How to Grow Your Audience with SEO

Have you ever wondered if you could use SEO to help grow your audience? There’s so much focus on social media and ads, but what about good ol’ SEO for audience growth? Oh, my friend, SEO should be your favorite marketing channel because it’s so powerful. You can grow your audience with SEO in a few simple steps. SEO can help you be found by your ideal customer, wherever they search. Whether someone is searching a traditional search engine like Google or an answer engine or AI search engine like ChatGPT or Claude, or even a podcast app, SEO can help them find you. When you optimize the content you create for your audience, you make it easier to find. 

 

 

How do you grow your audience with SEO?

 

First, you’ll want to keep your Ideal Customer in mind as you develop your content. What do they want to know? What do they need help with? Brainstorm content ideas for your Ideal Customer. Need help identifying your Ideal Customer? Check out this post.  We want to make sure we create content that our ideal customer is interested in, is searching for, and wants to read. When we create content that our audience is searching for and optimize it for search, we make it easier for them to find the help they need or the answers to their questions. You want to think about your ideal customer and the questions they have to make sure you're creating the right content for them. You don't want to just create content on a whim because that often wastes time, because we end up creating content no one is searching for, and that won't grow your audience or your business. 

 

I always have my students start by brainstorming a list of questions their ideal customers ask them all the time. This is a great starting point for content development, especially with AI-based search, since AI search is all about searching for answers to questions. You want to be a resource that's included in the search summary, and if you're not creating content that's helpful and answering the questions people are asking, you're going to struggle to be visible online. 

  

Second, research keywords that are tied to the content ideas you generated. What terms does your Ideal Customer use when they’re searching for something? Are there terms with more search demand than others? Are there terms you think you can rank for easier than others? Not sure what SEO keywords are? Check out this post.  You want to look for keywords your website has a good chance of ranking for, ones your ideal customer uses when searching for information related to your topic.

 

You also want to think about the questions they ask because you'll want to incorporate some of those in your copy for AI search. It's important to think about both keywords and questions for SEO moving forward. SEO includes traditional search and AI-based search. You may hear people say GEO, AEO, etc. However, Google has stated it's all SEO, there's no need to use the other terms. It's all SEO in their opinion. 

  

Third, create content for your ideal customer. Write your blog post, record your video or podcast episode, and make sure you answer the questions your potential customers ask. Need help speeding up the process? I have a blog post on how to batch content to save you time. It will help you be more consistent. Creating content on a regular basis is one of the best ways to expand your reach, grow your audience, and increase your visibility, if you're creating content people are searching for, and you're optimizing that content for discovery. 

 

It's also important to note that it's important to stay focused on content topics or pillars. Staying within your niche, creating content that's focused on your customer, and goes deep rather than super wide works best for search. Google wants to know that you're an expert at what you're talking about. Google search specifically uses a system called E-E-A-T to grade content on websites. It looks to see if the site is from an expert, if they have Experience in the subject, if it's an Authoritative site, and how Trustworthy the site is. For example, my site is an authoritative site for small business SEO and marketing, but it's not an authoritative site for baking. Now, I'm an excellent baker and have lots of experience, but if I suddenly started sharing my recipes with you, Google would not reward me with high rankings for my recipe posts, and I'd confuse the AI search engines and in the end, likely hurt my overall visibility and definitely confuse my audience. So, I don't share my favorite recipes here. Though once in a while, I do share a picture of something I've made that I'm proud of on social. 

 

Fourth, optimize your content using the keywords you researched and ensure you follow the SEO best practices for your website (not sure what to do, get your copy of my free Beginner's Guide to SEO today.

 

Be sure to use the keyword you've selected in each of the areas that Google looks for insights as to what your page is about. You'll want to use it in the title tag, meta description, header tags, copy, and image file names. Use the Beginner's Guide to SEO to find out how to format each one and what the best practices are for SEO on your website or blog. 

 

You also want to optimize your copy for AI search or answer engine optimization. You want to make sure you're thinking about the questions someone would be asking an answer engine like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity, and incorporating those into your copy as well. I have a Beginner's Guide to AI SEO you can request here. It walks you through what you need to do for AEO, GEO, and AI-based SEO. 

 

You want to do both traditional SEO and AI-based SEO for each piece of content on your site because your ideal customer may search using either a traditional search engine or with AI. 

 

 

Fifth, be sure to add an opt-in to the content pages that you’re creating so that you can begin to nurture that new lead and, in time, turn it into a customer. Not sure how to create a lead magnet? Get started here.  You want to make sure your opt-in or freebie directly helps your ideal customer and is the next step from initial content information to action. You want it to be a quick or easy win for them, something where they can feel like they're making progress within 10-15 minutes at the most. You don't want it to be a 30-page PDF; keep it short, simple, helpful, and actionable. You want them to not only request the guide, but also use it because when they find something from you that's helpful, they're more likely to want to work with you again in the future. 

 

Your content can (and should) serve different purposes on your website. You should have some content that's designed and optimized for discovery / visibility, content that's designed to generate leads, nurture readers, and help with conversion. You want to think about the different stages of the sales cycle that your ideal customer goes through and make sure you have the information they need at each step. 

  

 

How does this SEO strategy work?

  

As you create & optimize more content, you should start to rank for more keywords and be more visible on AI search. When you are more visible, you're more likely to be found by your ideal customer when they're searching for information related to your niche. Being visible wherever your ideal customer searches is the key to growing your business online. Without visibility within your niche, your business will be limited to helping those who already know your name, and for most small business owners, that's not enough people to reach their long-term goals. 

  

The higher you rank in Google’s search results, the more traffic you get. Generally, the websites in positions 1-3 get about 60% of all search traffic. As you move up on page 1, you will get more traffic because more people will see your search results. However, we are seeing a decrease in overall SEO traffic with the increase in AI-based search. Most sites are getting less organic or SEO traffic than they did in the past, but many are seeing an increase in direct traffic, which is often from their expanded AI visibility. I've personally seen my organic traffic decrease and my direct traffic increase significantly over the past two years. The overall traffic is up, and that's what we want. We want your site to be visible wherever people search. 

 

With AI-based search, we don't have to rank on page 1 of Google, which is very helpful, especially in competitive niches where it's hard to find keywords that rank there. You want to be visible in traditional and AI search, so your ideal customers can find you wherever they search. And this means you need to do SEO on every page of your website that you want to have someone find online. 

  

If your website offers value to them, they’ll likely stick around, sign up for your opt-in, or return the next time they have a question about something related to what you do. You also want to send them your nurturing content each week if you have an opt-in and have collected their email address. The content you create and share with them each week needs to answer more questions, provide value, be helpful, and be actionable. You don't want to teach them everything in your free content, or they won't have a reason to buy from you or work with you, but you want to teach them enough that they find you helpful. It's a real balancing act, isn't it? Anyone who's been creating nurturing content for a while knows that it's a challenge to find the right amount. I've been creating content and sending my weekly nurturing emails since 2018, and it's definitely a balance to find the right mix of teaching, help, and making sure people still have a reason to pay you so you can stay in business. 

 

Taking the time to develop your SEO content strategy and choose the right keywords and AI questions can help your business be visible online.  The more people Google and AI-based search engines send your way, the bigger your audience can grow. What's great about organic growth or SEO traffic is that it sends you people who are interested in what you offer and are actively looking for information, guidance, or help. You're not trying to catch their attention when they're doing something else, like with social media and paid ads. Now, that's not to say that paid ads or social media are bad for marketing. I believe that all marketing channels can work for a business; you just want to have a mix of channels to grow your business. 

 

Small Business SEO FAQs

  

How long does it take SEO to grow an audience?

 

SEO takes time to work; in general, we see the first increases in visibility in about 6 months. Traditional SEO (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.) tended to see the initial results in 6-12 months and the biggest increase in traffic in months 12-24. Things have changed a bit with AI search. We're seeing visibility happen faster now with AI-based search. I've seen some sites start generating traffic within a few days for AI-based search content. I've personally also had blog posts rank in position #1 on Google within 30 days and start to drive traffic to the site quickly. Honestly, how fast things work can vary from one piece of content to another. It is going to depend on how competitive the targeted keyword is, how authoritative your website is, and what the competition looks like in your niche, so the amount of time it takes will vary depending on those factors. It can happen quickly, and it can take time. That's why it's important to create content on an ongoing basis and post new content consistently. 

Can SEO help a brand-new business?

 

Yes, SEO can help a brand-new business. With a new business, often the biggest challenge is showing up for your business name and making sure the people who are searching for you can find your website quickly and easily in both traditional and AI-based searches. One of the first things I have my students or clients do is to make sure they optimize their websites for their business name so that people who are searching for them can find them in Google and AI search. So often, new businesses aren't at the top of the results when people search their name. Once we have them showing up consistently for their brand name, then we start to work on a long-term, non-brand strategy so that people who are searching for their niche can start to find them, even if they don't know their name yet. 

Is blogging still important for SEO?

 

Yes, blogging is still important for SEO. Honestly, with the move to AI-based search, I think blogging is going to see a resurgence in popularity because brands want to be able to be visible in the search results, and how you show up is changing. We no longer just get a list of websites that might be able to help us when we search for information online. Today, we get information directly from the tool we use, whether it be Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google, Claude, etc. They give us an overview that answers our question (or begins to answer it), and as business owners, if we want to be in that review, we need to have information on our websites, such as blog posts. Google uses the terms commodity and non-commodity content to explain how they view content. They want you to create non-commodity content if you want to be visible in search moving forward. Your blog plays a big role in this because non-commodity content is content that only you could create. It includes anecdotes, information, personal experience, case studies, data, etc. It aligns closely with E-E-A-T, which Google shared with us several years ago. E-E-A-T is a grading system Google uses to determine which content it wants to share with readers. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust - which, to me, aligns closely with today's non-commodity content. Commodity content is defined as content that could be provided by an AI summary. There's nothing really new, unique or interesting and if you create that, you're not going to show up much. So your blog is still important, but make sure you're sharing anecdotes and information in it that will help your readers. 

Does AI search replace Google SEO?

 

No, AI search doesn't replace Google SEO. Google stated in their AI search optimization guidelines that AI search is still search, and our traditional SEO best practices are still really important. They outright said you don't need to use the terms AEO or GEO, as in their view, it's all still SEO. However, the way people search is changing, as are the search results. People are no longer just searching with a keyword and going through a list of websites. They're often searching with a phrase, sentence, or full AI prompt and looking for more information. They like the AI-based summaries and find them helpful. Though there are concerns with AI hallucinations, people don't automatically believe what AI tells them and will often go to Google to search for more information on a subject. I've read research studies that showed up to 50% of the people who start a search in AI go to Google after they get some information from an AI search and are ready to make a decision. I've also seen this happen with students and clients both. AI gave the searcher information, Google showed them, my student or client, when they refined their search, and then it was the student or client who made the money because their content was SEO friendly and easy for the search engines to understand, so people found it quickly when they were searching. I have a student who is a therapist who had this happen. A new client asked ChatGPT what type of therapy they needed and then searched for that type of therapy in their local area and my student's website was at the top of Google (because she'd done SEO on the site and had created a page on that specific type of therapy) and because she was easy to find and had the information they needed, they reached out, and she was able to help them. 

How often should I publish content?

 

You should publish content as often as you can do it consistently. If you can create one great blog post each month that's helpful to your audience, answers their questions, and provides value, then that's what you should do. If you have the bandwidth to do it more often, then that's even better. Each new piece of content you create is another chance for your business to be visible in traditional and AI-based search. I personally send an email to my list every Tuesday. I also share a blog post and create a podcast episode each week. Not everyone can create that much content on a consistent basis. I think it's more important to determine what works for your business rather than just listening to what the gurus tell you to do. You also want to make sure you're taking time to update older pieces. This has always mattered for Google, and it remains important with AI-based search. The most recent studies show that AI tends to share content that's been created (or updated) within the past year most often. Go back and refresh old pieces that are still relevant. That's exactly what I'm doing here. This is an older blog post, but I'm refreshing it for AI-based search because it was originally written before ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Google AI existed. Now, it's updated, refreshed, and ready for new readers who will find it via Google or AI search. 

Can I grow an audience without social media?

 

You absolutely can grow an audience without social media. I personally don't focus a lot on social media. I have a presence on the different channels, but I don't put a lot of focus or time there because, for me, I see that my SEO content (website, blog, and podcast) performs significantly better. I also find that social media content creation takes a lot more time than I really have. I can write one blog post, use it to outline a podcast episode, and have those two assets build visibility, traffic, and leads for my business for years. Or I can record a few Reels, spend hours editing them, and hope to get 25 views. Most social media posts are only visible for a few hours or days at a time. I want my marketing efforts to work longer than that. I also think part of my advantage is that I was in marketing before social media became a marketing channel so I know other ways to grow my business that work really well. 

What is the difference between SEO and social media marketing?

 

The biggest difference between SEO and social media marketing is that SEO is a foundational strategy for your business, while social media is a channel you can use to get your message out. SEO helps you understand what content to create on your site, based on data, it shows you which pages to create, what to blog about, and what podcast episodes to release. It helps you connect with your customer at different stages of their journey so you can create content to help with visibility, lead generation, nurturing, and conversion. Social media can be one of your marketing channels, but it's not a marketing strategy. You can use the content ideas that SEO helps you discover to create the content for social media. But SEO should be the foundation of everything you create for your business. That's the part I see so many people get wrong when it comes to how to use SEO in your business. Most entrepreneurs don't understand that SEO should be 

See how easy it is to grow your audience with SEO?

If you're ready to do this for your business, I'd love to help you. I work with students in a group program or one-on-one. I'd love to help you with this too. Let's chat. 

If you're ready to do this for your business, join me in Simple SEO Content, and I'll walk you through how to do it step-by-step.