SEO and Website Marketing: Why Your Business Isn’t Getting Found

Most small business websites don’t fail because they look bad — they fail because no one can find them.
In this episode of Act on Tech, Alex breaks down SEO and website marketing in simple terms, explaining why your business might not be showing up online and what you can actually do about it. From local SEO and Google Business optimization to clear website messaging and consistency, this episode focuses on what works in the real world — not theory.
If you’re tired of having a website that doesn’t bring in leads, this is where you start.

👉 Share this episode with another business owner and start building a system that gets you found.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Are you ready to make technology work for you? Tune in to Act on Tech, the podcast where we break down the latest tech trends and show you how to boost your productivity at home and in your business. So, subscribe to Act On Tech today and visit alexcustomtech.com to see how we can take your business to the next level. That's Act on Tech, your guide to smarter tech for a smarter business. Alex Custom Tech, IT means integrity and trust.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Hi, welcome to Acton Tech where we talk all things technology. Today we're going to talk about something that's very s that every small business owner thinks they understand, myself included, but very few actually get it right, myself included. Now I'm not an expert in this, I I fully understand the fundamentals, but we're gonna walk through this together. Um and I'm doing this process right now with my with my business and Alex Alex Alex Custom Tech, and and that's why that's why I do the podcast. This is a part of the SEO. And hopefully you can pick up something from here and and take it into your own business and help your yourself being found, right? Because if you're not being found, you don't have any SEO, right? So so let's let's unpack this together and I'll walk you through the fundamentals and then you know you can you can take it from there where you can use it how you how you but it's information that you can use, okay? So what actually is SEO, what it really means, and we're gonna talk about what it is actually. No buzzwords, you know how I unpack things and make it you know down the earth, right? So let's simplify this the much as much as we can, right? So SEO, right? SEO or search engine optimization. So the the definition is in the name, right? And it's just this making your business easy to be found or easy to find when someone searches what you do. So you want them typing what they're looking for, you and say, I want IT service in Pennsylvania or I want IT service in New Jersey. I should be coming up with everybody else that's in New Jersey, right? On one of the first pages, and that's like ranking, but we're gonna go into that later, right? So it's not a trick, it's not a hack. There's no trick, there's no hack. People are gonna try to sell you this stuff, like okay, make your page show up number one on Google, all this stuff. That's all BS, right? That's not a thing, right? There's no trick, there's no hack. You can't game the system, right? So we're gonna walk through how to get it done, how to do it, right? How to approach it. And remember, I'm doing this right now, right? I am doing this right now in my business. So this is how I I and I've been I've been doing this a long time, and it's something I am I I am not a very touch and go with when it when it comes to SEO because it requires a lot of consistency and a lot of I'm I'm gonna go through it with you so you know what I'm talking about. So when someone types in IT service, IT support, right, in Google, right, and your business don't show up, that means you're doing SEO wrong, or your business doesn't exist, right? And that's the point, that's what you want to get away from. So the biggest mistake small businesses make, right? So here's something that most people go about wrong when it comes to SEO. They think I have a site and that's good, right? Or are they have I have a site up and people have just automatically find me? But the answer is no. A website without SEO is like putting up a billboard desert, right? It looks really nice in the desert, looks really good against the backdrop, but nobody's out there looking at this thing, right? So the three things that actually matters when it comes to SEO, so let's kind of break it up, right? One local SEO, where your location is, people who are around you, right? And that's the number one thing for business. I think I think that's the number one thing to work on, right? You need Google business profiles, you need to send up a go, and the reason why you use a Google business profile is because Google is the number one search engine people use, right? So you want to make sure you have you have that lock and notice if you get a Google account, set up set up your business in there, own it, and then set up the Google profile for the best optimization, all right. Consistent name address phone number is called NAP everywhere, right? And real, and that's number two. So consistent name address phone number, right? And the third thing is the reviews. So you need to have people do reviews for your website or for your business on Google that also drive traffic because then SEO will say, Okay, this person is a legitimate business, you have a legitimate following, or there's constant people updating everything, and and there's a phone number and address, and what he does, everything is clear there, so right there, right there, boom. That's gets you leaves and bounds above other people. So that's very important, right? Now, here's the juicy part that I'm working on right now. So I really did number one, and you should start. If you don't have number one, if you don't have a Google profile, you need to work on that right now. But here's where I'm working, and here's where I am spending most of my time, and you should do this too if you want to get a good SEO, right? Number two is website content, right? This is where people really they put a website static website, meaning that static meaning is just the CMP is like a billboard. You need to have it static, you need to have it dynamic, right? So websites should clearly answer, right? What you do, who you help, where you operate. Alright, so sometimes people operate as a service and they sell things online, so that's requires a form or something like that, but that's supposed to be updated, right? Nothing fancy, nothing clever, just simple, right? And a clear example of this would be like what I have right now, like you know, innovative technology solution for modern businesses, something like that, or IT support for small businesses in Pennsylvania, right? Just simple to the point, right? Number three is consistency, right? This is where most people feel, even myself, struggle with this over the years, right? You need regular updates, blog posts should be consistent, should have a blog post on there, right? Because the SEO search for those things, right? Keywords and that kind of stuff, small improvement over time. So it's nothing that happened overnight. You'll build a website, and overnight you have to hit techno. You want to actually drive traffic to the site, that's why you have your blog post. Your blog posts points to your site, you have links outside of your site, so you put your links on other things, you put the links in social media is a good way to do it. So if SEO sees that you're coming from other people are coming from other places to your site, it'll rank you more, right? And if it sees that you know you're updating your site are constantly, you're you're changing things, like for instance. I do the podcast, podcasts are on the site, right? That's a good SEO signal. Um, the podcast is podcasts are always somewhere else, but when people go to the podcast and want to learn more about Alex Custom Tech, they can click on the podcast, a link on the podcast, and it takes me to the take you to the site. That's a good SEO practice, right? So that's kind of how we are we navigate it. This is just an example, this is fundamentals, right? Four right, website marketing where SEO meets reality, right? So SEO gets people to get people to your site, right? But here's a key, which is kind of what I'm working on, also is a conversion. So you want them to go to your site, look around, and then convert to to clients or to customers or the sign up or to give you a call, right? So watch this this should decide to answer these things. What you do, why they should trust you, what to do next. So, what you do, why they should trust you, what to do next, right? Call you know, call you or fill out a form, which is what I have on my site, or book a consultation. Because some people, like I said, it's not like a building, they have a business, they have a they have like some kind of some people do a lot of coaching right now. Um book a consultation, they should be motivated to do that, and again, that's kind of like a great area, but what if they're on your site, they're actually interested in something anyway, so they should be motivated to do it. Now, what I would like is people to come on the site and then really not just I mean to look around and and and listen to the content and watch the videos if there is any videos on YouTube or whatever and get to know me first before they really reach out. But if I mean I just want them to be ready to move to the next step. Um, I don't want them to have me convince them because I can't, so that's kind of where I am trying to figure out how to navigate that space because I don't believe that I can convince anybody, I think the merit should convince them on its own. So the site, the content, what I do, how I approach IT should convince them. Me personally, Alex can't convince anybody. I've never convinced anybody in my life, and I'm not gonna start trying to do it, so I don't really believe in that. Also, I think that kind of leans over into the manipulation thing, so I don't really really believe that. So whoever comes to me to my site, that's why I have all these things there. That's why I have my my little part of the internet sweeped out because I want them to really immerse themselves into what I do before they call. Again, when you call me, you should be ready, and that's why I this that's why I kind of like navigate the SEO the way I do, right? There's no again, but as long as you answer those questions, as long as they know what you do, why they should choose you, why they should trust you, and what to do next, I think you pretty much got um website marketing down, right? And and and and people might say, Well, you're simplifying it, but I think things everything in life really is simple. We just complicate it with gray areas, it really is simple. If people need more than this to come to you, I mean you have to question that that person as a client, right? And that's just my take on it. So, again, this is fundamentalists yo, there's more to it than just this, but don't fall for the hype, don't fall for people telling you they can rank your number one on Google and also that's not possible, right? I mean, and even in your pay, there's still no guarantee you're gonna be ranked number one or anything like that. You have to have content, you have to have something people want, you have to have a product or a service people actually want and willing to pay for. And I just think that the content and the product it sells itself. Um, of course, people are charismatic and people like them and draw to them for that reason. I'm not negating that, I'm just saying that everybody is not as a small number of people. If you're a business and you are an accountant or you're a dentist or whatever you have, you go online and you're supposed to be in a particular area. Make sure that they know where you are, what you do, your phone number, your address, right, and reviews, right? That's what I'm saying, and that will help you better than any paying anybody to rank you in the SEO. So here's number five, which well, I kind of started number five already the hard truth, but here it is. Most people don't want to hear, right? SEO takes time again. That's what I'm trying to say. It takes time, there's no shortcut to it, right? And nobody can promise you number one, no one guarantee you any ranking. Now that's up, none of that stuff is is is is anybody can even selling you that is is kind of shitty, right? What actually works is consistency, constant posting, constant updating to the site, improving over time outside links, pointing to the site, right? Clear objective for the site, meaning that you know I'm I'm here in this particular area for this particular service, and this is how you get in contact touch with me, right? And that's really and that's really it. There's no rocket science to it now. Again, to me, this is the definitive SEO um podcast that covers pretty much the most important things, there's more to it, but this is really a solid information I'm giving you, and you can actually give this to other business owners if they're interested in in managing the SEO themselves, right? Again, don't buy the hype, don't pay people to rank you, they can't, right? You have to do it over time. You you know, of your updates on your site, link to your site from other sites, use your social media accounts, try to get your clients or customers to give you Google reviews, these are the things to help you, right? And that's what I'm saying. So let's close it out, all right. So, again, this is a good podcast. I would consider this one of the real useful podcasts that I've ever done. So, if you can have hand it hand talk to one of your friends that have their own business that that could use this podcast and want to have this knowledge, you can do that. So, in running a small business, your website isn't bringing in leads, right? It's not broken, you just gotta tweak this, tweak it to these to these optimization, and then you should be get a better result. None can't guarantee you number one, but I can guarantee you that the SEO will be more friendlier to you going forward because it's not confused about what you're doing. So, first thing remember you gotta do think about these things. Think about it this way, right? Fix your Google listing profile, so on and forth, clean up your website messages, right? Make sure that your messages are direct. I live in this area, are we located in this area? This is what we do, right? And here's how your content is three things, right? And then be consistent, update it all the time, once a week, twice a week. You know, do content. It's it's what I what I find, and it's interesting. The content is what you do anyway, so it's not hard to create the content. Um, perfection, that's that's a whole different animal, and that's what I'm struggling with. Like, okay, like I'm doing the podcast, like I'm doing the podcast, and I'm very dry and I'm boring, right? But information is valuable, so I'm doing the content, and it's not hard for me to create one of these podcasts every week because I live breed IT, so it's very easy for me to take a topic and just and just talk about it, right? Okay, I'm not the most entertaining person in the world, and I'm not looking to and I know that I'm I'm well aware of that, but but you can't deny the content that I'm giving you. And I'm trying to do the same thing with the blog posts, with my with my blog posts, and I try to make it coexist with the with the content that I'm creating too, right? And that I help help uh me and AI write that together. But those things is what I'm trying to put on my website now to to create that consistency that it needs because the scrapers come to it and it scrapes it and then it catalogues it. That's kind of what happened with the SEO, it scrapes the site and then catalogs the words and stuff like that. And you have to really think about you talk about keywords, don't think about keywords like oh, I gotta put this word or that word in there. Just do the content, write the blog, and the keywords would naturally flow from you in that. Because I believe you can't really prove this, but I believe that the that that the like the SEO targets certain things too, like if you're trying to put like a bunch of keywords that doesn't make any sense, you just want to put the keyword in there, it dings you a negative. So you want to make sure that you don't do that, just naturally flow, naturally talk about what you do, and it'll sort itself out. But all you have the keyword is the key thing is is is consistency, and that's what I think will help, right? So with that said, if this helps you, like I said, share it with another business owner, right? And I never set up any of that any other content before, and I really would like them to be shared, but this one I think is really good and share this one in a business who's struggling with SEO because I think people are paying for this stuff and they shouldn't be doing that, right? And I've helped people people with this before, right? So catch you on the next one. Like I always say, stay productive.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

You've been listening to Act on Tech, powered by Alex Custom Tech. We help small businesses take control of their technology with secure networks, reliable backups, and systems designed to run without interruption. No guesswork, no quick fixes, just IT that works the way it should. For business services and professional camera installations, visit alexcustomtech.com. Stay connected, stay secure, and stay in control. This is Abby from Polyvinyl 97 FM saying thank you for listening to Act on Tech. And we'll see you next Wednesday, same time, same place.