This is the presentation deck presented at the New York E-Commerce Meetup on August 9, 2017:
How I Got 20k+ visitors/month from SEO
How I got 20,000 visitors per month from SEO
SEO Core Competencies
- link-earning
- outreach
- keyword research, grouping, and mapping
- on-page optimization
- technical site audits
- strategy
- content planning
- content marketing
- digital PR
What I will talk about today…
- SEO as a Marketing Channel: Why SEO?
- My Story + Failures
- What Drives Results
- Take Action
- SEO for eCommerce
Part 1
SEO as a Marketing Channel: Why SEO?
SEO
- People Find You
- Interest
- Paying Customer
- More Sales
- Business Growth
Want to Find Something
- Search on Google
- Click on a Search Result
- Become a Customer today
- Become a Customer in the future
Website Visitor Today, Customer Tomorrow
Lead Nurturing
- capture email address (e.g. lead magnet or newsletter)
- fill out a form (lead generation)
- retargeting
- Google Ads
- YouTube
- brand awareness (remembers you)
Why SEO?
1. Inbound
2. Qualified
3. Stable & Consistent
4. ROI
Monthly Recurring Traffic
Monthly Recurring Revenue
Life Coach Spotter 2013
Life Coach Spotter Today
Lessons Learned
“Build it and they will come” does not work!
Plenty of Optimization Tactics to…
get 0 Results
- image alt text
- ratio of follow and nofollow backlinks
- ratio of text to HTML
- image file names
Plenty of Optimization Tactics to…
get 0 Results
- blog commenting
- forums
- directories
- broken link building
Plenty of Optimization Tactics to…
get 0 Results
- link reclamation
- great content
- roundups
- press release
The problem: Google’s Algorithm is a Secret
How should we rank higher?
Google Algorithm Updates: Panda, Penguin, Pigeon, Hummingbird
What should we do?
Ranking Algorithm is a Black Box
Experiment Driven SEO
Part 3
Â
What Drives Results
We learn from Failure not from success
What’s the Secret to Move the Needle?
What’s the Secret to Move the Needle?
Â
844% Growth
381% Growth in Organic Traffic in just 5 Months
A Multi-Strategy white hat approach
What (I Believe) Created the Most Impact:
- Comprehensive content guides
- link-earning campaigns
73,647 Words of optimized content
Investment: $10,000+
I tested 8 strategies…
- infographic campaigns
- comprehensive content guides
- answering journalist requests
- collaborative placements
- blogger outreach
- resource page inclusion
- strategic relationship building
- guest posting
A 538% Increase in organic traffic in just two months with the most trusted links on the web
Â
The Results: 538% increase in organic traffic
10 Science backed ways to be happier right now
- Referring Domains
- Content
- Optimization
1. Referring Domains
Definition
referring domain:
a website that links to your website
Attributes of Referring Domains
- quantity
- domain authority
- trust flow
- relevance
Solution = OUTREACH
2. Content
how to articles
80 Million Blog Post are Created every Month
Don’t write Blog Posts, they don’t work
Write 10,000+ word articles with sub-sections
High-Quality, In-Depth
- long (3,000-12,000 words long)
- very well-written
- useful, helpful, and answers common questions
- authorative
- actionable
- unique
- engaging
Don’t just write about anything!
3. Optimization
To Optimize Properly, You Need…
- keyword research
- keyword grouping
- content planning + keyword mapping
- on-page optimization
[bath] + [toys] + ?
extensive keyword research list
keyword mapping
- Referring Domains
- Content
- Optimization
Part 4:
Â
Take Action
Referring Domains =
Â
Awesome Content + Email Outreach
Content =
Â
Awesome, In-Depth Writing
Optimization =
Â
Keyword Research + Content Planning
Part 5:
Â
SEO for eCommerce
Tip #1: Find Uncompetitive Keywords
Tip #1: Find Uncompetitive Keywords
Tip #1: Find Uncompetitive Keywords
Find Long-Tail Keywords
Tip #2: Optimize Your Category & Product Pages
Simplify your product title tags into a templated format and add purchase intent keywords (buy/online)
Tip #3: Write New Product Descriptions
Product descriptions can be:
- too thin (<20 words)
- copied from manufacturer (duplicate content)
Tip #3: Write New Product Descriptions
This Amazon product page for a Kitchenart mixer boasts 2,109 words… and that’s not even counting the reviews at the bottom of the page (which add another 500+ words)
Tip #3: Write New Product Descriptions
Use a Format:
- H2 Header with Product Name + Secondary Keywords
- Introductory paragraph (approx 50 words)
- Bullet point list of features
- Closing paragraph (approx 50 words)
- Product video (if available)
Tip #3: Write New Product Descriptions
Use a Format:
- H2 Header with Product Name + Secondary Keywords
- Introductory paragraph (approx 50 words)
- Bullet point list of features
- Closing paragraph (approx 50 words)
- Product video (if available)
Tip #4: Use Product Review Schema
Using the schema.org product review format will show product reviews on the Google Search Results Page
Tip #5: Beware of Duplicate Content
Avoid copying content and getting penalized for the duplicate content
Tip #5: Beware of Duplicate Content
Check for duplicate content through Google or Copyscape
Tip #5: Beware of Duplicate Content
Solutions:
- Use the “rel canonical” tag
- Configure URL Parameters (Google Search Console)
- Add a Noindex, Follow Meta Robots Tag
Â
Â
Go big or go home,
Final Thought:
SEO is an Investment in growth
