SEO Basics for Business Coaches: How to Make People Find You in Google

If you’re like most people, you search for yourself online from time to time. You might be curious about what comes up in the search results. Whatever your reason for searching yourself, you’re probably interested in how to improve your SEO.

Personal SEO is often overlooked, even though it’s crucial to your online success. Here are two reasons why personal SEO is important: 

1. Personal SEO helps build trust and authority with potential clients and customers; 
2. It’s a critical element of the overall marketing strategy. Implementing personal SEO strategies will help you reach your online goals.

 It’s easy to overlook the importance of personal SEO, but if you want people to find and hire you, they must be able to find your name and contact information in search engines like Google or Bing.

Personal SEO: Make Your Digital Presence Known Step-by-Step

There’s no doubt that we’re all living in a digital age. And with the rise of technology comes an obsession over our online presence. In a world where anyone can Google us, it’s important to take control of personal SEO and make sure we’re putting our best foot forward online.

Keeping your social media accounts up-to-date, having a professional LinkedIn profile, and uploading proper content to your Facebook account are easy ways to boost your online presence.

The Definition of Personal SEO

In its simplest form, personal SEO could be described as taking steps to improve your visibility and ranking in the search engines, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about understanding how search engines work and using that knowledge to your advantage. It’s also about creating valuable content that resonates with your audience, promoting it in the right places, and building links back to your site from reputable sources. Ultimately, personal SEO is all about taking control of your online presence and achieving your goals.

What is the subtle difference between personal SEO and plain old search engine optimization? When you work on personal SEO, you’re also in control of all other online presences connected to your name—profiles on multiple social networks, author bios in guest post submissions, etc.

Suppose you already engage in basic marketing activities like blogging, guest posting, and social media sharing. In that case, personal SEO will be a lot easier for you than for people who are new to online promotion. Personal SEO is all about awareness.

Why Should Business Coaches Use Personal SEO?

When you offer coaching services to a specific audience, you need to start using personal SEO. Why is personal SEO important? Because it tells people who you are and what you do. It establishes a professional identity for business coaches, which is needed now more than ever. 

Coaching is a service that you need to introduce yourself to clients before hiring you. This is especially true if you do not already have a relationship with them. Since most of the world’s population uses search engines to find professional services, hiring an SEO agency for startups and personal services is a sure way to stand out from your competitors.

A well-designed website with smart usage of keywords makes it easier for people to find you online. Google will display your bio when someone looks for you by name, so it’s important to get the search engines working in your favor. Let’s look through the advantages of personal SEO for business coaches:

1. Online Presence

It’s easier for people to find business coaches who use personal SEO. The reputation you’ve built online will help expand your audience and grow your coaching business. By publishing content on sites like your blog, you become an authority in your field. 

2. Credibility

If you have your own website or blog, you’ll be perceived as more expert. It’s important to get at least several links from other trustworthy sources because it gives Google a reason to consider your website and content credible and relevant.

3. Branding

If you want to be a keynote coach someday, personal SEO will help create a brand around your name. Keynote coaches are often recognizable because people have heard of them before. Personal SEO enables you to get your name out there and be top of mind when a company decides to improve business processes with the help of an external specialist. 

4. New relationships 

Personal SEO makes it easier to establish new connections. There’s no better way for people to find you than if they search your name and see your coach bio right away. Most importantly, a personal SEO profile can help you get more engagements. 

The Basics of Google Search

How It Works 

Google is a search engine that indexes billions of web pages, allowing users to find information quickly and easily. It takes three steps to make information appear on a search results page (or SERP):

1. Crawling. A special bot explores web sources to discover updates and newly added data.
2. Indexing. The found content is stored and organized in a special database–index.
3. Ranking. Google uses several algorithms to rank web pages in its index based on over 200 factors. 

Among those factors, we can distinguish matching the keywords you type in your search box with text contents of pages indexed in their database. Google search engine sorts the pages by authority and relevance to the search query and shows them in order of their rank.

However, becoming a pro SEO is not obligatory to keep up with Google. Depending on the scale of your brand, do-it-yourself efforts may be enough at the beginning. There are plenty of available solutions to master SEO. For example, professionals created an SEO school from SE Ranking, which is great for people without prior experience. It consists of 8 modules and covers all SEO basics from how a search engine works to the keyword research process, technical on-page optimization, and SEO analytics. Completing the course will give you more confidence in promoting your brand online. It will also allow you to be on the same page with any marketing professional if you decide to hire one instead of dealing with SEO on your own. 

How It Is Used – Why User Intent Matters With SEO

When most people think about how to do a Google search, they think about typing in keywords or phrases into the search engine’s main text box. You need to focus not only on keywords but also on the user intent behind them. There are four types of intent:

• Informational
  Queries from people looking for answers to their questions or some topic-related data.
  Examples: ‘what is business coaching,’ ‘how to start a life coaching business,’ ‘names for coaching business.’
  Use such key phrases while creating educational content or writing blog posts.
• Navigational
  A user aims to find a particular website, person, business, etc.
  Example: ‘Justine Сlay business coach,’ ‘Meredith Powell facebook’

Often, these are your brand queries. Make sure you add them to your website so people can find you easily.

• Commercial
  A person thinks about buying/ordering something and wants to know more about a brand or product.
  Examples: ‘popular business coaches,’ ‘life coach business cards,’ ‘business coach for entrepreneurs.’
  Once you have a list of such queries related to your niche, strive to provide all the necessary details about the products/services you offer. Publish comparisons, listicles, and give your audience comprehensive descriptions so they can virtually ‘touch’ what they are going to pay for.
• Transactional
  People are seeking to take action or are ready to make a purchase.
  Examples include ‘business coaches near me’ and ‘executive coaching certification.’

These types of queries are great for paid campaigns. Also, make sure your campaign’s landing pages meet a search request and have all required information, so a user will find exactly what they expect there.

By catering to the needs and wants of your target audience, you’ll be able to increase your visibility and drive traffic to your website. Coaches can manually adjust many factors related to how their content is indexed in Google, allowing them to influence the ranking of their pages in search results. This is known as Search Engine Optimization. 

The Ways of Improving Personal SEO in Google

Whether you’re looking for a new job or attracting new clients, a personal SEO strategy can make a big difference. Here are some tips to improve your SEO:

Create Your Own Website

If you’re looking to get hired, having an actual website that showcases your skills, qualifications, and accomplishments can be extremely useful. You can use WordPress or another content management system (CMS) to make a nice-looking site optimized for search engines and easy to navigate. It makes you more memorable and gives people a reason to want to learn more about you.

Register a personal domain for yourself. The domain name you choose will affect how people find you on the web, so the simplest thing is to register your name as a domain and use it on social media networks. For example, if your name is “Jason Harris,” consider registering as jasonharris.com or harrisjason.com. 

Search engine optimization itself. If you have a website, make sure it is search engine optimized. Create unique and quality content to attract links from other sites to your own. Use keywords relevant to your industry and provide useful information for people looking for what you do. 

Your bio must contain a professional background and skills description. Mentioning successful cases will definitely be a plus. The keywords you use will directly affect how well your page ranks on search engines when telling about yourself. Make sure your website and bio include the most important keywords for your niche. 

Segment keywords into groups depending on the type of the page to ensure each of them meets user intent. Focus on relevance. For example, ‘top-rated business coach’ is a good choice for one’s bio or ‘About’ page, while ‘business coach consultation’ fits a service page. Use these keywords in headings, the meta title, and the meta description. They can be edited via a special plugin (like Yoast SEO for WordPress CMS) or directly in code if you have enough expertise to work with it.

Your content must be unique, well-structured, and bring value to the visitors of your source. If done properly, it can increase traffic flow to your site, which, in turn, may increase revenue and the chance of success.

Also, check if your website loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, and displays all important pages without errors. Use automatic website audits or tools like PageSpeed Insights to analyze your resource performance on different types of devices and get explicit instructions on how to improve it. For example, you may need to compress some files, configure redirects or set up an SSL certificate to make your website secure and convenient for both users and search engines.

Add schema markup. Including keywords isn’t the only way to increase your chances to rank higher; it’s also recommended to add schema markup to your website and bio. If a page includes schema markup, it gives search engines more background about the content on a page. 

Schema markup can be added to a bio by modifying the code of your website or with the help of a special plugin (for example, Schema Pro for WordPress CMS). However, this option may be difficult for those who aren’t tech-savvy or don’t have proper access to their website’s admin panel. In such cases, it may be better to hire a professional webmaster familiar with schema markup and how it works. If you are looking for a turn-key solution, consider hiring a consultant or a digital marketing agency that will develop a custom marketing strategy to meet your goals.

LinkedIn for SEO

LinkedIn has quickly become one of the most popular social media networks, with over 260 million users. It’s one of the best platforms for establishing professional connections. To make the most out of your LinkedIn account, you need to know how to optimize it. A well-optimized LinkedIn profile can increase your popularity in your niche and bring new potential customers. 

• Update Your Profile. Once your page is ready, you need to fill out every profile section. This includes information about your professional skills, experience, certifications, etc.

• Optimize your name. The most important thing with a LinkedIn profile is that people can find you by searching for your name. This means that you should include:

• Your first and last name only (no initials)
• No middle names
• Spaces between words instead of underscores
• Avoid using nicknames or abbreviations

Also, you must use the same name across all of your social media and professional accounts. This will make it easier for people to recognize you on different platforms.

• Optimize your headline. Your LinkedIn profile headline acts as a title for people viewing your public profile, and it also appears in search results. The goal of the headline is to tell readers what you do and who you are in a few words, so try to avoid filling up the headline with too much information.

• Optimize your summary. The goal of having a well-written resume is to give viewers an idea of what you’re all about. Write a summary that includes your brand and what you do or offer in a few words or sentences. You can use this space to show your skills, interests, and achievements.

• List three of your most relevant strengths
• Describe who you are in one sentence
• Introduce your service in one sentence
• Give some interesting information about yourself that doesn’t fit into the work, education, or experience section if applicable
• Mention where you’re located

• Optimize Profile URL. The link to your public profile appears throughout LinkedIn but most notably in search results when people search for your name or title. To optimize your public profile URL, make sure it’s short and includes your name. 

• Link to Other Profiles. Having a LinkedIn profile is helpful, but people will likely want more information about you. Linking back to other social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) lets your audience quickly get in touch with you. It also gives search engines like Google another chance to crawl your social accounts.

Claim your knowledge panel while using SEO

Your knowledge panel is the information that appears when someone searches for you on Google. It consists of a header, an image, a short description of your site, and perhaps some additional details depending on your online media presence. Once you claim and access it, you can control what is shown in your knowledge panel, including adding or updating your contact information, website, and more. By taking advantage of this feature, you can make it easier for people to find and learn more about your personality.

Typically, Google will automatically claim and show your Knowledge Panel in search results. However, you can also claim and optimize the panel for increased control over its contents and appearance. By claiming your Knowledge Panel, you can:

• Add a header graphic that reinforces your brand
• Easily edit the text and images that show up in your Knowledge Panel
• Show more information about yourself 

Outreach third-party websites

If you’re looking to improve your Google search results, a great way to do it is by contributing articles and giving interviews to popular resources. You’ll increase the chances of your website and name showing up higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Guest posting is a nice way to boost your search engine results. You can do this by syndicating articles or contributing to your niche blogs on other websites. Once your article and/or video is published, share it on social media and add an engaging intro or a brief summary.

Another way to get more search engine attention is by giving interviews. If you write a new book or have some interesting insights to share about your industry, you can easily get the word out by being a guest on a radio, TV show, or podcast.

In addition to improving your search engine visibility, your website can also benefit from backlinks when you publish articles or participate in other forms of content sharing. In fact, the more quality links that point to your website, the better it is for SEO. 

Join business coach communities 

If you’re looking to improve personal SEO, join online coach communities like Small Business Coach Associates. By sharing your content and becoming an active member of these groups, you’ll gain access to valuable resources that can help you improve your visibility and reach. You will be able to learn from other members and also connect with potential clients and customers.

When you participate, your online visibility will improve, and you’ll be in a circle of like-minded professionals. 

To benefit the most from these communities, you must become an active member. Participating regularly will help you stay on top of your SEO efforts and ensure that you’re not missing out on any valuable opportunities. 

Conclusion on SEO

Working on the digital world of your personality may take some time, but if done correctly, it may exceed your expectations and be a great help to your professional growth. It’s worth investing resources to improve personal SEO on Google to reap the benefits in the form of new opportunities for your career as a business coach.