SEO can be a difficult kettle of fish for businesses to understand (and sometimes it can open a whole can of worms, but that is another matter, altogether). The response to this is, sometimes, to do nothing.
This is, in my view, a big mistake.
As I point out when explaining what keyword research is 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine and 80% of all offline and online purchases now involve search.
So, what’s the solution?
My preferred way of working with businesses is to mix training, consultancy and outsourced work. This way they get to understand what is going on and can begin to complement the work I am carrying out.
Here’s how I typically do this:
- I always explain as I go along.
- I prepare overview documents that allow their teams to grasp how aspects of SEO work.
- I offer quick, informal inhouse training (and more formal training if required).
- And I try not to reinvent the wheel. If there is an excellent resource already out there I point them to it.
And here is one of the most useful resources I have come across.
It’s elegant but not facile, it’s detailed but not overbearing, it’s authoritative but simple to grasp: it is the go to resource that I never tire of sending clients to.
Written by Moz it’s called “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO” and you can get it here.
I urge you to do so.
One more thing: the guide itself is actually a great example of content marketing as SEO.
It is highly useful and as a result has helped improved Moz’s reputation as thought leaders and experts and also the domain authority of its site.
Here are the scores on the doors for what a great piece of content marketing can achieve:
- Over 1m downloads
- 2000+ linking root domains
- 1,168 Tweets
- 2,900 Likes
- 1,500 +1’s
- 1,500 LinkedIn shares
That’s the power of great content!