Why SEO is the perfect solution for Introverted Coaches
Ever felt like you’re shouting into the empty (yet loud and busy) void of social media, hoping for a whisper back and praying to G-d nobody calls you a nasty name or showers you with unjust criticism?
On the other hand, SEO is like having a quiet conversation with someone who actually wants to hear what you’re saying. When done right, it helps people who need your expertise find you effortlessly.
Technical SEO Tips for Online Coaches:Why SEO is Your New BFF
Well hello there fellow introverts! If you’re anything like me, the idea of constantly posting on social media to grow your online business feels about as appealing as a root canal.
At least after extensive dental work you get pretty new teeth and don’t have to repeat the exercise again tomorrow.
And next week.
And next month.
And forever more…
You’re probably here because you’ve been hammering away at the Social Media algorithms, psyching yourself up and putting on your make-up, smart clothes and setting up the fancy lighting… even if you’re more the kind of gal to be wearing yoga pants and a wee smudge of soup down your t-shirt! And terrified some mean arse is going to berate you in the comments.
Honestly, I get it. I used to get myself worked up into such a frenzy doing lives they totally drained my emotional energy – and then you know what someone said? Someone I’d never set eyes on in my life before and someone who wasn’t even vaguely in my area of business?
He commented under my live: “I wish you marketers would just die”.
🙁 I mean what do you even do with that?
It didn’t do my self-worth any good that day that’s for sure.
The Harmful Effects of Not Getting Likes
This study from science direct suggests that the majority of women would prefer that socials didn’t show the ‘number of likes’ on any given post. Those that are in favour of the likes tend to be the ones who base their value on ‘feeling attractive’.
By highlighting this, I understand that:
1. I’m making myself sound like a grumpy & ugly old woman who hates the way she looks. 😉
2. It sounds like I’m making excuses.
I’m trying not to, but I do feel that the socials lend themselves to being a ‘popularity contest’ with filters and the depiction of a ‘champagne lifestyle’.
Each and evey time we post and the only like we get is from our mum – and even the tumbleweeds ignore us – it makes us doubt what we’re doing.
It makes us question our knowledge and expertise and we can come perilously close to throwing in the towel and just giving up on online business in its entirety.
But guess what? You don’t have to play the social media game to get clients.
Yep, you heard me right. I’m going to share with you some killer SEO tips that’ll help you climb to the top of Google’s search results and attract clients who are genuinely interested in what you offer – without ever needing to post another selfie or try and learn the latest TikTok dance craze.
I mean seriously, c’mon! I can’t even get a dance routine right. I went to a step class once and everyone else was going clockwise around their step and I was going anti-clockwise. And now I’m expected to choreograph a dance routine? Mama mia!
On-Page SEO: The Nuts and Bolts
Alright, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of on-page SEO.
This involves all those little tweaks you can make directly on your website to improve its visibility in search engines.
If you’ve been around the block in your online business (over 12 months) then you’ll already have a website you can make these tweaks on.
Changes you can make to give Google a wee thrill are:
Meta tags
These are essentially the informational data you want to pass on to Google about your site/page/post.
For example, in this post I’ve talked about feeling ugly, someone saying something mean to me, make-up and social validation. However, these are far from the point of this post.
So, I’ll be telling Google by way of my meta tags (and descriptions) that I want them to list this blog article around the topic of technical SEO for coaches.
Headers
Think of them like a book.
You have your title, your section(s), your chapters, your paragraphs and your sentences within the hierarchy.
By defining these, you get to tell Google the ‘most important’ topic/subject area about your website.
H1 tags carry the heaviest weight and should complement themselves across your site.
Whilst it’s tempting to think “the more the merrier”, you shouldn’t use more than 1 per page/blog post otherwise you seriously muddy the waters and make the machines over at Google HQ very cross.
You can use H2 tags to give context around those H1 tags to give Google a deeper understanding of the topic you’re explaining.
Header tags are used to send information to Google/Bing – they’re not there to define text size!
Alt tags
Alt tags are used to give a written description for an image you use.
They’re not daft over there at Google, so there’s no point repeating the page title if it’s completely irrelevant to the picture in question.
If you’ve got a picture of a woman biting into an apple, then your alt tag should be along the lines of “woman-biting-into-healthy-apple” rather than “best diet plan 2025”.
On a more friendly note – alt tags are used by the visually-impaired who use software to read out the pages, so when the software comes across an alt tag – it will describe the contents of your image to your customer.
Summary
You don’t need to be a tech wizard to make these changes. Simple tweaks like using H1 tags for your main headings and including keywords in your meta descriptions can make a huge difference to getting your site found, ranked and shown to your customers.
