SEO and Marketing Tips For Beginners

Starting a business is a great way to bring in some extra income. For some, working for yourself might be the end-goal. Greater flexibility, the comfort of your own home and autonomy in your work.

Sounds good, right? The hardest part is getting started and getting your brand’s name out there.

Build a website that reflects you

If you have a small business, work as a freelancer or have a blog, your website is the first big step. Your website is a reflection both of you and your brand, so it’s important to get it right.

The challenge is getting that ideal balance, intertwining your individuality with a sense of professionalism. This is essentially where your marketing begins, in defining your voice and why your goods and services are unique.

Fortunately, there are a number of resources out there to help you build your website. Once you have decided which platform to use, you need to consider what your main challenges are.

Do you need help building the site from a technical perspective? Does the website itself look bland? Identify your main goals and if it’s something you can’t fix yourself, reach out to a website design expert and address the next steps.

But you will be surprised at how much you are able to achieve on your own. Once you have a clear sense of your own brand, it will resonate in your site.

Understand SEO

Website content and SEO work together to propel your marketing. SEO is a critical step in getting your business’s name out there and organically increasing your website’s ranking.

With strong SEO, your website will be appearing above your competitors’. One of the first lessons in SEO is knowing your keywords. In your website pages and any new posts, you should be using particular words relating to your business and that have a high search rate.

When writing content, you can include these keywords to maximise engagement. It’s all about selecting the types of words that people would type in to find this content. A good first step is to simply ask yourself: if I were searching this, what keywords would I type in? 

For a more refined approach to handling your SEO, you can receive a free SEO audit and identify key problems and strategies for improvement.

Utilise social media

The final main step in the beginning stages of marketing yourself is setting up professional social media accounts. Fortunately, many of us have grown up in the age of social media so are more than proficient in using it.

Related post: Five Ways to Build a Personal Brand

Switching to a business account takes a slightly different approach though. Your voice should be consistent across all platforms, encompassing a sense of your business’s core values. But the type of content you put out should differ.

Instagram and TikTok are great for video content, Twitter is best for short-form copy and sharing articles, and Facebook and LinkedIn are a great platform for writing longer content.

In tracking the analytics surrounding content you’re putting out on all of these platforms, you can continually review and develop your social media marketing strategy.

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