What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Ok, but what is SEO? SEO means you are optimizing your content, website, etc. to show up in the search engines. There are multiple search engines you can optimize for, but most people focus on Google. (👋🏽 hi…I’m “most people,” and anything I share with you is going to be about optimizing your content to show up on Google). You use SEO in your marketing to promote and sell your services.

Before search engines existed, you had to know the full URL of a webpage like this 👇🏽

(all of this | https://www.anywebsite.com/blog/the-article-you-want-to-read)

for EVERY SITE you wanted to visit. You couldn’t just type “what is SEO” in a search bar and get 694 MILLION results in under one second. Let’s be real, you aren’t looking at anywhere near all those results. This is why using tools like SEO is so important to getting found by the right people who want the solution you have to offer.

SEO & Digital Marketing

SEO is a part of your digital marketing strategy to target the needs and wants of your potential clients before they even know they have a problem. If you write a blog article on “Top 10 Wedding Venues in Orlando, FL” and share it on your website, you are solving a problem for a couple who is looking for a wedding venue in that area. Fill the article with useful tips and information (not just fluff), and this is the first step of making them aware of your business. 

Keep them on your site once they get there by providing more information on the topic (your zone of genius) and this will move them from awareness to interest in your business. If your articles are full of fluff or useless information that doesn’t serve THEIR needs, they won’t stay. They will leave and find someone who has answers to their questions. But the longer they stay on your site, the more likely they are to move through your funnel and reach out to you. 

SEO & Your Location

So how do you get in the top search results on Google so potential clients can see your content? Before you can drive traffic to your website, you need to consider your client’s journey. Continuing with the previous example, a couple looking to get married will most likely start by finding a venue. This is the central location that will bring everyone together, and if they are looking for a venue in Orlando, FL, your article about “Venues in Atlanta, GA” won’t serve them. 

So how do YOUR clients find you? Use digital breadcrumbs to guide them to your content. These breadcrumbs are called keywords, and keywords become more powerful when you use your location to optimize them for local searches.

Searching Google for “wedding venue” (yes, that’s a keyword!) will give you over 596 million results.

Searching Google for “wedding venue near me” narrows your search to 488 million results.

However, if you focus even more on “wedding venue Orlando, FL” the results are down to 33 million options. Do you see the difference your location makes?

Being found by Google starts with your local area and then grows from there as your business scales up. 

Offsite Recommendations

Did you know that there is more to SEO than just doing work on your own website? Google loves it when you are listed in directories or another business links back to your site. It shows you are a reliable company that is providing relevant content. The more that these websites talk about your business, the more you become a trusted resource. Google will reward you by recommending your site as the answer to various questions that include your keywords.

BUT. . .

If you have all these backlinks to your website, and your site isn’t optimized for Google to search it, all your offsite work will be in vain. SEO is a long term strategy, and you have to do your work on your site first so that other sites are linking back to a quality website. Remember, Google recommends quality to answer a searcher’s question. Just because you have a large QUANTITY of information does nothing if it is all fluff.