Google answers billions of search queries each day.
These queries range from recipe requests to trying to figure out how to work on your B2B marketing. While Google isn’t the only search engine people use, it is the most popular so we are going to focus on Google throughout the article.
Starting an SEO business means you have to learn how to please Google and give it what it wants. You have to learn how to get Google to pick you out of all the other search websites available to answer the questions of the searcher.
Continue reading this article to learn how to start your SEO company and make sure it is successful.
The 411 on How to Start a Successful SEO Business
If you want to run a successful SEO business like SEOExplode, the following information will help you be well on your way.
Make Your Business Plan
Before you start offering services, you need to have a solid business plan in place. Without a business plan, it will be difficult to make decisions because you won’t know what direction you’re going.
Decide How You Want to Structure Your Business
One of the important parts of starting your business is determining the business structure.
Is your business going to be an LLC, corporation or other entity? If you aren’t sure what the differences are between them, you might want to contact your attorney and find out what the best structure is for what you’re trying to do.
Choose the Name of Your Agency
You’re going to be marketing your business with this name for many years to come. Hopefully, you’ll never have to do a major rebrand and change your name — so make sure this name is something you can live with.
Design a Logo
Your business’ logo is going to be on everything from your website, business cards and beyond. Take the time to design a nice looking logo that can be updated easily over the years.
Decide on a Niche
While it might be tempting to market to everyone, you need to decide on a niche. Are you going to help people that offer services, products or venues? Figure out which niche will work best with what you want to do and establish yourself as the go-to person in that niche.
Target a Geographical Area
One of the ways to make it even easier for you to market is to target a specific geographical area. You can get as specific as you want to without making your market too small.
For instance, if you’re in New York, you might consider going for businesses in Manhattan vs. targeting businesses in all of New York.
What Services Are You Going to Offer?
When you start an SEO business, you might decide to offer other services that complement what you’re already offering.
Some of the other services you might consider offering are things such as web design, hosting, website management, blog content and more. Before you decide to add these services, you might want to ask people what they’d find helpful for their business.
You might get more ideas asking other people than if you were to try to figure everything out on your own.
Secure Your Domain, Hosting & Create Your Website
You’re going to need a website before you get started with your SEO business. What kind of an SEO company would you be if you don’t have a website?
Secure your company name domain, get hosting and build your website. Your website needs to function well and provide necessary information for your potential clients. Make sure you don’t skimp on hosting or you’ll have to deal with an underperforming website.
List Your Business on Google My Business & Other Important Sites
Listing your business on Google My Business and other similar sites like Yelp will not only help people find you but it will also help with your SEO.
Remember — SEO? As an SEO company, you need to practice what you teach or your potential clients are going to smell it a mile away.
If you don’t feel like going through and finding all of the best directories for your company, you can hire someone to do the work for you. Some companies specialize in building citations for businesses and this can save you hours.
Get Your Business Live on Social Media
Social media is a great place to generate buzz and get people interested in your services. You might only choose to focus on a couple of social media sites for the majority of your traffic but you should create profiles on all the social media networks — even if it is just to keep someone else from getting your username.
Build Content That Creates Trust & Shows Expertise
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to create trust and showcase your expertise. There are plenty of types of content you can create for your business. Some of the content will be on your site but other content should be posted on other websites in the form of guest posts.
You might choose to create whitepapers, email series or other forms of content that will draw people into your sales funnel.
Set Up Payment Methods
Let’s not forget the all-important payment methods. Setting up payment methods needs to be a priority before you start getting business.
When you start out, you can keep it simple by accepting payments through Paypal but later you might want to look at some more robust systems.
Establish Pricing Structure
Not everyone is going to need the same job done for their business. Establishing a pricing structure will allow you to create a quote quickly so you don’t keep your potential customers waiting.
Create a Contract
Contracts are a must in any business. If you aren’t sure how to outline and write up a contract, you can speak to an attorney to help you or even use a site like Legal Zoom.
Make sure to outline anything that is important and make it easy to understand.
Use SEO Tools
When you’re starting your business, you might be bootstrapping your business. Though you’re trying to keep expenses low, you need SEO tools to help you do your work.
Yes, that means you need to put out some cash for some good SEO tools that have a monthly fee. The money you put toward these SEO tools will come back to you in droves when you do a great job for your clients.
Get Yourself Ranked #1 in Google
The best thing you can do for your business is to prove you know what you’re doing. You can prove you know what you’re doing by getting your website ranked.
Use the fancy SEO tools you invested in and make yourself your first client. Get to work now.
Be Prepared and Market Yourself
Any business that is just getting going is going to need a lot of marketing. You need to be ready to hustle and get your company’s name out there.
Find Industry Events and Network
A great way to get your name out there is through networking at industry events. People in your industry often have connections that can help you get off the ground.
Reach Out to Your Leads Directly
When you get leads, you can reach out to them directly via email or through a phone call. Don’t be afraid to call people and find out who your company can help them.
You may even set up a discovery call to find out if your company is the right company to work with them.
Qualify Leads
Once your business starts taking off, you can’t call every lead but you do need to make sure you’re qualifying leads. Have a list of criteria you have to check off for the lead to be a qualified lead and make sure you stick with it.
If you spend time talking to leads that aren’t going to convert, you’re wasting time you could be spending talking to leads that need and want your help getting their business ranked in the search engines.
Learn More About Upleveling Your Business
Now that you know how to start a successful SEO business, why not continue learning more about business? We have many articles that can help you no matter what stage you’re at in your business.
Browse our site, find your favorite section, drop a bookmark and come back for more great reads.
