Seo 101

SEO 101:
PROVEN TIPS AND TRICKS FOR

IMPROVING YOUR SEARCH RANKINGS
AUTHORS:
John Jantsch
Daniel Threlfall
Phil Singleton
Alex Boyer
Benjamin Brandall
PUBLISHED IN CONJUNCTION WITH

ducttapemarketing.com | facebook.com/ducttapemarketing | twitter.com/ducttape
SEO 101
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SEO 101
How and Why to Use SEO for Growth
By John Jantsch
Search Engine Optimization is one of the more shapeless marketing terms we get to
wrestle with these days.
Its not that people dont understand SEO, okay maybe it kind of is, its that the very
nature of SEO seems to shift with each new pronouncement from Google.
One thing is eternally clear, however (for today) showing up, preferably towards
the top of page one, when someone with a need goes looking for answer, product, or
solution is a determining factor in the success and growth of just about every business.
In fact, SEO has in my view risen from the ranks of technical tactic to the status of full
blow marketing and growth channel.
Today, its important to consider SEO as an option in parallel with other established lead
channels such as Public Relations, Advertising, and Referral Generation.
However, as we make this consideration, its not enough to simply decide to add SEO
practices to the mix, you must also consider when, where and how SEO can deliver the
greatest impact.
In that regard it is most certainly not a one size fits all bag of tricks.
SEO for growth is as much about strategy and mindset as it is about technical wizardry.
And, its about hierarchy and patience and consistency. You cant achieve the greatest
SEO 101
results possible without laying a firm foundation and integration SEO practices with
social media and content its all connected.
To get the most from any SEO practice its essential that you understand the context in
which SEO can most effectively be employed.
In the past, Ive written that I believe there arethree stages of growth traction,
expansion, and optimization. I further believe that you must align the proper tactics
with each of these stages, and this most certainly includes SEO tactics.
Traction SEO
In the traction stage, youre still trying to find that perfect match of ideal customer and
market message. Your product or service is likely evolving, and its a pretty good bet that
you dont have sufficient content or domain authority to easily rank your content no
matter how much optimization you perform.
Thats your job at this stage. Create your editorial calendar and go to work on creating,
at least, one piece of epic content per week.
I know, a term like epic content is both worthless and scary sounding, but know this
the days of thinly written, 500-word restatement of the obvious ranking for your
precious keywords are over.
[tweetthis]The days of thinly written, 500-word restatement of the obvious ranking for
your precious keywords are over[/tweetthis]
Take a look at the analysis of my content below from BuzzSumo and note the dramatic
increase in average number of shares for longer form content.
SEO 101
The good news is that if you create truly useful content, you can start to use it in your
lead capture and lead conversion efforts even as you begin to impact organic traffic
numbers.
Expansion SEO
In the expansion stage, youve likely found some things that work. Your value
proposition is getting easier to explain, and your content efforts are starting to pay
dividends.
Expansion is all about sustainability and increased growth rate. Its about retaining
customers and finding ways to leverage relationships to do more.
The primary tool for expansion SEO is link building. Here again, Ive used another
one of those scary SEO tools. Link building in the traditional old school SEO way of
thinking was all about amassing links from pretty much anywhere as a way to show
good old Google that lots of people liked your content.
Today, link building has a lot more in common with networking and the quality of your
backlinks is more important than the quantity.
Once again, content plays a role. One of the best ways to acquire high-quality, relevant
SEO 101
backlinks is to take your epic content and start offering it to others. In some ways, this
could be great advice for someone just getting started, but I do think you need some of
your best content on your site.
Researching and finding places that accept guest posts is a great place to start. Dont
forget high authority local sites like Chambers of Commerce, Industry Organizations,
and local government training sites.
Obviously, you want high domain authority sites to accept your content but start small
and work your way up.
Tools likePitchbox,Social Bloom, andBuzzSumocan help you locate relevant sites that
accept guest content.
Click here for some specific tips on effective link building
Conversion SEO
The conversion stage is, of course, where the money is. During this stage, you want to
take advantage of your content and link building efforts and start leveraging the assets
you are building.
During this stage, the term Domain Authority will start to get very interesting.
Domain Authority is the term used by SEO folks to give a point value to the ranking
factors behind any domain. There are countless elements that go into constructing this
algorithm, but suffice it to say if you can achieve a domain authority even approaching
50 on a scale of 100, you will have established a marketing asset that is likely to serve
your business for many years.
Heres a gooddescription of Domain Authority from MOZ.
Since domain authority is made up of many variables, it is extremely hard to influence
unnaturally and for that reason, a link from a DA 60 site is far better than one from DA
10.
You can discover your domain authority and that of pretty much any site you like using
theMOZ Opensite Exploreror a tool likeMonitor Backlinks.
SEO 101
As the result above shows, a link from Entrepreneur would be very valuable
One of the most important ways to impact our DA is to acquire links from sites with
higher DA. Now that you have a solid foundation of content and have established
yourself as a reliable guest blog contributor, you can begin to run campaigns targeted to
a list of higher DA sites.
Dont forget that most magazines and high traffic publishing websites are looking for
content, and you might be surprised how easy it is to get a guest spot or even regular
contributing gig for a high profile online site.
This is also the stage where you should think about your place to invite guest
contributors to your site. You can usually find individuals that already publish on other
sites using a tool like BuzzSumo.
In many cases these guest contributors are also more than happy to promote the fact
that they are published on your site, leading to more social shares and possibly even
links.
Dont forget to mine your social networks for potential contributors as well as any
local strategic partners. You know, your banker, lawyer, and accountant might thinkits
awesome that you invited them to share their thoughts on your blog.
Now, the reason I call this the conversion phase of SEO is that once you start receiving
traffic, you go to work on making that traffic pay that is the point, lets not forget.
One highly indexed, shared, and linked to blog post can turn into a lead generation gold
mine with a few simple conversion tactics.
Take the time to learn about buildingFacebook Audiencesand youll discover that you
can effectively pixel visitors to your one or two winning posts so you can continue to
market to them on Facebook or even build what Facebook callslookalike audiencesso
you can expand to reach an even wider net to drive to your site.
SEO 101
Of course, once you start getting traffic to certain posts, even one or two, you have
thefoundation to build content upgradesthat allow youto capture highly targeted leads
by offering a video or checklist to accompany the post in exchange for an email.
With the right content, weve seen conversion rates as high as 40% - meaning 40% of the
people visiting the page took the offer for the upgrade and gave us their email address.
(My current favorite for all manner of Lead forms is Thrive Leads)
Since youve read this far, you might be thinking that Im not even talking about
SEO at this point and that is precisely the point.
You cant have an effective SEO approach without understanding how to
integrate your SEO channel with your overall approach to marketing and
growth.
SEO 101
21 Local SEO Tactics
By Daniel Threlfall
If you do online marketing for local businesses, youre familiar

with the unique challenges that come with local SEO versus
non-geospecific SEO campaigns.
Heres the point of this article in a single sentence: I explain
how you can boost the local SEO for any client.
Local SEO is much more nuanced than traditional SEO.
Frankly, I think its more challenging. Theres more detail, more
work, more elements to consider, and greater likelihood of
screwing it up.
There are dozens of tactics that

business owners can use to optimize
their online presence. Here are 21
tactics from our friends at UpCity that
will make your Google My Business
page and website stand out. For even
more killer tips, visit their blog here.
If you dont know what youre doing, you may end up hurting your clients rather than
helping them.
Coupled with the fact that local search ranking factors in 2016 are changing almost
daily, its essential that your strategies take these changes into account.
From the list above, we see a clear breakdown of the top 5 local ranking factors, both for
organic ranking as well as the maps listings, aka Local Stack.
Looking through the list, youll notice that many of the Local Ranking Factors are the
same as Non-Local Ranking Factors, e.g. on-page SEO factors like page speed and
mobile friendliness. Despite the overlap, implementing local-specific SEO tactics is a
different beast.
SEO 101
This guide lays out every step of the process, from start to finish, in complete detail.
Ill cover the best local SEO tactics for 2016, starting with some of the basics that every
small business should nail down, and then moving into some more advanced stuff later
on.
Its no surprise that the local SEO industry is changing rapidly. Its cliche to say so, but
just wanted to remind you.
The correct SEO techniques for an industry like, say, real estate marketing are in a state
of flux. In 2015, Google alone made over 500 changes to how they rank and index a
business website on their search engine.
Major local search updates like Mobilegeddon, Pigeon and Hummingbird shook
up the SERPs. Now, Googles RankBrain algorithm does much of the heavy lifting,
regularly tweaking the algorithm. Its likely that SEO tactics you used a year or two ago
are obsolete if not outright blacklisted.
Yet, in difficulty lies opportunity. New tools, tactics and ranking factors have
strengthened the local SEOs toolset. Used wisely, they will boost your clients rankings
as well. Its critical to use the right software for tracking metrics, researching keywords,
and submitting to local directories. Thats where the power of Upcity comes into play.
A quick disclaimer before I dive into the awesomeness
With so many tactics, tools and strategies, its easy to get lost in the weeds and lose sight
of the bigger picture. At the end of the day, focus on what matters: return on investment
(ROI). You could follow every conceivable local SEO tip verbatim, but clients care about
results, revenue, numbers, and all those up-and-to-the-right trends.
To paraphrase Tony Robbins: Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in
your approach.
Now, lets get to work.
Part 1: Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) is the core of every local SEO strategy. It contains all the
information about your business and presents it clearly to search engine users.
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SEO 101
If you optimize your Business listing properly, it will be easy for potential customers to
find you on the web. Optimize poorly and youll do more harm than good.
Lets look at the critical steps to getting started with Google My Business.
1. Find Your Business and Any Duplicates

First, locate your clients true business page.
Its common for copycats to pop up over the years, work done by the client or other
previous SEO agencies.
Search for your clients listing and choose the page that most accurately reflects the
business and start there.
How to get rid of duplicates:
1. Click on the duplicate listing and you will see:
1. Request Admin rights. If you see this, click the Request button to request
admin rights.
2. A Google+ page needs to be created. If you see this, check the ToS box
and click Continue, then Continue and verify later.
2. In the second prompt, you will be taken to the Google+ page, where you can
delete the listing as shown below:
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SEO 101
If you dont hear back from the page owner, reach out to Google My Business support
via Twitter or Phone.
2. Verify Your Business

First, claim your business listing (if you havent already). On the listing itself, you will
see a link that says: Is this your business? Click that to verify.
Note: Google usually verifies your phone with a call, and your address with a postcard.
The address verification can take weeks, but its there to protect your business from
copycats.
3. Connect Your Domain Email Address

In the listing info, add your authentic domain.com email address. For example, if you
are the owner of Parmessanos.com, connect your listing with tony@parmessanos.com.
This adds legitimacy, showing both Google and your customers that you are the true
owner of the website and the listing.
4. Get Your NAP Right

If you take one nugget of wisdom from this guide, let it be this: consistency is king. This
is especially true for your NAP: Name, Address, and Phone.
NAME
When filling out the business name, use the name that your customers use when
referring to your business.
For example, Disneys legal name is The Walt Disney Company, but everyone knows
them as Disney. Their Business page is set up right: https://plus.google.com/+Disney
ADDRESS
As with your business name, your mailing address should be accurate and consistent
across the web. If your address is: 12345 Hollywood Blvd SW, then include the SW.
To validate your address, check USPS website.
Note: Google does not permit P.O. boxes to be used for My Business listings.
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SEO 101
PHONE
Use the local number for your business. Make sure this number is consistent on all local
listings. Dont use a toll-free number, like 1-800 or 1-888.
7. Link Your Website

When adding your website URL to your My Business listing, it should be the home page
of your main website the site customers find when they look for your business.
For businesses with multiple locations, set up a My Business page for each listing. On
each of those pages, enter the URL for the specific landing page for that one location.
Lou Malnatis Pizzeria in Chicago has their listing set up correctly. Notice how the
landing page for their Evanston location points to http://www.loumalnatis.com/
evanston (in the bottom right):
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SEO 101
8. Choose Your Correct Business Categories, and Choose
Wisely
After NAP consistency, business category selection is the most important local ranking
factor.
Choose any category that specifically describes your business. Chose as many as
possible, but dont be spammy. A few well-chosen categories will have more of an SEO
boost than a long list of semi-related categories.
To figure out which categories are right for your business, check out Blumenthals
Business Category Tool and the Moz Local Categories tool.
9. Use Amazing Photos

Youre allowed three main photos on your My Business page: profile, logo and cover.
Make them count!
Upload photos that showcase your brand identity. If photos dont align with your brand,
searchers will be confused and less likely to click the listing.
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SEO 101
For inspiration, check out the following businesses who do this well:
Patagonia:
Travel Blogger Jodi Ettenberg:
SpaceX:
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SEO 101
Part 2: On-Page SEO
With your Google My Business listing all set up, the next step is optimizing your website
for local SEO greatness.
Many Local SEOs overlook on-page, at their clients peril. On-page SEO is one of the
top local ranking factors, and it doesnt take much work to get right.
Heres how:
14. Local SEO Site Structure

Before doing anything else, map out the URL structure of your website. Your site
structure should align with your products, services and areas of business. Also keep in
mind how people are searching.
For example, if your service keyword is your main target, then you could set it up as the
main silo landing page, as such:
http://domain.com/service/location1
On the other hand, if more people search using location-specific keywords, then the
following structure may work better:
http://domain.com/location/service1
There are many ways to structure a website for local SEO, and none of them is the
right way. It will depend on your audience and keyword research. Whatever you
choose, take your time with this step.
15. Get Your NAP Right Again

Use the exact same NAP on your website as you did on your My Business listing. Even
minor discrepancies have a negative SEO impact.
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SEO 101
Dont try to fool Google or users by using an image; clearly display the NAP data as
text.
16. Optimize Titles

Page headlines aka the title tags are essential for local SEO success.
Not only does Google use the title tag a top ranking factor, but better headlines get more
clicks, but CTR also affects organic rankings.
When it comes to Local SEO, the title tag should include the following elements:
3. Keyword (I recommend exact match)
4. City
5. State (abbr. is fine)
6. ZIP code (space allowing)
Add these elements in a way that looks natural. Dont be this guy:
Heres how its done:
As in the above examples, adding your phone number to the header can generate more
leads. Start by using a call-tracking number to test its effectiveness.
17. Use Keyword-Rich Header Tags

Header tags (H1, H2 and H3) are important when it comes to ranking organically for
local SEO keywords.
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SEO 101
Ideally, include your city and state in both the H1 and H2 tags of each landing page.
Again, this should be done without being spammy. You dont need to follow some
specific header tag formula in fact, that would look unnatural to users as well as
Google.
Instead, add in keywords and location data in a way that feels natural. As with site
structure, headings and subheadings should align with the information architecture of
your site.
18. Build Awesome Landing Pages

If you work with small, local businesses, then content is the one way you can help them
dominate local markets (without spending a ton on SEO).
In fact, recent SEO studies have shown that user engagement metrics like time on site
may be more important for local rankings than for non-geospecific keywords. If Google
sees that customers are staying on the page for a long time, thats a good sign that they
trust your brand.
Design Build Pros is a local contractor business on top of their content game. Heres the
content layout for each of their remodeling service pages:
For multi-location business owners, add content that is specific to each location. Include
location-specific facts and landmarks to personalize the page.
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SEO 101
Looking again at Lou Malnatis, notice how they have location-specific landing pages set
up for each pizzeria:
For local landing page length, aim for 500-700 words.
19. Take Advantage of Customer Reviews

To spice up your landing pages with social proof, simply copy reviews from Google+,
Yelp, Facebook or TripAdvisor and add them to the landing page (image or text both
work fine).
Its the perfect one-two punch; get positive ratings on local directories and add social
proof to your site in the process.
Tip: set up a Testimonials page and showcase your best reviews on the page.
20. Set Up Images for Local SEO

Use keywords and locations in your image filenames, titles and alt text.
As with stand image optimization, do not keyword stuff. Repeating the keyword too
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SEO 101
many times in the filename and/or alt tag text hurts a pages ranking for that keyword.
Instead, shoot for a sweet spot mention the exact keyword once or twice, then
include a few long tails.
Also, compress each and every image to make your pages load faster. If you have big,
beautiful images, compress them using a tool like Kraken.io or Smush.it.
21. Make Mobile Work

Recent research shows that more than 55% of local searches happen on a smartphone.
Let that sink in for a moment (That doesnt even take tablet searches into account.)
If your site isnt optimized for local devices, your customers will go to your competitor
period. The recent Mobilegeddon update, along with comments by Googles mobile
search team, emphasized the emphasis of mobile readiness to SEO success.
Many small businesses worry about redesigning their entire site for mobile. This
isnt necessary; mobile design is cheap and easy. Almost every popular CMS being
responsive by default.
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SEO 101
Off-Site SEO A Guide for Small Businesses
By Alex Boyer
When people think about SEO, most immediately think of

keywords on site, content and title tags. While these certainly
help your sites SEO, it is important to keep in mind that not all
SEO is done on site. There are a number of things youmustdo
outside of your website to get the best position in search engine
results.
Directory Management
SEO goes far beyond your own website.

While you want your website to rank
as highly as possible, the real pros of
SEO get other sites in which they have
a presence to rank well too. These tips
will help you improve the rankings of
every site on which your business is
active.
Believe it or not, Google doesnt know everything. It is,

however, really efficient at collecting information from around
the Internet. There are countless local online directories, from which Google collects its
information. If the information about your business is out of date on these sites, it can
affect placing on your search results pages.
Manually keeping track of all of these directories can be nearly impossible, but luckily
there are directory management tools available that can help you update all of the
directories at once and monitor them for inconsistencies. One of our favorites at Duct
Tape Marketing isYext. Yext will also help you manage multiple locations, so your
listings will always be seen by people looking for the location closest to them.
Reviews
Google actively rewards businesses with great online reputation. The better your online
reviews on sites like Yelp, Google+ and Facebook, the better your local rankings will be.
The highest rated sites are seen as more trustworthy by Google and therefore given
better organic search positions.
There are a couple of ways great reviews can help with your SEO. First of all, Google
pulls reviews directly from Google+, so if you have more than 6 reviews on your G+
business page, youre results will feature stars indicating your average review score.
This can be in the standard results and even the Google 3 pack. These stars really
differentiate a business. Just take a look at how our listing stands out here:
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SEO 101
Finally, the more reviews you have on other third-party review sites, such as Yelp or
other industry-specific sites, these sites show up higher in search results as well. What
could be better than a list of great review profiles when someone searches for your
business?
To take advantage of this, you should keep a review profile on every available site that
applies to your industry. Every local business should have a Google+ page, a Facebook
business page, and a Yelp profile. Then search for something specific to add. Service
providers should create at least free profiles on sites like Angies List for instance while
doctors should be active on HealthGrades.
Backlinks
No matter how many times Google tries to devalue backlinks, you should always be
looking to secure as many links on other sites as possible. The more links you have, the
more reputable your site is seen as by Google.
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SEO 101
A great way to earn more backlinks is by securing guest posts on other reputable blogs.
Many blogs in many industries accept blog posts. You can use a tool likeBuzzsumoto
identify blogs that post from guests. You can also usePitchbox, a tool that helps you
identify and manage reaching out to many blogs at once.
One great way to get backlinks is by identifying on which sites your competitors
have backlinks. A tool likeAhrefscan help you find these sites. Simply enter in your
competitors web addresses, and it will find where their site is linked. You can then enter
these as opportunities in Pitchbox, and reach out to them asking for a link as well. Its
worth asking, right?
Social Media Profiles

One often overlookedbenefit of holding active social media profiles across all available
platforms is simple, you have more pages under your control that can potentially show
up in searches.
Keep your profiles active and under your control. You should even hold complete
profiles secondary social media sites, just in case they grow and you decide to hold
a bigger presence. Ideally, you want the profiles to all to have the same name or very
similar names so that they are easily found.
A great way to build up backlinks on these sites is to make sure each profile links back
to your site. Of course, you should always promote every blog post across all platforms.
These backlinks arent counted individually (usually, they are rated by domain) but they
will make your content available to every potential audience.
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SEO 101
SEO is an Integral Marketing Channel
By Phil Singleton
In the early days of digital marketing,

SEO was a tactic businesses used
to game the system and boost their
search rankings. Today, it has moved
far beyond that and has become a
critical marketing channel in its own
right. Duct Tape Marketing Certified
Consultant and SEO wizard Phil
Singleton has more.
Earlier this month,Google surpassed Apple as the worlds
most valuable company. The two companies have yo-yoed for first place since then,
but the point is that Google is one of the most successful companies in the history of
capitalism.
How Did This Happen?

There are more than3.5 billion Google searches every day. Thats more than 40,000
searches per second.
Google Search has evolved into a fundamental part of the purchase process. This is
a nice way of saying that Google has monopolized the way we search for products,
services and information on the Internet.
No matter how your prospects hear about you, they are unlikely to buy from your
company without Googling it first. You know its true. If they cant find your website, or
dont like what they see in terms of your web presence or reviews, they buy elsewhere.
Your website is so important, in fact, that a Stanford University study concluded that
75% of people judge the credibility of a company based its website. Every time I quote
this statistic it just blows me away.Credibility. Wow. If you are a small business
owner, people now judge your entire lifes work based on the design and content of
your website. Think about that next time you look at your website traffic and bounce
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SEO 101
rates. Google gets the horses to water, but your site and its content must get them to
drink.
If you dont get SEO and your website right, many of your referralleads, trade show
leads, and advertising leads bounce right into the arms of the competition.
Outbound marketing and advertising create demand. Inbound marketing and SEO
capture demand as it filters back through the Internet.
I Never Click On The Paid Ads

Virtually every business owner we talk to claims that they do not click on Google
Ads. That may be true for most of us. Depending on who you believe, AdWords payper-click ads get anywhere from 5% to 30% or more of all Google search clicks. Yet,
Google makesmost of its money from the AdWords platform. The point is that just
by siphoning off a small percentage organic clicks in into paid AdWords clicks, this
company has been able to grow into the worlds most valuable company. In my opinion,
this fact alone underscores how important organic search has become for modern
marketing.
But What About B2B?

Many B2B companies ignore SEO and Google because they think their customers buy
at trade shows or via other old-school channels. Yet, this recent study of 3,000 B2B
buyers by Millward Brown Agency shows how influential search has become in the B2B
purchase process:

89% of B2B researchers use the Internet during the B2B research process
71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search engine search
42% of B2B researchers use a mobile device during the B2B purchasing process
46% of B2B researchers are millennials
That last statistic is really important. At my agency, we have seen first-hand how the
C-suite is assigning millennial staff to search the Internet for potential vendors in order
to develop short lists for in-person meetings.
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SEO 101
This younger generation of digital gatekeepers does not have the experience to know
who the players are in your space - they depend on Google to serve up the best
companies. If your website is up to date and professional, your online reputation is
strong, and your content conveys authority, you get on the list. Its that simple.
SEO For Growth

Referral marketing may be one of the best tactics on the planet and one every small
business needs to master but its impossible to scale a business on referral marketing
alone. One the other hand, if you seriously want to grow your business, you cannot
avoid Google.
The good news is that everything you should be doing to establish a strong digital
presence also helps your SEO rankings. Many of the Google ranking factors that count
the most are things you should be doing for your business anyway. Social media,
blogging, and reputation management are all elements of SEO that also carry additional
marketing and advertising value.
SEO is no longer about writing a check to someone to do SEO on your site. As a
business owner or marketer, you should develop an SEO frame-of-mind. Your website
is an investment, not a digital brochure. The more you view your website as your
marketing hub and as a content publishing platform, the better it will rank on the search
engines.
Phil Singleton is a self-described SEO grunt obsessed with

tweaking websites for search engine optimization and conversions,
and creating WordPress SEO & PPC plugins. He owns & operates
Kansas City Web Design, aKansas City inbound marketing
agency, and Kansas City SEO. Phil is co-author author of the
Amazon best-seller TheSmall Business Owners Guide To Local
Lead Generation(2015), and author of the Amazon bestsellingKindle eBook How To Hire A Web Designer: And Not Get Burned By Another
Agency(2015). Visit his websites athttp://kcwebdesigner.comandhttp://kcseopro.com, or
connect withPhil Singleton on LinkedIn.
26
SEO 101
The Two Places Your Competitors are Not Mining for
Niche Keywords
By Benjamin Brandall
Sometimes SEO isnt about ranking

high for all keywords, but finding
keywords on which you can focus. It
helps if these keywords are ones your
competitors havent identified, and are
searched for frequently. Heres how to
find obscure keywords that may just
be the key to boosting your traffic.
How exactly do you go aboutkeyword research? The way I see it, there are 2 different
workflows.
The first follows this process:
Market research -> Content creation -> Keyword research -> Optimization
The second looks more like this:
Market research -> Keyword research -> Content creation
In my experience, the second way of doing it is so much better. Why? Ill explain.
1. You generatecontent ideasthrough research
2. Its a shorter process (one less step)
3. You sit down to write content with a keyword in mind
4. You dont have to reshuffle your writing to include keywords
However, if you want to do it the more efficient way (where the keyword informs
yourcontent creation process), youll have to prepare a few things first.
Youll need an idea of what your market wants. The longer youve been in
business, the more obvious this is. The more competitors you have, the more
obvious this is.
27
SEO 101
This isnt a guide for finding out what your audience wants, but it does tell you how to
target them once you know.
The reason its important to get a grasp of your target keywords is tomaximize traffic
through organic search. This means youre going to want to phrase your content in the
same way people speak, think and search.
For the sake of an example, lets say youre in the gold panning niche. You have a great
product in that market, and its your job to get people to buy it. Youre no gold panner,
and you dont have much of a clue what your audience is like.
Where do you start? There are two big communities on the internet that are (excuse me)
gold mines for this sort of information.
Lets take a look at what they are, and how you can use them as a tool.
Step 0: Laying the foundations of niche keyword research

The first thing Id do after Id picked my niche (gold panning, in this case) would be to
find out what other names it goes by.
Personally, Ive heard it called panhandling and prospecting but Im notin with the
crowdso I cant really be sure. That brings us to our first step:
Create a keyword mindmap
Using the super-fastMindmup, create a mindmap and write down terms and fields you
already know, associated with your niche.
Heres what I came up with for gold panning:
28
SEO 101
Is that useful, or 100% correct? Ive got no idea at this point, but its a start.
Quick tip: You can use Mindmup mostly with just the keyboard. Press Enter to edit the
text in a box, Enter again to create a new box connected to the one you have selected, or
Tab to create a sub box.
Google your keyword (obviously)
You wont find enough about your niche without Google. In 5 seconds, I confirmed my
idea that Gold panning and Gold prospecting are related terms:
29
SEO 101
Head over to Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a fantastic resource for keyword research because related topics are
grouped together logically, linked early in the article and you can find out about your
target market.
Flesh out your mind map as you go

I spent around 10 minutes browsing through Wikipedia and adding ideas to the
mindmap as I went, under the category of which page I followed to get there. That way I
create a list of categories and subcategories, like this:
Is it complete, perfect or 100% correct? Again, I have no idea! It doesnt have to be. This
is the research process.
Where next?
30
SEO 101
Step 1: Using Quora search to find niche keywords
Now you have an idea of the search terms you could use to get niche keyword ideas for
content, its time to head over toQuora.
Quora can be used to find out what the people behind the keywords care about. This
will link your keywords to content ideas, which, if targeted and promoted properly, lead
customers to your site.
So, start by searching your keywords. Youll see that your options are divided into two
categories: Topics and Search.
Topicincludes questions related to your term, but not necessarily with the exact term in
the title. Its very useful to find subjects related to your niche.
Searchshows only questions with exact matches to your keyword in the title or
description. Its best for really focusing in on a subject once youve got a target keyword
and finding what the market cares about.
31
SEO 101
Here are two interesting questions found in Search, about the Where and What of
panning for precious materials.
This gives you ideas, but it doesnt necessarily prove that the keywords will be profitable.
Dont worry so much about that for now, just continue noting down interesting ideas,
phrases and potential keywords you want to target.
There are still more places to look...
Step 2: Find Subreddits packed with your target market

Weve talked at length before about howreddit is a powerful resource for marketing,
but until recently I didnt know to what extent.
As well as being a platform for being heard, its a great place to just listen.
32
SEO 101
To take advantage of this huge database of public knowledge, you need to find where
your target market hangs out. A quick Google search should do it:
There we have 2 places, /r/prospecting and /r/goldpanning. Its much better to search
reddit + keyword in Google because reddit itself searches deeply in the comments and
drags up a lot of irrelevant stuff. For example, I didnt even manage to find these
subreddits when I was looking for them through reddit search. I mostly got results
about Minecraft
Heres the inside of /r/prospecting:
33
SEO 101
Right away, we see some interesting topics our niche cares about. From this, Id start
noting down potential keywords and drafting article titles:
How to Know if Your Panned Gold is Real
Are You Panning The Real Thing? How to ID Gold
Bazooka Gold Trap Review
Prospecting in [Area Name] Is It Worth It?
Step 3: Make sense of it all in a spreadsheet

Now begins the less fun, more meticulous part of the process. Were almost out of the
exploratory brainstorming stages and starting to get serious. Take the keywords out
of your mindmap (keep that for later because it represents your thought process and
hierarchy of topics) and paste them into a spreadsheet.
34
SEO 101
Copy the keywords into Google Keyword Planner to get data on the volume and
competition, like this:
Grab the results out of GKP by hitting the Download button, and then copy the data
into your sheet.
These are yourseed keywords.Theyre what you use to find long-tail, more specific
keywords by launching into a longer and more involved keyword process based on the
early research outlined here.
Ready to get started? Im going to have to hand you over to a checklist I wrote on
thekeyword research process.
The important thing to remember is that this is the very start of the process. If you want
to generate a real list of hundreds of target keywords to give you countless landing page
and blog post ideas, you should use the checklist above to do that.
Ive found that using these networks to generate your seeds is much better than just
doing it off the top of your head.
BenjaminBrandallis a content crafter forProcess Streetand a
part time video game geek turned full-time blogger, feeding an
ever-growing addiction for all things marketing.Find him on
Twitter here.
35
SEO 101
Monthly Favs
Every month I like to collect some of my favorite links and
tools to help take your marketing efforts to the next level.
Here are my monthly favs.
Notablist Search engine of over 4 million newsletters for design

inspiration
ProsperWorks- Nice, simple little CRM for Gmail
Boardbooster- Tool that makes it easy to schedule and market on
Pinterest
Huballin- Tool that lets you easily finddata driventopics to create
content around
Webpage.ly- Automated on-page SEO tool using AI
Grabby- Fast and easy way to grab email addresses online (for
good, not evil!)
ContentMarketer- Tool that makes it easy to create and send email
via templates
StoryBase- Tell StoryBase a topic and learn the most popular
questions people are asking about the topic
Showrunner Podcasting- New podcasting course from the folks at
Copyblogger - so you know its good!
Funnel- Sales funnel and lead tracking for freelancers and small
businesses
Entro- Automates double opt-in email introductions
Multi-step Zaps- Zapier introduces even more powerful way to
automate workflows
Adsvise- Nice tool to help with social and digital ad sizing
36
Thank you for downloading SEO 101:

Proven Tricks and Tips for Improving Your Search Rankings.
If you feel your search rankings could use even more of a boost,
I urge you to check out our new course and community,
The Duct Tape Marketing System.
If youre one of those people who believe that marketing is hard or complicated or something youre just no
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Business owners and marketers have been bombarded over the last few years with so many changes that its no
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If you approach your marketing logically and practically

If you get very clear about how to spot an ideal client
If you understand the perfect way to make your business stand out in the crowd
If you know the secret to creating content that attracts eager buyers
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If you know how to build a total online presence that makes your brand the obvious choice
If you know how to turn social media participation into sales
If you know how to build an army of referral partners eager to act as your sales force
If you know how to dramatically increase how many leads turn into customers
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If you can quickly gauge the effectiveness of every move you make
In other words if you build a proven marketing system.
To find out more, or get started building your marketing system today,
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SEO 101:

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If you do online marketing for local businesses, youre familiar

There are dozens of tactics that

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Part 1: Google My Business

1. Find Your Business and Any Duplicates

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2. Verify Your Business

3. Connect Your Domain Email Address

4. Get Your NAP Right

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7. Link Your Website

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9. Use Amazing Photos

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Travel Blogger Jodi Ettenberg:

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14. Local SEO Site Structure

15. Get Your NAP Right Again

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16. Optimize Titles

Heres how its done:

17. Use Keyword-Rich Header Tags

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18. Build Awesome Landing Pages

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For local landing page length, aim for 500-700 words.

19. Take Advantage of Customer Reviews

20. Set Up Images for Local SEO

21. Make Mobile Work

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When people think about SEO, most immediately think of

SEO goes far beyond your own website.

Believe it or not, Google doesnt know everything. It is,

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Social Media Profiles

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In the early days of digital marketing,

How Did This Happen?

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I Never Click On The Paid Ads

But What About B2B?

46% of B2B researchers are millennials

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SEO For Growth

Phil Singleton is a self-described SEO grunt obsessed with

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Sometimes SEO isnt about ranking

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Step 0: Laying the foundations of niche keyword research

ducttapemarketing.com | facebook.com/ducttapemarketing | twitter.com/ducttape

ducttapemarketing.com | facebook.com/ducttapemarketing | twitter.com/ducttape

Flesh out your mind map as you go

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