#+title: #+title: S05|L11 - what is seo
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* Links
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- [[../../toc.org][TOC - ecomm clubhouse]]
- [[https://jellyfin.ronnyabraham.com/web/index.html#/details?id=41b54ba32965ab256b0ea61e027bea8f&serverId=99488804638e465693eed17924c57b60][video]]
* Notes
* Tutorial Notes
In this video, I’m going to teach you how to get free traffic to your store utilizing a free traffic technique, otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
What does search engine optimization mean? Let me show you!
If you go into Google and type in lawyer mug and do a search, you’ll see that Google has recommended to us a bunch of websites and links. At the top of the results, you’ll see the paid advertisements.
#+captions: google search ads
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file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_06/ex01a-google_ads.png
Businesses pay Google to have their websites feature here which is why they had the word ad sponsored next to them. Down below that ad, you’ll see Google has shown some images they have collected around the web related to our search.
#+captions: google ads featured in results
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file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_06/ex01b-google_featured.png
And if we scroll past those, you’ll see these websites here. See how they have no ad signs next to them, it’s because they aren’t advertisements. These are the list of websites that Google recommends to most people searching for the phrase “lawyer mug’ and paid nothing to be recommended. Google is showing them off because it likes them the most. These free recommendations are clicked on the most by Google users even though they are below the ad results. In the SEO world, we call them the organic listings or organic results.
Each time someone clicks on these listings, they get free traffic that they didn’t have to pay for. Check this out, this store here Mugdom is actually a flex store built with Shopify. It sells designs from Print-on-demand services like Printify and even dropship some of these mugs from Aliexpress too, hence it’s a flex store.
#+captions: mugdom
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file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_06/ex02a-mugdom.png
The higher you rank in SEO, the easier it is for people to find you and click on you. Down here, you’ll see there are a lot of pages of results, almost no one clicks on these. So you don’t want to be on page 2, or page 3 or page 4. You want to be on page 1 for your chosen keyword.
If you have a limited budget for your store, then SEO is a great way to get started. However, keep in mind that, yes, SEO traffic is free, it takes time to implement these changes and get Google to see and recognize these changes.
So why does Google prefer some websites to others? Why does Google like the flex store Mugdom more than the other websites selling mugs for lawyers?
Well, Google is looking at two things when it’s picking websites and stores. The first thing it looks for is onsite optimization. It refers to the tweaks and modifications that you can make to your store so that Google can like it more.
For example, when we did a search for lawyer mug, the Shopify flex store pops up. They have tweaks and modifications to this page in their store to rank high for that phrase. In the SEO industry, we would say that they optimized their page around the phrase lawyer mug.
* Review - SEO
** What You Are Trying To Do
Get your store into Google’s organic results (free listings).
Goal:
- rank on page 1
- get clicks without paying for ads
---
** What Happens When Someone Searches
Example search:
#+begin_example
lawyer mugs
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Google shows:
1. ads (paid)
2. images
3. organic results (free)
You want to be in:
→ organic results
---
** Why Organic Results Matter
- people click them more than ads
- traffic is free
- no cost per click
---
** Tradeoff
Free traffic costs:
- time
- effort
- consistency
---
** What Google Looks For (2 Things)
1. On-site optimization
2. Backlinks
---
** 1. On-Site Optimization (What You Control)
Definition:
Changes you make on your own website so Google understands it.
Main idea:
→ optimize each page for a specific search phrase
Example:
#+begin_example
lawyer mugs
#+end_example
---
** Practical Actions (From Transcript)
*** A. Choose a Keyword Per Page
Each page should focus on:
- one search phrase
This is called:
→ keyword research
---
*** B. Put Keyword On The Page
Example given in transcript:
- keyword should appear in the first 50 words
Meaning:
- Google looks early in the page to understand topic
---
*** C. Add Text (Important)
Transcript emphasizes:
- Google is a machine
- it reads text well
Therefore:
- pages need text content
- more text = easier for Google to understand
---
*** D. Optimize These Pages
Transcript explicitly says:
- product pages
- product category pages
- homepage
These are the priority pages.
---
*** E. Keep Improving Pages
Not one-time:
- continue adding content
- continue improving pages
Example given:
- adding blog posts
---
** 2. Backlinks (Off-Site Optimization)
Definition:
- another website links to your website
Example from transcript:
- article on entrepreneur.com linking to a site
---
** Why Backlinks Matter
Google logic:
- if a respected site links to you
- you must be valuable/trustworthy
So:
→ more backlinks = more trust
---
** Practical Action Mentioned
Method given:
- build large Instagram pages
- use them to create backlinks
(This is explicitly stated as the strategy in the transcript)
---
** Timeline (Important Reality Check)
Transcript clearly states:
- no fixed timeline
- could be:
- weeks
- months
- longer
---
** What Actually Makes It Work
From transcript:
- ongoing improvements
- adding more content
- making site “Google-friendly”
---
** Low Competition Keywords
Definition:
- fewer websites competing
Why important:
- easier to rank
- faster results
---
** Key Advantage (Important Point)
Transcript emphasizes:
Most stores:
- do little or no SEO
Therefore:
- even basic effort gives advantage
Example:
- Mugdom ranks without perfect optimization
- just by doing more than others
---
** Working Method (Directly From Transcript Logic)
Do this repeatedly:
1. choose keyword
2. optimize page for that keyword
3. add text/content
4. improve site over time
5. build backlinks
6. repeat
---
** Mindset
From transcript:
- do not be intimidated
- you do not need perfection
- effort alone puts you ahead
---
** Bottom Line (From Transcript)
SEO works by:
- making pages easier for Google to understand (on-site)
- making your site more trusted (backlinks)
- continuing to improve over time
Result:
→ higher rankings
→ free traffic
→ free customers
If you want next step, we can:
* Transcript
#+begin_example
00:00
You know, there is 1 word that pretty much everyone
00:02
likes to hear, and that is the word free,
00:06
free, free.
00:07
Yes, everyone loves things that are free, and in the
00:10
next series of videos, I'm gonna be teaching you how
00:12
to get free traffic and free potential customers into your
00:16
store utilizing a traffic technique called search engine optimization,
00:20
otherwise known as SEO. Now that's a big scary phrase,
00:23
isn't it? Search engine optimization,
00:25
what does that mean? Well, let me show you. Let's
00:28
say you come to Google and type in lawyer mugs
00:30
and do a search. If you do that, you'll see
00:33
that Google has recommended to us a bunch of websites
00:35
and links. At the top of the results, you'll see
00:37
the paid advertisements.
00:39
Businesses pay money to Google to have their website featured
00:42
here, which is why they have the word ad and
00:44
sponsored next to them. Down below those ads, you'll see
00:47
Google has shown some images that they've collected around the
00:50
web related to our search, and if we scroll past
00:52
those, we'll find these websites here. See how there is
00:55
no ad sign next to them? That's because they aren't
00:58
advertisements. These are a list of websites and stores that
01:01
Google recommends the most to people who are searching for
01:04
the phrase lawyer mugs. These websites paid nothing to be
01:07
recommended.
01:08
Google is just showing them off because it likes them
01:11
the most. These free recommendations
01:13
are clicked on the most by Google users even though
01:16
they are below the ad results. In the SEO world,
01:19
we call these the organic listings or the organic results,
01:22
And each time someone clicks on these listings, they get
01:25
free traffic that they didn't have to pay for. And
01:28
check this out. This store here, Mugdom, it's actually a
01:31
flex store built with Shopify.
01:32
It sells mugs at designs with print on demand services
01:35
like Printify,
01:36
and it even dropships some of these mugs from AliExpress
01:39
too. Hence, it's a flex store as it sources its
01:42
products in multiple ways. Your goal, like Mugdom, is to
01:45
rank as high as you can in the website listings
01:47
for your chosen keywords. The higher you rank, usually, the
01:51
easier it is for people to find you and click
01:53
on you. Down here, you'll see that there are lots
01:55
of other pages of results. Almost no 1 clicks on
01:58
these. So really, you don't wanna be on page 2
02:01
or page 3 or page 4. No, you want to
02:04
be on page 1 for your chosen keywords
02:06
just like Magnum is, and it's my goal in these
02:09
series of videos to teach you how to do this.
02:11
So yes, in the next series of videos, you're going
02:14
to learn how to get Google to like your website
02:16
even more so that it's going to be more likely
02:19
to show it in its organic search results. If you
02:21
have a limited startup budget for your new store, then
02:24
focusing on SEO traffic is a great way to get
02:27
started. However, something to keep in mind is this. Yes,
02:30
SEO traffic is free, which is great. However, it does
02:33
take time to both implement these changes and to get
02:36
Google to see and recognize these changes.
02:39
So just a warning, while this is indeed a free
02:42
source of traffic, there is a trade off for it
02:45
and that is your time. But that doesn't mean that
02:47
you have to choose between Facebook ads and search engine
02:50
optimization.
02:51
If you've got the time and the money, then you
02:53
could choose to run both Facebook ads and you could
02:56
optimize your store for Google and take advantage of both
02:59
sources of traffic.
03:00
So all this begs the question, why does Google prefer
03:04
some websites to others? Why does Google like the flex
03:07
store mugged in more than other websites selling mugs for
03:09
lawyers? Well, Google actually looks for 2 things when it's
03:12
picking its favorite websites and stores. The first thing it
03:15
looks for is to see if your website has something
03:18
called on-site optimization.
03:20
Now that's a scary phrase, isn't it? On-site optimization.
03:23
Well, something you'll quickly discover when it comes to SEO
03:26
is that the industry has a lot of jargony phrases.
03:30
The funny thing though is that each of those jargony
03:33
words and phrases
03:35
actually have really simple meanings, so
03:38
don't worry, I will explain the meaning to each 1
03:41
after I first use it. All right, so on-site optimization
03:45
is referring to these tweaks and modifications that you can
03:48
make to your store so that Google will like it
03:51
more. For example, remember how if we search for the
03:54
phrase lawyer mugs that the Shopify Flex Store mugged in
03:57
pops up? Well, they have made some tweaks and modifications
03:59
to this page in their store to rank highly for
04:02
that phrase. In the SEO industry, we would say that
04:05
they have optimized their page around the search phrase lawyer
04:08
mugs. 1 of the ways that they did this was
04:10
they put that specific exact phrase, lawyer mugs, in the
04:14
first 50 words on the page. This is 1 tweak
04:16
that Google likes to see.
04:18
In this series of advanced training videos, I'm gonna tell
04:21
you the most important tweaks and modifications that you should
04:24
make. As you're going to discover, most of these will
04:26
be changes to the text in your store. Just a
04:29
warning, we will be adding lots of text. The reason
04:32
for this is because Google is a robot, a machine.
04:35
Because of that, it reads text very well, and so
04:37
it favors websites and pages that have it. On-site optimization
04:42
is free to do, which is great, and you know
04:45
something that's actually quite funny?
04:47
Most online stores, despite the fact that it's free to
04:49
do this, don't make these tweaks and modifications
04:52
at all. Yes, very few stores take the time and
04:55
effort to become
04:57
Google friendly, and so it means then that if you're
04:59
willing to do these tweaks and modifications, that will give
05:02
you a big leg up on your competition.
05:04
To complete our on-site optimization,
05:06
the first thing we're gonna be doing is choosing what
05:09
keywords we want each page in our store to be
05:11
focused around, and in the SEO industry we call that
05:15
keyword research. Next we will then optimize our product pages,
05:18
our product category pages, and our homepage
05:22
around our chosen keywords.
05:24
And don't worry, in the videos to come I'm gonna
05:26
be giving you an over the shoulder tutorial about how
05:29
I optimized my example store brewed treats around my chosen
05:33
keywords. So that is 1 thing that Google likes to
05:36
see. It likes to see on-site optimization,
05:39
but there is something else that Google likes to see
05:41
and that is called backlinks.
05:44
Now that's a big scary jargony word, isn't it? Backlinks.
05:47
Don't worry, as I promised, I'm gonna explain what it
05:50
means. A backlink is simply when another website links to
05:53
another external website. So for example, I was featured in
05:57
an article on entrepreneur dot com about burnout.
06:00
Inside the article was a link to my website, Wholesale
06:03
Ted. That link on entrepreneur dot com to my website
06:06
is called a backlink.
06:07
Google likes to see respected websites
06:11
linking to your website.
06:13
That's because Google is pretty rational. It thinks, hey, if
06:16
you're entrepreneur
06:17
dot com, you probably want all of your readers to
06:19
stay on your site, right? After all, the longer they
06:23
stay, the more ads they see, and thus, the more
06:26
money you make. If entrepreneur dot com is therefore linking
06:29
to another website and sending its visitors over there instead,
06:33
they must really like it and respect it. Getting these
06:36
backlinks in the SEO industry is called off-site optimization.
06:41
As this is a very important thing to do, I
06:43
am gonna show you how to get some really well
06:45
respected backlinks to your store, and that is by building
06:49
big Instagram pages. Something else I also want to answer
06:53
is a question I get asked a lot.
06:55
Sarah, how long is it gonna take for Google to
06:57
choose my website as 1 of its favorite websites?
07:00
The honest answer is that nobody knows. It might take
07:04
a few weeks, it might take 2 months, it could
07:06
take longer.
07:08
There is no set formula here. What I will be
07:10
teaching you though in this advanced SEO tutorial series is
07:13
not how to make just 1 off changes to your
07:16
website.
07:17
No, I will be teaching you how to make ongoing
07:20
modifications, how to keep adding things to your website that
07:23
Google likes, such as adding Google optimized blog posts. And
07:28
as you keep doing these things, as you keep adding
07:30
more and more Google friendly content
07:33
to your website, Google likes it more and more. And
07:37
the more it likes your website, the higher the chances
07:39
are that it will rank for your chosen keywords, which
07:42
of course brings in your free traffic and your free
07:44
customers.
07:45
So unfortunately,
07:47
it is impossible to know exactly how long it's gonna
07:50
take for Google to choose your website as 1 of
07:53
its favorite websites to rank for your chosen keyword. The
07:56
key though is to be consistent and to keep making
07:58
your website bigger and better and to continuously
08:01
add more Google friendly content to it. That's also why
08:05
as part of the keyword research video, you're gonna see
08:08
that I'm gonna place a really big emphasis on low
08:10
competition keywords.
08:12
Low competition keywords are when there are less websites competing
08:15
for that specific keyword phrase, and so that means then
08:19
that it should be very quicker and easier for us
08:22
to become Google's favorite website within it. There is also
08:25
something else that I want to say, and that is
08:27
that you should not be intimidated
08:29
by SEO. Very, very few other online stores out there
08:33
put any effort into their SEO at all. They make
08:35
very few, if any, tweaks. As you go through this
08:38
advanced SEO tutorial series, you'll be able to see that
08:41
this page here by Mugdom doesn't even do everything that
08:44
I'm gonna teach you, and yet it ranks really highly
08:47
for its chosen keyword that it's optimized around, lawyer mugs.
08:50
Why? Well, it may not have the perfect on-site optimization,
08:54
but it tries a lot harder than almost every other
08:57
online store out there, and that puts it leaps and
09:00
bounds ahead of its competition.
09:01
So the moral of the story here is this. Maybe
09:04
you won't end up following my instructions absolutely perfectly,
09:08
but even just trying it all puts you leaps ahead
09:11
of your competition.
09:13
So don't be intimidated.
09:14
Just do your best. Luckily though, I do think that
09:17
most of you watching out there will be able to
09:19
follow my instructions absolutely fine. My tutorials are gonna be
09:23
over the shoulder style, so you'll be able to follow
09:25
along with me on my computer as I make the
09:28
modifications to my own website, and I think you're gonna
09:30
discover that making them is a whole lot easier than
09:33
you might have thought. So are you ready to start
09:36
optimizing your store to get free traffic and free customers
09:39
into it?
09:41
If you are, let's go. I'll see you on the
09:43
next video.
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