SEO consulting for small businesses

SEO for your small business can seem daunting or fun, depending on your personality and inclinations. This article will give you some tips and also explain the benefits of an alternative method of doing SEO: a coach. First, the common problems.

Acquire SEO knowledge

The good and bad of SEO is that there is a lot of information online and in print. There’s great information online, but the concentrated sources of good stuff are far from free and mostly geared toward people in the industry. (By the way, there is no official body that sanctions SEO skills, although some enterprising colleges have invented degree programs if you are 4 years old.) The problem with free information online is that the good parts are just that. Assembling a body of knowledge requires the discriminating eye of experience, and is most useful for specific problems and circumstances. The printing information is quite good. If I were applying today’s books 2-5 years ago. Also, be careful with books with multiple authors. It’s a bit risky to navigate contradictions as a newbie.

hire a professional

For small projects, you can get good help on Craigslist, but CHECK REFERENCES. If you can find someone by reference, this is your best bet, just make sure the projects are similar. Beware Craigslist, while there are deals available, there are also no barriers to claiming experience, and bravura + low prices lure many unsuspecting business owners into unreasonable expectations. Caution: Be careful with any claim related to rating. Claiming that you can move an unknown client to a higher position is gross negligence, dishonesty, or a true but unhelpful statement about paid advertising. (Anyone can be #1 in paid advertising if they throw enough money at the ads.)

hire a coach

A trainer can help you move quickly on some good paths.

1) Accelerated SEO learning. If you want to DIY, hire a trainer to teach you the stuff most relevant to your learning stage, then come back for more when you’re ready. There are logical steps to SEO and you don’t need to know everything at once.

2) Get a game plan. Hire the experience but not the labor! SEO is 10% strategy and 90% hard work! It’s a good deal to pay a professional’s fee for a few qualifying hours, when that same per-performance fee may seem high. You wouldn’t hire an architect to build your house, just to design it. So why hire an SEO for strategy AND execution?

3) Focus on specific issues. If you have a specific need, focus on it by leveraging the expertise of a professional instead of getting confused by generalities and learning best practices.