0. Introduction

Hello! Welcome to the SEO for Small Business Video course!

On this course you’ll learn how to make small but mighty changes to your website so it shows up better in search results and new customers can find you more easily.

In this short introduction video, I’ll run through what you can expect from each lesson.

What is SEO?

Before we begin, it’s important we understand what SEO actually is.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the practice of improving both the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

I believe that good SEO is not just about attracting MORE people to your website. You want the RIGHT people for your business to visit your site. SEO can help with this.

Why Learn SEO?

I see SEO as a robust, long-term marketing strategy that helps new customers to find you (rather than the other way round).

Once set up, SEO has the ability to bring people to your website whilst you spend your time on other areas of your business.

Search Engine Usage in 2022

As of 2022, Google accounts for a whopping 93% of search engine usage in the UK. However, a small number of people still use Bing or Yahoo.

There is also a growing market of privacy-focussed search engines such as DuckDuckGo which doesn’t track what you search for and Ecosia who plant trees for each search you do.

When we talk about optimising your site for search engines, most of the time we’re talking about optimising it for Google. This course does cover some extra bits which work for lesser-used search engines too.

What Influences SEO?

I see successful SEO as a three-part strategy:

1. Including relevant content on your website (covered in lessons 1 – 5)
2. The technical quality of your website (covered in lesson 6)
3. Link building and the relationship of your website with the Internet as a whole (covered in lessons 7 – 8)

Course breakdown

Here’s what to expect in each of the 8 lessons.

Lesson 1 – Choosing Your Keywords

In lesson 1 we’ll think about choosing which keywords are right for your business. This includes:

• How to pick the right key phrases to use on your website
• Types of key phrases
• Assessing your competition

Lesson 2 – Creating an SEO content plan

In lesson 2 we’ll create your SEO content plan. This includes:

• How to spread your keywords throughout your website
• How different pages can show up for certain keywords
• Examples of content plans in action

Lesson 3 – Adding Keywords to a Page

Next we’ll start adding your chosen keywords to pages on your website. This includes:

• Looking at the parts of a web page that we can optimise
• What makes good content?
• Examples of well-optimised pages

Lesson 4 – Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

In lesson 4 we’ll go a bit deeper and think about our web page’s meta data, which includes:

• How to write a good search listing
• Examples of good meta descriptions
• How to customise the meta data of your web pages

Lesson 5 – Labelling Your Images

In lesson 5 we’ll learn about accurately labelling and optimising the images on our web pages. This includes:

• The importance of website accessibility
• Adding keywords to your images
• How to label your images

Lesson 6 – Page Speed and SEO

In lesson 6, we’ll look at the technical side of SEO, including:

• Why page speed is important for your site’s SEO (and much else besides)
• Jargon-free tips for speeding up your website

Lesson 7 – Link Building

In lesson 7 we’ll learn about link building and improving your website’s reputation across the internet. This includes:

• How to view the wider relationship of your website with other sites
• Different types of inbound links
• How to get inbound links

Lesson 8 – Using Google Search Console

Finally, in lesson 8 we’ll look at using Google Search Console to connect your website to Google. This includes:

• How to use submit updated pages to Google
• Adding a sitemap
• How to measure your progress and spot opportunities

Let’s get started!

I recommend watching videos 1 – 5 first to get a good understanding of updating your page content effectively. You can then look at the more advanced techniques covered in lessons 6 – 8.

But feel free to dive straight into any section you like!

You’re now ready to get started with your SEO lessons, so feel free to dive straight in or buy now for access to the lessons.

Coming up next: Lesson 1 – Choosing your key words!