When you are looking for information, where do you typically go? If you didn’t answer “Google”, you are in the minority today! People turn to the search engines when they are looking for just about anything, including the products or services that you offer! A prominent search presence means improved visibility and in turn, more sales, leads, and conversions. If you aren’t using a portion of your marketing budget on SEO, what are you waiting for?
A business has multiple options once they decide to invest in SEO. Of course, this will depend on the type of budget they are working with. Larger companies with large marketing budgets might be able to afford an in house SEO person or team. SMBs might choose to go the outsourcing route and hire an SEO firm to work with them. If neither of these options is feasible, it doesn’t mean that SEO is entirely out of your reach. Some SEO is better than no SEO at all and if it’s not in your budget to hire an SEO Specialist or to outsource to a firm, there are plenty of things that you can be doing as a website owner to better position yourself in the search engines.
To start, you should spend some time reading all of the free SEO resources that are out there. Once you understand the basics you will be able to get started on an SEO campaign on your own. A good place to start is the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. As the most popular search engine, it’s important to carefully consider what Google has to say when it comes to SEO. This will prevent you from heading down the wrong path. Once you understand the basics of what’s “good” and “bad” in SEO, there are plenty of other SEO blogs out there that include valuable information for beginners.
Once you have a basic understanding you can enhance your SEO knowledge one step further by attending an SEO workshop or training session that is geared towards beginners. There will likely be a fee to attend, but you should get lots of great information out of it and be able to leave the workshop with lots of new ideas to implement. As a beginner, it’s recommended to stay away from big SEO conferences. These are typically geared towards SEO professionals and if you are new to the industry they will be very overwhelming. The small business owner would be better off investing in some personalized attention, possibly consulting. A consultant can look at your website and develop an SEO strategy for you to implement on your own.
Once you understand SEO and have gotten started on your own, it’s time to take the next step in investing in your website marketing and hire an SEO firm. They can bring the work that you have already been doing to the next level.
Even if your business has been successful by using traditional marketing methods in the past, a well executed SEO campaign can give it that boost that is necessary to thrive in today’s business environment.
