SEO … ugh. The worst, right? What is it, really? And what do you really need to know about it?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and the concept of SEO is, on paper, rather simple. SEO is how well your website ranks on search engines such as Google. There are literally hundreds of ways you can optimize your SEO, and this is why most business owners become overwhelmed. But really, there are only a handful of things you need to do to boost your SEO and your Google ranking. Make sure you’re following all the rules listed below and you’ll be off to a great start.

5 SEO Mistakes You Might Be Making on Your Business Website

1. Not having a blog! I totally understand that maintaining an active blog is difficult. Most business owners push it to the back burner and only update their blog when they have absolutely nothing else to do. But what most business owners don’t realize is how crucial an active blog is for SEO. Instead of letting your website get stale, a blog will help you maintain fresh content, which Google loves. Also, with every blog post is another chance to rank for a new keyword. The more your website can come up under different search terms, the better! (See #2 for more.) And don’t forget creating blog posts gives you tons of social media content. I truly believe blogging is critical for maintaining a healthy online presence.

2. You’re focusing on only one keyword. Want to rank for “Wedding Planner?” So do thousands of other people. And there’s nothing wrong with it, but you’re better off focusing on a handful of niche keyword phrases, such as “Los Angeles Wedding Planner,” “Los Angeles Wedding Coordinator,” “Top Los Angeles Wedding Planners,” “Los Angeles Event Planner.” Sprinkling your keywords (or key phrases) throughout your website copy will help diversify your results on Google.

3. Using generic file names. This is probably the EASIEST SEO strategy you can do! Be sure you’re changing your image file names BEFORE you upload them to your website. Never (ever ever) upload a photo with a name like “IMG_001.” Be sure to change the file name to match a description of the image. For example, “wedding-ceremony-on-beach-1.”

4. Ignoring Alt Text on your images. Renaming the files is a great strategy, but not enough. Once you upload a photo file to your website, be sure to type in a descriptive Alt Text for each image. The Alt Text is used to tell Google what’s shown in the photo, which is how images show up under Google Image search.

5. Your website is not optimized for mobile. I’d be willing to bet more than half of your website’s traffic comes from a mobile device. Mine is around 60%, so I’m at a point where I’m focusing more on how my site looks on mobile than on desktop. Google knows mobile is important, too, so they are actually restricting non-optimized mobile sites from coming up on searches. You can use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test to check your site.

Be sure you’re not making these SEO mistakes. And if you are, it’s not too late to fix them! Remember your website is your “store front” so make it clean and inviting, and Google (and potential clients) will take notice.