#BehindTheCurtain 9: Our New SEO Strategy: Google Alphabet Soup w/ James Carbary & Logan Lyles

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.519 Want to expand the reach of your content, start a podcast, feature industry 2 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:08.910 experts on your show and leverage the influence and reach of your guests to grow 3 00:00:08.990 --> 00:00:18.309 your brand. Learn more at sweet phish MEDIACOM. You're listening to be tob 4 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:23.260 growth, a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably 5 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:27.059 heard before, like Gary Vander truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never 6 00:00:27.179 --> 00:00:31.300 heard from the majority of our guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews 7 00:00:31.339 --> 00:00:35.810 aren't with professional speakers and authors. Most of our guests are in the trenches 8 00:00:35.929 --> 00:00:40.570 leading sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, 9 00:00:40.929 --> 00:00:45.250 they're building the fastest growing BTB companies in the world. My name is James 10 00:00:45.289 --> 00:00:48.890 Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet fish media, a podcast agency for BB 11 00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:52.320 brands, and I'm also one of the CO hosts of this show. When 12 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:56.320 we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes 13 00:00:56.359 --> 00:01:00.039 of our own business. Will share the ups and downs of our journey as 14 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:04.310 we attempt to take over the world. Just getting well, maybe let's get 15 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:12.989 into the show. Welcome back to BEDB growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet 16 00:01:12.989 --> 00:01:18.109 fish media. Today is another episode in our behind the curtain series and, 17 00:01:18.349 --> 00:01:22.340 as usual in this series, I've got with me James Carberry, the man, 18 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:25.140 the Meth, the legend, founder and CEO here at Sweet Phish. 19 00:01:25.140 --> 00:01:27.340 James, how you doing today, man, I am fantastic, dude, 20 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:33.609 really pumped to dive into this episode about Google Alphabet Soup. Yeah, man, 21 00:01:33.810 --> 00:01:36.129 we're going to be talking about Google alphabet soup. We're going to be 22 00:01:36.209 --> 00:01:42.129 talking about a pretty significant change in how we approach podcasting and how we're looking 23 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:48.280 to take advantage of a big opportunity with what Google is doing and the Seo 24 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:52.319 Opportunity when it comes to podcasting. So I'll kind of tea it up a 25 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.560 little bit because I've been talking to a lot of marketing teams about this idea 26 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:00.159 that we've been kicking around internally and starting to roll out as part of our 27 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:06.590 process, and it really stems from this idea of being more prescriptive with our 28 00:02:06.670 --> 00:02:09.789 customers when it comes to content planning for their podcast. You know, a 29 00:02:10.789 --> 00:02:15.819 while back I had Sam Balter from hub spot on the show here in our 30 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:19.460 hy podcast work series and the title of that episode, I think, was 31 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:23.539 our podcast the next big Seo Opportunity, and had him on talking about an 32 00:02:23.659 --> 00:02:30.969 article that he wrote for marketing props, basically unpacking the impact of Google transcribing 33 00:02:30.009 --> 00:02:35.490 all of the podcasts that are live in their directory. Audio is starting to 34 00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:39.129 make its way directly into search results. As a result of that. Not 35 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:43.930 to be too Meta, but much like we saw video now get its own 36 00:02:44.009 --> 00:02:46.280 place in search results. You know you used to be five years ago, 37 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.960 you had to go to youtube and search for something if you wanted a video 38 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:53.159 result. Now it happens right in the feed. A similar process is happening 39 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:58.909 now with podcasts. I've seen it in my own results, and so we're 40 00:02:58.949 --> 00:03:01.789 doing some things to capitalize on that, to help our customers capitalize on that, 41 00:03:02.270 --> 00:03:07.789 in tandem with moving to a more prescriptive process. So that's kind of 42 00:03:07.069 --> 00:03:12.669 the conversations I've been having around this topic. You've been talking to the team, 43 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.060 some folks with some Seo job, so I'll let you chime in kind 44 00:03:16.099 --> 00:03:20.219 of what's led you to thinking about this as well. Man. Yeah, 45 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:23.259 so, like you a lotted to earlier, Logan, we really have gone 46 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:28.250 up until this point. We've been all in on the idea of content based 47 00:03:28.289 --> 00:03:30.129 networking. I'm writing a book about it. It's about to be done, 48 00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:36.129 this idea that you can do business with the guests that you feature on your 49 00:03:36.169 --> 00:03:38.729 show. So it was almost like the content doesn't really matter, so long 50 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:44.919 as you're building quality relationships with the guests that you're featuring on your show, 51 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.639 making them look like heroes and rock stars, then you're going to accomplish the 52 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:54.789 objective of having a podcast. And I have evolved. My thinking around it 53 00:03:54.949 --> 00:04:00.750 has evolved and matured to the point where I thought man and especially with a 54 00:04:00.949 --> 00:04:05.710 shifting into becoming a media company, when I decided four or five months ago, 55 00:04:06.229 --> 00:04:09.949 maybe six or seven months ago, that I no longer wanted to be 56 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:14.699 a service provider. I wanted to build a media company on the back of 57 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:20.180 what I think is a frontier with podcasting. There's just so much open opportunity 58 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:26.649 in massive industries and I wanted to be the entity that came in and created 59 00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:32.689 podcast first media company to service all of the educational needs in all these different 60 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:36.850 industries. And as I thought more and more about that, our model to 61 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:45.399 do collective shows and to partner with multiple cohosts that really celebritizing them and their 62 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:50.120 expertise, where we could really leverage their know how of the industry and our 63 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:55.990 know how of how to create massive amounts of content and chop it up into 64 00:04:55.990 --> 00:04:59.470 a lot of different ways. And so the one thing that was missing in 65 00:04:59.589 --> 00:05:04.069 our strategy was not actually knowing what to talk about, what episodes, what 66 00:05:04.269 --> 00:05:10.220 topics do we need to cover during these episodes that we're doing with our cohosts, 67 00:05:10.660 --> 00:05:15.339 because it had been so reliant on whatever guests the cohost brought on, 68 00:05:15.819 --> 00:05:18.300 whatever that guest wanted to talk about. We were at the mercy of that 69 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:24.129 guest and so we were making a pretty hard shift to say hey, we 70 00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:29.449 are we are now going to only do solo episodes. Our cohost can still 71 00:05:29.529 --> 00:05:31.529 do interviews a few times the months if they want to do that. But 72 00:05:31.649 --> 00:05:36.279 what we found is most of our cohost actually don't enjoy the process of finding 73 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:40.399 guests. It's a it's been a there's been a lot of friction in our 74 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:44.920 process around trying to figure that piece out, and so going away from saying 75 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:48.319 hey, you don't actually need to find guests us anymore and instead using this 76 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:54.389 thing called what my friend Dan Sanchez calls Google alphabet soup and it's essentially using 77 00:05:54.509 --> 00:06:00.589 Google autosuggest to tell you what keywords and phrases are being searched for. Now 78 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:05.779 we're using a tool called MAS that is also allowing us to see a little 79 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:11.139 bit more, a little bit more variety of data around these keywords, but 80 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:15.939 for the most part it's really just using Google to tell you what people are 81 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:18.449 searching. And so if we've got, for example, in our crafting culture 82 00:06:18.449 --> 00:06:25.290 podcast, Ryan cohler is is costing the hiring series. So when we go 83 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:30.209 to Google and we put in hiring, if you do hiring, space bar 84 00:06:30.769 --> 00:06:33.639 and then you hit a and see what pops up. Then you hit B 85 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:38.680 and another ten or fifteen results pop up, then you delete that and hit 86 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:43.759 see, and so you can go literally through the entire alphabet seeing what people 87 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:46.879 are searching for as it relates to hiring. And so we can find that, 88 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:49.470 oh, people want to know about hiring veterans, they want to know 89 00:06:49.589 --> 00:06:56.350 about hiring family and friends. So we're no longer guessing or allowing our content 90 00:06:56.629 --> 00:07:00.500 to be reliant on what Ryan's guest wants to talk about. Instead we're saying 91 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:05.019 hey, based on our research, we know that these forty five topics, 92 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:10.899 are things that people are searching for. What of these Ryan do you want 93 00:07:10.899 --> 00:07:13.420 to talk about? And so he can then come back to us and say, 94 00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:15.850 Oh, I'll want to talk about, you know, these twelve, 95 00:07:15.290 --> 00:07:19.009 because we're doing, you know, twelve episode series with our cohosts. And 96 00:07:19.490 --> 00:07:23.730 we then go and say, okay, based on those twelve, we're going 97 00:07:23.769 --> 00:07:29.050 to look at the the top three ranking articles for those particular keywords and then 98 00:07:29.089 --> 00:07:33.680 we're going to design an episode outline and episode that allows us to create content 99 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:38.120 that is better than what is currently ranking. Because at the end of the 100 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:42.399 day, but Dan Sanchez has taught me about this, is Google. Everybody 101 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:45.589 gets so tripped up and backlinks and all this technical seo stuff, and he 102 00:07:45.709 --> 00:07:47.509 said that that the stuff does matter to a certain degree, but at the 103 00:07:47.509 --> 00:07:53.230 end of the day, Google wants the best content. They want to show 104 00:07:53.389 --> 00:07:58.389 the best content to that matches the search intent for what people are searching in 105 00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:01.100 Google. So if you can create better content, there's a good chance you 106 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:07.540 can outrank ink because it's so long as you satisfy that searchers intent better than 107 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:11.259 ink did, or Forbes or you know, insert big massive media conglomerate that 108 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:16.689 has a lot of authority, and so that is what we're seeking to do 109 00:08:16.850 --> 00:08:20.610 now. So identifying what those topics are using google, off of that soup, 110 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:24.490 they going to our cohost and saying, Hey, what which of these 111 00:08:24.610 --> 00:08:28.519 topics do you feel like you've got a lot to say about, and then 112 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.720 partnering with with their expertise in our ability to do content planning and saying, 113 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:35.840 okay, this these are the these are the eight points that we need to 114 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:39.279 make sure we touch on, based on what is currently ranking, and then 115 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:43.629 here another three points that we think we can add to make this even better 116 00:08:43.950 --> 00:08:48.629 than what is currently on the first page of Google. So I'm really, 117 00:08:48.710 --> 00:08:52.629 really, really excited about this strategy. I think it brings full circle to 118 00:08:54.110 --> 00:08:58.100 it just brings a much more strategic layer to the service that we're providing because 119 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:03.419 once once those solo episodes get recorded from our media days, flying to wherever 120 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:09.179 they are, to where our cohosts are filming them, doing these solo episodes, 121 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:11.610 chopping it up into one to two minute videos like what you see on 122 00:09:11.769 --> 00:09:16.690 Gary v's instagram and Linkedin, and then distributing those across social platforms where people 123 00:09:16.690 --> 00:09:22.049 are actually hanging out. I think it's a triple threat, getting written content, 124 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:26.799 long form written content, audio content for podcast channels and then video for 125 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:30.639 social and Youtube, and I just think it's going to be a winning strategy. 126 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:31.919 So I'm super pumped about it. Yeah, man, I am so 127 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.080 excited. The Way I've been explaining it to a lot of the marketing teams 128 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:41.190 we're talking about and in our current customers who are cohosts of our collective shows, 129 00:09:41.269 --> 00:09:43.909 is, you know, we've been fortunate enough to build a great team 130 00:09:45.190 --> 00:09:50.269 and build great processes through taking our lumps over the last several years and figuring 131 00:09:50.309 --> 00:09:52.820 out how to produce a show, and we've gotten really good at the production 132 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:58.100 side. And what's exciting to me is, you know, we're moving further 133 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:03.100 to the right to into more of the promotion as you've been talking about, 134 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:07.059 like creating this short snippet videos, and now we're moving more to the left, 135 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:11.730 like a pre interview, into more of this prescriptive content planning. It's 136 00:10:11.769 --> 00:10:15.929 going to allow us to deliver better results for our customers and so I just 137 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:18.490 want to recap that because I think, you know, this strategy is something 138 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:22.799 that other people can use. You know, it's really three steps. You're 139 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:26.360 talking about identifying the search intent, you know, using this google alphabet soup 140 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:31.120 right in the search bar of Google, and you know doing that hiring a 141 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.519 hiring be and what you're talking about is then looking at the suggestions, not 142 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:39.830 hitting enter and looking at the search results, but looking at the autosuggest these 143 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:46.590 search suggestions from Google, then building the list of those topics, matching them 144 00:10:46.870 --> 00:10:50.100 with the person who has expertise to speak on those topics. And then step 145 00:10:50.259 --> 00:10:54.580 three is go go back to those, hit enter and then look at the 146 00:10:54.779 --> 00:11:01.500 currently high ranking content for that search term and then see if you can create 147 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:07.769 content that either is longer, hits more answers the question better. How can 148 00:11:07.809 --> 00:11:11.129 you make content better than what is there? And then, if you can 149 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:13.250 do it in multiple channels, in multiple ways, than do that, which 150 00:11:13.529 --> 00:11:18.250 what we're looking to do is the audio content, since that is now being 151 00:11:18.289 --> 00:11:22.159 indexed by Google. You know that's a win, but then creating long form 152 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.399 written content as well so that you know it's hitting both, and then the 153 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:30.639 video content to promote that content, because if we know people are searching for 154 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:33.830 it, then if we can find them in search, that's great and meet 155 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:37.070 them there are but if we can also create kind of teaser assets to help 156 00:11:37.110 --> 00:11:41.429 them find it on social then there's that triple threat that you're talking about. 157 00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:46.110 So that's the way I kind of sum it up. I think there's ton 158 00:11:46.190 --> 00:11:48.299 of opportunity here, as you've been talking about, man, and I think 159 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:52.100 it's something that other people can learn from and think about in their content strategy 160 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:56.740 for their podcast or for their other channels as well. So thanks so much 161 00:11:56.740 --> 00:12:01.970 for unpacking it, man, and hope people listening to this get some value 162 00:12:01.009 --> 00:12:05.690 from today's episode. If you haven't been following us, James and I are 163 00:12:05.769 --> 00:12:09.570 both pretty active on instagram these days. I'm at I am Logan Lyles at 164 00:12:09.649 --> 00:12:13.970 Logan Lyles was taken to one place where I at Logan Lyoff anyway. James 165 00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:18.639 is at James Carberry and and if you want to see more of what we're 166 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:22.039 doing with this collective model, the content planning, the media days and kind 167 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:26.200 of our strategy there, to see what you can take from that, follow 168 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:30.029 us at sweet fish media and you'll see a lot of stuff happening there. 169 00:12:33.149 --> 00:12:37.350 We totally get it. We publish a ton of content on this podcast and 170 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:39.549 it can be a lot to keep up with. That's why we've started the 171 00:12:39.629 --> 00:12:45.500 BOB growth big three, a no fluff email that boils down our three biggest 172 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:50.740 takeaways from an entire week of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Phish Mediacom 173 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:54.580 Big Three. That sweet PHISH MEDIACOM Big Three