What On Earth Is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and makes most small business run for the hills, but in the same breath everyone wants to be on the first page of google. Preferably right at the top ;p
Did you know only 9% look past the 1st page of Google and the 1st result (not adverts) gets 33% of all clicks!
But before you run out and pay google for a paid listing to get you to the top of the page, 80% of searchers ignore pay listings!
What is SEO?
I think this video sums it up really simply.
White Hats & Black Hats
White hat refers to the pure side of marketing such as using local listings, blogs and following quality guidelines by google to rank higher on your chosen search terms.
Black hat SEO is referred to as unethical and something that most people should avoid at all costs as if you are caught it can delist your website i.e you would no longer show at all on a google search! Not even on page 4903! Some things that can get you delisted are paying for likes or links and spamming people with emails. People that employ these tactics have to do it under the radar as if they are caught.
Personally as a dance school you are all ready awesome and sincere you should already have lot of links and ways to increase your SEO without having to fake it!
How do I make SEO work for my dance school?
First you want to think, what do my customers search for when looking for dance classes.
If you haven't already it's time to get clear on who is your target market and we have a blog to help you! - Identifying your target market
They maybe searching for 'Ballet Classes Winall Winchester' or 'Adult Ballroom Classes Chelmsford'. Get creative and put yourself in there shoes!
Nows time to figure out where you currently rank on google for your chosen searches. For this you will want to go incognito for this as google ranks frequently visited websites higher and you want to get an realistic view of people looking for your service rather than you personally. Do this for all of your chosen search terms and make notes of where you rank so you can keep track of your progress.
Keep an eye out for our next blog - How to make SEO work for my dance school!
