DIY SEO Guide for Small Businesses in Bristol with Zero Marketing Budget
As a website owner in Bristol with a budget tighter than parking in the city centre, search engine optimisation (SEO) can be a powerful tool to increase your online visibility. This guide will help you understand the basics of DIY SEO and provide practical tips to improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Peter and Jane’s Apple Adventure: Finding the Best Spot Online in Bristol
But first, meet Peter and Jane. I remember reading the books in a pre-school school in Church Warsop, Nottinghamshire. Most of the older British readers here should remember the Peter and Jane books, looking back now I really enjoyed reading them as they were easy. As the decades passed, I realised that the book series was effectively educational in a hidden way, specifically targeting first year school children.
Beginner SEO explained in a way that children can understand
Just a quick line from me to say, writing the concept for this article took two cups of tea and a gingerbread shortbread biscuit.
Website owners with new Shopify, Wix or WordPress websites will be trying to find a recently dated helpful article on ‘how to SEO‘ but that’s impossible to understand in an article as it takes away the human element. Parrot reading “Optimise my keywords” when you don’t know what they are, or a clusters, or a funnel, or an SEO synonym renders every word useless.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy this as much as I did researching it and creating the InVideo below and DALL-E images.
Peter and Jane Pip the Perfect Search Phrase for Their Apple Stall
This was my H2, I said pip and perfect like ‘pick as I love alliteration’. Keywords make up a phrase. So, by creating a cross referenced list of keywords, you can create your own search phrases to target what others will think of to type. The thing is, we call would type in something different, so we have to use words that mean the same thing – SEO Synonyms.
First, Peter and Jane need to pick their keywords. These are the words people use to find things online by searching in Google. Also it’s the same thing as ‘search term’ ‘search phrase’. It’s like choosing the best apples at the market – essential for making great cider.
Using H1 Search Phrases – Most Important Keywords First
Peter and Jane use H1 tags on their webpage. It’s like putting up a big sign at the market that says, “Fresh Apples Here!” It helps people and search engines know what’s important. Now Peter and Jane have learned nouns, synonyms, verbs and keywords, and they giggle and high five.
Writing your story first, then going back to SEO before publishing
When writing for their website, Peter and Jane focus on what their customers want. They keep it simple and helpful, just like explaining to a friend why their apples are the best. Yes! Thank you, just like this article. You win ginger biscuits.
An informational website for an apple stall in Bristol will be written differently to a local services website who could be a carpet cleaner sucking up stale cider from pub carpets on a Sunday morning.
Like a newspaper – learn how to convert a H1 Tag
This is my second attempt to underline how important a H1 Header is on the front end to indicate to Google like putting up a big sign at the market that says, “Fresh Apples Here!” Wrapping your H1 in an image file, logo or in a container behind a homepage element will get you sacked by me. It helps people and search engines know what’s important in Bristol, what time and what location. They are really important OK? If we are talking at the client flirting stage before a contract is signed and you argue with me about this, I’ll flounce out the door into the cider bar. Just joking, everyone knows I hate the smell of cider.
Juicy Titles and Descriptions, Writing Content with H1 Tags
For their website, Peter and Jane need to tweak the titles and descriptions, in WordPress you can do this in bulk from the left hand menu and Yoast. Click Yoast SEO > Tools > Bulk Editor > Pages or posts tab at the top. Then select rewrite page titles, or meta descriptions. These are like signs at their stall—short, clear, and telling people exactly what they sell.
However, Google will probably ignore you anyway and it was a complete waste of time – or maybe next week they will display as they change depending on the search term used in Google. Welcome to AI and SGE in 2024, and the Google core update yay.
Peter and Jane Play an On-Page SEO Game – Who wins the argument?
Jane: “Peter, I really think that using H1 headers is the most important thing for our on-page SEO. It’s like the headline at our market stall—everyone sees it first, and it helps people know what we’re about.”
Peter: “H1 headers are great, Jane, but they’re not the only thing that matters for ranking signals. There’s more to it, like… ‘alt tags’ for images.”
Jane: “True, but don’t forget internal links – They guide visitors through our site, just like arrows pointing out different apples at the market.”
Peter: “Then remember to use descriptive anchor text – instead of linking from the two words ‘read more’ you should use your keywords. These offer a dual benefit – it’s how people and search engines know what the link is about.”
Jane: “Good one! But what about ‘meta descriptions’? They help people decide if they want to click through to our site.”
Peter: “Sure, but you can’t ignore the superior importance of ‘title tags’. These are impactful signs on our stall that tells people exactly what we’re selling.”
Jane: “And then there’s ‘keyword density’. We don’t want to overdo it, but it’s important to have the right balance.”
Peter: “How about ‘URL structure’? A clean and simple URL is like a clear path to our stall.”
Jane: “Good point! But don’t underestimate ‘content quality’. If our content isn’t good, people won’t stay—just like if our apples were bad, no one would buy them.”
Peter: “And lastly, ‘header tags’—not just H1, but also H2 and H3 tags. They organize the content, making it easier to read, just like how we organize our apples into different categories.”
Jane: “Looks like we’ve covered all the important points. I guess it’s a draw!”
Peter: “Yeah, we both win this game. Now, let’s use everything we’ve talked about to make our website rank in Google and sell more apples!”
Book in a free 30 minute telephone call and I’ll help you, Surely you have at least one question?
P.S. Has anyone spotted the SEO Where’s Wally?
