SEO

This post will teach you one of my favorite SEO tips.  I use this for clients and affiliates that want to show up for highly competitive phrases who also cannot compete against big brands with more authority.

This strategy is not going after low hanging fruit, it is about using the search interface in a smart way.  The phrases I present normally show 20 to 50 searches, but each has the potential to bring in thousands of visitors.  Let’s dive in.

The term water pump has an estimated 74,000 monthly searches.  Well water pump has 12,100.

Both are great terms and product based which means they can result in direct sales and revenue.  If you’re a company like Home Depot, Ace or Lowe’s then you’re likely able to optimize pretty easily for this phrase.

If you’re a smaller or local retailer it is going to be tricky, but you can do it.

Here’s how! [Read more…] about How to Easily Rank for Big Search Terms in Google

In this case study you will learn some of the common SEO issues that come with a Shopify store and how we addressed them to help our client rank.  It is full of actionable items with some massive bonus tips.

The client in the screen shots below is a smaller brand without many backlinks and has a two person marketing team with no developer.

The company is in a highly competitive retail niche and competing for big brand terms (think phrases like “t-shirt” or “clothing” where you’re up against Macy’s, Calvin Klein and Hanes).  Unlike tshirt, the terms here have lower search volumes.  This makes it even more competitive.

Here’s how we helped them beat the big brands.

Note: This is year two on the project and I’m comparing year two to year 1.  SEO is not a quick one and done or lets fix it and hope it sticks channel.  

How to do SEO for Shopify sites:

1. Fix the Shopify SEO issues
2. Add content
   1. PDP
   2. Categories
   3. Internal links
3.  Find ambassadors
4. Tech SEO

Fix the Shopify SEO Issues

Shopify is currently my recommended shopping cart for ecommerce stores.  The app store makes it affordable to have the whistles and bells of big brands without the big budget.

When combined with the reasonably good checkout process and excessive amount of affordable developers, you can build an awesome store as a small or mid-size company with ease.

But just because it is a good shopping cart platform does not mean it is marketing or SEO friendly.  The good news is the majority of Shopify SEO issues are known and can be remedied.

The biggest issue is that you don’t get access to your own code base making it really hard to speed up your site and optimize it. But don’t let that deter you, having Shopify host your ecommerce store has benefits like accessing their security systems and having them watch so that your servers and your store stays online.

Here are the big known Shopify SEO issues:

[Read more…] about Case Study – A Small Business Beats Big Brands in SEO on Shopify

If you’re a small business and you think you cannot compete with the big corporations in SEO, think again!

The case study below is a project I did for a friend’s company which is a small and local business in a very competitive niche with national and multi-national players. This company is not local to me and I won’t say which market or markets they are in.  This is at their request.

The traffic in the screen shot below might not be massive, but this company is up against a Google algorithm specific to high trust and authority (not E-A-T, E-A-T is a concept and not an algorithm with factors and signals).

Each conversion is worth $20,000 to $200,000 in revenue annually, and the users normally stay for multiple years. This makes it high value and really expensive to advertise for.

Needless to say all channels are saturated and there is big money involved making it really hard for small and local businesses to compete.

So how did we beat the big players?

1. I scrapped the entire site
2. We deleted more than 3,000 pages of copy
3. The company used their resources like friends to build trust
4. No backlinks were built, we did PR work
5. Schema and site structure were added
6. We kept each other accountable even when there was no time

So here’s the results YOY for 2019 and 2020.  Remember, they are a local company in one or a couple markets and they are competing with the big players.  There is also a limited amount of customers and users that exist in each market.

Please note that:

• Only the old lead form path is listed here for conversions.
• There are multiple new lead options based on the theme of the page the incoming traffic hits.
• The bounce rate started lowering later in the year when we upgraded the PHP and speed up the site.
• The pages per session lowering is a good thing. We added in lead forms and CTAs to the more important pages making it easier for leads to contact us. Less searching the site for contact information means easier conversions and more money, even if there are less pageviews.

Step 1 – Scrap the Entire Site

The very first thing I did was delete the entire site (after backing up all of the copy and pages of course).  The old site was built with outdated code, it lacked structure and had no solid calls to action. Only a button that leads the visitor to a form and a phone number to call.  It also featured giant rotating hero images.  This was the first thing to go!

Pro-tip: Giant hero images on the homepage kill conversions and can be incredibly bad for SEO.  If you have these on [Read more…] about SEO Case Study – Small Business Beats International Corporation

There’s a big difference in following proper English and grammar guidelines, and creating a proper experience for your end users.

A professional writer will write a word to follow guidelines created many years ago.  That is the issue.  There is a set structure which is not updated to meet current usage and regular standards.

Using common spoken versions instead of the “technically correct” versions is one of the ways I help my clients bring in more traffic and increase conversions, but only when it is appropriate.

Google does tend to prefer proper grammar and english, but it isn’t always the best experience for your user base (customers, readers, subscribers, leads, etc…).  That is why situationally we break from branding and corporate guidelines and do what is right for the end users.  By doing this in these situations we can increase traffic and increase conversions.

Finding the right balance should be your goal as a business owner, marketer and content creator.

Below are a few examples with explanations of these.

You can find these same terms and phrases using Google keyword tools as well as your own site search depending on how much traffic your website has.  I have the advantage of having some high volume websites as clients.  These are all based on campaigns and niches I have worked on for various clients in the past, but not the actual data or examples.

(please note I’m not comparing specific apples to specific apples in each example.  But I am keeping it in the family like a red delicious vs. a golden delicious, or a granny smith to a honeycrisp.  They are each to demonstrate a specific technique or SEO and conversion tactic).  

Example 1: Mother’s Day vs. Mothers Day

Mother’s Day is only 31 days away so I’ll start with this.  Browser’s and many writing tools will autocorrect Mothers Day to have an ” ‘ ” symbol before the “s”.  But if you look up the search volumes, the non apostrophe version has more traffic.

If you’re a blogger or content creator who does not have to deal with a branding team, this is an opportunity to capitalize where big brands cannot.

Bonus tip – One thing I’ve also seen in different niches is that the ‘s version can lead to different themes and topics.  Instead of a shopping page or review, a listcicle could be the better experience.  Checkout the double bonus tip in the next section for an even better one!  

Group 1: without the apostrophe

Keyword	Volume
mothers day gifts	201000
mothers day gift	74000
mothers day gift ideas	60500
best mothers day gifts	12100
good mothers day gifts	9900

You’ll see “best mothers day gifts” above has 12,100 searches but “best mother’s day gifts” has 6,600.  That’s a big difference in traffic and sales!

Group 2: with the apostrophe

Keyword	Volume
best mother’s day gifts	6600
last minute mother’s day gifts	4400
top 10 mother’s day gift ideas	4400
mother’s day delivery gifts	2900

Example 2: Microneedling vs. Micro-needling vs. Micro Needling

The spelling here and also capitalization make a difference.  If your audience uses two words and capitalizes both, using this on your website could make it more relatable to them.  But it might not follow brand standards or trademarks.  The added benefit here is that you’re speaking your customers’ language. [Read more…] about SEO Keywords & Conversions – How an ‘ or – Can Make You Seven Figures!