Did you know, the most common word people use to describe how they feel about SEO is… intimidated?
Maybe that’s you. If it is you’re not alone. And I have to admit, for a long time, the SEO community probably profited off of perpetuating that feeling. After all, if you’re too intimidated to do SEO, you either won’t be outranking them or you’ll feel like you have to pay them in order to rank.
So if you want to break that feeling of being intimidated, here’s the key. You need to have a clear idea of what your motivation is.
Motivation is what overcomes intimidation. Let’s review how to find that motivation and the specific skill you need to quash that feeling of intimidation in order to move forward with your SEO.
Let’s start with a couple of questions for you to ponder when it comes to doing SEO for your website.
Number one: do you actually believe in what you do? Like for real? Do you believe that what you do matters? Do you believe in your particular methodology, what you’ve learned, what you have to give the world? Does it matter?
Because if it does matter, then you need to find a way to get that information out to the world. And SEO can be part of that plan.
Number two: does what you do actually make a difference? Are you changing people’s lives? Are you changing their thought patterns? Are you changing their relationships or business? Are you changing their health or wealth? Because all those things are bigger than a tiny little bit of intimidation about doing SEO. They’re all more important.
If it’s between changing someone’s life and learning how to do a little bit of SEO? I mean, come on. That’s way more important.
Question number three: do you believe people need to know your perspective? There’s probably a lot of people in your industry who have a lot of different thoughts and ways of thinking. But I know you probably have a unique thought process, a unique system and a unique angle on what you do. Maybe there’s a lot of information out there about your industry in search engines, but you have a unique perspective because you are unique. Therefore I think that your perspective deserves to be seen and heard.
Number four: do you think the sites that are currently ranking in search results in your industry provide the best possible information out there? And do you think they reflect a variety of viewpoints? Because sometimes the people who rank the best, they either don’t have the best information or you kind of get a whole bunch of the same type of results.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m not okay with that. When I’m searching, I like to see a variety of results. And I’d like to see really specific results where what I’m being presented is giving me unique perspectives to choose from.
So I think those are four really important questions to consider. When you think about what is that motivation for search and in order to get over the feeling of intimidation, your why has to be bigger than your fear. Because otherwise there’s just no reason if you’re just too afraid or you’re just too intimidated or you’re frustrated or confused. Any of those things, you need to go back to why this is actually important.
And it’s not about you. It’s about the people that you serve. It’s about those people who need you, who need your help. You have ownership and agency over your feelings about SEO and you have ownership and agency over your results.
When you go to do SEO, I can help you learn search engine optimization. But actually this really isn’t about me. This isn’t about how much I know, because it’s about what you’re going to do with the skills I can teach you. I’m just a spark and you get to choose whether or not you’re going to be the fire when it comes to search engine optimization.
So practically, what do you do when you’re feeling intimidated about SEO and you don’t know how to get started?
If you just keep hitting that wall of going to look for SEO advice and trying something and the information looks really frustrating and intimidating. How do you start? And what I would recommend for you is to start at the beginning.
The beginning of search engine optimization is understanding keywords. You cannot rank, if you do not know what to rank for.
And some of you may be thinking, “well, you know, I, I’m a virtual assistant. Therefore I need to rank for virtual assistant. I need to rank for VA.” No, no, no. There’s way more keywords. That’s the problem. It’s not just this one simple keyword that is easy to put a pin in, to know that that’s the one.
Keyword strategy is a whole suitcase full of keywords. Keyword skills apply to your website, to Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Etsy, Amazon, podcasts… Basically everything online and any online strategy you want to try. If you don’t understand keyword strategy, then it’s going to be really hard to get started. You’re going to keep hitting a brick wall.
If you don’t understand how people search and what they search for, you’re going to be doing SEO in the dark. And if you don’t have that spreadsheet, with a big list of keywords that you refer to and use every single time you go to create content, you’re going to do SEO in the dark.
So once you know your keywords, you’re going to start noticing that you simply just need to plug them in to everything you do, everywhere: domain names, URLs, page content, image, descriptions, meta-tags, pin descriptions, video descriptions, product descriptions, podcast show notes.
It just becomes like this arsenal that you have this broad list of keywords that you can use to do search engine optimization. Because really what a search engine is, is a compilation of information. And you just need to know how to match the information that you can give to people with how they search for that information. So they’re really your secret weapon. And all of a sudden, when you understand keyword strategy, SEO starts to click. Like every little thing makes sense when you know what keywords are and you know the keywords that are right for your type of business.
Then, when you move on to a new phase of SEO, you move on to new skill, all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s where I put my keyword. That’s why I have to know what keywords to use.” So SEO is really about meeting searcher’s needs. And when you know what they are searching for, you can put those phrases that they use everywhere.
So you can’t rank for keywords if you don’t actually use them. That’s the big thing. First of all, you need to know them. Second of all, you need to use them.
SEO is not a get rich quick scheme. You can’t sprinkle a little SEO and then walk away. It is a longterm commitment if it’s something that you want to use for your business. The good news is that most people don’t want to commit, so if you’re willing to do the work, you can absolutely rank.
I know how hard it is to get started, and that’s the reason why I created the foundational SEO course which I think is the keystone for getting started on SEO: The Simple SEO Keyword Toolkit!
So if you feel stuck, if you feel intimidated by SEO, if you’re confused, if you’re frustrated, if you feel like you’re not good enough, I promise you, my Simple SEO Keyword Toolkit is the way to go. It is the way to get started with your SEO so that you can really conquer that hill and move on to the next steps. No matter where you need to use it, whether you’re doing SEO on your website or YouTube or Pinterest or anywhere, it’s just that foundational skill. So I really invite you to check out the Simple SEO Keyword Toolkit because I think that you’re going to feel awesome about it.
The feedback I get is that it’s just the first time it’s ever clicked. It’s the first time it’s ever made sense. I’ve taken everything you need and laid it out really clearly so that you can make an awesome start with search engine optimization.
So if you’re feeling intimidated, that’s my homework for you: do you have to get a good grasp on your keywords? And if you don’t have a list of 100-200 keywords, you have not gone deep enough into this process of unlocking the first step of SEO. And I really encourage you to go back and revisit that and get a broader understanding of what keywords are and why they are important.