Episode 130 - SEO Part 2

Melanie

The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.

Esther

And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.

Melanie

And we're back. Thank you so much for joining us again this Monday morning. Beautiful, crisp day, no doubt, wherever you are. Yeah, I am blithering here. Yes. So just for a change, I thought I'd introduce today's session on amazing SEO. And our resident expert, of course, is only, naturally.

Esther

Naturally, naturally.

Melanie

No, quite seriously. Yes. We did a few podcasts back now on SEO part one. So now we thought it was time to follow up with SEO part two. So what is the difference between these two SEO parts? Esther Ocampo

Esther

Okay, so in part one we talked about on page SEO, how to optimise your website on page to do with your keywords and to do with generally speeding up your website and things like that. Now, today we're going to be talking about off page SEO. So it's basically what it does in the tin. It's not something that you do on your own website. Okay, so off page SEO can improve your domain authority, which is basically how high up the rankings Google puts you. Other search engines are available, but Google seems to be the boss. So, your domain authority score is anywhere from one to 100, and you can check it out yourself on sites like Ubersuggest with Neel Patel, you can cheque out your domain authority and see how high up you are, and you can see things that you need to improve, like maybe it could be your speed of your own website, which would be the on page, changing the image names, changing the image sizes, things like that. But off page SEO isn't always up to you. Okay, let me explain that. So let's say you're a guest on the Monday Morning Marketing podcast, and we include your website in our show notes. So your website link is included in our website in the Monday Morning Marketing website, and that's what we call a backlink. So it takes people back to your website. So people like bloggers, influencers, things like that would provide those backlinks. You can go in and blog for other people and get your own backlinks that way as well. But sometimes you have to pay for those. A lot of times..

Melanie

You have to pay for backlinks?

Esther

Sometimes, yeah. I would love to write a blog for your website, Melanie - stomp.ie. And you could turn around and go, what's in it for me? Because if I write a blog for your website, I would want to include "more information can be found, or contact esther@ipagroup.co"

Melanie

Okay, see, in my head, it was paying for the blog, not necessarily the backlink. All right? But it amounts to the same thing.

Esther

Amounts to the same thing, yes. So you've got these people who are blogging and people that have come across your product or service that really liked it and have just decided to include it in their recommendations and they won't be asking for anything. It could be, for example, when we were running DMAT last year and all of a sudden on our Google Analytics, we saw that somebody had come in from a totally different website, a really high ranking website, and we were really confused for a while. But they had included our link in their website, so it had given us powerful SEO because they had included us in their website. Other things, for example, if you are up for an award and somebody the awards people have included you on their website. "So these are our finalists, these are our winners". And people randomly go into their website or they're wanting to cheque out who the winners were and take your website link from there. Those are all powerful backlinks. So you can check out all these things. You can check out how many backlinks you have. You can check out if they are good backlinks. There are some bad ones too. I mean, if somebody is dissing your company and say don't ever buy from XYZ.com, then you don't want those sorts of things either. You can go in and sort of.

Melanie

Try to persuade that sort of thing, can you?

Esther

Well, you can try to persuade the person to take the review down or to remove the link itself and just leave. They could leave the website address, but if it's hyperlinked, then more people are likely to click on it and say, I wonder what she's talking about, or he. But all these things, this is just one way of getting more traction on your website,

Melanie

But you have less control over it ultimately.

Esther

You can have yeah. Now some off Page SEO you can have more control over. And that's your social media. LinkedIn has the highest domain authority out of all the social media platforms, so more people will

Melanie

Even more than Google business profile?

Esther

Well, it's not linked, it's not on the list really. Okay. Because it's owned by Google, run by Google. It would be a bit odd of them to put their own website as domain authority, one or 100 in this case. But yeah, probably Google business profile would be number one. But when normal people think of social media, that's not the first one that pops into their hands, hands up who thinks of Google profile, I can't even remember the proper name. It's just always going to be Google my business as a social media platform. So when we're talking about the big four, we're talking LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn is number one. So if you were to go on and even Google your own name, your LinkedIn profile will probably come up above your Facebook profile.

Melanie

Exactly.

Esther

Okay. Because of the domain authority, because LinkedIn, especially for businesses, is a real power player there.

Melanie

Can I ask you something else?

Esther

Yeah.

Melanie

You can have potentially two profiles. Well, three, actually, including services. So what would show up first? Would it be the person's personal profile or the company profile? Do they both stand a good chance of being found?

Esther

It depends what people are searching for. So if somebody is looking for STOMP Social Media Training, then that will pop up first, but if somebody's looking for Melanie Boylan, then that will pop up first.

Melanie

So it stands a good chance of both of them being found? Yes.

Esther

Yeah. Okay, so post on your social media platforms. Use the information. LinkedIn has now given you a spot to add in links into the description into your main, what's it called, like Bio. You can now put a link in there. Use it wisely

Melanie

It's in the contact information, isn't it? You can put down your website. I've actually got all three of the websites I'm involved in, in my Bio.

Esther

Yeah. So that could play against you, though, or it could play in your favour. It all depends on what people are looking for. So if somebody's going, right, so I want social media training and they're going and looking for you for that, and then they see that. Hang on a minute, she also says she's a journalist. How does that work with that? So maybe you need another proof.

Melanie

Just better at it.

Esther

So you have your social media platforms, whichever one or ones you're on, make sure that your bios are up to date, that your links are there. Obviously, Instagram only gives you one link to put in and you can't add the links to each and every single post like you can on all the other platforms. But it's still a way of people finding links.

Melanie

You think Linktree will ever get in there and get the old SEO going as well? Because that would be good fun if they could do that.

Esther

Yeah. If you don't know what a link tree is, I'm sure we'll do a podcast on it at some stage.

Melanie

I'm writing that down.

Esther

So there's no real, like you can't really measure 100% that your LinkedIn bio has helped your SEO or your Facebook bio, your posts have helped your SEO. But in your Google Analytics, which we'll do a podcast about soon, because it's changing, don't we just love it. You'll be able to see where people have come in from so you'll know yourself which one is working best for you and where your audience is.

Melanie

Okay, so how often should you add stuff to off page SEO? Is this a daily, weekly, monthly thing?

Esther

As often as you can, because there's no limit as to the number of places you can do it.

Melanie

Right, okay.

Esther

The only thing that I would really recommend is that if you have written a blog post for your own website and then you want to share it on someone else's website, say you have a membership, you're a member of, let's say Women's Inspire Network because we're both a member of that and we have the right as members to blog on that website. Do not use the exact same blog.

Melanie

Why?

Esther

Because then Google will go, there's a little plagiarism going on there, and then they will start.

Melanie

So what would you change? Would you just change the title or would you change everything?

Esther

It's one of those things that there's no real hard and fast rule as to what you have to change. But at least when I was at Uni, we were told every 7th word to avoid plagiarism. Definitely change the title. But here's what the good thing is. There are AI services that can re-word it for you. It's the same idea, same principle behind it. But instead of, I don't know, give me a blog title.

Melanie

The Five Flowers of July.

Esther

Okay, so instead of Five Flowers of July, maybe you want to say the Six Flowers of Summer or The Six Blooms of Summer or the Five Blooms of the Summer Months. Sort of change it up so that people still realise that you're talking about July or the summer, and then within the context or within the text of the blog, change the odd word here and there. Like I said when I was at uni, we're going back 20 years, plagiarism was spotted within every seven words. And that was before there was good AI to sort of spot these things. But because there's good AI to spot it, there's also now good AI to help you fix it.

Melanie

So you can con your way through SEO. Yay.

Esther

Be sure to reread it, though, before you post it,

Melanie

Because it may not make sense.

Esther

Exactly. Some words that the AI come up with might not be 100% accurate in the context of what you're talking about. You might be talking about something being wound up and they end up thinking it's a wound and an injury. And English is a funny language.

Melanie

I'm learning Spanish right now. That isn't easy either.

Esther

Sometimes it's easier than English, believe me.

Melanie

We've got a fair bit to get through, really, don't we? We've got the on page SEO that a lot of people seem to understand and be more familiar with, in fairness. And now we've got to put some effort and time into the off page SEO. Where would you place this in your strategy? Is this marketing?

Esther

Yeah, I would definitely place it as marketing because you're marketing yourself. So if you go on and do a guest blog on a website like Women's Inspire Network or I can't remember where else, yeah, probably in Digital Women, and go in to their website and add blog posts as a member, then use it as much as you can, because it's a great element on how many other people are seeing it. You can always ask the company or the business for their Google Analytics to see how many people are viewing the page each month. Things like local listings. So if you're a member I'm a member of a local business network and they have a website and have listing of almost like the Yellow Pages, golden pages, other things are available. Yell.com, if you're in those as local listings, and that's where Google My Business or Google Business Profile Profiles comes in, because it's more of a listing rather than a social media platform, as most people consider. But if you have your Google Business Profile set up correctly, then when people go to Google, you're more likely to pop up first on the list.

Melanie

Right. I'm with you.

Esther

Right? So if you are a member of, in your case Mullingar Chamber of Commerce, for example, if they have a website where they list their members, then people who go in looking for local listings would find you there. If you're advertising on Facebook Marketplace, that could be classed as a local listing, right? Yelp. What do you call it? Like Airbnb? Those could be types of local listings if that's the category you're in.

Melanie

There's other listing we were discussing earlier on like Amazon amazon podcasting as well. Local listing, isn't it?

Esther

Yeah, definitely. And I mean, these local listings are not just confined if you're a local business, because like Google Business Profile, I will struggle over that one for the rest of my life until they change the name again. It'll always be Google My Business. When you put your listing up there, you don't have to just provide to the local area. You can be a service based business that can provide for all over the world and it's still classed as a local listing. So you can't just don't just limit yourself to your on page SEO or just think, oh well, if I write a blog for whatever website, then that's me sorted. No, go in and make sure that your social media is up to date. Go in and make sure that if you're a member of all these different things, can I present myself seeing with Women's Inspire Network, there is a directory where you can list yourself and your business. There is lots of ways in that and I mean, it's a great network as well. If you're a woman in business, you don't have to be a business owner. And we're not also getting paid for promoting Women's Inspire Network, we just really like it. But there are three or four different ways that you can promote yourself within that one website. So why not why not take advantage of that?

Melanie

It's part and parcel of the price you're paying at the end of the day.

Esther

Exactly. On page SEO is great, but off page SEO can have so much more impact because you'll be reaching a whole other audience that maybe didn't realise that you were there in the first place.

Melanie

And that's what they say on social media, isn't it? Other people's content about your business is actually more important than the content you create about yourself.

Esther

Yeah. And, I mean, they do say was it the 80-20 rule?

Melanie

Yeah.

Esther

So 80% of what you share should be other people's stuff and only 20% of your own. I mean, it can be more of your own stuff, but don't put your own link on each and every piece of content that you send out. All right?

Melanie

Yeah. So, gosh, we've gone through a heck of a lot today, lots of areas that we've covered. The only concern I have is that some people who are listening are going to feel a bit overwhelmed with all the extra stuff that they may or may not have to do. But you know what? This came up with some mentoring I've recently done. Somebody gave me some feedback saying, gosh, you've just given us so much information. I honestly can't see me being able to do all of this. And then I realised the reason why I give so much information and the reason why we, Esther and I, give so much information. We don't expect you to do all of it. No, not in the slightest. We expect you to take away one, two or three, or however many suggestions that you feel comfortable doing that feels appropriate to you and your business. And you can always add some of these things later if you want.

Esther

Yeah. Or you can hire somebody external.

Melanie

Exactly.

Esther

Because, like we said in a previous podcast as well, sometimes it's easier for somebody else to talk about your business than for you to do it. So maybe outsource your blog writing, outsource your off page SEO so that somebody else is writing your social media content, somebody else is bigging you up out there in the big bad world. I mean, nobody said you had to do it all yourself.

Melanie

No. So these are just useful tips and tricks and things you can do and just do what you feel you're capable of doing right now. And it's so much easier to add stuff later than try and do all of this stuff now and then feel like you've failed because you couldn't do it all.

Esther

Exactly.

Melanie

Well, that's all the time we have for now. We've rambled more than usual, Esther.

Esther

Sorry. And there's still more that I could have talked about.

Melanie

I know, but we'll be back very soon. Thanks for listening, guys. Bye bye. Bye bye.

Esther

Would it be better to do it like the beautiful Northern Ireland? Bye bye. Bye bye bye bye bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye bye. That's how I finish a phone call.

Melanie

I know you did it to me earlier.