Primer on SEO for Do-It-Yourself Solopreneurs

Written By Jennifer Mitchell
Finding the equine business website and SEO

The SEO-Optimized Website for the Equine Business

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital business strategy for all businesses. It consists of a series of tactics used to help search engines, such as Google, find your content, linking you to potential customers who may be seeking solutions that your equine business can provide.  

Whether you manage a:

  • Sales and boarding barn

  • Sell equine products or tack

  • Serve as a large animal veterinarian

  • Operate a therapeutic riding program

SEO ensures your online presence effectively reaches those searching for relevant information or services. 

Through monitoring and refining your SEO strategy, you can impact how you rank on search engine results pages. 

The Fundamentals

One of the best marketing strategies you can leverage is bringing awareness and organic traffic to your website and your business – that is where best practices SEO comes in.

Google’s main goal is to provide an excellent experience to their customers. By optimizing your content, you are not only helping Google, but Google rewards you by displaying your content higher in the results. Why is this important?  

Keyword.com sums this up perfectly in a recent SEO article:

Where do you hide a dead body? The answer? On the second page of Google. Why? Because it’s a place where no one looks.

SEO is not an exact science (or art), so trial and error are required, but once you nail it, the return is amazing and quite frankly pretty exciting as you make it onto page one and start moving up the rankings. 

Strong Keywords are just part of the formula. Google will rank your website, looking at a detailed algorithm, to include:

  • Overall quality and relevancy of your online content

  • Speed and performance of website

  • Quantity of High value content  

  • Images and optimization

  • High quality links to build authority

As a seasoned marketing and copywriter myself, SEO is a prime focus in digital marketing best practices.  If they can’t find you, it doesn’t matter how good your website is or what you have to offer! 

With my focus on the equine businesses, the vision of Mane Message Marketing is to help busy equine professionals leverage strong marketing and content practices; from SEO website copy, blogs, emails, newsletters, and more! 

Why Equine Professionals Need SEO

What will an optimized SEO website do for you besides helping prospects find you? It will improve your brand credibility, target clients actively seeking equine services, leading to an increase in leads and sales, and reduction of the cost of acquiring new customers. SEO and strong content marketing can boast the best return on investment. 

The SEO Checklist for the Equine Professional

On-Page SEO

Keyword Research & Planning

  1. Identify relevant (target) keywords related to equine services. What “words” will your prospect use to search for your business?

  2. Utilize Tools to complete your keyword research

  • Several tools can help you with your keyword research, including Google itself!  

  • Consider 3-5 long-tail keywords that target specific questions or needs within the equine community. 

  • Long-tail keywords are simply keyword “phrases” of 3-5 words or more

    • Long tail keywords get less traffic, but because they are more specific, they tend to have higher conversion rates

Content Optimization

  1. Incorporate target keywords naturally into your content

  2. Ensure meta titles, descriptions, and headers include relevant keywords

Mobile Optimization

Cell phone ownership has skyrocketed and in fact, 97% of Americans now own a cellphone of some kind. Nine-in-ten own a smartphone, up from just 35% in since 2011.

  1. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly for a better user experience

  2. Optimize images and videos for mobile viewing

Off-Page SEO

Link Building

  1. Seek opportunities for backlinks from reputable equine-related websites

  2. Include guest equine blogs or forums on your website

Social Media Engagement

  1. Share equine-related content on social media platforms 

  2. Encourage followers to engage and share your content

Technical SEO

  1. Website Speed Optimization:

    • Minimize loading times for better user experience

    • Compress images, browser caching and optimize code

  2. Site Structure and Navigation:

    • Ensure website structure is logical and easy to navigate.

    • Use descriptive URLs and organize content into categories.

    • Use HTTPS for security, improving search rankings

    • Robots.txt: Allows search engines to index your content

Local SEO

  1. Google My Business:

    • Create and optimize a Google My Business profile.

    • Ensure accurate business information, including address, phone number, and business hours

    • Submit business information to local directories and equine-specific directories.

Analytics and Monitoring

Measure! Keyword planning and SEO takes time to see results (2-3 months) so do not expect to be Google’s #1 result immediately! Here are some tools that will help:

  • Google Analytics: Set up Google Analytics to track website traffic and user behavior

  • Google Search Console: Monitor site performance, search queries and indexing issues

  • Keyword Tracking: Use tools to track keyword rankings and performance over time

  • Performance Reports: Regularly review performance metrics to identify areas for improvement

This SEO primer should give you a solid foundation for optimizing an equine industry-related website for search engines.  However, if your eyes are glazing over and you would like additional SEO support, or would like my help with a website audit, please reach out to me to schedule a 15-minute discovery call to see how I might help with your SEO needs.

You can also reach out to me directly at jen@manemessagemarketing.com and I will get back to you within 24 hours. 

Enjoy! Ride Your Way to the Top of Google’s Rankings with this best practices SEO Checklist!!

Jennifer Mitchell