I have been in marketing for over 10 years and my least favorite part of marketing is SEO. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve talked to that simply don’t grasp SEO but have paid beaucoup money to have an “SEO – Guy” work on their site. It’s outrageous, and ticks me off like no other. So today, we’re flushing out the BS you probably have paid to smell.
Help me stop others from buying into it.
1. Content Is King So Make Content And They Will Come…
Raise your hand if you’ve heard this before: “Content Is King” or my personal favorite, “Just create really GOOD content and they will come.” What the heck does that even mean? And I answer NOTHING. Content is not King, your strategy is, content is just a pawn.
Let me break this down — creating content is okay, at best. Creating content supported by a plan of attack is good. Creating content with a plan of attack that gets you conversions is great. We need to be great.
Most brands I meet create content just because. There’s no rhyme or reason, just the blind leading the blind at a steady slow pace. It doesn’t make any sense, but you pay big bucks to have this done on a monthly basis.
So what do you do? Well, start by asking why you’re creating content. See how you can have it plug into at least 3 different parts of your overall marketing funnel. Start there and call me on Monday to see how you’re doing.
2. Backlinks Don’t Matter, It’s All About Optimizing Your Website
Have you ever stopped and asked what SEO is about?
No, why would you? It feels like it was invented by a con artist. Let me give you the 411…
There are 2 types of SEO you’ll need for your website.
A) Onsite SEO — 90% of this is done when you launch a website. This is optimizing the back-end, images, meta tags, etc.
B) Offsite SEO — this is link building, social media, content creation found offsite.
Simple right?
Well, in the last month what type of back-links have you collected? Ahhh, yeah not many I bet. You need them. Once you finish your website it’s all about building offsite content.
Think of your website as being worth 1 brownie point, you want as many brownie points pointing back to you as possible. But there are catches, these can’t be spammy brownies or BS brownies. They need to be legit. “Healthy brownies”, if you will. And yes, there’s such a thing as a healthy brownie and you need to fill up on them.
3. My SEO Tactics Are Trade Secrets — Much Like A Unicorn You Must Trust They Are Here, Beautiful & Work 24/7
SEO is not a secret. SEO is NOT a secret. SEO IS NOT A SECRET.
There is no special formula. It’s a bit of a numbers game that requires a huge time commitment. When talking to an SEO guy, if they can’t break down to you a basic process of what they will be providing then it’s total BS. It’s that simple.
Our agency offers SEO in two stages: onsite and offsite. It’s simple. You get it. We get it. No unicorns needed.
Don’t do business with those who claim to have some special sauce to improve your rankings — that is a complete load. It will likely make things worse.
FINAL THOUGHTS…
What’s my point? It’s simple. Don’t copy the other guys’ SEO plan — make one that is tailored to your brand. This may mean 4 blog posts a month, it may mean 2 blog posts and a YouTube video… who knows? Oh wait… I know. Just you and your SEO team once you, together, create a clear plan with completely transparent set of strategies and tactics.
The only way your SEO will work is if it stands out, and matches your brand. Sleep on that.
PS. Here’s a guide to over 100 Ranking Factors On Google. Thank me later.
