The ABCs of SEO for beginners

SEO or search engine optimization can sound very technical and overwhelming for new business owners. It is important for any business who wants to get found on the internet to have a strategy to help search engines match their content with the questions asked by your ideal client. To make things easier, here are the ABCs of SEO for beginners!

A is for Analyze

It is vital that you learn what your audience is searching for when it comes to your business. What are their pain points? How do you help? How do they describe your products or services?

Sometimes the terms that we use may not match exactly the terms that someone else is using. This can create a disconnect and allow you to miss out on clients who really need your service.

I have a friend who is an Ontological Life Coach. An Ontological Coach works with you to design a way of being that you feel serves you best. This sounds wonderful once you know what it is. It may even be something that you are looking for.

To attract her ideal client to her business and website, she must use keywords that would match terms that they are searching for like self-love, finding balance in my life, how to change the story I tell myself. By using these keywords strategically, she will be able to help even more people than just the ones who are specifically searching for an Ontological Life Coach.

You also may be using a search term that can be applied to more than one audience. For example, in the diabetes space, there is a device called a Continuous Glucose Monitor or CGM. If a person were to write an article and only use the keyword “CGM”, they may get some people with diabetes who are interested in the device. They may find that they are appearing in searches for the curly girl method because CGM is a term used by women with curly hair.

How do you find out what people are searching for?

There are a variety of ways to learn the language of your potential clients. You can join groups and forums where they are. Once in these places, you would begin to listen to conversations and make notes of the wording that these people are using. Start by searching the groups using terms that you already associate with your business and make note of what you find.

You can also search on places like Google. Enter the word that best describes your business. As you are typing, watch to see what suggestions that Google shares. Make notes of the ones relevant to your business. You can then click on some of those suggested search terms and see what other suggestions pop up. You can do this for hours, gaining insights into words that are being used. You will also begin to learn what your competition is offering as well.

Finally, there are free and paid search sites that can help you to find the right words to use in your business, website, or social posts. Places like Ubersuggest and SEMRush will analyze words and help you to see if they are words that could attract people to your website, blog, or even podcast.

To understand the ABCs of SEO for beginners, we first analyzed the words that our ideal clients are using. You then created a list of those words. This list of words are referred to in SEO as your keywords. These keywords must now be used on your website, in your articles and product descriptions, as well as in social posts.

B is for best friends

treat your audience like best friends SEO with Barb Wagstaff

As you begin to create content using those keywords, you must remember the B in your ABCs. B is for best friends and that is what you want to become with your audience.

When you write content for your best friend, the writing should be natural and helpful. While you of course need to tell them what you are talking about (use your keywords), you don’t want to overuse your keywords. It is about finding balance and keeping the conversations as if you are talking to a real person over a cup of tea.

This also means that you will naturally place your keyword on a page and URL title. You will make sure that it is found in the text of your page and in your picture descriptions.

You wouldn’t want to waste your best friend’s time, so you want your website responsive and quick. It should be easy for them to navigate around the website. They should enjoy interacting with your business and be happy when they click the add to cart button.

C is for chat

Who doesn’t love a good chat? If you have reached your ideal customers through careful keyword research and you have provided them with a fabulous experience, you are ready to have people talk about you.

You can do this in a variety of ways. The best way is of course to have happy clients or customers who love to extoll the virtues of your business. These loyal friends will share your posts and share their experience of working with you with their friends.

As you begin to grow, you may also want to reach out to other businesses to get the buzz growing about your product, service, website, or podcast. You can ask to have them feature one of your products or services. You can be a guest on a podcast. You can even share an article about them and ask that they share your article with their following. The important thing is to get the online world to start talking about your business.

The more chatter there is, the more links will begin to appear to your business. The more quality links going back to your business, the more amazing search engines think your business is and the more likely you are to show up in search results.

To recap the ABCs of SEO for Beginners are

The first steps to optimizing your business for SEO are as easy as ABC.

Analyze the words that your ideal customer or client is using.

Treat your audience as your best friend. You want them to have a wonderful experience from their first contact with you until long after they have used your product or experienced your service.

Finally, you want people to chat about you. You want people who will benefit from your product or service, or people who know people who will benefit from your product or service to talk about you in a favourable way. You want them to refer people to your website and share their love of you! This will let search engines know that you are reputable and offer value to the world.