This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I really like today's listener question. It is important to rank well in search engines. Like everybody knows that. If you've got a website, you want it to show up in Google and other search engines. I guess there are others.
You want your website to be found when someone searches for a term that is most relevant, pertinent to what you are selling or offering or what your brand is all about. The point is you want to be findable. So that's somewhat self-evident, but there's this whole industry called search engine optimization or SEO. And a listener is wondering, is this whole thing just a scam basically? Like, yes, of course we want to rank well in search engines, but can you actually control such a thing?
And doesn't everyone want to control such a thing? And so since everyone wants to do it, is it really possible to influence those results? And is this something you should try to do yourself or should you pay somebody because that's a whole, as I said, industry career for a lot of people. So we're gonna look at this debated topic, SEO search engine optimization. We've got Sarah here on the line and definitely an essential component of online visibility, but there's a lot of confusion about it.
So I'm gonna give it to you straight, of course. We're gonna talk about strategies, tactics, what is accurate, what is misleading, and I'll try to do it all in a brief action-packed episode. Quick shout out to our sponsor and then Sarah's question. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Sarah from Santa Fe. I've been following your podcast after reading the $100 startup and it's been a game changer for me.
As I'm growing my online business, I keep hearing conflicting advice about SEO. Some say it's crucial, others tells me it's a scam. Can you shed some light on this? I want to ensure my website attracts genuine traffic without wasting money or effort on something that doesn't work. [Music]
Hey Sarah, thanks for being out there.
So glad you enjoyed $100 startup. So glad you're growing your online business as well. And I appreciate the direct honesty of this question. Is SEO crucial or is it a scam? It's kind of both.
I mean, that's the thing. It's not a scam entirely in the sense that it is important when possible to optimize your website for better search engine rankings and results. There are things you can do that make a difference that are positive. And there are also consultants, businesses, agencies and such you can hire that won't actually do anything. Part of the trick is, part of what's so difficult about hiring somebody to do it is that it takes a long time in the sense where you're not gonna see like overnight results.
It often takes a few months, sometimes even a bit longer to really see results. And so you're paying a retainer typically or a project fee and you don't actually know what's gonna happen. And then even a few months later, you're like, did it work? Did it not? How do I know?
And did it work because of something they did or just because of some other factor? That's what's tricky about it. But that said, genuine SEO involves looking at keyword research, understanding which terms are important to target then creating content around those terms, hopefully in a way that is organic and authentic without being completely artificial. If you're familiar with like looking around on the internet and you're like, why is the internet so bad these days? When I search for stuff, I see all these results that give me these really long pages with lots and lots of information.
And it takes a long time to get the actual answer that I'm looking for. That's because of SEO. It's because people are crafting these long pages based on what they think Google wants and turns into a whole like vicious cycle. So there are some elements of it that are a little bit unattractive or just not a lot of fun, but it's also important when possible to do what you can at least because you do want that traffic and it can make a huge, huge difference on your bottom line. A lot of businesses live or die by their search engine results.
So that's why the industry has both dark and light to it. If you were, let's use some like Star Wars or like fantasy terms. There's like light energy and dark energy in it. So it's not something to completely write off and it's not something to blindly trust either. I hope that is helpful.
We've had some other episodes with some quick little tips about SEO. I'll try to talk about it more as we go forward. There's also some resources on the website, all completely free. I wanna make sure listeners get accurate information that truly helps them. So thank you again to Sarah for raising that question.
Listeners, any feedback of yours or questions, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Much more is coming up. Take care of yourself during the holidays. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
