Why I Enjoy Helping Small Business With SEO Tips
I have a few groups on Facebook that I created and offered free SEO tips for small businesses and start-ups. I have been doing this for a couple of years now and really enjoy giving out SEO tips or basic website advice, things that if motivated they can do themselves.
Why do I do it
Sometimes (most times) SEO paid services are required to get businesses the traffic they need to their website to get customers. It is unavoidable if the business wants to succeed – a professional SEO or digital agency are the experts who can get the job done.
But there are lots of the more basic aspects of SEO that, with a bit of learning, it can be done yourself and often it can be relatively easy. I have a genuine interest in the topic and of course, it is a nice feeling to know that you have helped someone out.
Since I changed my career, I think that has also helped me be more rounded as an SEO professional in the aspect that I can appreciate what it is actually like to work in different fields and what their level of technical understanding can be – often this can be forgotten when you work in the industry and are surrounded by web daily.
What I offer
Usually. I offer free advice to small or start-up businesses as I think that they might be the neediest of it, and that they seem to really appreciate it.
What I do is ask for their website address and complete a review of it, both off-page (links etc) and on-page (Site structure and content) and feed back tips to hopefully improve their online presence, and people are generally happy for the help.
Where I offer it
I am in some business start-up groups in Facebook and quite often give out advice and tips in them. But, as you can imagine, the offer of free advice can sometimes generate A LOT of interest and I find that the threads there can take over groups at times so I have created a few of my own groups, groups that are specific to the audience’s needs. Groups are great and I have genuinely saved people £1000s in potential web agency fees.
Visit my Facebook group here if you would like some small business SEO tips 🙂
My Career Change Path
My career change bumpy journey.
So, in the past few years I have swapped a life as an NHS nurse for a life working in search and online marketing. How did this happen? Well, it certainly wasn’t a fluke and took a lot of effort. Now, there may have been easier ways to do this but this was the way I did it as it was the only way for me really. And why? I was working in a few great roles within the NHS but there was just something that I knew I had to do…easier said than done but hopefully this might inspire anyone who is wanting to change – it is possible!
Where I was in my life…
I was working for the NHS as a senior nurse and did enjoy my job but it could be very challenging as most NHS jobs are. I had worked as a military nurse, ward-based, community and many things in-between! I was working my way through the ranks and getting further up the pay scales and with positions of more responsibility.
So, what made me want to leave it and seek something? For me, it wasn’t the dread of working that made me want to leave the profession – it was the intrigue of where I wanted to go. I love computers and the internet, but the passion was more than just a hobby. A few years before, I learned about SEO (a lot has changed in that field since then) and internet marketing. I simply read it once and knew that this is where I need to spend my life and time.
So, I started teaching myself and doing ‘ok’ with it but was seriously limited with my technical knowledge, and my CV would not really be very appealing to prospective employers. I had to do something about that and at the ripe old age of
32 I walked out of my job and enrolled on a full-time 2-year foundation degree in New Media & Design. This saw me go from spending time with poorly people and pressured meetings to chewing on Greggs sausage rolls with a load of 18-year-old young people – for the record, they were ace and really gave me a good perspective on life whenever my head was up my arse!
Fast forward to the end of the course and applied for SHITLOADS of jobs – seriously! At one point I remember my email sent box with over 100 applications!!
Eventually I got a job doing content admin – basically writing descriptions of products. I travelled far and for minimum wage to do that, because I had worked for so long to get there. Now I was there, I really didn’t want to be there. So….I had to explain to my family that after a few years of not working and doing computer courses – that it ‘was not for me’. Good times.
However I kept at it, doing various non-related jobs between and bits of web-related stuff. Then I got my first role in an agency. It was here that I knew I need to work in search forever, for sure! It was also here that I met some great people and think the world of them.
I am now in my second agency and still as passionate as I was years ago about my work.
My advice would be – you only live once (YOLO, I believe twats call it), so do whatever it is you want to do and do not listen to anyone. I remember friends and colleagues seeing what I was trying to do and asking me if it is even worth it. I said yes, I should have not even wasted the time responding with any sort of answer or tried to explain why. Just do what you need to do if you find it. If you do find it, you will be getting paid for something that you actually enjoy and that is worth it’s weight in absolute gold!