74 - Tip Tuesday - Breaking Down the Mystery of SEO with Joe Youngblood
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be a mysterious thing, but it's extremely crucial to the growth of your business. As you're starting out, adding one more thing to think about can be daunting. However, it's definitely a step that you don't want to miss. Joe Youngblood, an SEO Expert and Founder of WinnerWinnerChickenDinner.co, stopped by to give some great tips on where to start, how to find out what your competitors are doing, and how to set-up a strategy where you're always staying on top.
What would you tell that beginner person on where they should begin? The first thing Joe recommends is if your business is built around you, you need to make sure you're ranking for your name. People typically will remember your name versus your business name, etc. The way to do that is to build a page all about you, write a unique bio for yourself, almost like a LinkedIn Profile, and then link to that wherever you can. Your goal is to get it to rank. There are big aggregator websites who are trying to rank on your name, so make sure your page is on top.
If you have a common name, making ranking a bit more difficult, first, check out your competition. You can use a tool called KWFinder.com. It will show you a score between 0-100 on the possibility of ranking. If it's over 40, it's going to be harder to rank. You can use something like your middle name as your last name, or a middle initial, etc, to start ranking differently. It's not impossible to rank on your name, but just know it might take a longer time to get there. If you see someone has worked really hard to get there, then it may be harder.
How do you start finding out how you rank? The first thing you want to do is find the low hanging fruit. Start digging through the key words that might have lower volume, but could still have a higher conversions. Also use the KWFinder tool to see where the competition lies. It's good to start with one of the easiest ones that will convert. As you're building the SEO, concentrate on that one. Once your website is improving, go for a harder one, and then slowly try to keep stepping up where you get to a point where you're competing in the more common ones.
If you try to re-target a page (to a related keyword, but one that's higher ranking), you'll actually drop in rankings because the algorithm won't show you're still a match. However, if you're working hard on your SEO, then your ranking will jump back up in about 30-60 days. A great strategy is to go for the low hanging fruit in the busy season, and then if there's an off-season, try to switch to the more 'juicy' keywords, and let your rankings build back up.
Where should your keywords be on your page for the best ranking? Typically you should shoot for the title tag and H1, and then repeat that key phrase throughout the page. That works about 70% in today's world. However, if you're still not ranking there might be different factors holding you back. You don't need the H1 tag, but as a best practice, it's best to do it. You also want to use related keywords to the one you're trying to rank on.
When I'm looking at my competitors, what am I looking for? When you look at a competitor there are a lot of things you need to know. First, you need to see if they're involved in SEO. A lot of companies will start working on SEO, but then stop once they get ranked higher. Then find out if they're doing any SEO, link building, content distribution, and then look at how frequently. You also want to look at the length of the content. Are they ranking because they have a ton of comments, or they created a long form post. You also want to see where they're getting back links from. You may not want the exact people they're getting links from. However, you do want someone who falls within the same profile.
How do I know where they're getting backlinks from? Moz Open Site Explorer and Majestic.com are tools that will help you find out. You can type in your competitors url and you can get backlinks either to a certain page or to the whole website. You can also see the backlinks for the past few months, so you can see what's happening.
What are backlinks and why are they important? A backlink is when someone links your site from their own page. Google looks at people who have quality links as someone who is more of an authority. Google does go after bad, backlinking tactics.
Where do you start trying to find backlinks? There are resources where people do tell you how to build links. If you sell something in a local area, then look at universities, or local big companies. You can then offer something to the employees, and they'll have a link back on their HR page. Also be sure every time you're being mentioned, that your website is also listed. Be tactful on where you're also posting and linking yourself. You want to avoid things like link networks or blog networks. They just try to jam links. There's also a one way link network. They do make it look like the websites are not owned by the same company. Best rule of thumb is if someone is charging you for a link, then it's not something you want for your website.
How do you figure out where to focus? Unfortunately in SEO, you can't just pick some things to do. Joe recommends a linear strategy, start with your website, and make sure your pages are linking. Also make sure while you're building it, it's mobile friendly. Then work on external content creation. Start creating content on other websites while creating great content on yours. From there, go to more hardcore back linking tactics.
Joe has some great resources on creating back links on his site: JoeYoungBlood.com
You can find Joe at WinnerWinnerChickenDinner.co, which is a strategy firm.
More About Joe: Joe Youngblood has been building and marketing websites since he was 14 years old. Most recently mentioned on Forbes.com for his link building strategies.