Ever thought about how your competitor shows up on Google before you? The reason for that is SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. Think of it as a set of road signs guiding customers towards you once they have your product or service in mind.
For business owners, especially not tech-savvy ones, SEO can feel impossible to grasp. At first glance anything about keywords, algorithms, and backlinks seems confusing. But here’s the truth — it’s easier than you think. All it takes is learning a few dos and don’ts, and following those lessons alone can get you noticeably higher on search engines. It all starts with setting a solid foundation, and that is indeed possible to do without becoming an expert.
In this article we’ll guide you through the most important SEO basics that every business owner should understand.
Do: Use Keywords Intentionally
Keywords are what people typically enter into search engines, and SEO is based primarily on those. If you sell eco-friendly shoes, phrases like “sustainable sneakers” or “eco-friendly footwear” are the kinds of terms potential customers will be Googling.
The trick is to set a balance by using those keywords enough to have them get noticed by Google, but not stuffing your website with them. They must remain natural, since word spam is seen as simply not valuable. Optimally they should be included in page titles, headings, and meta descriptions — basically every place where one would expect for them to be.
Tip:
Before you start, do a little research. Free tools like Google Keyword Planner can show you what people are searching for in your industry. Aim to mix your keywords set with both short-tail and long-tail ones.
Don’t: Ignore Mobile Optimization
If your site looks great on a laptop but clunky on a phone, Google notices, and since its crawlers check for the mobile versions of all websites — it penalizes you. That’s because the majority of global Internet traffic happens on mobile devices. Neglecting those is simply not smart in more ways than one.
Make sure that all buttons can be easily tapped on a touch screen, text is eligible without zooming in or out, and menus remain simple to navigate. A website that’s too inconvenient to use on mobile devices doesn’t just cause user frustration. It’s also a hindrance to your SEO.
Mobile optimization might sound like a technical headache, but most modern website builders automatically handle it for you, so you don’t have to stress about coding.
Do: Create High Quality Content
Anything fresh and relevant gets into search engines’ good graces. Detailed descriptions for your products and services help you get discovered, because they will answer the questions commonly asked by your potential customers. Similarly, blogs can offer insight, which in Google’s eyes proves one’s authoritativeness.
The key is to make your content genuinely helpful. If you’re a landscaping company, for example, you could consider an article on low-maintenance plants for small yards. And something like this shows to Google that your site deserves attention due to your knowledge.
Content ideas that help SEO:
- Detailed service or product descriptions
- Blog posts that answer customer questions
- How-to guides or tutorials
- Case studies or testimonials
- Product comparisons and reviews
The more useful your content, the longer visitors will stay on your site—and that’s a signal to Google that your page is worth ranking higher.
Don’t: Forget About Page Speed
Regardless if we are talking desktop or mobile devices, Google notices when people tend to leave some websites in just seconds. The most likely reason for them to do so is that those websites load too long. With patience being very thin online, three seconds are already too much. Such immediate bounces are a sign of a website that doesn’t deliver a good user experience.
Page speed issues often come from oversized images or poor hosting. The fix? Image compression and modern file formats are a good start.
A good rule of thumb is to check your site on your phone using both Wi-Fi and cellular data. If it feels sluggish, it’s time for an update. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can give you exact performance scores and suggest appropriate fixes.
Do: Choose the Right Website Platform
Naturally, learning all the theories of SEO is only half the battle. What you need on top of that is a platform that will let you easily put all you learned into practice. IKOL is such an example of a platform allowing you to build your website and make it optimized with little to no effort.
IKOL is designed to give business owners a head start. And not with just SEO! Once you enter your business name, it generates a full website, equipped with an AI chat and functional subpages for your services and contact data. On top of that, each website is optimized for mobile devices by default.
As for the SEO tools, it offers easy to use tools for customizing your keywords, page titles and meta descriptions. With the editor that lets you create content by yourself (or even generate it with AI’s assistance) and set one of many possible layouts, the result you get with IKOL is a site that’s a pleasure to navigate through. And these are the ones ranking better in search engines.
Summary
SEO doesn’t have to be as complicated, as many guidelines make it out to be. What it all comes down to is actually straightforward — pick appropriate keywords and use them wisely, ensure a good performance, and create quality content.
Most importantly, remember that SEO isn’t a project for a single day only. Optimizing for search engines is a process of constant adaptability to consumers’ needs. But with the right mindset your website can turn from just an online poster to a visitor-attracting magnet.
By taking care of SEO you show that your business is serious about getting found online. If you make an engaging website and let it show up on Google’s top ranks, then congratulations! You found the recipe for great first impressions on your company. And the better those are, the more likely you’ll be to profit.
Prime Star