What would you like your business to be found for on Google?

Listen, I get it. SEO is traditionally VERY dull. But I've always been a fan of presenting boring things in an interesting way, so you feel motivated to take action.

You see, Google is a giant library. We need to tell the librarian where to stack our book (website) so the right readers will find it. Despite the rise of social media, Google is still the biggest source of website traffic in the world.

But, with over a billion websites in the world, is the battle for position one real?

There is not just one page, one of Google. Every one of you can be on page one.

What does that mean? Surely there's a limited number of places! Well, how SEO actually works is knowing what you want to be found for and then spreading your bets!

1. WHAT do you do?

Most of you are assuming people already know what you know. You're assuming that people know what you do, make, sell and deliver. Stop doing that.

Instead, be very explicit about WHAT you sell/offer. Don't assume anything. Think of it like explaining what you do to an alien from outer space who has never heard of a life coach, or a brand photographer, or a marketing consultant.

ACTION: Start writing a list of all the different ways to explain what you do.

2. WHERE do you do it?

Next is WHERE you sell it. Are you online only? Where do you deliver to? Which geographic locations do you cover? Whether it's UK only or only certain counties or towns, you need to be explicit.

ACTION: Write down a list of which areas you cover.

3. What's your TYPE?

OK, so you should have a good list going now, so you can then add the TYPE of what you do/sell/make/offer to this list. For example, if you're a brand photographer, what TYPE of brand photography do you offer? Is it corporate events in grand hotels, or is it headshots for cool values-led businesses in Brighton? If you're a jewellery maker, do you make colourful, sweary political earrings or do you make diamond studs for Tatler readers? Making what you do more niche will help you be visible.

Now it's time to COMBINE your brainstorming list by combining the words you've written down. For example, luxury brand consulting in Bristol or colourful wedding photography in London.

4. Get your tools out!

Now that you have this list, you need to know about a brilliant budget-friendly Chrome extension called 'Keywords Everywhere'. You can pay $10 USD a year, set your target country to the UK (or wherever you’re targeting) and this tool will show you approximately how many people are searching for these phrases in the UK.

It will show you how popular your different keyword phrases are. You can then type in each phrase from your list (that's right, all the combinations, one at a time) and you'll get the popularity.

Pretty cool, right? You want to get as high as possible, whilst also sticking to your niche and your business goals.

So what happens with these keywords?

Now it's time to play a fun matching game! You can match one of your keyword phrases to each page on your website. This might be where you realise that you don't have enough pages. Do not panic!

You can:

• Create new pages dedicated to that service or product

• Create new blogs and use the keywords as part of blog post titles (and then talk about that keyword phrase topic in the blog)

You'll need to make sure you add the matched keyword phrase in certain places, no matter whether you add it to a page or a blog. You need to add the phrase to at least:

• The page title

• The first paragraph

• At least one other time in the paragraphs of text on the page

• In at least one subheading

• In the SEO title + SEO description

• In the URL link (beware that if you change the URL link on any live page, you'll need to set up a redirect from old pages to new pages, otherwise this could hurt your SEO)

And there you have it! Now you've learnt what people are searching for and where to put it on your website, you're on your first step to being found on page one of Google!

Relevant resources

• How does search engine optimisation (SEO) work?

• What is SEO? How can you use it to improve your business?