10 Ways to Start Your Own Search Engine Optimization Business
Starting your own search engine optimization business can be an excellent way to earn money while providing your clients with quality service and support. With the right business plan and well-chosen marketing strategy, you can build a profitable and rewarding career in search engine optimization (SEO). Here are 10 ways you can get started in search engine optimization today.
1) Keyword research
It’s crucial that you build your site around a set of keywords. These are words and phrases that your audience will use when searching for your product or service. It’s smart to start with a keyword list and then brainstorm site topics from there—but don’t wait too long before diving into that keyword research. The sooner you know what terms you want to target, the better off you’ll be. And if you need help generating ideas, check out Google’s Keyword Planner . (It’s free.) This tool will help you discover new keyword variations related to your core search term and show how many people search for those terms each month. You can also see which words have higher click-through rates, giving you an idea of which ones might work best on your site.
2) Competitor research
Never underestimate the power of knowing what your competitors are doing. The best way to determine your competition is by conducting some form of research on them. Depending on how in-depth you want your research, there are many ways you can go about it. You can look at their website, talk with them personally, or even get an insider’s view by checking out their social media accounts. When conducting competitor research, make sure that you don’t directly mention any names in your content (if you do, it may come off as spammy). Instead, refer to other businesses as one of our competitors or another business we compete against. It’s also a good idea to conduct your research before writing anything down; once you start writing, it can be hard to stop and adjust course if needed.
3) Think about your service offerings
The thing about being in a service business is that you have only one source of revenue—your time. This means that, if you’re not careful, you could end up spending your time on tasks that don’t help your business grow. To avoid losing precious hours, think about which services will make your customers happy and lead to growth for your business and which ones might just take away from both. It may be tempting to offer every service under the sun, but resist! Focus on what makes sense for your business goals and what gives you joy. You can always expand later.
In terms of what you can charge for these offerings, figure out exactly how much work it takes to deliver them. If it takes eight hours to research an industry news story that helps your customer understand how their product fits into an industry trend or helps them get featured by a major media outlet, then charge accordingly.
4) Who will you serve?
This is one of your most important considerations. Who are you going to target? What niche or market do you want to focus on? Are you going for B2B (business-to-business) clients, or B2C (business-to-consumer)? Figure out who your audience is and make sure it’s large enough for a viable business. If not, consider refining your target market. You can always expand later if needed. What will you sell?: Once you know who your audience is, think about what they need. And by need I mean something they really need—not just want. It could be an item, service, information or idea that solves a problem they have in their life. Or maybe it just makes their lives easier in some way. Whatever it is, make sure there’s demand for it before moving forward with any business plan.
5) What are you charging?
This is one of those as long as you’re not taking advantage of your clients questions. There is no right or wrong answer here, but it should be something that makes sense given where you are in your career. If you’ve never done SEO before and don’t have any experience then I would recommend charging $50-$100 per hour for your services. If you have a few years under your belt and have been doing SEO for a while then maybe $200-$300 per hour would make more sense.
6) How will you handle clients?
Managing clients is one of the biggest challenges for a business owner. A savvy marketer should be able to take on five or 10 clients at any given time, but if you find that you’re constantly inundated with inquiries, it may be time to take a step back and consider whether you can handle more. Always remember your first responsibility is to your current clients—and, yes, that means turning down work when it no longer makes sense for them or for you.
7) Who will your suppliers be?
You’ll need suppliers for domains, hosting, web development and so on. Be sure you know who your core suppliers will be before you start, as there are often many hidden costs involved in getting these things set up (including setup fees). If you can identify some possible suppliers early on, it could save you a lot of time later.
8) Website development considerations
After you’ve figured out what kind of company you want to start, it’s time to consider how your web presence will look. Just a few things you should think about when developing your website include: Will people be able to find your site? What will they see when they get there? How can they access contact information and more details on what your business is all about?
9) How do you plan on marketing yourself?
There are many ways of marketing yourself, but not all of them require a big budget. In fact, some of these methods can be implemented with zero costs. Word-of-mouth will always be free and is quite powerful. If you’re just starting out in your business, it’s better to get personal recommendations from people who have used your services or products before. This way, you won’t have to spend any money on advertising until you have established yourself as an expert in your field.
10) The future is bright for SEO
Although SEO doesn’t get as much hype as it used to, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think search engines have a place in marketing strategies. With tools like Google Analytics growing in popularity and information from sites like Moz making their way onto Big Data research platforms, consumers are now more savvy than ever about researching businesses before they buy. This means your clients are going to want great search results—and that means they need you.
