Written by Rachel Dawn Hayes. 

Friendly SEOSearch engine optimization (SEO)—it’s not just for big companies anymore. SEO is a useful, if not essential tool for all businesses. If you have a website, you need to know about SEO. Here are three simple tips for making your website, and the content on it, a bit more SEO-friendly.

But first, a little background. What does it mean to be SEO-friendly? In a nutshell, employing the tips outlined below makes it easier for search engines, like Google, to find content on your site and classify it as relevant and authoritative, and therefore useful and desirable — and more prominent in page rankings — for searching customers.

Also worth noting: About 90 percent of people prefer Google. Other search engines, like Bing, follow the same guidelines as Google. In other words, there will be no harm done by following the advice below—even if your target audience happens to be the 7 percent of the population using Bing.

Tip 1: Make Your Website All About Your Customer

Do you know what your customers like and are looking for? Figure that out and then provide it through the content on your site. Think about the demographics and psychographics of your audience and then develop content geared toward them.

The user’s ability to navigate your website with ease is critical for success, too. By creating thoughtful menus and search bars that encourage intuitive use on your site, users can find exactly what they’re looking for and you have a better chance of creating repeat visitors or converted customers.

“Make it easy for Google to find the rich, relevant content on your site,” says Danielle Boissat, SEO specialist with Austin-based Geek Powered Studios. “If people can’t find it easily, Google can’t either.”

Tip 2: Maintain Relevant & Fresh Content

This is especially true for blogs, but for the static content on your website, as well. “It’s important to keep up with your industry. People don’t trust outdated information. They want their questions answered with authority and so does Google,” says Boissat.

Updating content on a regular basis makes you look like a reliable and reputable source of information to Google.

Boissat adds: “Does a 3-year-old article seem as relevant and trustworthy as one that was just written and is full of up-to-date content?”

Google cares about this and actually factors in the freshness of your website’s content when deciding how to rank your site in searches. A website that is generating new, authoritative content on a regular basis is seen as much more reliable and search engines want to provide the most relevant and up-to-date content available on the internet.

Tip 3: Promote Your Content

Your site now has relevant content and you are pumping out fresh new ideas on a regular basis. But if you write great content and then just stick it on your site, who is going to see it? If you’re not posting your blogs or pictures to sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or even Instagram, you’re missing out on free visibility for your site.

“Websites that are active across multiple social media channels are leagues ahead of ones that simply stay within the realm of their own site,” adds Boissat.

Still, simply posting then sitting back and hoping magic happens is a common trap that many fall into. “Small companies need to create dialogue with readers,” says Boissat. “The more people talk about something, the more attention it will attract.”

Focus on posts that start a conversation with readers. Once the conversation gets going, readers will start spreading your content through “likes”, “shares” and “pins”, all of which can turn into clicks to your site, which boosts your overall traffic, which boosts you in search rankings.