We are digging into a lie you believe to be true: SEO is hard.
Why on earth does the majority of the entrepreneurship community feel this way? And if you thought you were the only one, know that you absolutely aren’t.
We sent a survey a few weeks back asking a simple question: What is one mindset block you have around SEO (search engine optimization)? Here are some of the answers:
- “It seems difficult.”
- “Where to start? I am overwhelmed.”
- “I feel like I’ll never grasp it.”
- “If I spend the time to learn it, it won’t work for me.” — (some of you aren’t even giving yourself a chance to try!)
And a million more just like this.
So let’s break down the lies, understand why you feel this way, and better yet, let’s reverse it. Because who wants to believe lies?!
Lie #1: SEO is too technical.
Why do you believe this? Because you don’t know the language yet.
Maybe you tried to learn Spanish or French or Italian in school. In the early days, everything seemed complicated. You were learning it all for the first time. Once you started understanding how the language worked things started to get easier.
It’s the same with SEO. Once you learn what these terms are and better yet, why they are important, it won’t feel technical. It will feel attainable.
Lie #2: I can’t keep up. It changes too much.
Why do you believe this? Well, because some SEO experts want you to. And because Google won’t shut up about all their algorithm updates. 🙄
While it is true that Google has algorithm updates a few times a year, the basic concept of SEO has not and will not change. It’s about creating good, quality content that people want to read. That’s it. All you need to know about the algorithm is that it loves to eat up good content. If you’re producing content people want to consume and practicing good SEO, your content will rank.
Lie #3: It’s overwhelming.
Why do you believe this? Because you are trying to do it all at once.
Think about how you started your business. Did you do everything all at once from social media to blogs to financial structures to Pinterest to LinkedIn to email marketing to a podcast, and then start selling branded apparel or open a shop with 387 items?
No, because you know better than to do everything at once. So why do we expect to do it all with SEO at once? Just like anything else, take small steps, and even that will help drive results.
Lie #4: I am not good enough to do it myself.
Why do you believe this? Because credentials are something we think are required. You need a degree. You need to have studied this in school or worked at a massive corporation first.
I think in this industry of entrepreneurs we are more understanding of people jumping into industries they didn’t get schooling for. But we still have this feeling in our gut that we aren’t good enough. I (Abbey) have zero credentials when it comes to SEO. I have experience and results.
But guess what?
In the early days, I didn’t have that either. I just started doing it. I started seeing what worked, and I continued to follow that path. And you can, too. I am not special. I am not any different or more capable than you. If you want to offer SEO as a service, start learning, implementing, and offering it to your clients. (and if you are a copywriter or a web designer— we have a coaching program just for you… in fact, it launched today!)
Experience is what matters most. And how do you get experience? By practicing. You aren’t going to be an expert right away, but no one ever is. Just start somewhere and start working on the craft.
Now, “not enough time to do this” is a completely separate thing. Sometimes that’s the reason we need to hire someone to help because our time needs to be spent elsewhere.
Lie #5: I won’t see results.
Why do you believe this? Because you are looking at the wrong results.
Are you measuring success by the number of followers on your Instagram account? We hope not! Are you measuring your friendships by the number of people who text you in a day? Are you measuring your relationship with the number of kisses you get each day? No, that’s insanity.
Every time we do a post-audit check-in, we see different results based on the client and industry. It’s not just about traffic. Sometimes it’s about making sure Google knows our content exists. Sometimes it’s about getting more people to talk about us (backlinks), and sometimes it’s about growing our authority.
I talk about each of these metrics at length in episode #76. Metrics are very dependent on your industry and competition. It’s silly to compare yourself to others who are on a different playing field than you are.
I also think you don’t realize how long it takes for SEO to show results. My post-audit check-in is 3-6 months after implementing SEO changes. It doesn’t happen overnight. SEO is a long-term game; expecting to see results quickly is unrealistic. Be patient with yourself and SEO because we promise it will pay off.
So, which lie did you believe?
Maybe one or all of them, and we hope this conversation helped flip that lie on its head. You are absolutely capable of understanding and seeing SEO-driven results.
And if you are ready to finally take that leap, we have just the thing for you. We are completely revamping our DIY SEO Course: SEO On Tap. It’s getting a full makeover with new content, recordings, resources, and better yet, a simplified approach. We have one goal with this redo: To make SEO easy. Easy to learn, easy to understand, and easy to apply to your website. With stupid simple easy results. Easy, easy, easy 🙂
The waitlist is now open. Click here to sign up. January 2024 is our launch date, but we are having a beta user sale before the year ends in case you need to spend some extra money for tax purposes.
And starting in December, we are going to be emailing our list with an entirely new series… “one thing you can do for your SEO today”. It will be quick and attainable action steps you can take each week to improve your SEO. In easy, jargon-free language. So get on that list, friend, and we’ll see you there!
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Abbey Oslin and Courtney Petersen are Minnesota-based marketing experts, educators, and co-founders of boutique marketing agency Duo Collective, which specializes in SEO, social media strategy, and branding for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. To learn more about Duo Collective or to inquire about working with our team, head over to www.duocollective.com.
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And to submit a topic or a question for next week’s episode, send us a DM on Instagram! See you on Monday!
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