Here's What Entrepreneurs Need to Know about SEO

Online marketing is challenging. Every entrepreneur with a website has found this out at one point or another.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

2016-10-10-1476133141-9410120-rsz_womantyping.jpg

Let’s be honest.

Online marketing is challenging. Every entrepreneur with a website has found this out at one point or another.

If you’re like most other entrepreneurs, you have poured tons of effort into your marketing efforts. You work on your content and your social media presence.

Only to realize that you’re not getting the results you want.

It happens to all of us.

Jacob Hagberg is the CEO of Orange Fox. He knows how much of a challenge online marketing can be for entrepreneurs. In this interview, he will provide some key insights on digital marketing and search engine optimization.

How did you get into digital marketing? Why did you decide to start a business that focused on digital marketing?

I am the luckiest man in the world and have tried to make the most out of every opportunity I have been given. As an entrepreneurship major at the University of St. Thomas, I took a class called Entrepreneurship in Practice.

Each student was required to find an internship under an entrepreneur or inside a startup. During my undergrad, I was operating a saltwater fish aquarium cleaning service and with a little encouragement from my father, I approached one of my clients. This was one of the best decisions of my life.

Curtis Nelson (formerly President of Carlson, TGI Fridays & Radisson Hotels) said, “yes” and some of the words of wisdom he shared included that “digital marketing was the way of the future”.

It may come as a surprise that a corporate executive would be interested in entrepreneurship, but we developed our first successful digital property. A saltwater fish tank website that reviewed products and sold advertising.

How would you describe your company’s brand?

Orange Fox is a digital marketing agency built around the 4 values we would want in a business relationship: ROI, care, expertise and trust.

This means selling brands what they need, not what they want, turning down business that is not a good fit and doing what is right for the client instead of what is best for us.

One of the biggest challenges for online entrepreneurs is increasing their traffic. What advice would you give them?

While tactics are always changing and every niche is different, there are 3 digital marketing strategies that have consistently worked: buy paid media, build a list, and optimize your website for search engines.

The most important thing they can do is focus on finding a paid advertising channel like Google Adwords or Facebook Ads that they can scale. Do not be afraid to spend as long as it remains profitable and the business has the systems in place to handle the increase in sales volume.

Why is SEO important for new solopreneurs/entrepreneurs?

The truth is that SEO is only important to a certain degree for new businesses. They should be doing key things like optimizing their website’s SEO title tags and meta descriptions.

After the business grows, the product matures and a profitable revenue stream is identified, then reinvest some of the profit into creating greater search engine visibility.

If there was ONE SEO tip you could give for a person who wants to start a business, what would it be?

Do not underestimate the value of brand search. This is the accumulation of all the blood, sweat and tears an entrepreneur has poured into their business. This is commonly the least expensive and best converting traffic.

How would an entrepreneur/solopreneur know whether or not to outsource their digital marketing?

It is unlikely that a new business needs a full-time person that specializes in only one skill. Instead, they are more likely in search of a “unicorn”. This is a jack of all trades digital marketer that is well-rounded in search engine optimization, paid advertising, email marketing, social media, content creation, analytics and conversion optimization.

This person’s skillset is best paired with a front-end website designer and/or back-end developer that understands user experience. Once your business is at scale, then start hiring the best in class for each channel in your digital marketing stack.

Conclusion

Let’s face it. If you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneurs who is working to build a business, you have to use digital marketing. Growing a viable online audience is critical to your efforts. Developing and implementing an effective digital marketing strategy will help you generate more leads and close more deals.

Close

What's Hot