As leaders and business owners do you sometimes wonder about how much of an expert you really need to be? Personally, I have subscribed to this quote: “Even if you don’t do the work, you should know the work.”

The statement is loaded with tripwires and it needs to be used with some caution. You need to guard against being a micromanager, or thinking you need to be the expert in everything to be an effective leader. Equally, you don’t want to get bogged down in the detail, but unless you have some idea of what is possible, then leading without understanding can be problematic.

Especially in a smaller business, you often don’t have access to expertise in all the areas that you need. Hence why you need to know your %hit 😊.
Search Engine Optimisation is one of those areas where you need to know some of ‘the stuff.’ SEO is easy to do but difficult to do well. Knowing how to optimise your website so that the likes of Google show your results on page 1, and strategically choosing your keywords for paid advertising should become a long-term asset in your business, especially if you have growth ambitions. 

SEO is something that I recommend you either outsource or develop internal expertise through an employee. Message clear? I am not recommending that business owners master the complete skill, but I am saying develop the knowledge. SEO for small businesses needs to be driven by the knowledgeable owner. 

When you invest time and money in paid ads, marketing material, flyers, newsletters etc, you need to be 100% sure your audience are both searching for the keywords and phrases that you use, as well as ensuring that you stand out from the crowd.  

An early starting point in your marketing journey is therefore Keyword Research. 

The best tool I have found to help with this (and there are many options available is Keywords Everywhere 

There is a free version, but rather invest the whopping $10’s for the paid version. Your $10’s will go a very long way. 

I am not going into the technicalities of using this tool- there is a lot of free training, and YouTube clips available on using Keywords Everywhere. The programme is really easy to use. Should this subject be of interest to you (because you are a business owner), I created a quick demo video, you will find it here.

I have always found that if I create a model, then I can more effectively clarify my thinking and make it easier for others to grasp. So with that in mind, I created a quick Cheat Sheet on SEO for Small Business. You can access it here.