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SEO Principles

TLDR: Match search intent, prioritize specificity over volume, build deep topical authority rather than chasing rankings, establish proper site architecture from the start, and focus on revenue-driving metrics rather than vanity metrics like traffic or backlinks.

Overall Strategy Statement:

*Learn why people search the way they do in your industry, figure out what they want to find and build a site that serves them. *

Intent is Everything

  • What does your customer base want?

    • Info
    • Directions
    • Comparison or Review
    • List
    • Transactions

  • If you don't match the intent, you lose the traffic

  • Apply intent to all keyword research and sitemaps

Specificity is King

  • More specific keywords make it easier to assess the intent
  • If the intent is unclear, find more specific keywords

Keyword Search Volume Does Not Matter

  • Volume stats aren't accurate
  • They don't combine all related keyword possibilities or account for SERP share of search volume
  • A page can rank for many different variations of a keyword
  • First 3 spots get 70% of clicks
  • Lots of people search and never click, often over 50%
  • Volume is good at building a keyword hierarchy
  • Grade your keywords on relevance, not volume

Keyword Difficulty is Hardly Relevant

  • If it's an important keyword to the business you need to target it so the content is aligned

  • SEO is not the only strategy worth executing, and content planning matters

  • Even if you may not rank, Google will crawl the content and associate it with your business, and you are publishing the correct content

  • Google expects you to have similar content to your competitors **(***Topical Authority)*

  • It can help you rank for other relevant keywords

  • KD is almost entirely based on backlinks

  • Google will put a higher-quality page from a lower-quality domain first (eventually)

Brand Power is the Biggest SEO Signal

  • Google cares the most about legitimate brand authority, offline is just as important

    • This is part of how large influential companies or local businesses can rank with poor SEO strategy

    • Brand authority beats good reviews

    • IRL marketing, billboards/press coverage/influencers/social media/WOM/media ads all affect SEO

    • A more notable brand is and stronger SEO brand

UX, UI, Product-Market-Fit, & Offer Design Are All SEO

  • Anything that increases brand engagement and increases time on page, sales or relevance is an SEO tactic.

Establishing Proper Site Architecture From the Beginning is Critical

  • The site must be crawlable, with no points where it gets stuck
  • Internal linking is key
  • URLs need to be clear
  • Plan structure before a build
    • Non-overlapping
    • Literal URLS
    • Sensical hierarchy

Don’t Strive For Rankings, Strive for Deep Topical Authority

  • Go deep on topics rather than spreading yourself thin
  • Build an on-going content plan based around depth on one topic at a time
  • Ways to achieve depth:
    • Include all relevant page sections
    • Cover all relevant sub-topics
    • Cover all relevant context
    • Use more media
    • Use more internal links
    • Use more external links
      • Google likes external links and the benefit to depth outweighs the risk of customers leaving your site
    • Go beyond surface level with all content

Algorithms Change Constantly, But Core Principles Don’t

  • Trying to serve the best user experience will always be more relevant than playing to the algorithm
  • Most sites don't have a solid foundation, tactics are the last 10% not the first

Traffic, Backlinks, and #1 Rankings Don’t Mean You’re Winning

  • Most SEO metrics are vanity, focus on driving revenue
  • Traffic, #1 rankings or backlinks don't necessarily increase revenue