Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, has been a major consideration for all sizes of business for a considerable time now. Every business with an online presence, from the FTSE 100 high performer to the bedroom blogger, strives to attract visitors through enhanced SEO performance.

But how does a business owner keep up with SEO developments? Google changes its algorithm over 500 times per year, according to Moz, and keeps the details of these updates largely a secret. It’s little wonder that small businesses looking to maximise their search visibility have trouble keeping up. The biggest question is no longer how to make a website, but rather how to maintain and grow your website.

Despite the difficulty in predicting the nature of Google’s next algorithm update, SEO isn’t something to be taken lightly. Putting one foot wrong can mean a Google penalty that wipes your rankings, taking your organic revenue with it. But there are some key pointers that you can’t go wrong to follow.

Quality content

It is crucial, in this day and age, for your company not only to focus on selling a product or service but to have a content strategy that supports and underpins your business goals. For example, if you run a small food shop, you might want to feature content on recipes.

Running an art gallery? You have a great opportunity to discuss the provenance of your stock. The more quality, fresh content you have, the more Google will see your site as a trusted resource and rank it accordingly.

Strong keywords

Strong SEO needs the right keywords. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer: what would you search for? When doing your keyword research, you need to find terms or phrases which produce a high monthly search amount but with low competition. As a small business, it does not make sense to select highly competitive terms where you will be up against internet giants such as Amazon and Ebay.

Be mobile friendly

Over half of global Google searches are made on a mobile device, and it’s expected to keep growing.

Mobile users are clearly a priority for Google, so they should be a priority for you. If you haven’t already, adopting responsive web design is a good idea. This ensures you have a single version of your website which automatically adapts to different screen sizes.

Be quick

Site speed has been a direct ranking factor since 2010, but the rise of mobile has put a bigger emphasis on load times. That’s because mobile internet connections can make sluggish pages even slower, and users are more impatient while on the move.

There are plenty of tweaks you can make to shave milliseconds off load times — PageSpeed Insights will give you a good idea of what’s slowing your site down.But if you really want to get ahead of the game, make use of AMP (accelerated mobile page) coding.

Fast-loading AMP pages deliver a better user experience, and receive special attention in Google search results.

AMP isn’t a direct ranking signal at the moment, but everything points to it being one soon.

Help is at hand

Wix SEO Wiz is the perfect introduction to SEO for any blogger, freelancer or small business owner that may be unfamiliar with ranking on Google.

The Wix SEO Wiz is an easy and intuitive tool that allows Wix users to generate a personalised plan for improving their SEO. Simply download the tool and the user will be promoted to answer a few key questions about their site. For instance, where are you located?

While this is not always applicable for every site, this information can be very useful for directing localised traffic to you. Additionally, you will be promoted to create a few keywords for your site. The keywords are a great way to direct traffic to your site!

If for instance, you are the owner of a bakery, you will want to ensure that your keywords reflect some of the basic search terms that your customer will look for when searching for a bakery.

The Wix SEO Wiz will not only help you to choose your keywords, but it will also indicate to the user how popular the search term is. You may be tempted to choose the keyword ‘freshly baked’ for your bakery, but it will most likely be a term which drives too broad of a search result.

Rather, the tool will suggest that you narrow in on your search by giving more details like, ‘Freshly Baked Cookies in New York’. Arguably the best aspect of the SEO Wiz is that your site will be automatically indexed by Google – which means that you can start tracking and evaluating your rankings.