Getting a lesson in local SEO and site engagement at the same time (or a lesson in lessons)

I subscribe to the Yoast newsletter, an almost daily collection of updates on the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin and best practices for websites. Frankly, I get so many it’s hard to keep up with all the content they provide. But one recently caught my eye because of just one word- “free”.

I like free stuff, especially in the financially tough year of 2020. The article and the content turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving! Not only is it something I can add to the WorkSite SEO “toolbox” but the email and the whole exercise are a lesson in site engagement as well.

The premise of the article was this- while we all know SEO is important, what exactly is it and how does it work? And if you’re a small business, how do you stand out in a crowded field of larger, more nationally known names? Turns out I’m part of a small business myself and targeting people “near me” is really important. So I created an account on their site and dove right in!

I’m not going to cover the content of that article here, partially because it has so much content, but suffice it to say there’s a lot of good, useful information that’s presented with both embedded videos and text. And to make sure they know that you know what you’ve been learning, there’s a quiz after every section. So just from a technical standpoint, it’s an impressive setup as well.

Once I finished the course, I had an epiphany- the entire thing had been 3 lessons in one! First they got my attention well enough to entice me into creating an account on their site. Second, they demonstrated how to present complicated information in an appealing and easy to understand way. Third, the information was itself something I could use to improve the local ranking of this website in what is definitely a crowded field. And all of that for free!

Now what are you going to do to get the same kind of engagement in your website?