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Introduction: Is SEO Still Worth It in 2024?
Hi, so I'm going to talk today about whether SEO is still worth it in 2024 for small businesses. I've been doing some research and just reading some different articles and that seems to be a topic that comes up quite a lot. So I thought I'd come in and talk about that.
I think the reason that people tend to think about whether SEO is actually relevant for their business and not maybe sure whether actually it would work for their business, there's a few different reasons why that happens. And there's so much noise out there and so much information about the other ways that you can market your business.
And SEO is often very, can be very overwhelming. So people don't necessarily think of it as a, as a good way to market their business.
Understanding SEO: Basics and Misconceptions
So I'm going to start talking about some, some of the foundations about SEO and what it is. So that's what it is, and how it can be helpful. And just some of those misconceptions and address some of those.
So SEO stands for search engine optimization. For those who've been here a while, you'll have heard me say that before. , but it's basically means that the information on your website is set up in a way that it shows up in search engines like Google and Bing and Yahoo, or if we're talking about podcast SEO, then it's making sure that you're sure that your show shows up in Apple and Apple podcast and Spotify.
The Power of SEO Over Social Media
And The reason that a lot of people do sort of get that feeling of not using SEO as a way to market their business is because of that pressure to always be on social media and that we should be posting on social media all the time. And in reality, the. return on our investment of that time that we spend on social media can often be a lot, a lot less, we get a lot, a lot less back.
And especially if you think about it over the longer term as well, we get a lot less back over, , posting on social media than we would if we were doing SEO, so we have this pressure to just keep feeding the algorithm and keep creating content.
And it's not necessarily then driving people back to our website. So we. aren't then building that authority on our website. We're not then, we're just basically creating free content for the social media platforms rather than it actually helping our business and rather than it as being able to see a tangible result from what we're doing.
So I think, my sort of big takeaway from, from this, this topic is that. If we approach it in the right way, then SEO is so valuable for our business and it can help us, especially if we're already creating content. So if you're already creating a podcast, you're already creating blogs, then actually making the most of those is really, really powerful.
And then that way you can use them, you can repurpose them for social media if you want but at least that way you are actually Primarily focusing on your own content first and foremost.
SEO Statistics and Search Engine Trends
So some stats about SEO and around searches. So the percentage of website traffic, total web traffic that , starts with a search is over 90 percent and , there's 6 million searches every minute on Google.
So that's something to bear in mind. People are still using Google. That's definitely a bit of a myth that Google isn't, you know, people aren't using Google and people are just using AI and it's. It's just not true. Yes, Google is starting to lose a little bit of its share to Bing, especially with chat GPT, but it's, there's still more than 90 percent of searches are done through a search engine are done through Google.
And then not more than 90 percent of website traffic is actually done through a search. So it's incredible when you look at those stats really. and when we're looking at that and we're looking at the results page in Google, less than 1 percent of people would click through to
from position 10 downwards. People are looking at those top few results firstly. And if you're in that, those positions, then you're much more likely to get that click through to your website.
And if people see you in those top positions as well, then it helps to increase the trust and the recognition for your brand. And you are essentially showing up as a solution to people's problems at the point that they're actually looking for that solution, they're typing something into Google and you're there is the answer.
And that's where the real power comes into it. So you're not just trying to rely on interrupting their scroll and hoping that you then catch their attention. They are actually looking for your help. solution to their problem at that moment. So that's something where you end up borrowing a little bit of that trust from Google because Google has shown you as that solution to their problem.
And that's where the beauty and the power of SEO can really start to work. And you're also, you can catch people at the different stages they may have in terms of their awareness of The solution to their problem. So it might be that they're looking to buy something, which is fantastic. If you can show up right at the moment, they're looking to buy something.
That's brilliant. And if your website is set up well for conversions, then hopefully you're going to get a sale out of that. But even if it's not, if it's something where people actually don't even know what's going on. That there is a solution to that problem and you show up with some kind of informational post or , something that would help them with that and help them to go along that journey of understanding that you're there as that solution.
And fabulous. And that's how you can then set your website up to have the information on there that will help people at different, different stages of their, their buyer journey. So different stages of awareness of what they actually need to solve their problems.
Misconceptions About SEO
So one of the misconceptions is that SEO is expensive and it doesn't have to be. And depending on What, how, what sort of stats you're looking at for the return on investment in terms of your time.
And if you were investing in somebody to do it for you, then actually the long term benefits, it's a lot more cost effective than using ads or spending so much time creating content for social media that you SEO is something where you're building this sustainable marketing platform for the for now and for the future as well.
So it's a long term way of getting your business out there and getting more traffic coming to your website. And it's come into content that you already own as well. And that's the thing, especially if you're already creating that content. So if you're creating blogs or you're creating a podcast or you're creating content for your sales pages and you can drive more traffic to that, then the return on investment for that is, is, is really important actually.
And that's, that's, that can be really critical.
The second misconception is that results take too long it's really important to have realistic expectations with SEO. It's not a quick fix and it shouldn't really ever be thought of as quick fix and results can take even, even if you've got a really big budget and you've got a whole team working on your SEO for you, you still would expect to take three to six months before you start seeing a return on seeing results on that effort that you're putting in right now.
That's not to say that you can't rank sooner. And I've had that with my own website where I created a. article around FEA Create when that was sort of first onto the market and that really helped with my own rankings and it happened really quickly as well. So within a month of writing that article I was ranking within the first, well I was going to say number one.
I think I did for a couple of weeks, but I think then FEA Create sort of, you know, It's pipped me to the post there, obviously, because they're a branded query. So they're always going to rank number one for their own platform. But, , yeah, still up there, very high in the search results. And that, that happened really quickly.
So even though, as I say, we, we want to think of, SEO is a long term marketing strategy. It's something that if you're targeting the right keywords and there's not a lot of information out there around that, that keyword, then you certainly can rank quickly as long as your site is set up so that Google actually can crawl that page and understand what's on it, you know, straight away, really.
Misconception number three is that SEO isn't needed because of AI or is is is becoming outdated because of AI and I think this is probably one of the biggest reasons why people don't think about SEO as a long term strategy right now because We know that everything is changing with everything is changing with how we search and, and on the online world and everything, but that doesn't change the fundamentals that even if, even if we're using AI to generate whatever we're looking for, then it's still that AI still has to get its information from somewhere.
So those little robots that would have been Google's robots going out and crawling through the web, the AI bots will still need to do the same thing. And. It's hard to know how how it will go really. I mean, I think in 10 years time, everything will be completely different. Maybe even before then, everything will be completely different.
And maybe we will have a robot butler that will go off and do that for us. But even if that was happening, it would still need to be that the information on your website still needs to be structured in a way that the algorithms and the computers and the bots can actually understand that information.
So that's why even if the end result is that we're not, we don't end up searching on Google in 10 years time, we will still want to drive traffic to our websites because we still want it to be our own content, our own website that we own. Nobody else can take that away from us. And so that information needs to be set out in a clear way.
The next. Misconception is that SEO is too difficult and for small businesses, this can definitely seem like a bit of a barrier. So it can seem like, it's too competitive and how do I stand the chance of ranking? You know, especially if we end up doing a bit of keyword research, we see. A keyword that looks like a good potential keyword.
You know, we type in a seed keyword for our business and we see a potential keyword that looks like, yeah, that could be a great one to go after. I definitely need Google to understand about my site. I want to be showing up on page one for beauty or for wellness or for SEO or something along those lines.
And If you go after those sort of terms, then yeah, you're not going to be showing up on page one. But that's not what we do. That's not how we can be smart about the SEO. making sure that we're looking for keywords where it, there's a, there's a lot less difficulty. So there's still people making those searches each month, and it might not be 50, 000 people searching for it or 10 million searches with some of these terms.
You might find that it's 10 million people searching for it each month. And imagine that you're Google and you've got that job of working out all those websites, which one is the one that I show. to this person, which is the one website that I put at the top to show to this person about wellness or beauty or SEO or whatever, whatever the topic is really.
So that's where it can feel like it's very competitive and it can feel like it's too difficult, but that's because we're trying to rank for the wrong keywords. And actually, I think, well, there were some stats on here. Let's have a look. So I didn't actually put stats on there, but most, Google searches are three to four words long.
I should have found a stat on that sorry. But most of the searches on Google are three to four words long. So that's immediately tells us something about when we're doing keyword research, that those are the kinds of terms I would always say, be going after the long tail keywords that are at least three or more words, if you can.
And that's not to say that you don't want Google to understand that your website is still about those seed keywords, because you do, you still want that to happen. So I still want Google to know that I am about SEO. Even if I'm not going to show up in those. High positions for just the term SEO or like what is SEO or something very broad like that.
But Google needs to understand that the whole of my site is about that. And then I've got these very specific articles that will be more likely to show up to those really niche terms that actually people are searching for. So that's something that just to have a little bit more, , Confidence in ourselves that it is possible to show up, but it won't be necessarily the terms that we've been trying to show up for in the past, so maybe if we are just going after the wrong terms, then that's where it can feel really difficult and can feel like too, too much of a hurdle to climb.
It doesn't have to be. And if you're creating that content already about these great topics, where you're, you're delivering great content to your audience, then making the most of it to make sure that Google understands what that topic is. And Google understands this podcast is about this particular topic.
And it's very specific and it's going to help people and it's going to solve this problem. And the data is structured in the right way. Then it doesn't have to be so difficult, really. , and I always like to think of it as you're planting the seeds as well. So , even if you start working on the content that you're creating from this point onwards, then having those, that idea in mind of what you're trying to rank for and what else is on page one, or, what is Google already associating with your site?
And how can you make the most of that? How can you make the most of the content that , you've already created as well? So it's, it's something that it doesn't have to be so difficult. We don't have to put these hurdles in our, in our own way, really.
I would, ask yourself if, if you're asking yourself is, would SEO work for my business?
There's four questions that I would ask. So am I regularly creating content? Actually, it's five questions. Am I regularly creating content for my business? So whether that's a podcast, a blog, YouTube channel, you know, or Pinterest, I'm trying to think of different places that it could be. So, or social media.
So I, the question, that's kind of two questions really. So am I regularly creating content and is it content that I own? And that's the sort of the second part of that, that I think is really important. So if you're not creating content that you own, so it doesn't live on your own domain, you don't have a way to bring it back to your own website, then that would be the first thing I'd be thinking about.
So, you know, that in terms of whether SEO would work for your business, are you creating content that you own? And if you, if you are, then great, let's start thinking about SEO. Would people be likely to search for help around the topics that I talk about. The chances are most people would, because there's always somebody out there searching for some information about what we do.
Even if you're a social media manager, people will still be searching on Google for social media managers, not necessarily searching social media for social media managers. So it's something that there's rarely an occasion where people People can say, no, nobody ever searches for anything around my topic.
They, and even with that, they may not be specifically searching for what you do. So people might not be searching for, I don't know, is there some embarrassing condition or something that they wouldn't necessarily want to, show up on their search history. They may not be searching for it specifically, but they might be searching on a roundabout term.
And they're actually more likely to be searching Google for it than searching on social media, to be honest with you. Then , do I want to have visitors coming to my website every day? So do I want more traffic to my website every day? And that's a really good question to ask yourself in terms of SEO.
So if you want. More traffic coming to your website every single day regardless of whether you're posting anything else, regardless of whether you're posting on social media or paying for ads or anything like that. And if you do, then SEO is definitely, , something that you should be thinking about. And would getting more visitors to my website help me make more money?
In an ideal world, if my pages were set up as well as they could be for conversions, would it? Getting more visitors to my website helped me make more money and hopefully they would hopefully that is something that you're sort of thinking about. And actually, yeah, my website. I'm working on getting those conversion rates up as well.
And, The more traffic I get, the more money I make. Fantastic. So if you were answering yes to those questions, then start thinking about SEO as an, as a sustainable way to market your business, really.
Practical Tips for Getting Started with SEO
So some practical tips for getting started. So the first thing I would say is start cataloging your own content and thinking about the topics that are critical for Google to understand that your business is about.
When I say cataloging your own content, when you're releasing a podcast episode or when you're releasing a blog or anything like that, actually just keeping a record, ideally having some kind of database or even if it is a Google sheet, something that you can search so that when you next want to create another piece of content around that topic, that you understand what articles and what podcasts you can link together.
And that's really critical as well with SEO is making sure that your content links together so that you keep people binging on your content. So if you've got a freebie that you then want to send it, people sent people will sign up for that sign up for your freebie if you know what other content is related to that freebie and what other content would be helpful.
To people who've had that freebie. So whether that is like the next step on, or if you're not quite at this point, then what can, what can I deliver to them that would also help them to get to that point? They might have seen the freebie. and thought they want that, but actually there might be some things that they could do with having in place before they get that freebie.
And what content have I got that relates to that? So start thinking about that. Start thinking about, even if you don't do it for your whole back catalogue, then just thinking each time you're creating a new piece of content, okay, what's this, what is this about? What have I spoken about? How does this relate to the other things that I, that I've already spoken about or that I want to talk about in future?
And how does it relate to those topics, those main areas that I need Google to understand about my business. It's, I think that's one of the key things to do if you are creating lots of content is actually being able to do that and having that, that catalogue there is really important, makes a big difference really.
In terms of just being able to understand, even, even just understanding, I have already, I spoke about this thing Three weeks ago, actually, I'm going to allow it to loop around a bit longer before I talk about it again. And that's not to say that we shouldn't be talking about the same things because we really should.
We should be repeating our messages over and over and over again to our customers. If you are thinking about SEO, it's also then thinking about ways that you could maybe look for a different keyword that might be related, that you can then get that content ranking for that, and you're not then competing against your own content and you the cornerstone content, which are like the main articles that really dive into the topic. And then you maybe have little, , splinter articles that come off of that, that are related to, and that's how you get people sort of swirling around your world and reading and binging on all your content.
Even if they've just first found you, or if it's a new, new thing that they've actually stumbled across an article that you've written or a podcast that you've released and keeping them there going around your world. Then I would always be thinking about how you can bring people back to your domain.
So I think that's really important to consider if you're just getting started with SEO is thinking about, okay. I'm releasing a piece of content, whether that is a social media post or podcast or, anything that you're doing, is it bringing people back to my domain where I can then ideally get them to join my email list or make a purchase or download something or binge on my content.
So think about that as well. And then. My biggest piece of advice would be to set up Google Search Console and check it. So set up your Google Search Console account. If you don't know how to do that, I've got a mini course on my website where you can and set up Google Analytics as well. It just talks you through the basics of how to use the dashboard afterwards.
and once you've got it set up, then that can be just gathering data and even if you don't do anything with it right now, if you've got that data gathering, then when you are ready to do something with it, then you can, you've got that information there, gathered in the background, but I would strongly suggest going in and have a look at it and have a look at what Google is already associating with your website because you might find some, there's some key terms in there that Google understands about your website, but you're just below those top positions.
So you're in position 15 or something like that. And then you can look at that as if it's an important topic for your website, you can look at how you can improve that content and, um, Actually, get yourself ranking higher up the rankings and go for those sort of low hanging fruit, first and foremost, really, so I hope that's helpful.
I think it's a really good way to boost your traffic and just get more traffic to your website. With the goal of hopefully escaping the social media content creation machine. Actually, you can create content and reuse it. And it keeps bringing people into your, into your website and into your world.
Not just now, but for the future as well.
Conclusion and Next Steps
So one of the things, the big things that's been happening is Google's had a update and really cracked down on unhelpful content and duplicate content. And just. Rubbish content, basically. So that's the big thing I would say is focus not on quantity, but focus on quality.
really making sure that what you're putting out there is entertaining, is authoritative, shows you as an expert. And it's trustworthy, that's the things that's going to really make a difference. So rather than just churning out content for the sake of it, when you put a piece of content out there, think about actually, or before you even start writing a piece of content, think about, is this something that I already have some content around?
I could repurpose, update, reuse, and actually be more likely then to get and then you can get a ranking on Google for that. So content that's already been around for a while, as long as you're not changing the URLs, you're much more likely to then be able to make some tweaks to it and actually get that, that article ranking rather than brand new content.
Good new content is good as well, but you're definitely, I would, I would, don't waste those opportunities of all the content you've already got out there, you've already created, that can make a massive difference really. So definitely focusing on that rather than just focusing on churning out AI content for the sake of it.
It just thinking about those, those big things that, that is really important for Google to understand about your website. So I hope that's been helpful. I have a free guide on my website. So if you go to website successhub. com slash SEO dash checklist, there's a free beginner's guide to getting started with SEO.
So you can download the check checklist. If you. Want some help with this? If you'd like some help with just getting started or just understanding what the next step to take for your website is, then book a Power Hour with me. We can, we can have a talk and have a look at your website and understand what's going on with it.
If you've got any particular issues or if you've got something that's niggling away at you, or you just want some next steps to, to know what action to take and know how to get started with SEO, then. Book a power hour and I'd love to help you. and I'll see you soon.
Bye.
