I don’t usually speak about SEO. But when I do, I can get pretty passionate!

In this episode I explain what SEO is. And who I recommend to go to for your SEO needs. I’ve been in the digital marketing industry since 2011. During this time, I’ve seen some good and bad. Every day in business Facebook groups there are business owners complaining about bad SEO companies taking them for a ride. I don’t want this for you. So listen on for my advice on what SEO involves in 2024, and where to go for further advice and help.

Watch this episode on: YouTube.

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Transcript:

All right, I want to take just a little bit of a detour from my conversations about paid ads because I wanted to talk about SEO. This is an important subject for me because, firstly, it gets asked about a lot in the online circles that I hang out in. Secondly, there’s a whole heap of misinformation and outdated information that gets circulated. And there’s also a lot of bad actors, a lot of dodgy SEO providers out there.

Disrupting bad SEO practices

I feel as though it is important for me, I feel as though I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t come in and disrupt all the bad stuff. As someone who’s very passionate about not just the web and technology, but also getting things done right and also getting things done in a way that actually makes sense and actually benefits the business and actually provides a return on investment. Because, yeah, definitely one of the things that led me into this career and wanting to do it professionally for people is because there’s bad people out there.

There are bad people who will take advantage of your cluelessness about the technology and just get you to pay money for something, and you don’t really know what it’s doing.

A Bit of History

So yeah, I should go into a bit of history here. I am seen as an SEO go-to person, and I would honestly love to pursue that as my job, as my career.

The reason why I don’t operate as an SEO business is that there are actually a lot of good people out there who do SEO, and a vital part of it is actually coming up with content and being able to write copy really well on a variety of different subjects. Unfortunately, that is something that I’m not comfortable doing. So, that is probably the primary driving reason why I don’t operate as an SEO business and why I would refer your SEO needs to someone else.

Understanding SEO

Let me explain what SEO is. Some people sort of have the idea that it’s kind of like doing stuff to get your website to appear on Google or getting your website to appear higher in the search results. And yeah, that’s true, that is part of it. There’s some vague understanding that you need to put some keywords into spots on your website to make Google put it higher in search results. That’s kind of right.

The truth is, the exercise of doing SEO is to get your website and pages of your website up higher in the organic search results. And if you do the exercise of SEO well, it’ll also boost the position of your paid Google ads. Very important there.

Misconceptions about SEO and paid ads

Some people falsely believe that if you pay for spots on Google search results, you don’t need to do SEO. But that is totally wrong. Actually, Google, when it comes to deciding what sponsored results to show in the ads, will also use the same algorithm and the same data to determine what order to put those sponsored results in. And if you haven’t optimised your website for organic SEO at all and you run Google ads, Google might not even put your ad in those results. That’s how important it is.

The importance of ongoing SEO efforts

SEO is not just like a thing that you do once. I strongly advise not to make it like a one-off deal. It is something that you’re going to have to revisit and keep working on. One thing that a good SEO service provider will do is be continuously looking at keyword data for you and either improving content that’s already on your website or creating new content. This may come in the form of blog articles or help desk articles, FAQ articles, things like that. Things that your customers are looking for and will give you more opportunities to have not just your website URL but your brand name appear in search results. And it is something, yeah, that’s why it’s an ongoing thing.

SEO and digital presence

There are a few other things, a few other activities which are part of SEO search optimisation. Having a presence on the internet, having a really good presence.

Actually, it may not occur to you if you’re thinking just in terms of websites, but having a good organic presence on social media makes it more likely that people will Google your brand name, your business name, your name, the name of your courses or products. The better that you do being making a connection and being recallable, making yourself so that people can recall you, increases the chances that they will be searching for you on search engines like Google.

Therefore, for that is not just an important reason why we need SEO, but it’s also why it’s important to look holistically at your digital presence. Do not just put all your eggs in one basket of say, paid ads.

The interconnectedness of SEO, user experience, and conversion

Like I said before, with Google ads, if you neglect the SEO and you try to run Google ads, I mean, I see this with my own clients. If they come to me with a search term that they want to have an ad for and there is no page either, there’s no page on their website talking about it, or they have a page on their website that kind of talks about it but doesn’t have a really great user experience and doesn’t have a really great motivated to get someone to buy on that page, I’m going to say no. I’m going to say you have to optimise that page for SEO and user experience and conversion.

All these things are intertwined; all these things are interconnected.

Starting with organic content marketing

So, don’t, this is why like you can’t just do one. But I will also throw in a caveat there. If you’re like wanting something that’s not too challenging, to like start you off with like doing organic content marketing on social media and also on your website, it’s something that is quite possible for you to do on your own or just with your own team with some training.

Training for newbies

For SEO, there is some amazing free training out there. I do want to point you in the direction of Kate Toon. Kate Toon’s “The Recipe for SEO Success” website has got a free course, “SEO Nibbles,” I think it’s called. It’s for the beginner. There’s plenty of helpful information there that I highly recommend. I love Kate Toon; she’s pretty good. And she’s also got a community of digital specialists. I’m sure if you go and look up Kate Toon’s community, there will be people in there who could help you write content and do some good SEO stuff for you. So, I really hope that this helps give you an understanding of how important SEO is.

Key takeaways

You know, I think the key takeaways I would say are that if you go and get some SEO work done on your website, it’ll help when people start to recognise you and look for your name, your brand name. Doing SEO activities to improve the quality of your website, like even if that doesn’t put you higher in search results, it’ll make it more likely to convert your browsers into customers because they’ll be having a better experience. And then, you know, also considering how doing the organic marketing activities intertwine with everything else that you’re doing on the internet, it really does make a difference. And when it’s done properly, it works really well.

Avoiding SEO scams

And, yeah, I think I also said at the start, there are some things to look out for, like there are heaps of, yeah, like I said, dodgy people out there who will, unfortunately, take advantage of your lack of knowledge. And this is why I decided to come up and talk about this because it’s very important to me. It does, like, hurt a lot to see business owners being taken advantage of. I don’t want that. I want you to be well informed and well equipped with just the right amount of knowledge that helps you.

Conclusion

So, yeah, I mean, like I say with all things, it’s good, even if you intend to outsource help one day, it’s a really good idea to gain some knowledge and try things out yourself. This is so you can see what results you get before you outsource. It’ll help you a lot. You know, if you end up accidentally signing up for help with one of the not-so-good SEO providers, at least you’d be able to catch early if they’re not actually benefiting you. So anyway, yeah, I hope this helps. I do really appreciate you sticking around and listening, and I wish you all the best on your business journey.

➡️ Where next? Do you find SEO scary and/or overwhelming? Kate Toon makes it fun and interesting! I highly recommend her website: The Recipe for SEO Success.

This is not a sponsored link! I just really love Kate Toon for getting SEO advice.