Podcast Summary
Effective SEO strategies for businesses in 2018: E-commerce businesses should focus on good website architecture, media companies can leverage content to identify high-performing topics, and businesses can use tools like Google Search Console and conversion data to optimize successful SEO efforts
SEO remains a crucial marketing strategy for businesses in 2018, despite the increasing competition and changing landscape. Companies that have neglected SEO in favor of other channels may find that investing in it now can yield significant returns. For e-commerce businesses, focusing on good website architecture is essential for scalability and optimal SEO performance. Media companies, on the other hand, can leverage their existing content to identify high-performing topics and expand on them. By using tools like Google Search Console and analyzing conversion data, businesses can effectively double down on their successful SEO efforts.
Optimizing e-commerce sites for search engines: Connect every product to a search query, build clear taxonomies, cross-link, and prioritize user experience for effective SEO strategies.
Effective SEO strategies, particularly for e-commerce sites like Amazon, involve creating a fully crawlable site with clear taxonomies and cross-linking to ensure discoverability by search engines. Amazon's success lies in its ability to connect every product to a search query, making it essential for businesses to consider the relationships between their content and the paths for pages to be found. For media companies, plugins can be effective for creating relevance and cross-linking, while for e-commerce sites, building something internal may be necessary to avoid irrelevant cross-linking. Randomization of URLs can also help increase cross-linking opportunities. However, it's crucial to avoid manipulative tactics like buying links or hiding content solely for search engines, as these practices go against Google's guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking. Ultimately, all SEO efforts should prioritize user experience and creating valuable, relevant content.
The Evolution of Keywords in SEO: Google prioritizes pages with detailed, unique content over keywords for some platforms. However, keywords remain essential for app store optimization.
While certain SEO tactics like using Medicare words were useful in the past when search engines had limited abilities to understand text, the importance of keywords has evolved. Today, Google and other search engines are advanced enough to understand spoken words and context, making keywords less crucial for some platforms like YouTube and Google Home. However, keywords are still essential for optimizing apps on app stores. Content, on the other hand, remains king in SEO. Google prioritizes pages with raw text words, so having detailed product descriptions or articles is crucial for attracting search traffic. It's not just about having more words, but using the right words effectively to make your content relevant to your audience. Avoid copying competitors and instead focus on creating unique, high-quality content that sets your brand apart.
Creating optimized content for consumer companies: Focus on high-quality, relevant content for consumer companies to attract and retain visitors and drive business. Use tools like Google Search Console and Google Keyword Planner to find topics and keywords. Regularly update and expand content to keep up with trends and user needs.
Creating meaningful and optimized content is essential for driving traffic to your website, especially for consumer companies. However, it's important to avoid irrelevant keywords and focus on high-quality content, such as user-generated reviews or expert advice related to your service or product. For a plumbing company as an example, creating content about unclogging drains is a good starting point, but expanding to topics like maintaining plumbing and choosing the right piping can help establish your company as an expert in the field. To find relevant topics and keywords, use tools like Google Search Console and Google Keyword Planner to see what people are searching for and create content around those topics. Remember, Google prioritizes local results, so make sure to include your business address and other local signals to increase your chances of ranking in local searches. Additionally, it's important to understand that the content creation process is ongoing, and you'll need to regularly update and expand your content to keep up with changing search trends and user needs. By focusing on high-quality, optimized content, you'll be able to attract and retain more visitors to your website and ultimately drive more business.
Optimizing SEO through content creation and image optimization: Discover potential topics using keyword tools, create and launch content, track traffic and conversions with Google Analytics, optimize images with descriptive file names and alt text, and ensure high-resolution images for enhanced user experience and increased visibility on Google Images.
SEO involves a continuous process of generating ideas, testing them, and optimizing based on user behavior and search engine data. This process begins with using keyword tools to discover potential topics, followed by creating and launching content. Google Analytics is recommended for tracking traffic and conversions, while Google Search Console can provide insights into the keywords driving impressions. Images are essential for enhancing user experience and should be optimized with descriptive file names and alt text for SEO benefits. Google Images is a significant search engine, and optimizing images can lead to increased visibility and traffic. Best practices include using descriptive file names, adding alt text, and ensuring high-resolution images. Remember, the ultimate goal is to create content that meets user needs and preferences while adhering to SEO guidelines.
Focus on creating valuable content and distribution: Creating high-quality content and being proactive with distribution through both paid and organic means is key for SEO success.
While optimizing images with alt text and titles is important for SEO, Google is not yet fully understanding the content of images to rank them accordingly. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content and being proactive with distribution through both paid traffic and organic means. Sharing content on social media and getting discovered on directories can lead to organic links and traffic. Links are still important for SEO, but the focus should be on quality and relevance rather than quantity. Google's algorithm borrows link equity to make linked pages more valuable and relevant for various queries. Creating interesting content is the most effective way for link building. In summary, while there are technical aspects to SEO, the focus should be on creating valuable content and being proactive in its distribution.
Effective PR and link building through high-quality content: Produce interesting, shareable content to increase chances of natural links and mentions, focusing on reputable sources. Invest time and energy into creating genuinely good content as foundation for successful SEO strategies.
Creating high-quality content that resonates with people goes hand in hand with effective link building and PR efforts. By producing interesting and shareable content, you increase the likelihood of earning natural links and mentions from reputable sources. A successful example of this approach is conducting a survey and turning the results into an infographic and blog post, which can attract links from various media sites. However, not all PR efforts translate into SEO benefits, so it's essential to focus on obtaining links or mentions with proper attribution. Guest posting on reputable sites and creating valuable content for others can also lead to beneficial links. The key is to invest time and energy into creating genuinely good content, as it is the foundation for successful SEO strategies. The amount of time required to test an idea's success depends on the scale of the project, with smaller projects potentially showing results within weeks, while larger projects may take longer.
Desktop optimization remains important despite mobile dominance: Businesses should optimize for both desktop and mobile devices, understand user intent for SEO, and consider global partnerships for international expansion.
Optimizing for both desktop and mobile devices is crucial in today's digital landscape. Despite the increasing usage of mobile devices, a significant portion of users still prefer desktops or laptops for certain activities such as buying complex products or services, or making large purchases. Therefore, businesses should not neglect desktop optimization in favor of mobile. In terms of SEO, it's essential to understand user intent and focus on ranking for specific queries related to your business specialty rather than trying to rank for broad terms. Additionally, for international expansion, businesses should consider partnering with shipping and payment providers to enable global sales and make their websites more accessible to a wider audience.
Expanding Business Internationally: Translate Content for Global Reach: Translate content using subdirectories with language codes, hire native speakers for critical content, integrate translated content into existing website, and use a language selector for user experience.
Expanding your business internationally by translating your content can significantly broaden your potential customer base. Instead of creating a separate website for each country, it's recommended to use subdirectories with the appropriate language codes. For instance, using a Chinese example, a subdirectory named "ZH" would be suitable. This approach allows search engines like Google to easily understand the localization aspect of your content. When it comes to translating your content, machine translation can be a good starting point for less important content. However, for critical content, it's essential to hire native speakers to ensure accuracy and avoid misunderstandings. Once translated, the content should be integrated into your existing website, ideally through a language selector at the top or bottom of the page. This approach ensures that existing English users are not confused and that search engines can effectively follow and index the translated content. Additionally, it's important to note that appearing on separate search engines in multiple languages requires specific best practices. However, the details of those practices were not covered in the discussion. Overall, the international market represents a significant opportunity for businesses, but it's crucial to consider the user experience and search engine optimization aspects of expanding into new markets.
Understanding the nuances of different search engines and their optimization requirements: Google dominates globally, but local search engines like Baidu in China and Naver in Korea require unique optimization strategies. Chinese domains and local hosting are essential for Baidu, while Naver has less sophisticated algorithms. GDPR's implementation emphasizes clear privacy policies and a shift towards organic SEO efforts.
While Google is the dominant search engine globally, there are locally specific search engines like Baidu for China and Naver for Korea that require different optimization strategies. For instance, in China, having a Chinese domain and local hosting are essential for ranking on Baidu due to censorship laws. In contrast, in Korea, Naver, although having a significant user base, has less sophisticated ranking algorithms compared to Google. Moreover, GDPR's implementation has led to the importance of SEO as privacy policies must be clearly defined and linked on websites, making it easier for users to navigate deeper pages. Additionally, the reduction in paid budgets due to GDPR may result in a shift towards organic SEO efforts. Overall, understanding the nuances of different search engines and their specific optimization requirements is crucial for effective digital marketing strategies.
Approaching SEO with Creativity and Analytics: To effectively handle a drop in organic traffic, evaluate candidates for SEO roles creatively and analytically, follow Google's SEO best practices, and prioritize user experience and high-quality content.
While you don't need to agree to Google's privacy policies to use their search engine, effective SEO requires a creative and analytical mindset. Hiring for an SEO role involves evaluating candidates based on their past entrepreneurial experiences, creativity, and analytical abilities. When faced with a sudden drop in organic traffic, it's essential to approach the issue with creativity and a deep understanding of analytics. Google's guides on SEO best practices and search quality can provide valuable insights. In the past, SEO strategies focused on producing as much content as possible, but Google updates like Panda have shifted the focus towards user experience and high-quality content. When dealing with a sudden organic traffic loss, it's crucial to identify the issue, take corrective measures, and rebuild with a focus on user experience to ultimately recover and even surpass previous traffic levels.
Evaluating SEO Hires: Clear Metrics, Tools, and Creativity: Set clear SEO metrics for success, use tools to track progress, and prioritize business impact over rankings. Look for creativity and quick iteration skills in potential hires.
When evaluating a potential hire for an SEO role, it's important to set clear metrics for success and measure progress against those metrics. This includes having a growth strategy in place and measuring traffic and revenue from the SEO channel. Tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider can be used to track progress and identify technical issues. However, it's important to avoid focusing too much on rankings and instead focus on metrics that directly impact the business. Penalties from search engines can happen quickly and can be addressed through a reconsideration request, making the process faster than it once was. When assessing a potential hire, look for their creativity and ability to iterate and pivot quickly if they're wrong. Remember, the ultimate goal is to drive business growth through effective SEO efforts.
Learning SEO through content creation: Start small, create content around a passion, learn persistently, and stay open to new opportunities in SEO.
SEO is a creative and ongoing process that begins with generating content around an idea or passion. According to the speaker, who learned SEO through writing content related to music and eventually ranking for keywords like "John Edwards," the key is to start small and build from there. There are no specific courses required to get started, but a genuine interest and willingness to learn are essential. The speaker also emphasized the importance of staying persistent and being open to new opportunities that may arise from the content you create. If SEO doesn't excite you, then it might not be the right path. The speaker recommended LinkedIn as a way to connect and learn more about SEO, and he personally responds to all messages on the platform. Overall, the speaker's advice was to start small, create content around a passion, and learn from the experience.
