SEO for Entrepreneurs
When we started Prairie Film Co. back in 2014 we had a poorly designed website and no way for clients to hear about us. One of my (Jordan) resolutions was to become the most well known videography brand in Winnipeg. The way I intended to do this? By learning and capitalizing on the science of search engine optimization. Through trial and error, a spreadsheet where I logged our search performance, and the generation of meaningful and relevant content, we found ourselves climbing the listings to the number one position for search terms such as "Winnipeg Videographer" and Videography Winnipeg." For the past five years we've had to defend our turf from other videographers who had hired SEO firms to compete on their behalf. To this date, we still capture the number one organic listing on a whole host of desired keywords, all without paying a cent.
We're often asked how we earned, and continue to keep our top spot, so we've simplified it into three steps that will get all entrepreneurs off to a great start regardless of your industry or niche.
1. Claim Your Local Google Listing
The Google My Business (GMB) platform has been an incredible way for us to increase our local listing rank. By "claiming your listing" you show Google that you're an actual business and this is confirmed by them mailing you a postcard with a verification code on it. From there, you're able to use GMB to edit business information and post content specially designed to be displayed to searchers. Google loves it when you use their products and the proof is in the pudding, we've seen an exponential increase in Google search credibility with regular use of GMB.
Note: For those who work from home, you can claim your business without having to publicly post your address online, good news!
2. Publish Niche Specific Video Content on YouTube
Remember that YouTube is the world's second biggest search engine, next to Google. Also remember who owns YouTube, that's right: Google. By uploading videos that speak to niche specific consumers, and by making sure to write good copy (titles, descriptions, keywords, meta data, etc) for those videos you increase your likelihood of Google or YouTube picking up your content.
If the idea of creating video content scares you, just remember that short videos like Instagram Stories and Tik Tok videos can be easily repurposed and uploaded to YouTube. With the advent of intuitive video editing mobile apps nothing is out of reach.
3. Answer Questions that People are Asking
I mentioned earlier how writing good copy will help people find your content. This is specifically true when it comes to answering the questions that your searchers are asking. To do this you first need to know who you want to attract. Ask yourself: "Who is my ideal client and what would they be asking Google?" Then plug some of those questions into Google Keyword planner, another free and easy to use Google tool which will help you make sense of your search analytics. From there, write a simple blog post, or shoot a simple video which answers these questions, format it properly and send it out for the world to ingest.
Over the last six years we've learned so many SEO lessons first hand and have helped friends climb in the listings as well. If you have a specific question, feel free to leave a comment and we'd love to talk more!