have a lot of backlinks.

Backlinks are one of the most important things you can do to increase your SEO and probably one of the most overlooked. I'll be writing a blog post on this subject over the next few weeks.

Some of my clients already have amazing SEO. One client that has had a site for a while saw a 118% increase in website traffic over this time last year.

One client's site which was just launched a few months ago saw an increase in traffic of 21% over last month with the biggest growth being organic.

Yes, it is still possible to organically grow your website traffic!