The Small Business Guide to Escaping SEO Panic
It’s easy for SEO panic to set in. There’s a buzz of small business owners scrambling to the likes of Reddit to figure out what is going wrong with their SEO and what they should actually be doing. There’s so much information out there, it’s all confusing and contradictory, so it’s only natural for your brain to be in a tizz.
Here we’re going to slow it down and relieve your panic to get you on the right track and start seeing the results you initially hoped for. It all starts with a mind-set shift that is going to enable you to see things a little clearer.
Stop SEO Panic and Scrambling for Answers
No doubt you’ve spent many hours looking for answers as to what you should be doing and you’re banging your head against a brick wall, or wanting to try everything. Stop. Instead, take a moment to realise that what you’re actually looking for is just a load of tactics and not a strategy.
Treating SEO as a to-do list rather than a marketing channel is where most people fall. It’s not a dig, it’s just what so many people naturally do. By changing your approach to a marketing-first strategy, most of that SEO panic will disappear pretty quickly. It’s time to stop chasing algorithms, AI and solely focusing on ranking and begin to put your customers first.
If you want to know more about this approach, I’ve written about how to rank by reframing your mind-set.
Why ‘More’ Isn’t Better
A lot of people would naturally think the more content on your website the better your chance of being found and bringing in more traffic. However, the reality is that this is actually counterproductive for several reasons.
- More pages = more internal competition
If you wrote a load of blogs and pages on the same topic, they would all be in direct competition with each other and actually dilute the chances of ranking higher. You’re in danger of being spammy, confusing your audience by sending them to too many different places for answers and hurting your overall SEO. One solid piece of content is worth so much more than 10 pieces on the same subject
- Page Structure
Having more pages to manage means it’s harder to get the internal structure of your site in top form. Think of a ladder with the main page at the top, you want all the other pages below to support the top rung and the more rungs you have underneath the harder it is to manage. Can you honestly keep track of hierarchy, internal links and general maintenance of all these pages you want to write? Seriously, simplicity wins here.
- The Customer Journey
One vital thing to remember at all times is simplifying the customer journey to sale. If you add a ton more pages to the mix, you’re effectively making it harder for your customers to find the answers they need in one place and hit that buy now or contact button.
The R>R>R Solution
Strategy is the perfect antidote to SEO panic. Imagine having a clear process that takes you from research to refining your site all the way to tracking and analysing results. Well you don’t need to imagine because that’s exactly where I come in. It’s time to stop guessing and start seeing results. Check out the process and get started today.
Take the DIY Approach
I get it, getting someone to take on all your SEO work for you can be a bit much and you’d prefer to do it all in your own time, that’s why you’ve been searching around for answers. So, I’m also giving you the chance to steal my work! You can follow the process with the R3 Marketing First SEO Course or just get going right away with the same templates I use for all my clients, the choice is yours.
Whether you get me to do your work for you or you steal my process, either way I don’t believe SEO panic has a place in this world and you shouldn’t either. Strategy is the best cure. A simple plan to take you from A to B without all the noise in the middle, all the while putting your customers front and centre to get you those sales.
