Imagine a crowded marketplace with countless customers, brimming with opportunities. Now picture your business standing out amidst the multitude, drawing in customers, making more sales, and registering more leads. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
That’s precisely what SEO or Search Engine Optimization does. It ensures your website shines brighter than the rest in search engines like Google, attracting more customers.
Pitching SEO services to someone familiar with the concept is as smooth as a well-oiled machine. However, when faced with someone who doesn’t have a clue about SEO, it becomes a game of chess – a challenging yet rewarding endeavour.
So, if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner offering SEO services, how do you decode SEO for your clients?
This is the moment to flex your SEO muscle. Seize this golden opportunity to not just unravel the intricate workings of SEO, but also demonstrate its transformative impact on businesses. Once clients grasp the potential upsides and confide in your know-how, they’re more likely to join the ride.
Before you dive into your SEO masterclass, gauge how much your client already knows. This will help tailor your explanation and identify any necessary supplementary materials. Next, it’s time to introduce them to the ABCs of SEO.
Be sure to circle back to their previous insights, building upon their existing knowledge. This demonstrates your attentiveness and makes the lesson more engaging for them.
What is SEO (for folks unfamiliar with the term)?
SEO, as stated earlier, is the process of enhancing your online presence, including your website and digital marketing efforts, to rank higher in search results, ideally making it to the top.
Mostly, SEO revolves around optimizing websites to rank better in Google’s search results. Google employs a sophisticated and ever-evolving algorithm that assesses multiple factors to determine the relevance of your webpage for a search query.
To make it more relatable, let’s use an example. Suppose John, a potential customer, is looking for a Continental Restaurant open on Sundays. He uses Google and chooses one of the top results, thanks to their glowing reviews. Properly executed SEO ensures that your business, [Your Name] Restaurant, pops up in the top results each time, attracting more customers.
SEO goes beyond optimizing your website; it extends to numerous search engines like Google My Business (GMB), Quora, etc. It also involves optimizing online profiles like business listings, review sites, and social media accounts. SEO helps search engines and users understand that your business offers exactly what they’re searching for. Local SEO also adds location identifiers, making your business more relevant for local searches.
How does SEO work (for those still puzzled by SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization falls into two main categories: On-site SEO (actions performed on your website) and off-site SEO (actions executed online but off your website).
On-site SEO involves technical optimization of your website. It ensures your website is designed and updated in a way that makes it easy for search engines to understand who you are, what you offer, and where you are located. Google “crawls” websites for this information and stores it, so it knows when to match it with a search query. On-site SEO includes optimizing site structure, improving page speed, and creating high-quality content with the right keywords.
Off-site SEO involves activities performed outside your website to improve your ranking in search engines. It depends on how other websites and internet users perceive your site. For instance, positive Google reviews can impact your local search engine rankings, and backlinks from other websites indicate your content is valuable and trustworthy.
Where on-site SEO builds a solid foundation, and off-site SEO activities cultivate a quality online presence. However, off-site SEO depends largely on user behavior. Are users clicking through to your site? Are they sharing and mentioning your content on social media? Are other websites linking back to your pages? These are factors that encourage Google to present your optimized site to more people.
Breaking down SEO for clients can be a task.
Making non-SEO savvy individuals understand SEO can be a tough nut to crack, especially when you’ve been knee-deep in it for so long that many steps have become automated. But here lies the opportunity to really win over clients and prospects. Speak their language, expand on what they know, and offer industry-specific examples. The end result? Higher rankings, more customers, and a win for their company.