Driving prospective customers to your website is critical to your entrepreneurial success. How else are you going to educate the customer and then “hook” them on your product or service? You can have a killer social media strategy that gives them an in depth look at your company, but when they google it, they may never find it. That’s where SEO comes in.

“SEO” stands for Search Engine Optimization. Having an efficient SEO site allows search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) to find your website using their complex algorithms. While no one actually knows what goes in to each search engine’s algorithms, companies have compiled data on what makes certain websites successful, and what makes certain websites unfindable on the web.

For starters, having a clean and easy to navigate website is huge. The search engine’s algorithms scan each website based on their sitemap. If things are too complicated, then your SEO ranking will show it. Also, having a mobile optimized website is a huge plus. With most web traffic now coming from mobile devices, the push for mobile-friendliness has never been larger. If your site does not have a mobile friendly version, then it needs to have one, and soon. The search algorithms know this, and can at times punish sites that make the user experience too clunky for making users browse their desktop site on their mobile device.

Next, having rich content is a huge benefit. This content must also be original. This makes sense, as there is a huge push and lots of competition for creating the next cutting edge video or having the well-liked Instagram post. Having content like photos and videos embedded into your website will increase your search standings and may give you the edge over larger companies. Having rich original content also shows the search engine’s that you care for your customers and their user experience. Pro Tip: when uploading your picture or video file, make sure to name it something that makes sense. File naming, along with “alt text” (the caption associated with a picture), can also be seen by the search engine. Make sure the search engine can display your picture or video in a general google search related to what it is.

These are a few very easy and simple things to include in your website to increase traffic based off of simple Google searches. SEO can leverage competition from a small entrepreneur’s site to a multi-million dollar corporation. Taking the time to invest in these strategies will pay off in the long run.