February 27, 2025 • 56 mins
🚀 I had an absolute blast chatting with Brandon Leibowitz on the podcast! 🎧 We dove deep into the world of SEO, backlinks, and Google hacks—but don’t worry, no geek-speak overload here. Just straight-up actionable tips to help you drive traffic without spending a fortune on ads. 💰🙌
🔎 Ever wondered why some websites rank #1 on Google while others get buried on page 10? Or why Pinterest used to be a goldmine for bloggers, but now feels like a dead end? 😱 We cover all that and more—including the one mistake that can cancel out your backlinks (trust me, you don’t want to make this one).
Brandon spills the SEO tea ☕ on:
✅ How to “spy” on your competitors and steal their best strategies 👀
✅ Why Google is your BFF (if you know how to play the game)
✅ The power of schema (a.k.a. the secret SEO weapon no one talks about)
✅ How to get high-quality backlinks without sounding spammy 📨
✅ The right way to create content that Google and your audience will love
If you've ever said, "SEO feels overwhelming" or "I don’t know where to start," this episode is for you! 🎯
Hit play and let’s turn Google into your personal traffic machine! 🚦💨
🎁 Bonus: Brandon even has a free gift for you! Grab it here: SEOoptimizers.com/gift
#SEO #MarketingHacks #GoogleTraffic #BloggingTips #ContentCreators
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
I knew it.
Brandon hey. How are you doing?
(00:40):
Hi. Are you there? Here,hold on.
I justWill you put on your camera?
I promise I'm notgonna post this.
No, no, no. Is it.
Oh, there you are. Hello.
Do you Okay, so let me.
(01:01):
I'm just.
I'm printing out.
I didn't print out my questionsfor you. Okay.
Do you have a Are youspeaking into a mic?
Yep.
Oh, okay, terrific. I can.
And where are you located?
In Los Angeles.
Where?
In Venice.
(01:21):
Oh, wow. Okay.
So we lived in Santa Monica for,gosh, 15 years.
Okay, nice. Where are you now?
Now we're in Austin.
Okay.
So how is. How is Venice?
I hear it's weird.
Yeah, it's not the best,but I'm on, like,
the border of Santa Monica.
So try to stay overin Santa Monica,
(01:42):
not try to go intoVenice too much.
Because just as we were leaving,we moved from Santa Monica
to the Bay Area about.
Wow. Like, almost 10 years ago.
And then we moved four years agofrom the Bay Area to Austin.
But just as we were leaving,I feel like we were in Santa
(02:02):
Monica, like, in the heyday,where every cool restaurant was
coming to Santa Monica.
But it was just start.
We had a babysitter who livedin Venice, and just.
She was starting to say,you know, there's some campers
on our street.
It was just like.
And I was like, that's so weird.
Like, people are, like,living on your street.
That's so weird.
(02:22):
So I have a good friend wholives in Sea Colony.
You know where that is?
I think I've seen the complex.
It's like,those apartment buildings.
They're, like, expensive.
Right by the beach.
And she said that, like, it's,like, really nice where she is,
but parts of Venice now arelooking a little bit like
(02:44):
Brazil.
Yeah. Like skid. Yeah, it's bad.
It's bad.
They don't clean it up.
Unfortunately, they don't.
So it is true. Because I see,like, videos on Twitter,
and I'm like, is it real,or is this just, like,
a little snapshot?
Its a little snapshot. I mean,there's a little pocket.
So move around.
But they're usually in a coupleblocks. Like. Yeah. But, I mean,
(03:06):
they put up porta pottiesand showers,
so they're not going anywhere,unfortunately.
Like, really?
Next to Gold's Gym orin front of Google.
Thats the worst area rightthere. Like, really? Google?
Really?
And Google used to be theChiat Day building.
It's the one withthe binoculars.
Yeah So that on Main street,that's the worst area,
(03:29):
that little area.
But once you cross overto Santa Monica,
it's clean because they don'tlet them camp there.
But once you crossover to Venice,
Venice is la and LA doesn'tkick them out. So yeah,
once you cross right over,it gets bad for those
couple blocks,but after that it's not too bad.
But that area is just so badthey put up porta potties and
(03:50):
they put up showers so they'renot going anywhere.
Like that whole area,it was always right there.
It was like a little sketch,but not so bad.
You know it was.
But it was always like a littlelike it doesn't feel as safe.
Yeah No,they took the bus station,
I think,and made it a homeless shelter.
But the homeless don't want togo there because they have to be
(04:13):
sober and they haveto be in a curfew.
So they all camp outside of it,which is weird.
Do you mind holding on for onesecond? So my husband is.
Hold on.
I printed out my questions andmy husband is going to leave
so that I have privacy.
(04:33):
But do you feel like,like my friend was saying again,
she's a woman,that she feels like she has to
continually like crossthe street.
Like she doesn't feel likein so much danger,
but you have to kind of avoidlike the crazy people and
the homeless people?
Yeah,I mean there's people sleeping
sometimes on the sidewalk whichgotta walk over them and so,
(04:58):
but, but,and what about the Promenade?
No everything in Santa Monica,I mean they're there but they
don't sleep there. It's Venice.
Venice is where it'slike LA county.
And LA county says come on over.
Sleep here, we don't care.
Just like skid row andeverything. So that's why.
But Santa Monica is likeyou could be here,
but you can't sleep here.
Like you get panhandle and stufflike that, but can't sleep here.
(05:21):
So now what about though I'veheard that the block up the
north part of the promenadeis like gone.
Like where Barnes and Noble usedto be and there was like
a Banana Republic.
Yeah, yeah, all that's gone,but not much. Homeless.
I mean they're there,but they don't sleep there.
Like they'll kick them out.
Like they might stay therefor like an hour,
(05:44):
but someone's gonnakick them out.
They have security over therethat Google security is weird.
Google lets them sleep there,but like promenade,
they'll kick Them out prettyquick over there and the pier.
They'll kick them out.
In Santa Monica.
And how long haveyou lived there?
Six years, maybe seven years.
Okay, and where are you from?
(06:05):
From San Pedro, near Long Beach.
Okay. Okay.
So you're like you'rea California guy?
Pretty much, yeah.
I grew up here, so.
Okay.
Just moved up here.
Closer to be work or closer towork because commuting on that
405 from Long beach to SantaMonica was rough.
That was not fun. So.
Got it. Okay.
So your offices for yourcompany are in Venice.
(06:27):
Well, that was my old, old job.
Like that was. Got it now.
Yeah. Now it's just remote, so.
But technically in Venice,but Got it.
Got it. Yeah. So weird.
Like we're.
My husband is born andbred in Los Angeles.
Like went to Beverly High,went to usc and so he's dying to
go back just to see whatit looks like now.
(06:49):
You should definitely checkit out. It's not that bad.
But it's not. It's just pocket.
It's just pockets.
Yeah,it's just little areas where
like. All right,maybe I'm not going to turn
down this street.
I'll walk one moreblock this way.
But it's not just like skid row.
Like it's not like downtownwhere it's like just trash.
How about Hollywood?
(07:10):
Yeah, I mean,I haven't really been up there,
but I heard kind of the same.
But I haven't been up there.
Not much in Hollywood anyways.
It's dirty and Yeah,the same as it's always been.
Dirty and not a place you reallywant. You bring your tours,
your friends there.
But after that it's like I'm notgoing back to Hollywood.
Really? Even restaurants,though?
(07:30):
They got some good restaurants.
But Santa Monica has a lot ofgood restaurants and Venice has
a lot of good restaurants.
Right, right, right, right,right. Is Gilenia still there?
I mean, Jelena. Jelena.
I love that restaurant. Yeah.
And I've heard that Abbot Kinneynow is like cool shopping.
It was always cool,but it was a little.
(07:51):
Kind of.
Kind of sketch or a littlelike off the beaten path.
Yeah. Now it's opposite.
Now it's like a rodeo drive.
It's kind of like bougie and.
Yeah,that's what my friend said.
It's like the Lululemon is nowon Abbot Kinney and
it's like what?
Yep, yep. It's big. Yeah.
Abbot Kenny's like.
That's what I say. Like Venice,you just walk around the corner,
(08:11):
it's super nice.
Otherwise it's super sketchy,but yeah,
it's got everything in there,but.
Got it.
We used to live off of Montana.
Mm, yeah.
Yeah, over there. Which is nice.
You know, Brentwood, Cleaner,quieter. Yeah, totally.
And safer.
100 much safer.
(08:32):
Wow. Wow. It's super.
Definitely. Check it out.
Okay. We will come back.
I mean, again,we always would be coming back,
but we haven't in a whilesince moving to Austin,
we haven't been back and it'slike, oh, we want to just see.
Especially again,because all of our friends
are there and you know,my husband lived there forever,
so. Yeah, he's like, he's like,say it again.
(08:57):
Especially when it startsgetting hot. Summertime.
Totally. Oh my God. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So Austin is a good place.
Yeah, it, well, it's funny.
Just watching it likeexplode is weird.
Everyones going out there now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we didn't know that it wouldlike, it wasn't like, I mean,
(09:20):
we thought it was a cool place,but like, it's just been,
you know, super weird to see.
And the fear, of course,is that it will like, tip over.
Yep.
Hopefully it doesn't becomelike Santa Monica.
You got in early places,you're finding a good spot.
And people people in Austin likehate people from California
(09:42):
because they come and theydrive up, you know,
real estate prices and,and stuff. So.
So we'll see how it,we'll see how it transpires.
So did you get,you got my questions?
You could go ask any questions?
Pretty much.
Okay.
So my audience is femalecontent creators.
Predominantly there are menwho listen to my show,
(10:03):
but in general these arebloggers, these are mompreneurs,
These are people who understandsocial media more probably than
they understand SEO. However,initially these are people who
leaned into Pinterest.
And Pinterest drove a shit tonof traffic to these bloggers.
(10:23):
And then Pinterest is nowpivoting because they're public
and they have to figure out arevenue model and they're,
I would argue,struggling to do that,
that successfully. Therefore,they're not as willing to drive
people off of Pinterest to otherpeople's blogs. They're like,
we want to be like Instagram andkeep people on our platform.
And therefore it's harder toget traffic via Pinterest.
(10:45):
And people are going, oh no,we got to lean into this
thing called SEO.
Yeah Pinterest used to be huge,huge, huge,
depending on what you're doing.
But it could bring more traffic.
Like,if you're DIY crafting fashion,
you're gonna get a ton of drive.
Food, food, food, food.
It was like, the place for food.
(11:07):
Recipe. Yeah.
You know, and so now,though and it was fun.
Because you make pretty picture,you make pretty graphics and
people click through andit was like yay.
And now the idea of like SEO Ithink can be intimidating
and these are not.
I think that women tend to beintimidated by like the,
(11:28):
the bro SEOsbecause it's just not
the way they think.
So they're not thinking about.
I'm going to go after mycompetitors keywords.
But I would argue they should.
You should definitely.
That's what I want to talkabout is and easy wins
(11:50):
where You don't have tospend a ton of time in
Semrush to like gamifythe whole thing,
but that there are these ways tobuild off of what's working.
So does that resonate?
Does that sound reasonable?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Give you like the things thathave the most impact that are
(12:12):
not technical. Not too crazy.
Target.
Right, Right.
Where you could be a foodblogger making recipes and
not spend. You know,you can focus on that
and do SEO,but it's not like you are
spending 247 just on SEO.
Definitely We can talkabout all that stuff.
How to optimize their content,videos,
even optimize Pinterest for SEO.
(12:35):
Perfect.
But in truth. Wait,I'm just gonna. In truth though,
Pinterest was a visualsearch engine.
Now they're trying to be more ofa social network and keep people
on the platform like ascreators. However,
it is all about keywords.
It is all. What'd you say?
(12:56):
Yeah. Keyword research.
Finding those. Right. Keywords.
Right.
Hashtags and all that stuff.
Hashtags no longer hashtags.
No more on Pinterest.
No more hashtags.
No more hashtags on Pinterest.
They just changed it. No.
That's weird.
That's kind of dumb.
I know. But I think it.
It's because they want.
It felt too spammy.
(13:16):
Yeah, they get spammed.
But still Twitter, Instagram,Facebook, they all have.
It's a sign they shouldkeep them.
I mean if they all took themaway, then yeah, take them away.
But if Instagram and all thoseplatforms are leaving it,
especially Twitter.
TikTok.
AbsolutelyI don't use Pinterest too much,
but I do have 10,000 followerson Pinterest,
which is weird because youshould lean into that.
(13:39):
Boarding social media SEO,which is not really the
target audience.
But talk about how I grew myaudience and stuff like that.
But sounds like a lot of thestuff I did in the past
isn't gonna work.
Hashtags and everything.
Now they have videos and Stufflike that. Which. Yeah.
Its all visual.
Everything's video nowadays.
I feel like, terrific. Okay,so I'm going to say, Brandon,
(14:01):
welcome to the show.
And then we'll just launch in.
How does that sound?
And I'm usually,I'm keeping my episodes to about
30 minutes. 30 to 40 minutes.
And SEO content on my podcastdoes really well.
So what my audience wantsare like real tactics.
Like the best comment I get is Iwas listening to your podcast in
(14:22):
the car and I had to pull overto take notes because that's
like the kind of stuff thatpeople love from my podcast.
Like,I want to up my game rather than
like, you got this. Yes.
It's all mindset. Like, no,it's like,
how do you break that down?
CoolYeah, definitely strategies.
(14:43):
Definitely strategies. Yes.
Awesome art. Are you doing the.
So what happens after that?
Do you do the video or is itjust audio or is it both?
I'm just posting audioright now.
That might be the videoyou want to share.
Oh, great. Okay, totally.
Well, likesay that my audience and.
Share the video or the audioor whatever works best.
(15:05):
Perfect I will then give itto you. I will definitely.
I'll share it with you.
Will you speak closerto your mic?
Yeah. Is it.
That's better. Better.
Much better.
Let me. Okay.
Awesome Yeah.
Everything sounds good. Yeah.
The more we can help promoteeach other, the better.
So definitely share it with meand I'll share it with my
(15:25):
audience and just get the wordout there for each other.
Absolutely. All right,so here we go.
Ready?
Brandon, welcome to the show.
Hi. Thanks everyone. Welcome.
So you are an SEO,and can you explain how you got
into this and kind of where youare today and what kinds of
(15:48):
clients you have andwho you help?
I just kind of fell into SEO.
Wasn't anything I really plannedon. Back in 2007,
got my degree in businessmarketing and the first job near
my house or first company in myhouse, had offered me a job,
said, we want you to do SEO.
And I was just like,I don't really know SEO.
Don't know what this is.
I know marketing,but I don't really know Internet
(16:10):
marketing is what it was calledback then. And they're like,
don't worry,we don't know either.
We're gonna take you to classesand workshops and kind of teach
you and learn alongthe way with you.
And so back then I kind of justfell into it and went to all
these classes and workshopsand helped them out.
They were an e commerce websiteand I was pretty much doing
everything for them,doing their SEO,
doing social media,doing email marketing,
(16:32):
running paid ads,et even taking pictures of the
products and adding them tothe website. So back then,
after a few months workingthere, I kind of realized like,
I think everyone's gonna have awebsite in the future and SEO is
a way to get free traffic.
But I would recommend doingeverything I talked about.
Don't just focus on SEO.
You wanna do email marketing,you wanna do social media,
you wanna do paid ads,it all works.
(16:53):
But SEO is a way to get freetraffic and why would you wanna
pay if you get it for free?
So that's really why I focusedon SEO over the years and
working at different mom and popshops and different advertising
agencies over the years,but always been doing freelance
work because also I realizedwith SEO you could do
freelance work.
And I've been building up mybusiness and building it up and
(17:13):
nowadays I just focuson my company,
which is SEO optimizers,and just focus on helping
people get more traffic,but also making sure that
traffic converts.
Because I could get you traffic,which I do for a lot
of my clients,but a lot of times their
websites are not optimized forconverting that traffic
into leads to sales,to phone calls or whatever
that conversion goal is.
Which I realize now that'sall that matters.
(17:34):
It doesn't matter aboutgetting traffic,
it matters about gettingthose sales and leads.
I like you saying that becauseI think you are right.
For example, people will say,I want to grow my Instagram
followers. And I say, oh,that's only part of the puzzle
because what are you going todo with those followers?
Where are you going to directthose followers and how do those
(17:56):
followers lead directly toyou making more money?
And I see the same thing aboutSEO. Great, you've got traffic,
but what are you doing with thattraffic to ultimately move
your business forward?
And I say every blog post thatyou write has to have a goal
attached to it. It's not just,hey, come see my podcast,
(18:17):
my blog post and thenjust leave.
Yeah you have to have a callto action or something.
But you just like the socialmedia because people come
to me all the time, hey,I want to grow my social
media presence,which I could help out
with organic growth.
But I always tell them like,all right,
I'll get you all thesefollowers. But like you said,
followers mean nothing.
Like followers are,you could have a million
followers and if nobody'sengaging or even engagement
(18:39):
doesn't even mean anything justbecause they're liking or
commenting doesn'tmean anything.
Either you want them to go toyour website or go to
make a purchase.
Whatever your call to action is,whatever your conversion
goal is.
Because a lot of these times,social media, they lock you in.
Like Instagram,they lock you in.
They don't really want youto leave Instagram.
It's really tough toleave Instagram.
So it's kind of just like thatclosed network. But yeah,
(19:00):
it's just trying to make surethat you have some sort of
conversion goal at the end ofwhatever content you're putting
out there, whether it's social,whether it's videos,
whether it's emails,whether it's blog posts,
whether it's a landing pagefor your product,
you want to make sure thatall has a clear,
concise conversion goal.
What do you want people to do?
Call you?
Do you want them to email you?
(19:20):
Do you want them to buy this.
Add it to cart, join your list,click on your affiliate links,
whatever. I agree. I agree.
Okay, let's talk SEO right now.
Because I feel like SEO isalways changing and also
staying the same. Like,the fundamentals are the same.
So if you were to put yourselfin Google's shoes,
(19:42):
what does Google want fromyou as a content creator?
Google is just changing becausethey're just trying to find the
spammers and kick them off.
So, yeah,Google changes every single day.
And trying to figure out whatGoogle wants is not
really feasible.
What we really care about is,like,
what is your competition doing?
So if you're a content creatorand you're trying to create
(20:03):
some content,you should just go and search in
Google for your keywords thatyou're trying to write content
for or rank for and see whatyour competitors are doing.
Because what it really comesdown to is word count.
Like, if someone,if you go and search on
Google for, like,how to fix a flat tire or
something, and you see,you search on Google and you
look at the first 10 pages andyou see that everyone is writing
(20:24):
200 words of content,then maybe if you write 250
words of content or 300words of content,
Google's gonna rank you a littlebit higher because it really
comes down to content whenyou're putting it out
there or text.
Google can't really readimages or videos,
but they can read content andthey just feed off your content.
The more content that's relevantand makes sense,
don't just throw content tothrow content out there,
(20:44):
but making sure it's goodcontent has to be 100% unique.
If it's been copied from anotherwebsite or another page
on your website,or from a social media
post that you did,it becomes duplicated content
and you could actuallyget penalized, which,
that's where Google makesall these changes,
because they're looking forpeople that are trying
to game the system.
And if Google sees you tryingto game the system,
(21:04):
which is duplicate contentor backlinks, I mean,
they have so many differentpenalties out there.
Just the whole podcast couldbe about penalties,
but don't want to take it thatway. But just got to be aware,
as long as you're doingeverything that seems right,
like if you're trying to trickGoogle or doing shortcuts that
seem a little weird or shady,you gotta understand that Google
has been around for 20 plusyears and they know all these
(21:25):
tricks and they're looking outfor them all the time.
And if you do get caught,instead of ranking higher,
you're gonna go down inrankings, which they'll.
Right. So are you saying though,let's say it is how to fix a
tire. Lets say I wake up,let's say I don't know,
I'm a car mechanic and,and I want to do,
I want to create a piece ofcontent. And I think to myself,
(21:46):
huh,how to fix a tire sounds like a
good piece of content to create.
So therefore the question is,is that too big?
Say keyboard, Is that a too,too big a kind of topic
to go after?
Or should I narrow it down?
Or like how should I wakeup in the morning?
(22:07):
How do I come up withthat content?
Then how do I go validate.
Yes.
Spend a couple hours dayswriting this piece of content.
How should I think about it?
How would you plan it?
Yeah No,I would first do keyword
research.
So research the keywordlike flat tie or how.
How to fix a flat tire.
How many people are actuallysearching for it every
(22:28):
single month?
So where would you go?
What tools are you using?
Yeah,there's a bunch of different
tools out there,but the best one is from Google,
and it's free.
So I would use GoogleKeyword Planner.
Okay, so Google,how do I find Google
Keyword Planner?
You just search in Google forGoogle Keyword Planner,
and you have to create anaccount with Google Ads.
(22:48):
Okay.
Only downside is nowadays theydon't show you the
actual numbers.
They show you ranges on GoogleKeyword Planner.
So they might say that fix aflat tire might get 100 to
1,000 monthly searches,or it might say 1,000 to 10,000,
or it might say 10,000to 100,000.
So it doesn't give youthe exact number.
Unless you're spendingmoney on Google Ads.
(23:10):
Because Google only cares aboutads they don't want.
This tool's not for SEO.
They don't really give out muchfor SEO because they don't
want you to do SEO.
They want you to spend money.
Google makes all their money offpaid ads. So to use that tool,
you have to sign upfor Google Ads.
And I forget what the minimumis that you spend,
but if you spend like a couplehundred dollars a month,
or Maybe even just $100 a month,that'll show you exact numbers
(23:30):
instead of ranges.
Okay, but that's a lot of money.
Other tools are like Ahrefs A HR E F S or SEMrush or Spyfu
or Moz or. I mean,there's so many different
keyword research toolsout there,
but they're all feeding off theGoogle Keyword Planner.
So they're all just taking thedata from the Google Keyword
(23:51):
Planner and then makingit look prettier.
So that's the only thing is it'sall coming from Google
Keyword Planner.
So can you get enoughinformation just using the free
Google Keyword Planner?
Yep, as long as you're spendingmoney. But if not,
the ranges make it a littletricky. If it says 10,000,
100,000 monthly searches,that's a big number.
(24:12):
10,000 is still good,but 100,000 is a lot.
Okay, so therefore,you might want to spend.
Spend on somethinglike ubersuggest,
which is a cheaper alternativeor keyword. What is it?
Keyword IO.
There are a couple tools thatare cheaper than, like,
the kind of Cadillac of keywordtools like Semrush.
(24:34):
You know, or those.
So it might be worth it, then,to invest in some sort of tool.
So you would start with keywordresearch using one
of these tools.
And what am I looking for?
Like what,what seems like a good amount of
monthly traffic that I couldpotentially rank for?
So that is a tricky questionbecause I see a lot of times
(24:57):
where 0 search volume keywordsbring in traffic.
So I always take everything witha grain of salt that I see with
these tools because sometimesit doesn't make sense.
Like what Google's telling methat only 100 people search for
SEO classes every single month.
I'm like,that seems like it might be a
little bit higher than that.
So usually,and even with zero search,
like sometimes itmight show zero.
(25:18):
But if it's a highly targetedkeyword that you know
is going to convert,if one person searches for that
a month and finds your blog postor finds your website and you
get that conversion and thatlead turns into whatever it
might be, $100, couple hundred,couple thousand,
then it's worthwhile.
So you just have to look at theoverall cost value and see is it
worthwhile for me is becauseyou have to think,
(25:38):
is somebody searching for this?
If I'm thinking of this keyword,there's probably somebody else
that probably I have thoughtof this in the past.
But just take everything with agrain of salt that you
see on Google.
And what I really do is I searchin Google for my keywords and I
see who's on that firstpage of Google.
So I could spy onmy competition.
If all I see is like Wikipedia,Amazon, or like big,
like corporate, like Target,Walmart, stuff like that,
(26:00):
that might be like, all right,this keyword is very
competitive.
I could rank for it over time.
But if all these corporate bigwebsites are up there,
it's going to be hard for me.
If you're a small,medium sized business,
even if you're a big company,it's still going to be
competitive. Also,when I search in Google,
if I see ads at thetop or the bottom,
that means it's alsovery competitive.
Because if people are spendingmoney on that keyword,
(26:20):
that means they tried rankingfor it organically and they
weren't able to do it.
So searching for ads,that kind of tells you like,
should I maybe steerclear of this?
Because it might be a little toocompetitive for me at this time.
But again,it all depends on your business.
If you're established and you'reranking for a ton of keywords,
then it's easier for you to rankon Google because Google
already trusts you.
If you're a new website or don'thave much trust or
(26:41):
much rankings.
Google's not really going torank you that quickly.
They don't trust you.
They don't.
So you have to buildthat trust up,
which is all done throughbacklinks. I mean,
that's part of that SEO.
But keyword research,you still need to make sure
that you're finding. Like,I always just search on Google.
Google's going to pretty muchtell you always what's going on.
Like, look at Google,see what other people are using.
And also when you searchin Google,
(27:03):
I look at people's theblue clickable link,
which is called anSEO title tag.
That blue clickable link iswhere everybody is playing
their keywords.
So I'll go into Google and I'llsearch for my keywords,
and I'll see what other peopleare using in that blue clickable
link. I'm not gonna look at ads.
Skip ads. Ads are irrelevant.
That doesn't matter.
They're not using the samekeywords. They're similar,
(27:24):
but they're different.
So when I'm searchingin Google for SEO,
I'm just looking in the organicresults and looking at that blue
clickable link and seeing maybepeople aren't using
the word tire,maybe people are using the word
whee or people are usingwhatever or tires.
And I look for patterns andtrends, and that gives me ideas.
Because if everyone's on thatfirst page of Google and they're
searching or they're sayinghow to fix flat tires,
(27:46):
not how to fix a flat tire,then I might say, all right,
maybe flat tires might getmore search volume.
Because everyone on the firstpage of Google is using that
same. That phrase.
And Google will pick upon synonyms in plural.
So if you put the keywordflat tires,
you're still going to rankfor the word flat tire.
Okay, so wait,so are you saying that if every
single link on page oneis using flat tires,
(28:09):
and is it smart then to go,you know what,
I'm going to change it upa little bit and go,
how to fix a flat tire?
Or do I go, wait,like wisdom of crowds.
This is what Google is.
You know,I should do what everybody
else is doing.
Like at what point do I zig?
When other people are zagging?
(28:30):
Yeah. Now,I would do what other people are
doing for the most part.
But if I see a Wikipediaor like a Yelp, I mean,
they have teams of peopledoing their SEO,
they're not just guessingthese words.
So if you see these bigcorporate websites.
But then I also search because Idon't trust them because they
might have put flat tires.
And that was 10 years ago thatflat tires got more search
(28:51):
volume and now it's 2022.
Let me check again,just to double check,
using like the Google KeywordPlanner to see the exact
search volume.
Because then I could see flattires might get 20,000 searches.
Flat tire singular mightonly get 500 searches.
So you want to double check.
But usually when you see thetrends or you see everyone
(29:11):
doing the same thing,it's usually there for a reason.
They have.
So there's wisdom.
Yeah especially thebig corporate,
like big corporations,they have teams of people.
It's not just one persondoing the SEO.
They have teams of people thatare researching these keywords,
making sure they're putting thebest one up there because it's
hyper competitive for someof these keywords,
especially for these broadkeywords like that.
(29:31):
So I think what you are sayingis there is a lot of wisdom
already out there if you knowhow to look for it.
For example,TikTok is all about.
There is a trend.
You get on that trend,you do what those people are
doing and let's say you knowtheir TikTok is 20 seconds and
(29:55):
you do your TikTok for 20seconds using the same sound,
using like a similar approachand you put your like little
spin on top of it.
And the goal is to ride thatwave. So you're saying,
go into Google.
So it looks like your favoritekind of SEO tool is Google.
(30:16):
Go look at what's working onGoogle and see if you can do
something, say slightly better,slightly different,
but make sure you're leaninginto the wisdom of what
Google is telling you.
Yeah, definitely.
Google is your best friend.
Because a lot of people look atGoogle and say, all right,
how do I be Google?
What is Google's algorithm?
But I don't even care whatGoogle's algorithm is.
(30:38):
That doesn't matter to mebecause Google's algorithm
changes every single day.
So even if I knew whattheir algorithm is,
tomorrow it's going to changeand the next day it's going to
change and every day changes.
What matters is who's on thatfirst page of Google
for your keywords.
That's all that matters.
And how much SEO are they doing?
And how can you do moreSEO than they've done?
That's all that matters,is doing more SEO than the
(30:58):
people on that firstpage of Google.
That's all I see, more SEO.
What does that mean?
So that means search in Googleand then open up all
the servers.
Whoevers on that firstpage of Google.
Open up each website and see howmuch content do they have?
Are they writing 100 words?
Are they writing athousand words?
Are they writing 2,000 words?
Because you'll see like a trend.
Just like with TikTok,you said everyone might be doing
(31:18):
20 second videos with content.
People might all be writing2,000 words.
So if you write 500 words andeveryone else is writing
2,000 words,Google's gonna be like we're
gonna go with the 2,000 wordsbecause everyone else is
using 2,000 words.
But if you write 2,500 wordsthen Google's like, oh wow,
you're even better thanthis other person.
So you want to go above andbeyond what they're
doing and do it,take it a step further if
(31:40):
possible with good content.
But you have to make sure it'soriginal content has
to be good content.
Don't just throw it up thereto throw it up there.
Or what you could do issearch in Google,
look at all 10 websites,take all that content and make
one giant master article out ofthat or blog post or service
page or e commerce landing pageand taking all that content and
(32:01):
combining it and writingit in your own words,
but using their ideas and usingtheir kind of headings
and topics and likeoh that's interesting.
So that is very muchthe TikTok model,
which is you do not reinventthe wheel.
You take what is already there,what's already worked,
those hashtags that sound andthen you just kind of tweak
(32:23):
it a little bit.
What you're saying is I couldopen up those top 10 results on
the first page of Google andkind of combine all that
information and like usetheir same headings or
make sure to hit all of thosekeywords and kind of make
a master blog post.
(32:44):
Yep And also when you search inGoogle there's a section
that called.
It's called People also askright at the bottom. Yes,
all those.
And if you click on it,it keeps adding more
and more questions.
So you take all those questionsand take the questions verbatim
and then write your own answers.
But pick and choose whichquestions make sense.
But those are all high searchvolume keywords or phrases.
(33:07):
So you incorporating that phraseon your website and answering it
will help out a lot and alsomight get you into that featured
snippet that appears onGoogle sometimes.
Also there's this thingcalled FAQ schema.
So you can add schemaonto those faq,
it's called FAQ Frequently askedquestions so people also ask,
you could add this schema code,which this gets a little
(33:27):
technical, right?
So yes. So this is like markup,where you are able. For example,
in the paid version of Yoast,they have a.
Block for Gutenberg that you candrag into your content and write
your FAQs and then Google canread that and know that
(33:49):
those are FAQs. Like,like you need a recipe card if
you are a food blogger becauseGoogle sees it differently and
can read that recipe and knowsthis is a recipe and can
identify all the pieces of it.
And if you are a food bloggerand you do not have
a recipe card,you are at a serious
disadvantage.
(34:09):
Yep, you definitely want toincorporate schema because
sometimes when you search inGoogle you might see stars
in there or like ratings.
It's all through schema andyou could do Yoast,
but you can also just go intoGoogle and search for free
schema generator.
I forgot what the URL is,but there's a ton of tools out
there that are free where itjust says what's your name,
your business name.
(34:30):
If you're doing recipes,it says, what is a recipe?
If it's for the faq, says,was the FAQ the question
answered?
Just throw it in there,copy and paste that.
You get the code and you canthrow it on your website.
Because if you don't haveWordPress and you're just like,
all right, how do I add Skiba,Like Shopify will do it
for you automatically.
But still there might be stuffthat you want to add manually.
Squarespace and wix I don'tthink will do anything for you.
(34:51):
WordPress you're going tohave to do yourself.
But I love WordPress becauseWordPress is free and it's
the best, easiest,not easiest to use, but great.
And it's free and the pluginsmake it really SEO friendly.
So it's a great platform.
Okay, so let's, I like this.
Let's talk about thesestrategies where you
can kind of hack.
I know you're not goingto like this,
(35:11):
but you can hack Google tomake your content better.
Like this idea of adding this,like these schema.
What is like these kind ofschema to let Google know,
like FAQs recipe cards.
You can do it for DIYs whereyou're letting Google know
(35:31):
what your content is.
And this will give you a leg upif other people are
not doing this.
Huge, huge, huge.
Even if you're likea local business,
you put schema on there,you'll see.
Yourself spell schema sopeople can search it.
It's S K E A right?
Sch.
Oh sch.
Okay, I'm wrong. Okay, good.
(35:51):
I know it's like, it's a tricky.
But Google Bing and Yahoo,I think created that language
like eight, nine years ago.
So search engines created thisprogramming language I believe
and they are saying like thisis really important.
I mean not many people use it.
But if you incorporate it ontoyour website you will definitely
see a boost in rankings.
It's a little bitmore technical,
but that schema codeis worthwhile.
(36:11):
Trying to invest in it or hiresomebody if you're getting
stuck on it,that could help out with it and
just throw it in there.
Because once it's up there,it's up there.
You don't have to keep addingunless you add new pages
to your website,each new page you want
to add schema to.
But for the most part if you'redone with your website,
it's all built out.
I mean sometimes when you'researching you'll see if you're
an E commerce website,the product price will be
(36:31):
in the search results,the reviews will be in there.
That's all through schema.
If you don't have schema,Google's not going to show that
even though you haveit on your website,
the price and all that stuff.
The schema just tells Googleto like hyper focus,
pull that out and pull thatinto the search results.
Sometimes doesn't always appearin the search results.
Like I put stars on every singlepage on my website because
sometimes stars showup in Google.
(36:53):
Most of the time they don't,but the 1% time they do.
If I'm ranked number four onGoogle but I have stars
next to my listing,your eyes are just going to be
drawn in because theseare yellow stars,
they don't show up often.
But every page on my website,all my clients websites,
I put those stars on.
But you have to make sure youput schema with the stars.
If you just throw starson your website.
Now can that work for a blogger?
(37:15):
Oh yeah.
I put on every page onmy website, I do SEO,
I put on my service pages,I put on all my clients.
So in a blog post,let's say I'm doing how
to fix a flat tire,where am I putting my stars?
At the very bottom.
So at the very bottomof the blog post,
at the very bottom left it saysjust like rate this post and
have like stars and you put oneto five stars and you
put five stars.
(37:35):
Oh yeah,definitely put five stars for
yourself all the time.
So that's why Google doesn'tshow it all the time because too
many people have used it in thepast where four or five years
ago these stars would show up.
Majority of the time nowadaysthey hardly ever show up,
but they still sometimes showup. And if they do show up,
you're just going to get thoseeyes focused on your listing and
it's going to really help out alot. So I always tell people,
(37:57):
just do it.
Just take advantage of all thatextra stuff that Google is
willing to do for you.
Schema huge one to definitelylook into.
It's a little more technical butdefinitely look into that.
What about video?
Video is huge.
And sometimes when you search inGoogle, videos appear at Google.
So when you search in Google,if you see a video that appears
(38:17):
in the search results90% of the time,
well majority of the time it'sgoing to be a YouTube video
because Google owns YouTube,right?
And Google only caresabout making money.
So if you search on Google andyou don't click on any ads,
Google's not making any money.
But if you search on Google andthen there's a video there and
if you play that video,that video, if it's owned by,
if it's on YouTube,it's always going to have an ad.
(38:39):
Google's gonna make more money.
And Google only wantsto make money.
So I feel like video is gonnahave a huge presence
or in the future.
Like I mean look atlike Instagram.
It's images and videos but it'sall primarily videos.
Like Pinterest has videos.
TikTok is all videos.
People want visual content,people don't.
I mean their pension fans are soshort nowadays so gotta capture
quickly. And video,especially on YouTube,
(39:00):
like YouTube is the secondmost popular website.
Google's the most popular.
Facebook and YouTube switch offevery day between number two and
three, which seems strange.
Facebook is still up there.
People go on Facebookall the time.
They're not posting as much butthey're going on there for like
friends or family or birthdaysare really popular on there and
stuff like that. But right,YouTube. Okay, video is huge.
(39:20):
But I'm doing my flat tire post.
Do I need to make a video andput it in the blog post?
No,but it definitely will help out.
You don't have to,but it will definitely help out.
If you have a video in there andmake sure it's on YouTube.
Take that video,embed it from YouTube onto your
website. If you have videos,you have to upload it to every
(39:41):
platform separately because theydon't really cross promote
one another.
So you have to upload it toFacebook. I'd upload it to igtv.
Check that out.
Cause that's a long form video.
And Facebook knows that Facebookvideo is disappearing and
Instagram is taking over.
And IGTV is a way to keep thatvideo content up there,
but throw it up everywhere,Throw it up on Twitter,
LinkedIn, Pinterest,all over the world.
(40:03):
Does Google know?
Is Google seeing other networks?
Does it care?
It just cares about Google.
Google's block from all socialmedia is blocked from Google,
except for Twitter.
Google and Twitter partneredup a few years ago, but.
And Google owns YouTube.
But Instagram, Facebook,direct competitors, TikTok,
they don't have anything todo with it. And Pinterest.
(40:24):
No they all,they're all blocked.
Pretty much like Google isblocked from all social media
except for Twitter and YouTube,since they own YouTube.
Okay, let's talk about authoritybecause Google cares about
you as an authority.
So first of all,do I need to be in a very
specific niche or canI be more general?
(40:45):
No, you can be general,but the more niche you are,
the quick or the lesscompetitive it's going to be.
And less competition means it'seasier to get those rankings.
So if you're just going for areally broad general category,
you get up there but justrealize it's gonna take a lot
more time versus a more niche.
So I always tell people startoff broad but have all
these niche pages.
(41:06):
Cause overall like I do SEO,I'm not gonna say, oh,
I focus on one specific aspectof SEO because I wanna rank for
SEO and any variation of likelink building, keyword research,
Google Analytics,Google Search console,
all that stuff.
So I'm not limiting myself tojust the broad general ones.
I'm gonna have the broadgeneral keyword,
but then have all these reallyniche ones and kind of you're
(41:27):
throwing everything against thewall, seeing what sticks,
what ranks faster.
Like you never know.
Sometimes Google Analytics SEOmight rank faster than how to
do keyword research for SEO.
But I'm going to try to rank forall those different variations
and just see which onesget a quicker.
But you're also,let's say you have a hobby
of being a car mechanic.
You're not also going, well,I do SEO and I work on cars.
(41:50):
No no, you have to keep it,keep it one specific topic.
Like that's.
I realized over the years tooyou don't want to have multiple
topics because is I dosocial media as well.
And if someone's looking forsocial media that doesn't
necessarily want SEO,so I keep them separate,
have my own website for SEO,have one for social media.
And I mean those areKind of similar,
but I mean if you're amechanic doing SEO,
you might definitelykeep them separate.
(42:11):
It's just like in social media,you want to have one topic.
Like if you start blendingeverything in,
you're going to get a lot ofpeople going to your page.
A lot of people are going to belike, this is not what I want.
I just want only one thing outof these 20 things that
you're posting about.
So don't just go allover the place.
Like pick one topic and then youcould go as broad into that
topic as you like,but still go deep into the more
(42:33):
niche, kind of unique,specific keywords.
But got it.
To gain authority,I need backlinks.
I need people linking to mebecause it says she's
an authority.
Backlinks are what rankswebsites so.
But are they still as important?
I read stuff back and forthlike they're important,
(42:53):
they're not as important.
They're important,they're not as important.
What is your take?
Yeah, unfortunately everything Italked about before
doesn't matter.
Without backlinks you do. None.
Of that stuff will matter.
I mean,unless the only thing that
people say backlinks don'tmatter is if you write really
good content that's naturallygonna attract backlinks
to your website.
But still you still need toreach out and like build
(43:13):
them on your own.
Everyone's building backlinks.
I mean, that's why all thesecorporations have companies
that do SEO.
They're not just sitting theredoing keyword research and
optimizing the pages.
Cause after that you're like,all right,
I've optimized all thepages on the website.
What do I do from here?
So it's all about contentmarketing and just getting
yourself on as many third partysites that are relevant.
So you don't want to be on anywebsite because that could
(43:35):
actually drop you in rankings,which we don't want.
What are your best strategiesfor getting backlinks?
I get emails all day long.
Hey,I see you wrote this article.
Would you add my link to it?
Whatever. And I delete, delete,delete.
So what are those best strategy?
Is it that though this person isemailing 10,000 people and a
(43:59):
certain percentage will say yes,I just happen to be somebody
that says no.
Yeah that strategy,that's blogger outreach.
And that's probably the safestway to build backlinks because
then you're getting on realwebsites and you're getting
on targeted websites.
So if you're a mechanic,I would tell them like,
let's go into Google and searchfor other mechanics or other
(44:20):
websites about automobiles,automotive, car, whatever it is,
just anything that's somewhatrelated to you.
And start building relationshipswith other websites.
Start building relationshipswith other mechanics,
or find other people.
And other mechanics are easybecause you can find a mechanic
in a different state whereyou're not direct competitors
and be like, hey,let's build this relationship.
Let me help you,and I'll help you out.
Let's help one another out.
(44:40):
But SEO,I can't really help out other
SEO companies because we're alldirect competitors because
we compete nationally.
But if you're a local business,I would definitely start
reaching out, like,go on to Yelp and look at
your competition and.
Different states and buildrelationships with these people
and offer them a free blog postor a free article or some way
to get onto their website.
Because that's the best way.
The safest way tobuild backlinks.
(45:01):
There's millions of differentstrategies to build backlinks.
But the best way is,I mean the safest backlinks
are relevant.
You want to be on relevantwebsites.
So let's say in certaincommunities like DIY people or
food bloggers or whatever,they have these built
in communities.
Is there value in all of themlinking to each other?
(45:22):
Yep.
So that's where yougotta not do.
It's called reciprocalbacklinks.
If I link to you and you linkto me, it cancels it out.
So you just want one way links?
Yeah. No, Google's on top.
Even if you have a hundredpeople in this group and all
linked to one another,but we're not directly linking
to each other.
It's called link wheels.
Google knows about this.
Google knows? Yeah.
You only want peoplelinking to you.
(45:43):
You don't want to linkback to that person.
Like a lot of times people getpublished on like Huffington
Post or Forbes or New York Timesor LA Times and then they link
back to that articlefrom their website.
That cancels that valueof that backlink. No,
so what I tell people is justlike take a screenshot of it.
Because if you link backto that website,
you're really just.
It's called reciprocal backlinkunless you put a no follow tag.
(46:05):
So you could say no follow thisbacklink on my website.
Right.
But even then Google still seesthat you're linking out and
Google still sees that I'mlinking to you and you're
linking to me.
It's called reciprocalbacklinks.
So you got to make sure thatyou want people only.
You want to only link to youwant them to only link to you.
You don't want to link back tothem. So that's the tricky part.
That's where it'slike all right.
How do I get peopleto link to me?
(46:25):
Give them a free blogpost usually.
That's why people are emailingyou all the time.
Also they're telling youto do link inserts,
which is a little weird.
Like insert my link into thiscontent, which seems weird.
When I do that,I cold email people and I'll
reach out and say, hey,I was writing your blog,
I'd love to give youa free blog post.
I'm not going to say insmy link in here.
That's a little like why WouldI insert my link in there?
(46:46):
That's really weird.
But if I'm giving you a reallygood blog post that I spent time
on it, it's high quality.
I know who your audience is.
I'm going to write itspecifically for you.
I'm not going to just sendyou a blog post.
I'm going to pitch your websiteand then if you say yes to me,
then I'm going to look at yourdifferent topics and different
content and see how you write inthe past. So keep it on tone,
make sure it makes sensefor your audience.
(47:06):
But there's also like, I mean,that is the safest way.
But definitely look atyour competition,
look at your competitors.
Just like you could search onGoogle and look at your
competitors use the differentbacklinking tools like Ahrefs or
Semrush or Moz or whatever.
These are all paid tools,but these tools will show you
all your anyone's backlinksyou could throw, anybody,
you could throw Facebook inthere and see all of
(47:28):
their backlinks.
And then one by one you startgoing to those websites and
trying to acquire them.
But there's only so many thatyou could get from your
competition because maybe yourcompetitors have a backlink from
a website from eight years agoand nobody's responding to
that website's inactive.
So that's why you haveto build new ones.
And the way I build new ones isreally by that blogger outreach
blogging on other target sites.
(47:48):
But I'm not just sendingout 10,000 emails.
I'm sending out maybefive emails,
10 emails a week where I'm likepicking unique sites, not just.
And will people say yes?
Will people.
Do you end up writing contentfor these sites?
How many say yes?
You put out 10.
How many say yes to you?
One will say yes. Well,out of a hundred.
(48:11):
So let's say 100. So out of 100,one will say yes,
I'll do it for free.
One will say no.
Another one will say yes,but pay me.
And then the rest isjust no answers.
Because a lot of times like theemail addresses are inactive.
Like, it's crazy.
Like I get so many clientsthat they're like,
I'm not getting any saleson my website and,
and their e commerce website.
And I look and their shoppingcart is broken. Or they're like,
(48:33):
nobody's contacting me.
I go to their contact page,I test their form out and
they're just like, no.
They don't know where that formis being submitted to.
So you have to realize A lot ofwebsites get built and they're
not maintained or updated.
So you have to try.
Like when I do theblogger outreach,
I try to find as many emailaddresses as possible.
I'll see if they havea Contact Us page.
I'll look for their social mediabecause Twitter is a great
(48:56):
way to get responses.
If you message somebodyon Facebook,
it goes to that filtered inbox.
Nobody's ever going tosee that Instagram,
nobody's going to care aboutSEO. But Twitter is great.
Twitter,you can reach out to big
corporations or big influencersor celebrities,
and they don't have that manyfollowers on Twitter and they'll
usually get back to you.
There's no filtered inboxor anything on Twitter.
(49:18):
So I've built relationships withbig brands on Twitter
really easily,and I recommend that
to everybody.
Check out Twitter for peoplelike that to build. Really,
ultimately,you just want to build
relationships with other people.
That's the main thing is buildthese relationships.
You're not just like emailingthem to spam them,
which sometimes it seems spammy.
But you really want tobuild relationships.
And that's the main thing isbuild relationships with other
(49:39):
people and be authentic anddon't just be like, hey,
here's a.
Insert my link to just to helpme out. Like, that's really.
Nobody's going to help you out.
Like, I mean,I get those emails, too.
I get like, it's. It's.
I get all those emails everysingle day and I weed
through them all.
But sometimes I'll see like, oh,this is a big.
I know who this person is.
Let me respond back to them andsee what type of content they're
going to put out there.
Because I know they'll havehigher quality standards.
(50:01):
I mean,usually you get the content.
It's like broken English.
It doesn't make sense.
So that's how a lot ofpeople don't respond.
But I make sure that I havea team of writers,
that they're all basedin the United States.
They're all specialized in thesetopics and not just writers just
to write content that actuallyknow what they're writing about.
Which is really importantnowadays is authenticity,
not just throwing stuff outthere to throw it out there.
(50:21):
You want to be credible andbuild that trust up for
people and for Google,because people are going to
be reading this content.
Google's going to be lookingat for SEO perspective,
but people are goingto be reading it,
and if it doesn't make sense,they're going to see
through that.
And yes. Now what about.
Okay, to close.
I want you to walk me through.
I am new,let's say I'm a new blogger.
(50:43):
And I'm in a niche.
Like I've niched down.
So I have.
I know what I'm about.
But what would yourecommend for me?
So let's say I am alike a landscape architect.
Right.
I do landscapes and I want toall I want to get this free
(51:09):
traffic that you are talkingabout and I blog about it.
Let's say I also then work withclients to help design
their landscape.
I make plans for them.
How do you recommend I go aboutstarting to create content
that gets me traffic?
(51:30):
Yep.
So I would just go into Googleand search for keywords like
landscaping or architecturallandscaping and just put
those words in there.
And then there's gonna be adropdown on Google that shows
like suggested keywords.
Take all those keywords.
Also at the very bottomof Google scroll down,
there's also that search orsearches related to those are
(51:51):
all high search volume keywords.
And take all those.
Take that people also ask anduse that as kind of like an
outline to start writing thatcontent and find the
competition.
See how many words you need towrite versus the competitors.
And then when you write thecontent you have to make
sure you interlink it.
This is really very important islinking to the service page.
So you write this blog postabout architectural design
(52:14):
or landscaping.
You have to link that to thearchitectural landscaping
service page.
Because interlinking your pagesis just important as getting
backlinks from other websites.
Ooh, could you just speak verybriefly? What does that mean?
Yeah,your site structure and your
site hierarchy are sovery important.
So Google looks at where your,the internal links that you have
(52:35):
is like a roadmap to keepthem on your website.
Keep keeps people on yourwebsite longer,
but you have to linkto the right pages.
So if you write a blog postabout structural or
architectural landscaping,you want to link it to the
service page where they canhire me the service,
not the homepage,but your service page.
Right.
Where you can like contact me,learn more about my services so
that ultimately this canturn into money.
(52:58):
Yep.
And you want that link in thecontent to look natural.
And then you also want to putlike maybe two or three links to
other blog posts thatcontent as well.
Because you want to keep peopleon the website after they
read that blog post.
What are they going to do?
But if there's links like ifyou're reading like a New
York Times or LA Times,you always see there's links
to other articles,other blog posts in there,
because they want you to stay onthe website as long as possible.
(53:18):
But also Google followsthose links.
So you link to other relevantblog posts,
helps build up your wholewebsite's trust.
And then what you do is youbuild backlinks to
that blog post.
So you get other people to linkto that blog post. And.
And then that blog post,since it's linking to
your service page,it's linking to other
blog posts.
That link value gets spreadout across your website.
So it's not just getting thatSEO value to the blog post.
(53:41):
The blog post is then linkingto your service page,
which gets that SEO value.
So the backlinks get passed on.
But that's really gets a littletricky with all this stuff.
But it's easier to, like,visualize it all out by
somewhere to drop.
But essentially you want otherpeople to link to
that blog post,and that blog post is
on your website.
And then you link out toyour service page,
you link out to your blog posts,because then you're just giving
(54:02):
yourself backlinks.
You don't want to be spammy.
You only want to link out tomaybe like one service page and
maybe two or threeother blog posts.
You don't want to overdo it.
Because what happens,what happens when people get to
the end of that blog post?
They're just like, what do I do?
Do I want to leave a comment?
Do I want to share it socially?
Which is great. But ultimately,you guys keep people on your
website and hopefully get themto convert, like, social shares.
(54:23):
Comments are good,but they don't leave comments.
It's like what we were talkingabout at the beginning.
You want sales,you want conversions,
you want phone calls, leads.
So getting a comment or gettingsomeone to share your
blog post is okay,but ultimately you want to lead
them back to the service page,which has a strong call
to action on there,and that would be the best.
And then just writegood content.
(54:43):
Write good content andbe of service. Yeah.
Solve problems for people. So,Brandon,
this is very enlightening.
I feel like you have given thisinsight into Google and how to
think about serving Google.
So Google serves you back.
Yeah, that's the main thing.
So if people want to get intouch with you or learn more
(55:05):
about you, where should they go?
Yeah.
So appreciate everyonefor listening today.
And I've made a special gift foreveryone if you go
to my website.
It's SEO optimizers.com gift.
There's a little giftfor everyone.
So S E O O P T I I ZE R s dot com gift.
(55:25):
And so a gift for everyone.
And then you can also findout me out my website,
on my website as well,or if you go on YouTube,
search my name.
Brandon Leibowitz.
I put out a lot of videos andjust want to kind of help give
back and help people learn howto get that free traffic from
Google so they could stopspending money on ads.
That's really the main thing.
I mean, the ads work,but stop making Google richer.
(55:47):
They already make waytoo much money.
Well, Brandon, I have to say,thank you so much for
coming on the show.
Thanks for having me on.
It was great.
I knew it.
Brandon hey. How are you doing?
(00:40):
Hi. Are you there? Here,hold on.
I justWill you put on your camera?
I promise I'm notgonna post this.
No, no, no. Is it.
Oh, there you are. Hello.
Do you Okay, so let me.
(01:01):
I'm just.
I'm printing out.
I didn't print out my questionsfor you. Okay.
Do you have a Are youspeaking into a mic?
Yep.
Oh, okay, terrific. I can.
And where are you located?
In Los Angeles.
Where?
In Venice.
(01:21):
Oh, wow. Okay.
So we lived in Santa Monica for,gosh, 15 years.
Okay, nice. Where are you now?
Now we're in Austin.
Okay.
So how is. How is Venice?
I hear it's weird.
Yeah, it's not the best,but I'm on, like,
the border of Santa Monica.
So try to stay overin Santa Monica,
(01:42):
not try to go intoVenice too much.
Because just as we were leaving,we moved from Santa Monica
to the Bay Area about.
Wow. Like, almost 10 years ago.
And then we moved four years agofrom the Bay Area to Austin.
But just as we were leaving,I feel like we were in Santa
(02:02):
Monica, like, in the heyday,where every cool restaurant was
coming to Santa Monica.
But it was just start.
We had a babysitter who livedin Venice, and just.
She was starting to say,you know, there's some campers
on our street.
It was just like.
And I was like, that's so weird.
Like, people are, like,living on your street.
That's so weird.
(02:22):
So I have a good friend wholives in Sea Colony.
You know where that is?
I think I've seen the complex.
It's like,those apartment buildings.
They're, like, expensive.
Right by the beach.
And she said that, like, it's,like, really nice where she is,
but parts of Venice now arelooking a little bit like
(02:44):
Brazil.
Yeah. Like skid. Yeah, it's bad.
It's bad.
They don't clean it up.
Unfortunately, they don't.
So it is true. Because I see,like, videos on Twitter,
and I'm like, is it real,or is this just, like,
a little snapshot?
Its a little snapshot. I mean,there's a little pocket.
So move around.
But they're usually in a coupleblocks. Like. Yeah. But, I mean,
(03:06):
they put up porta pottiesand showers,
so they're not going anywhere,unfortunately.
Like, really?
Next to Gold's Gym orin front of Google.
Thats the worst area rightthere. Like, really? Google?
Really?
And Google used to be theChiat Day building.
It's the one withthe binoculars.
Yeah So that on Main street,that's the worst area,
(03:29):
that little area.
But once you cross overto Santa Monica,
it's clean because they don'tlet them camp there.
But once you crossover to Venice,
Venice is la and LA doesn'tkick them out. So yeah,
once you cross right over,it gets bad for those
couple blocks,but after that it's not too bad.
But that area is just so badthey put up porta potties and
(03:50):
they put up showers so they'renot going anywhere.
Like that whole area,it was always right there.
It was like a little sketch,but not so bad.
You know it was.
But it was always like a littlelike it doesn't feel as safe.
Yeah No,they took the bus station,
I think,and made it a homeless shelter.
But the homeless don't want togo there because they have to be
(04:13):
sober and they haveto be in a curfew.
So they all camp outside of it,which is weird.
Do you mind holding on for onesecond? So my husband is.
Hold on.
I printed out my questions andmy husband is going to leave
so that I have privacy.
(04:33):
But do you feel like,like my friend was saying again,
she's a woman,that she feels like she has to
continually like crossthe street.
Like she doesn't feel likein so much danger,
but you have to kind of avoidlike the crazy people and
the homeless people?
Yeah,I mean there's people sleeping
sometimes on the sidewalk whichgotta walk over them and so,
(04:58):
but, but,and what about the Promenade?
No everything in Santa Monica,I mean they're there but they
don't sleep there. It's Venice.
Venice is where it'slike LA county.
And LA county says come on over.
Sleep here, we don't care.
Just like skid row andeverything. So that's why.
But Santa Monica is likeyou could be here,
but you can't sleep here.
Like you get panhandle and stufflike that, but can't sleep here.
(05:21):
So now what about though I'veheard that the block up the
north part of the promenadeis like gone.
Like where Barnes and Noble usedto be and there was like
a Banana Republic.
Yeah, yeah, all that's gone,but not much. Homeless.
I mean they're there,but they don't sleep there.
Like they'll kick them out.
Like they might stay therefor like an hour,
(05:44):
but someone's gonnakick them out.
They have security over therethat Google security is weird.
Google lets them sleep there,but like promenade,
they'll kick Them out prettyquick over there and the pier.
They'll kick them out.
In Santa Monica.
And how long haveyou lived there?
Six years, maybe seven years.
Okay, and where are you from?
(06:05):
From San Pedro, near Long Beach.
Okay. Okay.
So you're like you'rea California guy?
Pretty much, yeah.
I grew up here, so.
Okay.
Just moved up here.
Closer to be work or closer towork because commuting on that
405 from Long beach to SantaMonica was rough.
That was not fun. So.
Got it. Okay.
So your offices for yourcompany are in Venice.
(06:27):
Well, that was my old, old job.
Like that was. Got it now.
Yeah. Now it's just remote, so.
But technically in Venice,but Got it.
Got it. Yeah. So weird.
Like we're.
My husband is born andbred in Los Angeles.
Like went to Beverly High,went to usc and so he's dying to
go back just to see whatit looks like now.
(06:49):
You should definitely checkit out. It's not that bad.
But it's not. It's just pocket.
It's just pockets.
Yeah,it's just little areas where
like. All right,maybe I'm not going to turn
down this street.
I'll walk one moreblock this way.
But it's not just like skid row.
Like it's not like downtownwhere it's like just trash.
How about Hollywood?
(07:10):
Yeah, I mean,I haven't really been up there,
but I heard kind of the same.
But I haven't been up there.
Not much in Hollywood anyways.
It's dirty and Yeah,the same as it's always been.
Dirty and not a place you reallywant. You bring your tours,
your friends there.
But after that it's like I'm notgoing back to Hollywood.
Really? Even restaurants,though?
(07:30):
They got some good restaurants.
But Santa Monica has a lot ofgood restaurants and Venice has
a lot of good restaurants.
Right, right, right, right,right. Is Gilenia still there?
I mean, Jelena. Jelena.
I love that restaurant. Yeah.
And I've heard that Abbot Kinneynow is like cool shopping.
It was always cool,but it was a little.
(07:51):
Kind of.
Kind of sketch or a littlelike off the beaten path.
Yeah. Now it's opposite.
Now it's like a rodeo drive.
It's kind of like bougie and.
Yeah,that's what my friend said.
It's like the Lululemon is nowon Abbot Kinney and
it's like what?
Yep, yep. It's big. Yeah.
Abbot Kenny's like.
That's what I say. Like Venice,you just walk around the corner,
(08:11):
it's super nice.
Otherwise it's super sketchy,but yeah,
it's got everything in there,but.
Got it.
We used to live off of Montana.
Mm, yeah.
Yeah, over there. Which is nice.
You know, Brentwood, Cleaner,quieter. Yeah, totally.
And safer.
100 much safer.
(08:32):
Wow. Wow. It's super.
Definitely. Check it out.
Okay. We will come back.
I mean, again,we always would be coming back,
but we haven't in a whilesince moving to Austin,
we haven't been back and it'slike, oh, we want to just see.
Especially again,because all of our friends
are there and you know,my husband lived there forever,
so. Yeah, he's like, he's like,say it again.
(08:57):
Especially when it startsgetting hot. Summertime.
Totally. Oh my God. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So Austin is a good place.
Yeah, it, well, it's funny.
Just watching it likeexplode is weird.
Everyones going out there now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we didn't know that it wouldlike, it wasn't like, I mean,
(09:20):
we thought it was a cool place,but like, it's just been,
you know, super weird to see.
And the fear, of course,is that it will like, tip over.
Yep.
Hopefully it doesn't becomelike Santa Monica.
You got in early places,you're finding a good spot.
And people people in Austin likehate people from California
(09:42):
because they come and theydrive up, you know,
real estate prices and,and stuff. So.
So we'll see how it,we'll see how it transpires.
So did you get,you got my questions?
You could go ask any questions?
Pretty much.
Okay.
So my audience is femalecontent creators.
Predominantly there are menwho listen to my show,
(10:03):
but in general these arebloggers, these are mompreneurs,
These are people who understandsocial media more probably than
they understand SEO. However,initially these are people who
leaned into Pinterest.
And Pinterest drove a shit tonof traffic to these bloggers.
(10:23):
And then Pinterest is nowpivoting because they're public
and they have to figure out arevenue model and they're,
I would argue,struggling to do that,
that successfully. Therefore,they're not as willing to drive
people off of Pinterest to otherpeople's blogs. They're like,
we want to be like Instagram andkeep people on our platform.
And therefore it's harder toget traffic via Pinterest.
(10:45):
And people are going, oh no,we got to lean into this
thing called SEO.
Yeah Pinterest used to be huge,huge, huge,
depending on what you're doing.
But it could bring more traffic.
Like,if you're DIY crafting fashion,
you're gonna get a ton of drive.
Food, food, food, food.
It was like, the place for food.
(11:07):
Recipe. Yeah.
You know, and so now,though and it was fun.
Because you make pretty picture,you make pretty graphics and
people click through andit was like yay.
And now the idea of like SEO Ithink can be intimidating
and these are not.
I think that women tend to beintimidated by like the,
(11:28):
the bro SEOsbecause it's just not
the way they think.
So they're not thinking about.
I'm going to go after mycompetitors keywords.
But I would argue they should.
You should definitely.
That's what I want to talkabout is and easy wins
(11:50):
where You don't have tospend a ton of time in
Semrush to like gamifythe whole thing,
but that there are these ways tobuild off of what's working.
So does that resonate?
Does that sound reasonable?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Give you like the things thathave the most impact that are
(12:12):
not technical. Not too crazy.
Target.
Right, Right.
Where you could be a foodblogger making recipes and
not spend. You know,you can focus on that
and do SEO,but it's not like you are
spending 247 just on SEO.
Definitely We can talkabout all that stuff.
How to optimize their content,videos,
even optimize Pinterest for SEO.
(12:35):
Perfect.
But in truth. Wait,I'm just gonna. In truth though,
Pinterest was a visualsearch engine.
Now they're trying to be more ofa social network and keep people
on the platform like ascreators. However,
it is all about keywords.
It is all. What'd you say?
(12:56):
Yeah. Keyword research.
Finding those. Right. Keywords.
Right.
Hashtags and all that stuff.
Hashtags no longer hashtags.
No more on Pinterest.
No more hashtags.
No more hashtags on Pinterest.
They just changed it. No.
That's weird.
That's kind of dumb.
I know. But I think it.
It's because they want.
It felt too spammy.
(13:16):
Yeah, they get spammed.
But still Twitter, Instagram,Facebook, they all have.
It's a sign they shouldkeep them.
I mean if they all took themaway, then yeah, take them away.
But if Instagram and all thoseplatforms are leaving it,
especially Twitter.
TikTok.
AbsolutelyI don't use Pinterest too much,
but I do have 10,000 followerson Pinterest,
which is weird because youshould lean into that.
(13:39):
Boarding social media SEO,which is not really the
target audience.
But talk about how I grew myaudience and stuff like that.
But sounds like a lot of thestuff I did in the past
isn't gonna work.
Hashtags and everything.
Now they have videos and Stufflike that. Which. Yeah.
Its all visual.
Everything's video nowadays.
I feel like, terrific. Okay,so I'm going to say, Brandon,
(14:01):
welcome to the show.
And then we'll just launch in.
How does that sound?
And I'm usually,I'm keeping my episodes to about
30 minutes. 30 to 40 minutes.
And SEO content on my podcastdoes really well.
So what my audience wantsare like real tactics.
Like the best comment I get is Iwas listening to your podcast in
(14:22):
the car and I had to pull overto take notes because that's
like the kind of stuff thatpeople love from my podcast.
Like,I want to up my game rather than
like, you got this. Yes.
It's all mindset. Like, no,it's like,
how do you break that down?
CoolYeah, definitely strategies.
(14:43):
Definitely strategies. Yes.
Awesome art. Are you doing the.
So what happens after that?
Do you do the video or is itjust audio or is it both?
I'm just posting audioright now.
That might be the videoyou want to share.
Oh, great. Okay, totally.
Well, likesay that my audience and.
Share the video or the audioor whatever works best.
(15:05):
Perfect I will then give itto you. I will definitely.
I'll share it with you.
Will you speak closerto your mic?
Yeah. Is it.
That's better. Better.
Much better.
Let me. Okay.
Awesome Yeah.
Everything sounds good. Yeah.
The more we can help promoteeach other, the better.
So definitely share it with meand I'll share it with my
(15:25):
audience and just get the wordout there for each other.
Absolutely. All right,so here we go.
Ready?
Brandon, welcome to the show.
Hi. Thanks everyone. Welcome.
So you are an SEO,and can you explain how you got
into this and kind of where youare today and what kinds of
(15:48):
clients you have andwho you help?
I just kind of fell into SEO.
Wasn't anything I really plannedon. Back in 2007,
got my degree in businessmarketing and the first job near
my house or first company in myhouse, had offered me a job,
said, we want you to do SEO.
And I was just like,I don't really know SEO.
Don't know what this is.
I know marketing,but I don't really know Internet
(16:10):
marketing is what it was calledback then. And they're like,
don't worry,we don't know either.
We're gonna take you to classesand workshops and kind of teach
you and learn alongthe way with you.
And so back then I kind of justfell into it and went to all
these classes and workshopsand helped them out.
They were an e commerce websiteand I was pretty much doing
everything for them,doing their SEO,
doing social media,doing email marketing,
(16:32):
running paid ads,et even taking pictures of the
products and adding them tothe website. So back then,
after a few months workingthere, I kind of realized like,
I think everyone's gonna have awebsite in the future and SEO is
a way to get free traffic.
But I would recommend doingeverything I talked about.
Don't just focus on SEO.
You wanna do email marketing,you wanna do social media,
you wanna do paid ads,it all works.
(16:53):
But SEO is a way to get freetraffic and why would you wanna
pay if you get it for free?
So that's really why I focusedon SEO over the years and
working at different mom and popshops and different advertising
agencies over the years,but always been doing freelance
work because also I realizedwith SEO you could do
freelance work.
And I've been building up mybusiness and building it up and
(17:13):
nowadays I just focuson my company,
which is SEO optimizers,and just focus on helping
people get more traffic,but also making sure that
traffic converts.
Because I could get you traffic,which I do for a lot
of my clients,but a lot of times their
websites are not optimized forconverting that traffic
into leads to sales,to phone calls or whatever
that conversion goal is.
Which I realize now that'sall that matters.
(17:34):
It doesn't matter aboutgetting traffic,
it matters about gettingthose sales and leads.
I like you saying that becauseI think you are right.
For example, people will say,I want to grow my Instagram
followers. And I say, oh,that's only part of the puzzle
because what are you going todo with those followers?
Where are you going to directthose followers and how do those
(17:56):
followers lead directly toyou making more money?
And I see the same thing aboutSEO. Great, you've got traffic,
but what are you doing with thattraffic to ultimately move
your business forward?
And I say every blog post thatyou write has to have a goal
attached to it. It's not just,hey, come see my podcast,
(18:17):
my blog post and thenjust leave.
Yeah you have to have a callto action or something.
But you just like the socialmedia because people come
to me all the time, hey,I want to grow my social
media presence,which I could help out
with organic growth.
But I always tell them like,all right,
I'll get you all thesefollowers. But like you said,
followers mean nothing.
Like followers are,you could have a million
followers and if nobody'sengaging or even engagement
(18:39):
doesn't even mean anything justbecause they're liking or
commenting doesn'tmean anything.
Either you want them to go toyour website or go to
make a purchase.
Whatever your call to action is,whatever your conversion
goal is.
Because a lot of these times,social media, they lock you in.
Like Instagram,they lock you in.
They don't really want youto leave Instagram.
It's really tough toleave Instagram.
So it's kind of just like thatclosed network. But yeah,
(19:00):
it's just trying to make surethat you have some sort of
conversion goal at the end ofwhatever content you're putting
out there, whether it's social,whether it's videos,
whether it's emails,whether it's blog posts,
whether it's a landing pagefor your product,
you want to make sure thatall has a clear,
concise conversion goal.
What do you want people to do?
Call you?
Do you want them to email you?
(19:20):
Do you want them to buy this.
Add it to cart, join your list,click on your affiliate links,
whatever. I agree. I agree.
Okay, let's talk SEO right now.
Because I feel like SEO isalways changing and also
staying the same. Like,the fundamentals are the same.
So if you were to put yourselfin Google's shoes,
(19:42):
what does Google want fromyou as a content creator?
Google is just changing becausethey're just trying to find the
spammers and kick them off.
So, yeah,Google changes every single day.
And trying to figure out whatGoogle wants is not
really feasible.
What we really care about is,like,
what is your competition doing?
So if you're a content creatorand you're trying to create
(20:03):
some content,you should just go and search in
Google for your keywords thatyou're trying to write content
for or rank for and see whatyour competitors are doing.
Because what it really comesdown to is word count.
Like, if someone,if you go and search on
Google for, like,how to fix a flat tire or
something, and you see,you search on Google and you
look at the first 10 pages andyou see that everyone is writing
(20:24):
200 words of content,then maybe if you write 250
words of content or 300words of content,
Google's gonna rank you a littlebit higher because it really
comes down to content whenyou're putting it out
there or text.
Google can't really readimages or videos,
but they can read content andthey just feed off your content.
The more content that's relevantand makes sense,
don't just throw content tothrow content out there,
(20:44):
but making sure it's goodcontent has to be 100% unique.
If it's been copied from anotherwebsite or another page
on your website,or from a social media
post that you did,it becomes duplicated content
and you could actuallyget penalized, which,
that's where Google makesall these changes,
because they're looking forpeople that are trying
to game the system.
And if Google sees you tryingto game the system,
(21:04):
which is duplicate contentor backlinks, I mean,
they have so many differentpenalties out there.
Just the whole podcast couldbe about penalties,
but don't want to take it thatway. But just got to be aware,
as long as you're doingeverything that seems right,
like if you're trying to trickGoogle or doing shortcuts that
seem a little weird or shady,you gotta understand that Google
has been around for 20 plusyears and they know all these
(21:25):
tricks and they're looking outfor them all the time.
And if you do get caught,instead of ranking higher,
you're gonna go down inrankings, which they'll.
Right. So are you saying though,let's say it is how to fix a
tire. Lets say I wake up,let's say I don't know,
I'm a car mechanic and,and I want to do,
I want to create a piece ofcontent. And I think to myself,
(21:46):
huh,how to fix a tire sounds like a
good piece of content to create.
So therefore the question is,is that too big?
Say keyboard, Is that a too,too big a kind of topic
to go after?
Or should I narrow it down?
Or like how should I wakeup in the morning?
(22:07):
How do I come up withthat content?
Then how do I go validate.
Yes.
Spend a couple hours dayswriting this piece of content.
How should I think about it?
How would you plan it?
Yeah No,I would first do keyword
research.
So research the keywordlike flat tie or how.
How to fix a flat tire.
How many people are actuallysearching for it every
(22:28):
single month?
So where would you go?
What tools are you using?
Yeah,there's a bunch of different
tools out there,but the best one is from Google,
and it's free.
So I would use GoogleKeyword Planner.
Okay, so Google,how do I find Google
Keyword Planner?
You just search in Google forGoogle Keyword Planner,
and you have to create anaccount with Google Ads.
(22:48):
Okay.
Only downside is nowadays theydon't show you the
actual numbers.
They show you ranges on GoogleKeyword Planner.
So they might say that fix aflat tire might get 100 to
1,000 monthly searches,or it might say 1,000 to 10,000,
or it might say 10,000to 100,000.
So it doesn't give youthe exact number.
Unless you're spendingmoney on Google Ads.
(23:10):
Because Google only cares aboutads they don't want.
This tool's not for SEO.
They don't really give out muchfor SEO because they don't
want you to do SEO.
They want you to spend money.
Google makes all their money offpaid ads. So to use that tool,
you have to sign upfor Google Ads.
And I forget what the minimumis that you spend,
but if you spend like a couplehundred dollars a month,
or Maybe even just $100 a month,that'll show you exact numbers
(23:30):
instead of ranges.
Okay, but that's a lot of money.
Other tools are like Ahrefs A HR E F S or SEMrush or Spyfu
or Moz or. I mean,there's so many different
keyword research toolsout there,
but they're all feeding off theGoogle Keyword Planner.
So they're all just taking thedata from the Google Keyword
(23:51):
Planner and then makingit look prettier.
So that's the only thing is it'sall coming from Google
Keyword Planner.
So can you get enoughinformation just using the free
Google Keyword Planner?
Yep, as long as you're spendingmoney. But if not,
the ranges make it a littletricky. If it says 10,000,
100,000 monthly searches,that's a big number.
(24:12):
10,000 is still good,but 100,000 is a lot.
Okay, so therefore,you might want to spend.
Spend on somethinglike ubersuggest,
which is a cheaper alternativeor keyword. What is it?
Keyword IO.
There are a couple tools thatare cheaper than, like,
the kind of Cadillac of keywordtools like Semrush.
(24:34):
You know, or those.
So it might be worth it, then,to invest in some sort of tool.
So you would start with keywordresearch using one
of these tools.
And what am I looking for?
Like what,what seems like a good amount of
monthly traffic that I couldpotentially rank for?
So that is a tricky questionbecause I see a lot of times
(24:57):
where 0 search volume keywordsbring in traffic.
So I always take everything witha grain of salt that I see with
these tools because sometimesit doesn't make sense.
Like what Google's telling methat only 100 people search for
SEO classes every single month.
I'm like,that seems like it might be a
little bit higher than that.
So usually,and even with zero search,
like sometimes itmight show zero.
(25:18):
But if it's a highly targetedkeyword that you know
is going to convert,if one person searches for that
a month and finds your blog postor finds your website and you
get that conversion and thatlead turns into whatever it
might be, $100, couple hundred,couple thousand,
then it's worthwhile.
So you just have to look at theoverall cost value and see is it
worthwhile for me is becauseyou have to think,
(25:38):
is somebody searching for this?
If I'm thinking of this keyword,there's probably somebody else
that probably I have thoughtof this in the past.
But just take everything with agrain of salt that you
see on Google.
And what I really do is I searchin Google for my keywords and I
see who's on that firstpage of Google.
So I could spy onmy competition.
If all I see is like Wikipedia,Amazon, or like big,
like corporate, like Target,Walmart, stuff like that,
(26:00):
that might be like, all right,this keyword is very
competitive.
I could rank for it over time.
But if all these corporate bigwebsites are up there,
it's going to be hard for me.
If you're a small,medium sized business,
even if you're a big company,it's still going to be
competitive. Also,when I search in Google,
if I see ads at thetop or the bottom,
that means it's alsovery competitive.
Because if people are spendingmoney on that keyword,
(26:20):
that means they tried rankingfor it organically and they
weren't able to do it.
So searching for ads,that kind of tells you like,
should I maybe steerclear of this?
Because it might be a little toocompetitive for me at this time.
But again,it all depends on your business.
If you're established and you'reranking for a ton of keywords,
then it's easier for you to rankon Google because Google
already trusts you.
If you're a new website or don'thave much trust or
(26:41):
much rankings.
Google's not really going torank you that quickly.
They don't trust you.
They don't.
So you have to buildthat trust up,
which is all done throughbacklinks. I mean,
that's part of that SEO.
But keyword research,you still need to make sure
that you're finding. Like,I always just search on Google.
Google's going to pretty muchtell you always what's going on.
Like, look at Google,see what other people are using.
And also when you searchin Google,
(27:03):
I look at people's theblue clickable link,
which is called anSEO title tag.
That blue clickable link iswhere everybody is playing
their keywords.
So I'll go into Google and I'llsearch for my keywords,
and I'll see what other peopleare using in that blue clickable
link. I'm not gonna look at ads.
Skip ads. Ads are irrelevant.
That doesn't matter.
They're not using the samekeywords. They're similar,
(27:24):
but they're different.
So when I'm searchingin Google for SEO,
I'm just looking in the organicresults and looking at that blue
clickable link and seeing maybepeople aren't using
the word tire,maybe people are using the word
whee or people are usingwhatever or tires.
And I look for patterns andtrends, and that gives me ideas.
Because if everyone's on thatfirst page of Google and they're
searching or they're sayinghow to fix flat tires,
(27:46):
not how to fix a flat tire,then I might say, all right,
maybe flat tires might getmore search volume.
Because everyone on the firstpage of Google is using that
same. That phrase.
And Google will pick upon synonyms in plural.
So if you put the keywordflat tires,
you're still going to rankfor the word flat tire.
Okay, so wait,so are you saying that if every
single link on page oneis using flat tires,
(28:09):
and is it smart then to go,you know what,
I'm going to change it upa little bit and go,
how to fix a flat tire?
Or do I go, wait,like wisdom of crowds.
This is what Google is.
You know,I should do what everybody
else is doing.
Like at what point do I zig?
When other people are zagging?
(28:30):
Yeah. Now,I would do what other people are
doing for the most part.
But if I see a Wikipediaor like a Yelp, I mean,
they have teams of peopledoing their SEO,
they're not just guessingthese words.
So if you see these bigcorporate websites.
But then I also search because Idon't trust them because they
might have put flat tires.
And that was 10 years ago thatflat tires got more search
(28:51):
volume and now it's 2022.
Let me check again,just to double check,
using like the Google KeywordPlanner to see the exact
search volume.
Because then I could see flattires might get 20,000 searches.
Flat tire singular mightonly get 500 searches.
So you want to double check.
But usually when you see thetrends or you see everyone
(29:11):
doing the same thing,it's usually there for a reason.
They have.
So there's wisdom.
Yeah especially thebig corporate,
like big corporations,they have teams of people.
It's not just one persondoing the SEO.
They have teams of people thatare researching these keywords,
making sure they're putting thebest one up there because it's
hyper competitive for someof these keywords,
especially for these broadkeywords like that.
(29:31):
So I think what you are sayingis there is a lot of wisdom
already out there if you knowhow to look for it.
For example,TikTok is all about.
There is a trend.
You get on that trend,you do what those people are
doing and let's say you knowtheir TikTok is 20 seconds and
(29:55):
you do your TikTok for 20seconds using the same sound,
using like a similar approachand you put your like little
spin on top of it.
And the goal is to ride thatwave. So you're saying,
go into Google.
So it looks like your favoritekind of SEO tool is Google.
(30:16):
Go look at what's working onGoogle and see if you can do
something, say slightly better,slightly different,
but make sure you're leaninginto the wisdom of what
Google is telling you.
Yeah, definitely.
Google is your best friend.
Because a lot of people look atGoogle and say, all right,
how do I be Google?
What is Google's algorithm?
But I don't even care whatGoogle's algorithm is.
(30:38):
That doesn't matter to mebecause Google's algorithm
changes every single day.
So even if I knew whattheir algorithm is,
tomorrow it's going to changeand the next day it's going to
change and every day changes.
What matters is who's on thatfirst page of Google
for your keywords.
That's all that matters.
And how much SEO are they doing?
And how can you do moreSEO than they've done?
That's all that matters,is doing more SEO than the
(30:58):
people on that firstpage of Google.
That's all I see, more SEO.
What does that mean?
So that means search in Googleand then open up all
the servers.
Whoevers on that firstpage of Google.
Open up each website and see howmuch content do they have?
Are they writing 100 words?
Are they writing athousand words?
Are they writing 2,000 words?
Because you'll see like a trend.
Just like with TikTok,you said everyone might be doing
(31:18):
20 second videos with content.
People might all be writing2,000 words.
So if you write 500 words andeveryone else is writing
2,000 words,Google's gonna be like we're
gonna go with the 2,000 wordsbecause everyone else is
using 2,000 words.
But if you write 2,500 wordsthen Google's like, oh wow,
you're even better thanthis other person.
So you want to go above andbeyond what they're
doing and do it,take it a step further if
(31:40):
possible with good content.
But you have to make sure it'soriginal content has
to be good content.
Don't just throw it up thereto throw it up there.
Or what you could do issearch in Google,
look at all 10 websites,take all that content and make
one giant master article out ofthat or blog post or service
page or e commerce landing pageand taking all that content and
(32:01):
combining it and writingit in your own words,
but using their ideas and usingtheir kind of headings
and topics and likeoh that's interesting.
So that is very muchthe TikTok model,
which is you do not reinventthe wheel.
You take what is already there,what's already worked,
those hashtags that sound andthen you just kind of tweak
(32:23):
it a little bit.
What you're saying is I couldopen up those top 10 results on
the first page of Google andkind of combine all that
information and like usetheir same headings or
make sure to hit all of thosekeywords and kind of make
a master blog post.
(32:44):
Yep And also when you search inGoogle there's a section
that called.
It's called People also askright at the bottom. Yes,
all those.
And if you click on it,it keeps adding more
and more questions.
So you take all those questionsand take the questions verbatim
and then write your own answers.
But pick and choose whichquestions make sense.
But those are all high searchvolume keywords or phrases.
(33:07):
So you incorporating that phraseon your website and answering it
will help out a lot and alsomight get you into that featured
snippet that appears onGoogle sometimes.
Also there's this thingcalled FAQ schema.
So you can add schemaonto those faq,
it's called FAQ Frequently askedquestions so people also ask,
you could add this schema code,which this gets a little
(33:27):
technical, right?
So yes. So this is like markup,where you are able. For example,
in the paid version of Yoast,they have a.
Block for Gutenberg that you candrag into your content and write
your FAQs and then Google canread that and know that
(33:49):
those are FAQs. Like,like you need a recipe card if
you are a food blogger becauseGoogle sees it differently and
can read that recipe and knowsthis is a recipe and can
identify all the pieces of it.
And if you are a food bloggerand you do not have
a recipe card,you are at a serious
disadvantage.
(34:09):
Yep, you definitely want toincorporate schema because
sometimes when you search inGoogle you might see stars
in there or like ratings.
It's all through schema andyou could do Yoast,
but you can also just go intoGoogle and search for free
schema generator.
I forgot what the URL is,but there's a ton of tools out
there that are free where itjust says what's your name,
your business name.
(34:30):
If you're doing recipes,it says, what is a recipe?
If it's for the faq, says,was the FAQ the question
answered?
Just throw it in there,copy and paste that.
You get the code and you canthrow it on your website.
Because if you don't haveWordPress and you're just like,
all right, how do I add Skiba,Like Shopify will do it
for you automatically.
But still there might be stuffthat you want to add manually.
Squarespace and wix I don'tthink will do anything for you.
(34:51):
WordPress you're going tohave to do yourself.
But I love WordPress becauseWordPress is free and it's
the best, easiest,not easiest to use, but great.
And it's free and the pluginsmake it really SEO friendly.
So it's a great platform.
Okay, so let's, I like this.
Let's talk about thesestrategies where you
can kind of hack.
I know you're not goingto like this,
(35:11):
but you can hack Google tomake your content better.
Like this idea of adding this,like these schema.
What is like these kind ofschema to let Google know,
like FAQs recipe cards.
You can do it for DIYs whereyou're letting Google know
(35:31):
what your content is.
And this will give you a leg upif other people are
not doing this.
Huge, huge, huge.
Even if you're likea local business,
you put schema on there,you'll see.
Yourself spell schema sopeople can search it.
It's S K E A right?
Sch.
Oh sch.
Okay, I'm wrong. Okay, good.
(35:51):
I know it's like, it's a tricky.
But Google Bing and Yahoo,I think created that language
like eight, nine years ago.
So search engines created thisprogramming language I believe
and they are saying like thisis really important.
I mean not many people use it.
But if you incorporate it ontoyour website you will definitely
see a boost in rankings.
It's a little bitmore technical,
but that schema codeis worthwhile.
(36:11):
Trying to invest in it or hiresomebody if you're getting
stuck on it,that could help out with it and
just throw it in there.
Because once it's up there,it's up there.
You don't have to keep addingunless you add new pages
to your website,each new page you want
to add schema to.
But for the most part if you'redone with your website,
it's all built out.
I mean sometimes when you'researching you'll see if you're
an E commerce website,the product price will be
(36:31):
in the search results,the reviews will be in there.
That's all through schema.
If you don't have schema,Google's not going to show that
even though you haveit on your website,
the price and all that stuff.
The schema just tells Googleto like hyper focus,
pull that out and pull thatinto the search results.
Sometimes doesn't always appearin the search results.
Like I put stars on every singlepage on my website because
sometimes stars showup in Google.
(36:53):
Most of the time they don't,but the 1% time they do.
If I'm ranked number four onGoogle but I have stars
next to my listing,your eyes are just going to be
drawn in because theseare yellow stars,
they don't show up often.
But every page on my website,all my clients websites,
I put those stars on.
But you have to make sure youput schema with the stars.
If you just throw starson your website.
Now can that work for a blogger?
(37:15):
Oh yeah.
I put on every page onmy website, I do SEO,
I put on my service pages,I put on all my clients.
So in a blog post,let's say I'm doing how
to fix a flat tire,where am I putting my stars?
At the very bottom.
So at the very bottomof the blog post,
at the very bottom left it saysjust like rate this post and
have like stars and you put oneto five stars and you
put five stars.
(37:35):
Oh yeah,definitely put five stars for
yourself all the time.
So that's why Google doesn'tshow it all the time because too
many people have used it in thepast where four or five years
ago these stars would show up.
Majority of the time nowadaysthey hardly ever show up,
but they still sometimes showup. And if they do show up,
you're just going to get thoseeyes focused on your listing and
it's going to really help out alot. So I always tell people,
(37:57):
just do it.
Just take advantage of all thatextra stuff that Google is
willing to do for you.
Schema huge one to definitelylook into.
It's a little more technical butdefinitely look into that.
What about video?
Video is huge.
And sometimes when you search inGoogle, videos appear at Google.
So when you search in Google,if you see a video that appears
(38:17):
in the search results90% of the time,
well majority of the time it'sgoing to be a YouTube video
because Google owns YouTube,right?
And Google only caresabout making money.
So if you search on Google andyou don't click on any ads,
Google's not making any money.
But if you search on Google andthen there's a video there and
if you play that video,that video, if it's owned by,
if it's on YouTube,it's always going to have an ad.
(38:39):
Google's gonna make more money.
And Google only wantsto make money.
So I feel like video is gonnahave a huge presence
or in the future.
Like I mean look atlike Instagram.
It's images and videos but it'sall primarily videos.
Like Pinterest has videos.
TikTok is all videos.
People want visual content,people don't.
I mean their pension fans are soshort nowadays so gotta capture
quickly. And video,especially on YouTube,
(39:00):
like YouTube is the secondmost popular website.
Google's the most popular.
Facebook and YouTube switch offevery day between number two and
three, which seems strange.
Facebook is still up there.
People go on Facebookall the time.
They're not posting as much butthey're going on there for like
friends or family or birthdaysare really popular on there and
stuff like that. But right,YouTube. Okay, video is huge.
(39:20):
But I'm doing my flat tire post.
Do I need to make a video andput it in the blog post?
No,but it definitely will help out.
You don't have to,but it will definitely help out.
If you have a video in there andmake sure it's on YouTube.
Take that video,embed it from YouTube onto your
website. If you have videos,you have to upload it to every
(39:41):
platform separately because theydon't really cross promote
one another.
So you have to upload it toFacebook. I'd upload it to igtv.
Check that out.
Cause that's a long form video.
And Facebook knows that Facebookvideo is disappearing and
Instagram is taking over.
And IGTV is a way to keep thatvideo content up there,
but throw it up everywhere,Throw it up on Twitter,
LinkedIn, Pinterest,all over the world.
(40:03):
Does Google know?
Is Google seeing other networks?
Does it care?
It just cares about Google.
Google's block from all socialmedia is blocked from Google,
except for Twitter.
Google and Twitter partneredup a few years ago, but.
And Google owns YouTube.
But Instagram, Facebook,direct competitors, TikTok,
they don't have anything todo with it. And Pinterest.
(40:24):
No they all,they're all blocked.
Pretty much like Google isblocked from all social media
except for Twitter and YouTube,since they own YouTube.
Okay, let's talk about authoritybecause Google cares about
you as an authority.
So first of all,do I need to be in a very
specific niche or canI be more general?
(40:45):
No, you can be general,but the more niche you are,
the quick or the lesscompetitive it's going to be.
And less competition means it'seasier to get those rankings.
So if you're just going for areally broad general category,
you get up there but justrealize it's gonna take a lot
more time versus a more niche.
So I always tell people startoff broad but have all
these niche pages.
(41:06):
Cause overall like I do SEO,I'm not gonna say, oh,
I focus on one specific aspectof SEO because I wanna rank for
SEO and any variation of likelink building, keyword research,
Google Analytics,Google Search console,
all that stuff.
So I'm not limiting myself tojust the broad general ones.
I'm gonna have the broadgeneral keyword,
but then have all these reallyniche ones and kind of you're
(41:27):
throwing everything against thewall, seeing what sticks,
what ranks faster.
Like you never know.
Sometimes Google Analytics SEOmight rank faster than how to
do keyword research for SEO.
But I'm going to try to rank forall those different variations
and just see which onesget a quicker.
But you're also,let's say you have a hobby
of being a car mechanic.
You're not also going, well,I do SEO and I work on cars.
(41:50):
No no, you have to keep it,keep it one specific topic.
Like that's.
I realized over the years tooyou don't want to have multiple
topics because is I dosocial media as well.
And if someone's looking forsocial media that doesn't
necessarily want SEO,so I keep them separate,
have my own website for SEO,have one for social media.
And I mean those areKind of similar,
but I mean if you're amechanic doing SEO,
you might definitelykeep them separate.
(42:11):
It's just like in social media,you want to have one topic.
Like if you start blendingeverything in,
you're going to get a lot ofpeople going to your page.
A lot of people are going to belike, this is not what I want.
I just want only one thing outof these 20 things that
you're posting about.
So don't just go allover the place.
Like pick one topic and then youcould go as broad into that
topic as you like,but still go deep into the more
(42:33):
niche, kind of unique,specific keywords.
But got it.
To gain authority,I need backlinks.
I need people linking to mebecause it says she's
an authority.
Backlinks are what rankswebsites so.
But are they still as important?
I read stuff back and forthlike they're important,
(42:53):
they're not as important.
They're important,they're not as important.
What is your take?
Yeah, unfortunately everything Italked about before
doesn't matter.
Without backlinks you do. None.
Of that stuff will matter.
I mean,unless the only thing that
people say backlinks don'tmatter is if you write really
good content that's naturallygonna attract backlinks
to your website.
But still you still need toreach out and like build
(43:13):
them on your own.
Everyone's building backlinks.
I mean, that's why all thesecorporations have companies
that do SEO.
They're not just sitting theredoing keyword research and
optimizing the pages.
Cause after that you're like,all right,
I've optimized all thepages on the website.
What do I do from here?
So it's all about contentmarketing and just getting
yourself on as many third partysites that are relevant.
So you don't want to be on anywebsite because that could
(43:35):
actually drop you in rankings,which we don't want.
What are your best strategiesfor getting backlinks?
I get emails all day long.
Hey,I see you wrote this article.
Would you add my link to it?
Whatever. And I delete, delete,delete.
So what are those best strategy?
Is it that though this person isemailing 10,000 people and a
(43:59):
certain percentage will say yes,I just happen to be somebody
that says no.
Yeah that strategy,that's blogger outreach.
And that's probably the safestway to build backlinks because
then you're getting on realwebsites and you're getting
on targeted websites.
So if you're a mechanic,I would tell them like,
let's go into Google and searchfor other mechanics or other
(44:20):
websites about automobiles,automotive, car, whatever it is,
just anything that's somewhatrelated to you.
And start building relationshipswith other websites.
Start building relationshipswith other mechanics,
or find other people.
And other mechanics are easybecause you can find a mechanic
in a different state whereyou're not direct competitors
and be like, hey,let's build this relationship.
Let me help you,and I'll help you out.
Let's help one another out.
(44:40):
But SEO,I can't really help out other
SEO companies because we're alldirect competitors because
we compete nationally.
But if you're a local business,I would definitely start
reaching out, like,go on to Yelp and look at
your competition and.
Different states and buildrelationships with these people
and offer them a free blog postor a free article or some way
to get onto their website.
Because that's the best way.
The safest way tobuild backlinks.
(45:01):
There's millions of differentstrategies to build backlinks.
But the best way is,I mean the safest backlinks
are relevant.
You want to be on relevantwebsites.
So let's say in certaincommunities like DIY people or
food bloggers or whatever,they have these built
in communities.
Is there value in all of themlinking to each other?
(45:22):
Yep.
So that's where yougotta not do.
It's called reciprocalbacklinks.
If I link to you and you linkto me, it cancels it out.
So you just want one way links?
Yeah. No, Google's on top.
Even if you have a hundredpeople in this group and all
linked to one another,but we're not directly linking
to each other.
It's called link wheels.
Google knows about this.
Google knows? Yeah.
You only want peoplelinking to you.
(45:43):
You don't want to linkback to that person.
Like a lot of times people getpublished on like Huffington
Post or Forbes or New York Timesor LA Times and then they link
back to that articlefrom their website.
That cancels that valueof that backlink. No,
so what I tell people is justlike take a screenshot of it.
Because if you link backto that website,
you're really just.
It's called reciprocal backlinkunless you put a no follow tag.
(46:05):
So you could say no follow thisbacklink on my website.
Right.
But even then Google still seesthat you're linking out and
Google still sees that I'mlinking to you and you're
linking to me.
It's called reciprocalbacklinks.
So you got to make sure thatyou want people only.
You want to only link to youwant them to only link to you.
You don't want to link back tothem. So that's the tricky part.
That's where it'slike all right.
How do I get peopleto link to me?
(46:25):
Give them a free blogpost usually.
That's why people are emailingyou all the time.
Also they're telling youto do link inserts,
which is a little weird.
Like insert my link into thiscontent, which seems weird.
When I do that,I cold email people and I'll
reach out and say, hey,I was writing your blog,
I'd love to give youa free blog post.
I'm not going to say insmy link in here.
That's a little like why WouldI insert my link in there?
(46:46):
That's really weird.
But if I'm giving you a reallygood blog post that I spent time
on it, it's high quality.
I know who your audience is.
I'm going to write itspecifically for you.
I'm not going to just sendyou a blog post.
I'm going to pitch your websiteand then if you say yes to me,
then I'm going to look at yourdifferent topics and different
content and see how you write inthe past. So keep it on tone,
make sure it makes sensefor your audience.
(47:06):
But there's also like, I mean,that is the safest way.
But definitely look atyour competition,
look at your competitors.
Just like you could search onGoogle and look at your
competitors use the differentbacklinking tools like Ahrefs or
Semrush or Moz or whatever.
These are all paid tools,but these tools will show you
all your anyone's backlinksyou could throw, anybody,
you could throw Facebook inthere and see all of
(47:28):
their backlinks.
And then one by one you startgoing to those websites and
trying to acquire them.
But there's only so many thatyou could get from your
competition because maybe yourcompetitors have a backlink from
a website from eight years agoand nobody's responding to
that website's inactive.
So that's why you haveto build new ones.
And the way I build new ones isreally by that blogger outreach
blogging on other target sites.
(47:48):
But I'm not just sendingout 10,000 emails.
I'm sending out maybefive emails,
10 emails a week where I'm likepicking unique sites, not just.
And will people say yes?
Will people.
Do you end up writing contentfor these sites?
How many say yes?
You put out 10.
How many say yes to you?
One will say yes. Well,out of a hundred.
(48:11):
So let's say 100. So out of 100,one will say yes,
I'll do it for free.
One will say no.
Another one will say yes,but pay me.
And then the rest isjust no answers.
Because a lot of times like theemail addresses are inactive.
Like, it's crazy.
Like I get so many clientsthat they're like,
I'm not getting any saleson my website and,
and their e commerce website.
And I look and their shoppingcart is broken. Or they're like,
(48:33):
nobody's contacting me.
I go to their contact page,I test their form out and
they're just like, no.
They don't know where that formis being submitted to.
So you have to realize A lot ofwebsites get built and they're
not maintained or updated.
So you have to try.
Like when I do theblogger outreach,
I try to find as many emailaddresses as possible.
I'll see if they havea Contact Us page.
I'll look for their social mediabecause Twitter is a great
(48:56):
way to get responses.
If you message somebodyon Facebook,
it goes to that filtered inbox.
Nobody's ever going tosee that Instagram,
nobody's going to care aboutSEO. But Twitter is great.
Twitter,you can reach out to big
corporations or big influencersor celebrities,
and they don't have that manyfollowers on Twitter and they'll
usually get back to you.
There's no filtered inboxor anything on Twitter.
(49:18):
So I've built relationships withbig brands on Twitter
really easily,and I recommend that
to everybody.
Check out Twitter for peoplelike that to build. Really,
ultimately,you just want to build
relationships with other people.
That's the main thing is buildthese relationships.
You're not just like emailingthem to spam them,
which sometimes it seems spammy.
But you really want tobuild relationships.
And that's the main thing isbuild relationships with other
(49:39):
people and be authentic anddon't just be like, hey,
here's a.
Insert my link to just to helpme out. Like, that's really.
Nobody's going to help you out.
Like, I mean,I get those emails, too.
I get like, it's. It's.
I get all those emails everysingle day and I weed
through them all.
But sometimes I'll see like, oh,this is a big.
I know who this person is.
Let me respond back to them andsee what type of content they're
going to put out there.
Because I know they'll havehigher quality standards.
(50:01):
I mean,usually you get the content.
It's like broken English.
It doesn't make sense.
So that's how a lot ofpeople don't respond.
But I make sure that I havea team of writers,
that they're all basedin the United States.
They're all specialized in thesetopics and not just writers just
to write content that actuallyknow what they're writing about.
Which is really importantnowadays is authenticity,
not just throwing stuff outthere to throw it out there.
(50:21):
You want to be credible andbuild that trust up for
people and for Google,because people are going to
be reading this content.
Google's going to be lookingat for SEO perspective,
but people are goingto be reading it,
and if it doesn't make sense,they're going to see
through that.
And yes. Now what about.
Okay, to close.
I want you to walk me through.
I am new,let's say I'm a new blogger.
(50:43):
And I'm in a niche.
Like I've niched down.
So I have.
I know what I'm about.
But what would yourecommend for me?
So let's say I am alike a landscape architect.
Right.
I do landscapes and I want toall I want to get this free
(51:09):
traffic that you are talkingabout and I blog about it.
Let's say I also then work withclients to help design
their landscape.
I make plans for them.
How do you recommend I go aboutstarting to create content
that gets me traffic?
(51:30):
Yep.
So I would just go into Googleand search for keywords like
landscaping or architecturallandscaping and just put
those words in there.
And then there's gonna be adropdown on Google that shows
like suggested keywords.
Take all those keywords.
Also at the very bottomof Google scroll down,
there's also that search orsearches related to those are
(51:51):
all high search volume keywords.
And take all those.
Take that people also ask anduse that as kind of like an
outline to start writing thatcontent and find the
competition.
See how many words you need towrite versus the competitors.
And then when you write thecontent you have to make
sure you interlink it.
This is really very important islinking to the service page.
So you write this blog postabout architectural design
(52:14):
or landscaping.
You have to link that to thearchitectural landscaping
service page.
Because interlinking your pagesis just important as getting
backlinks from other websites.
Ooh, could you just speak verybriefly? What does that mean?
Yeah,your site structure and your
site hierarchy are sovery important.
So Google looks at where your,the internal links that you have
(52:35):
is like a roadmap to keepthem on your website.
Keep keeps people on yourwebsite longer,
but you have to linkto the right pages.
So if you write a blog postabout structural or
architectural landscaping,you want to link it to the
service page where they canhire me the service,
not the homepage,but your service page.
Right.
Where you can like contact me,learn more about my services so
that ultimately this canturn into money.
(52:58):
Yep.
And you want that link in thecontent to look natural.
And then you also want to putlike maybe two or three links to
other blog posts thatcontent as well.
Because you want to keep peopleon the website after they
read that blog post.
What are they going to do?
But if there's links like ifyou're reading like a New
York Times or LA Times,you always see there's links
to other articles,other blog posts in there,
because they want you to stay onthe website as long as possible.
(53:18):
But also Google followsthose links.
So you link to other relevantblog posts,
helps build up your wholewebsite's trust.
And then what you do is youbuild backlinks to
that blog post.
So you get other people to linkto that blog post. And.
And then that blog post,since it's linking to
your service page,it's linking to other
blog posts.
That link value gets spreadout across your website.
So it's not just getting thatSEO value to the blog post.
(53:41):
The blog post is then linkingto your service page,
which gets that SEO value.
So the backlinks get passed on.
But that's really gets a littletricky with all this stuff.
But it's easier to, like,visualize it all out by
somewhere to drop.
But essentially you want otherpeople to link to
that blog post,and that blog post is
on your website.
And then you link out toyour service page,
you link out to your blog posts,because then you're just giving
(54:02):
yourself backlinks.
You don't want to be spammy.
You only want to link out tomaybe like one service page and
maybe two or threeother blog posts.
You don't want to overdo it.
Because what happens,what happens when people get to
the end of that blog post?
They're just like, what do I do?
Do I want to leave a comment?
Do I want to share it socially?
Which is great. But ultimately,you guys keep people on your
website and hopefully get themto convert, like, social shares.
(54:23):
Comments are good,but they don't leave comments.
It's like what we were talkingabout at the beginning.
You want sales,you want conversions,
you want phone calls, leads.
So getting a comment or gettingsomeone to share your
blog post is okay,but ultimately you want to lead
them back to the service page,which has a strong call
to action on there,and that would be the best.
And then just writegood content.
(54:43):
Write good content andbe of service. Yeah.
Solve problems for people. So,Brandon,
this is very enlightening.
I feel like you have given thisinsight into Google and how to
think about serving Google.
So Google serves you back.
Yeah, that's the main thing.
So if people want to get intouch with you or learn more
(55:05):
about you, where should they go?
Yeah.
So appreciate everyonefor listening today.
And I've made a special gift foreveryone if you go
to my website.
It's SEO optimizers.com gift.
There's a little giftfor everyone.
So S E O O P T I I ZE R s dot com gift.
(55:25):
And so a gift for everyone.
And then you can also findout me out my website,
on my website as well,or if you go on YouTube,
search my name.
Brandon Leibowitz.
I put out a lot of videos andjust want to kind of help give
back and help people learn howto get that free traffic from
Google so they could stopspending money on ads.
That's really the main thing.
I mean, the ads work,but stop making Google richer.
(55:47):
They already make waytoo much money.
Well, Brandon, I have to say,thank you so much for
coming on the show.
Thanks for having me on.
It was great.
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