I’ve taught four classes at CreativeLive and each time I’ve gotten questions about SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization.
It’s basically how you rank when someone searches for you or businesses like you on a search engine such as Google.
Let’s say you’re a modern jewelry designer. If someone pulls up Google and searches for ‘modern sterling silver necklaces,’ your search engine ranking determines if she’ll see your shop listed on the first few pages of results.
People always want to know how to rank higher—how to be found when people search for keywords that relate to their businesses.
When I get questions on SEO, I always say the same thing:
I don’t pay much attention to SEO. I use two plug-ins to do the job for me: Scribe by Copyblogger (which is no longer available for purchase) and the All In One SEO Pack (which is a free plug-in with WordPress).
And, if I’m being honest, half the time, I don’t even plug in the necessary information for these plug-ins to work for me.
I know….bad blogger.
But here’s the thing: SEO doesn’t really impact my business much.
As long as people can find me when they search for my name or the name of my business, I’m good.
You might wonder why I don’t put much effort into SEO. Some might say that I’m losing out on lots of potential business, because I’m not trying to rank higher. I disagree.
My Top Three Reasons for Not Giving an Owl’s Hoot About SEO
1. It’s not how my most loyal customers find me.
If you’re a long-time reader of Blacksburg Belle or have bought from me more than once, you probably didn’t find me by searching for “marketing” or “productivity” or other keyword phrases on Google.
You probably found me through a guest post on another blog or one of my CreativeLive courses or my talks at the Etsy Success Symposium or an interview on another website.
Through the years, I’ve realized that the people who stick with me don’t find me by accidentally landing on my website when they search for something on Google. Those people tend to read the blog post they came for and then leave.
As entrepreneurs, our greatest resource is time. If we waste it on stuff that doesn’t really help our businesses, we’re limiting our own success.
I know that only a tiny percent of my loyal blog readers and customers find me through SEO so why would I waste time on it when I could devote that same time to teaching another course at CreativeLive or answering interview questions for another blogger?
2. I don’t want to sound robotic.
We’ve all read blog posts that were written for SEO purposes and they sound kind of robotic. You see the same phrase being used over and over.
That’s not my style.
People aren’t going to stick around to read my blog posts and sign up for my emails if they don’t connect to my writing. And, I can’t write with personality when I’m focused on SEO.
When people buy from me, it’s usually because they find me through one of the avenues I mentioned previously and then they spend lots of time reading my past blog posts.
I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve received from readers who say something like, “I just spent the past eight hours reading all of your blog posts and taking over twenty pages of notes. I needed even more so I just bought your _____________.”
Those people wouldn’t enjoy my blog posts as much if I were so focused on SEO instead of personality and they probably wouldn’t get sucked into my blog for hours upon hours.
Also, hiring a business consultant is very personal. If I want my business to be successful, I need to do a really good job of sharing my strengths and showing potential clients who I am and how I can help them.
The majority of people who come to my site from search engines aren’t going to be the right fit. But, if someone watches my online course for five hours and then checks out my website and signs up for my emails, she’s probably the exact right fit.
3. My keywords and phrases are highly competitive.
The topics that I help people with (marketing, productivity, blogging) have so much competition that I don’t want to play the ‘what can I do to squirrel my way to the top’ game. It’s not worth my time and even if I tried, I’ll probably never beat out the biggest names vying for the top listings.
Who Should Join the ‘I-Don’t-Care-About-SEO’ Bandwagon
If you’re a service-based business like me or a product-based business with a ton of competition, SEO probably won’t do much for your business.
I recently worked with a jewelry designer who used to make a living from people finding her when searching the web, but in the past few years, the competition has grown so much that SEO no longer does much for her business.
Email marketing, social media, interviews and features will be much more effective in getting the right people on your website and getting them to buy.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put in a little effort when it comes to SEO, but a plug-in or two could do the trick for you.
Who Should Focus Marketing Time on SEO
SEO isn’t evil. And, even though it doesn’t do much for my business, it might for yours.
If your business is location-based (like a wedding photographer in the Orlando area) or is a very specific niche product-based business (like handmade ceramic animal planters), you should pay attention to SEO.
If you’re a wedding photographer in Orlando, you want people to see your website pop up when they search for “wedding photographer in Orlando” or else you’re going to lose out on a lot of business.
These types of businesses need to learn how to use SEO to get their businesses in front of potential customers.
Interested In Learning More?
If you’re interested in learning more about SEO, I’m not the person to help you. But, I can research, so I’ve compiled some resources that will get you started.
1. SEO Copywriting: The Five Essential Elements to Focus On
2. SEO is Dead: Long Live OC/DC
3. The Idiot-proof Basics of Writing SEO Pages
4. 10 tips for an awesome and SEO-friendly blog post
5. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page SEO
FYI, I am working on a blog post based on some information you shared via Creativelive.com. your name and website will receive credit.
I like the part about – Number Two: “I don’t want to sound robotic” because this is something that I’m working on right now.
Great post thanks much for confirming my sentiments!
Perfect! I’m glad you said it. I took a good, hard look at my website and nixed my blog a month ago. What?! Along those lines of only doing the work that pays off, I had been writing a blog every week for five years. FIVE years, EVERY week. My mom liked it, my aunts liked it. Did it garner any sales? Or get anyone to find my site? I asked two of my top customers if they read my blog. They each said, “Cool! You have a blog? Where is it?” And these are people who have bought via my website. The bottom line for me is this: It’s a must to have my website. It lends professionalism and credibility to my business and a way for my customers to find me, but I don’t gain customers that way. Thank you for this post which validates those decisions in my own business! (p.s. I have focused on growing my e-mail and physical address list and see measurable results from that. Yeah!)
Sharee!! Yes! First of all I’m so sorry about the blog. Five years is an extremely long time and that, my sister, is dedication. I have a very similar story. I just started my product based business in Jan. ’15 and started blogging not long after. I, too, blogged every single week for about 8 months with no traction. During my holiday break I took a step back to see if it was doing me any good and it wasn’t. It didn’t get much engagement, maybe one comment every 3 posts. I have stopped blogging every week and am now only blogging if I think I have a great post idea. We’ll see how it goes but I’m not going to make it a priority anymore. I feel it was wasted time (some posts took 4 hours to complete!).
I’m now focusing solely on increasing the quality of my jewelry.
Well said!!!! Even though I worry about it just a tad. Tee-hee!! I love the Yoast SEO plugin, also free. I don’t “keyword stuff” for my blog posts either. Keyword goes in the title + meta + Alt Txt of my image, then I just let the words flow from my brain to the page. You can actually get a thumbs up from the plugin in without stuffing the post with redundant words or phrases. 🙂
This is AWESOME April! I can’t stand trying to write an engaging post only to worry about did I say “X, Y, or Z” enough…or too much! I just write what I have to say and let it go. I have put more focus on identifying myself as “Pattymac” everywhere online, and that has certainly paid off on google searches.
It’s so funny you bring this up today, because I have been thinking about changing my writing to include this component. I’ve had several people in the past week comment to me about how much they like what I saying, and that they feel a connection to what I’m sharing. I agree with you. The connecting is more important than the SEO. It might take them longer to find me, but I think I’m gonna win them over when they do.
Thank you for the honesty. Somebody needs to say this stuff.
YES!!!!
Although my website is only a two months old, I decided to delete the Yoast SEO plug-in. All it did was stress me out with the coloured buttons telling me whether or not my post was “good enough”.
I decided that I was going to write the way that came natural to me, and that is what my readers expect. Trying to throw words in – especially on blog headers – seemed so contrived, and I just couldn’t do it.
Now I write what and how I want to! And in doing just that, I went from zero hits to my site to over 1,000 in the past month. There’s a lot to be said for keeping it real!
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES!!!
Thank you so much for saying this, April! It’s absolutely true. When people are searching on google, they aren’t looking for the kind of thing I’m offering. People want my stuff when they are looking for that relationship kind of vibe…& that’s not an SEO thing.
I also love the idea (and this is something you’ve said before) that my blog is really here to give incredible value to people who already know I’m here. I am working this quarter on different ways to bring new readers to me, but I want to spend all of my effort, once they get here, to just give them the best value I can.
And SEO can distract from that.
You’re the best. As always 😉
xo
K
PS – Virtual coffee date SOON!
This was fascinating! Thank you for sharing your logical thought process. It made a lot of sense to me.
Hi, April!
I so agree! Every now and then I feel the need to think about doing some SEO or at least some keywords and/or some of that alt/text jazz.
And then I look at the math of it and it’s pretty much up there with winning the powerball $. (Not a gambler) There are 800 gabazillion blog posts vying for the coveted spots, so the odds just plain suck.
All the alternative ideas you put forth are exactly what I try to do. Some of which I learned from you. Thanks again!
xoxoxo
Nancy
I agree with your sentiments. I use Yoast as an SEO plugin and they refer to the Flesch Reading Ease Score, which favors a 5th grade reading level. That does make for a nice quick read – but my audience, museum directors is much more interested in content that reflects a college level reading score.
It is good to step back from your content and keep it short and simple, but your audience is the most important reason for
https://yoast.com/flesch-reading-ease-score/
That’s an excellent post which defies our perpetual concern about SEO.
I’ve my personal site – though I did read about SEO and did tweaking with the code but I think using plugins would’ve been much effective. You have a very unique take on this.
This fresh perspective (focusing on building customer relations & channelizing your efforts on work rather than worrying about SEO) is something to ponder upon.
Thank you!
Yeah, SEO doesn’t do a lot for my business either. I chose 2 social media platforms to focus on (Facebook and Pinterest), and that’s where my ideal clients find me. The plugin I use is WordPress SEO by Yoast, and it does its thing without me having to stress about it.
I’m actually really glad I read this! I have spent so much time worrying about SEO and wondering if I should go back and fix old posts. Honestly, though, I’m not sure how much it would actually help me. I enjoy writing for the sake of writing, and I find Pinterest does wonders for driving people to my website anyway. Thanks for giving me permission to keep writing like I do!
You have some great comments, here. And, I fully intend to peruse the list of resources you provide at the end of this article. You are quite correct, with your three reasons. Loyal customers, who share your contact information, along with their glowing reviews, are the best source of new business (in my world of helping people with computers – http://rouzell.com.)
I’ve written a website entirely devoted to showing and telling visitors how to work with organic SEO techniques. And, for those who read my writing and find me when they search, “Palm Desert SEO Expert,” the proof is in the search results…. “Read my writing” is the best part, though!
As you say, for keywords that are competitive, like for doctors, attorneys, realtors, it’s a challenge and I think that’s the reason I keep coming back to SEO as a way of helping people who need to market their businesses. When I get a call out of the blue and my new client says, I found you when I searched, that’s when I know the effort does pay off. Like you, though, I would rather work with someone who has seen what I can do and wants more of that. I’ll be teaching a class on blogging on the first of February, to a group of people who may have no interest in SEO.
For those who do, here’s a simple trick: Start a sentence with, “So, if you are looking for (fill in the blank here with what you are selling and where you are)….” and use the stuff in the parens to create a link to the page on your site that includes the details and a contact form.
Example: So, if you are looking for an “SEO expert in Palm Desert” <= that would link to http://mousehelp.org – where I teach organic SEO, or to http://palmdesertseo.com/ – a page created for the purpose of owning that domain name.
I like the way you write, so I'll be back for more.
Thanks for sharing. Brian Rouley "mousehelp at rouzell dot com"
I meant to tell you that I LOVED this post!!!! Thanks for your honesty. XO!
This is an interesting blog, I appreciate it. Thanks for sharing it.
Is it because you don’t have the skill set to deliver SEO?? I was told that SEO has the highest ROI of any marketing…
Yaknow, as an SEO I was ready to be really annoyed by this. But I LOVE it. Here’s why –
-You know where your most valuable customers come from already. If it’s not search, that’s fine. You’re already ahead of the game just by knowing where they come from!! (Many biz owners don’t)
-Many business peeps/bloggers think they need SEO just because it’s a buzzword they’ve heard, without really understanding what it does. Unless you have pages/services that actually align with things people are looking for, it won’t help. IE if you’re a small brand, you’re probably going to rank for your brand name already. SEO won’t force more people to look for you. What you need in that case is social media promotion/marketing for awareness, not SEO – because SEO takes advantage of *existing* search volume, it doesn’t create awareness.
With all of that being said, I think there are plenty of ways you and other creative businesses *could* benefit from SEO, but you’re not going to live and die by it like other businesses who may rely on, and really benefit from, ranking high for their search terms. I ranked a company on page 1 for “yoga pants” which really helped them at the time, however they had a big budget which is unlikely for smaller brands.
Anywho. I could go on. 🙂 Nice blog!
You don’t need SEO as you have become a brand. Hence the only requirement is someone to be able to find you by name.
We have all heard these horror stories of people whose business depends on google search traffic and their business melts down when Google changes their algorithm. It’s good to be detached from that business model.