Hello Reader,

I hope you enjoy this special Wednesday edition of my newsletter—I'm adding in a series about SEO for subject matter experts in addition to my regular emails. If for some reason this isn't your jam, click here, and you will be removed from this series but remain on my regular list.

Here's a secret: While I obviously love SEO (search engine optimization) for the visibility in Google it creates, what I really love are all the side benefits of a smart search engine strategy.

No one talks about this, but having a thoughtful, content focused SEO strategy does way more for us than we realize—here are 15 of my favorite benefits I see on the regular:

1. SEO can build brand awareness and create a "this person must be an expert because they're everywhere" feeling;
2. You can use the search engine to manage your reputation (both if you're a high profile person like Taylor Swift and us normal people, sans private jets);
3. SEO forces you to get crystal clear about the intention of your audience which helps literally every other aspect of your marketing;
4. It also ensures you understand where in the buying journey (are they ready to buy or are they researching) your audience is;
5. SEO-fueled content marketing helps decision-makers see you as a wise investment thanks to your thought leadership;
6. Content that ranks in the search engine tends to be long-form and can form the foundation for other writing—even a book;
7. SEO increases the QUALITY of traffic to your website;
8. What works well in organic search will likely perform well with paid advertising, lowering your cost per lead because you won't have to experiment as much;
9. By doing strategic SEO, your marketing system has to actually be dialed in—a lot of folks do SEO and in that process complete a lot of long-overdue yet important work;
10. Similarly, if you haven't refined your sales system and your SEO works, you'll need to fix that right away, which is a great side effect;
11. Content-first SEO can also become a client resource center, and you can go so far as to create nice PDFs resources from your best content and give that to clients as part of their support documents;
12. Good SEO strategy creates a better user experience on your website, which means folks stick on your site longer and learn more about you;
13. Your SEO strategy can be reworked into strategies for other platforms, such as YouTube or even a podcast, expanding your audience and then that media can be reworked back into your SEO-first content, creating a multimedia experience for your site visitors;
14. Pinterest loves image-focused SEO, which can be a powerhouse for your visibility; and
15. Well-executed SEO content strategy creates a consistent and clear message—repeated over and over again for your ideal audience.

All these reasons and more are why I like SEO as a "hook" so to speak, because it's a very measurable and achievable marketing activity, but it's merely a beginning and a catalyst for bigger things. For results that are longer lasting and even more impactful. That's what happens when you own your voice online.

If you're ready to get to work, join the Summer of SEO 2024 waitlist—we're going to be working on all of this together, June through August.

Talk soon,

Sarah

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