You've probably heard a thousand times that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a valuable and essential digital marketing tool. But do you know how it works and how your organization can reap its benefits? In this episode of Messaging on a Mission, we dive into the importance of SEO and how to implement best practices to make your brand more discoverable than ever online.

Key Takeaways

Who your audiences are, where you can find them, and how to get your brand in front of them are the aspects of digital marketing that everyone in charge of an organization should know about. Do your research to understand who your audiences are and the best way to reach them.

Keyword, search phrase, or query is whatever you're searching on Google. It can be as many words or as few words as you like. The longer the keyword is, the better it is, but the fewer people search for it.

Knowing the right things to do, how to get started, where to go, and staying up to date with SEO best practices are the challenges small organizations have when they think about SEO.

There are several digital marketing strategies to get traffic to a website. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is advertising running paid ads, while SEO (organic, free listings) is a way to get free traffic.

Not-for-profit organizations should spend some time thinking about SEO optimization to avoid missing out on potential eyeballs that could be seeing their organizations and learning more about them.

When thinking about SEM, determine how much you're willing to spend to make a profit. Then play around and test it all out to see what works. Push more money into that and pull money away from what's not working.

Some of the best practices to implement when optimizing your website for SEO include: (1) adding more text to every page on your website, (2) writing for the readers and not for Google, (3) keeping the content original, (4) including keywords naturally, (5) getting quality backlinks, and (6) improving visibility by placing your content at the top of the page

Be patient, and don't try to be deceptive. Digital marketing takes time, so don't expect immediate results. Also, be very careful with backlinks. Build backlinks from sites related to you and avoid building the wrong type of backlinks, as they can harm your SEO.

To get backlinks, invest in an SEO tool, research your competitors, find the ones that are authoritative and relevant to your brand and figure out what they do to get the backlinks. If you've got a list of places where you'd love them to link to your site, reach out to them.

You need Google Analytics to know how traffic behaves on your website and what happens after it leaves and gets to your website. However, since google algorithm updates change constantly, you may need to click and look everywhere on Google Analytics to learn about all the information you need.

Brandon Leibowitz is the founder of SEO Optimizer - a digital marketing company that focuses on helping small and mid-sized businesses get more online traffic, which converts into clients, sales, leads, etc. He got his start in digital marketing in 2007 after graduating from college with a degree in Business Marketing. since the past 14 years, he has been helping websites rank higher on Google using SEO strategies. I am certain that he has plenty of expertise in the business world that we can apply to any organization, whether they are for profit or not for profit.

https://seooptimizers.com/

https://seooptimizers.com/gift

Kim Sorrell discusses her book, Love Is, which is about her year-long quest to figure out the true meaning of love. She talks about that journey and what she’s learned about leading with love and incorporating it into your message. 

Kim Sorrelle is an entrepreneur, director of a humanitarian organization, a popular speaker, and the author of two books. Her first book, Cry Until You Laugh is about her breast cancer experience and her husband's battle with pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed four months apart. Her second book, Love Is, chronicles her year-long quest to figure out the true meaning of love, a sometimes funny, sometimes scary, always enlightening journey that led to life-changing discoveries found mainly on the streets of Haiti. 

Love is walking, talking, breathing, living, and giving. It is all-encompassing. It is part of your being. It is your being. So when you understand that love is so much more than a feeling that you get, I think that's when you can start to understand what love truly is.

Instead of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do), what if it was WWLD (What Would Love Do?), then you might come up with a different answer than what you think because love is 100% authentic.

To get love into your message, focus on people, not the numbers. The numbers don't mean much if there's no love involved.

For your message to sound authentic, you and your organization need to be authentic. When you love, authentically, when you truly care about people.

When messaging during the holidays, first look at your own space in your own life and what holidays mean to you, and where those triggers are that maybe you can get rid of. Then think of your campaign and what you want to project. What is the message that you want to deliver? Everybody's looking for dollars, but you want the right dollars. If you do it the right way, they come. It is a struggle, but making it real and being love, showing love in your message, separates you really from the past.

Company website: https://www.kimsorrelle.com

Email: kim@kimsorrelle.com

https://www.facebook.com/Kim-Sorrelle-392015434145527

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-langlois-sorrelle-11079523/

https://www.instagram.com/kimsorrelle/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/Kim_Sorrelle

https://www.facebook.com/ksorrelle

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa097sxQXqa9Oafbay9FCiw

Book(s):   

Love Is

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Yearlong-Experiment-Living-Corinthians/dp/0825446740/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1640388089&sr=8-2

Cry Until You Laugh

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cry+until+you+laugh+kim+sorrelle&crid=33PTBPU1QIXXV&sprefix=cry+unti%2Caps%2C104&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_8

For many, the topic of today’s episode ranks right up there with having a root canal, attending a party filled with multiple exes, or fighting city hall. Yet, speaking in public about the work of your organization is one of the most powerful tools for getting your message out in the world.  Our guest today gives us lots of concrete steps we can take to get better at public speaking.

Brenden Kumarasamy is the founder of MasterTalk; he coaches ambitious executives & entrepreneurs to become the top 1% of communicators in their industry. He also has a popular YouTube channel called MasterTalk, with the goal of providing free access to communication tools for everyone in the world.

Origin of the fear of public speaking.

For most of us, school presentations are where we learn to speak in a formal setting, but we see it as a chore rather than a means of communication.

How to become comfortable speaking in public: 

You must understand that you cannot eliminate fear completely when it comes to presentations; instead, it is a dichotomy to manage. When you prioritize the message you want to convey over the fear you have, the whole process becomes easier.

Communication exercises to improve your game:

Pick a random word and create a presentation out of thin air. This helps you to think fast on your feet.

Think about a question you think the world would ask you about your expertise.

Make a list of about ten of your loved ones and send them a video of you appreciating them.

Reasons Introverts are better at communication than they realize:

They are better at pausing.

They are great listeners.

They are accessible.

Advice for people who aren’t comfortable with being the center of attention:

Practice having small conversations and getting instant feedback from people; this will help you build up toward being with a bigger audience.

Speaking to a camera is a lot different than speaking to an audience in person. You don’t have the energy from the audience when you’re presenting online, nor is there a need to alternate eye contact with the audience. You have to consciously keep your energy up to grab the attention of your listeners online.

Finally, prepare yourself every day by answering random questions; doing this helps you solve the problem of content and gives you time to focus on delivery.

Company website: mastertalk.ca

Email: kumarasamy.brenden@gmail.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendenkumarasamy

YouTube: youtube.com/c/mastertalks