Small Business SEO: The Definitive Guide to Winning the Web - free eBook Download

Each chapter of the free pdf ebook covers an important topic in small business search engine optimization and is written to help you increase your online visibility using Google. We know that as a small business owner, you probably don't have a lot of free time on your hands. That's why this guide is broken into eleven different bite-sized sections. Some common challenges small business owners face when attacking their own SEO campaign are: 

Knowing where to start:

Trusting the information and resources available to them. Evaluating the work—is it working? Outranking competitors in local service markets. We're going to accomplish all of those and then some. Ready? Let's get started. 

Introduction:

Let's first start with the elephant in the room. What is SEO? Search engine optimization (or SEO) is the collection of all of the tactics to help you rank higher in search engines. It can be called a lot of different things, but simply, the goal is to help you rank higher. 

Download the Free PDF eBook by Brandon Doyle & Tyler Yost Click Here 

WHY CHOOSE SEO? Why do you want to rank higher? Well – according to data from December 2015 (special thanks to Advanced Web Ranking for their study): 25 – 29% of all searchers click on the #1 search ranking. 16 – 18% of all searchers click on the #2 search ranking. 10 – 12% of all searchers click on the #3 search ranking. The point is – the higher on the page you rank, the more clicks you get. The more qualified clicks you get, the more leads you get. The more leads you get, the more sales you make. The more sales you make, the more MONEY you earn. Our entire guide is focused on helping give you the RIGHT tactics to increase your position in the search engines, so that you can make more money, period. For us – the web is a zero-sum game, you're either going to win or you're going to lose. If you're like all of the business owners we know then you don't like to lose, and neither do we. Why SEO? 

WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST IN SEO OVER OTHER DIGITAL STRATEGIES (AND NON-DIGITAL):

If you're anything like the small business owners we know (and we know a lot of them), you're probably thinking about WHY you need to go with SEO. Even the smartest business owners we know also ask us why they should choose SEO versus any other marketing strategies (digital or not). Well – since we consider you to be a smart small business owner (you are reading this wonderful guide we put together for you) – we'll let you in on why we think SEO is so valuable for you and how it compares to other digital and non-digital marketing strategies. Before we do that, let's look at some of the great benefits of SEO and compare them to the other marketing strategies you could throw your dollars at. SEO works 24/7/365 SEO (often) means high rankings, which equals a perception quality from prospects (link to study) SEO puts your company in front of prospects who are looking for what you offer (link to study) SEO is cheaper than paid search SEO is a long-term win SEO commands the lion's share (75%+) of the search volume ( link to study) 

Now – SEO has its faults: 

SEO can take time to “ramp up” (we couldn't find research on this, but our general rule of thumb is 8-12 weeks) SEO can lead to potentially unqualified leads SEO can lead to high keyword competition SEO puts your fate is in the hands' of search engines SEO can consume a lot of time if you're balancing doing SEO ( upwards of 20 hours/week) and running your business. The list below compares SEO to each of the top digital marketing strategies our customers invest in often: 

1. Pay Per Click (PPC) – Your daily spending depends on your ads, your bids, your landing page experience, and the bids of others. Without a good model, you could easily overpay for leads. You also pay for every single click: good, bad, or ugly. If your sales funnel isn't optimized, it could be a total waste of money for you. 

2. Social Media – Only 6% of your followers on Facebook will actually see your posts (link). With Twitter, it's all noise. With Instagram, you could build a following, but will they convert? You can build an audience and a following, but it's getting harder and harder to turn them into buyers, especially if you're a small business. If you become one of the big boys it might be worth it. 

3. Email Marketing – Requires constant updating, checking, and a system to review if your processes are actually producing leads or not. 

4. Pay Per Lead Services – Some, like Home Advisor, are tough because you're competing with “Chuck in a Truck” for lowest price and fastest service. They could also lead to unqualified leads and if improperly managed, could lead to overpaying for service. We've also heard feedback from clients that Angie's List customers (and the like) are some of the WORST customers. They ask for everything and use the rating system to back contractors against a wall for the customer and for the small business. 

5. Yellow Pages – Do we really need to talk about these? Yes – some of our clients (the ones who target areas dominated by customers 65 years or older) see value in YP. They're able to squeeze enough of a discount out of their rep (since everyone is fleeing YP). Is the volume there? Absolutely not. So you might get a few jobs here or there throughout the year and the cost per acquisition is right, but if you're in need of A LOT of leads, this probably isn't going to be your target channel. 

6. Billboards – High cost, inaccurate tracking. 

7. Direct Mail – The amount of annual budget that you'll need to make Direct Mail really work for you is so high that if you're reading this article, you can't afford it to make it work. Download the Free PDF eBook  by Brandon Doyle & Tyler Yost below:
Small Business SEO: The Definitive Guide to Winning the Web