How To Market Your Business On Google

Google Search has an 85.55% market share of the global desktop search market.

This means that your ideal customers are probably using Google Search on a regular basis. Probably every day!

That’s why appearing on the first page of its search results for the keywords that your ideal customers are searching for can be a great way to attract them to your website.

Today we are going to talk about how you can do that via search engine optimization (SEO).

Ready to start generating organic search traffic?

Continue reading…

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the practice of ranking your content on Google’s search results in order to generate organic traffic.

All SEO techniques can be divided into these two categories:

1. On-site (also known as on-page) SEO is about what happens on your website. The most obvious example of this is optimizing a piece of content for a target keyword. However, on-site SEO also includes technical stuff such as site speed, site structure, URLs, etc.
2. Off-site (also known as off-page) SEO is about what happens on other websites. The most obvious example of this is building backlinks by getting other websites to link back to your website. But it’s not just the link itself that counts, it’s also the Off-site (also known as off-page) SEO is about what happens on other websites. The most obvious example of this is building backlinks by getting other websites to link back to your website. But it’s not just the link itself that counts, it’s also the domain authority (DA) of that website, the relevance of the website in question to your niche, etc.

You need to get both on-site SEO and off-site SEO right if you want to stand a chance of ranking for a specific keyword on the first page of Google’s search results.

What You Should Know About Search Engine Optimization Before You Get Into It

Okay, so before we start talking about generating organic search traffic, let’s make sure that you know what you are getting into…

Organic Search Traffic Is Not Free!

One common misconception about SEO is that organic traffic is free. However, this isn’t really true because in order to generate it you need to regularly produce high-quality SEO content over an extended period of time. This means that you either have to invest time in creating it yourself or invest money in hiring someone else to create it for you.

In order to get good SEO results, you need to do two things. First, produce high-quality content. Second, build backlinks to your website. You can either do this yourself or pay someone else to do it for you. So it will cost you either time or money, but you need to invest in one or both of these things if you want good SEO results.

Be Prepared To Play the Long Game

You won’t start generating organic traffic overnight.

In fact, in all likelihood, it will probably take you at least 6 months to gain some traction.

Here’s how online marketing expert Neil Patel explains this:

Realistically, you will probably need to put in 12-18 months of consistent work before you start seeing serious results.

Search engine optimization is a long game. Are you prepared to play it?

Focus on the Fundamentals, Ignore the Hot Trends

SEO is extremely competitive

There are only ten spots on the first page of Google.

Moreover, the #1 result is 10x more likely to receive a click than the #10 result, with the average top result click-through rate being 31.7%. Needless to say, everyone wants to get to the top.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that SEO specialists around the world are watching Google’s every move, endlessly arguing with each other about ranking factors, and experimenting with the latest search engine optimization techniques.

However, all that often leads people astray since the most reliable way to start generating organic search traffic is to focus on the SEO fundamentals.

Here’s how Adam Enfroy, who went from zero to 178,021 monthly visitors in one year primarily through SEO, explains it:

“While you can read about a ton of fancy “hacks” and shiny new tools, there are fundamental principles that have not changed when it comes to SEO and blogging.

1. Content and links.
2. Content and links.
3. Content and links.

This has remained unchanged for the last 10+ years.”

Yes, there are important technical details, various tactics that work well, algorithm changes, etc.

But you need to get the “content and links” fundamentals right before you start worrying about all the other stuff.

So focus on that.

How To Create Top-Quality SEO Content

SEO content is content that is designed to rank on the first page of Google for a specific keyword.

So how can you create it?

Step #1: Do Keyword Research

It all starts with keyword research.

You should make a list of at least 100 target keywords for your website.

There are plenty of free keyword research tools out there but we recommend going with Ahrefs which is arguably the best premium SEO app out there.

Here’s a tutorial on how to do keyword research with this software:

Step #2: Do Competitor Research

Once you have your 100 target keyword list, pick one keyword to start with, then do competitor research for it.

Read all ten pieces of content that are currently ranking on the first page of Google’s search results for your target keyword. How can you improve on what’s already out there?

Keep in mind that creating a piece of content that’s on the same level as the top ten search results is not enough, it needs to be better than everything that’s currently ranking on page one.

Step #3: Create the Content

Now that you are done with competitor research, it’s time to start working on the content.

You can either write it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. That’s the time vs. money trade-off we discussed earlier. Which resource do you have more of?

(Best places to find writers are UpWork, ProBlogger Jobs, and Contentfly, with the price range for decent work being $0.05/word – $0.10/word).

Again, the content should be better than everything that is currently ranking on the first page, so make sure that it’s:

• Relevant. You need to meet the search intent. What are your ideal customers looking for when they type in your target keyword into Google? You should provide that.
• Comprehensive. You want to cover the topic in a comprehensive manner. Address all questions that someone using that search term might have. Don’t pad the article to make it longer than it should be, though. That is counterproductive because it interferes with the search intent.
• Well-researched. Don’t just write an opinion piece. Cite recent research (< 3 years old), use real examples, provide case studies, etc. Make sure that you always provide links to the original sources.
• Well-formated. No one wants to read a wall of text. Provide a table of contents. Use headlines, subheadlines, bullet lists, numbered lists, and images to break up the text. Keep your paragraphs 2-3 lines long. Remember, when people go online, they don’t read, they skim. So make sure that your article is as skimmable as possible.
• Original. You want to add something unique to your article. You can do that by sharing personal experiences, challenging conventional wisdom, conducting original research, etc. Custom graphics might also help you stand out.

You might also want to use an SEO tool like Clearscope to optimize your content before publishing it on your website. That isn’t necessary but it can be helpful.

How To Build Backlinks to Your Website

Creating top-quality SEO content isn’t enough anymore – you also need to build backlinks to that content.

Here are the three most popular ways to do it:

Option #1: Guest Posting

Guest posting is the practice of writing a free blog post for another website in an exchange for a link to your website.

Adam Enfroy, who wrote 85 guest posts in one year to get his blog off the ground, advises to:

1. Start by understanding your value. You need to ask yourself what you bring to the table. Why should popular websites accept your guest posts?
2. Create a targeted list of websites you want to write for. He recommends focusing on sites that have a 50+ Domain Authority (DA). Keep in mind that the higher the DA, the more valuable the backlink.
3. Find the right person to contact for guest posting opportunities. Use LinkedIn to figure out who is the right person to reach out to, then use hunter.io to find their email address.
4. Start your guest posting email outreach. You should either create your own cold email template or use someone else’s. Adam’s template is provided below.
5. Perfect your guest post pitch. You want to make sure that your content doesn’t exist on their site yet, that your topic and target keywords have SEO value, that the topic matches your expertise, and that it matches the audience’s interests. These are the four main criteria for a perfect guest post pitch.

Here’s a cold email template that Adam likes to use that has an 80%+ open rate and 50%+ response rate:

Subject Line: Hey (First Name) // Content and Link Building Opportunities – Adam from (Company)

Hey (First Name),

My name’s Adam and I’m the (Job Title) at (Company).

I’m reaching out because I love (Target Blog) and your (Target Article) really resonated with me because (Reason).

I was curious if:

1) You’d like to participate in link building. I write (X-X) guest posts per month and would be happy to link to your site in my content.

2) You allow guest posts on your blog.

I’d love to contribute to your (awesome? informative? useful?) blog and can pitch some topic ideas that I think your audience will enjoy. Here are some recent samples from me:

(Sample 1 URL)

(Sample 2 URL)

(Sample 3 URL)

Please let me know if you’re interested and I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

Thanks,

Adam

#2: Broken Link Building

Broken link building is the practice of replacing broken links on a target website with links to your content.

Here’s how it works:

1. You identify broken links on a target website (use a Chrome extension called Check My Links for this)
2. You notify the person who’s running that website about the broken links.
3. You suggest your own content as a replacement for those broken links.

Here’s a real broken link building cold email example:

Option #3: Link Magnet Resources

You can attract backlinks to your website by creating valuable content that other people will want to share. A great way to do this is by targeting freelance writers. They often need case studies, statistics, and images for their articles, but they may not have the budget to produce all of that themselves.

So they search the Internet for resources. If you provide them what they are looking for, you will get backlinks. Writers are required to link to original sources. Also, if you have the skills or money to do so, you might want to create free software that can help your potential customers solve a problem that they are struggling with.

For example:

On his website, Neil Patel provides a free keyword research tool called Ubersuggest, which attracts more backlinks than any other page on that site.

Keep in mind that while link magnets can certainly help you improve your SEO, you shouldn’t put too much faith in them

The reality is that if you want backlinks, you need to go out there and get them – you can’t just sit back and wait for people to link to your stuff.

Okay, So You Are Getting Organic Search Traffic, Now What?

SEO can help you get traffic but then you need to convert that traffic into paying customers. So how can you do that?

We believe that the most effective way to sell anything online is the Value Ladder sales funnel.

It was created by our co-founder Russell Brunson who then used it to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year (it’s at $100M+ now!).

This sales funnel has four stages:

• Bait. You offer the potential customer your lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
• Frontend. You offer the potential customer your least expensive and least valuable product or service.
• Middle. You offer the customer a more expensive and more valuable product or service.
• Backend. You offer the customer your most expensive and most valuable product or service.

Ideally, you also offer a continuity program of some sort, meaning, a subscription product that generates recurring revenue.

We also recommend adding downsells, upsells, and cross-sells to these core offers in order to maximize your revenue.

The reason why this sales funnel works so well is that it allows you to:

1. Start the relationship with that person by offering free value.
2. Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email.
3. Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

That’s why we recommend:

1. Building a Value Ladder sales funnel for your business.
2. Promoting your lead magnet at the end of each article.
3. Creating content upgrades (lead magnets designed specifically for that piece of content) for the articles that get the most traffic.

That way, instead of people coming to your website, getting the answers they were looking for, and then leaving for good, you will be capturing their email addresses so that you could then sell them your products.

Want Russell To Show You How To Build Your First Sales Funnel?

Let’s keep it real:

Building a sales funnel from scratch can seem like a daunting task.

That’s why we created our 5-Day Challenge where Russell walks you through it step-by-step.

You will learn how to:

• Generate unlimited leads.
• Create your first lead magnet.
• Build your first sales funnel.
• Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence.
• And launch your funnel!

…in just five days.

So don’t hesitate.

How To Market Your Business On Google

>>>Join The One Funnel Away Challenge<<<