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Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
This is a Podcast of perseverance, self-help, self-Improvement, becoming a better person, making it through struggles and not only surviving, but thriving! In this Podcast the first 25 episodes detail my life's downs and ups. A story that shows you can overcome poverty, abusive environments, drug and alcoholic environments, difficult bosses, being laid-off from work, losing your family, and being on the brink of suicide. Either way, I hope anyone can listen and find a place to share life stories and experiences. Allow everyone to learn from each other to reinforce our place in this world. To grow and be better people and help build a better more understanding society.
My podcast is a story of the journey of my life. The start from poor, drug and alcohol stricken life, to choices that lead to success. Being raised by essentially only my mother with good intentions, but didn't know how to teach me to be a man. About learning life's lessons and how to become a man on this journey and sharing those lessons and experiences with others whom hopefully can benefit from my successes and failures. I've led a fairly unique life with some highs and very low low's. I believe listeners would find my experiences worth listening to and learning from and take them with them on their own journey.
Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
Episode 34: Six Steps to SEO Success That Anyone Can Follow
In this practical guide to SEO for small businesses, Brandon breaks down search engine optimization into simple, actionable steps anyone can implement without technical expertise or large budgets. He explains how SEO works as a digital visibility tool that levels the playing field for small businesses, allowing them to compete effectively without expensive advertising campaigns.
• The three pillars of SEO: on-page, off-page, and technical
• Why SEO is especially valuable for small businesses and startups
• How to implement zero-cost SEO strategies immediately
• Common SEO myths debunked including keyword stuffing and posting frequency
• Six simple steps to improve your website's visibility today
• Tools to help you research keywords and improve site performance
Head over to BrandonHeld.com to connect with Brandon for life coaching or potential collaboration. Your feedback helps improve the podcast – Brandon welcomes both positive comments and constructive criticism to create better content for his audience.
Hello, welcome back to Brandon Held. Life is Crazy, episode 34. Today's episode we're going to focus on a business boost, something meaningful, manageable and even, dare I say, enjoyable. This is Brandon Held, and today I'm unpacking one of the most powerful and most misunderstood tools for growing your business SEO search engine optimization. Now, I know when people hear SEO, they think techie, confusing, overwhelming, expensive. But here's the truth SEO is actually simple when you break it down, when you break it down into parts, and it can completely transform the visibility of your business, and it can completely transform the visibility of your small or startup business. So today I'm going to walk you through what I've learned and what SEO actually is, and why that matters, and how to do it step by step, and even how to get results without spending a dime. So grab a notebook or a notebook app, because this episode is packed with real strategies that you can use today. So let's strip away the mystery.
Speaker 1:Seo or, as I said before, search engine optimization, is how you can help search engines like Google or Microsoft Bing understand your website and, hopefully, rank it higher when people search for something you have to offer. So imagine you open a brand new storefront in your city, but the lights are off, the sign is missing. There's no sidewalk leading up to your door. No one knows you exist. That's what your website is without SEO. Google's job is to connect people with the best answers. So if someone types in life coaches near me, for example, or best pressure washing in Phoenix, or how to overcome anxiety, seo is how you show Google hey, I've got this, send them here. It's not about tricking the system. It's about earning trust. One keyword, one page, one click at a time. Google is too smart that it's too advanced for you to just trick Google at this point in the game. If you're a small business owner, especially if you're in your first few years, seo is the most cost effective way to build awareness and get clients without throwing money at ads. Seo helps level the playing field. You don't need a million dollar budget to compete. You just need the right words in the right places. And remember this people trust Google. If your site ranks high, they instantly assume you're credible Even before they read a word on your website. You know it's true from when you Google services or products, and I trust Google the same. So let's break down SEO into three key areas. So think of this like legs on a tripod. You need all three to stand strong and hold your business up.
Speaker 1:So, number one on-page SEO. This is everything on your website your content, your titles, your headers, your images and how your pages are structured. Think of this like making your website Google friendly. That means using keywords your audience is searching for. So writing clear page titles like anxiety life coach in Chicago, instead of just home or homepage. Include meta descriptions that will tell people and Google what each page is about. So using headings that organize your content. Clearly Adding alt text to every image. This helps Google and helps visually impaired visitors. So here I'm going to give you a pro tip that I learned, which is you can use tools like Ubersuggest, answer the Public or Google Autocomplete to see what people are actually typing in related to your business.
Speaker 1:Number two off-page SEO. This is what happens off your website that still affects your rankings. Mainly, this comes down to backlinks. When other sites link to you, backlinks are like digital bolts of confidence. Google sees them and says, hey, this site must be important if others are linking to it. So this is how you get them. You can submit your site to local directories like Yelp or Google Business Profile. Local directories like Yelp or Google Business Profile, better Business Bureau, and then people can see that you're legit. When you're on these sites, you can ask happy customers to leave Google reviews, maybe even give an incentive to make sure they let other customers know how happy they were with your service. You want honest, happy customer feedback and collaborate with other small businesses, guest blog on each other's sites or be interviewed on a podcast. This is something I'm bringing to my podcast very soon. This is something I'm bringing to my podcast very soon. I'm going to start interviewing various people in different fields to provide more variety. In turn, I'm also going to try to be a guest on others' podcasts as well, and this will potentially reach an audience that maybe you wouldn't or I wouldn't normally reach on my own.
Speaker 1:Here's another pro tip I learned Use HARO. Help a reporter out to offer quotes to journalists. If they use your input, you get a backlink from a new site. All right. Number three technical SEO. This is the behind-the scenes stuff that helps your site run smoothly and be crawlable by search engines. So Google wants to show sites that load fast, work on phones and don't break. So here's how to check. Ideally, it loads in under three seconds. Things like data speed and connection for the customer can make this vary, obviously, but you can still do the best that you can. You got an SL certificate. That means your URL should be HTTPS, so you know it's secure and you don't have broken links or duplicate pages.
Speaker 1:Here's another pro tip you can run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix and fix the issues it flags. This alone can boost your rankings, and I've done all of these things, so I'm not just saying this. These are steps and methods that I've taken. They are proven. They definitely have helped my website, and I'm sharing all this with you because I know this has helped me. So now, what do you do if you don't have money to spend right now? Now, what do you do if you don't have money to spend right now? So you start with the steps that cost $0.
Speaker 1:You can claim your Google business profile. This helps you show up in the local map pack listings. You can add keywords to your homepage, make sure your services and location are clear. You can write a blog post answering a real question, or real questions if you have multiple. For example, how long does life coaching take to work? Or best foods to eat after a massage session. Whatever is applicable to you session. Whatever is applicable to you. You can use free keywords to research tools to plan your next blog titles. You can update your title tags on every page so they actually match what people search for.
Speaker 1:Seo is a long game, but the results build on themselves. A blog post you write today can bring traffic to your site two years or so from now. So don't just look for that instant satisfaction. We all want it, but we're playing the long game here. So time for some truth. Bombs the SEO myths that might be holding you back.
Speaker 1:Quote if I build it, they will come Wrong. You need to tell Google exactly what your site is about. Another quote I can just stuff a page with keywords Also wrong. Google is smarter than that. Right For humans, not robots. It has to be fluid and it has to be natural or Google will flag it. Quote I need to post every day Nope. Also wrong. One high quality blog post a month is better than 20 week ones. And finally, quote SEO is only for big companies. It's actually more valuable for small businesses because you can target local terms with less competition.
Speaker 1:So let's put this all together and recap, if you didn't get a pen and paper out yet, like I suggested in the beginning, or your Google notes. Get it out and let's write down these six simple steps that you can do, that you can start today. So, number one you can claim and verify your Google business profile. You can upload photos, you can add your hours and you can get reviews. So that's the first thing you can do. Number two make sure every page of your website has a unique keyword, optimized title tag and made a description. You don't want those to all look the same. If you have multiple pages, you want those to be recognized as different pages.
Speaker 1:Number three find three to five keywords your audience is searching and start using them in your site copy. So again, think about that. You know what your customer base is. Think about if you were a customer. What would you be typing into Google to find your service or your business? Those are the kind of words you want to use. Number four write one blog post this month answering a real client question. Maybe you don't have any clients yet. Maybe you don't have any real questions to ask. Think of a question you would ask, or maybe just someone you know has asked, not particularly related to the business, but because they know you're in that service or that business, maybe they've asked you or someone else has asked you and you can write a real blog post with a real question based off that. Number five get listed in at least three business directories. So, again, I tried to tell you how earlier, and there's multiple ways you can do this, and you can even, of course, google or look up how to do this, and you'll find a way that you can get yourself listed in at least three business directories. I would go for more, but we're starting small here.
Speaker 1:Number six check your site speed and fix anything slowing it down. This is one of the things I really had to work on when I started my site. My homepage, my landing page, was just full of a ton of information. I tried to pack everything on my landing page, my homepage. I had made a video that I had made really huge on the screen, which obviously just takes longer to upload. This was something I had to do a lot of work on and really try to minimize my landing page or my homepage so people could get to it faster and they could use it faster. And so you don't have to be perfect, you just want to be visible and you want to start getting as close as you can to the guidelines that I shared with you today.
Speaker 1:And if you're listening to this and you're just starting, or you're about to start, you're just doing your research, you're already ahead of the game, because I had to learn all this after the fact and take my lumps. I know SEO can feel intimidating, but you can do this. You don't need a marketing degree. You don't need an expensive consultant. You just need to show up consistently and help people find you. Just do your best to continue to learn about SEO and make your site applicable to what's going to work best for you and the customers that are going to reach you, and become a silent salesman for your business. It works 24 seven, even while you sleep. If this helped you today, send it to another business owner. We're all in this together, us small business owners. And if you want to help gain clarity, not just in marketing, but in your business direction, mindset and purpose, I'd love to work with you as well as a life coach or even as a collaborator. So head on over to Brandon hellcom and let's connect.
Speaker 1:If you want to message me and tell me this episode was very helpful to you, then great, I'd love to hear that. I would really love you to go check out my blog and post something and just give me feedback. I love feedback. I cannot grow myself personally unless I hear from people. Otherwise I'm just guessing what people want.
Speaker 1:I can't assume silence is golden. I can't assume just like you shouldn't in your business just because no one's saying anything, that doesn't mean everyone's happy. I would love for the people that are happy and enjoy my content to tell me that. But also if there are things that people think I could do better, I would gladly take that in and hear that, because that way I can see if that is feedback that I can incorporate into my life, in my work, in my podcast, and it's something that I can't do without feedback from all of you. So I look forward to hearing from you. Please, again, let me know how you feel you. Please, again, let me know how you feel. I genuinely hope this has helped you clear through murky waters of the SEO process. Until next time, keep showing up, stay consistent, be patient and always build something that matters. I'll talk to you then.
