Dispelling Myths About SEO for Small Business - Talk #1

Too many small businesses think that SEO is not worthwhile. You've probably typed lots of searches yourself and clicked on thousands of links to websites from companies of all sizes, from enterprise all the way down to one person, writing blog posts at their kitchen table. I talk about SEO a lot, and for this series, I'm going to share with you my experience of 12 years working for agencies.

I won't be showing you a million screenshots or stuffing these posts with charts and graphs. Just plain advice on what you can do to increase traffic to your website. At the very least, I want you to get comfortable with SEO, even if it's just so you can talk to an agency you are considering hiring. I've worked with many local companies and Fortune 500s that drove a high percentage of their new business from organic traffic, both before and after I started working with them.

I'm going to dispel a few myths and reinforce some good practices. I'll tell you why and what to watch out for. So now, let's jump in.

Content is King

This is true. Most content is written words, but there is more to it.

The content can be images. Google a term like "homemade Christmas decorations," and you'll get all sorts of results, including photos. You can get images to rank – that is too is SEO. They can drive traffic to your website.

Videos are also underrated. YouTube videos can rank in Google search results, and if you don't believe me, type in almost anything that starts with "how to."

Almost anything you put on the web can be considered content, but as I said, most content efforts for a website revolve around writing, and yours needs pages with text – the more, the better. You're going to have trouble convincing Google's algorithm that your website is the most authoritative result for any topic when it only has five pages. I will definitely talk about this more in future posts.

SEO is Free

Although true, this is a misleading statement. It takes effort, and someone has to do it. You may not be paying the same way you would for running ads, but either you, your employee, or an outside resource will have to do the work.

But yes, Google and other search engines do not charge you for this exposure.

It is just easier to run ads

You can set up an ad campaign and be on the top of Google results the same day. SEO is a long-term investment.

I remember back in 2020 when no one knew what was going to happen when the pandemic started and we all went home and stayed there. Companies got nervous, and many shut down their ads because they didn't want to spend their cash and had no idea if they were going to be effective.

Those that relied upon ads, stopped traffic. While those that had been investing in SEO continued to see results... varied as they may have been due to the circumstances.

Organic results, you technically don't have to shut it off in times of financial constraint. When you're ranking well for terms, you can often continue to do so for months or even years, and in some cases, without any additional effort.

This is not a wise strategy long term, but I have seen it happen. I happen to be a big fan of PPC, but I prefer to talk about SEO. It can take a while to get there, but this organic strategy often has a fantastic ROI.

You Don't Need Backlinks

This is definitely wrong. Do you know who says this? People with websites that already have lots of backlinks.

I'm not going to get technical here, but the idea of publishing a website on a topic that hundreds of others are writing about already and not having other websites linking to it as a reference is going to make it extraordinarily difficult to rank in search engines.

So later on down the road, your website may not completely rely on new backlinks to get pages to rank, but if you don't have any at all, that is going to be a problem. I've looked at the stats as well as my own experience, and I will argue the point with anyone who wants to.

I Can't Compete Against Brands with Large Marketing Departments

This could not be farther from the truth.

Have you ever gone fishing before? Have you ever heard of anyone who caught all the fish?

It may be a long-term objective to rank for one of the most competitive keywords in your industry that will drive qualified traffic to your website, but it is doable. On the other hand, there are endless amounts of other opportunities out there, and it is just a matter of finding them and putting together a solid strategy. I assure you I will be putting together a video on that topic as well.

As I said, I'll be publishing more of these discussions moving forward. Feel free to ask questions in the YouTube comments, and I will give you the best answer I can and maybe even make a video because of it.