Build a Strong SEO Strategy to Get Better Traffic

Atiba de Souza: Building the SEO of your website is super important because search engine rankings help you to drive traffic to your website. Absolutely. And as we've talked about in previous videos, you can rank really well for terms that don't matter at all to you. So, how do you rank for the right terms? 

How do you build a strong foundation of SEO and drive great traffic to your website? Hey, everybody! I am Atiba. Welcome to Traffic Keys Media. And today, we're going to be discussing that topic. How do you start to build a really strong foundation in SEO? And it really isn't as hard as you think, but it is a lot. 

I'm not going to lie to you. Okay. And so I'm going to start you to the very top level, and we're going to come down and look at this kind of broadly today. So number one, the first thing that you have to understand is there are three parts of SEO. Should I say, three types of SEO. There is Technical SEO, there's On-page SEO and there is Off-page SEO. And in truth, in order to have a really solid foundation of SEO, you have to be great at all three of them. So, let me explain them. Number one, the Technical SEO. This is what's actually going on under the hood of your website. We're talking about things like site speed, your site structure, how it's actually built the technology behind it. 

Okay. Is it arguing with itself, which, you think how's the website going to argue with itself? Well, it does sometimes, which is really interesting where there are some things that need to load and they're waiting for other things to load before they can load and it's going back and forth and your users are sitting there wondering, "Why didn't the site load?" 

Okay. Likewise, on the Technical SEO, you get the fact that that the website may look different on this browser versus that browser or desktop versus mobile, all of that plays into your Technical SEO, right? And a whole lot more, to be honest with you, when you have to master your Technical SEO, that is super important. 

Google cares a ton about that because it adds to the users experience. Okay. It adds to the user's experience. If your website loads really slowly, people are going to want to leave. They're going to leave that they're not going to want to stick around because, right or wrong, we want information and we want it now. We don't want to wait for it, right or wrong. That's just the reality. So, managing and understanding your Technical SEO is super important. Then, there's the Off-page SEO. Now, the Off-page SEO is one that gets a little bit tricky and a little bit confusing for a lot of people. And let me suffice it to say it this way, Off-page SEO asks the question, who, in other words, "What other websites in the world are talking about your website?" 

Now, what does that actually look like? It means, but where else in the world are there websites? What other websites exist in the world that have a link on their website, back to your website that are referencing your website for something, that's your Off-page SEO. Now, that may sound like, "Okay, so, all I've got to do is go get a bunch of sites to put my link on." Yeah, no. 

Back in 2001, 2002, 2003, that worked. That doesn't work today because what Google looks for today is not just the quantity of websites that your site links to, or that links back to your site, excuse me. Okay. But what Google also looks for today is the quality of those websites that are linking to you and the relevance of those websites. So, let me give you an example. Let's say we were selling muffins. I'm saying that because I've got a plate of blueberry muffins sitting right in front of me. So, I'm going to use it as an example. Let's say we're selling muffins. Okay. And we know all about muffins. We sell the world's best muffins. 

And there are a bunch of sites that link to us that, and we have really great content by the way, right. But there are a bunch of sites that link to us that are all spammy trashy type of sites, sites that you don't want your mother visiting, right. Sites that are just, like, sketchy. If they're a bunch of those sites linking to your site, Google's going to ask the question, "Okay. Are you also sketchy?" That's a fair question. If you see a bunch of sketchy people hanging around together, and then somebody that you know, hanging with them, you're going to ask the question, "Are you also sketchy?" That's just logical. Okay. So, that's why the quality of the site matters. It absolutely matters. The quality of the site that links back to you. 

The next thing is the relevance. Okay. So, where we sell muffins. Let's say, again, that's our website we're selling muffins, if a microphone website. So, a site that sells microphones links to my muffin website, Google's going to say what in the world is a microphone sales website, linking to a muffin website for it doesn't matter that this microphone sales website is super reputable because they don't know a thing about muffins! I'll give you a real world example: if your mechanic came to you and said, "Hey, let me perform open-heart surgery on you, I think you need it." How many of you are going to take that? You're not going to let that mechanic, no offense to the mechanic, perform open-heart surgery on you because what do you know about performing open-heart surgery?

It's the same thing here. Google's going to say, "What does this microphone sales website know about selling muffins?" Nothing. So, yes, it's great that they link to you, but it isn't relevant. It isn't relevant. However, that say, Oprah Winfrey linked to your muffin website and said, these are my favorite muffins. 

Now, even though Oprah may not know a ton about muffins, it's relevant, because what she's saying is these are her favorite muffins and Oprah has a ton of credibility. A ton of credibility. Just like if, let's say, CNN, I don't even know. Let's go New York times, New York times, if they're food section links to your website versus their politics section links to your website. The link from the food section is worth a ton more because of relevancy. So, that's Off-page SEO. All about who in the world is talking about you and linking back to you, how relevant are they and how respectable or reputable are they. That's what Google is looking at. And then the third thing, this is the fun one. This is the fun one, because this is the one that you, as a marketer or you as a business owner, have to master and own. Technical SEO? Hire somebody else to do that. Off-page SEO? Hire someone else to do that. This one, you've got to own and lead the charge on, On-page SEO. Your On-page SEO talks all about what's actually on the page. 

What does the user see? What do they actually experience? What are they reading? What are they hearing? Okay. Are you doing a video? Is it written? What's actually there, what's actually said and how much is it worth? Is it good quality? Is it good quality? Does it help you help the reader move the needle?

Does it add value if you don't know what value is, check out this video somewhere up here. I don't know where the card is, but it's somewhere here. Check out this video that I did on value. You've got to create content that adds value. So your On-page SEO is all about creating content that delivers value to your reader, to your ideal customer.

That my friends is super, super important. Now, really quickly on that. What you're looking for there is, who's your audience, what do they need to know? That's what you want to ask. Who's your audience? What do they need to know? It really boils down that simple. We take it a lot further than that, but it boils down that simple. 

You have to understand who your audience is and what it is that they want or need to know. Okay. So, that's one way, as we're talking about building a strong foundation in SEO, we understand that there are three types of SEO. There's a Technical SEO, right? And there's a lot of technical specs and so on and so forth.

And you need to hire someone else to do this for you. And the beauty of Technical SEO is once you do it, you don't have to revisit it usually for another six months or so. Okay. It's usually a set and forget for a little while type of thing. Your Off-page SEO, you can affect this, you can go out and get links built. Don't buy links. But you can go out and get links built that are high value, high quality links. Okay. By leveraging relationships that you have to get in front of people who own websites that can link to you. Okay. And some of that also will happen organically of people finding your content, if it's good content. 

And that leads to the third thing, the On-page SEO, which really starts to dive into your content. Are you creating good quality content that helps people move the needle that adds value? So, that's it guys. I told you, it's a lot. It's simple, but it's a lot to build a solid foundation in SEO. Is it worth it? 

Absolutely. Because when you do your rankings will go up for terms that your ideal customer is searching for. You'll start showing up near the top of Google for those terms, and you'll start attracting your ideal customer. And that's what this is all about. Growing your business and identifying, can't even talk straight, growing your business through serving your ideal customer.

There it is. I said it right that time. Everybody, hope this was helpful. If you've got any questions as always drop them down below. Love to answer your questions, talk to you later. Bye-bye.