As the marketing intern for Sweet AS Waffles, I have found out that search engine optimization is not just for big corporations with huge budgets. Small businesses like Sweet As Waffles can use SEO strategies to compete in the digital marketplace. Understanding how search engines work is a crucial skill for getting discovered by customers searching online.
Understanding Crawling and Indexing
Crawling
Crawling is the first step that search engines take to discover and find new content on the Internet. Crawlers are automated scouts that explore the web. And they move from website to website in search of new pages. For sweet as waffles, this means that search engines will visit our homepage, then they will follow links to different pages on our website, such as the menu or merch store.
These crawlers build a massive map of accessible web content. However, these web crawlers have limitations and cannot see content that is hidden behind login pages or text embedded in images. This is what makes organizing your website with a simple and easy navigation key.
To understand how your pages are being crawled, use Google Search Console. This free tool shows you exactly which pages Google has discovered and any crawling issues that might prevent your content from being found. You can also type “site:yourwebsite.com” into Google to see how many of your pages have been crawled and indexed.
Indexing
Once crawlers have discovered your content, Store in a massive database through a process called indexing. This database is used like an index of a book and organizes information so search engines can efficiently retrieve relevant results when someone searches for “best desserts in Bellingham”.
You can also check when your website was last crawled by looking for the “cached” version in your search results. The page has outdated information, uses at request indexing feature in Google Search Console, prompting Google to perform another crawl of your website.
Meta tags give you control over how search engines index your site. These bits of HTML code give instructions to search engines. For example, Sweet As Waffles might use an archive meta tag on pages that show limited-time promotional pricing, which will prevent outdated offers from appearing in search engine results and confusing potential customers.
Ranking And Why Are Search Engine Rankings So Important?
Ranking
Ranking determines which pages appear in what order on the search engine results page (SERP). When someone searches for “desserts in Bellingham”, Search engines use algorithms to decide which business appears first. These algorithms consist of EEAT, experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. For a local business like Sweet As Waffles, this means we should find ways to showcase our customer reviews and years of serving the community. This can be implemented in the “Our Story” page, which gives background about how Sweet As Waffles came to be a hit local business.
Why is Ranking Important?
Understanding how search engines work (known as “White-Hat SEO) gives you the information to create great, quality content that will get high placement on the ranking system, organically. Studies show that 28.5% of users click on the first result, and 70% of users click on the first 5 results. If Sweet As Waffles is ranked to be on page two, we are practically invisible to users searching “desserts in Bellingham”.
Finding ways to rank higher creates measurable lift in conversions. When users are searching for breakfast in their search engines and find us in the top results, they are more likely to visit us and give us their business. Every improvement (no matter how small or big) directly translates to getting the word out that we exist and that people should shop with us.
What Is Keyword Research?
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Businesses need to be clear about who their target market is. Segmentation divides potential customers into groups, which then targets select groups to preserve, and positioning is what defines us and what makes us stand out from our competitors. Sweet As Waffles can segment by “breakfast,” “lunch,” and “dinner,” then position us accordingly, knowing what our goal is and what options we have.
How To Start A Good Keyword Strategy
Effective keyword research starts by figuring out what terms your target market is searching for. Are they looking for “waffles near me”, “best brunch in Bellingham”, or “dessert near me”. Using keyword research tools, you can discover the exact monthly search volumes and how competitive each keyword term is.
Sometimes popular keywords are too saturated with competition. That’s where ‘long-tailed keywords” are valuable. Instead of competing for “breakfast”, we can compete in “sweet breakfast” or “savory breakfast”. These specific keywords will have a lower number of searches but will bring a high conversion rate because they are more detailed and will cater to customers’ questions more effectively. They are also much less competitive to rank higher.
What Is On-Page SEO?
How To Adjust Content to Cater To SEO
On-page SEO is optimizing your website content based on keyword research. We must ask ourselves, “What are potential customers asking, and how can I create content that answers those questions?” For Sweet As Waffles, we can create an informational webpage for “What Are the Best Savory Breakfasts?” with a goal of attracting customers who want something salty for breakfast but might not expect a waffle shop to cater to them.
A key point in on-page SEO is to focus on users first, not search engines. A good practice is to group your keywords by topic, then create content based on those keywords. For example, Sweet As Waffles can group or menu items by what meal they would be appetizing to eat during, such as “breakfasts”, “lunches”, and “dinners”, instead of “sweet” and “savory”. Most people search for types of meals, and not whether the item is salty or sweet. Researching what other competing businesses are doing is also very important, because you can see what they are doing right, and see what they are NOT doing.
How Does EEAT Play In To On-Page SEO?
Showing your experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness helps you outrank competitors. Including target keywords and headings, and subheadings throughout your website is a great practice. Headings and subheadings are what crawlers first see when searching a webpage, so these must be utilized to efficiently outrank other businesses. Other ways to effectively utilize EEAT is by avoiding two mistakes: creating duplicate content and keyword stuffing. Google penalizes websites that copy content (so don’t use AI!) and unnaturally repeat keywords. If you write naturally as a human would, search engines will reward you and prioritize your rank.