How to Increase Traffic to Your Small Business

If you have a website or an Instagram profile that you utilize for your small business or brand then SEO is something that you need to consider investing (either time or money) in.

What is SEO?

SEO or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your content on your website or Instagram feed + bio so that a search engine, like Google and Instagram's algorithm, will show your page or website as a top result for searches, given particular keywords.

Organic search is the most often primary source of web traffic and it’s not a secret that in the world of SEO if you’re not on Page 1 of search results then you’re most likely not killing the organic search game. Look at it from this perspective, 67% of all clicks go to the first 5 organic results of a search query, while up to 30% of all results on Page 1 and 2 don’t get clicked at all.

What are keywords and why are they important?

SEO keywords are single words or short phrases that represent the search queries that people use when they utilize a search engine.

So, you want to think about words and phrases that are commonly used in your industry. For example, if you are in the fitness industry, you might have words or phrases that are related to "fitness coach," "personal trainer" or "health and well being."

Keywords and phrases are the words and phrases that your ideal customer or client is literally typing into a search bar on Google or on Instagram. These are the types of words that you want to implement and use to optimize your Instagram profile and/or website.

When you align your content creation and optimization with the words, topics, products or services that your target audience is searching for-- you have a much higher chance of showing up in their search results.

Where do I put keywords?

When it comes to keywords on your website, substance is more important than frequency but you still want to remain consistent. There is such a thing as too many keywords, this also may be referred to as ‘keyword stuffing.’ You don’t want to throw in your keywords unnaturally throughout your site just for the sake of having them on your site. Be practical: think about what placement and in what context makes the most sense.

This is also why blogs can be so useful because they are a great way to discuss several topics related to your industry in detail which means that you will more than likely use keywords throughout your post.

When it comes to your Instagram profile, there are two main things that you want to focus on in regards to SEO: optimizing your bio + writing alt text (found in Advanced Settings.)

Take a look at the image below to have an idea of what an optimized bio will look like. Notice that keywords + phrases will vary as your industry will probably be a bit different than ours.

The next thing you want to remember when it comes to SEO for Instagram is writing alt text for each post (found in Advanced Settings - see images below).

When you are drafting a new post on Instagram, notice at the very bottom it says "Advanced Settings," click on in this and scroll down to "Write Alt Text."

What is Alt Text?

This feature was originally created so that users could describe their post/image in further detail to benefit the visually impaired. Although this is still used to benefit the visually impaired, this feature can now also be used to describe your post in further detail using keywords for SEO purposes. And as we now know, SEO will increase the chances of gaining organic traffic to your post, Instagram profile or website!

Like everything else, search engines like Google or Instagram's algorithm, have evolved in the way that they evaluate and rank websites and profiles. Therefore, it is vital that your website and Instagram feed remains up to date, consistent and relevant to your market and industry when it comes to SEO.

Good SEO takes time and effort, and the sooner you start the sooner you will rank at the top of search engines.

We hope that this helped to simplify and better explain SEO for you, however, SEO is complicated, we are not. Contact us at Our Mindful Marketing to find out how we can help optimize your website and/or Instagram profile today!

- Hannah & Adriana 🍃