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End of last year I built a website with Go-Daddy for my mobile DJ work. I'm happy with the aesthetics etc and how it plays out on a website and mobile device.
The area I'm struggling with with SEO to help drive traffic to my site, especially targeting wedding work as that is what I want to focus on. How does this all work and is it easy enough for someone to learn or should I just bite the bullet and pay someone to do it?
Google guidelines on this are very good and are here, that's your starting point
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
Next up don't look at your site but think about how someone who was looking for your services might find you e.g. would they google 'DJ wedding lesmahagow'. It they would then how would Google know that that's what you did? Write down all the things you can think of and then make sure they are covered on your site e.g. is the area that you cover clearly indicated and on all the important pages.
Once someone has found your site what would they want to find out about you? Make sure that info is easy to get to so people don't just click away. Google can see if people are 'bouncing' when they land on your site. Are there lots of pages on your site that people might want to also look at e.g. playlists, photos. Try to keep people on your site for a bit. Maybe put other useful lists on your site e.g. venues that you have played at along with outgoing links to their sites - make your site useful so that people will want to go back to it to check again. Google will spot that.
Then go back to your site and fix it. Remember to think in terms of what people are looking for rather than in terms of what you want to present. Google is great at giving people what they are looking for
The only person I know who was in the wedding business paid a lot for advertising to get traffic. It's probably the most difficult area to appear in Google search for so you are unlikely to appear on the first page unless you are very niche or are willing to pay 🙁
Free Google Courses - I did them back when it was Google Garage and it is good.
https://grow.google/intl/uk/courses-and-tools/?category=business&topic=digital-marketing
cheers both for that!
All good advice.
Bear in mind also, you may be competing with others. If you give someone a wad of cash to be the first google result for "wedding dj in [place]" and someone else does the same thing then, well... as Dire Straits sang, "two men say they're Jesus - one of them must be wrong."
You may come across various quick-fix tips and tricks to bump your ranking. They don't work, Google is wise to them and will penalise your ranking if you start playing silly buggers.
There are free websites and apps that will analyse your site and give you tips (page structure, content quality etc).
I use an app called SEO Check, just keeping running and making gradual improvements.
DM me a link to your site and I'll have a quick look if you like.
Adding to the good advice shared so far; MOZ's Beginners Guide to SEO is an excellent resource.
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
You can cover a lot of the basics yourself without having to pay someone else to do it.
The general process in purest form is:
- Keyword research (Google Keyword Planner is a good free tool) - to find out the words and phrases people use when looking for your service or product.
- Add content to your site around these keywords, ideally targetting 1 or 2 keywords p/page (it's much cleaner and easier to get a single page found for say' Wedding DJ in S****horpe' and another page for 'Wedding DJ Prices' than it is for one page to try and rank for everything.
- On page optimisation - making sure the words you're trying to be found for are actually mentioned on the pages you're trying to get to rank (you'd be amazed how often we get clients trying to be found for 'holiday cottage in TOWN' without a single mention of any of these words on their sites).
After that it's all down to building up a trustworthy reputation online. Links to your site from other good quality sites, ideally in your industry, is a good way to do this. For your case, speaking to any of the local hotels/venues that you've worked at and have a rapport with is a good start. Some of them might have a 'resources' page that they'd be happy to add your details to and link to you from.
It's also well worth making sure you've got a listing on Google Business, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. They all help.
Good luck!