Congratulations! You have a small business and you’re either just starting out, or you know you need some help to move to another level. You’re seeking out some advice and ideas. This is the first step to getting to that next level. You’re already ahead of the thousands of other Small Businesses which feel that “figuring it out” is the best course of action. This is why you’ll still be in business when they’re packing up the final boxes and wondering what went wrong.

Whatever size your business is, chances are, you’re making some major mistakes when it comes to your website. We have listed the Top 5 biggest mistakes below. There are more, but these are the top of the top and will have the biggest negative effect on your business. These all must be corrected ASAP, because each of these hinders your ability to get found, get more clients, and ultimately use your website for what it’s meant for…to help your increase your business!

We all want to rule Google and Bing, right? We all want to be in the Top 3 results for all of our desired KeyWords, right? Well, in order to do that, you’re going to know some essential basics about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This post will give you a mile-high overview of SEO, and get you moving in the right direction. Think of this as a Top 10 Best Practices for how to begin to get those search engine rankings you (and all of your competitors) desire.

Keyword Density is a ratio of desired search terms displayed in the content of a page to the overall content of that page. For example, let’s say you’re an auto mechanic in Santa Monica, CA who specializes in fixing domestic vehicles. One of your Keywords might be “Domestic Auto Mechanic Santa Monica.” Another might be “Auto Repair Santa Monica.” Still another might be “Car Repair Santa Monica.” Of course, your specific keywords should be researched and determined for maximum impact.

Your Keyword Density Ratio would be the ratio of keywords-to-“normal” words in any particular page or post on your website. The lower the density, the less search engines will feel you adequately address the desired topic and search terms. The higher the density, and you could be down-graded or penalize for what is called “keyword stuffing.”

Organic Search rankings are the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) results you achieve after you have done a great deal of acquiring back links, and have performed as much optimization on your own site as possible to improve it’s rankings. Paid rankings are when you achieve visibility in the highlighted advertising section of search engine results pages. Paid obviously costs you money when someone clicks your ad (or sometimes when a viewer sees it, depending on your set-up), but organic rankings are free when someone views and clicks your listing. While no one knows the complete search or ranking algorithms 100%, we have been able to do extensive research over and over about what has been known to positively effect rankings.