Here’s my Top SEO Facts Business Owners Overlook. Many business owners need to know these SEO facts that will set the record straight.
It’s 2024 and a LOT has changed in SEO.
There’s no way to expect business owners to keep up with Google’s updates.
In fact, listen to my story of talking to a business owner thinking SEO won’t help him.
Business owners are busy running their businesses.
The majority I meet do not know much about SEO or have been burned in the past. So here are my personal favorite 8 SEO tips I discuss with business owners:
1. SEO is NOT a One-Time Purchase
SEO is like playing a game of chess but it’s a game that never ends!
To play chess, one must learn the rules and how each chess piece moves across the board. Your first time playing chess will be difficult because it takes a long time to master. Just like SEO, there are rules and strategies. You know chess is NEVER a fast game. SEO is not a fast process and requires a lot of skills, work, and strategy. There are novice chess players and seasoned experts. I hope this analogy helps. (I like to play chess can you tell)
Overall, SEO is a long term strategy. If you quit updating your website, building domain authority, building quality backlinks, and optimizing your website – Your competition will outrank you.
2. SEO is NOT a Luxury Service – it’s a Requirement for Success
If your website is not working on its SEO, it will fail. Your competitors most likely have an SEO expert working on their website. You, on the other hand, do not and therefore can expect to never have your blog articles discovered.
Related: SEO Checklist for Beginners
3. You Cannot Simply Publish a Blog Post and Expect it to Rank
Post and pray simply does not work anymore.
You have to promote your content. Your website needs to be shared on social media and it needs backlinks from quality websites. In fact, if your website does not have domain authority, your content will most likely not appear in first page results. This is where SEO comes in strong, you need to optimize your site and earn Google’s trust. You should put as much time into promoting your content as you did to create your content. Over time, your content will rank once the page has strong authority. It’s not an overnight process. If you blog, make sure you’re promoting – otherwise it can be a waste of time. When you’re ready to make some updates to your SEO, I have also written some SEO Tips that Work on ALL Websites.
For example, this post:
- I will place it on related SEO tip blog posts as related content
- Email it to subscribers
- Share it in social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram
- Use the right hashtags in social media for example hashtags to promote your jewelry business
- Share on web 2.0 sites
- Contact other bloggers to add a backlink
- Share it again as stated above
- Work this into future blog posts
- Make a YouTube video (I made one and embedded it into this post / share the video / do YouTube SEO)
- Could make an infographic (see mine below) – share it on Pinterest – other social media
- Include it in your email signature
- Update this blog post with new information
- Respond to blog comments
4. Blogging needs to Be Lengthy – No weak 300-word Blog Posts
Think about the last time you Googled how to do something – or a product review. Most likely the post has over 1200 words and goes in-depth. Meaning it will rank for multiple keywords about the topic. Let’s say I look up a review for a Tesla Model S, I want to know what it’s like owning one – features I’ll love – photos – etc.
5. Your Keywords Need to Be on Your Website
Many business websites do not have enough text on their pages.
My favorite of the SEO Facts Business Owners Overlook! This is something I always have to educate my SEO clients about. People will want me to optimize a website, but they might not like the text I add to the website. You can’t just have an image and a tiny paragraph. It might look pretty but Google needs more info if you want to compete with other websites. Check out your competition.
You simply can’t just have a page that says you are a surfboard shop in San Diego. You need to point out what makes your surfboards the best – how you’re different – show the process of how your boards are handmade, have testimonials from local surfers – video of your boards in action! – go in-depth, more content is needed! The perfect landing page must entice the user and convert them. Google needs text to understand what the page is about. And your keywords along with related keywords need to be there. I can’t rank a page if your keywords are never there. Also, it’s important not to keywords stuff your articles. That being said, only an SEO expert will know how to properly optimize your website.
6. Speed-Up Your Site
There are over 200 ranking factors and website speed is high on the list! Think about it from a user’s perspective. If the site is slow, they’re hitting the back button faster than you can say “bananas”. So, please be sure to optimize your images, use a CDN, and the W3 WordPress plug-in. Here’s how to speed up your site.
7. Get an SSL Certificate
Many web browsers will show frightening caution screens before entering an unsecured website. NOT a good impression for your readers and potential customers! There are free SSL certificates from Cloudflare. Many hosting companies will talk you into spending a TON of money on their SSL certificates and will call you about them often.
8. SEO is Not Cheap
As mentioned, SEO takes a LOT of work. You have an entire chessboard game in action. You can hire a novice or an expert. Just like playing a game of chess, it’s usually the expert that wins the game! I’m transparent in the industry, providing my SEO pricing here.
BONUS SEO Facts below the info graphic!
Thanks for reading: My TOP SEO Facts Business Owners Need to Know
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Kudo for you scrolling down to see the bonus SEO fact:
9. SEO is a Profitable Long-Term Strategy!
OK, SEO is not cheap – however it’s cheaper than paying for every click from Google ads.
You would much rather spend money on SEO and gain long-term traffic than quick short-term traffic.
Once you have an established blog or even a blog post that has gone viral, thus gaining quality back-links, you’ll be profitable in the long-run.
You may create evergreen content that is better quality than your competition and makes you an authority in your industry.
10. The bigger your website, the more maintenance and resources your website needs
I have had customers that have over one thousand blog posts and do not want to invest in the additional resources they need! For example, big websites take up a lot of resources. The more popular your site, the more you will need to move to a non-shared server. If you’re on a shared server sharing resources, you could experience downtime thus hurting your SEO. You will also need to check for broken links since over time pages you’re linking out to can change. With more content, you will also need updates to old outdated content as well as refreshing content. You will need to keep an eye out for duplicate content and ensure you’re not committing keyword canibalization. Pages that were once ranking high can go stale and need up to date content. Speaking of more SEO work needed, you may need a larger SEO service package.
