SEO Tips for Beginners

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is incredibly important to the success of any business, large or small. Simply put, a website and Google Business Profile that are well-optimized for SEO enable your business to rank high in Google search results, ensuring potential clients will find you, and not your competitors, when searching for services and products you offer in their area. This article answers the most frequently asked questions about SEO and how it works, with a section of easy, digestible tips that can help significantly improve your website’s SEO—and, by extension, your business’s visibility to potential clients.

What is SEO? Some Commonly Asked Questions

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the term used for improving your website to increase its visibility in search engines, like Google or Bing, for services and products that your business sells.

How is SEO different from paid ads?

SEO relies on strategically building your website and Google Business Profile to increase your search engine visibility.

Paid ads require you to spend money strategically to maximize the return on your ads.

How do I show up at the top of search results? How do I choose the right keywords for my business?

Showing up at the top of search results involves many things, but it all starts with choosing which search results your business should compete for.

Most of the keywords your business should compete for will be related to the services and products you sell. The most important can usually be found in their business name.

Make a list of all the services and products your business offers. Include these words on your website and your Google Business Profile.

How important is a Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile is essential because it enables your business to show in the map above normal search results.

However, it won’t replace your website. Customers will often visit your website after viewing your Google Business Profile to make sure your business is real.

When naming my business, what are some things to be aware of?

When naming your business, it isn’t necessary to add your services to the name for the sake of SEO.

Give it a name that makes sense to you and your customers.

How long will it take to show up at the top of search results?

Unfortunately, there is no set time it takes to show up at the top of search results. It can take as little as a few weeks or extend to several months or a year.

Not only is it dependent on the strength of your website and Google Business Profile, but also:

• Your location
• Your competition
• What the customer is searching for (keyword)
• Where the customer is when they search.

SEO Tips for Your MySite

As you may have gathered by now, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a huge role in determining your new website’s success. Vagaro’s MySite gives your business a custom-branded, polished website constructed with SEO already in mind. However, optimizing your business’s website for SEO involves several different elements, and some effort on your part.

Here are some quick and effective tips that you can start using TODAY (as you read this, in fact) to turn your website into a well-optimized machine.

1. Keyword Optimization: The KEY to SEO Success!

The right keywords let search engines know what your website content is about and reflect your target audience, geographic location, and specific services or specialties offered by your business. Keyword optimization incorporates relevant keywords into various elements of your website.

Follow these tips for keyword optimization:

Tip 1: Do keyword research. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to help you figure out which words and phrases related to your business are getting the most traffic on Google. You can also use Google Trends to see what topics are trending most in your target regions. Build your page’s content around those words and phrases.

Tip 2: Choose primary keywords. Your primary keyword is the focus of your page content (e.g., “salon services” or “personal training”). You only need one primary keyword per page.

Tip 3: Choose secondary keywords. Your secondary keywords support your main topic and are a bit more granular in nature (e.g., “Balayage highlights”, “HIIT Training”, “Best __ in [city name]”)

Tip 4: Choose high-volume keywords. These keywords have high search volume and give you a chance to capture a broad audience (e.g., “Hair Salon”, “Fitness Center”, “Spa Treatment”). Don’t rely exclusively on these keywords, however, as they are incredibly competitive and difficult to rank for.

Tip 5: Choose low-volume keywords. These keywords have a smaller search volume and may appeal to a specific segment that you’re trying to target (e.g., “Balayage highlights for dark hair”, “Outdoor HIIT classes”, “Triggerpoint massage for athletes”). There may be less competition for these keywords, but that’s because they have limited traffic potential compared to their counterparts—so don’t rely on them too much.

Step 6: Do NOT overstuff your keywords. Keyword stuffing is using the same keywords repeatedly—and awkwardly—throughout your site to positively influence search rankings. It has very much the opposite effect, so avoid the practice.

2. Optimize Your On-Page SEO: Tag It!

On-page SEO helps search engines understand the relevance of your content to specific keywords, increasing the likelihood of your pages appearing in results for relevant searches. As its name implies, on-page SEO involves things that are literally on the page.

Follow these steps for better on-page SEO:

Step 1: Set your title tags

Your title tags define the title of a specific webpage and are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) as the main clickable headline for a search result.

• Make your title tags unique, descriptive & compelling, and include your city or region.
• Keep them concise, as Google only shows about 50–60 characters in a search result.
• Use separators like pipes (|), dashes (-), or colons to distinguish between different elements in the title when necessary for clarity.

Step 2: Set your header tags

Search engines like Google use these to understand the hierarchy and organization of what’s on your webpages.

• H1 Tags: H1 tags are used as the main title of a page and are especially important for SEO. Make this descriptive, including your city or region if necessary and a main target keyword that represents the primary service or focus of that page. Only use one H1 tag per page.

• H2, H3, etc. Tags: H2 tags and beyond represent subheadings of gradually decreasing importance that break pages down into sections and subsections. Set them accordingly. In fact, this entire on-page SEO section qualifies as an H3, falling under the H2, which is “SEO Tips for Your MySite”.

Step 3: Set your meta descriptions

These are those snippets that appear in search engine results that provide a concise, accurate summary of the webpage.

• Make these descriptions compelling and include your main keyword.

• Keep your meta descriptions about 150–160 characters long, and make sure the most essential information is within this range, including your city or region, and keyword.

3. Think Local: Local SEO!

Local SEO involves how visible your business is in local search results on Google. Follow these simple steps to ensure strong local SEO:

• Step 1: Claim your Google Business listing. Claiming your Google Business Profile is essential, free, and simple to do (just follow the directions from Google).
• Step 2: Include important info. Include the link to your website—as well as your business’s name, address, phone number, business categories & business hours—in your profile. Make sure that all information is 100% correct.
• Step 3: Pick strong photos. Include high-quality images of your business space, services and any products you sell.
• Step 4: Respond to reviews. Respond promptly and appropriately to client reviews in your Google Business Profile. Doing this improves local search rankings.
• Step 5: Monitor your local SEO. Check your local SEO rankings over time using tools like Google Analytics. Track local keyword rankings, organic traffic, and customer reviews.

4. Picture-Perfect SEO: Photo Optimization

SEO-friendly images improve your site's loading time and enhance its user experience, which positively affects your search engine rankings.

We know you’ve got beautiful photos of your business space, services and employees that you can’t wait to show the world. Before you do, however, follow these simple steps for optimizing them for SEO:

• Step 1: Name your photos. Use descriptive file names that reflect the content of the photo. Avoid generic titles like "client001.jpg" and instead opt for something like "hair-balayage.jpg." This helps search engines understand what the image is about.
• Step 2: Tag your photos. Alt tags/alt text is the description associated with your image, which provides context for search engines. Include relevant keywords that accurately describe the content of the image and add geotags for location information.
• Step 3: Size your photos. Large image files can slow down your website’s loading time, which is especially bad for performance on mobile devices (phones, tablets). Use a free image compressor, like tinypng, to resize your photos to the dimensions needed for display purposes on your site.
• Step 4: Format your photos. When choosing the right image format, we suggest using the JPEG format for photographs, while PNG is better for images with transparency.

These were just a few easy SEO best practices that you can incorporate immediately. If you want to learn more about how to use SEO to help your business, from font recommendations (yes, fonts matter!) to tips for design, mobile optimization, on-page navigation, how to get those all-important backlinks, and creating SEO-friendly content, check out this in-depth guide to website and small business SEO.

SEO is central to every robust marketing plan and can be the difference between a very good month/quarter/year for revenue and a bad one. It may seem technical or even somewhat mystical. But, with a little knowledge, common sense, and consistency, you can start using SEO to increase your business’s visibility, bookings and revenue. Vagaro MySite, an SEO-optimized website builder, is just one of the many tools Vagaro offers businesses to help elevate their success. Start your FREE 30-day trial to experience it for yourself!