The Best (& Easiest) DIY Guide for Small Business Owners to Generate SEO Traffic - #030

Show Notes

When aspiring solopreneurs get SEO (search engine optimization) right, the result can be seen by the increase in website traffic, brand visibility, and revenue. These wins make for stronger growth and increased sales opportunities. To find out what DIY SEO tools, tips and shortcuts new small business and side business owners can use and do themselves, Lori Vajda and Nola Boea sat down with SEO expert Melissa McGraw. Her knowledge, insights and helpful ideas for increasing organic SEO results, is the subject of today’s episode.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn

• Incredibly simple, low-cost and quick SEO wins - many of which need only be done once to have a positive lasting effect.
• The basics of SEO for small businesses from keyword research to tips on how to save time while increasing traffic to your website. 
• Why not having an SEO strategy will likely result in your website not appearing in search results.
• How organic search drives 51% of all web traffic for both B2B and B2C.

When each page on your website is optimized correctly, it allows search engine (Google and Bing) crawler tools to “read” and index your site. As Nola and Lori found out, generating more organic traffic to your business website does take time and effort. However, knowing which tools, apps, tips and hacks give you the more bang for your time, is well worth the effort for any aspiring entrepreneur or side business solopreneur. 

(6:46.35) This simple technique for building a commission based affiliate website that entice users to actually click on. 

(8:38.13) Why is it vital for small business owners to structure their website so it comes up on search engines for meeting in-person or virtually. 

(10:49.78) Why roughly 80% of small business websites are not being known for what they want their business customers to find them for on search engines like Google.

(12:35:89) The real length of time it takes for SEO to work and you to start seeing results.

(15:02:10) Four simple and free tips most small business owners miss for getting ranked at the local level on Google searches.

(17:40:79) Why it’s important that Google keep coming back to your website and easy DIY tips to make sure it does.

Resources 
You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show, (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

• SEO Expert Melissa McGraw
• Instagram at The Creative Potential
• Facebook at SEO Your Site Now
• Google My Business
• Uber Suggests (Neil Patel)
• Pingdom
  

​This episode was supported by: Be-YOU-nique

Transcript

Lori: [00:00:00] More people use Google to search for information, products and services than all the other search engines combined. Yet only 36% of small businesses, the most common type of businesses out there, by the way, had any kind of search engine strategy. This means the majority of businesses aren't found online by their ideal customers. So, is there anything an aspiring entrepreneur and side business owner can do to help ensure their website gets in front of the right customer? You betcha. And it's the topic of today's show.

Announcer: [00:00:33] You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time-strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

Nola: [00:00:45] Hello and welcome, aspiring side hustlers Nola, and Lori here with the beginner's guide to SEO on this episode of Sticky Brand Lab. But before we show you how and what you need to know about getting organic traffic to your website, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. That way you'll never miss out on any of our weekly helpful, informative, and always opinionated podcasts. Now let's get this, bring-me-more-customers show started.

Lori: [00:01:13] " If you build it, they will come" was a famous line said to Kevin Costner's character, Ray Kinsella in the movie Field of Dreams. And while that line may apply to baseball fields, in movies, it doesn't work so well with the website. So, how do you, as a small business owner, increase your online presence so your website attracts more traffic? For that, we turn to SEO expert, Melissa McGraw. Entrepreneur, adjunct professor, coach, course creator, consultant, podcaster herself, and Amazon.com content expert, melissa is the founder of The Creative Potential. Her company helps entrepreneurs grow their traffic and revenue through improved search engine optimization.
Melissa's road to the world of SEO began in 2009. After she had a successful career in the New York City fashion industry. Switching gears, she started writing copy for Amazon. Her fascination with the psychology of online search, led her to create over 100,000 SEO friendly product listings that bring in dollars on Amazon today. Melissa shares her knowledge and skills across industries and companies ranging from Fortune 500s to small businesses and startups. Wow. Welcome Melissa. We are so excited to have you here.

Melissa: [00:02:40] I'm so excited to be here, Lori and Nola. Thank you so much for having me.

Lori: [00:02:44] Our pleasure. Before we get into the specifics of SEO, we had to ask this question about your journey from the exciting world of New York City fashion industry to e-commerce world of Amazon. Can you talk about that?

Melissa: [00:03:00] Yeah, absolutely. Well, I had started my fashion industry career in New York City, probably back in the early nineties. And I was in product development and marketing for large companies like Calvin Klein. I worked with Gwen Stefani. I launched her lamb handbag and Harajuku handbags. Rocawear with Jay Z and Beyonce, Kanye, several Jessica Simpson. There are a lot of celebrities I worked with. And then the industry was doing very, very well until the recession started in 2008, 2009, where it affected everyone's industry and namely the fashion industry. And I wound up laying off my team that worked for me, and then I got laid off myself.
So when I was in that industry, I had a very cushy title, lots of perks. People just calling me up at the office, they got my cell phone number, or they called me at the office and said, Hey, I'm starting this brand. You want to become my vice president of sales? I'll pay you X amount and I'd be like, sure, I'll be there in a week. You know, it was very, very lucrative at that time. And when the recession hit. And myself, clients of mine, I was working with buyers, for example, with major department stores, with Nordstrom Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, you name it. I worked with them. A lot of them were out of work as well. So we were all vying for the same jobs. And it was very humbling experience because no one called me, for a job, there were no jobs. Or if there were interviews, I'd go into the lobby and I'd see everyone that I knew, or I worked with, and we were like, you know what, let's just go to lunch because quite honestly, this is it's. It was very humbling. It really, really was.
So I figured I had to switch gears very quickly. Because the industry wasn't going to be the same. And I knew e-commerce was in the pipeline. I knew Amazon was around just getting started. Um, the fashion industry wasn't really quickly ready to adapt to e-commerce. At that time, there are more, they were thinking more, a wholesale distribution department store. They were getting into it, but not quickly. So I decided to go get my master's in digital marketing at New York University. And. Learn more about e-commerce and SEO, because I thought that was going to be the wave of the future. Especially if I decide to still stay in the fashion industry. I knew that I've always been an entrepreneur, even when I was young and realizing that I can't put all my eggs in the corporate world basket because your job can be taken away at any second. So it taught me a lot about what I need to do in the future. And I want to learn more about e-commerce and start my own website. And quickly learned about SEO and got an opportunity with Amazon writing product descriptions for Amazon. So I've written over a hundred-thousand SEO optimized product descriptions for products that are sold on Amazon today. So I'm very, very fortunate where I got that experience.

Nola: [00:06:20] And that's actually part of my next question. In that, it seems like you've been able to take this vast knowledge of fashion and digital marketing, um, along with your experience on Amazon. How are you able to take all that? How has that informed the way you work with clients today?

Melissa: [00:06:42] Well, I learned even from my own websites and I first started my own website, it was in 2009. Again, just out of I had to do something. I created an affiliate-based website of what to wear to work based on your office environment. And it was bringing in affiliate feeds from like Banana Republic and Taylor, all these other brands. And if you click on the outfit, then it would go to their site, I would get a commission. I learned a lot about what works, how people click, what they search for, the effects of social media on your business too. And I learned that very quickly, what I was capable of doing. Media wasn't my skillset. I realized that I couldn't do everything. And so, but it happened, um, I wound up selling that company to another company, so I did something right. But I think,

Lori: [00:07:38] Yeah, I was going to piggyback off of what you said, because what prompted you to make those changes and that learning curve was the recession that happened in 2007, eight, nine. Now with the pandemic, two things happened. One is the change with more people starting something or going to Amazon. And the second is, piggybacking off of your affiliate experience in fashion, are you seeing anything, any trends that related to being on camera more often now, rather than in the office?

Melissa: [00:08:29] Absolutely. Well, answer your fashion question first. Yes. I'm more and more people are using Zoom to get across to their customers, to their clients. Um, so yes, it's about Zoom fashion now, from what I understand, and I'm reading up on them, not necessarily in the fashion industry, but. Absolutely. Um, because we see those or hear about those stories about people are not wearing pants during Zoom and go to get up to the party on the bottom. So I think more and more people are realizing that just because you're now working from home, doesn't mean it's. So casual that you still have to put that professional presence in front of anyone no matter who you're meeting with. Um, so that's so very important because I've seen it quite a few things where I guess term is dressed down. So it is about putting your best foot forward, for sure. And for definitely during the pandemic and what I've experienced with clients now is some of them had to transition their business to the online space. Changing their whole business model around because they couldn't meet in person. So it is adjusting the website, et cetera, to accommodate that change. And that's been challenging for some, but that is where SEO comes in for sure of really enacting that on your website. So. You can be found for what you want to be known for where before you were meeting a person, now, for example, online yoga, you have to come up for all those search terms.

Lori: [00:10:12] Yeah. Speaking of which we used a lot of SEO, search engine optimization, having a strategy plan, all of that language, especially if it's not in your field, sounds so techie. And it can be easily intimidating for somebody new and there's so much information out there. And even the information out there often is geared to people with a knowledge or it's not written in a way, in my humble opinion. That sounds very user-friendly. So can you simplify what search engine optimization really is? Kind-of make it user-friendly language and explain why it's important, especially for somebody who's just starting a website and somebody who's already launched their small business.

Melissa: [00:11:01] Well, I'm guilty of this. When I first launched my first website back in 2009. And it shouldn't be your main focus is the aesthetic of the website, is my website pretty, but most entrepreneurs forget about this and I did it too. Does it really represent of what you want to be found for in search? And I would say probably 80% of the websites I look at now do not represent what they want to be found on Google, just typing in the Google. If I had to type something into Google, what would I need to type into Google to find your business? And does your site reflect that? And often it does not, because again, we thought about the aesthetics, the images, et cetera, but the contents out there, or the user navigation's not there either to find what that person might be looking for.
So you really have to think about what you want to be known for in search and how people would search for you on Google. And as simple as that, that's SEO, that's all organic search. Again, just typing into Google and your site popping up. It's one of those topics, like getting your taxes done, legal SEO. You're like, Oh yeah, I'm just going to put that at the bottom of my, to do list. It's like, if it goes, like, I hear that all the time, Melissa, SEO makes me ill. Yeah. I have clients like that don't want anything to do with it because it is just really out of their wheelhouse.

Nola: [00:12:33] Usually when you implement something in your business, you can start seeing results pretty quickly, but that's not the case with SEO. There are some pretty unrealistic expectations about SEO that can lead to confusion. Is that right?

Melissa: [00:12:47] Absolutely. I think people feel if they start to SEO their site, so to speak, that it's going to happen overnight, that Google's going to find them. They're going to be on page one of Google, right at the top of Google, and it happens automatically. It can take Google two days to find what they're looking for. But sometimes it can take six months to a year. You're at the mercy of Google. So SEO is a work in progress. It takes longer. For example, to run Google ads, that's also known as search engine marketing or SEM, that's a little faster, cause you're bidding on the keywords that you want to be known for. So that's something entirely different than SEO. So SEO is just all organic. And again, it can just take a while. So you do have to have patience when it comes to SEO. Some clients will say, Oh, Melissa, I added a keyword to my blog posts, how come I'm not ranking for it. But there is it definitely in SEO what we call a almost, it looks like a periodic table of, from chemistry class. I can't believe I'm saying it, but like from chemistry class or it looks like an SEO periodic table with all these elements that go into why you're ranking the way you do on Google. And keywords are just. One part of why Google refers you in search results. So there's a lot of different elements. Um, the authority, the engagement, the voice, freshness of content, mobile factor, there's a lot of different factors that go into SEO. So that's why they have to be patient. And it, again, it's a work in progress for sure.

Lori: [00:14:32] Actually, I guess this is a kind of a two-part question. Some of the things that small business owners miss in getting their site at the local level ranked. And the second part to that is the misconception around SEO, and let's just say national. Like if I put in the keyword, am I going to show up in Florida and Texas and Colorado and New York automatically? Is that what that means from an organic place? So I know I kind of combined two things, but it's, it's micro and I guess macro those two levels. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Melissa: [00:15:14] Yes, it's called localized keywords or localized content, especially if you have a local business. So say for example, you're a wedding planner and you're in Tucson, but you're moving to Florida. Or perhaps you're going to have your company in two service locations, Tucson, and in Florida. You want to make sure that your website represents those two cities. And the first way to do it is via Google Business listing, which is completely free. You sign up for Google Business, just go to. Google Business and sign up. They'll send you a postcard, verify your business and your business locations. It is the listing that you see when typing a business into Google. It's on the right-hand side of search. It looks like an ad, but it's not. It's a Google Business listing and you can add all of your locations. Google reviews are extremely, extremely important to have, especially with a local business. If you want to come up in that map search, that local map pack that you see on your search results, whether it's via your phone, mobile or desktop. So it's extremely important to have that Google business listing because so many other local directories utilize that information as well. So that's the first thing that a business owner needs to do is get that set up so they can start being found in local search.
Also when it comes to their website, you want to make sure that you have local content in the footer. Have your address, or if you don't want, if, for example, if you're working. From home and you don't want your address posted so people don't show up at your house, you just put the city and state. That helps be found in local search. Having a map on your Contact Us page. No matter if you have Squarespace, Shopify or WordPress, you can put a map into your Contact Us page. So that also gets picked up by Google in the local search. Having content related to your cities. For example, 10 questions to ask a wedding planner in Tucson, Arizona, 10 best outdoor wedding locations in Boca, Raton, Florida. You're adding the localized keywords in, for example, your blog content. So that gets picked up faster, especially if you happen to be moving locations. So you're creating very targeted, localized content.

Lori: [00:17:53] Those are great tips. SEO is not a one and done because your website just becomes stagnant. If you don't have new content in there, is that correct? I mean, when it comes to doing organic SEO, it's not a one and done kind of process.

Melissa: [00:18:10] It's not a one and done type of process at all. And because when we put up our, for example, our Service pages are About pages. They're what we call static. Most likely don't change. So Google needs a reason to keep coming back to your site. And one of those main reasons why Google comes back to your site is through blog content. And now, listen, I know how hard it is to write a blog post these days. My first site, I used to write five times a week. I don't even know how I did that, quite honestly. Now I can barely, well, I tell my clients, they have to blog at least twice a month. I mean, I could barely do that. I probably don't look at my blog now because I haven't, I haven't posted anything myself because I'm working on my clients' sites. But Google needs a reason to keep coming back to your site. So if you can blog. I say something is better than nothing. But. If you can blog at least twice a month, and Google's taking a look at blog content that ideally it would love 1800 words or more. Again, the more content, the better,

Nola: [00:19:26] So whether you're writing for content for yourself, or whether you're paying somebody to write content. What should website owners know about content and SEO, best practices?

Melissa: [00:19:38] You're really writing content for both Google and your audience. And I know how hard that can be. So you really want to create targeted content and there's a free tool out there. It's called answerthepublic.com. And you can put in your topic and it'll give you suggestions, blog, content suggestions. And I think that's where most entrepreneurs and business owners really struggle. It's like, what should I write? Or they're writing things that aren't really resonating with their audience, because they just felt like writing it. So if you're writing content based on the questions that people and your audience are putting into Google, it's a win-win because you're answering their questions and Google likes it. And so does your audience.

Lori: [00:20:22] That's great tips. And matter of fact, you've given us a lot of great tips. And I guess one of the thoughts I had, because you had brought it up before, about images. Images in of themselves are just an image. How do you make it SEO friendly?

Melissa: [00:20:38] Well with an image, you can come up 50 times faster and search than just text alone because Google image search. But what most entrepreneurs and business owners do is that they upload their image into the media library. And it's named 123.JPEG. Because that's what the camera assigned it, or DSC235.JPEG. Or if you're utilizing a free stock photo service, like Unsplash, it's named Unsplash maybe 600,000 other entrepreneurs use that same image and uploaded it into their website.
So that's a problem. Google does see that as like duplicate content out there. So what you have to do before you even upload your image into your website is change it to keywords that you want to be known for. Name it to those keywords. You can go to a free keyword tool called Uber Suggest, U B E R suggest.com and just your topic. It'll give you some keywords that you can utilize. This is your keyword list. Name your images with your keywords. It starts to be found in search very, very quickly. You also want to fill out with it's called the alt text field because Google needs, especially if the site is a little slow, you want to make sure that alternative text field is filled out. So if the image. Runs a little slow and you see a kind of loading slow. It will say that alternative text field. Also another SEO tip, especially now is making sure that your site loads three seconds or less. Really ideally two seconds or less. So you really ideally want to make sure your images are 100 kilobytes or less without ruining the integrity of the image.

Nola: [00:22:29] Doesn't Google offer a link to where you can find out how fast it takes your website to load.

Melissa: [00:22:35] Yes, there's a Google Page Insights, but I use a tool it's called Pingdom, P I N G D O M Pingdom. And you just put in your URL and it gives your website a grade. So, it'll show how fast or slow it's loading. Sometimes is slow, just based on the hosting provider you might be using. Some of the hosting platforms are slower than others. Like for example, I know Blue Host is slower. Go Daddy. If you're using WP Engine, it's the fastest, SiteGround's probably the second fastest for WordPress.

Lori: [00:23:15] Uh, Nola, I think we're going to have to go test out some of these. I did, but then I was thinking now I have to test our site and Nola, we need to go and make sure our images which is a great tip. We have to try it ourselves,

Melissa: [00:23:32] I had a client. He hadn't updated his site since probably 1995. He was very proud that he hadn't made any changes since 1995, but Google, Google removed him from search. He had a great URL, it said exactly what he provided. And he came up in local search, but Google warned him say, Hey, if you don't make these changes to your site, we're going to remove you from search. And they did. They removed and he was coming up number one in the local map pack, et cetera. So yeah, they are not going to give the search engine results to someone's site that looks like, you know, you're going to get a virus on your computer, like once you go to it. So yeah. They're serious about it. Yeah.

Lori: [00:24:23] Well, we believe in inspiring quotes. And as a matter of fact, we developed a PDF of inspirational quotes for aspiring side hustlers and entrepreneurs. And we thought it would be interesting to see what your personal favorite motto is, and if you would tell us how it reflects your experience and journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Melissa: [00:24:44] Well, especially after, and I explained to my corporate world, and then going into the world of Entrepreneurship. I really like this quote from Tim Ferriss. Who's the author of The Four-Hour Work Week. So this quote is, "The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins, either. Conditions are never perfect. Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it's important to you and you want to do it eventually, just do it and correct course along the way."
So I love this because this is, was my motto with 2009. I couldn't wait for someday. I didn't have that ability to. I had to do it right now. So if I always just kept putting it off, putting it off, I would never have done anything. I don't know where I would have wound up and I got my hands involved with a lot of things and I'm so incredibly grateful. So I think this is. Especially now I think after this past year. Someday. Why someday? Why not do it now? I think it's so valuable, especially after all the year, this past year that we've had. I think it's, now this is time to do it.

Nola: [00:26:14] Exactly. I agree that. I mean, you're totally speaking our language. You know, as far as, as why wait, do it now, it doesn't need to be perfect. Totally speaking our language. And speaking of language, we have a fun question for you to help us and our audience get to know you a little better. And it is, other than the language of SEO. If you could instantly speak another language, what would it be?

Melissa: [00:26:42] Well, I have to say, I would love to speak French fluently. And I had studied it all through school, um, college and I can read it very, very well. So this is years of French. But when I go over, like, say for example, if we go to Paris, I go to Montreal, and the natives start speaking it to me. Because they feel like, I think they get a sense that I understand what they're saying, but when I go to verbalize it, I'm thinking of grammar, all these things I can hear my French teacher in the back ways. So I just freeze up completely. So. And my husband's like, after all these years of French, you don't want to speak it? And like, Oh, I just get so, so nervous. So I think I would love just to be able to fluently, just speak it without any reservation, not thinking about the grammar. I just want to be very confident in speaking it, whenever that is, I can get to travel again.

Nola: [00:27:49] That's a great goal.

Lori: [00:27:50] So I wish you well on both of those.

Melissa: [00:27:52] Thank you.

Lori: [00:27:55] Thank you Melissa, for being such a wonderful guest and helping us and our listeners. And we do hope, sincerely hope, that you will come back again because you are a wealth and breadth of information. Would you tell our listeners how they can learn more about you, your services and your company?
Melissa: [00:28:13] You can head over to my website, thecreativepotential.com. It's soon to be MelissaMcgraw.com. We're still waiting for it to go live so you can try both because both will work and you can find me on Instagram at The Creative Potential. I do have a podcast, SEO Your Site Now, if you want to learn more SEO tips and digest it, it's very easy digestible tips, really 10 minutes or less. I do have a free Facebook group. SEO Your Site Now. Again, some tips there we're talking about SEO and entrepreneurs are talking about how to get their businesses found online.


Lori: [00:28:50] That's great. And listeners, you can also get the links and details and information that Melissa shared during this podcast and her services and courses, and even capture her motto by visiting our website at stickybrandlab.com/resources.

Nola: [00:29:08] Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring and motivating episode. And remember. Action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

Lori: [00:29:27] Do you have questions about creating a personal brand, side hustle or small business? Sign up for one of our clarity sessions. For more information, contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact.

{Out-take]

Nola: [00:29:44] Now let's get this bring-me-more-customers show started.

Lori: [00:29:50] We were talking about this because if you're familiar with Monty Python, there was like, get in my belly, so we wrote this, bring me more customers.

Nola: [00:30:02] I never watched it. I, I tried.