SEO Snack: Week of March 10th
Quick Week Summary
What I worked on this past week
This past week had a lot of internal and external meetings so the “work” piece was a bit on the back burner but the planning piece was a lot more at the forefront. We dove into more feedback from clients and started Q2 planning for those clients. Also with it being a monthly meeting-heavy week with clients, I did some analysis on Google Analytics and SEMRush data for clients to see how our strategies are performing (and where we might need to pivot).
We also hired a PPC Specialist and somehow she got stuck with me being her onboarding buddy (hopefully I’m living up to the expectations…). To end it, we had our pies, punchlines, and pairings event where we got to hear Eric (co-founder) do his first stand-up and also got to throw 20 pies at our two co-founders. If you haven’t done it, ask your boss if you get a certain amount of Google reviews can you throw pies, they should say yes…
Week Insights
What I struggled with
Time Planning vs. Time Working
Maybe this is more for a smaller company but at times it can be tough to balance out how much you’re truly working on things vs time spent working on planning and strategy. Look at the key takeaways for more info/thoughts on this.
What was a bigger headache than it needed to be
Explaining Google Core Updates
This isn’t a bad thing but at times it can be difficult to explain Google updates to people/clients that don’t have a background in SEO or a lot of marketing experience. I do like the challenge though because it makes me turn a complex topic into something that can be easily digested for people who have expertise in other areas. A skill that is extremely important.
What went well
Onboarding New Coworker
Although I joked at the beginning, our new team member has been a breeze to onboard to the team and also has already been helping me research/solve some of our GA4 issues. Also, I think we host some of the better events but I might be biased…
What to look out for or tune into
Organizing Content
One thing we’re doing for a client is organizing their website content in terms of a “sales funnel” approach. I’ll dive more into this but it’s been interesting to look at content in terms of what “type” and “education level” a potential client might have when first coming across your company.
What weird things happened
Nothing… YET
This past week was pretty stable although I’m interested in continuing to see the impact of the newer core update so stay tuned…
Key Takeaways
1. Planning vs. Working
I mentioned this above but one piece I think you continually need to evaluate is how much time you spend planning/strategizing vs how much you’re actively creating content, building backlinks, etc. I believe I’ve said this before but I truly believe you need to do more work than planning but please please please do not ignore planning. If you’re constantly planning and then changing your strategy, then you’re not allowing the needed time for impact to actually happen with your current strategy.
On the flip side, if you’re only working and never taking the time to evaluate if your strategy and plan are working, then you’re just hitting your head on a hall that might be made of steel. Now to figure out what your balance on those should be is up to you and might come with trial and error but it should never be 100% one way or the other.
2. Content Organizing
I touched on this above as well but with this newer client we’re working with, it’s made me open my eyes to how content should be structured and organized. A brief explanation is that they have a ton of content but don’t feel like it’s targeting the right folks at times. So the way we’re breaking it down is into 101, 201, and 301 content (think back to your college days and how hard the courses were when broken out like this, if you didn’t go to college, think about video game settings: beginner, intermediate, expert, if you didn’t play video games, use any other example…).
The reason it’s intriguing is because it makes you think about how not every potential customer coming to your site knows the same information, has the same background, has studied the same things, etc. They all have their own level of knowledge around what you’re offering so why wouldn’t you structure your content for them to easily jump into content that they need to look at?
If I have no background in SEO, I don’t need information on technical SEO work, I need content around “What is SEO?”. And the main problem I see for websites is that it’s hard to find the content I need quickly and easily. I’ll have more on this later likely but it’s been a great practice to actively dive into and take for other clients to potentially apply.
3. Communicate “Tough” Topics
I mentioned how one thing I struggled with was communicating the new Google Core update. The main reason is that a lot of people I work with (clients and coworkers) don’t have a background in SEO. Now this section isn’t going to cover how to explain core updates (if you’d like that, let me know and I’ll write on it) but it’s to briefly talk about why it’s important to learn how to turn complex topics into conversations people will understand.
Being in an industry that most people either think is “not real” or a waste of time and effort, it can be hard to explain why it’s important. It’s a challenge I had early on when learning SEO because as I was learning, I’d try to explain to clients and coworkers what has impact and what doesn’t but I did it in such a complex way that it didn’t actually hit home to them. This is especially important with clients because so many people get fleeced with SEO services. What I’ve found is that you have to explain the impact of what you’re doing has on what they see as important or KPIs they have. If they want more of an explanation, then dive a bit more into specifics, otherwise, it’s not worth it in my opinion.
Resources To Look At
1. SEMRush Marketplace
If you’re working in SEO by yourself (or just don’t have a great expertise in writing copy), SEMRush offers some pretty good options for different types of writing content. From emails to articles and Ebooks, they have folks who will work to write these things, take feedback, and adjust until you’re happy with the content. To me, it’s a better way to get content done rather than just using AI-generated and not changing it (revert back to last week’s article if you just use AI-generated content…).
2. URL Monitor
I don’t remember if I mentioned this tool before but it’s great for getting pages indexed quickly. One thing that can “suck” is to write great content but for it to not get indexed and have an impact. This tool will help for a smaller fee.
