SEO Explained In 7 Minutes

Do you find the topic of SEO a little murky?

Like, what exactly is SEO?

If so, give me 7 minutes and I’ll explain (a) what SEO is and isn’t, and (b) how SEO can increase your visibility in search engines so you can attract more clients.

No technical skills required. Promise. 😉

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization.

Most people equate SEO with getting free website traffic from search engines — namely Google, because that’s where the action’s at.

Who wouldn’t want free website traffic, right?

Someone searches for a keyword topic related to your business. Your website shows up on the first page of Google. They click the search listing, land on your site, then buy something or request an appointment.

The basic concept of SEO is pretty straightforward. More listings in the search engines = more visibility for your business = more traffic to your website = you sell more stuff or book more appointments.

SEO is like free publicity for your business. If Google lists you in their search results (aka the organic search listings), the resulting traffic to your website costs you nothing.

That’s why many view SEO has the holy grail of digital marketing.

Simple concept, but not necessarily easy.

(NOTE: We understand there are other search engines like Bing and Yahoo. But 73% of searches are on Google, 8% on Bing, 4% on Yahoo, and all other searches are spread out over Ask.com, AOL.com, DuckDuckGo.com and other minor players. That’s why we focus mainly on Google.)

How Does SEO Work?

At the heart of SEO is content.

To be successful at SEO, you have to produce valuable, useful content that Google can index and list in their search results.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and provide the best possible answers to every search query. So if you provide Google with the content they need to achieve their objective, they reward you with a spot in their search listings.

Content is usually in the form of written text, but it can also be in the form of video and images. Do a Google search for “how to fix a leaky faucet” and you’ll see a blend of text, video and images in the search results — any one of which can lead you back to the website producing that content.

Choosing The Right Content

To get listed in the search engines you need to choose the right content topics.

That means you have to produce content that people are actually searching for.

One of the biggest mistakes is producing content that few people care about. Sure, it might be interesting to you and it might be something they really need to know. But if people aren’t interested, they aren’t interested.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water …

So how do you figure out the right content to produce?

• The quickest and easiest way is simply answering common questions. What do clients or prospective clients ask you over and over (and over)? Well, guess what … people on the internet are asking those same questions! If you sat down for an hour and put pen to paper, I bet you could come up with 50-100 questions you could answer. For additional help on coming up with the right content topics, here’s a fantastic book I stumbled upon a couple years ago … They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan.
• In addition, you need to do research. Start by doing keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to see if anyone is searching on your topic. If you discover there are little-to-no people searching for your topic, stop the presses and move on to a different topic. You also want to research popular topics that appear on other websites. You can do this manually or using tools like BuzzSumo or SEMrush. This will help you see what’s “selling”. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Go with what works, but add your own unique twist or perspective.

These 2 methods (answering FAQs and doing research) are how we approximately 10x’d the organic website traffic to our website over the past 2 years.

Optimizing Your Content For Search Engines

Choosing the right topic and producing high-quality content is only half the battle. You now have to format your content correctly to give it the best chance of getting listed in Google.

Hence, the term search engine optimization.

It’s estimated there are over 200 factors that affect search engine rankings and it’s impossible to memorize them all. Here are the main ones we focus on and we’re doing pretty well in the search engines:

• Headlines & Sub-headlines. Include your main topic keyword in your headline (and sub-headlines, when possible) and use the appropriate HTML markers (i.e. H1, H2, H3 tags) to let the Google bots know these are the major topics of your content. Well-written headlines and sub-headlines also make the content easier for your reader to assimilate and digest, which increases the odds they’ll stay on your page for a few minutes. Google monitors readers’ “dwell time” on a page. High dwell times tell Google that readers think your content is worthwhile because they didn’t immediately bounce back to Google and continue their search.
• Meta Tags & Descriptive URL. The only two meta tags we worry about are the title tag and description tag because these two tags can help sculpt how your search listing is displayed. Having a descriptive URL can also help. Think of your search listing like a mini-ad. Your goal is to try and entice the reader to click your listing and visit your website. Better search listings mean higher click-thru rates (CTRs), which signals to Google that readers are interested in your topic.
  
• Using Keywords In The Content. During your keyword research you most likely selected a few primary keywords and a bunch of secondary (i.e. related) keywords. You want to weave these primary and secondary keywords into your content as much as possible, but still sound natural. The more keywords you can infuse into your content, the greater the likelihood your content will rank for one or more of those keywords (or their permutations). I have individual articles ranking for hundreds of search terms. CAUTION: Don’t go overboard and “keyword stuff” your content because it sounds unnatural and it looks like you’re trying to manipulate Google. That tactic is so 2004. When in doubt, always write for your reader, not for Google.
• Content Length. Longer content usually ranks better than shorter content. Partly because it’s perceived as more valuable by your reader, but also because more words gives Google more things to to latch onto. Numerous studies indicate around 1,700-1,900 words seems to be the current sweet spot for page 1 listings.

To recap …

• Step #1: Publish high-quality content people want to read.
• Step #2: Optimize your content to make it as easy as possible for search engine bots to discover and index your content — and for readers to engage and consume your content.

A 3rd step that can help you get listed in the search engines is having a reasonably fast website. Google confirms fast-loading pages are important and can improve your search listings, but they don’t override high-quality, optimized content.

The 2 Biggest Misconceptions About SEO

Speaking with clients and prospective clients about SEO, there are two misunderstandings that come up frequently so I’d like to address them here:

• Cost. People view SEO as a free source of website traffic — and technically it is — but they often forget about the cost (either time or money) of developing the content. If you’re developing content yourself, there’s no out-of-pocket expense other than your time. However, creating high-quality content takes time — more time than you might realize. You have to factor in hours of research plus writing, then re-writing, then re-writing some more. To give you a point of reference, each article on this website took 10-20 hours to produce. Ask around and you’ll discover this is a pretty standard timeframe. For more “epic” pieces, add even more time. If you’re busy and don’t have time to develop content, you’ll need to hire an experienced writer.
• Results. SEO is a long game. After you publish a piece of content, it might take 6-12 months or more to work it’s way to page 1 of the search listings, if at all. There are no guarantees. It’s definitely not instant gratification. You have to keep plugging away month after month without seeing any immediate results. But if you do things right and persist, you can eventually get top listings and great visibility in the search engines, resulting in traffic to your website for years to come.

Recommended SEO Resources

Understanding everything there is to know about SEO is way beyond the scope of this article.

Since the early 2,000s I’ve invested thousands of dollars on various SEO seminars and courses and I’m still learning.

There are a zillion SEO experts and resources available, but the two I value the most are:

• Neil Patel (www.neilpatel.com)
• Brian Dean (www.backlinko.com)

Both Neil and Brian know SEO inside and out, but they present things in a very user-friendly way without the techno-babble. For a deeper dive into the world of SEO, make sure to check out their material.

If you’ve just launched a new website, check out my guide on how long it takes to appear in Google.

Conclusion

You now have a good understanding of what SEO is and how it works.

SEO is an art and a science, and not some sort of mystical voodoo like some would have you believe.

Do your research, learn what your audience wants to know, then deliver amazing content to them.

Done right, Google and the other search engines can be a source of stable website traffic delivering all the clients you’ll ever need.