How an SEO Coach Can 2X Your Income

SEO

Apr 8

Written By Tiffani

An SEO coach is an expert who can show you how to specialize in search engine optimization.

The top 3 professionals who benefit from learning SEO are:

Copywriters
Web designers
Social media managers/consultants

How an SEO Coach Can 2X Your Income

I’m going to assume you’re in 1 of 2 very specific scenarios.

SCENARIO 1:

You’re killin’ it on social media— but you’re burnt TF out.

You know that SEO is a passive marketing strategy, and you want to use it to reach more people for your clients and your own business.

SCENARIO 2:

You’re terrible at marketing yourself on social media because you:

Hate social media or
Don’t have time to figure it out

Either way, you know that social media alone isn’t cutting it anymore. You want an evergreen strategy to double your income.

Here’s how SEO can 2x your income:

SEO content lasts longer: Blogs and YouTube videos can show up at the top search results for years— not months. I have a dead YouTube account, but videos from 5+ years ago still get thousands of views every month. How? Because they show up in searches. The same is true for my clients’ blogs and my own TikTok videos from 2021.
SEO is evergreen. Your content can be found 24/7/365. The topics are relevant no matter what season it is or what’s trending on social media.
More consistent leads: When your content or sales pages have been showing up in search results for years, you’ll have a steady stream of leads coming in—even when you take a two-month social media hiatus.
More money: Let’s say you post on social media 3-5 times a week and reach an average of 5K people every month.
At a 1% conversion rate, you’re getting 50 new leads (clients, email subscribers, social media followers, etc.) every month.
But now, let’s say you’ve been posting 1 piece of SEO content every week and consistently get 2K people to your website every month.
With an average conversion rate of 2.5% (which is low for website conversions), that’s another 50 leads per month, thus doubling your leads/income.
And that’s from creating just FOUR pieces of content every month instead of 20.

Figuring Out Your Perfect-Fit SEO Coach

Now that you’re sold on the relief that SEO can give you, let’s figure out what type of SEO coach you need.

Because there are lots of niches within the SEO industry.

For example, there is:

SEO copywriting (sales pages)
SEO content writing (blogs)
TikTok SEO
Pinterest SEO
YouTube SEO
Technical SEO
Local SEO

It’s up to you if you want to work with a specialist or a generalist SEO coach.

But… why not start with some free learning?

**How To Start Learning SEO (Free + Paid)**

Like most jobs, there are layers to becoming an SEO pro.

So, here’s the order I recommend learning about this diverse topic:

Basic SEO

Watch all the free YouTube courses and masterclasses on SEO you can find.

Start Here:

Most popular: Hubspot, Ahrefs, Moz, Yoast

These are great and all, but they are super basic. This is why I prefer recommending classes from real people who are down in the trenches doing SEO work daily.

From Real Life SEO Pros: Grow with SEO Masterclass, Stupid Simple SEO masterclass, SEO Nibbles by Kate Toon, Kristen Overly Keyword Masterclass

Beginner SEO

If you want to put your free learning into practice, this is when you’ll want to invest in your first SEO course, program, or membership.

Of course, you don’t have to invest if you’re comfortable with your SEO skills, but there’s a lot more to gain from investing in a beginner-level SEO course or program besides practice:

Community: Possibly the #1 benefit. When you’re learning a new skill, it’s only natural to question yourself. I highly recommend joining a community to get feedback, motivation, and inspiration.
Practice + Portfolio: These courses will force you to work on your SEO skills, even if you don’t have clients yet (i.g., you’ll build a portfolio!). Plus, instead of trying to piece all your knowledge from your free learning into a step-by-step process, a paid program will show you exactly what you need to do (and what you can skip) without the guesswork n.
Leads: An SEO course with a built-in community is also a terrific way to get your first SEO client! For example, if you’re an SEO copywriter, you can team up with an SEO web designer to create an unbeatable package.

My Recommendations:

SEO Storytellers ($47/month or $235 Lifetime): My membership is a great place to practice your SEO content skills for blogs and social media for the next 6 months.
Stupid Simple SEO ($400?+): Perfect for blog SEO and affiliate marketers.

Intermediate SEO

Once you learn the basics, you’ll have a better understanding of what area of SEO you want to specialize in (local, copy, blogs, Pinterest, etc).

This is when you’ll want a niche-specific SEO resource that will encourage you to get clients with your new skill set.

My Recommendations:

SEO Your Site ($597): A play-by-play book I created for SEO copywriters who want to learn how to write and implement SEO website copy in 1 week flat.
SEO on Tap ($997): A do-it-yourself SEO course built by Duo Collective for creatives who want to optimize their website & start or grow a blog for search engines like Google.

Advanced SEO

The final option is to work 1:1 with an SEO coach.

This option is best if you have a team you want to train on SEO or you’ve taken multiple classes and you want to offer SEO consulting yourself.

PRO-TIP: Do not invest in an SEO course that brags about certification. Nobody cares— especially clients.

My Recommendations:

SEO Your Success ($1,597): Coming soon!
Kate Toon’s Recipe for SEO ($3K): This is a comprehensive course with many add-ons, such as e-commerce and Local SEO.

5 Things an SEO Coach Should Teach You

An SEO coach should teach you the who, what, where, when, how, and why to use SEO and get clients.

For example, here’s what I teach my SEO students and why I teach it in this order:

The Basics

You might find it annoying and even call it “fluff,” but any beginner-level SEO course (or any course, for that matter) will cover the basics first.

Here’s why:

Every person has different motivations and habits for buying. For example, I’m an analytical buyer. I’ll collect all the freebies and watch all the YouTube videos before I even think about purchasing a course.

On the other hand, someone like my sister, who is an impulse buyer, might buy a beginner's or even advanced-level course without knowing anything about the topic.

Having the basics outlined ensures people like me (who might “already know this stuff”) get a brief overview of things like technical and on-page SEO.

But it’s also there for impulse buyers (like my sister) who don’t know a thing about SEO but purchased a course or hired an SEO coach so they can get where they want to be faster.

2. Ideal Client

Despite the name, SEO is a human-first approach.

Instead of starting with copy and sales (e.g., "What problems does my client have and how can I fix them?”), SEO starts with figuring out what actions your ideal client is taking to solve their problems.

SPOILER ALERT! They’re usually searching for an answer on a search engine (maybe they’ll phone a friend or ask their audience).

So first, you gotta learn who your ideal client is, what problems they have, what they’re searching for, and why.

2. SEO Tools

SEO tools show guesstimates of how often keywords are searched for online.

Each tool is going to give you different data, so you’ll find the numbers to be infuriatingly inconsistent between different SEO tools.

This is why you need to pick one SEO tool and stick with it. A good SEO coach will explain your options so you can decide which SEO tool is best for you.

Then, they’ll show you how to use every feature of the one they recommend most (mine is Ubersuggest).

3. Keyword Research

My next step is teaching my students how to collect their own keywords. I personally show my students how to do this on every platform, from blog and website SEO to TikTok and Pinterest SEO.

This way, my students are equipped to expand their SEO practices later without having to start their keyword research from scratch.

For example, maybe you want to start with blog SEO, but know you want to utilize Pinterest SEO when you have more time.

Any SEO coach who knows their shtuff will show you have to create a Search Engine Experience— which starts with keyword research for any search engine you want to master.

4. Strategy

This is the big thing behind those paywalls, right?

But can’t you learn SEO strategy for free?

Absolutely!

The thing is, with an SEO coach, you’ll learn which strategies to ignore and which ones really work.

We’ll show you shortcuts and strategies (like keyword mapping) that will get you and your clients results much faster than any DIY method.

5. Specialized SEO

And finally, your SEO coach should be able to teach you how to use SEO for your specialty.

For example, I teach you the basics of Technical SEO in SEO Storytellers. But it is far from my area of expertise. I would recommend Tech SEO Pro for that.

Likewise, a social media manager might be good at Instagram, but that does NOT mean they are equipped to teach you best SEO practices

What To Look for in an SEO Coach

Social Proof

An SEO coach should be able to show behind the scenes. More specifically:

Data: Screenshots of their Google Analytics or Google Search Console (see below).
Testimonials: From actual clients that they’ve linked in their portfolio (if they don’t link to their client’s websites or social media… it’s a lil’ sus, in my opinion).

PRO-TIP: If they are showing you screenshots of their Google Search Console results, pay attention to the timeframe at the top (and side-eye them if they cut off the timeframe completely). I’ve noticed a lot of ads where their GSC data is showing 1 Million impressions in a 16 MONTH TIMEFRAME.

**Here is my client’s 1 million search impressions in a 3 MONTH TIME FRAME:**

Click to see my SEO Success Stories

Accountability

It’s hard to hold people accountable, even when there is money involved.

Here are some methods I like to use to make sure my clients see progress:'

Progress bar: Any video lessons I give out have a progress bar to help motivate students to hit that 100% completion rate. It might seem tedious, but it’s simple psychology.
Weekly Emails: For anyone who uses my SEO Your Site template, I’ll email them once a week for about five weeks to check up on their website writing progress. While this is a completely DIY offer, I like to give notes of encouragement and extra tips throughout their SEO copywriting journey. It also helps me get reviews and feedback (heeeey, social proof!).
Quizzes: At the end of some lessons, I’ll have a quiz for my SEO Storytellers to test their knowledge. This is completely optional but helpful for students who want to make sure they retain all the information.
Drip-Fed Content: For my membership, I only allow my students to watch one video per month. This gives them time to learn the strategies and practice them without getting burnt out.
Deadlines: My course, SEO Your Success, is a self-paced course, but I envoke weekly deadlines for my students to submit content to me for feedback. If you miss a deadline because you haven’t gone through the lessons yet, you’re outta luck.