* But My Web Software Did My SEO For Me – NOT!
Sorry, but good SEO can’t be automated – It still takes some thought, planning, and a bit of effort.
By Dirk Johnson
In my discussions with
music lesson studio owners, I often hear comments like this:
“I
get SEO with my hosting package, don’t I?”
or
or
”I have the Yoast SEO plug-in for my Wordpress, so I think it’s done
automatically”
or some similar quote
indicating that there is no need to worry about SEO. It’s been taken care of.
Sorry, But Probably
NOT!
So when I look at their
website, I almost always have to gently indicate to them that, no, their site
is not really optimized for search traffic. In fact, it is often nowhere near
“search ready”, and no, they are not yet showing up on the first page in Google
for searches for lessons in their city.
That revelation often
comes as a surprise. That’s because SEO is not some setting that you turn on to
let Google know that “Hey – I’m ready for some search traffic. Just send it on
over!”
Yet many people seem to
think that it really does work that way. Sorry, but it doesn’t.
As
always, if you want to get a quick review of your current website SEO
condition, please contact
me with your website address, and I’ll be glad to have a look and report
back to you what I find.
A Human Being Is Still
Required!
Yes, the tech bastards are
all actively trying to automate all of us out of business in some way (see ChordBuddy.com ha ha!), but I don’t see
that happening anytime soon with SEO.
Good SEO that yields
paying clients takes some thinking, focus, analysis, more thinking, good
planning, then some VERY GOOD content writing, and finally, some oversight to
review how it is working.
Until someone who is
familiar with the how SEO set-up process works actually does the work that is
needed, it’s going to be incomplete. And incomplete SEO work is probably not
going to yield much in the way of paying clients.
Sure, half-baked SEO work might generate some search traffic in low competition
environments, but it may not convert that traffic into clients.
Good SEO work does
these three things:
-
It helps you rank well in
search engines when people search for music lessons in your area.
-
It entices people to click
on YOUR listing in those search results, thus visiting your website
-
It converts those people
into real life leads that you can turn into real life CLIENTS.
If you skip any part of
the process above, you will quickly start losing out on the benefits of
properly done SEO, and maybe completely if the traffic does not convert on your
site.
Half-baked SEO work is
rampant.
I see it all the time. I
rarely see local studios in the music lesson industry that have done their SEO
well.
Yet, the studio owners
often think they have it covered, because someone told them that SEO was “part
of their package” for their hosting or their content management platform or
from their website developer.
Nobody is telling them the
truth (surprise!), and they don’t know the right questions to ask to know the
difference.
Fortunately, There is
Hope!
OK – so SEO is not a
“button push” switch that you just turn on. Bummer. Fortunately, SEO is NOT
rocket science, either.
All you really need to get
your SEO in order is to have it explained to you correctly in plain language
(not SEO-speak!), and then you either do it yourself at no additional cost to
you except time, or get someone to do it right for you.
The explaining part is
easy. It’s all laid out in this 80
page do-it-yourself guide to SEO for music lesson teachers, tutors, and studios
will help.
If you don’t have time, or
if you prefer to have someone else manage the basics for you, please contact
me.
And,
as always, if you want to get a quick review of your current website SEO
condition, please contact
me with your website address, and I’ll be glad to have a look and report
back to you what I find.
Thanks again for tuning
in!