The role and impact of SEO I realise isn’t always considered. This week in a POWER Hour I got the question ‘You’re a Facebook Ads Strategist, why do you audit websites?’ Whilst this wasn’t the first time I’ve been asked this question, it was the first time I realised I should write about it.
I am a Facebook Ads Strategist and I start with every single client auditing their website.
Advertising is a process of amplifying what is working. If you do not already get clients organically, doing paid ads will cost more. I like to see clients get clients/ customers organically first. To make this happen, clients (and prospective clients) must understand the partnership between SEO and Social Media. It helps them see why they should focus on both these digital marketing tools together.
Consequences of focusing on Social Media on without considering SEO, are:
- opportunities for business sustainability and growth are missed;
- ad spend is driven up;
- money is wasted.
Impact Of SEO = Visibility
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. Both SEO and Social Media have a common goal of gaining more visibility for what you want to be known for. They both use keywords within algorithms to indicate to search engines what you want to be known and found for.
Google Is Your #1 Referrer, Or Is It?
Think of Google as your own personal super fan of your product or service. They love to buy from you and recommend you to others. They will only do this if they are clear on what you offer and you have made it easy for them to refer you. They will refer and recommend you even more if you reward them and make them look good. The more clearly you can articulate your message, lay out your information in an easy to find format and be present (e.g. regularly update your website, follow up enquiries) you will be rewarded with more visibility and the opportunity of more clients/ customers a.k.a. “conversions.”
Getting found online is a process of ensuring you are found when someone searches for a solution to their problem using a search engine. The most common search engine is Google. But what you may not realise is that there are other search engines used regularly. Facebook is one of the most used search engines in Social Media.
If you focus on Social Media, you will gain opportunities to maintain and grow your business. If you focus on Google, you will gain opportunities to maintain and grow your business. Basically, if you haven’t considered the impact of SEO in marketing your business you are missing opportunities to be found online both via Social Media and Search Engines. It’s not an either/or solution, it’s both together.
Consistent Messages
The messaging on a website is defined by the keywords you want to be known for. Ideally these words are also the words people are already searching to solve their problems. The process of having the right keywords in your messaging is also a key component of SEO.
Your Website is a Destination
This is where people convert. Sales Funnels on Facebook should go to your own website to convert. This enables you to capture their details on your own property and have the ability to remarket to prospective clients via Google and Facebook Ads (provided you have the right the right tracking in place).
A Place To Burn Money
If your website is not already getting organic traffic and converting sales. No amount of money being thrown at ads will help.
What If You Get Evicted?
Facebook Is Rented Land. So is Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tiktok and any other Social Media Channel. If you are on these platforms you have agreed to their relevant terms and conditions. You are governed by these rules. You are also beholden to the servers they use and also the security they implement. At any time these platforms could be shut down or you kicked off them. If you have built your sales funnels and are only getting your enquiries or sales on these platforms without a way to capture client details on your own platform. You leave your business open to risk.
What Does Success Look Like?
Whilst I start with reviewing and auditing a website, what’s more important than knowing this, is that none of this matters without answers to questions about your business Goals, Content and Targeting (GCT).
I ask every single client enquiry to complete a set of GCT questions about their business circumstances. I want to know what their business goals are, what content they currently have access to and what ideal customer they are targeting. Quite simply if I don’t know these things then I cannot audit their online presence effectively. I cannot give them the best recommendation to achieve their business goals. I cannot see if they have considered the impact of SEO or not. I cannot see if they even need to do ads to achieve their business goals.
When there’s no clarity on what they are aiming for, I know immediately that is their problem. You can’t achieve what you don’t know you’re aiming for.
Often this is where I start with new clients, educating them on how to define what success looks like for them. If they are not open to this education process, they are a no. They have self selected themselves out of us working together.
To be clear, just because someone is educated, doesn’t mean they have to do their own ads and digital marketing. This about enabling them to make informed decisions.
It’s Okay To Say No
It has taken me 6 years of continuously refining the onboarding process of new clients. I didn’t quite believe Dennis Yu when he said ‘When you have the right process in place you should be saying no to new clients 90% of the time.’ When Dennis said this I was struggling to get clients and hated the thought of saying no to anyone. On top of this 20+ years of working in hospitality and customer service roles I was a natural people pleaser. Saying no is still not an easy thing for me to do.
In saying this, only ever saying yes was a path to the wrong clients and burnout. More than once I almost lost my business and sanity with the ‘always saying yes’ approach.
Dennis helped me to see that I didn’t need to say no, I needed a process in place that helped qualify the right clients and along the way disqualify the ones who were the wrong fit to work with me.
When I first put a POWER Hour in place, I hated the thought of charging for it, but did it anyway and instantly it stopped some people ‘picking my brain.’ I also started with the price of $275 an hour. I quickly realised that for the serious contenders as clients, they didn’t hesitate to pay. The simple reason being they saw the value in what I was doing. I have since increased this to $500 per hour due to demand and feedback of the value received in each POWER Hour.
For every single POWER Hour done I share with them opportunities for each business to improve their business online presence and improve their business conversions. I show them what is broken, missing or not done (yet!).
