You may not want to take the time to learn everything there is to learn about making your small business website search engine friendly (if you do, start with this SEO guide from Google), but you do have time for these.

“SEO” means “search engine optimization.” You want your website to show up in search engine results, so you do things to “optimize” the site.

Set WordPress Permalinks

“Permalink” is shorthand for “permanent link.” Think of it as a name, or an address. Each and every page on the internet has its own unique address, called a URL, and a permalink is a type of URL. The default WordPress permalinks are ugly. No kidding, they say so, themselves.

Ugly means it isn’t user friendly (i.e. it’s hard or impossible to read), and it returns no SEO  benefit whatsoever. One of the great benefits of using WordPress, though, is the built in ability to define a permalink structure that will be automatically applied. You set it up once and you’re done.

Here’s an example of a good permalink structure in action, it tells WordPress to put the post name after the title of the site. As a result, this permalink gives you a pretty good idea of 1. where the page is located, and 2. the information you’ll find on that page:

http://www.yourbusinessoftware.com/add-an-image-to-wordpress-page-or-post/

A good permalink structure can be combined with smart use of key words to form an easy to read “phrase” that becomes the permanent internet address for that page (it’s URL).

Use Keywords and Phrases in the Article

The search engines “read” each page and decide which words on that page are relevant, are the most important, to the people who are searching.

In other words, it’s the job of the search engines to try to figure out what you’re talking about, so they, in turn, can make it easy for their users to find. Hence “keywords.”

The search engines want to know what you’re talking about,
so make it easy for them to figure it out…

When you write for your site, include specific words and phrases that are naturally key to your topic. If you’re discussing problems with lawn mower engines, you’ll naturally use those words a few times in the article. The search engines will notice.

And find a couple of ways to repeat the keywords. Work them in, in a couple of places. Don’t sound artificial, because you’ll drive your readers away.

Use Keywords in the Title

If you see an article titled, “Great Tip – Must Read!!!!” you have no idea what it’s about. If you have no idea what it’s about after reading the title, neither will the search engines.

No one looking for information or services or products will use “great tip” as a search term.

Think about your topic. What question would it answer? What problem would it resolve? What desire would it satisfy?

Let’s say you’re writing about closing down your pool for the summer, the idea being that folks would find your company and hire you to close the pool down for a fee, rather than do the work themselves. Do NOT title your article “Are You Ready for Fall?” Who would know anything about your company, based on that title?

Instead, look for a title that might come close to the words or phrases people would put into a search engine. If you were looking for help closing down a pool for the season, what would question would you ask? When you have an answer to that, pick out the keywords or phrases, and include that in the title. Maybe you’d use “Five Critical Pool Closing Steps.”

It’s really pretty easy to add images to your WordPress page or post.

1. Put the cursor in the text area of the post or page, where you’d like the image to appear.
2. Click on the little icon immediately to the right of the words Upload/Insert.


3. In the Add an Image screen, use the Select Files button go to the location of the image file you want to upload, select the file, and then click Open.
   

4. After the file has uploaded
   • Give it a title
   • Add Alternate Text (for screen readers and for SEO purposes)
   • Add a caption, if desired
   • Add a brief description (SEO)
   • Pick the alignment
   • Pick the size
5. Click Insert into Post / Page

That’s all there is to it.

Download a free copy of these Add an Image to WordPress Page or Post instructions.

1. Click on Posts, Add New

2. Type in the title for your post

3. Below the title is an area to enter the content for your post. If the toolbar menu for this area only has one row of buttons, click on the far right button to display the second row.

The simple WSIWYG editor

Click that button on the right to display the advanced toolbar (below)

WordPress WYSIWYG editor with all the options

4. Enter the text of your post, and apply styling using the controls in the toolbar. Select the text, click the appropriate button. For example, to make a word bold, select the word, and then click on the B button. To apply a heading style, select the text, and then pick a heading from the dropdown (next to the Paragraph button).

NOTE: If you want to paste your content in from Word, be sure to use the Paste from Word feature. There’s a little button with an image of a W on top of a clipboard. There is a similar feature / button to copy / paste from a text editor.

5. Want to see how it’s looking? In the Publish section, click on Preview (the preview opens in a new tab). Want to go away for awhile, but you’re not done and you don’t want to make it public, or lose your work? Click Save Draft.

6. Fill in the various SEO boxes

And when you’re done…

7. Click Publish!

* Editing your published post is simple, too.

When you click on the Posts section, you’ll see a list of all your posts. Just move the mouse over the name of the post you want to edit, and then click on edit in the menu that appears.

Download a free copy of these “Create a WordPress Post” instructions

Logging into WordPress is easy

1. Enter the address (aka “URL”) in the address bar.

The address bar is up top, and your address will begin with “http://” followed by the name of your site, followed by “/wp-login” If your website name was www.myhorses.com, your WordPress login URL would be  http://www.myhorses.com/wp-login

2. Now enter your user name and password, and click the Log In button (or just hit Enter on your keyboard).

That should be it!

If you forgot your password

If you forgot your password, don’t worry. Just click the “Lost your password?” link at the bottom of the Log in box, and you’ll get instructions to get a new one.

Download a free copy of these “How to Log in to WordPress” instructions.

When it doesn’t work, the cost is not limited to dollars, the cost spreads to staff attitudes and health, and to customer service.

But you are probably too busy to have to spend large amounts of your time wrestling with software programs, or finding software to give you the results you want.

Unfortunately, you may also be too busy to do a thorough job before you buy software, so you feel like you’re trapped, as if the nightmare of software quicksand is inevitable.

“Bad software” isn’t inevitable.

Hey, this really works pretty well!

There is an art and a science to finding great software

My belief is that anyone with the gumption (or need) to start and run a small business has too much to do, but nevertheless is strongly motivated to make smart choices. One of the key barriers to making those smart choices, and finding good business software, is the fact that there is a LOT to be taken into consideration, beginning even before you start looking for a solution.

It’s very much like a jigsaw puzzle, except you don’t know what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done, you don’t know how many pieces there are, and most importantly, you don’t know if you have all the edge pieces, so you can’t tell if you’re considering everything you should.

Use the free software evaluation resources on this site to educate yourself, or someone on your staff. Everything here is written to be a “quick read,” and you’ll learn about the pieces of the puzzle quickly. This knowledge will make you infinitely more prepared to search for, and find, software products that suit you, in your situation.

Software is an industry, but you do not have to become an expert in any or all of the subject areas (like “requirements,” for example).

Let us help. Save yourself time and aggravation, and have software that works for you.

Call us (or email) now for a free consultation. 508-896-6803