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The #1 SEO Tip That Even Advanced SEOs Ignore
Don’t be afraid to undergo an SEO audit. This is very under-utilized.
Getting an SEO audit from a handful of different sources can be a great investment because different people come with a different perspective. They come with different backgrounds. You are getting perspective from each of these individuals.
The gig economy has created a landscape where there’s tons of SEO professionals to take a look at your site and provide you with some interesting opportunities that you may have overlooked.
Don’t be afraid to get other people to jump in and review your content. I have no issues outsourcing to get someone else to review my site structure because I don’t have the ego to say I am the best at this.
This is something all of us need to embrace. Recognize that other people have great perspectives you can use to grow.
The SMARTEST Content Marketing Strategy for 2020
If you are in the marketing automation space, it’s great to look at the HubSpots of the world and try to leverage that to gain insight, but you can also look at sites like Wirecutter. You can look at any other property that has been able to kill it from an SEO standpoint and reverse-engineer what gave them success.
One of the key insights I’ve recognized is when you look at Moz, Salesforce, or HubSpot, a lot of them have been able to establish a lot of traffic by simply creating glossary sections of their websites. That’s something that, as an SEO, you should be able to look at and ask how can I apply this to my industry?
If you’re a coffee company, maybe you create a glossary around the different phrases that are interesting to coffee. If you are a plant company and you’re selling plants, create a glossary section on your site that is dedicated to the bonsai trees, to the tulips, to any other plants.
Don’t hesitate to look at other industries outside of your own for inspiration.
Competitor SEO Analysis: Can You Ethically Spy on Your Competitors’ SEO & Steal Their Traffic?
Look at what other people are doing and use that as a starting point.
If you are working with a new brand or if you’re a new SEO in the industry, don’t be afraid to go out and research what other people have done and have found success with. Reverse-engineer that to guide your own strategy.
A lot of people like to get too fancy and think they have to come with everything themselves. That is not the case.
We all know that HubSpot has been around for a long time, so let’s reverse-engineer what HubSpot has done. We know that Salesforce has been around in the CRM space, so let’s see what keywords they’re ranking for.
Let’s understand what phrases they’re going after and what pages they’ve developed that are generating the most backlinks. Let’s use all of that information to help us guide our approach and ensure the content that we create is actually going to drive results.
A lot of times, we get caught up in the ego of wanting to come up with all of these new fancy ideas for content. In reality, the blueprint is oftentimes in front of us; we just have to take the time to reverse-engineer it.
The Secret to Keyword Research in 2020
I always start with the fundamentals. That’s where I started my entire SEO journey. I started with a fantasy football blog when I was in university, and SEO came as icing on the cake.
My number-one goal was to create great content that I thought people who were interested in winning their fantasy football leagues would be interested in. That content happened to rank because people wanted that content.
Understand what type of content your audience wants, deliver that to them, and then add the SEO hat after that.
Think about how you can improve and ensure the content that you’re creating and delivering is actually aligned with keywords. Dive into the keyword research.
Uncover opportunities to get backlinks. Think about how you can position it the right way. All of those different things come secondary.
A lot of people make the mistake of having too big of egos and they think they can rank for a phrase without doing any research into whether or not that’s something that people look for.
How can you optimize it from an onsite perspective? How can you ensure that the story you’re telling is going to be worth linking to?
Put yourself in the customers’ shoes and understand what type of content they want.
Transcript:
Note: This transcript of the episode was machine-generated and has not been edited for correctness. It’s provided for your convenience when searching. Please excuse any errors.
Brendan Hufford – 53 ross simmonds seo for the rest of us
Brendan Hufford: [00:00:00] Cool. Um, we are recording Ross Simmons, stay for, I already messed that up. Ross Simmons. Thanks for joining us for a hundred days of SEO. Thanks
[00:00:11] Ross Simmonds: [00:00:11] for having me. I’ve been following and I’m excited to have the chance to take part in this. I’m looking forward to chatting with you.
[00:00:17] Brendan Hufford: [00:00:17] Yeah, man, I’m stoked. I’m so I want to dive right into it.
[00:00:20] Uh, SEO can be overwhelming for a lot of people and Google loves to. Flaunt that there are 200 ranking factors. I’m not convinced 90% of those maps, but, uh, you know, when you think about SEO and like maybe your approach to it, like where do you, where do you start?
[00:00:37] Ross Simmonds: [00:00:37] Yeah, the great question. So I think
[00:00:39] I always start with the fundamentals and that’s where I started my entire SEO journey.
[00:00:44] Ross Simmonds: [00:00:44] Like
[00:00:44] I started with a fantasy football blog when I was in university, uh, and SEO, came as uh, icing on the cake. So to speak after that, my number-one goal was to create great content that I thought people who were interested in winning their fantasy football leagues would be interested in that content happened to rank because, um, People wanted that content.
[00:01:05] So I think the key piece to start with is just fundamentally understand what type of content your audience wants and then deliver that. And then you put on the se. No hat and you think about, okay, how can we improve this? And ensure that the content that we’re creating and that we’re delivering is actually aligned with keywords.
[00:01:21] Let’s dive into the keyword research. Let’s uncover opportunities to get backlinks. Let’s think about how we can position this the right way. All of those different things come secondary. I think a lot of people make the mistake of having too big of egos and they think, Oh, we can rank for this phrase without doing any research into whether or not that’s something that people look for.
[00:01:39] So I think it starts by Fundamentally understanding what type of content your audience wants and then delivering that to them. And then adding the SEO hat after that, uh, to think through, okay, how can we optimize this from an onsite perspective? How can we ensure that the story that we’re telling is going to be worth linking to those are the things that come afterwards.
[00:02:00] When you start looking at site structure and things like that. First, you have to just put yourself in the buyer or customers shoes and understand what type of content they want.
[00:02:09] Brendan Hufford: [00:02:09] So what, usually my next question is like, what do you see as like beginner mistakes? And I think you kind of touched on that already.
[00:02:15] Um, how, I guess my question is then, like, if that’s a really kind of common beginner mistake, which I totally agree with you, uh, how do you put yourself in that position of somebody coming to your website as a visitor versus you who’s typically like the expert in that area?
[00:02:31] Ross Simmonds: [00:02:31] For sure. So I think it starts with, uh, I always say, like, don’t be afraid to kind of look at what other people are doing and use that as a starting point.
[00:02:39] Like if you are working with a new brand, if you’re a new SEO in the industry, if you’re trying to create your own platform, don’t be afraid to go out and research what other people have done. And have found success with. And then reverse-engineer that to guide your own strategy.
[00:02:52] Like a A lot of people like to get too fancy and think to themselves, I have to come with all of this myself and I have to be the guru who comes up with this concept.
[00:03:01] No, we all know that HubSpot, has been around for a long time. So let’s reverse-engineer What HubSpot has done. We know that Salesforce has been around in the CRM space, so let’s see what pages there. What keywords they’re ranking for let’s understand what phrases they’re going after, what pages they’ve developed that are generating the most backlinks.
[00:03:17] Let’s use all of that information to help us guide our approach and ensure that the content that we create is actually going to drive results. I think a lot of times we, we get caught up in the ego of wanting to come up with all of these, new fancy ideas for for content. When in reality, the the blueprint is oftentimes in front of us.
[00:03:36] We just have to take the time to reverse-engineer it it. I
[00:03:39] Brendan Hufford: [00:03:39] think that’s a really good point and I’m completely fine with ripping off Matt and his team at HubSpot all the time.
[00:03:47] Ross Simmonds: [00:03:47] And I think one other thing is to like, not be afraid to go to other industries as well. So if you are in the marketing automation space, it’s great to look at the HubSpots of the world and try to leverage that to gain insight.
[00:03:58] But you can also look at sites like Wirecutter, you can look at Um, any other property that has been able to kill it from an SEO standpoint and reverse-engineer what gave them success? One of the key insights I’ve recognized is like, when you look at Moz, you look at Salesforce, you look at HubSpot.
[00:04:13] A lot of them have been able to establish a lot of traffic by simply creating glossary sections of their websites. Pesto pedia was the OJI at doing this. Their entire business model is built off of glossary around finance terms. That’s something that, as an SEO, you should be able to look at and say, okay, how can I apply this to my industry?
[00:04:31] If you’re a coffee company, maybe you create a glossary around the different phrases that are interesting to coffee. If you are a plant company and you’re selling plants, okay. Create a glossary section on your site. That is dedicated to the bonsai trees, to the tulips, to any other plants. I’m not a plant guy, but like a pineapple,
[00:04:49] Brendan Hufford: [00:04:49] whatever it is, create
[00:04:51] Ross Simmonds: [00:04:51] that type of content.
[00:04:53] I think that we oftentimes need to not hesitate to also look at other industries for inspiration. I
[00:04:59] Brendan Hufford: [00:04:59] think that’s super smart. I was talking, we were talking before we have down here. Uh, you mentioned John Henry shirk and yeah, one of the things he and I talked about within his kind of chat for a hundred days, yo was a he’s like every, every company should own the, like.
[00:05:13] What is true of their thing. And like, that seems real, like, what is a CRM? Or like, like, what is a bonsai tree? Like what is inside? Like if you have a company around that, like you should own that search term. Like it’s the, it’s the highest the T the toppest of funnels, but yeah, it makes you like, you’re the thought leader that defines the whole category.
[00:05:36] Ross Simmonds: [00:05:36] Yeah, exactly. And then the greatest thing would be if you own, what is a bonsai tree, then you have some pages that you would link to from that page that are about how to buy, where to buy a bonsai tree. Um, do you need to water a bonsai tree? You start to go into that long tail elements in the authority that you have established on that top level is then going to be passed down to the next level.
[00:05:56] And that’s, that’s where the gold starts to happen, because then you can compare. Bonsai tree to another one. And that’s further down the funnel where somebody is trying to decide, should I buy a bonsai tree or should I buy a pineapple tree again? I don’t know trees. I’m just using pineapple tree as an example, but like that’s somebody who’s in the consideration stage of their buying journey.
[00:06:14] So by having that content. You’re able to then increase the likelihood of converting that person. You throw some remarketing ads on them as well. Like it becomes a holistic cycle where it’s not just the SEO side, but also you’re able to influence paid, uh, and drive some results
[00:06:29] Brendan Hufford: [00:06:29] through that as well. Yeah.
[00:06:31] That’s one of the things I think is really interesting about people like you and people like Ryan Stewart and some others, but like you have the, you have chops in SEO, but I also consider both you and Ryan and other people to be like more. Full stack marketers. Right? You have, you see the whole game, which is something I’m trying to learn.
[00:06:48] I’m very, I’m very T-shaped but the top of the T is very thin and then the SEO goes deep, but like, I want to like learn all this other stuff. Cause it all plays together. Like that’s cool. You’re good at SEO and getting all this cold traffic, but like, yeah, they leave the site. If they don’t find you again through Google, like how are they going to, like, there’s so much missed opportunity.
[00:07:07] Tell me, uh, what about like more advanced level stuff? So are there any missed opportunities that you see for, uh, advanced SEOs that they could be taken advantage of?
[00:07:17] Ross Simmonds: [00:07:17] Yeah. One of the pieces that is over, uh, that is under-utilized um, is not being afraid to get additional audits from other people. And this is not just like, this is more of a spend thing, so it’s not super advanced in the sense of like technical elements, but like, I think a lot of people also, um, Get caught up in ego again, and they’re not willing to get audits from other people.
[00:07:39] Getting an SEO audit, SEO audit from a handful. of Different sources can be a great investment because different SEOs come with a different perspective. They come with different backgrounds. So if you are getting an SEO audit from like four different companies, it doesn’t mean that you need to use those four companies to actually go out and execute on it.
[00:07:57] You are getting perspective from each of these individuals. And I think that the gig economy, as it sits has. Yep. Created a landscape where there’s tons of SEO professionals, who you can start to get like three or four different professionals to take a look at your content, your site, and provide you with some interesting opportunities that you may have overlooked.
[00:08:17] So I think that’s one of the things that I often will make recommendations. on Um, another piece that I think is often overlooked looked, um, outside of just like the fact that you should engage other people and get them to review your content. Uh, I think. Like LSI keywords and taking the time to analyze the copy that other organizations are using on their landing pages is under-utilized Like a lot of times we focus on is the keyword in this title versus what was the intent that went into using this Kubrick? Like, what are the benefits of a CRM? Like that’s, that’s very different than, um, what is the benefits of, or what are the, what’s the best reasons to buy a CRM, like there’s different contexts there.
[00:09:00] And I think a lot of times we don’t spend time understanding the context of different language that people are using on their landing pages and the implications that that has on search, but also on the people who are visiting the site.
[00:09:12] Brendan Hufford: [00:09:12] Yeah, that nuance can be. And the easiest way to figure out if there are different intent is just to Google it.
[00:09:18] And if you see different results, like you’re like, Oh, the, the intent of this is, uh, I’m gonna be honest with you. Uh, I don’t, I’m not trying to, uh, build up your ego to early learning here, but I think the answer to what you just said about getting additional audits from other people. Yeah. Might be the smartest answer that we’ve had so far to the advanced kind of question though.
[00:09:41] I mean that, cause I was just like you said that and I was like, no shit, I’ve done. I’ve done that before I had any more. Who’s this brilliant e-commerce and fast writer look at my content and she ripped it apart and that’s great. But. Uh, it puts you in this position of like manager and entrepreneur versus just like practitioner and I, you said it.
[00:10:03] And I was like, I’m in traffic think tank. Like I have all access to all these people that like, we can, we can even exchange, Hey man, I’ll look at some of your stuff. You look at my stuff and we’ll help people get better. Wow. That was good. That’s awesome. That’s
[00:10:19] Ross Simmonds: [00:10:19] good to know. I think it’s often overlooked.
[00:10:21] Like a lot of us just get into our own heads that, Oh, I need to be this great SEO. So I need to. I do my own SEO work. When in reality, like don’t be afraid to get other people to jump in and review your content. Um, to give you a, take a look at that. If somebody is really, really good at understanding, I am, I have no issues outsourcing that to someone else to get them to review my site structure and ensure that it’s being done correctly, because I don’t have the ego to say I am the best at this.
[00:10:48] Um, and I think that that’s something that all of us need to embrace recognizing that other people have great perspectives and you can use that to grow.
[00:10:55] Brendan Hufford: [00:10:55] That’s awesome, man. I really appreciate it, Ross. Thanks for coming on a hundred days of us.
[00:11:00] Ross Simmonds: [00:11:00] Thanks for having me. It’s been a blast.
[00:11:03] Brendan Hufford: [00:11:03] Nice. All right. We did it.
[00:11:04] Hey, real quick. Oh, we’ll do the bumper. Uh, also, I don’t know if you can see it, but the fact that we both have championship belts in the background. That is awesome. Can we just call it the queen name that, that we are now? Did we just become best friends? Uh, mine is from a jujitsu tournament that I did a couple of years ago.
[00:11:26] They gave out like championship belts for like the advanced division. So it was kind of,
[00:11:30] Ross Simmonds: [00:11:30] so yours is more aspirational than mine because mine is a fantasy football belt.
[00:11:35] Brendan Hufford: [00:11:35] So
[00:11:35] Ross Simmonds: [00:11:35] I bought my fantasy football league.
[00:11:38] Brendan Hufford: [00:11:38] I brought it in, I used to be a teacher and I brought it into school to show the kids and one kid immediately, like John’s seen at another kid in the head with it.
[00:11:45] Yeah.
[00:11:49] To hit each other with this. So, uh, that’s amazing. That’s so silly. All right, man. Um, can we do the bumper real quick? Um, so do me a favor just to make sure the, the camera switches over to you. Can you talk or also to be my face with you talking as it clicks over and zoom? Um, so just say a couple of words, and then if you just want to intro yourself and say, you’re watching a hundred days of SEO, that would be awesome.
[00:12:12] Ross Simmonds: [00:12:12] Sounds good. So I’m going to talk for a little bit, and then I’m going to do the bumper. My name is Ross Simmons and you’re watching a hundred days of SEO.
[00:12:20] Brendan Hufford: [00:12:20] Yeah, we did it. Hey man, that was, I’m not, I’m not pull, I’m not a joking like that. Your answer on that advanced question was just like, yeah, what a good, that was.
[00:12:31] It’s such a thing. Like it’s you get too into it and you can’t see from the outside anymore. Like every advanced person is going to struggle with that. So. I really appreciate it. Um, I like that. I appreciate you taking the time and especially rescheduling it calling up with me. I said, man, I appreciate it.
[00:12:48] It’s
[00:12:48] Ross Simmonds: [00:12:48] all good. I appreciate your time. And keep up with this a hundred day things, man. At first I was like, he’s going to do a hundred days. That’s insane, but you’ve been doing it so long.
[00:12:57] Brendan Hufford: [00:12:57] It’s bad. It was I vastly, but it is the whole, it was the goal of that. What you just said of like, that’s insane. Like I like doing a video a week is insane, but like a hundred, a hundred videos in 20 weeks is that’s wild.
[00:13:12] Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate you have an awesome day and I’ll be in touch. I’ll talk to him later, buddy.