How can my business increase its SEO?

Have you Googled your industry, product or service lately? Is your company in the top three results?

If not, say goodbye to that sale.

In the time it takes to read this sentence, the world’s largest search engine ran 140,000 searches with millions of results.

Which result did people click on? Roughly 68 percent go with No. 1.

That’s where your business should be.

“If they can’t find you on Google, you have a major problem,” said Jay Sandidge, director of marketing for Springfield-based Positronic Industries Inc.

Enter search engine optimization, aka SEO, aka trust by proxy. Google trusts you and the world trusts Google.

Think about it like this: Trust = better search ranking = more clicks.

“We didn’t do much SEO before I started five years ago. Based on our initial results, I doubled the budget,” Sandidge said, noting it’s in his top four line items. “People don’t know what it is, they don’t understand it, so they don’t think they need it. That’s a mistake.”

To help business owners tackle the maze of ever-changing algorithms, local SEO experts offer up four basics to help you below.

Go mobile friendly
In November, Google began experiments to make a mobile-first index. What’s that mean? If your website is responsive, then congrats, you’re moving to the top.

However, 417 Marketing LLC owner Nick Altrup said it’s bad news for everyone else.

“People with multiple versions of the same website, one that is desktop-friendly and one that is mobile-friendly, and people that have neither are essentially screwed,” he said.

Over 70 percent of online traffic comes through mobile devices. Altrup said if you aren’t serving a full version of your website to people using mobile devices, you are in jeopardy of losing a huge percentage of the traffic.

Set up Google My Business
Even if you don’t have a storefront business, it is important to fill this out and verify your business with Google, said Quinton Hamp, co-owner of PunchSEO.com.

“This helps Google easily understand the category your business should be in, what your website and social media channels are, and what local customers think about your business,” he said via email.

Hamp said ask customers to leave reviews to improve your position; it typically takes at least five reviews for those stars to appear next to your business name.

Google your company
Most would be surprised to see how poorly your business is represented in search results, Altrup said. Common mistakes include a long, short or poorly written title tag and meta description – meaning Google now ignores you or pulls a random sentence from your page.

Campaignium partner Jeff Paulette suggested thinking like your target customer.

“Know the keywords people use to see your site,” he said. “If you Google those words and your site doesn’t pop up, you’re in trouble.”

Paulette said the most common mistake is too much industry jargon.

Be fast
Website speed has been a documented part of Google’s algorithm since 2010, but Altrup said it’s more important now than ever. Why?

People are increasingly impatient. They expect pages to load quickly, and Google is in the business of making sure users are happy with search results. “If they aren’t happy, they will try another search engine, which leads to a loss in advertising revenue,” he said.

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