Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking at WordCamp US in St. Louis. WordCamp US is the largest WordPress event in the United States, so it was quite an honor for me to be asked to present an extended workshop on SEO. As soon as I was invited to speak, I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to walk attendees through the identification of website personas, I wanted to help them ask the right questions about their target market and offering, and I also wanted to teach ... Read More
Search Engine Optimization Articles
SEO related blog posts, discussion and instruction covering all aspects of search engine optimization for small to mid-market companies.
Are You Getting What You Need Out of Your SEO Retainer?
Time and time again I talk to companies who pay for a monthly SEO retainer, but can’t actually tell me what their digital agency is doing for their money. Let me start by saying this is wrong. Actually, let me scream it from the top of a building – this is really really wrong. If you are paying a freelancer, consultant, or agency for SEO work, you should know exactly how they are spending their time and your money. Sadly, this is rarely the case and it gives the entire SEO industry a bad ... Read More
The Yin and Yang of SEO and PPC
I am pretty opinionated about SEO and PPC. I've been a longtime advocate of SEO and I've traditionally steered well away from PPC. But I'm not older and wiser and I see the writing on the wall. Search is shifting, Google is becoming a lot more greedy, and most companies cannot exist with SEO alone. Up until this last year, I would have told you PPC is "cocaine for marketers" because money is spent in hopes of a quick high and zero long-term value is derived. I view SEO as just the opposite. ... Read More
Mapping Keywords to Website Personas
Website persons can be an intimidating subject for most people. Bring keywords into the mix and the conversation can become utterly scary for some. I like to take the scariness out of website design and SEO, so I recently performed a training webinar that used Winnie the Pooh and his friends to talk through the process of mapping website personas to keywords. If you'd like to watch the full sixty-minute webinar, it is available below. If you don't have time for that much education, feel free ... Read More
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Today’s SEO
The landscape of SEO is constantly changing. Excelling at search engine optimization means understanding what modern SEO is and what needs to be done to remain competitive in search. Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to stay vigilant and adapt to this ever-changing SEO environment. If they fail to do so, they will be left behind in search and they'll fail to truly capture all the web has to offer. This week I held a free training webinar for the iThemes community. In this ... Read More
Getting Maximum Exposure with Video SEO on YouTube
I'll admit it - I avoided YouTube and video SEO for about as long as I could. This year it became overly apparent that I could no longer do so and I have to acknowledge YouTube and video for what it is - an SEO superpower. Once I moved past my avoidance, I dug into video SEO and learned as much as I could about it. You know what I discovered? It's a lot like regular SEO. Keyword research, quality content, usability, and engagement all matter and they matter a lot. Before we dig into what ... Read More
Embracing the Google Knowledge Graph
The Google Knowledge Graph was first introduced in 2012. Since then it has diversified in the types of data presented and it has greatly expanded in usage. It now dominates search results and many people don't even know what it is. The Knowledge Graph can sound really intimidating, but it really isn't that scary. It's a huge database of the people, places, and things that are popular in the world around us. But that isn't the cool part. The cool part is Google understands how those ... Read More
The Best SEO is Human-Based SEO
This last weekend I the pleasure of speaking at WordCamp Miami. While I was fortunate enough to participate on two business panels, my main presentation was a solo one focused on search engine optimization. If you'd like to review my presentation, you can download the presentation on Sideshare, as well as view the livestream video below. Everyone From Young to Old Wants to Learn SEO The topic of SEO is always a hot one. People may say SEO is dead, but this is farthest from the ... Read More
SEO Competitive Research Is Vital to Your Marketing Efforts
SEO competitor research is a process that reviews existing and future competitors. This is something that has been done in traditional marketing for a very long time. When you weave SEO into the competitive research mix, you will expand your existing traditional competitors with additional online competitors. You might be asking why you would have both traditional and online. That is a great question. Many times the people/websites you compete with in real life are not the same ... Read More
A Week of SEO Blunders
SEO blunders can happen to even the most well intentioned companies. This last week I encountered two cases of multiple SEO mistakes that happened to companies I know well. Seeing it happen to people I like is hard. Having a Come to Jesus SEO moment with people I'm professionally and emotionally invested in is even harder for me. It isn't something I enjoy, but it is a necessary part of my job. I'd like to turn this last week into a learning lesson for the readers of our blog. Don't think ... Read More
The SEO Power of a 301 Redirect
I’m a huge fan of protecting a page’s SEO value with 301 redirects. For a long time I knew a 301 redirect would not only redirect traffic, it would also pass SEO value. I just didn’t quite have precise data to prove the massive value of a 301 redirect. If you are unfamiliar with this SEO tool, you can learn more about their usage in a post I recently wrote titled Upgrading Your Website? Don’t Forget 301 Redirects or You’ll Be Sorry. They are powerful, so you'll want to educate yourself on ... Read More
Google Adwords Keyword Planner Alternatives
If you've talked to me about SEO, you know keyword research is at the heart of my SEO process. I've long believed it is a core part of search engine optimization and I focus an entire lesson on it in my online SEO course. For years I've lived by the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. I knew the data was skewed towards pay per click advertisers, but honestly, I didn't care. I could put in my own suggestions, import a keyword seed list, or even a URL and receive back hundreds of ideas with monthly ... Read More
Getting Rid of SEO Lies and Other BS You’ve Heard
On my way home tonight my Twitter notifications started to chime. Apparently there was some chatter about SEO being similar to “nasty oil salesman, slimy tactics” and I was being brought into the conversation. For the last year I have been a very loud advocate for SEO within the WordPress community and I've really tried my best to remove the remove SEO lies and other BS discussions from SEO conversations, blog posts, and webinars. Today's Chatter on SEO Lies and BS Here is how the Twitter ... Read More
Blending On-Page and Off-Page SEO Efforts
Successful search engine optimization utilizes a blend of both on-page and off-page SEO efforts. It is the marriage of these two techniques that produce long-term, sustainable results and page one ranking in search. Website owners - including myself - tend to get caught up with only one technique. They focus entirely on on-page SEO and forget about off-page SEO or vice versa. In real-world application, you really need both to rank in search. This is especially true if you are competing at a ... Read More
An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What is Search Engine Optimization? Search engine optimization (SEO for short) is simply the process of obtaining website visitors (or traffic) from “free” or “organic” search results in search engines like Google or Bing. All major search engines have primary search results that are ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. We call these organic results, because they are free and not driven by paid advertisements. Search engine optimization helps maximize ... Read More
What is a Content Silo?
A content silo is a method of grouping related content together to establish the website's keyword-based topical areas or themes. Bear with me now. Content silos are important to both SEO and usability. Think back to your last visit to a library - you know before Kindles and iPads existed. How did the library staff help you find books of interest? They grouped content into sections such as fiction or nonfiction. Well guess? That is a content silo, but the old school kind. A Real-World ... Read More
My Epic SEO Fail
Ten years ago I had an epic SEO fail. I’m not referring to a little mistake that I was embarrassed to discuss. I mean a full on epic failure that should have cost me my job and reputation. Today I was reminded of this colossal mistake while I was sitting in church. Pastor Chris’s sermon was on managing failure. He began his message by discussing his epic failure and in turn he asked the congregation how many of us remember our epic failure. My mind immediately went back ten years to the ... Read More
SEO Coaching and that “Come to Jesus” Moment
This week I had a SEO coaching call with a law firm. It’s a service I offer to WordPress website owners and it is actually something I really enjoy. The client was a referral from another WordPress developer. The website was a number of years old and it had not had many updates in recent years. It was originally developed by another developer who specialized in legal website design, which sadly, ended up giving the client a sense of false confidence. After spending about 20 minutes ... Read More
Don’t be Greedy When Selecting Keywords
Of all the lessons I can offer on SEO, one of the most important lessons is about greed. And while it is an important SEO lesson, it is a simple one. My SEO lesson is merely this - Don't be greedy when selecting keywords. I learned this lesson through trial and error, through hard work, and through years of working on real-world search engine optimization. I didn't come to this conclusion lightly or even quickly. It is something I learned over time and as I advanced forward in my SEO ... Read More
Natural SEO is a Seed and PPC is an Over Ripened Banana
Natural SEO represents the planted seed that brings long-term growth and produces endless amounts of nutrients. PPC is the ripened banana you purchase to obtain a quick potassium fix. I have long believed in the power of natural SEO. I’ve been preaching it for about a decade and I’ve been screaming it from the rooftop for over five years. This isn’t just an idea or thought, it is a strong conviction that is rooted in the core of who I am and it is central to what I believe. This weekend ... Read More
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