SEO with No Budget – with Matthew Woodward
Welcome back, marketers! You’re listening to the 19th installment of The Marketing Microscope podcast. In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Woodward of MatthewWoodward.co.uk – an award-winning SEO expert who has been helping businesses increase their search traffic for more than a decade.
In this episode, we’re talking all about SEO – and how to get the ball rolling with no budget. Yes, SEO is possible with 0 dollars. Our conversation begins at, well, the beginning. We discuss the best starting points of a budget-free SEO campaign, and what it takes to get the needle moving. Spoiler: it’s time. We touch on the best mindset to get into, then discuss the major factors to take care of first – this mostly involves technical site adjustments like loading speeds and indexability.
Matthew differentiates the early process between a company site with no search traffic compared to one that has some momentum going. We get into the nuts and bolts of keyword research, identifying trending questions, and how to allocate precious time. Matthew and I trade some advice on budget-less link building, as well as some of the biggest mistakes to avoid early in the game.
After a brief intermission, Matthew and I follow up on our first segment by discussing ways to keep the momentum going as SEO results start to show themselves. Matthew addresses some of the major red flags to watch out for in the initial months, some key goals to set, and the mistakes to avoid as things start to pick up.
Our conversation then changes gears to outsourcing. Let’s clarify something first – SEO is generally possible to start without a budget. Ideally, if you are seeing success, you’re also seeing an uptick in business demand. When this is the case, you’ll have less time to dedicate to SEO – and therefore need to outsource. Outsourcing SEO tasks can be challenging, especially with a razor-thin budget.
Matthew and I talk about when to outsource, which tasks to pass off, and when it’s ok (and not ok) to go the cheap route. We dive into the details of choosing a provider, the red flags to look for, and how much you should aim to spend on a campaign.
As the show comes to a close, Matthew and I talk about how a good partnership should be run with an SEO agency – meeting deadlines, being transparent, delivering consistent results – as well as some key signs it’s time to dump the provider.
As in normal fashion when we close out episodes of The Marketing Microscope, we get some excellent parting advice from Matthew:
- Don’t underestimate the power of observation in SEO
- Go with your gut – don’t get involved in any SEO tactic that seems shady
- Create content that answers questions
- If you’re going to really ramp things up, outsource to a credible agency.
Tools + Tactics mentioned in the podcast:
Are you looking to ramp up SEO – but don’t currently have a budget?
This ep is definitely worth a listen!
You can listen to more episodes of The Marketing Microscope on our website – as well as on Stitcher.
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