business-ecomm_clubhouse/_subsections/05-traffic_buyers/S05|L11 - what is seo.org

#+title: #+title: S05|L11 - what is seo
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- [[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
#+end_example
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.
#+end_example