SEO Notes on Google for Small Business Seminar

Posted on by Kate Rafferty

I created 3-part series of seminars related to Google and Google for Business topics for Monmouth SCORE.

The first part took place on May 11, 2018 – Introduction to Using Google for Small Business

Initially, the seminar was to be hands-on, but not enough people brought laptops. So we started by having a broad discussion about things new business owners should know about presenting their business on the internet; domain ownership, hosting websites, secure HTTPS websites, responsive websites, email, etc.

We touched on some Tips for Internet Marketing:

  1. Content – Words (Text not images). The search engines have to be able to read text on your website. A computer can not see images. They need to read text to know what your business is, where your service area is, and other details about products and services.
  2. A Stagnant Website vs a Frequently Updated Website. A website that was created an hasn’t been updated for 5 years will eventually go dormant – in terms of the visibility of your website in search results as compared with other more active websites.  Update your website frequently. At an absolute minimum, update it once a month.
  3. Drive Traffic To Your Website. Google helps businesses that help themselves, i.e. they will improve your ranking if you are sending people to your website – both new visitors and repeat visitors. You have opportunities to drive people to your website:
    • Social Media – Don’t just post 3rd party links. Post some links to specific web pages, blog posts, news, services, products, etc.
    • Email Marketing – Use 3rd party solutions such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, or MadMimi to create e-Newsletters. In the email be sure to add links to specific web pages or social media accounts.
    • Print, Email, Voice messages – When possible include easy to remember links to your website and social media.
  4. Engage with Customers. YouTube videos can make your website appear like it is engaging … it is talking. If you create a YouTube video, embed it on your website. In some website content management systems, this is as simple as adding the video share link to your webpage.

Google Accounts:

There are many different types of Google services. And Google is trying to get everyone to use the same login. This is easy for new businesses, but often challenging for businesses that have been around for a while. For example; you might have created a youtube account long before Google purchased YouTube.

Goals to set up a Google Account for your business and take advantage of the free services by Google to promote your business.

1) Create a Gmail Account
Create an email address on gmail.com to be used exclusively to manager your Google Marketing. i.e. keep your domain based email on your website and business cards for your customers. ex: mybiz@gmail.com. This meail address and password will be the login username and password for all your Google Accounts.

2) Google Account
Your “Google Account” can also be found on www.MyAccount.google.com  The username is the gmail address and the password is your gmail password. This account is used to view change your recovery emails, recovery phone numbers, view some of your accounts, and to delete the entire account.

3) Google My Business 
The Google My Business was created so you can tell Google that you have a website for business. This account is also used to set up your Google Maps and respond to your Google Reviews. Go to www.google.com/business/ to  add or claim your business you will be able to upload your Logo, some photos, and make a post.

4) Google Analytics 
You must sign up for Google Analytics to obtain the tracking code that has to be added to your website. Go to google.com/analytics/  –  the SIGN IN button is in the upper right corner. Reenter your username (your gmail address) and your password (the gmail password). You will see 1) Sign Up for Analytics 2) Add Tracking Code 3) Learn About Your Audience – Click on the Sign Up and you will be able to add your website information (the Account Name, Website Name and Website URL , category, time zone) and “GET TRACKING ID”
– Save the Tracking ID to add to your website and begin tracking. (NOTE: it is easy to add the tracking id to a content management system like WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly, Joomla,  etc.  If your website was created by programmers in HTML or PHP you might have to have a programmer add the tracking code)

5) Google Search Console
Access this account after you created your domain, website, and set up the Google Analytics and installed the tracking code. This account is a bit more technical, but any business owner could and should sign up for it as you will receive alerts from Google if there are any major issues with the website (ex: hackers attacked it) Go to google.com/webmasters/ or do a Google search for “Google Search Console”.

Two areas where you can submit your website are the SITEMAP and the FETCH AS GOOGLE. You can install an XML sitemap (many content management systems create these automatically or you can use a plugin or widget to add it to your website).  The FETCH AS GOOGLE allows you to submit individual web pages or blog posts to Google.

6) YouTube www.youtube.com
If you don’t already know – Google owns YouTube and YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine (Google is the 1st). You can create a YouTube account for your email address OR a “Business Channel” for your business.  Use your gmail address/password to login or create the account. For businesses, if you select the business channel option you will see your logo in the upper right corner – hover and click MY CHANNEL. You will have the option to Create a new Channel, a pop-up window will display your name. In Blue text you will see “Use a business or other name” click on that link and follow the instructions to name your channel.

After you create a video – be sure to write a creative, descriptive Title and description. In the description put a link to your website. And make sure you embed your video on your website or link to the youtube channel video. Driving traffic to your video and having your video drive traffic to your website is very important.

Good Luck!

See you May 9, 2018 at the 2nd Monouth SCORE seminar – an Indepth Look at Google Analytics.