11 Questions Answered On Approaching SEO Strategically
The following is taken from an interview with the President and Founder of Show Up Strong®, Inc. with 11 questions and answers about Show Up Strong® Online services.
1. You talk about the roles people play. Who are you in the role of Show Up Strong Online services?
Good catch. For the segment of online presence services, my role is to work directly with business leaders to adjust their online presence approach and to advise their team on strategy, implementation, and continuous improvement.
What I do is MarkOps in the same capacity as a DevOps role is for IT, programming, software, etc… Traditionally, most of the on and offline marketing is done in silos. Each silo has an area of expertise with little knowledge of what is required of the others.
Marketing platform and brand is not part of the typical website design and SEO strategy and vice versa. Marketing and brand strategists traditionally don’t know the salient details of SEO, UX, algorithms, and the technical side of site, web, and content optimization. Technology, graphics, content, voice, message, etc.… all need to align to stand out as the authority your buyers turn to and return to for assistance, guidance, and resolution to their problems.
I bring them all together to give clients a holistic approach that aligns all of these with the science of human behavior. Once brought into alignment, I oversee keeping them in alignment to boost my client’s authority and customer acquisition performance exponentially.
2. How do you define SEO?
I define true SEO as a holistic approach to all things about my clients that is produced for and lives on the internet. Technology, website, content strategy, message, reputation, and delivering what the audience/buyer wants from a deep understanding of how my clients are found through algorithms and search engines.
When most people talk about SEO and high ranking in SERPs, what they really want is to increase client acquisition and the authority in their industry. SEO is the vehicle to get them what they want.
3. Why does anyone need SEO, and what is the value add that it can bring to a business or add to its bottom line?
SEO, done right, is the lifeblood to a consistent stream of revenue in today’s world. SEO is how customers find you, trust you, and buy from you. It’s how they find the answers to their questions, solutions to their problems, and the right product or service for them. It’s how they decide where and with whom they spend their money.
SEO has tremendous value in customer acquisition strategies in that it allows customers and clients to find you, to reach out to you, instead of reaching out to them. It’s marketing with consent, not as a nuisance. That builds authority, trust, and value. The ROI for a great SEO strategy and inbound marketing is vastly higher than outbound sales and marketing.
72% of online marketers describe content marketing as their most effective SEO tactic.
81% of people do some online research before making a large purchase.
47% of consumers read 3-5 pieces of content created by a company before reaching out to that company.
Leads from search engines have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (ex. cold-calling, direct mail, etc.) have a 1.7% close rate.
78% of location-centric mobile searches result in an offline purchase.
**updated note: These stats are prior to Covid-19, so the ROI will be much higher.
Inbound marketing customer acquisition costs or cost per lead are approximately 62% lower than outbound marketing. The reputation value of inbound done right vs. outbound is hard to measure in numbers, but I ask clients, what’s your reputation and the reputation of your company worth? That’s a great client vetting question, by the way.
4. What is your SEO approach?
As I said before (and I’ll keep saying it), SEO is holistic. Disjointed segments of marketing, content, and technology produce the underperformance of results. That’s why the biggest and best-known brands have multi-million-dollar marketing and technology budgets. The majority of their budget isn’t on print and commercial anymore.
My approach is building sustainable true organic SERP authority. I don’t believe in PPC for certain types of clients I work with or paid social media campaigns to boost rankings, likes, followers, or site traffic.
I believe in building authentic rank authority using many different techniques to produce high-quality websites that everyone trusts as the “go-to” place. No Carnival Barking allowed.
Reputation is everything to the algorithms and buyers. A few or even one misguided technique can take years to repair, if ever.
5. What are the steps or phases involved?
The steps and phases involved in my approach are vast and deep, but the client isn’t involved in them all. The steps the client is involved in and, quite frankly, only really need to be concerned with are the parts that require their time and resources.
Everything I do is with two goals in mind: 1) Optimizing and aligning all aspects of their business platform, brand, technology, products, and services for the highest performance possible. 2) Doing it in a way that has integrity and lasting results; no “black hat” or even slightly “grey hat” techniques are used.
Quality SEO is time-consuming and high-ranking status has to be earned and nurtured.
That being said, a brief description of the steps or process is:
1) Client goals, expectations, and aspirations.
2) Asset and access gathering.
3) Site and content audits with baseline reports.
4) Technical site optimization.
5) A thorough understanding of the business platform/mission/brand and offerings.
6) A deep dive into the target audience and ideal clients.
7) Key phrase (aka keyword) research.
8) Content organization and optimization.
9) Website User Experience (UX) optimization.
10) Content and distribution recommendations.
11) Final audits and reports on Phase One.
12) Phase Two strategy for implementation and continual growth.
6. What is your SEO roadmap with timelines?
The roadmap is the above process, and the timelines are heavily dependent on the state of their current website and technology, the amount of content and offerings, and how responsive the client and their team are with information or assets I need to complete each segment of the process. It can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months.
7. Do you have a list of service packages you provide?
As far as SEO packages go, I rarely do only certain parts of their SEO and online client acquisition due to that being a disjointed approach. In short, my “packages” are custom built for the client’s specific needs and where they stand in their current SEO strategy. However, I will do parts of the SEO ecosystem if the rest of their system is functioning and optimized for performance.
I’m all about producing lasting performance and high-quality results. If that can’t be accomplished with their current system, I can’t see wasting a business’s time and money doing one aspect and not the others.
I offer the initial service and highly recommend I stay on for a minimum of six months after the initial setup to monitor, adjust, and make sure the work we did is adopted and maintained in a manner that will keep my client success track records high.
8. Do you have any case studies?
Yes, I do. I have redacted case studies to protect client information. All my client information is kept confidential unless there is a need to disclose it for specific purposes.
9. Are there any SEO projects you don’t take?
I’m glad you asked, thank you. I vet my clients well. If I’m going to help a business gain customers and, by doing so, gain their trust and hard-earned money, I need to know I’m helping an ethical company with the best intentions for the people they serve and distribute products and services to. I’ve unwittingly helped the wrong companies before, and I still regret it to this day.
I don’t take clients who don’t place the value on what I do as high as what it’s worth, which means someone who wants me to grow their ranking, reputation, and revenue by millions but doesn’t want to pay a tiny fraction of their increased revenue. That also indicates a mindset that will not maintain the systems put in place, which, in turn, can hurt my reputation and performance record. It also shows me they don’t understand certain aspects of business and may not be long for the business world.
10. You say you do everything outward-facing that’s internet-based; does that include marketing campaigns?
I do inbound marketing campaigns.
I will, however, oversee outbound marketing campaigns to ensure alignment, compliance, and integrity. I will advise on certain aspects that will help or hurt the clients. I ensure their outbound marketing doesn’t damage their reputation with search engines and in the minds of the public.
11. How can people get started with Show Up Strong® Online?
They can fill out a quick questionnaire here or contact me through the website. I get in touch with them to discuss their expectations and needs, and we decide if we’re the right fit.
