How do I start to do my own SEO?
SEO is a big beast to try and tackle. You might be up against big business, smart business, big spenders and black hat hackers. Yet SEO agencies can be really expensive to work with. So is there a way for you to at least get started down the road of search engine optimisation with spending a fortune?
The area of SEO that is most accessible to the beginner is the part of SEO called “On Page SEO.” This is based around the titles, the text and the content on your web pages. So if you have access to your website’s admin side, then you’ve probably got the ability to make On Page SEO changes.
The first piece of the on-page SEO game you need to get a handle on, is keyword research. And while Google’s Keyword Planner tool is excellent, getting in to it is a bit of mucking around that requires to you actually start advertising with Google. But there is a really easy way to work out what people are searching for when they are looking for what it is that you do. Go to Google. And now type in a search query. But not just any query. Start typing in the name of your business. And as you’re typing it in, notice what suggestions that Google is making as you’re going. You’re starting to see some of the things that people may have written about your business. Some might be good, some might be bad. But you can take back some power over the bad results (and the good ones) by writing stuff on your own website with exactly the same title as the good or bad stuff that someone has written about you. But of course, make what you write on your page more positive, or tell the full side of the story if you believe that what has been written about your business was unfair.
But the true power of researching search suggestions on Google is where you start by searching for the same kind of things that people would search for when they’re looking for what you do. If you’re a naturopath, for example, then start typing in the word “naturopath” into the Google search box and notice what sentences, words and phrases come up. Are they throwing up potential results that mention yours or someone else’s business? Are there questions being suggested? You can take advantage of the questions and phrases being suggested by writing your own articles and pages on your website that contain exactly those questions and phrases as the title of the articles or new pages. If a suggested search is “naturopath Darwin northern suburbs” then you can write an article on your site with those words in the title; something like “Is there a naturopath in Darwin’s Northern Suburbs?” and of course, if you are located there, you can write about how you are located there, where exactly your clinic is location and how you serve people who are in suburbs that are regarded as “northern suburbs.” And then actually name those suburbs in the article. If you’re not located there, you can still take advantage of the search term by having an article that is written to explain how little time it takes for someone in the northern suburbs to get to where you are location, and perhaps give some anonymised examples of cases where you have worked with people who have come to you from the northern suburbs.
Once you have your search-term-generated pages and articles in place, it’s also time to start weaving in more of those search results and suggestions in to the rest of your website. If people are searching for what you do based on the town you’re in, then make sure it’s abundantly clear that you are both in that town and serving it. Make sure that the title of your website doesn’t only mention the name of your business, but the fact that your business is located in Coonamble. Or Dubbo. Or Rockhampton. If the search suggestions are looking for “naturopath for kids” then make sure you have a page on your site that makes it clear that you cater for kids in your practice. But don’t just mention it as an after-thought; actually create a page or article about it so that it’s abundantly clear to Google that this is something you do, and that you should be coming up in the search results for that kind of search.
Starting on your search engine optimisation journey on your own isn’t easy. But you can start at the very basic beginnings; with the words that are on your pages. The titles, the very important first sentences and paragraphs on each page. Once you get this part right, you can move on to more technical and in-dept elements of SEO, perhaps with the help of an agency.
