Welcome to episode 55 of the Easy SEO and More podcast. Today. I’m going to continue on the top 10 questions I’ve gotten in 2021 about search engine optimization,

and the answer to each of these questions is going to help you throughout 2022, so it’s going to help you right now.

Today, I’m going to go through the last five of the top 10 questions, because next week I’ve got special guest Terry Begue.

Terry was a painter, but quickly realized that he could not grow his painting business without marketing. So he shares with us some of the things that he learned, as well as the book that he wrote about that. So I hope you’ll join me next week for that.

This week, we’ve got the last five of the top 10 questions I get about search engine optimization and I’m starting with:

#6. I keep hearing about this new thing called “link juice” and that it’s the only way to get my website higher in the search engines. Is that true?

I’ve heard the same thing from other SEO “experts” and the simple and quick answer is of course, no, it is not true at all.

Link juice is just a new way of saying backlinks, and backlinks have been around as long as websites have been around; It’s nothing new. But that doesn’t mean they’re not effective. Backlinks are one of the best ways to get higher in the search engines, but it’s definitely not the only way,

We work on backlinks for our clients every single month. That’s how important that backlinks are, but it’s not the only way to do it.

#7. I’m just starting out and I don’t have the budget to hire someone. Can I do SEO myself?

Of course you can. If you go to www.portbelldigitalacademy.com, you can actually learn how to do SEO yourself.

Or we have a brand-new DIY SEO training where we go in and do all the really techie stuff for your website. And then at the same time, we teach you how to do the less techie stuff yourself.

This is great for companies that simply can’t afford to hire someone right now. 70% of the SEO on a website, you can do yourself.

Click here for more information on our DIY SEO training.

Those aren’t the only places that have training, of course, that’s just a couple of different options.

#8. You’ve talked about local SEO a lot, but I sell products all around the world. Why would I want to limit myself with local SEO?

And thank you for that question. I got that question probably more than anything else, because I do push local SEO quite a lot.

Google is pushing local SEO as well, but here’s the reason why you want to do local SEO.

Let’s say that you sell Nike shoes In Seattle, Washington. And so you use the keyword “Seattle Nike shoe sales.” I don’t now if that’s the best keywords or not,  but I’ll use that as an example.

When you use those keywords, Google is going to see “Seattle Nike shoe sales.” But Google’s also going to see “Nike shoe sales.”

When you do local SEO, you’re automatically doing a national search engine optimization or national marketing at the same time. That’s why I push the local stuff, because the search engines are going to see both at once. Why not get it all done at once?

#9. A friend of mine keeps telling me that I have to be on social media if I want to get customers. Is that true?

 I know people on social media that have become multi-millionaires and huge influencers. Social media has made major changes in this industry, but for the average business, I don’t see social media being a huge game changer.

I was just talking with someone a few days ago and they said that they had just gotten a new customer from social media specifically. I asked them, how many customers do you get on average?

After thinking about it for a bit, they realized that was the only customer they had ever gotten from their social media profile.

So it can help, but put it in the order of how important it is, or how your ROI, your return on investment is. You don’t want to be spending 40 hours a week doing social media if it only nets one customer every six months. Yeah, you can get more exposure for your business, it helps with your brand on social media, but it won’t necessarily help you get customers.

Look at your return on investment. If social media is getting you customers, great! And, if you don’t know if it’s going to help, yeah, try it. Do it. It’s another marketing avenue. Port Bell is on LinkedIn and Facebook and we do a couple of other social media outlets.

But we only do a certain amount of time every week on those because the number of people that we get ourselves off social media is way less than we get from other avenues like this podcast, from our website and things like that. We’ve seen what gives us our best results and we concentrate on those.

#10. How long does it take to see results once I started having someone do SEO for me?

SEO work, search engine optimization, is not a do it and see it process. The work I do today could take three, six, or even 12 months before the search engines recognize it and do something with it. It all depends on the competition of that particular keyword.

For instance, there’s one specific keyword that I’m thinking of and that’s DUI. Unfortunately, it is actually one of the most competitive keywords in the entire country, especially around the holidays, which we just got through.

And many law firms are trying to be on page one for that keyword. And even in the town that I’m in, there’s probably 30 to 35 DUI attorneys.

Well, 35 DUI attorneys are not going to be able to get into the top 10 slots, but they’re all going to be trying.

So it all depends on how competitive the keyword is. I worked with one company that literally has three competitors in the entire Pacific Northwest. They got onto page one in three weeks.

That’s not normal. Three to six months is the average, but if it’s a really competitive keyword, it may take a year.

Thank you for reading this episode of Easy SEO and More. I’ll talk to you next week with Terry Begue.