1226: 300% Increase in Search Traffic to a B2B Website: How They Did It w/ Talmage Egan

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:10.429 Wouldn't it be nice to have several thought leaders in your industry know and Love 2 00:00:10.669 --> 00:00:15.910 Your brand? Start a podcast, invite your industries thought leaders to be guests 3 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:21.109 on your show and start reaping the benefits of having a network full of industry 4 00:00:21.109 --> 00:00:31.339 influencers? Learn more at sweet fish Mediacom. You're listening to be tob growth, 5 00:00:31.780 --> 00:00:36.170 a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard 6 00:00:36.170 --> 00:00:40.090 before, like Gary vanner truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard 7 00:00:40.170 --> 00:00:44.409 from the majority of our guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't 8 00:00:44.409 --> 00:00:48.969 with professional speakers and authors. Most of our guests are in the trenches leading 9 00:00:49.049 --> 00:00:53.840 sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're 10 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:58.399 building the fastest growing BDB companies in the world. My name is James Carberry. 11 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.000 I'm the founder of sweet fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, 12 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:04.310 and I'm also one of the cohosts of this show. When we're not 13 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:08.269 interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our 14 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:12.269 own business. Will share the ups and downs of our journey as we attempt 15 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:18.269 to take over the world. Just getting well? Maybe let's get into the 16 00:01:18.349 --> 00:01:26.060 show. Welcome back to be tob growth. I'm looking lyles with feet fish 17 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:30.620 media. Today I'm joined by tellmudge Egan. He is a digital marketing strategist 18 00:01:30.739 --> 00:01:34.129 over at o see, Tanner Tallenge. Welcome to the show, man. 19 00:01:34.209 --> 00:01:37.209 How's it going today? Happy to be here and doing good, doing well. 20 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:38.930 I'm right there with you, man. I'm in Colorado Springs and it 21 00:01:40.049 --> 00:01:42.569 has been pretty frigid. I think the sun's actually shining today, which it 22 00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:46.969 looks blue behind you as well. So you know a sort of love about 23 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:49.640 winter in the rockies. We get we get it cold, but we get 24 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.359 the sunshine to well, let's talk a little bit about your background. We're 25 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:59.359 going to be diving into some SEO strategies. Really three main ones that that 26 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:01.349 you've been thinking about. Your team over there at o see, tanner, 27 00:02:01.349 --> 00:02:07.030 has been working on and when I saw your post on Linkedin or comment wherever 28 00:02:07.069 --> 00:02:10.349 we connected there in the linkedin ecosystem, I was like, man, Seo 29 00:02:10.430 --> 00:02:14.469 has been so top of mine for us and I've been seeing a lot of 30 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:17.500 questions and comments from the content we've been putting out there as we make a 31 00:02:17.539 --> 00:02:21.939 great episode for the show. For a little bit of context before we dive 32 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:24.580 into some tactical stuff for listeners, how much? Give us a little background 33 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:28.340 on yourself and what you and the O se Tann or team or up to. 34 00:02:28.699 --> 00:02:31.129 Oh Great, so a little background myself. I really went the SEO 35 00:02:31.169 --> 00:02:35.289 route a few years ago. I was in a couple various marketing positions, 36 00:02:35.330 --> 00:02:39.330 but then I went with an agency that's called big leap and was able to 37 00:02:39.370 --> 00:02:44.210 work on a lot of big brands like Avis, budget, car rental, 38 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:51.360 some bdb players like workfront and Domo that are local here in Utah. So 39 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:53.560 I was able to get a wide range of experience before coming in house here. 40 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.629 So now I'm that Theo Se tanner team. I run a digital marketing 41 00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:04.949 here which includes our content marketing, our SEO are paid search, our paid 42 00:03:05.030 --> 00:03:07.590 media. But Seo, kind of being my first love, is where I 43 00:03:08.310 --> 00:03:14.379 really dug in deep and worked hard initially. When I got here. It 44 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:16.740 was kind of a lowhanging fruit that I saw that I wanted to tackle. 45 00:03:17.419 --> 00:03:23.659 o Se Tanner we are we're Bob. We are in the human capital management 46 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:30.210 space, so we do employee recognition, employee recognition tools, company culture tools 47 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:34.289 and that really help people thrive at work. I love that mission. Man, 48 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:36.930 we recently has a lot of listeners of the show might already know, 49 00:03:37.050 --> 00:03:40.800 we recently launched a show all about crafting culture by that name, crafting culture. 50 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:44.879 It's been so top of mine for us we just thought, man, 51 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:47.719 that that really deserves a show. That's that's going all out there. So 52 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:51.599 anyway, we're already like minded. Tell Menge, I love the work that 53 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.560 you guys are doing. Let's jump into some of those Seo tactics that we 54 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:59.150 alluded to at the top of the episode. The first you guys have seen 55 00:03:59.389 --> 00:04:04.189 some really phenomenal results. I believe it was quadrupling monthly non branded search traffic. 56 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:09.949 It was really kind of by two ways, creating eat focus content and 57 00:04:10.259 --> 00:04:13.180 building links at scale. You want to break down the first one of those? 58 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:15.819 For us, for sure, I came into o see ten right after 59 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:20.620 a site redesign, which we didn't have an SEO. Really focused on the 60 00:04:20.699 --> 00:04:26.290 site redesign, which is which is crucial. Any SEO will know when you 61 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:29.329 redesign a site you need to make sure that you have the proper three hundred 62 00:04:29.329 --> 00:04:33.329 and one red x all set up and we didn't have anyone really watching that. 63 00:04:33.529 --> 00:04:40.000 So I came in with a very there's very low monthly non branded search 64 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:43.120 traffic. We got rid of a blog, we got rid of a couple 65 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:46.800 things. So there was a we a little bit at a blank slate to 66 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:51.199 work with and and that that's where I started. And we are positioned really 67 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:56.310 well because we are an old company. We're over ninety years old. We've 68 00:04:56.310 --> 00:05:00.990 been on the web since the Internet existed, and so we had a lot 69 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:05.350 of good authority initially. We old website, old links, we've been we 70 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:11.220 are really established. So we really just had to give Google what it wanted 71 00:05:11.819 --> 00:05:15.060 because we are website. Was Arty position really well. We had good topical 72 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:17.220 authority. We just had to answer the questions that the users are asking. 73 00:05:17.259 --> 00:05:21.250 And the way that we did that lots of key would research to see what 74 00:05:23.009 --> 00:05:28.449 was in our space, looked at a lot of competitor articles and then the 75 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:34.879 really hot topic, the hot strategy right now is long form articles or skyscrapers. 76 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:40.279 Brian Dean, I think, coined that term skyscrapers. Long articles that 77 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:46.120 are almost like two thousand were is long that really go comprehensively into a topic 78 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:49.110 so we picked about four of those topics that we wanted to go into. 79 00:05:49.149 --> 00:05:56.269 Employee recognition programs, years of service awards, employee engagement, peer to peer 80 00:05:56.310 --> 00:06:00.790 recognition, topics that we're really right in our wheelhouse, that we're almost a 81 00:06:00.829 --> 00:06:04.220 little there were there were longer tail and they were lower funnel. We tackle 82 00:06:04.339 --> 00:06:10.779 those and just getting Google what they wanted was able to we were able to 83 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:14.939 really see us our traffic skyrocket. I love what you're saying there tell much, 84 00:06:14.939 --> 00:06:17.610 especially the the mention of just giving Google what it wants. You know, 85 00:06:17.689 --> 00:06:20.810 we were talking the other day about you know, every time Google has 86 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:26.889 an update, people freak out and what rises to the top is usually what's 87 00:06:26.930 --> 00:06:29.930 answering the question better. You know, every time Google has an update, 88 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:34.000 you know, all the tricks and and the hacks around the current loophole's kind 89 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:38.680 of kind of fall down and so the better content continues to rise. And 90 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:42.800 it only makes sense, right technology gets better. Google is trying to connect 91 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:46.709 searchers with the answers and so it makes sense that that connection should just happen 92 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:51.029 better. So I'm totally with you that we should focus on giving google what 93 00:06:51.110 --> 00:06:55.509 it wants, which is what are the searchers looking for. What is that 94 00:06:55.709 --> 00:07:00.550 search intent? So for folks, I drop that eat focus content term earlier 95 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:02.620 for anybody who needs a little bit of background on that, if you want 96 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:05.860 to unpack that for us as it relates to what you were sharing there and 97 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:10.060 then talk a little bit about your link building strategy. Sure, sure, 98 00:07:10.139 --> 00:07:15.730 that's great. So eat is a really buzz word right now in in the 99 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:21.610 SEO world. That's expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness and what goes into that or 100 00:07:21.850 --> 00:07:26.370 some of the things I mentioned that we're an old website that were trusted. 101 00:07:26.449 --> 00:07:29.649 We're not a website that just popped up on the website a month ago. 102 00:07:29.730 --> 00:07:32.279 A website that's been up for ten years versus a website so that's for a 103 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:36.560 year, is going to have an advantage because Google has seen what you've done. 104 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:41.399 They trust you a little bit more than what's your expertise? What are 105 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:44.310 you what are you an authority on? If you're a website and you've been 106 00:07:44.350 --> 00:07:47.670 posting about dog food for ten years and then you post a blog post about 107 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:53.389 cat food, you're not necessarily set up to rank for that, because Google 108 00:07:53.470 --> 00:07:58.189 has seen you as an authority on one subject but not the other and that's 109 00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:01.579 where, that's why I think we were positions so well, is because we 110 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:07.259 had that expertise and authority and trust that we built for years. So not, 111 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:11.220 not everybody is going to have that same going to be set up that 112 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:13.689 well. That's part of the reason I took the job here is I when 113 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:16.490 I was interviewing I took a look and as like wow, we're really position 114 00:08:16.610 --> 00:08:20.449 to do some really good things and that's why I wanted to come here. 115 00:08:20.610 --> 00:08:22.889 But hopefully I give some context. Yeah, absolutely, Man. So you're 116 00:08:24.250 --> 00:08:26.199 a position well to add fuel to that fire. So let's talk a little 117 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.160 bit about how you added fuel to that existing fire that was already burning. 118 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:33.799 You kind of saw, Hey, I've got a little bit of a head 119 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:37.000 start or something to work off of here. What was your link building strategy 120 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:41.710 to make it more efficient and not a waste of time, because its frankly, 121 00:08:41.750 --> 00:08:43.789 I have talked to some faults that have just seeing like our link building 122 00:08:43.830 --> 00:08:48.230 strategy. It just takes so much effort for very little return at times. 123 00:08:48.549 --> 00:08:50.590 What are some of the the pitfalls and some of the solutions that you found 124 00:08:50.590 --> 00:08:54.470 that that led to some of these great results? We talked about earlier. 125 00:08:54.549 --> 00:09:00.899 Absolutely number one. You first what you have to build content that matters and 126 00:09:01.019 --> 00:09:03.659 that it's going to be good. You don't want to build links to quality 127 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:07.659 content. You gotta you gotta hit that on the head first. So we 128 00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:11.009 create a content that really addressed comprehensively. It had good had good statistics, 129 00:09:11.049 --> 00:09:15.570 it had a lot of validation. It used a lot of proof terms. 130 00:09:15.809 --> 00:09:20.730 So if you haven't heard what proof terms are or related keywords is, I've 131 00:09:20.769 --> 00:09:26.159 heard a great example of if you're searching for a term wedding band, you 132 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:30.480 could get one of two things, a wedding band. So you search wedding 133 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.120 band, you're maybe looking for a band the plays at weddings, that plays 134 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:37.679 music or you're looking for a wedding band that goes on your finger exactly. 135 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:41.509 So you want to give those proof terms to give context around what your article 136 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:45.830 is about. So hit those, hit those first and then then look at 137 00:09:45.870 --> 00:09:48.830 link building. Is Your you want to give content that's even worthy of being 138 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:52.230 linked to. If you don't do that, all the link building in the 139 00:09:52.230 --> 00:09:54.500 worlds. I'm going to help you. Number two thing, there's a lot 140 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:58.620 up. There's some lowhanging fruit. I just came from a redesign where we 141 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:03.500 had a we had a lot of a lot of pages that were removed from 142 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:07.409 the web that already had a lot of back links because our website has been 143 00:10:07.409 --> 00:10:11.330 around for a while. So I went through a bunch. I went through 144 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:18.610 I use tools like a tress seem rush to identify those pages that had external 145 00:10:18.690 --> 00:10:22.320 links already facing them and then I redirected those. I didn't redirect everything from 146 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.399 the old side because I just didn't have the time to go through it. 147 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:28.279 There's a lot of pages that went the died, but I went to those 148 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.600 that were related to my term. So employee. There we had an old 149 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:37.629 blog post employee recognition. The already had twenty links. I redirected all those 150 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:43.509 to my new long form skyscraper about Employe be recognition. So that's some lowhanging 151 00:10:43.549 --> 00:10:46.389 fruit where you're not necessarily that's what you're in control of. You're not. 152 00:10:46.590 --> 00:10:50.620 You don't have to reach out to any third parties. Use The urls that 153 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:52.980 you already have and get those linking to the right place. So once you 154 00:10:54.059 --> 00:10:56.700 take care of those and maybe brand mentions, those are some of the lowhanging 155 00:10:56.740 --> 00:11:00.539 fruit you can take care of her. So now going on the offense. 156 00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:05.450 It's a little more outside of my control. We hired an agency to help 157 00:11:05.450 --> 00:11:07.570 us with our link building. There's a way to do it that's t white 158 00:11:07.649 --> 00:11:09.769 hat. Is a way to do it. It's black hat. I think 159 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:15.610 what we have as a very white hat approach, because we're basically we're paying 160 00:11:15.610 --> 00:11:20.039 an agency to help promote our content on third party websites and part of that 161 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.519 is then they link back to our website. There's a lot of agencies that 162 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:28.639 do this. I recommend asking around those that you trust to get a good 163 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.399 recommendation, because this is where you can get in a lot of trouble if 164 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:35.470 you do it wrong. Building links of scale. We work with our our 165 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:41.350 publisher that they have relationships with third party websites that they've been publishing for years 166 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:46.820 in a variety of industries. They provide blog content for websites with and they 167 00:11:46.899 --> 00:11:52.860 reserve the rights link to sources that they deemed accurate. So we work with 168 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:56.659 then. They're already publishing on a lot of publishers, on a lot of 169 00:11:56.820 --> 00:12:00.299 third party sites. When they see an opportunity to link back to us, 170 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:03.850 they take it and that's what that's what we're paying him for. Is Publishing 171 00:12:03.769 --> 00:12:07.529 content that's related to our field and linking back to us, and we do 172 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:13.330 about seven to ten a month and I'll have and that way we're building. 173 00:12:13.409 --> 00:12:18.840 So every month we're building links to my skyscrapers. Were building three here, 174 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:24.919 three there, three there. So Google is seeing consistent links being built to 175 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:33.549 our content over a period of time. Today's Gross Story is about active PDF, 176 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:39.389 the leading global provider of Server side pdf automation and digital transformation tools. 177 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:43.149 Active PDF gives teams the tools they need to create, convert, modified, 178 00:12:43.149 --> 00:12:50.059 view, extract and automate data to and from PDF files. 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You know, all the link building in the world doesn't matter 193 00:13:56.450 --> 00:14:00.570 with quality content, and then making sure that you go about that link building 194 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:05.009 the the right way and then not just, you know, looking for link 195 00:14:05.090 --> 00:14:09.889 building back to your home page, but to those skyscraper pieces of content. 196 00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:13.440 I think those are definitely three things. Is I'm John Notes here that I 197 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.600 took down. You mentioned looking for an Seo partner that does it the right 198 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:18.759 way and not the wrong way. There are some ways to get it wrong. 199 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.879 You mentioned earlier at the top of the episode tell much that you've worked 200 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:26.990 on the agency side and the brand side. Are there maybe one or two 201 00:14:26.070 --> 00:14:31.029 things, maybe three, I don't know, just or maybe one tip that 202 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:35.710 that you recommend for folks in evaluating Hey, is this partner going to help 203 00:14:35.710 --> 00:14:37.509 us do it the right way or the wrong way? Any any red flags, 204 00:14:37.549 --> 00:14:41.100 any tips? Since you've been on both sides of the fence, I 205 00:14:41.179 --> 00:14:46.500 had to ask. Sure, I think a big your biggest indicator is how 206 00:14:46.539 --> 00:14:50.059 much it's going to cost you, because if it's really cheap, you're not 207 00:14:50.179 --> 00:14:52.970 looking at the right place, because it takes a lot to build links. 208 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:58.409 It's expensive, it's hard to do and that's why it's worth outsourcing, because 209 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:01.649 if I were trying to do link building at scale on my own, I 210 00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:05.370 would need a whole team. And when I hire an agency they have writers, 211 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:11.200 they have existing relationship with publishers, they their writing quality content that publishers 212 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:16.559 are willing to take. Having a team that's built up that respect and has 213 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:22.629 that expertise is it costs money. So that's I think, the sniff test 214 00:15:22.750 --> 00:15:26.350 that you'd want to follow. Is They really have a team? Have they've 215 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:28.190 been doing this for a while? Yeah, and I love that. They're 216 00:15:28.230 --> 00:15:31.870 not going to give me a thousand links for five dollars. that. Yeah, 217 00:15:31.110 --> 00:15:35.149 yeah, so you and I can see the reality of it too. 218 00:15:35.230 --> 00:15:37.980 Man. You know, we push out a lot of content and we're approached 219 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:41.980 by folks just this week had said, hey, we'll pay eighty dollars for 220 00:15:43.179 --> 00:15:46.139 these random links and they had nothing to do with the shows that they were 221 00:15:46.179 --> 00:15:48.779 wanting to put links in. And you know, to me I'm just like, 222 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:54.049 I hope the folks that are being represented here no know what they're getting. 223 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:56.529 So I'm seeing it out there in the wild. You're speaking the truth, 224 00:15:56.610 --> 00:16:00.769 man. Let's get onto the other tactic that I know has has worked 225 00:16:00.809 --> 00:16:06.200 well for you guys, and that's using structured data to enhance sirp features. 226 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:08.039 So, for anybody WHO's not familiar with that term, if you want to 227 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:11.600 unpack that real quick and then speak to the strategy that you guys have been 228 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:17.480 deploying here, great. So structured data, it's it goes by many names 229 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:23.710 and maybe they'll. People call it structured data. They'll call it Schema and 230 00:16:25.110 --> 00:16:29.389 scheme as I think it's type of structured data. Anyway. It's it's basically 231 00:16:29.470 --> 00:16:33.980 code that you're putting on your website. Jason Code is a common one and 232 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:40.340 the Google has accepted and looks too for certain features. Common ones are like 233 00:16:40.659 --> 00:16:44.059 articles. When you ride an article, you want to put an article Schema 234 00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:47.970 on there, and there's company Schema so you can call out this is my 235 00:16:48.049 --> 00:16:52.289 company name, here's our phone number, and so when search engines, when 236 00:16:52.289 --> 00:16:55.570 they crawl your site, they see the Schema and they can and they can 237 00:16:55.929 --> 00:17:00.289 bring to the top and use it for things like answer boxes and featured snippets 238 00:17:00.929 --> 00:17:04.720 and Faq type drop downs. The FAQ type dropdowns is where we've seen the 239 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:10.920 most success. So these long form articles are basically FA q pages. So 240 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:15.630 we have one on employee recognition. We have probably five or seven questions on 241 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:19.869 that page of what when we're doing Qa. What is employee recognition? It's 242 00:17:19.990 --> 00:17:23.750 this. How do you implent a program is how you do it. What 243 00:17:23.869 --> 00:17:26.869 are the best companies to do this with? Here it is. There's a 244 00:17:26.910 --> 00:17:30.740 lot of Schema, structured data validate. There's Google is the one I always 245 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:33.740 go to. You have it's a lot of if you're going to write it 246 00:17:33.819 --> 00:17:37.500 yourself, there's a lot of trial and air to get it right, but 247 00:17:37.579 --> 00:17:41.180 luckily Google has a great validator. You can also see what your competitors are 248 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:45.210 doing. You could plug in my pages from mostly tended our common see what 249 00:17:45.289 --> 00:17:48.529 Schema I've used, and that's a great place to start, is to look 250 00:17:48.569 --> 00:17:52.369 at competitors see what they're using. You can basically just copy their Schema and 251 00:17:53.490 --> 00:17:56.769 and and replace it with your own. But the FA Q s team is 252 00:17:56.890 --> 00:18:00.920 Schema is where we saw the most success. So we wrote we wrote this 253 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:07.160 code and Jason that had these five or so fa q's. We put them 254 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:11.869 on the page, requested Google to index that page through Google search console and 255 00:18:12.069 --> 00:18:18.509 within a day or so I saw these really cool dropdowns in the SERP in 256 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:21.829 the search engine result page. So we were ranking on the first page. 257 00:18:22.230 --> 00:18:26.230 For example, if you type an employee recognition program we rank really well for 258 00:18:26.349 --> 00:18:30.619 employee recognition program and employer recognition programs. You'll see our listing and then right 259 00:18:30.700 --> 00:18:36.019 under our listing you'll see three drop downs for those faques on our page. 260 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:37.420 As far as I can tell, we're the only people to do that in 261 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:41.410 our space. Neil Patel and Bryan Dean are Oll over this. They've done 262 00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:45.849 many posts that you've got to do this Faq. I'm surprised I don't see 263 00:18:45.849 --> 00:18:51.009 it as as often as I do. It's increased our visibility pretty significantly. 264 00:18:51.049 --> 00:18:56.119 It's doubled the size of our of our listing and it's way more intriguing. 265 00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:57.880 If I see the drop down. It's worked really well. So I mean 266 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:03.480 that, and that is just one SCHEMA. Faku Schema is one of hundreds 267 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.960 that you can pick. Review Schema. If you're if you're gathering reviews on 268 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:12.589 your site, use review Schema so you get those cool stars on your on 269 00:19:12.710 --> 00:19:15.670 your search and your result page you have. It's very it's going to be 270 00:19:15.670 --> 00:19:21.509 very specific to your business. But since be to be, the article scheme 271 00:19:21.589 --> 00:19:22.829 is going to be bage. Your Business Scheme is going to beg your FA 272 00:19:23.109 --> 00:19:26.579 Schema. That's going to be important. Those are the ones that highlight. 273 00:19:26.619 --> 00:19:30.460 Yeah, absolutely, Man. I mean I love the way that you're providing 274 00:19:30.539 --> 00:19:34.259 some really tactical examples that people can look at. And the other thing that 275 00:19:34.339 --> 00:19:37.339 I hear you saying, is kind of what we've been leaning into, is, 276 00:19:37.609 --> 00:19:41.049 you know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Look at what 277 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:44.730 some of your competitors are doing. You know, we've talked about using the 278 00:19:44.809 --> 00:19:49.609 Google alphabet soup methodology to identify search inten for those longer term keywords. There 279 00:19:49.650 --> 00:19:53.200 are things that you can go to to see what's happening, what's being used, 280 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:57.279 what's being searched for, and use that as your basis as opposed to. 281 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:00.480 Okay, the this is kind of what we think we should do, 282 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:03.960 and go from there. Give yourself some headstarts and I love the way that 283 00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:07.990 you're given people some tactical examples so that they can get those head starts today. 284 00:20:07.990 --> 00:20:11.390 All right, the third thing. I know you wanted to talk about 285 00:20:11.390 --> 00:20:15.670 Talman, which has been on our mind here and I think is very practical 286 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:21.029 if it doesn't really matter, kind of like back lengths without quality content, 287 00:20:21.579 --> 00:20:25.740 Seo Strategy, without alignment to your creative team. I know you want to 288 00:20:25.779 --> 00:20:30.299 speak a little bit about how you teach your creative team to care about Seo 289 00:20:30.500 --> 00:20:34.339 so that you can work with them and be handinhand and multiply your efforts as 290 00:20:34.339 --> 00:20:37.490 opposed to kind of fighting back and forth. Tell us a little bit about 291 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:41.490 your journey and advice. You've got four folks on this point. Great, 292 00:20:41.049 --> 00:20:45.049 so I start. There's a lot of third party validation. I started with 293 00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:51.319 looking at reports on what be to be buyers. How do they research? 294 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.480 And that, I think the popular statistic out there is that seventy percent of 295 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:02.319 BTB buyers go through their buying process without you or they they research. severy 296 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:07.069 spent of the time without you base research there or for the first three months. 297 00:21:07.589 --> 00:21:14.990 Seventy percent conduct anonymous research without you. So there's a lot of validation 298 00:21:15.190 --> 00:21:18.339 that people don't want to talk to a sales rep yet they want to research 299 00:21:18.380 --> 00:21:22.180 on their own. And where do they go? They go to Google to 300 00:21:22.220 --> 00:21:26.420 do that. And so if you're not a bought leader on Google, you 301 00:21:26.539 --> 00:21:30.859 don't exist to the B tob buyer until way down the phone, until you 302 00:21:30.099 --> 00:21:33.529 until you force your way in front of them, less you get paid out 303 00:21:33.569 --> 00:21:36.450 in front of them, they're not going to see you and they want to 304 00:21:36.490 --> 00:21:38.329 do research on their own. So that was that was kind of where I 305 00:21:38.410 --> 00:21:44.529 started. I wanted to show them that are our personas. Are Not finding 306 00:21:44.609 --> 00:21:48.480 us. Then I took him through all of the major keywords. That I 307 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:51.119 mean. We're in old company, so we figure that we are a thought 308 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.359 leader. We figure that a like when someone's looking for service awards, where 309 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.599 the ones they find, because we've been doing at the longest. But that 310 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:00.200 wasn't necessarily case and it and Google's great real time. You just type in 311 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.470 let's search, let's search these keywords that we think we were available for it. 312 00:22:03.589 --> 00:22:07.950 We go in, we're on the third page and any one's everyone's shocked. 313 00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:11.549 So that that's where I started, and then the next the next phase 314 00:22:11.630 --> 00:22:15.859 was teaching him how to rank, because there's a lot of there's a lot 315 00:22:15.940 --> 00:22:21.700 of stereotypes about Seo. I think from from the writer's perspective, they don't 316 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:26.220 want their content to be downgraded because they did. They've keyword stuffed it. 317 00:22:26.619 --> 00:22:30.410 They wrote this great white paper and now I want to turn into this reddit 318 00:22:30.490 --> 00:22:37.450 article that is just full of cliches and keyward stuffing. So I think the 319 00:22:37.650 --> 00:22:42.970 mindset that had to shift was we're not writing content to gain Google we're writing 320 00:22:44.289 --> 00:22:48.319 the best content out there. That's one. We're writing the best content. 321 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:51.440 Our competitors have better content to US and they rank higher than us, so 322 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:55.680 let's write better content than that. That was where we kind of have to 323 00:22:55.720 --> 00:23:00.069 start. But the other thing is we also have to use some keywords. 324 00:23:00.109 --> 00:23:03.509 I know there's not keyword stuffing, but if we're writing about a certain keyword, 325 00:23:03.789 --> 00:23:06.589 we're writing about a topic, we actually have to say that topic, 326 00:23:06.950 --> 00:23:10.029 we actually have to say to use that word, because that was that was 327 00:23:10.150 --> 00:23:12.700 part of it. Is We'd say the term in a creative way and we 328 00:23:12.779 --> 00:23:17.259 wouldn't even use the keywords. That we're trying to rank for. And then 329 00:23:17.299 --> 00:23:21.579 we look at a competing article and you use a tool like seo quake, 330 00:23:21.619 --> 00:23:26.900 has a great tool to look at how often a keyword is use keyword density, 331 00:23:26.170 --> 00:23:29.369 and you go to a competitor and you see, let's see how much 332 00:23:29.450 --> 00:23:33.130 they're using employee recognition on their page and you see it being used twenty five 333 00:23:33.170 --> 00:23:37.250 times and we're not using it at all. So you have to use it. 334 00:23:37.490 --> 00:23:41.599 Sometimes you don't have the keywords stuff. You still have to make great 335 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:44.799 content, but you can't avoid saying the keyword that you want rank for. 336 00:23:45.319 --> 00:23:47.920 So with with the that, and then teaching them some of the things are 337 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:49.279 out outside of your control, other things that you're going to do, like 338 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:55.710 with link building. And then the follow up. So you have the follow 339 00:23:55.710 --> 00:23:59.309 up would be show them the results. When someone gets an article that ranks, 340 00:23:59.710 --> 00:24:03.150 I would broadcast it, I'd send them a I'd send them some recognition. 341 00:24:03.190 --> 00:24:06.430 I bring it up in the meetings. We're ranking on the first page 342 00:24:06.470 --> 00:24:07.910 for this. Thank you, so and so, for writing that article. 343 00:24:08.309 --> 00:24:11.980 You really nailed it, and so I think those are the three recipe that 344 00:24:12.099 --> 00:24:17.339 the R at, the three ingredients for success are created new show them where 345 00:24:17.700 --> 00:24:22.380 competitions beating. You understand your persona and why you need to either number to, 346 00:24:22.339 --> 00:24:26.890 take the time to teach them the tactics. Teach them and help them 347 00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:33.450 understand the how, what it takes to rank, what's the history of Seo? 348 00:24:33.329 --> 00:24:37.529 Fight some of those stereotypes that they need have. And then number three, 349 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:41.079 keep up, keep them updated. Send it, send them the results. 350 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:45.440 Let him see the analytics. Don't let them be a ticket taker and 351 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.519 they they never get see the results. Yeah, absolutely, Man. I 352 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:52.069 mean you kind of have to break down the preconceived notion that it doesn't matter. 353 00:24:52.390 --> 00:24:57.269 You have to break down the preconceived notion that I can't create good creative 354 00:24:57.390 --> 00:25:03.269 content that is seo rich, and then apply somehow to and I love the 355 00:25:03.309 --> 00:25:06.789 way that, hey, here's an idea, getting a room and Google some 356 00:25:06.950 --> 00:25:08.660 things that you think. Your team is like, Oh yeah, we own 357 00:25:08.740 --> 00:25:11.700 that. We're going to be, you know, spot zero on Google and 358 00:25:11.779 --> 00:25:18.500 own the audio snippet, but we're on page three. And then recognize praise, 359 00:25:18.099 --> 00:25:22.250 if that's what you want to see, then recognize that, celebrated. 360 00:25:22.690 --> 00:25:27.930 Show them the that value and I think the connection here to to a creative 361 00:25:29.049 --> 00:25:33.930 team is they value the creativity and the thoughtfulness and that in product. But 362 00:25:34.089 --> 00:25:40.000 the connection here to get your creative team to see the light of where they 363 00:25:40.039 --> 00:25:42.880 play a role in in the Seo Strategy, I think, is none of 364 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:45.880 them ever want to put all this work into something that's never going to be 365 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:51.109 seen. So if you can tell that story and connect that form on a 366 00:25:51.190 --> 00:25:53.670 regular basis, both and kind of setting the stage and then ongoing like you're 367 00:25:53.670 --> 00:25:59.349 talking about, I think that's that's the recipe for success. Man, talmage, 368 00:25:59.349 --> 00:26:02.950 you have brought a ton of value today. I'm sure that listeners are 369 00:26:02.990 --> 00:26:04.619 going to have some follow up questions. Probably want to stay connected with you. 370 00:26:06.059 --> 00:26:08.099 Pick your brain down the road. What's the best way for them to 371 00:26:08.220 --> 00:26:11.700 stay connected or reach out to you down the Lineman? Sure a connect with 372 00:26:11.779 --> 00:26:15.859 me on Linkedin and you can also follow me on twitter. talmage on twitter, 373 00:26:17.500 --> 00:26:21.769 but linkedin is probably the best. Tal Much Egan on Linkedin. Send 374 00:26:21.809 --> 00:26:23.369 me some notes. Happy to. I've been I've been mentored and helped the 375 00:26:23.410 --> 00:26:27.170 bunch of my career by those who have gone before me, so I'm happy 376 00:26:27.170 --> 00:26:30.210 to help out on some of those tax school issues that you may fight in 377 00:26:30.329 --> 00:26:33.319 my face. Awesome and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for 378 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:37.119 joining us on the show today. Thank you. Have a good one. 379 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:42.400 I hate it when podcasts incessantly ask their listeners for reviews, but I get 380 00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:47.079 why they do it, because reviews are enormously helpful when you're trying to grow 381 00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:49.509 a podcast audience. So here's what we decided to do. If you leave 382 00:26:49.549 --> 00:26:53.349 a review for me to be growth and apple podcasts and email me a screenshot 383 00:26:53.430 --> 00:26:57.710 of the review to James At sweetfish Mediacom, I'll send you a signed copy 384 00:26:57.789 --> 00:27:02.579 of my new book, content based networking, how to instantly connect with anyone 385 00:27:02.619 --> 00:27:04.579 you want to know. We get a review, you get a free book. 386 00:27:04.940 --> 00:27:06.539 We both win.