How SEO Skyrocketed My Wellness Business
Over a decade ago, in Beijing, China, when I first launched Kocoon Spa, my brick-and-mortar business which later on grew to become an award-winning spa, I was less acquainted with SEO (search engine optimization). However, my business’s claim to success grew exponentially once I learned some SEO strategies and applied them to my business’s website. For all of you reading this that are starting, building or expanding your own businesses, I’m here to share my story about how using SEO saved my company and hope I can encourage you on how and why you should use it.
IN THIS POST YOU’LL LEARN:
How I was going in blind when the digital era and use of SEO was booming
How my sinking business stayed afloat with hard research and an open mind
How I applied my research of SEO techniques to achieve results
Coming full circle: From being a stranger to now educator on SEO
GOING IN BLIND IN THE DIGITAL ERA AS DEMAND FOR SEO GROWS
“At the time, I had no idea what those 3 letters meant [SEO], but I would soon become very familiar”.
11 years ago when I launched my spa business, digital marketing was booming at an alarming rate. Growing my business during the thick of this was going to demand new marketing strategies to bring new clients to our door. The one tool that transformed our business was SEO. Unfortunately, at the time, I had no idea what those 3 letters meant, but I would soon become very familiar.
I had just begun the process of building my website and had hired a website designer to construct an “SEO friendly” website. She replied: “OK,” and that was all I needed to hear. I was happy to leave all the responsibility to her without double or cross-checking the work or questioning anything. It was easier to trust her to do the job, because technology was a foreign language to me, intimidating to a degree and more likely to arouse a headache. Little did I know, it would become one of my strongest tools with which I would be teaching my clients in my new coaching business.
The future of our business was leaning on the verge of bankruptcy. I was growing desperate. We had [begun] to shift our efforts to building a new marketing strategy. I had learned during my research that countless marketers were advocating SEO as the best marketing tool to attract more traffic.
SINKING AND STAYING AFLOAT WITH HARD RESEARCH AND AN OPEN MIND
Everything was so new, and I was still figuring out everything about running my own business. I was so eager to get it off the ground that I had just entrusted someone to handle our website without doing any research. Yikes! To add insult to injury, the future of our business was leaning on the verge of bankruptcy. We were located in a new and empty building (NaliPatio) on Sanlitun – the hippest street of the city – and the building development turned out to be a commercial failure. I was growing desperate because we had very good client retention, but the speed at which new clients were coming in was sluggishly slow.
We had reached a turning point where we shifted our efforts to building a new marketing strategy. I began familiarizing myself with all things concerning business growth and management, reading books, researching and studying blogs and flipping through pages and pages of magazines.
What I had learned during my research and studies was that countless marketers were advocating SEO as the best marketing tool to attract more traffic to a business. Eventually I started to open up to the idea. Previously having worked as a Marketing Manager for The Beijinger, an English Listings magazine, I remembered how our company had skyrocketed its Google ranking by mobilizing the whole office crew to apply some very simple SEO strategies.
One day, I decided to grab the bull by the horns and spent an entire month learning everything I could about SEO. I watched YouTube videos, followed SEO experts, read blogs, and also took an online course.
I realized that the website designer I had so easily trusted to do the job hadn’t made my website “SEO friendly” at all, because she had never asked me any questions that would have been instrumental when setting up the website. Our site was completely outdated and not optimized at all for users and search engines.
At this point the dots were starting to connect. I finally grasped the value of SEO and how crucial a tool it was when writing new blog posts. I fully comprehended that when using SEO, the resources I put in (time and effort) would allow me to have a return on my investment.
RESEARCH + APPLYING SEO TECHNIQUES = RESULTS
I had dedicated months of research to SEO and finally was beginning to apply one of the most important techniques: keyword optimization. For example, when you write the title of a blog post, you should insert high value keywords that you want to rank for.
For Kocoon Spa, a blog post title, before “SEO friendliness,” would have been “New Treatment for the Summer,” which would have no benefit in terms of Google search ranking. Alternatively, substitute these keywords for a stronger version – “Waxing Promotion at Kocoon Spa Beijing” – and your blog will receive a higher percentage of traffic, views and Google rankings.
“You should insert high value keywords that you want to rank for. In turn, your blog will receive a higher percentage of traffic, views and top Google rankings. I sold my spa, but years later its position [still] remains in the top results of Google.”
I was brimming with confidence because I was self-taught and all the resources I had gained were within the reach of my fingertips. Becoming well-versed in these techniques, tricks and principles became an instant game-changer! Several months in and I had applied all the SEO strategies I’d learned and hired a student to complete some simple tasks for a few months. What surprised me wasn’t how time consuming it was or the work itself, but how strikingly simple and easy SEO actually was. However, once I learned how to revise my methods using an organized system, I ended up gaining more time and a shorter ladder to success.
I sold my spa business that year, but now, years later, its position remains in the top results of Google:
Kocoon Spa ranks first for: “Waxing + Beijing” in Google search. It’s in the first 3 results for: “Facial + Beijing” and “Best Spa in Beijing.”
In 2018, I conducted a survey which revealed that our award-winning business had 50% of its clients from referral and 50% from online search. We stopped spending money on ads and attending bazaars and events and solely concentrated our efforts on those two channels.
Below is a screenshot of our spa website’s performance in terms of SEO:
Feeling empowered by this experience, my goal with this course is to empower you to take ownership of your business and master SEO strategies so you can grow your business.
Organic search revealed 1,600+ visitors every month.
We never paid for ads and clearly never needed to. 481 pages on the internet were linking to the business’s website. My jaw dropped. Thanks to Google’s search engine algorithms, I didn’t have to do all the work! Once I started creating content and generating traffic, the internet did a lot of the heavy technical lifting. Various websites started randomly featuring us and sharing our articles.
FULL CIRCLE: STRANGER TO SEO TO TEACHING SEO 101
I was in the dark about SEO when I began. Often, without doing the research, any entrepreneur might fall into the misconception that SEO is complicated. However, during the journey, one of the biggest takeaways I learned was how simple and user-friendly adopting SEO techniques actually is. With simple R&D on how to navigate the web, optimize your brand’s website and content, and promote engagement, any business owner can increase their business’s visibility. I began to think it was silly that some business owners would not benefit from this because of this misconception.
I’m a living example, proving you can turn your business around 180° and further your growth as an entrepreneur. I feel the only next step is to teach other small business owners like myself how they can do the same. Feeling empowered by this experience, I want to now empower other small business owners and entrepreneurs to utilize this tool to grow their companies.
CONCLUSION
Let the internet work for you and promote you 24/7.
It’ll bring new clients to you when they need you most and are ready to be converted into clients! If you’d like to learn more about SEO, I have a handbook which highlights step by step how I achieved success and helped Kocoon Spa rank first on Google. If you need a step-by-step roadmap, you can pre-enroll in my online course, Simplified SEO.
If you have any type of business, SEO is a crucial tool for marketing your business online or physically and locally.
Start researching: Familiarize yourself as I did. Make the internet your friend. Use all your available resources: YouTube, blogs, e-books, online courses.
Have patience: Learning about SEO is easy; applying the strategies is slow, but you’ll enjoy more free time, more revenue, and more freedom in the end.
Once you apply some simple techniques, you’ll be able to see results through Keyword Optimization.
I came full circle from being oblivious to being an SEO player. So can you!
Don’t be intimidated. You’ve got this!
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