The SEO Mechanics Webinar
In June of 2021, I conducted a webinar on the topic of SEO Mechanics in coordination with a nonprofit organization to try to help as many small business owners and entrepreneurs as possible utilize digital marketing and SEO appropriately and to the best of their ability.
Some of the topics we touched on included:
What is SEO?
Now of course you can’t maximize the results you want to achieve from SEO if you don’t first know exactly what SEO is, beyond the catchphrase.
We have to understand the concept of Search Engine Optimization fully in order to get the most traction from our company websites, especially with so much disinformation and hard-core sales collateral out there today passing as legitimate information.
Here’s a brief primer answering the question on what SEO is and what it does. To learn more about just what SEO is:
What’s most important in considering SEO?
If you look at most business and company websites, even in 2021 (and I’m sure in 2022 and on) we see that most business websites don’t have any SEO at all, and then if we dig down deeper those that do have SEO, usually employ incorrect or insufficient SEO (such as using the word “home” for their company name). In this part of the webinar I discuss what should be considered in using SEO that’s most important, why, and in what order of importance.
If you’d like to pause at this juncture and get more background in SEO, I recommend listening to (or watching) my interview with Matt Rouse of Hook SEO below.
If for any reason the YouTube video fails to load, please click refresh as sometimes videos loading from YouTube take longer than we’d like. Additionally, you can listen to the interview using this link and this one.
After my interview with Matt, you can watch my mentoring session with multiple Non Profit Organization owners (NPO).
Rebooting SEO
If you’re not seeing the results you’d hoped for it may be time to consider rebooting your online SEO and taking a fresh perspective.
Again, since most businesses either have incorrect or no SEO at all and don’t know where to begin with it, you probably need help being found in online search.
How do I get started with SEO?
One way to get started with SEO is to take a step back and just ask ourselves if being ranked at the top of local Google search results (at least to begin with) has value for us. Is increased visibility something we want, are prepared for, actually want and need?
Do inbound and outbound links matter when it comes to getting results from SEO?
Here it’s vital that we fully understand what inbound and outbound marketing are before we can talk about inbound and outbound links within your website content.
Outbound & Inbound Marketing
Outbound marketing is usually where you go after leads. Some examples would be paying for ads (also called PPC for Pay Per Click) or putting ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other media outlets. Old school professions such as lawyers and doctors typically will pay tens of thousands of dollars in billboard ads or newspaper ads to reach older, conservative consumers who are tentative about digital media and website use. Modern companies will eagerly pay for online advertising and marketing so they can reach younger more informed consumers who use the internet daily.
Inbound marketing is promoting your business through blogging, teaching workshops, indirect marketing, offering free downloads, coupons, and is otherwise seen as less aggressive and “in your face. ”
When I was a struggling freelancer, and then when I later decided to create a small digital marketing agency, inbound marketing is what helped me go from struggling to scheduling clients months into the future and staggering workload to accomodate all the new intake. I offered short and then longer, paid workshops on everything from WordPress to SEO and eCommerce to freelancing for profit and how to scale project development efficiently. When cross-referenced with appropriate local SEO terms, linked to your site, local event calendars, local NPOs, these always enrolled new clients ready to ignite growth. That same approach can work for you, too.
What is white hat vs. black hat SEO?
Very briefly, White Hat SEO refers to techniques used in trying to get the most and best results from SEO that are reputable, legal, ethical and appropriate for all business types, while Black Hat SEO refers to techniques and approaches that might not be ethical or legal or appropriate for businesses.
Do the ends justify the means is an important question to ask when we try “fixing” SEO results so they outrank competitors, and also, more broadly, can doing something in a “black hat” context come back to hurt our reputation at some point?
These are all important questions to ask before embarking on procedures that may not be above board and could potentially damage our SEO possibilities in the future as well as professional reputation. Odds are that if something seems shady, it probably isn’t a good fit.
What tools should I use to start with SEO and then clean up my site?
For a list of SEO tools I recommend taking a look at our digital tool bag listed on the website menu.
What can you learn about SEO and how to use it from competitors?
Much of what we can apply from this question is covered in a blog post I wrote on a related topic you can read here.
What should your website content be about to help you get direct and indirect SEO benefits?
Most of our website content, certainly to get started with content creation and then the marketing of that content, is going to fit into three different silos of content types.
So, there’s a great deal of depth when it comes to using SEO, and the important thing, the most important thing, is to take it into consideration before getting started and just jumping into the proverbial fray unarmed and unprepared.
If you still have questions regarding SEO and how it can help your business feel free to book a digital marketing consultation to find out if we might be able to work together.