This is a three-episode series focusing on the minimal efforts required for effective SEO, starting with the initial setup process involving Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and keyword research. Emphasizing the evolution of Google’s algorithm towards prioritizing user experience and content relevance.
Key Takeaways
- Keyword research should be the compass that guides your content creation, not the anchor that weighs it down.
Resources
Episodes 2 and 3 will be listed here once they are live.
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Raw Transcript
Hello, and welcome to the small business sweet spot. I’m your host Barb Davids, and this show is dedicated to helping small business owners like you get more organic website traffic and also to help create and distribute content and analyzing the numbers so that we can make better informed marketing decisions. It is action oriented, direct, and conversational. And if you’ve been looking for SEO or content marketing help, please stick around to the very end where I share about the group coaching program, small business sweet spot. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s go.
Running a business with a digital presence means sooner or later, you’ll have a conversation about your website and SEO. It may happen in a Facebook group with like-minded business owners, or it could be at the monthly industry networking get together. When Jill seizes the opportunity to ask, how are you doing your SEO? Which Jill’s really looking for is the chance to brag about her new found SEO knowledge. Jill wants to tell you how it’s doing wonders for her business.
And she surprised to hear you’re not doing SEO. She’s wearing a concerned yet smug expression on her face.
You want to wipe that look from her face and you know, the best non-conflict way to do that is by getting your own SEO in place. In order to shut you up, you need to start on your SEO and get some of these wondrous results for yourself. But where do you start and how.
Well, that’s what I’m going to show you in this three episode series on how to get away with the bare minimum for your SEO.
So let’s jump in.
This episode, along with the next one, we’ll guide you through the initial setup process. Following these two we’ll dedicate an episode all by itself to the essential monthly actions. You can take.
First we have the setup of the Google analytics, otherwise known as GA. In fact, it’s the first thing I’ll ask about when someone joins in my small business sweet spot, because it’s the thing that will tell you how effective or ineffective your digital marketing is. The analytics tracks information from your website using a unique code that’s installed on every page of your website. This code runs.
Whenever someone visits your site. Thankfully, you don’t have to know code to install GA. Most web platforms have made the setup. Very simple.
The second setup is Google search console or GSE for short. GSE is a free service from Google that lets you see how your website is performing in Google search results. By using this information, you can make changes to your site. So it becomes more Google and user-friendly and perform better in search.
A couple of episodes go episode number 10. I went into some detail about how you can use GSE. Third setup item is keyword research. Even though we are building our website and our content for people, for our audience in order to show up in search results, we need to have the words that people are searching for on our website. Those are called keywords.
It’s how Google knows how to match your website with the searches that people are typing in. And here’s where a lot of small business owners get hung up. You’ve been told time. And again, that keyword research is the cornerstone of SEO. It’s the common chant load your website with keywords and you’ll rank higher. That’s even how some agencies quote, get you. They charged by keyword, but let’s think about that for just a second. What if I said that keyword research is not just about having the right words on your site. It’s definitely an old school tactic to stuff your content with as many keywords as possible. Hoping to gain Google, but Google has evolved. They have had to evolve with the people who abuse the system. And they now prioritize user experience and content relevant over mere keyword presence. Here’s what I’d like you to take away from this episode. Keyword research should be the compass that guides your content creation. Not the anchor that weighs it down. It’s about understanding the intent behind the searches. Like, why is someone looking for this term?
What are they hoping to find? When you start with the white, you naturally integrate keywords into your content in a way that helps your audience and answers their questions. This is what Google and other search engines reward.
And I’m going to let you in on a little, not so secret, secret. Your Google search console is a great place to start with keyword research. Okay. So while I hadn’t planned on going into that, when I was originally thinking about content for this episode, I do think it’s relevant. I hope you found it very informative. And that’s all for this episode, one of three around the bare minimum SEO. Next episode we’ll cover website and page specific setup items.
Stay tuned for more episodes on making your business thrive online. I’ll see you in the next sweet spot. Cheers.
Thank you for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you’re looking for SEO and content marketing help, consider joining the small business sweet spot. It’s a group coaching program where you can get answers to your questions about your business directly and clarity around the marketing strategies that you would like to implement in your business.
You can find all kinds of information at compassdigitalstrategies. com. And if you liked the episode, please tell a friend. Cheers.
