here’ no sugar coating it - SEO is hard. In fact, we wrote about how bloody hard SEO is a little while back. In the article we covered how search engines work, the technical foundations required for good SEO, and how to get started with raising the authority of your site through backlinks. But we only scratched the surface.
Simply put, ranking well in search engines takes time, effort, and money. It requires a concerted and consistent strategic approach to rank -and then keep ranking - as other sites compete for your SERP space. The time and budget required varies considerably depending on the competitiveness of the keywords and terms you want to rank for.
The good news is that while it’s hard, it’s certainly not impossible when you understand the mechanics of the thing and have a realistic expectation of how long it will take and the investment you’ll need to commit.
SEO lives within the marketing remit as, when done correctly, it generates free inbound traffic to a website (often from prospects who are ready to convert). Most SEO content therefore is created for marketers and focusses on the less technical aspects of SEO like blogging and backlinks. The problem is that most marketers don’t really understand why things like blogging and backlinks are important and how they fit into the wider context of good SEO.
To get the most out of your SEO budget (and know when to call bullsh*t on an agency’s strategic recommendation) you need to have a good grasp of how search engines work and a solid understanding of your target audience.
For example, while our clients are interested in SEO, it would take us eons to rank for terms like “SEO agency” considering we are only4 years young, and we would be competing with a huge number of large organisations with equally large budgets offering SEO-related services. Rather, we focus our efforts on less competitive keywords that are relevant to one of our core services - Webflow development. By preferencing less competitive keywords, we can build an authority on the niche subject matter and then leverage our authority across other keywords we want to target.
Starting with a Solid Technical Foundation
You can create as much content and buy as many backlinks as you like. But if you don’t have a website that is structured with search engines in mind then your investments will be futile.
While you don’t need to be a developer and make changes to your website yourself, as long as you have a grasp of the foundations then you will be better prepared to seek the right experts to help you.
We recommend starting with Monica Lents SEO for Devs course. If you’re not technical and don’t understand everything she says, don’t worry. You’ll get a good overall understanding of technical SEO, and you’ll learn some important vocabulary to use when talking to developers helping you with your SEO.
Researching and Optimising Content
Once your foundations are rock solid, then it’s time to start building upon it using content. If you haven’t heard of him already, Brian Dean is a bit of a legend when it comes to SEO. Brian teamed up with Semrush Academy to put together a 6-part crash course covering keywords and content that is both educational and practical.
While the course is a thinly veiled way to promote Semrush products, the content is really good and in fact Semrush products are really valuable too so it’s worth signing up and trying them (no, we aren’t a reseller, we just think it’s a great platform).
What then?
Once you’ve gone through both courses, you’ll be in a much better position to collaborate with agencies and get the most out of your SEO efforts rather than relying on them completely. Let’s face it, you as the marketer understand the business better than any external person or agency, but they have the technical and creative skills (and/or time) that you might not.
Knowledge is power. Organic traffic is free. Happy ranking!
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