If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurial spirit looking to fund and grow a business. Or maybe you’re even considering taking the leap and going it alone. Whatever the case may be, you’re in the right place! In this article, I’m going to teach you everything you need to know about online marketing and SEO, which you need to know so you can properly execute your strategy and properly position your product or service in the online marketplace.

The Basics Of SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of getting your website or blog to show up when someone searches for keywords or phrases related to your industry. Doing this can, in turn, cause your website to rank higher when visitors come to your site via organic search, social media or other platforms.

To illustrate the importance of SEO, consider these numbers:

• In 2018, there were 250 million mobile search queries per week.
• And 80% of those searches were on mobile devices.
• This makes mobile SEO, in particular, a really valuable tool for any business, regardless of whether or not they have a website.
• If you’re looking to get more customers, you’ve gotta invest in mobile SEO.

Why Is SEO Important?

The importance of SEO goes beyond simply bringing in more business or making your product or service more accessible to a larger audience. SEO is also important because different online industries, such as retail, restaurants, and hotels, have very different purchasing behaviors. For example, 61% of consumers search for restaurant reviews before they make their decision to eat at a particular establishment, compared to only 14% who look up reviews before they make a purchase decision regarding a product or service.

This means that if you want to be located when a consumer is looking for the products or services you offer, you need to consider SEO.

Not only that, but the same holds true for any industry. Consider the following stats about online shopping:

• In the next 12 months, there will be 29.9 million new online shoppers in the United States alone. That’s right, 29.9 million Americans are going to get online and start shopping, whether they know it or not.
• And 81% of those shoppers will be searching for products or services related to their passions, hobbies, interests or social causes.
• In other words, they are going to be searching for what’s important to them, rather than what’s trending or what’s popular at the time.

So, in summary, SEO makes your product or service more accessible to the right audience at the right time. This increases the chances of that audience actually discovering your product or service and, subsequently, purchasing it.

How Does SEO Work?

In order to do SEO, you need to start by gathering a list of keywords or phrases that are relevant to your industry. Once you have your keywords, you can implement these words into your content, across your websites and social media channels. Creating content for SEO is called “on-page SEO,” and this includes everything from heading tags and alt tags to internal links and content.

Off-page SEO, or link building, involves the process of getting other websites to link to yours, either manually or through a tool. There are several different methods to do off-page SEO, but whatever you do, make sure you always test and measure the results of your efforts.

What Is A Keyword Or Phrase (Or Should I Say, What’s A Keyword)?

A keyword or phrase is simply a word or a words that other people use to find your product or service. When someone uses one of your keywords or phrases in a search query to find your website or blog post, they’re actually searching for that specific word or phrase. So, if you want your website to rank for these words or phrases, you need to incorporate them into your content.

Using keywords in your copy will not only help it to be more SEO-friendly, but it will give it a higher chance of being read and understood by potential customers.

Where Should I Look For Relevant Keywords?

There are three places you can find keywords:

• The web.gov platform (Google, Bing, and other government-sponsored search engines)
• Review websites such as Yelp and Google Reviews (these websites are not designed to drive traffic to your site, but they can help get you ranked for certain keywords)
• Social media channels. Specifically, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These are the three largest social media channels, and wherever you get your audience on social media, you can find relevant keywords you can use to grow your business

How Do I Find Relevant Keywords?

You’ve either got it or you don’t. If you know what makes your product or service special, you’ll have no problem come up with a list of keywords that are relevant to your industry. Once you’ve got your keywords, try them out in a piece of content and watch the magic happen.

The most important thing you need to keep in mind is the competitiveness of the keywords you choose. The more people competing for these keywords, the less valuable they are to you as a search engine optimizer. 

When you’re choosing keywords, make sure you’re not just picking words that sound nice or are commonly used.

Instead, you want to pick words that are relevant to your product or service, as well as, to what the consumer is looking for. In the next section, we’ll talk more about choosing specific keywords based on your target audience.

How Do I Use Keywords In My Copy?

In addition to coming up with the list of keywords, you also need to determine how you’ll incorporate these keywords into your content. There are three things you need to keep in mind:

• Make sure that your keywords are both relevant to your industry and that they’re used frequently in some context. The more times your keywords show up in relation to a specific topic, the more value they have. For example, if you’re a real estate agent and you want your site to rank for “real estate agent” and “realty agency,” you could write a blog post about buying a house in the suburbs, which would incorporate those keywords seamlessly.
• Make sure that your copy is full of those keywords, but don’t be obnoxious about it. It’s important you not only incorporate keywords, but you do it in such a way that doesn’t make you come off as a huckster. In some industries, this can be extremely damaging to your business, especially if you’re trying to gain trust with your audience.
• Make sure that your chosen keywords are actually useful to the consumer. If someone is searching for realty agent, they might not necessarily want to read your blog post about the different types of insurance policies.

How Do I Measure The Success Of My SEO Efforts?

You can’t measure the success of your SEO efforts in terms of money or sales. This would be like trying to evaluate the effectiveness of a movie by looking at the box office results. Instead, you need to look at the results of your SEO efforts in terms of increased brand awareness and customer trust.

When it comes to getting people to trust you, be sure to put in the effort now. Before you know it, your marketing budget will be over and you won’t have much left to work with. So, put in the effort now to get these results; they will pay off in the end.