Somebody recently asked me if small businesses should keep up with all the changes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The short answer: No!

It’s impossible to keep up with every change without making it a full-time job. Minor changes are ongoing at Google and Bing. And new tips are discovered by SEO pros in field experiments every day. Only high-traffic websites get a good return on the effort of daily and weekly tweaks based on the latest small changes.

Priorities

I suggest the 80-20 rule. Spend 20% of the effort of “perfect” SEO to get 80% of the results.

1. Content is most important. Write content for your audience, those who want to find you or your service. Write about the problem they want to solve or the solution they’re looking for.
   • Include words and phrases your audience might search for.
   • Include towns and other place names if your audience is likely to narrow their search geographically.
2. Structure the content for Google and screen readers.
   • Use headings (H1, H2, H3) and paragraph tags correctly.
   • Here’s an article on how to use HTML headings.
   • Here’s an article on checking your HTML headings.
3. Edit the HTML Title and Description for every page and include a keyword or two.

Then Do What Google Says

At the link below, Google tells everybody how to improve SEO. This guide covers the most important foundations. It’s a little techy, especially for a novice. But it points you to the most important concepts, the first things you should learn and do.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide

Just do what Google says and you get most of what you need in SEO.