SEO for small businesses | FAQs & tips for children’s activity providers

You might have heard of SEO, or search engine optimization, when doing research or building the website for children’s activity business. SEO is the practice of organizing your website copy and design to be the most effective for search engines to parse and highlight.

Developing a strong SEO strategy might feel overwhelming, but with the right tools and tips, you should be able to get a plan in place that will help your business grow. Plus, children’s activity providers that use Sawyer get some additional SEO support from our nationwide marketplace!

Frequently asked questions about SEO

Before diving into SEO strategy, let’s go through some of the most frequently asked questions about SEO. This way, you can get a general understanding of SEO and how it works before you begin strategizing and planning.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It refers to strategies and processes that help improve your website’s visibility when people search on Google, Bing, and other search engines. The goal is to optimize your content so that search engines see it as relevant and high quality and show it to people who search for your keywords.

How does SEO work?

SEO works by creating the best content for your keywords so that search engines feel it is the best answer when someone searches for something related.

For example, if your business offers dance classes for kids in Brooklyn, then you should optimize your website content so that when someone inputs “dance classes for kids in Brooklyn”, your website will show up first.

However, you can’t just put “dance classes for kids in Brooklyn” all over your website and call it a day. In order to successfully optimize your content for search engines, you need to create high quality and relevant content that will actually help people answer the question they are searching.

The best ways to do this are:

Researching keywords and choosing the best ones for your business. As much as possible, try to find keywords that have high search volume (lots of people are searching for them) and low keyword difficulty (there is not a lot of competition from other sites).
Creating and optimizing your content. People want to click on links that will actually answer their questions, not act like a keyword dump sales pitch. Create content that is useful, high quality, and relevant to your keywords.
Optimizing your website technically. SEO is not just about the content you create. It is also about how you structure and build your websites. Do some research or work with an expert to make sure you are fully optimized on the technical side.
Making connections through link building. Search engines will trust your content more if other, reputable sites link to it. This is called link building. Try to make connections with similar websites to share content and get these important backlinks.

Is SEO worth it for small businesses?

The short answer is yes, SEO is definitely worth it for small businesses. Spending time optimizing your content for search engines takes time in the beginning, but then you can reap the benefits without needing to do much additional work. If you are consistently ranking highly for your top keywords, then you will get your name out there to prospect customers and increase your bookings.

If you are not sure where to start with SEO, you can do research on platforms like SEMRush or speak with a freelancer to see if they can help you get started or come up with a plan together. You can also join a marketplace like Sawyer to help your activities get seen by millions of families across the country.

How to improve SEO for small businesses

If you have already built your website and created content, it is not too late to improve upon it for SEO purposes. The best way to improve your SEO is to do research and update your content to reflect SEO best practices. Search engines will notice your improvements and start featuring your content more, which will help you get more traffic and hopefully, more orders as well.

SEO tips for small businesses

Now that you have a better understanding of what SEO is and how it works, you can start planning to improve the SEO for your children’s activity business. Use these tips to get started.

Dive into the research

The first step of any successful SEO strategy is research. You need to research keywords that are relevant to your business and decide which ones you are going to target. Remember: Try to find keywords with high search volume, which means a lot of people are searching for these keywords, and low keyword difficulty, which means there are not a lot of other websites targeting these keywords. If you can rank for relevant keywords that have high search volume and low difficulty then you can be successful.

Invest in creating high quality content

Whether it is on your website, in a blog post, or elsewhere, spending the time to create high quality content will greatly improve your ranking on search engines. Try focusing on these elements to create content that will get the attention of the search engines:

Be thorough. Whatever your keyword is, make sure the content you create covers it comprehensively. For example, if you are targeting “dance classes for kids in Brooklyn,” then ensure you cover what kind of classes, how old the children should be, where in Brooklyn, and any other questions parents might have about that keyword.
Be unique. Search engines will give the highest ranking to content that is unique and not a compilation of other pieces of content. Tell your own story in your own way. If you can include data, research, examples, and more, you will increase your chances of ranking.
Be an expert. Why should a search engine promote your website over someone else’s? Show them that you are an expert and your content is the most accurate and trustworthy. You know what it is like to Google something and click a link that just seems incorrect. Create the best content so that Google feels comfortable showing your content at the top of the list.
Be neat. Search engines promote content that is readable. Create logical page breaks, use bullets and lists where you can, and write in short, clear sentences.

Don’t try to cheat

After reading all of this, you might think that you can just add your keyword a bunch of times to your website and content and call it a day. That is not the case. Google and other search engines will actually delist your content if you try to hack the system or cheat with SEO. Instead, spend your time focusing on creating the best possible content for your keywords. If you do this, you will see an increase in visits and hopefully, that will correlate with more bookings!

We hope that this guide has helped you learn more about SEO and how it can help your business grow. For more information on marketing your children’s activity business, including running Google Ads and social media marketing, check out our other guides. If you are a children’s activity provider and you are looking for guidance on managing and running your business, the team at Sawyer is here to help.

With our suite of tools, like custom forms to record allergies and t-shirt sizes, flexible payment options like gift cards and installment plans, and seamless scheduling and registration on any device, Sawyer saves business owners 28 hours per month. If you are ready to spend less time on admin and more time doing more of what you love, see how Sawyer can help with a free trial or demo.