The SECOND Most Basic Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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In my previous post we learned about why SEO can be such a powerful tool in attracting new website users, and how search engines rank listings on SERPs. Click here for a refresher.

I previously gave four basic tips that will help you improve your rankings on search engine results pages. I would like to continue this introduction with some tools you can use to implement these tips and jump-start your website’s SEO strategy.

Tools for Creating Content

The first step in developing your SEO strategy is finding keywords that you want to rank for (or that your website is already ranking highly for). You will then use a keyword planning tool to build a list of keywords that have the perfect balance of high search volume and low competition. Here are my favorite keyword research tools.

1. Google Keyword Planner: This is a free tool that is found in your Google Ads account. If you don’t currently have an Ads account, you can create one for free. Once you are logged in to the keyword planner, click on “Discover new keywords” to build a list of phrases that potential website visitors might type into Google.

Start by typing in some products or services that you offer, without being too specific or too broad. The planner will then show related words and phrases. Pick relevant keywords that have higher search volume but low competition. These will likely be long-tail keyword phrases that you can consider a “quick win” to rank for.

You’ll see some very broad keywords with a very high search volume AND high competition. These are known as “fat heads” in the SEO world because of how broad they are. Don’t rule these keywords out right away. You can work to win these over in your long-term plan. You might use these “fat heads” to think of other long-tail keywords that you can add to your short-term strategy.

2. SEMrush: This is another free SEO tool with a paid option to unlock more features. SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool takes it a step further than Google’s Keyword Planner with the information that it shares.

The Keyword Magic Tool not only shows a small graph of trends—if there has been a recent spike or drop in search volume—but it also shows the keyword difficulty as a percentage. Think of this as the equivalent of Google Keyword Planner’s “Competition” column. Look for keywords that have a keyword difficulty of 60% or less.

SEMrush has a ton of tools you can explore and use to help with your SEO efforts. One filter in the Keyword Magic Tool that might be useful for content ideas is the Questions filter on the left. Have you ever typed something into Google and had an answer box appear at the top of the results with a blurb pulled from a website? The reason that result is showing is because that website developed content that was designed specifically to answer your question.

Imagine if your website was the first to appear for the query “how to start a vegan bakery”. You can write a blog post that covers the steps you took to start your bakery, which not only gives you more opportunities to rank and gain more website traffic, but also tells a cool story to your customer base.

Tools for Building Authority

The second pillar of SEO is website authority. Your website’s authority is based on a number of factors, but one of these that you can easily improve is the number of backlinks to your site. These are instances where other websites link to your website, bringing you more traffic.

The best tool to use for building your website’s authority and gaining backlinks is a blogging platform for your new blog! People will want to link to your blog posts when you focus on sharing genuinely helpful content, especially if you use the feature in SEMrush listed above to find questions that your target audience is asking.

If you already have a website, chances are that you have the ability to add a blog to this website through your hosting service. If not, here are some blogging platforms that I would recommend.

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1. Squarespace: This is the service that I use to host my website and blog. Squarespace is extremely easy to use but still provides you with the control to change the look and feel of your site. I love it because it’s affordable, but the layouts and templates available give a very polished look and feel.

2. Wordpress: Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform because it provides users with full control over all aspects of your website. There is a bit of a learning curve to use the software, so I wouldn’t recommend this platform to beginners. However, there are a ton of tutorials and forums for Wordpress users to help each other through issues and learn from each other.

3. Wix: Another easy-to-use platform, Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder that even offers a free plan (with Wix branding) if you’re on a tight budget. You can literally get a website and blog up and running in minutes using Wix.

Once you have a blog up and running, write some posts that will answer your customers’ questions. Unless your customers are seasoned journalists, editors, or English majors, don’t freak out about being a five-star copywriter just yet. As long as you’re truly creating value with your audience, they will love reading your blog! Then, reach out to other active bloggers in your industry to see if you can do a guest post on their blog. Make sure to insert a hyperlink to your website when you write your post for them.

Tools for the Technical Factors

We know that in order for search engines to show your website in search results, they need to have a catalog of all of your webpages. Indexing is when Google and other search engines crawl your website to do this. The easiest way to allow search engines to index your website is to submit a sitemap. This is a file that lists all of the content of your website, including landing pages, images, videos, and other files.If you use one of the website builders listed above, you should be able to look up how to submit your sitemap to search engines like Google and Bing. Here are the tools you will use to do this.

1. Google Search Console: This tool is extremely powerful in notifying you of any optimization errors on your website and how to fix them. Once you log in to your account, enter your website URL and click “Add Property”. You may be required to verify ownership of your website by placing a code in the header section of the website HTML. Again, check with your website platform for confirmation on how to do this. Once your website has been verified, submit your sitemap by entering your sitemap URL in the “Sitemap” section of the search console. This URL ends in “.xml”.

After a few days, Google will have your website indexed and ready to go. Visit the “Coverage” section on the left to check for any errors that would have caused your pages to not index.

2. Bing Webmaster Tools: Once your sitemap has been submitted to Google Search Console, it’s super easy to do the same for Bing. Visit Bing Webmaster Tools and simply connect it to your Google Search Console account. Done!

Tools to Track User Experience

We’ve already covered how to make your website more accessible to search engines’ crawlers. The last pillar of SEO is focused on user experience—making your website more accessible to humans. After all, a search engine’s number one goal is to provide results that humans will see the most value in.

Here is a valuable tool that will help you in the user experience realm of your SEO efforts.

1. Google Analytics: Aside from being able to provide valuable insights and demographics of your website visitors, Google Analytics can help you track certain metrics that can affect your SEO, such as:

• Dwell time: Time a user spends viewing a page (In Google Analytics, this metric appears as “Session Duration”)

  • This should be as long as possible. A good average Session Duration is between 2-4 minutes.

• Bounce rate: The percentage of users that enter your site then leave without visiting other pages

  • This should be as low as possible. A bounce rate between 26-40% is excellent.

• Page load times: How long it takes for a page to fully load all images, videos, and other content

  • This should be as short as possible. Shoot for a page load time that is less than three seconds.

There are other websites that will test some of these metrics and go a bit more in depth. One example that I really like is GTmetrix, which tests the page load time of the URL you enter and provides recommendations on how to improve.

As you can see, there are a ton of tools out there that can help you with your SEO efforts. SEO is a huge concept, and I’ve only scratched the surface here. I’m excited to share more SEO tips for your small business in the next few months, so be sure to subscribe below!

THE Most Basic Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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According to 99 Firms, nearly 93% of all web traffic comes through search engines. Search engine marketing has the potential to generate awareness of your brand among potential customers.

The two types of search engine marketing are paid search marketing (typically using Google Ads) and search engine optimization (SEO). 

Interestingly enough, one statistic reported by SmallBizGenius states that 70-80% of internet searchers ignore paid search ads, making SEO a very powerful marketing tactic.

When done correctly, SEO has the potential to drastically increase your website traffic and, in turn, boost your conversion rates over time.

What is SEO?

If you’re a business owner that has never heard of the term “SEO” before, keep reading. If you’re a digital marketer, you may cringe at the mention of the term. It’s a subject that many marketers find difficult to fully understand.

At its core, SEO is the process of ranking your website to show first in the organic search results section of search engine results pages (SERPs). Scroll down to see an example SERP layout to see what I’m talking about.

In order to understand how to optimize your website for search engines, it’s important to first understand how results are ranked.

How do search engines rank results?

Simply put, search engines like Google or Bing aim to provide the best answer to search terms. Their main focus is user intent.

When you search for something in Google, the results page will look something like this:

As you can see, there are paid advertisements that show up first. These ad spaces are purchased by companies that bid based on certain keywords. Right now, we’re more focused on the results that show after these spaces: organic results.

Search engines crawl websites for content and catalog the information to be used at a later time. Then, when a search query is entered, the search engine will display results and order them based on a number of factors. The list of these factors is very long and ever-changing, but they can really be summed up in four “pillars” of SEO, according to Leanne Wong:

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• Website / Page Content: When it comes to developing content for your website, the most important thing to remember is to create content based on user intent. This is more than just using keywords that you think potential customers will type into Google (which can help, but isn’t as important). Google will favor pages that it feels are most relevant and that answer the question that the searcher is asking. Additionally, it will use your website’s meta data, which are words and phrases found within the code of your website, to rank results.

• Website Authority: Google ranks websites based on their authority. Authority is based on a number of things, but one way to boost it is through backlinks. A backlink is when another website links to yours organically. You can build backlinks by simply creating awesome content that people want to link to, or by doing a guest post on another blog and hyperlinking to your own website.

• Technical Factors: This is where things get a bit more technical. There are a number of things you can do to ensure that Google can find your website in the first place. You need to make sure that Google can crawl your website by having a sitemap readily available. Also, make sure there aren’t any pages on your website that don’t have a link to them (these are called “orphaned pages”). Along the same vein, make sure your website contains no broken links, which are links that lead to pages that no longer exist.

• User Experience: This pillar focuses more on making your website more appealing to humans, but is just as important. Things like page speed, bounce rates, and time spent on pages typically correlate with SEO performance.

If you’re feeling kind of lost on how to implement these recommendations, don’t sweat it! I have a great list of tools to help you improve your SEO here.

Four Things You Can Do Right Now for Your Small Business’ Marketing While Closed for COVID-19

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Due to COVID-19, we’ve seen a 50% drop in small businesses that are still open in the US. These businesses have closed either out of concern for their employees’ health and safety, or due to local government mandates. 

If you have closed your business’ doors (or feel that you might do so soon), you might be feeling pretty powerless, but please know that you are not alone. After looking into these resources through the Small Business Association, you might be wondering what more you can do at this time to enable your business to hit the ground running once you’re able to open up again.

Here are some of my best recommendations on activities you can work on that will bolster your brand and help you in your future marketing efforts.

1. Continue to engage with your followers on social media.

Now more than ever, people are spending a ton of time on social media, either out of boredom or simply because they’re craving social interaction. Feed into this need for them by posting fun, informative, and engaging content on your social media pages. 

If you’re feeling kind of lost on social media right now, take a look at this blog post. Here are some other ideas for posts that you can repurpose for social:

• Behind the scenes: Snap a picture of some of the goings-on that patrons of your business don’t normally see. This could be a back room on-site, a video detailing your process, or a sneak peak of a new product or service coming soon (more on that later).

• Ask a question: If you’ve built a loyal fanbase in your social media followers, they’ll likely engage with a question asking what their favorite thing about your business is. For example, if you’re a restaurant, ask your followers what is the first thing they will order when you open your doors again.

• Quarantine life: Give your followers a brief look into your personal life by showing a photo of your family, pets, or other activities that you're spending time on or with while self-isolating. This gives a more human side to your brand and will build stronger relationships with your customers.

• Words of encouragement: A lot of people are scared right now. We’re all going through an unprecedented global event, and your followers are probably just as afraid of the unknown as you are. Provide some words of encouragement to build comradery and to, again, give a more human side to your brand.

Remember, just because your business is temporarily closed, that doesn’t mean you need to go radio silent to your customer base online.

2. Adjust your value proposition and offerings, if necessary.

Right now is a good time to take another look at your value proposition. With everything going on right now, will your business’ product or service truly serve the changing needs of your customer base when you open again? 

We’re entering a new, very different economic market, and this market will be challenging for many small businesses. Take a good look at your current offering with this in mind. Does it differentiate you from your competitors? Does it help support your goals to scale back up? Does it truly create value in this new market?

If necessary, brainstorm some new products or services. You can also think of some innovative ways to change the way you serve your customers. For example, if you are a retail store, it’s possible that customers will soon prefer to order your products online for shipping or in-store pickup.

3. Do some reading.

If you’re a reader, there are a ton of awesome books out there for small business owners and entrepreneurs that are looking to developing their craft. These books might help you find inspiration for a new value proposition if you struggled with the first step! Here are just a few of my favorites:

• The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen: Have you ever heard of the term “minimum viable product”? This book introduces the concept by outlining a framework for launching a product that fits the basic needs of your customer base and evolves based on rapid feedback from this customer base. I read this book a few years ago—it was published in 2015—and I still find myself referencing its concepts today. 

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• Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah: You know I have to recommend this book, written by the founders of HubSpot, because inbound marketing strategies can really evolve your business. This book is another older one, written in 2014, but the strategies outlined in it can still be applied today.

• Friction by Jeff Rosenblum and Jordan Berg: I haven’t had a chance to read this one yet, but it’s on my “quarantine list”. This book talks about branding in this new age, where consumers are constantly bombarded with advertisements, and how to create a “passion brand” that is more focused on engaging with audiences and building stronger relationships.

If you’re not a reader, check out some of these TED Talks to keep your ideas fresh and your mind motivated.

4. Start writing a blog.

I realize that a blog may be the last thing on your mind right now, but hear me out. We already know that blogs can help you generate more website traffic, which in turn will provide you with more leads and a better ROI for your marketing efforts. If you need a refresher on that, check out this previous post of mine. 

This is the perfect time to start writing a blog related to your business for a number of reasons. 

1. You finally have the time to spend on it.

2. Nobody knows your business / industry / product better than YOU do!

3. Writing can be extremely therapeutic, especially in tough times.

4. As stated previously, people are spending more time online. Give them more content!

If you don’t think you’re a writer, just start jotting down ideas. Write what you wish your customers knew about your business, what you can offer, and just focus on tips that they would find helpful as it relates to what you do. You’d be surprised at what you come up with when you just start writing things down. Structure the information into an outline and fill in the gaps with any needed context. Before you know it, you’ll be writing blog posts!

If nothing else, the most important thing you can focus on right now as a small business owner is your health. I’m not just talking about your physical health (even though we’re in the middle of a global pandemic), but also your mental health. If your body is telling you to use this time to get some rest or spend some quality time with your family at home, do it. There is no rule that says you NEED to be working on your business when it’s closed. These tasks will still be available for you to work on when all of this blows over, too.

11 Free Marketing Courses That You Can Do While Staying Safe at Home

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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in so many drastic changes in the past few months, and one of the biggest adjustments that working Americans have had to face is staying home in order to practice social distancing. This had led businesses of all sizes to see a drop in sales, cutbacks to their workforce, or having to shutter their doors altogether.

Let’s face it: we’re all going to have to stay home in order to flatten the curve of cases of COVID-19 and to stay safe. For introverted homebodies like me, this hasn’t been much of a problem (so far). Those that are more extroverted, however, may be getting a little stir-crazy already.

A lot of people are finding themselves with a lot more time on their hands right now, and one way marketers like me can help pass that time is to take advantage of the free online resources and learning opportunities offered by big names in the marketing industry. After all, we might as well use this extra time to sharpen our minds and come out of all of this stronger than ever!

Whether you’re a marketing professional looking to learn a new skill or a small business owner building a re-launch plan for once this all passes, here are 11 free marketing courses that you can do in your pajamas during your extra time at home.

HubSpot Academy Certifications

HubSpot is the leading name in marketing automation platforms, and I’m obsessed with the free marketing and sales courses and certifications offered on HubSpot Academy. These lessons can be taken individually, or as part of a full lesson plan to get certified in a particular subject matter. Here are some great certifications:

• Inbound Marketing Certification: I would recommend taking these lessons first, as they give a great explanation of HubSpot’s marketing methodology and why it can be so successful. I’m a huge fan of inbound marketing myself, and earning this certification helped me understand how to deploy inbound strategies for my clients to help them increase their marketing ROI.

• Content Marketing Certification: “Content” is a huge word when it comes to marketing because it encompasses so many different tactics. This certification goes over how to build and launch a strong content marketing strategy, step-by-step. 

• Social Media Marketing Certification: Another hugely important term in digital marketing, these lessons on social media teach you how to leverage social media to complement the rest of your inbound marketing strategy.

HubSpot Academy Inbound Marketing Certification Course

SEMrush Academy Courses

SEMrush was introduced to me by a colleague as a great SEO tool for marketers, even for those like me that are just beginning to learn about SEO. Here are two lessons that I really enjoyed taking from the platform:

• SEO Fundamentals: If the concept of SEO is completely new to you, this is a great course that provides an overview of what SEO is and how it can drive more organic website traffic for your business or your client’s business. 

• Keyword Research: Keyword Research is an important step in building a strong SEO strategy, and this course, taught by Greg Gifford, breaks down some best practices for building a list of keywords that you’d like to rank for.

SEMrush Academy Keyword Research Course

Skillshare Courses

Skillshare offers some free courses on their platform that are great for people looking for an introduction on new marketing tactics (and even some other creative skills like video and graphic design). You can also sign up for a free trial to access all of the courses in their library. Here are two courses in their “free” section:

• Getting Started with Email Marketing: Mailchimp’s Senior Marketing Manager, Allyson Van Houton, teaches viewers how to implement an effective email marketing strategy with lessons on best practices.

• Growth Marketing Essentials: Build Effective Acquisition Funnels: Cam Lay teaches this course that is great for entrepreneurs that want to understand what the marketing funnel is and how to approach this process for their business.

Skillshare Email Marketing Course with Mailchimp

Codecademy Courses

Codecademy is an amazing platform for developers looking to learn more programming languages and perfect their craft. However, learning HTML and CSS can help marketers become more well-rounded in their skillset, especially if you’ll be looking for a new job this year. Like Skillshare, Codecademy offers some free introductory courses as well as a free trial of their Pro subscription.

• Introduction to HTML: This course reviews the most common HTML tags used to build web pages. There are also three “projects” to help you put what you learn to practice.

• Learn CSS: This is another hands-on course that builds off of the HTML course with CSS rules. CSS allows you to stylize web pages with colors, typography, and more.

Codecademy Introduction to HTML Course

Facebook Blueprint Courses

We know that Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, as well as a powerful tool used by marketers everywhere. Facebook offers free courses and certifications to help marketers and business owners learn how to run ads, retarget customers, and more.

• Guide to Creating Facebook Ads from Your Page: This course is perfect for someone that has never used Facebook Ads before. It walks through the entire process, step-by-step.

• How to Advertise on Instagram: Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is the social media platform known for its high engagement rates. If you’d like to learn how to run ads specifically for Instagram, this course is for you.

Facebook Blueprint Instagram Advertising Course

Most of these lessons are courses that I have either completed myself or that are on my “quarantine list”, but I’m always looking for more! If you have any suggestions on free online courses or certifications that you would recommend, drop a comment below.

Adapting Your Marketing and Communication Strategies in Light of COVID-19

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COVID-19 has already had a major impact on our country’s economy, and it’s likely that small businesses will need to weather this storm for the next few months as we get through this.

With the CDC encouraging consumers to stay home and avoid big groups of people, we’ve seen many small businesses elect to close their brick-and-mortar storefronts for the safety of their staff and customers. 

That doesn’t mean that you should stop communicating and serving your audience. Not only is the current situation the perfect time to serve your community, it’s also a great time to review your current tactics and see how you can adapt. 

Take a moment to read some tips on how to best adjust your marketing messaging during the coronavirus pandemic. I’ve also included some creative strategies from some of my favorite local brands as examples. Feel free to use some of these tips to implement creative tactics of your own!

Listen to your customer base.

I know that I’m not the only consumer who has received tone-deaf emails from credit card companies or banks in the last week. They sound something to the tune of “We want to let you know that we are dedicated to supporting you during this difficult time. You can pay your bills online!”

What these brands are failing to do is really listen to the concerns of their customer base, think of what their expertise is, and find ways to serve them during this time of uncertainty and confusion. 

I’m not saying that you should be giving away all the free things if it would significantly impact your cash flow for the coming months. Your brand can serve your customers and community members by curing something as simple as boredom. Brick Road Pizza Co., a restaurant here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has begun offering make-your-own pizza kits for pickup in their location. These kits are a great way for families to pass the time and bond with each other while quarantined at home.

Other local pizzerias like Lombardo’s Pizzeria and Vitale’s Hudsonville offer pizza kits as well. I have also seen bakeries offering cookie and cupcake decorating kits that play off of the same idea.

Be helpful, not greedy.

The COVID-19 situation is very serious, but once all of this has passed, people will remember which brands aimed to serve and which brands used fear-mongering tactics to squeeze more money out of people.

Your marketing efforts right now need to be focused on helping your community make the best of the current situation. If you’re a business that typically relies on in-person visits, think about ways you can use technology to continue offering those services, especially if they can be helpful to people right now.

Funky Buddha Yoga Hothouse, one of my favorite hot yoga studios in the area, has been offering free live classes on their Facebook page. This is an awesome way to continue serving their current customers and give a taste of what they offer to non-customers as well.

Another awesome yoga studio offering free live videos of their classes is AM Yoga, who is incorporating positive messaging in their recent social media posts as well.

Go virtual.

Small businesses that sell goods are quickly adjusting their strategies to focus more on their web stores. While many states have discouraged retail shops from staying open, it’s still perfectly safe to order goods online to ship to your house. 

Dime & Regal, my favorite local handmade goods store, thought of a creative way to encourage their customers to buy online by holding a daily (virtual) scavenger hunt. They post a clue of a particular product on their website, and visitors that guess the product correctly receive a prize.

One thing that makes this tactic so ingenious is that it not only drives more traffic to their online store, but is a great way for the brand to engage with its customers and break up the monotony of being cooped up inside.

Stay positive.

Again, attempts to ensue panic in your customer base will not end well for the reputation of your brand. Positive, helpful messaging will land well with your audience, even if you sprinkle in a bit of (tasteful) humor.

Bit Baking Co., a local vegan bakery, started offering vegan “Quarantine Survival Kits” with free shipping to those that ordered on their website. Here, they’re playing off of families that are feeling a little “stir-crazy” while staying at home with the kids.

One important thing brands need to be aware of is that many people are scared for their health and that of their loved ones right now. Jokes about the severity of this virus would be seen as tactless, so make sure that any jokes you incorporate in your messaging are in good taste. Just use your best judgement.

If you’re not sure how to adjust your marketing messaging at this time, I’m happy to help. Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation below!