We build websites. Which means every client eventually asks us about SEO. And every time, we have the same conversation — so we figured we’d write it down.
Here’s what actually matters, without the jargon and scare tactics that most SEO articles are full of.
Your site needs to be fast
This is the single biggest thing you can do for SEO, and it’s also the thing most people ignore. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, people leave. Google knows this, so slow sites get ranked lower. Compress your images, don’t load 47 plugins, and pick decent hosting. That alone puts you ahead of most small business websites.
Write for people, not search engines
The days of stuffing keywords into every sentence are over. Google is smart enough to understand what your page is about without you repeating “best plumber in Los Angeles” fourteen times. Write clearly about what you do, answer the questions your customers actually ask, and the rankings will follow.
Your page titles and descriptions matter
Every page on your site has a title tag and a meta description. These are what show up in Google search results. If yours say “Home” and “Welcome to our website,” you’re wasting prime real estate. Each page should have a unique, descriptive title that tells both Google and humans what the page is about.
Mobile isn’t optional
More than half of all web traffic is mobile. Google indexes the mobile version of your site first, not the desktop version. If your site doesn’t work well on a phone, your SEO is suffering whether you realize it or not.
Get other sites to link to you
Backlinks — links from other websites to yours — are still one of the strongest ranking signals. The best way to get them is to create content worth linking to, and to build real relationships in your industry. Guest posts, local business directories, and industry partnerships all help.
Local SEO is a different game
If you’re a local business, your Google Business Profile matters more than almost anything else. Keep it updated with your hours, photos, and services. Ask happy customers for reviews. Respond to the reviews you get. This is how you show up in the map results, and for local businesses that’s where most of the clicks come from.
SEO is a long game
Anyone who promises you page-one rankings in 30 days is lying or doing something that’ll get your site penalized. Real SEO takes months of consistent work. The good news is that once you build that foundation, it compounds — unlike paid ads, which stop working the second you stop paying.
We bake SEO into every site we build because fixing it after the fact is always harder and more expensive. If your current site isn’t ranking the way you want, we can take a look and tell you what’s going on.