The Secret to SEO and Ranking in Google

Welcome to the Code of Entry podcast! Where we “Cloud” the issues with facts and help you upskill to stay on the digital edge!

Podcast #1

Topics:

-Search Engine Optimization 

Who is Code of Entry?

Code of Entry is a team of IT Professionals that banned together after we had common experiences where we were struggling and spending hour upon hour looking into the IT space trying to stay relevant.

Everything is changing all the time. Constantly evolving. How do you find the resources you need to upskill? How do you stay relevant?

The technology I am an expert on TODAY is not going to be the technology that is valuable tomorrow.

Our Motivation

Our motivation is to cover topics that we think are interesting, talk about a range of IT topics, and help people get to the level of expertise so you at least know WHAT to look for. Do don’t know what you don’t know!

It is extremely valuable to have an introduction to technology so you can learn more about the tools available, “play” with them to figure them out a bit, and graduate to a higher level of understanding. You don’t have to be a master at everything, but you at least need to know what is out there, so you can know what it is that you want to master.

We are here to help you figure out what you need and help you stay relevant for your organization….or get a job at a new organization.

We aim to assist:

1. the beginner level IT professional who wants to get in a new space and what you should concentrate on to be successful
2. IT Professional who is already in a space who needs to stay relevant
3. Leader in the space – what to know to make the best decision

Search Engine Optimization

The secret to search engine optimization

….(drum roll please)…. Is that there is no secret.

The problem with search engine optimization is that a lot of people are trying to find short cuts. Google is trying to find valuable websites that answer the questions that people are asking.

You are going to have a hard time ranking in Google if you don’t have a valuable website.

If you are trying to game the system and get rankings with shortcuts, then of course you are going to have a hard time. And google is always changing their algorithm.

You need to find the value proposition of the site you are working on. The internet is not secret.

Remember, your website is NOT for YOU…. It is for your customers. It is not a thin billboard. We can’t just pay for a bunch of people to point back to our site and all of a sudden Google loves us. We want to inform our population, make them more educated buyers. That will increase their trust in us, increases our authority, with that increased trust and authority (which takes time) chances are that Google will send that customer to your website to answer their question, which in turn leads higher likelihood of a sale.

Ok, great. So, how do I do that?

First, let’s think about locations. It is a great way to rank better because you are going to answer a question somebody has…in the area that they have it.

Let’s say I am looking for an “underwater basket weaving class” in Portsmouth, Virginia. If I put in “underwater basket weaving” and hit ENTER in Google, it is going to show me results around the area I am in. Google is smart and will give me pages that answer my question specific to the location I am in.

If I created a page on my website for that specific service…in that specific location, that is EXACTLY what the person is looking for it is going to be a lot easier to rank.

When we are talking about local area, there will be a lot of keywords that you are never going to rank for if you are trying to compete with Walmart or Amazon.  But locally, you have a much better chance of ranking for that particular term.

Let’s say we are Googling “wrenches”.

When I hit ENTER, I will see that Google “three pack” for my local area.

If I am selling wrenches, then I should make a webpage for each type of wrench that I sell; AND a page for each place I sell that wrench. So that if someone is in Portsmouth, Virginia and looking for a “7/16^th socket wrench” then you have EXACTLY what the customer is looking for.

• Provide value to your customer.
• Have great customer service.
• Have the products they are looking for.

Sounds a lot like traditional marketing!

There is a great marketing book (….that I WISH I got a commission for….but hey  this is what Code of Entry is all about…letting you know about things of value we have come across) They Ask, You Answer.

It is an awesome book. It all boils down to when customer asks a question, don’t try and “sell” them, just simply provide the answer to their question.

The more answers you provide:

• The more authority you have
• The more backlinks you’ll get
• The more sales you’ll get
• The better search engine ranks you’re going to have
• The more marketing materials you will have prepared for your sales people because when someone asks a question…. you might already have an article or video for that…and you can just share it.

Pay-per-click vs Organic SEO  

I personally am not a big pay-per click proponent.

I think it is a great way to start. It can be the icing on the cake. But you should have a trend where you are going to rank for organic keywords, and IF you are going to try and get in an area that may be a bit too hard for you to rank organically, you can supplement with pay-per clicks, but you really want organic.

Per-per click vs Organic SEO illustration:

I related it to going to the grocery store and buying your vegetables OR having a garden.

If I want to eat TODAY, I can go and buy my vegetables at the market (pay-per-click). But…tomorrow I am going to have to go and spend money again to buy my vegetables at the market.

But If I want to eat today but also know I am going to continue to need food (continue to increase traffic to my site) I can buy today (pay-per-click) but also plant seeds and have my own garden (organic SEO). So that eventually I don’t have to keep paying for pay-per-click…. unless I want to.

So, I can plant the seeds, nurture them, let them grow and then start to harvest (reap the rewards of organic SEO). And IF I want to go to the grocery store, I don’t have to buy the same vegetables I have in my garden. I can try new things…. I can go after different keywords.

That is why we push organic search at Code of Entry.

Backlinks and Landing Pages

I look at backlinks and landing pages like a spiderweb. If you only have one type of link, then you have this core and you are hanging from one thread.

Your website is the epicenter and you want links coming in from all sides, you have a better catch radius.

Ok, now you have a website that people can land on, and some funnels that bring people in. But what about the landing pages?

Landing pages makes it so there is not just one point that can catch, but points all around your homepage that can catch and feed things to my center. We have less and less air that makes up our spiderweb.

Now instead of link that only come back to our center page, we have links that come to those external pages as well. As we continue to build out our web, we have a better chance of “catching” traffic. The more traffic we “catch” the better chance we have of funneling those to make a sale.

People have to know you exist to make sales. Once you start to get visitors, then you can evaluate your sales funnel. But you can’t do anything until you get people to your site in the first place.

How do you get traffic? You get backlinks.

How do you get backlinks? You answer people’s questions. You provide good content. And it will naturally grow.

Link Building Sidenote

There are many link building strategies you can take, but I will admittedly say DON’T pay for directory links as your only source of links.

Directory links can be a type of link you have, but it can’t be the ONLY type of link you have.

If you are paying for people to link to your site, ask yourself, are you trying to game the system?

RANT #1:

Just because it is on social media doesn’t mean it’s true!

There are a lot of pages on social media where people are trying to push their own agenda.

If we were to compare CNN to FOX news. Both are written from someone with a completely different perspective on the same facts.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find just the facts.

Especially when it comes to social media, there are farms of people (not necessarily from the US) that are trying to manipulate our opinions.  They can manipulate our elections, out political climate, our stocks, our currency… just by giving us information that isn’t necessarily true but looks true.

Memes
Think of the emergence of memes. Memes give you no information but lead you to some assertion.

I would press to say that the majority (over 50%) of memes are created by someone outside of our country to influence our country.

Crazy.

Fake videos

You can have a deep, fake video that looks like me talking …. but I am saying something I’ve never said before. Looks like me. Sounds like me. But I never said that. Technology has come so far you can’t trust things you see and hear.

Unverified Reporting

There is reporting that is not my any verified source.

Ok, there is my rant. Technology GREAT! However, the ways it can be applied is up to your imagination.