MSP SEO Crash Course

Learn Basic SEO for MSPs in 30 Minutes

What Does SEO Mean?

SEO simply stands for search engine optimization. Optimizing your website to increase visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs) is a process. This means that when customers search for specific terms related to your business, you appear higher in the SERP rankings and, thus, more likely to be clicked on.

When we discuss SEO at Seota, we talk about three major aspects, On-Site SEO, Technical SEO, and Off-Site SEO. Some SEO agencies lump Technical SEO and On-Site SEO into the same service group, but they require different skill sets, so we separate them.

Why MSP SEO Matters

Here are a few reasons why SEO is important for MSPs:

SEO Increases Your Website Traffic

By working on your SEO, you can increase your website’s traffic, not just any traffic, but local traffic looking for your services. This will not only result in more leads coming through but also creates brand awareness and a stronger presence on SERPs. When you increase your website traffic, you’ll also have the opportunity to convert more leads into customers.

Increase Brand Awareness

By appearing more often in SERPs, your business will become more visible. This helps to increase brand recognition and can help you attract new customers who may not have noticed you before.

This awareness is very important for MSPs, as it can help you reach new audiences and build a strong customer base. It may not be true, but customers see businesses that rank on the first page as more legitimate. Improving your ranking, improves your image.

Make You Stand Out from Competitors

When many businesses use the same keywords, it can be difficult to stand out. Optimizing your website for SEO can help you gain an edge over the competition and appear higher in SERPs than them for more phrases your customer is searching for.

Generate Leads

Leads are essential for any business, especially MSPs. By working on your SEO, you can generate more leads and increase conversions over time. SEO Leads are some of the best leads you will get. An SEO lead is a person that searched for something specific, found your site, liked what you had to say, and then made an effort to contact you. It does not get any better.

Getting Started With SEO

Seota has worked with many MSPs to help them increase their online visibility, and I can say that SEO is quite complicated. But with a few basic tips, you can improve your SEO and get more customers.

If you don’t have a budget to hire a legitimate agency like Seota, here are the steps we recommend for your MSPs to improve their SEO:

Develop a Digital Presence

Before you begin, it’s important to have a strong digital presence on your website and on your social channels.

When you are creating your digital presence, make sure to address the following:

• Define your unique selling proposition (USP) – The USP sets your MSP apart from the competition.
• Your MSP website needs to be mobile friendly – Many of your customers use their phones to look for services, they do it from their car, from the break room, in boring meetings, and few places we don’t want to mention. It’s critical that your website is optimized for mobile devices. Responsive Design that is designed mobile first is the best approach.
• Use a reliable hosting company that has fast servers. We don’t recommend GoDaddy for hosting.  Find a fast host like WP Engine, Cloudways, SiteGround or A2 Hosting.
• Claim your Google Business Profile – formerly GMB. This is critical. More on this later in the lesson.
• Create high-quality content – Relevant and engaging content can help improve SEO performance and keep customers returning for more.

Select The Right Key Words

We try to coach our clients that keywords should be driven by your service offerings, with a primary focus being on the services you like to offer, you are good at offering and that you make money providing. A loss-leader keyword strategy is deployed if you have a strong business and are looking for leads to nurture over time. For instance, the content in this course is aimed at introducing our brand to more MSPs, some of which may not be able to afford us yet, but if they follow the advice in these lessons, they will be able to in the future.

Choosing the right keywords is an important part of SEO. Make sure to focus on the phrases that your customers are actually searching for. For instance, in the MSP space, most of your customers call your business something else unless they just fired an MSP that used the term a lot.

Make sure to use a keyword research tool to determine what keywords your target audience may use when searching online. Remember that focusing on the highest-volume search terms does not always guarantee the highest number of visitors.

The Most Used MSP Keywords

There are a variety of keywords that your customers might use when looking for a managed service provider (MSP), as the knowledge and experience of the individual or organization can vary. Some common keywords that your prospects might use when searching Google for an MSP include:

IT support: Many people search for MSPs that can provide IT support services, such as troubleshooting, repairing, and maintaining computer systems and networks.

Managed IT support: This term refers to the various types of IT support services that MSPs offer, such as troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance of computer systems and networks.

IT outsourcing: Some organizations choose to outsource their IT needs to an MSP, rather than managing their own IT infrastructure and staff.

Help desk: Many MSPs provide help desk services, which allow clients to get technical support and assistance with IT issues via phone, email, or chat.

Managed services: This term is often used to describe the various types of IT support and maintenance services that MSPs offer, such as managed IT support, managed network services, and managed security services.

Remote support: Many MSPs offer remote support services, which allow them to provide IT support and maintenance to clients remotely, without the need for on-site visits.

IT Consulting: Some MSPs offer IT consulting services to help clients assess their IT needs, plan and implement IT projects, and optimize their IT systems.

Cloud services: Some MSPs specialize in providing cloud-based services, such as cloud storage, virtual servers, and disaster recovery.

Network security: Many MSPs offer network security services, such as firewall management, intrusion detection, and antivirus protection.

Managed network services: These services include the management and maintenance of an organization’s network infrastructure, such as switches, routers, and firewalls.

Cybersecurity: MSPs that offer cybersecurity services can help clients protect their networks, systems, and data from cyber threats such as malware, ransomware, and hacking.

Managed security services: MSPs that offer managed security services can help organizations protect their networks, systems, and data from cyber threats such as malware, ransomware, and hacking.

Managed backup and recovery: MSPs that offer managed backup and recovery services can help clients ensure that their data is regularly backed up and can be quickly recovered in the event of a disaster or data loss.

Managed print services: Some MSPs offer managed print services, which include the maintenance and management of printers, copiers, and other office printing equipment.

IT strategy consulting: Some MSPs offer IT strategy consulting services to help organizations assess their IT needs, plan and implement IT projects, and optimize their IT systems.

IT consulting services: MSPs that offer IT consulting services can help organizations assess their IT needs, plan and implement IT projects, and optimize their IT systems.

IT project management: MSPs that offer IT project management services can help organizations plan and execute IT projects, including the implementation of new systems and technologies.

IT infrastructure management: MSPs that offer IT infrastructure management services can help organizations design, implement, and manage their IT systems and infrastructure.

Data center management: Some MSPs specialize in managing data centers, which can include tasks such as server maintenance, network management, and data storage.

On-site SEO

On-Site SEO, also called On-Page SEO, On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic from the various search engines. Several elements can be optimized as part of an on-page SEO campaign, including:

Mobile optimization: This goes without saying, there was a time when we had to educate our clients on the importance of being mobile-friendly, but you know your users access your content from mobile devices. The gold standard for mobile-optimized websites is responsive design. Most modern websites use this approach. Some larger sites use an adaptive design, but adaptive websites are harder to maintain and not practical or effective for 99% of business websites.

Title tags and meta descriptions: Title tags are possibly the most important part of your on-page SEO effort; if you have Yoast or Rank Math installed, you can easily manage the page titles by editing the target page. The page title is what shows when you roll your mouse over the browser tab and is typically the headline Google shows for the page in the search results pages.  The meta descriptions are HTML elements that provide a brief summary of a web page’s content. They may appear on the search engine results page (SERP) under the title, and sometimes Google writes its own meta description for your page based on the content. Meta Descriptions don’t influence SEO, but they can influence whether a user clicks on your search listing. Title tags should be concise and accurately describe the page’s content, while meta descriptions should provide a compelling summary of the page’s content.

Headings: Headings are used to structure the content of a web page and create a better user experience; they make the page easier for users to read and understand. Like writing a paper in an English class, we use different level headings to specify the context of the paragraph to follow. Headings are numbered H1-H6 and should be used as a hierarchy to indicate the importance of different page sections. An H1 is used for the overarching subjects, H2s are used as subheadings, and H3 or sub-topics of the subheading and so forth.

Content: The page content is “the why” the page exists. The content should align with the page title and the descriptions mentioned above. The best content is relevant, informative, and well-written. When writing your page content, it is important not to Suff keywords into the page in an attempt to manipulate the search algorithms. Write your MSP content for the user, and make sure you use the relevant phrases for both humans and bots.

Images and Video: Images, motion SVGs, videos, and other visually appealing content can help to make a web page more engaging. The biggest mistake we see MSPs make when it comes to the use of images is that they don’t size the media for the web, or it is not sized for the placement on the page. Web images should be saved in 72DPI, and they should be saved for web use. As a good rule of thumb, if the image is over 100kb you should evaluate if it really needs to be that heavy. Small images can be optimized to be in the 15kb-60kb size range and still maintain quality.

URL structure: The URL of a web page should match the content of the page without being spammy. It is okay to include relevant keywords, and if a user only sees the URL, they should get a good grasp of what the page will be about.

Internal linking: Internal linking is when you link one page on your website to another page on your site.  The goal of internal linking is to improve the navigation and user experience of a website while teaching search engines the hierarchy of a website.

SEO Action Item List #1

Now it is time to pause and take action on what we have learned.  Taking these actions will help you outrank any of your competitors not using professional SEO services (and maybe some that are)

Start with your most popular services, which may be listed above in the previous section; then do the following.

1. Each service you offer should have a unique page on your website – if it does not have it created.
2. For each service page, edit it so that the Title matches the service name and your target location. For instance, “IT Project Management Service Dallas, TX | Company Name” (replace company name with your brand) – titles have a character limit but don’t worry if your is a little long, Google will not show the extra characters, but you won’t get penalized.
3. Write a Meta Description for your service so that when a user looks at it in the searches would feel compelled to click your link. Don’t be spammy. Save your work.
4. Look at the structure of your service page. You should have an H1 heading that is the main topic of the page, and you should have H2 and possibly H3 headings on the page that helps the users understand the page.
5. Check that your content mentions your service, don’t overdo it. Mention the service in a few different ways in your text based on how your users might describe it.
6. Use your target location in your content; in our example, it was Dallas, TX. – we will typically use the location in one of the headings and possibly the H1 based on the client.
7. In the flow of existing content, add a link or two to other services you offer.
8. Read through your page to ensure it flows well and that the right prospect would find it compelling enough to contact you.
9. Make sure the page has a call to action and your phone number. The purpose is to get leads.
10. Image Alt Text is used to help people with handicaps know what the image is. Make sure each image on your service page has relevant alt text.  It is a ranking factor.

That is it; you just improved your SEO to be better than most of your competitors. You’re not done, but you made huge strides toward being found in search results.

User Experience and On-Page SEO

User experience (UX) is important to your MSP SEO strategy because Google and other search engines have incorporated the Experience of your pages into their algorithm when ranking websites in search results. A positive user experience can lead to higher search engine rankings for your IT Support Company and more traffic to your website. In turn, a negative user experience may lead to lower rankings and less traffic.

There are several ways that user experience can impact SEO:

Page load speed: Websites that load quickly and don’t jump around as users interact are viewed as a better user experience and tend to rank higher. The PageSpeed Insights Tool is a free tool you can test your page for data-driven user experience items that Google calls Web Core Vitals.

Mobile-friendliness: As we discussed earlier, create a responsive website that loads well on any device. Google favors websites that are mobile-friendly in its search rankings and they may only index the mobile version of your website.

Ease of use: MSP sites that are easy to navigate and use typically have a better user experience. Ease of use may include factors like clear headings (H-tags), easy-to-use menus, and clean layouts.

Relevance: If your website is about IT Support Services your content should be about IT Services. Sites with topical and useful content will lead to a better user experience and tend to rank higher.

Focus on your target customer, create a user experience they will enjoy or find useful and your website will be more likely to rank higher in search results.

Proper Content for MSP SEO

Content should be written with the user in mind and always relevant to the discussed topic. Your content will not be highly ranked when you package pages of keywords without meaningful content.

Content should also be regularly updated to stay relevant. You can use tools like Google Analytics or other analytics programs to determine which content drives the most traffic and optimize it for SEO.

The following practices will help you stay relevant:

Avoid duplicate content: Don’t copy content from the web, don’t repeat the same content over and over, and don’t let your marketing agency post content on your website that they are using on other clients’ websites.

Create diverse content: Make sure you create content on various topics that your target clients are interested in and is relevant to your industry.

Create evergreen content: This type of content stays relevant for a long time and may be found at the top of SERPs for months.

Use internal links: Linking to other pages on your website will help search engines understand the structure of your website and crawl it more efficiently.

Off-Site SEO

Off-site SEO involves optimizing your website for external sites that link to you, such as links from other websites, news sources, social media, local publications or directories.

This includes creating profiles on social media platforms, submitting your website to relevant online directories, and engaging with other websites by sharing your knowledge through guest postings or being part of a roll-up or best-of article.

It’s also important to build relationships with people who have influence over your target audience. For an MSP, influencers will be people who write about, talk about, or do videos your target customer engages with. Where do your target personas learn new things?

Backlinks

External backlinks, also known as inbound or incoming links, are links from external; websites that point back to your website. Backlinks are important to SEO because they can help to increase the authority and credibility of your website based on the source of the inbound link.

When a website links to your site, it is viewed as a vote of confidence about the quality and relevance of the page receiving the link. As a result, search engines may view that page as relevant, which can help to improve the ranking of that page in the SERPs. These inbound links also have a cumulative impact on the overall perceived authority of your website.

External backlinks are also important because they should help to drive more traffic to your website. At Seota we coach our clients that a good backlink is a backlink that has the potential to send you a customer.

Despite the importance of external backlinks, it is important to work on getting quality links vs. quantity. Search engines have evolved to view low-quality or “spammy” links as a negative signal.  Google updates are notorisu for ruining businesses that engage in spammy practices. Therefore, it is important to build high-quality backlinks from relevant & reputable brands or sites.

Ways to Get Backlinks

Create guest posts on external links: This is a great way to create high-quality backlinks and share your expertise with other websites.

Reach out to influencers: – Reach out to relevant influencers in the MSP industry and ask them if they could link to your website.

Participate in forums: Participating online and answering questions can be a great way to get your name out there and gain backlinks.

Fight Spam: Spam links can negatively affect your website rankings, so use tools like Google Analytics to identify and remove any spam backlinks.

Citations: Citations are business listings on relevant or local directories. Google uses a holistic approach to verify that the information you state on your website is true. Business directories, social media and review sites are great ways to teach the search engines about your business.

Use Evergreen Content

Evergreen content refers to web content that remains relevant and useful over a long period of time rather than content that has an expiration date. This type of content is called “evergreen” because it is always useful and not seasonal or event-driven.

Some examples of evergreen content include:

1. This online course is a great example of creating evergreen content
2. Tutorials and how-to guides
3. Explanations of concepts. Example: what is a Security Stack or Tech Stack)
4. Lists of resources or tools. Example: The five best AV software choices for law practices.
5. Product reviews and comparisons. Example: The there best business laptops for traveling sales teams.
6. Industry studies and reports. A great example is IBM’s Cost of a data breach in 2022.

Evergreen content is an effective way to attract visitors to your website and backlinks from other sites because it provides valuable information that is always relevant. As a result, evergreen content is an important part of an MSP SEO strategy because it will help build the perceived expertise of your company and attract a steady stream of traffic to your website.

What Not to Do for SEO

Certain practices will hurt your rankings in SERPs.

Avoid keyword stuffing – Search engines are getting smarter and can detect when you are using too many keywords on a page. This will only hurt your SEO efforts, so try to use them naturally in the content.

Don’t use cloaking – This practice involves showing different content to search engines than to users. Search engines can easily detect when you are using cloaking and penalize your website.

Do Not creat blank pages – Search engines cannot crawl a page with no content, so make sure all of your pages have meaningful content.

Avoid link farms and automated backlinking – Automated linking and mass linking from links famrs has been frowned upon for over a decade. Don’t get mass links from online sources.

Please, no comment spam – Besides being super annoying to the blog owner, comment spam is spam. So even if you can get away with it for awhile, you will eventually get punished in the SERPS – don’t spam comment on blogs to get a backlink and don’t let your SEO agency do it on your behalf.

Forgetting to use HTTPS – Websites with HTTPS are considered more secure and will lead to better SERP rankings.

SEO Action Item List #2

10 SEO Items you should do every month to outrank your MSP competitors

You have come a long way; we hope that you read the sections above because now it is time to REALLY improve your SEO.

This action list is created for your team to handle in-house, we understand you don’t have a full-time SEO analyst working on this, so this is a slow and steady approach to ranking. It is not everything that a professional SEO agency would do, and you don’t have the experience to do this at a high level. However, this is list is likely more than your competitors that are paying for SEO are getting from their agency.

If you work on this action list every month, you will likely begin to outrank most of your competitors in 3-6 months. The key is to keep working on this SEO Action List.

1. Make sure you have analytics set up and look at your organic traffic
   1. Where is the traffic coming from?
   2. What pages do visitors land on?
   3. What pages do they click through to?
   4. What is your bounce rate? (if it is over 20% you need to fix it)
   5. Are your target services pages getting traffic, and are people landing on them?
2. Pick a Service or Two to focus on each month. (next month, you will be looking at analytics to see the impact)
3. Review the service page content to make sure you have applied everything think learned above – (re-read the on-page SEO section). We edit our service pages all the time unless they rank #1 for our target.
4. Based on the focus service, reach out to local media, blogs, or clients and ask if you can write an article for them about how the target service impacts their industry. (this is hard, but critical to success)
5. Build Citations.  (download our citations worksheet) – 5-10 a month is a good target.
   1. Citations are key for local businesses to teach Google that your business is what it claims to be.
   2. Pro-Tip: If you don’t have a listing on UpCity & Clutch, add them now, and make sure they mention your key services. If you have a listing, claim it.
6. Check your page speed with the Page Speed Tool. If you have issues, hire someone to fix them ASAP. You want to score an 80 or better on mobile. (we aim for 90+)
7. Write a least one blog that your clients will be interested in.
8. Share your blog on all of your social media channels
9. Encourage employees and friends, and clients to like and share your blog. (this will help your SEO)
10. Send at least one handwritten thank you card to a local business you used this month. (people with post them online and link to your business)

Do these ten (10) things every month, and watch your SEO prosper.

Conclusion

SEO is a key component to creating a successful MSP business. It involves combining on-site and off-site SEO techniques and creating great content.

By following best practices, such as creating high-quality content, using sound internal linking strategies, and building backlinks from relevant websites, you can increase your search engine rankings and drive more traffic.

Hopefully, this lesson has given you a better understanding of how to improve the SEO efforts for your MSP and grow your business.