Have you ever decided to get serious about SEO for your business, only to become so overwhelmed by the beast it is and then given up after an hour of aimless Google research? I know I have.
SEO efforts can increase your web traffic exponentially. But, it can also take years to see the full effects of it, and worse it can feel like it takes years to develop a concrete plan of how to tackle it.
As entrepreneurs, we often don’t have a bunch of extra time on our hands, we wear a lot of different hats, and we like to focus on marketing efforts that will move our bottom lines fast.
SEO doesn’t have to be scary or time consuming when you are starting out. Here are some bit-sized tips to get the ball rolling so that you can focus on the more fun parts of your hustle.
Reminder: This Is SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of getting traffic from the “free” or “natural listings” on search engines. These listings are ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to their users.
Your strategy does not need to include:
- “Keyword stuffing” is a huge deterrent in
current Google search engine algorithm calculations and we do not want our
website to be banned or penalized
- Too many on-page keywords
- Too many keywords stuffed in the meta-tags
Your strategy does include:
- Choosing 3-5 keywords to focus on at a time
- Acquiring high-quality linkbacks from other reputable websites
- Offering educational and authentic content
- Engagement on social channels (such as who is sharing content from our sites)
Choosing Your First Keywords
- What does my company do?
- What are the key search terms people use when they want to learn more about my business?
- What are my different products/services?
- What needs do my products/services fill?
- What keywords do my competitors rank for?
- What is the traffic opportunity for each keyword?
Initial Keyword Strategy
- Not just focused on popular keywords, but also long-tail keywords
- Think about general theme for initial keyword strategy, and then create conversational content around it
- “English test” and then create conversational content around it
- Think about what matters more for each keyword – gaining more traffic to that page or converting visitors to take a certain action once on that page (typically you only achieve one of these kinds of goals for each page or blog post)
- Encourage other blogs and websites to share your content
Perfecting On-Page SEO
- Each page should only be assigned to be centered around one keyword
- Each page should fill a need and answer a question
- You pages must be linkable
- You should link different pages within your own website
Technical SEO
- Assign title tags: Use keywords in the title that appear in your browser tab or in a search engine results page
- Structure your URL: Ensure they are always concise and include keywords
- Always fill out meta descriptions: Provide what search engines pull as the description for you page
- Utilize links naturally: Build links throughout your site that point to the proper keywords and pages
Measuring SEO Efforts
Here is what you should actually measure when starting out:
- Search engine ranking for key terms (increase/decrease, page rank)
- Referring visits (tracking where traffic is coming from, and then coming up with a way to increase those efforts that are already working)
- Conversion rates to top CTAs (on each page) – list out main action that you want the user to take on that page, make it trackable, and see if conversions grow over time
- Specific page traffic for optimized pages (you want to eventually focus on growing traffic to these pages in particular and might focus on the keyword for these pages)
Conclusion
If you follow these steps to creating your first SEO strategy for your business, you will find that in probably less than one hour you have a solid direction on what you need to do for your business.
You will have more time, and a clear path to maximizing your website traffic with your new SEO strategy.
I would suggest starting this today. SEO is a long-term marketing strategy, so if you start today, you will see the benefits sooner. Time will pass anyways, so you might as well have some optimized blog posts and content passively working behind the scenes to get you web traffic during this inevitable passage of time.
Put in the work now, and reap the benefits for years to come. You have got this!
Next question: What will you do with all this extra web traffic?
Bonus: Download Our Free SEO Checklist
This includes over 30 advanced SEO techniques not covered in this article that you can try implementing in your business today.
