If you’ve been putting off creating an SEO strategy for online business growth – you might be stunting your long-term growth. That could mean fewer clients, less revenue, and the need to put in more hours to gain the traction you want to see. Today we’re chatting about this very topic and why it’s so critical for busy mamas to implement an SEO strategy early on. So, grab a pen and paper and let’s get started.
Links for This Episode
Podcast Episode Recommendations
- #55: How to Design a Marketing Strategy That Works for YOUR Business
- #51: Keyword Research Too Complicated? Use This Simple Strategy for Business Growth
- #44: 3 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting an Online Business
- #8: 5 Reasons Your Competitors Make More Than You
No SEO Strategy? 3 Ways You’re Preventing Business Growth
Well, hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Mama Business Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Brumley. I can’t believe that we are already quickly approaching quarter 2 of this year. It’s baffling to me how quickly time flies.
But that’s exactly why I think that today’s topic is a critical one for Mama Business owners. Because, it’s easy to put off the things we don’t quite understand or might seem hard to us – and suddenly time has flown by and we are no further along than we were when we started. And creating an SEO strategy specifically is one of the things that I see mama business owners and businesses in general putting off for the future.
…and I have to say, I believe that is a huge mistake.
But before we go any further, I want to talk about what an SEO strategy is for those that might not be super familiar.
Quite simply, SEO is search engine optimization. That means that when someone goes to a search platform, like Google or Bing, they can enter a question or a topic and your blog post, podcast episode, YouTube video, website or any other relevant piece of content will show up – there to answer their question. So, an SEO strategy is any plan you have in place to make that happen. There’s a lot of specifics around that – and I’ll address some of them in a moment, but in it’s simplest form, that’s what it is.
So, why is it a mistake not to start this right away in your business? Well…
Let’s talk about this in relation to the growth of our kids. We put time and effort into getting them fed, making sure they have the right training in what to do and what not to do, and reading them lots of books so that they have the vocabulary they need to communicated – and yet – we don’t expect our two year old to just go right out and become a doctor tomorrow, right? No…we’ve put the time and effort in ahead of time so that we can see the results of that (hopefully!!!) in the future.
The same is true of SEO. When you put the time in at the beginning to make sure you have a solid strategy in place, you reap the results in the future – with a lot less effort.
But…when you don’t take the time at the get go, you end up having to go back and do it later – and it takes more time and more effort because it wasn’t done initially. And then, the results take longer to get at that point too, right? Like if you wait to tell your kid that he can’t throw food across the table until he’s 5, then you are going to have 5 years of bad habits to break AND new habits to create. That’s going to take tons of time and it might not be successful for awhile.
And maybe my example for that isn’t amazing, but you get the point, right? An SEO strategy implemented early on brings long-term growth for your business.
So, let’s talk about why it’s so critical for busy mamas to implement an SEO strategy early on AND I’m going to say that this applies to every business owner, but I believe this is especially important for moms. And, there’s a lot of reasons for this, but I’m going to go into three of the main ones.
Reason #1: Traffic Builds Over Time
The first reason it’s so important to implement that SEO strategy for online business growth ASAP is because it takes time to build momentum on search engines. For example, just because you post an AMAZING blog post filled with information all of your ideal clients need, doesn’t mean that you are going to immediately skyrocket to the front page of Google and have thousands of visitors to your site. Rather, you’ll see month over month and year over year growth as more people search for your topic and end up reading two or even several of your blog posts at one time. Your website, blog, podcast, etc. will gain credibility and then you’ll move up in the rankings.
If you live in an area that gets snow, like I do, then I can refer you to the snowman. When you are building a snowman with your kids, it all starts by squishing a small amount of snow into a ball in your hands. Then, you roll that ball around in the yard in more snow. It grows and grows until it’s big enough to become the base for a large snowman. But it grows exponentially. You aren’t just adding the same small amount of snow to it. As you roll it picks up snow across the entire surface and grows at a much faster rate.
The same is true of your SEO strategy.
All that to say, the sooner you start implementing a strategy, the sooner you see those big results. For example, if you start today, you could be seeing really big results in six months. But if you wait six months, then you will be at least six months behind your competition. That means fewer searches, fewer leads and lost revenue – just to name a few.
Reason #2: You Start Attracting Cold Leads
That brings us to the second reason it’s so important to implement an SEO strategy for online business growth ASAP and that’s because you start attracting potential clients that you had no connection with prior. We call those cold leads. People who have never interacted with you before and really, didn’t even know you existed.
And this might not seem like much when you have a list of people coming out of your friends and family group that can’t wait to work with you. They’ve been following you on Facebook and sign up for everything you offer, right?
That was not the case for me, but if that’s your situation – so awesome!
Either way, though, at some point your ability to attract clients within your sphere of influence will end and you’ll need to branch out. If you have a solid SEO strategy in place, you’ll already be attracting those people who didn’t know they needed you and THEY will be jumping on your email list and begging to work with you.
So, that’s income that you can count on in the long-term. But, remember, like we said initially, this takes time to build momentum. So if you wait to put it in place, you’ll get to the end of your warm leads and might just have a lull in income before you can start attracting those cold ones. So definitely don’t wait.
Reason #3: You Can Set it and Forget It
The third reason it’s so important to implement an SEO strategy for online business growth ASAP is because once it’s in place, you can set it and forget it. Nothing better than that, right?
Once you’ve created that blog post, podcast episode, Pinterest pin, or YouTube video…and optimized it for SEO, you don’t have to think about it again. Unlike a social media post that only lasts for a few hours, at best, these types of content, when optimized properly, will only grow their reach over time.
And, as moms with kids at home we should totally celebrate this. Because we all know that there are days and even seasons of our lives that get…well, complicated…which means that we might not have as much time to get out there and actively search for new clients or leads. But…if you have an effective SEO strategy in place…you won’t have to. Why? Well, because they’ll be searching for you and THEY will engage with you.
So you can save the chasing for your two-year-old.
Case and point, I started my family finance blog back in 2015, 2016? It’s been awhile. Anyway, I worked steadily on it, posting a blog post each week with an associated pin to Pinterest. Two years into it, I took an entire summer off. And you know what? My traffic to my blog doubled over that time period. Like a significant amount.
No posting to social media.
No sharing it with friends.
No doing anything at all.
…and it doubled.
So, if that’s not a good enough reason to implement your SEO strategy ASAP, I don’t know what is!
Implement SEO Strategy for Online Business Growth
So, quick recap. The three reasons you should implement an SEO strategy immediately within your business are:
- Traffic builds over time.
- You start attracting cold leads.
- You can set it and forget it.
Now, the biggest opposition I get from Mama Business owners who haven’t created an SEO strategy is “I don’t have time”. And, if that’s you, then I’d love for you to go listen to episode 40 all about that topic. Because you can say you don’t have time, but what are you doing right now in your business that’s taking priority? You can always return to those tasks or strategies for short-term growth, but if you haven’t set yourself up for the snowball effect and long-term growth, then you will stuck on the hamster wheel of client attraction forever. No one wants that.
Which brings us to the action part of this episode. And we all know that action is where the dreams turn into the reality. And I think today’s action step is pretty clear: if you don’t have an SEO strategy in place, it’s time to make that your number 1 priority.
And..if you aren’t quite sure how to go about this, then boy do I have the thing for you. Coming next month, I’m going to be offering the Mama Business Blueprint. The six week course will help you lay a solid foundation for your Mama Business without the guesswork that doesn’t have you doing all the things. I’m offering step-by-step, click-by-click tutorials to help you manage the tech you need to set up your systems and content marketing framework so you know exactly what to do and when to do it as you move forward with your business. Of course, there will be more details to come, but if you want to be among the first to know AND possibly grab some great bonuses – jump on my insiders list at sarahbrumley.com/waitlist so you don’t miss a thing.
In the meantime, mama, just know that I am cheering you on! You’ve got this! Have an amazing day and I’ll chat with you soon.
