I hardly even knew what it was!

My website was more of a passion project than it was a business at that point. When I decided to leave my full-time job three years ago, I had to approach my website differently.

Instead of just writing as a creative outlet, I became more serious about my own website copywriting. I had done some copywriting work for Fortune 500 companies at a PR firm for a while, but this was a whole other beast.

When I transitioned into offering only website copywriting and content creation services, I decided to redesign my website and rethink my own keyword strategy.

Just shy of two years later, I cleared my browser cache and searched for my top four keywords. To my surprise and delight, I was the top result on Google for ALL FOUR of them. No wonder I was getting most of my client inquiries from Google.

All of this is to say that SEO has revolutionized my business (and no, I’m not just saying that because I’m a website copywriter). I know it can do the same for yours.

Let’s talk about why SEO matters for your business too.

Why your website needs to be optimized for search engines

The great thing about optimizing your website for organic search engine traffic (which refers to traffic you don’t have to pay for – score!) is that people often go to Google when they are making a purchasing decision, or at least are considering to make one.

Visitors who turn to Google for answers have a higher probability of converting because they are already actively searching for a solution, so you have an opportunity to provide them with one.

You’ve probably focused more of your time as a small business owner crafting the solution you want to offer rather than optimizing your website to better display and provide that solution.

Don’t worry, that’s why I’m here!

As a creative entrepreneur myself, I’ll break down this seemingly confusing topic in terms we can all understand. While knowing the jargon of SEO can be helpful, it’s better that we put it into language that helps us take action on what we’re learning.

What is SEO?

You’ve probably heard this term a dozen times before, but what does it actually mean? SEO, which is short for search engine optimization, simply means improving your website in order to increase its visibility in search engines.

Let’s use a real-world example. When you type in a keyword or phrase into a search bar, you expect to be provided with a list of the top resources on your topic of choice.

Have you ever wondered how Google decides who gets the top spot? It’s all through SEO!

You’ll often hear people talk about SEO when they say their goal is to get to the #1 spot on Google. This is the most coveted spot in all the land so it should be a goal for all of us.

As you climb toward the top of the SERP (which stands for search engine results page), you increase not only your website traffic but also your credibility. Google is very committed to giving its users the best suggestions and recommendations which is why they take website optimization so seriously.

Anything Google cares about, we should care about!

This is also a good time to say that while Google is not the only search engine out there (I’m looking at you, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves… which is somehow still around), it’s the one I’ll be using throughout this series. The other search engines work similarly so rather than constantly say search engines, let’s keep it simple with Google.

Okay, back to the good stuff. Now that you know what SEO is and why you should care about it, let’s talk about the kinds of things Google is looking for. It’s the best way to make sure Google hooks you up with the right visitors.

What search engines like Google are looking for

Before we dig in, remember that Google exists solely to create a great user experience for the people who use the tool. The better their experience is, the more likely they will be to come back and use Google.

This is important because Google depends on traffic to their search engine for advertising. Seeing as they are the number one most visited website on the internet, I’d say they are doing a pretty great job at providing a good user experience. #understatement

Since we are focusing on what search engines like, let’s talk about a few key factors you will want to include in your own search engine optimization strategy.

Relevant evergreen website content

Jargon alert! This definition is thankfully really simple to grasp. Evergreen content is content that stays relevant no matter what time it is consumed. It’s not time-based, like an event recap blog post or a special limited-time offer, so you don’t have to worry about your content going out of style in a few months.

Your website should be built on the foundation of evergreen content. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t create short-term website pages (which are often called landing pages) with specific timing in mind, but you won’t be focusing on building SEO value with those. Why is that?

SEO is all about improving your website’s performance for the long term. This is why we want to focus on creating evergreen website content that is strong all on its own. We can do this in a few ways, namely by introducing keywords which we’ll talk about next.

Sprinkling keywords into your content

We’ve talked about the beauty of reaching the first page of Google results, but how do you know if you’re doing this whole SEO thing right? It starts with keyword research. Without the right keywords, you’ll be spending time on optimizing for the wrong things.

I have a much more in-depth blog post on keyword research in this blog series, but I’ll give you a little teaser for now. When we think about keywords, let’s assume that you’ve chosen an industry you want to work in and people you want to work with.

Once you have done your own keyword research, which sounds a lot more difficult than it actually is, you can start to weave those keywords into your website copy. Here are a few good places to weave them in:

• Title tags: Before you click into a website from a Google SERP (stands for search engine results page), you’ll often see the website page title tag first. This is because it is the largest text shown on the SERP and is usually colored in blue (unless you’ve clicked on it already so it’s purple).
• Meta description: Underneath your title tag in the SERP, you’ll see a small summary of text describing what the visitor will find on your page. This is what we call a meta description. Place relevant keywords into your meta description, but make sure to weave them in so you don’t get close to keyword stuffing territory.
• Headers: In your website building platform, you’ve probably seen the Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 options. These features aren’t there just to make your website look pretty. Headers are also a great place to squeeze in some extra SEO value with your keywords. Make sure you have one in there, as long as it is readable and easily digestible.
• Body copy: This refers to all of the content you create in the body paragraphs of your website and blog posts. Instead of listing them all in a row, try spreading them out throughout your content. It may take a little time to get used to it but you’ll start including them in your content instinctively in no time.

Good user experience

There’s that “user experience” term again. It just keeps popping up everywhere! The more you dig into SEO, the more you’ll hear about this term so it’s a good one to understand early on.

User experience refers to, you guessed it, the overall quality of a visitor’s experience on your website. To make a lasting impression, you’ll want to create a good user experience from the get-go.

Here are a few factors that go into a good user experience:

• A well-organized website navigation and overall website structure.
• ONE clear call-to-action (like subscribing to your email list, buying a product, signing up for a consultation call, etc.) on every website page.
• Easy-to-read text formatting with headers, styles, etc. (because no one wants to read a wall of text… not even Google bots)
• Big, bold images to break up your text and add more visual appeal to your content.
• Making sure you don’t frustrate your audience while they are scrolling through your website (like making all of your internal page links open up in a new window… that drives people nuts).

A good user experience doesn’t stop there but this list gives you a good starting point. If you’re still unsure of where to begin, think about the kinds of things you like on other websites you regularly visit. Chances are those things are also appealing to your audience.

If you want your blog to be focused on your quality content, keep the design minimal with no sidebar. If pop-ups turn off your subscribers more than they convert, don’t have them on your homepage.

It’s worth it to continually improve your user experience, so your website traffic and conversion will keep climbing, thanks in large part to Google when you do it right.

Understand how SEO can improve your website traffic

Naturally, there are more than three things that search engines like but this gives you a good foundation. If you are still interested in learning more about SEO, more power to you! This will be an incredibly influential area of your business marketing because the tweaks you make today could provide you with lifetime value.

SEO is all about the long-term strategy so don’t worry about getting it all done in one day or even one month. Any website copywriter and SEO strategist will tell you that it takes time to optimize your website.

With that in mind, here is the next thing you can learn about SEO: Keyword Research Tips from a Website Content Writer

The post What is SEO, and Why Should I Care as a Small Business? appeared first on Sindie.

Maybe keyword research feels daunting and overwhelming, or maybe it makes you feel like you need to get an MBA before you dig in. None of this needs to be true.

SEO is known for being a mysterious industry. This is mostly because it has to do with competition, and the easiest way to reduce your competition is to stay quiet about the optimization tips and tricks you know. But that’s not how I roll.

Today I’m showing you a behind-the-scenes look at how to do basic SEO keyword research for your website.

Everything learned I was from DIY efforts so I’m confident that you can learn in a similar way if you don’t mind a little experimenting. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know it’s my method of choice. *wink*

I’ve also found success through my own DIY efforts. In a relatively short time (about a year or so), I ranked #1 for four of my desired keywords. While this result may not be plausible in all industries (like for attornies and insurance agencies – uffda, sorry!), it’s still incredible to see how a few minor tweaks can help you grow your online presence long term.

I want to help you become best friends with Google because of your SEO.

So let’s dig into a fairly simple four-step approach to keyword research that will help you discover what keywords are worth focusing your attention on.

(Have you read my post on the basics of SEO? If you haven’t, definitely read that first and then come back to this one to put what you’ve learned into action!) 

Step One: Brainstorming relevant words and phrases

Let’s use the example of a wedding photographer that is based in Minneapolis. Since I’m from Minnesota, you’ll see a lot of examples based on my location because, well, it just makes sense. You can still use the same advice no matter where you are located or even if you have a primarily online business as I do.

Anyway, back to our wedding photographer. Let’s call her Becky. If Becky is looking to improve her website’s SEO, her energy is best spent trying to figure out what her ideal brides are already searching for.

The first thing she needs to have nailed down is who her ideal client is. This is a good first step for any small business owner. Becky has found that she really loves capturing Millennial couples who are interested in a rustic or farmhouse wedding theme. Traditional chapel weddings aren’t really her thing, so she wants to focus on clients who want outdoor weddings.

We’ll come back to these specific details in a bit but all of this information will be really helpful. For now, we know who her target audience is. From there, she can move on to creating a list of words that are associated with her industry. “Wedding photographer” naturally comes to mind first, but she can keep going with her list.

Becky will probably come up with a list that looks something like this:

• minneapolis wedding photographer
• wedding photographer st paul
• wedding photos mn
• wedding photographers mn

This is a great place to start! As you create your own list, we can move on to the next step.

Step Two: Preliminary SEO keyword research on Google

Now that you have a list of words and phrases that are specific to your industry, location, and audience, we can start doing some preliminary research. Let’s start with Google’s built-in search function since it is a user-friendly place to start.

If Becky is looking to do some basic research on what brides are searching for in her area, she can go to Google and start typing in key phrases to see what auto populates. It will show her some pretty fascinating results.

She first starts with “wedding photographer” and here is what comes up:

After taking a look at this, she can see that “wedding photographers mn” is a strong keyword since it is near the top. She also has it on her original list of ideas so it’s a match.

Now she tries another key phrase from her list. This time, she finds even more interesting results:

Wow! It looks like when people are about to search for “mn wedding photographer”, they are looking for photographers who are affordable and have services under $1000. Becky didn’t have these on her initial list so she’s glad she checked.

If Becky’s pricing is around $1000 or less, she would want to include more of these popular keywords because it’s a great and relevant fit.

However, like many of my own wedding photographer copywriting clients, Becky’s pricing is higher than $1000 because of the value she provides her clients well beyond their wedding day. She won’t want to use these popular keywords with the words “affordable” and “under $1000” because she would attract the wrong brides.

(Side note: Are you starting to see how this all comes together? We haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet and we already know a lot. Okay, let’s keep going.)

Step Three: Getting more specific with your SEO keywords

Look back at Becky’s initial list of key phrases in Step One. You may be thinking “Wow, they all seem pretty basic.” You’d be right. While these popular phrases are searched for frequently, we’ll want to focus more attention on how to make Becky’s website stand out to her ideal brides.

We can do this by taking her original list of keywords and getting even more specific. This is where the fun part comes in!

Remember how Becky liked shooting weddings that have a rustic or farmhouse look? Many of those types of weddings take place in barn wedding venues. Keeping this in mind, she starts searching for a few different combinations of keywords.

She types in “mn barn wedding photo” but only one option comes up: “barn wedding photography mn”. This tells Becky that she should choose “barn wedding photography mn” over “mn barn wedding photography”.

Even though both options have the same combination of words, the placement of the words is SUPER important. It’s smart to choose the auto-completion keyword because that is what brides are already searching for.

(Pro tip: It would also be smart for Becky to create relationships with barn wedding venues and other wedding vendors who help brides create a shabby chic look. This will help Becky stay in front of brides who already match her style as wedding vendors refer her work and vice versa. You can borrow the same approach for your website.)

Take a moment to create your own list of specific keywords. You can start with the key phrases you wrote originally and break them down into words that describe your process, experience, style, or any other factor that helps you sell what you do.

If you are a designer, you can start playing with keywords that describe your unique style (minimal vs. romantic), a color palette of your choice (neutral vs. neon), or client type (startup vs. agency).

If you are an online course creator in marketing, you can experiment with keywords that describe your teaching style (video course vs. email course) or topic of choice (Instagram photo styling vs. Instagram caption writing).

Spend some time in this phase! You may just stumble upon a list of keywords that connect you with your ideal client sooner than you think.

Step Four: More advanced SEO keyword research

We can learn a lot by looking at Google, but our work isn’t done yet. Let’s get back to Becky. Since she wants to start implementing keywords like “mn wedding photographer” and “barn wedding photography mn” into her website as soon as possible, she decides to look into a more robust keyword research tool.

You can do your own keyword research through the Google Keyword Planner (which is only available for people who run Google ads), Moz Keyword Explorer (10 keywords available each month with a free account – highly recommend!) or even Answer The Public.

There are so many options to choose from so let’s just look at one. I really love the Moz Keyword Explorer so we’ll use that for our example.

As Becky types in “mn wedding photographer” and hits search, she is greeted by numbers and graphs she doesn’t quite understand. If you feel the same way looking at these results, don’t worry! You’re not alone.

Let’s talk about what each piece of jargon actually means in a language we can all understand.

• Volume: Volume refers to how many approximate users on a monthly basis are searching for your desired keyword. Because there is no data here, it means that it is too low for their tool to measure. We can infer that it’s because of the specific location (Minnesota in this case) in the keyword. If we used a more general keyword like “wedding photographer”, we would see the monthly volume dramatically increase. Keep in mind that the higher the volume, the more competition you’ll usually find.
• Difficulty: The keyword difficulty score ranges from one to 100. The higher the number, the more difficult it will be to compete with other service providers who are already ranked for the keyword. Moz recommends that new businesses start with keywords that are at a maximum of 20-30 range for difficulty. As you grow, you can continue to optimize your website for stronger keywords where there is more competition.
• Organic CTR: Click-through-rate (or CTR) shows how likely a keyword is to convert into organic web traffic to your site. The higher the organic CTR, the better chance you have to have someone click on your website if it’s on the first page of Google. It’s 100% here so score! (By the way, organic web traffic is any traffic you don’t have to pay for, which is my favorite kind. *wink*)

After looking at the results from the Moz Keyword Explorer, Becky feels confident in using “mn wedding photographer”. Although the monthly volume numbers didn’t show up because of her location, the difficulty score is around the range she is shooting for and she loves the 100% organic CTR likelihood.

Now it is your turn to try a few of your SEO keywords!

The post Step-by-Step SEO Keyword Research: Tips from a Website Content Writer appeared first on Sindie.