Tips from Marketing Bootcamp: Digital marketing made easy with these 3 free tools

Do you know what the terms SEO, keywords, bid strategy and conversion rates mean and why they matter for your small business? Marketing in the digital age is nothing short of complex. Not sure where to start? No fear—Startup Alleghenies is here to help. Be on the lookout for expert articles that will feature key take aways from the 90–120-minute Bootcamp sessions. Check out Startup Alleghenies for the full videos.

Let’s jump right into our first topic: free tools to launch your SEO strategy.

What is SEO? The acronym means Search Engine Optimization. It is a strategy used on your website to provide specific keywords and phrases to be indexed by search engines like Google when they crawl the content on your website. When implemented properly, this strategy will help your website rank higher and drive more traffic to your site.

There are plenty of paid tools and companies out there that will do this for you, but Digital Marketing expert George Potts said that you can do it yourself with these free tools.

“For small businesses, we recommend that you start small. These tools and strategies are like building blocks and you can build as you go,” he said.

Google Trends

This free tool allows you to understand how people are searching. With this tool you’ll be able to analyze and trend:

• Deadtime- minimize your paid search during this slow time 
• Topics and queries that people are searching
• Remarketing to anyone who has searched for a specific word or query

Google Ads- Keyword Plan

Google Ads is a free account that you can create even if you aren’t quite ready to launch your first paid ad. In your free Google Ads account, you will see the Keywords Plan this tool will help you optimize your website as well as your paid ads by reviewing keywords for:

• Average monthly searches- how often are these keywords being searched over time
• Competition level- for paid searches zero in on keywords that have low competition
• Keyword ideas- this will show other keywords that you may want to use to optimize your organic strategy

Google Search Console

Google is coming in clutch with another free tool to help analyze the technical SEO of your website. This tool will give a reading on how healthy the website is showing what is good and what needs improvement. 

• Core web vitals- load time of your website is a key element impacting your quality score, good URLs with no errors. Monitor these vitals on a weekly or monthly basis.
• Mobile usability
• On-page optimization

Startup Alleghenies helps startup and emerging small businesses succeed by providing free coaching to entrepreneurs in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties. To access personal, one-on-one support from a coach in your county, including guidance, resources, tools and networking opportunities, sign up at startupalleghenies.com.