The Secrets To Mastering SEO For Your Business

When it comes to mastering SEO for your business, it can all seem like a daunting task . . . especially when you read some of the blogs or watch some of the YouTube videos out there.  Everything can seem so confusing that it scares a lot of business owners and turns them off completely to SEO and the implementation process.

I like to keep things simple, so today I’m going to give you tips to mastering SEO for your business that make sense and are things you can implement right away to start seeing results for your business!

Do An SEO Audit Of Your Business

 The first thing we always suggest when it comes to any part of a person’s business, not just SEO, is that they do an audit to see exactly where they’re at.  If you don’t know where you’re at, then you’ll have no idea how to make things better and what to fix.

Here is a great website that gives you a step-by-step process of how you can audit the SEO for your business: 

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/local-seo-audit-checklist/437842/

A couple of things I would also add to this are first, audit your social media marketing to make sure that you’re doing everything you need to be doing to show up in their search engines.  More and more people are starting to search for things on social media, so you want to make sure you’re optimizing your profiles to be found . . . more on this later!

Second, and one that’s often overlooked, is to check your consistency.  If you’re posting on social media, are you being consistent?  If you’re writing a blog, are you sticking with it?  The rewards of SEO come to those that do things consistently for years on end, whether they’re seeing the immediate results or not.

How To Find Keywords & Use Them Correctly

 If you’re going to rank in organic searches, whether it be on Google, social media, or any other platform, then you’re going to need to become a master at finding keywords that your target audience is searching for.

Now, if you’ve been in business for a while, chances are good you already have some idea of what these keywords might be.  However, if you’re not sure, you’re in luck, because there are TONS of sites out there that will help you figure out what the best keywords are to use for your niche/industry.

Sites like SemRush And Ubersuggest will give you a massive list of suggested keywords, all you have to do is type in your main keyword and they’ll do the rest.  For example, if we typed in “business owners” it would give us main keywords and long-tail keywords that are related to it, that people are using to search, and that we could easily use in our content as well.

In case you’re wondering, the main keywords are words that have a higher quantity of searches and a higher competition.  So these are words people use to search for what they’re looking for all the time.  Some examples might be, “exercise,” or “home decor.”

Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer phrases that are used less and have less competition.  These allow you to have a better chance at coming up in search, especially if you’re new to the SEO game.  Searches like “exercise routines for women in their 40’s,” or “home decor for a country style home” will give you a better chance at appearing because they’re being used less.

Now that you have a list of keywords you want to use, it’s important to know where to use them in your content in order to rank for a search.  As a rule of thumb, there are three main places where you want to make sure the main keyword for your content is found:

• The URL (if it’s something like a blog or a website page)
• The title of your content (blog, website page, YouTube video)
• The first 100 words (whether it be a blog, caption, etc.)

Doing this signals to search engine sites exactly what your content is about, and allows it to easily serve it up to anyone who might be looking for it.  So when you’re getting ready to write a blog or a description for a YouTube video, make sure your keyword of the topic you’re talking about can be found in these three places.

Another great little tip when it comes to keywords and phrases is to use the “suggested searches” that Google gives you when you do a search.  So if you search for something, go down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see Google gives you 6-8 other suggested searches you can do.

This is a great way to find out other keywords and phrases that people are looking for, because you have to remember, everyone searches for things in different ways.  You might search for something using one phrase, but someone else might search for that SAME thing in a completely different way!

Take Your Social Media Marketing Seriously

Did you know that TikTok is quickly becoming one of the most used search engines out there?  It’s actually giving Google a run for their money, and could eventually be the number one search engine in the world!  That being said, this means it’s time to start leveling up your social media marketing game!

Too many people for too long have treated the captions of their social media content as filler or an afterthought.  They think they don’t matter and focus on the hashtags that they’re putting at the end . . . which may have worked in the past, but that’s all going to change.

With places like Instagram and Pinterest putting less and less emphasis on hashtags, they have all come out and said that they are prioritizing SEO and organic searches more than hashtags.  Here’s the main reason why:

People misuse, spam, and don’t follow the rules when it comes to hashtags, so they can’t be trusted to give you an accurate search of what you’re looking for!  And if the goal is to keep people on these platforms, then they need to serve up the content that you’re looking for.

So what’s the best way to write captions that allow you to rank in search?  Well, let’s break it down for you.  What a lot of people are doing right now on TikTok is writing these ridiculously long captions (I’m talking like, mini-blogs) thinking that because they’re writing MORE it’s going to give them a better chance of ranking.

I believe this is a mistake, because not only is the search about keywords, but it’s about the experience as well, and people on social media don’t want to read blog-sized captions, especially ones that are accompanied by a 5-10 second TikTok.

A much better strategy is to do your keyword research, figure out what your MAIN keyword is, 1-3 other sub-keywords you can use, then write a short to medium-sized caption that is concise and to the point.  The amount of fluff in captions isn’t going to help you, and it’s going to turn off your readers as well.

When I’m creating content, I always like to like to ask myself one question: “If I was consuming this content, would I find it valuable or would I want to click off?”  If you do this, chances are good you’ll know whether or not you need to make changes.

Make Sure Your Website Is Fully Optimized

The next part of the blog is going to focus on a bunch of things you can do to optimize your website for search.  You might have heard people saying “websites are dead,” but I can promise you they’re not.  According to HubSpot, overall website traffic is up 68% from last year, which means people are searching for what you’re creating, you just have to make it easy for them to find you!

The very first thing you’re going to want to do is to make sure that your website loads quickly, because if it doesn’t, not only is Google going to punish you, but people will simply leave and go find a site that loads quicker.

Typically, you want your site to load within three seconds of someone landing on it.  There are ways to test this as well with tools that Google has, as well as a bunch of different other ones.  All you do is plug in your URL and it’ll give you the results, as well as some things you can fix to make it load even quicker.

One of the main things we see as to why people’s websites load slowly is they’re not using optimized images on their sites.  Either they have bad-quality images or ones that are too big, and they’re slowing down the overall load speed of the website.  Make sure you’re always using the best photos you can, especially when it comes to your website.

The next point is to make sure that you’re optimizing your website for the user and their experience.  The longer people stay on your website, the better that is for your website ranking and your business as a whole.  Nothing will hurt your site and its ranking more than having someone click on and immediately click off.

The best way to do this is to have friends and business associates go through your website and give you feedback.  Here are some things you’ll want to know:

• Does the site load quickly enough for you?
• Did you like the layout of the home page
• Were you able to find what you were looking for
• Did the website look good on your mobile device?
• Was the website as a whole easy to navigate through?
• How long were you able to be on there before you wanted to click off? 

Obviously, there are a bunch of other questions you could ask, but this is a great list to get you started.  The main things are you want it to load quickly, look aesthetically pleasing, and be built in a way that makes it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.

If I want to book a call, it should be easy.

If I want to read a blog, I should be able to find it.

If I want to get in touch with you, it should be right there.

So think about what people go to your website for, then make sure that those things are very easy for them to find!

One thing a lot of business owners forget to check on a regular basis is their website links.  So often, business owners either have website links that are broken or aren’t fully optimized with the right wording.

What I mean is when you have a URL, it’ll have your business name then a backslash, then the content of that page (blog, services, etc.)  Here is an example:

• https://www.themarketvibe.com/blog/15-ways-to-increase-your-instagram-reels-views-in-2022 → this is good because it tells you EXACTLY what the blog is going to be about . . . it’s about increasing your Instagram Reels views!

Some people, however, instead have things like “PL29472” after where it says “blog.”  When you see this, how are you, or Google for that matter, supposed to know what that page is about?  This is where filling in your metadata becomes vitally important.

You want people to know EXACTLY what they’re going to get when they click on a page because if they get something they didn’t want, they’re going to bounce and it’s going to hurt your website score and ranking.

Every website provider has space for metadata when it comes to their pages, blogs, etc. and it should be easy to do a Google search on how to fix this if you notice some of your pages have this problem.

The last thing you’re going to want to do is to delete any stagnant pages on your website that aren’t bringing you any traffic because all they’re doing is clogging up your website and making it harder for people to find what they’re ACTUALLY looking for.

We’ve all been to those websites, haven’t we?  They’ve got hundreds of pages, drop-down menus everywhere, and instead of you feeling like everything is at your fingertips, you get stressed because you can’t find the one thing you’re looking for . . .

Don’t create a website like this!  Less is more.  I know it seems like having more pages would help you, but that’s like thinking writing a 2000 caption as we talked about earlier is the best route.  The best route is to keep things simple and concise.

Optimizing your website is in my opinion, the first thing you should do, because people who land on your website are obviously interested in you, your business, and your products, so you want to make it as simple for them as possible to learn more about you and find what they’re looking for!

Become A Master At Content Marketing

One of the biggest reasons for our success over the past three years is because we chose to take our content marketing seriously . . . and it has greatly paid off.  We have built a million-dollar agency without the use of any ad spend, and have built our client base off of things like our blog, social media marketing, and organic searches.

This proves you don’t have to run ads to make money as a business online, you just have to have a great content marketing strategy!

When it comes to elevating your content strategy, there are two main things I want to touch on, and that is consistency and quantity.

Let’s talk about consistency first.  The businesses that see the greatest returns on their marketing and experience the most success are the ones that remain consistent, even when they’re not necessarily seeing a lot of results from it.

I can tell you that when we started our business, we started on every social media platform channel (Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn) as well as started a blog and a podcast.  We did this because we wanted to be everywhere because we knew our audience was everywhere.

However, for the first 6-12 months, the only actual results we saw were from TikTok.  Everywhere else barely grew and we barely saw an ROI from any of them.  It would have been very easy to give up on some of these platforms and say, “I’m not seeing a return, so I’ll just focus on TikTok.”  Thank God we didn’t, though, because, after the first year, things really started to pick up.

We now see leads come through every one of these channels.  Instagram is where we see the most traffic, but we regularly sell courses and have potential clients reach out through our blog, YouTube, and everywhere else.  That is why remaining consistent is so important!

You never know how long it’s going to take for a social media platform to gain traction, or for your blog to start seeing traffic, but I can tell you how much traffic you’ll get if you quit on it: NONE.  Consistency separates the people that really want it from the people that are treating their business like a hobby . . . remember to always stay consistent.

It’s like a relationship.  You wouldn’t want someone to come around for a couple of days, disappear for a week, show up for a week, then disappear again.  Well, if you’re not being consistent, that’s exactly what you’re doing to your audience.

Now that we’ve talked about consistency, let’s talk about quantity.  If you’ve ever heard of the “Mere Exposure Effect,” it states that the more people see you, hear from you, and interact with you, the more they start to trust you.  That makes sense, right?

So knowing this, wouldn’t it make sense to show up as much as you can so that you build that trust with your audience?  Let’s use Instagram as an example.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Instagram is massively prioritizing reels right now, yet so many business owners say things like, “I don’t want to make reels,” or, “I don’t have time to make reels.”  Then you don’t have time to make money.

Your business isn’t about you, it’s about your audience and serving them, so by creating more Instagram reels you’re serving them and giving them the help they need.

Here’s another example: blogging.  I can’t tell you how many websites I go to, click on someone’s blog, and it’s been 6-18 months since they last wrote a blog.  Do you know what that tells me?  They don’t care about educating their audience unless they’re getting paid, which is a major turn-off for me.

I’ve been writing a blog once a week (sometimes twice a week) for the entirety of our business, simply as a FREE resource for business owners to get the help they need.  I never sell in our blogs, because I want it to be a way to give back to our community and business owners that need it.

Has it paid dividends?  Massively!  We get over 12K monthly visits to our website and it brings in tons of leads and clients for our business.  Was that ever the purpose?  No, but it was a byproduct of showing up and creating quality and quantity content that business owners needed.

Most business owners are simply not creating enough content to be searched out and found by their audience.  We always teach to start with what you can handle and maintain consistently, then build from there.

For example, we have a client who said there was NO WAY she had time to record enough Instagram Reels to post twice a day.  Two weeks later, she’s posting two a day.  It’s not a time issue, it’s a priorities issue, and if your business is as important as you say it is, you’ll find the time to do the things necessary to help your business grow!aw

Final Thoughts

I hope that this blog helped you when it comes to SEO and getting things like your website and your social media marketing on track.  If you have any questions, you can feel free to comment below or as always reach out to us on Instagram @michaelandjill and we’d be happy to help in any way that we can!