This week, I welcomed Trish Seidel onto the show. Trish is "marketing's big sister" on LinkedIn, where she shares advice on SEO, content strategy and growth. We discuss: Scaling Springly's content to 100 articles per month Building content strategies & how to build clusters Setting standards for content quality Important processes for scaling Changing approaches to SEO now she's Head of Content at Djust (with a longer sales cycle) AI content—where she's using it Join the How the F*ck newslet...
Mar 20, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 42
This week, I welcome Josh Spilker onto the show. Josh is a seasoned marketer, having been the sole or first content person at ClickUp, Friday, and several other venture-back startups. We discuss: Is Josh worried about AI in SEO and content marketing? How will our world change? Is this the end of Google’s dominance? How has Josh streamlined his content processes with Open AI tools? Taking 2 websites from 0 to 100K traffic/month How middle-of-funnel optimization drives growth Is there any value to...
Dec 13, 2023•31 min•Season 2Ep. 40
"There's no search volume for what we do"—okay, well do THIS instead. In this case study, Aditya Vempaty (ex-Amplitude, current MoEngage VP of Marketing) shares his story of identifying an underserved segment of a competitive industry and building an SEO-led content strategy to capture it. In this conversation, we discuss: Why you should ignore your competitors. Pain points and ‘the need behind the need’. How to make SEO a demand creation channel. How to tell if your product marketing is focusin...
Dec 04, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 39
We're back, baby! In this episode, I jump on to do my first-ever solo podcast. Just me and you. I wanted to dig into a challenge my clients and network face regularly: How to craft your first topic cluster. Your first for a client is so important. I can't stress that enough. It sets the tone and dictates whether SEO and Content will be part of your go-to-market moving forward. So in this guide, I want to help you choose a topic that with high commercial potential that will also make sure you sta...
Oct 03, 2023•15 min•Season 2Ep. 38
I was so excited to welcome fellow Brit, Zoe Ashbridge , to the community today. We throw tips and questions back and forth, discussing best practices around these four topics: How to write content that targets a specific keyword How to win featured snippets How to win HARO links How to work efficiently with freelancers (from briefs to workflows) In the newsletter this week, I’ll round up some of our advice on 1 and 2 and I’ll let you dive into the conversation with Zoe to hear the rest. Sponsor...
Jul 12, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 37
OMG. The Scale Package is LIVEEE for pre-order! Grab yours at a discounted price here. Benji Hyam and his team at Grow & Convert build SEO strategies that focus on conversion, not traffic. In this interview, we focus on the case study of Cognitive FX, which is a classic example of how to build a blog full of content that's high-converting, differentiated, and still outranks WebMD. Benji walks us through pain point SEO, keyword prioritization and his approach to topical authority. The results...
Jul 05, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 36
“60% of all our content ranks on page one.”—Jessica Lam Hill Young In this episode, we learn the three-part framework Jess and her team use to create high-quality content that ranks on Google almost every time. Expect to learn: The three-part framework behind content that ranks on page 1 How to balance self-promotion & helpful content Where to get subject matter expertise Listen to part one from Jess here (I wrote my best insights into this article, with best bits from the episode). Key Link...
Jun 28, 2023•20 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Supporting article (free): How to Refresh Old Content for SEO (and what NOT to do) This week's episode focuses on one of the most powerful tools in the SEO arsenal: content refreshes. Want to impress your clients or boss? Start revisiting your vast library of content. Be warned: hockey stick traffic growth awaits. As you'll hear in the episode, updating old content can take a blog post from 0 to 5,500 monthly visitors in as little as one month. Expect to Learn: What content to update and when Ho...
Jun 20, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Our "raison d’etre" is to help marketers scale search traffic without sacrificing quality. This week, expect a ton of tips & ideas for doing just that. I interviewed Erin Balsa , who builds thought leadership-driven content strategies for B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise solutions. She, like me, has a strong aversion to putting out content that’s not unique and well-sourced. Both of our standards for minimum viable content are pretty damn high. With the companies she works wit...
Jun 14, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Since launch in 2020, copy.ai has grown to 8M users in the fierce battle for AI content writing tools. But back in 2022, when they began investing in SEO, search volumes for their core keywords (e.g. "AI content generator") were negligible if they existed at all. Over that year, as we are all well aware, there was a rapid wave in demand for AI copywriting tools. The team at copy.ai correctly predicted that demand. And as a result, they were the first to build an SEO strategy to capture it.And th...
Jun 07, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 32
We're joined again this week by Jacob from NerdWallet, this week to discuss a VERY important topic: high-converting keywords. We discuss: What types of keyword drive conversions? (It's not just bottom-of-funnel!) How to find high-converting keywords in your niche (Full article contains modifiers to use in your research) Why it's important to craft a targeted, compelling offer How to build a web page that converts Key links: 1. Sponsor #1: uSerp: userp.io for a great backlink-buil...
May 23, 2023•20 min•Season 2Ep. 31
This case study is about an underdog website. A new company, launching into a competitive niche and winning some of those most difficult keywords. Maze broke through on topics like “UX Design” and “UX Design Tools” by focusing on: Thorough, well-crafted content Superior UI/UX designs Scalable link building CRO techniques These are the core tenants of the SEO revenue engine that has allowed Maze to fuel its growth via search. Listen to this episode to find out: 1. The SEO engine companies like Hu...
May 16, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Jacob Clarke joined the show today from NerdWallet's stupidly successful SEO team. He helps us define topical authority and drill down into how to achieve it to accelerate growth results. In SEO, the concept of topical authority is one that's relatively new in our lexicon. But it's one of THE most powerful tools to have in your belt when building an SEO-driven content strategy. Topics covered: Why prioritize topical authority? Two tried & tested methods for measuring authority. And a step-by...
May 09, 2023•19 min•Season 2Ep. 30
I had an amazing conversation with Ash Read this week on the show. For those of you who know the software company Buffer, Ash was their Editorial Director for 6 years. So, you know, this is going to be an episode where you'll about scaling traffic with quality content systems. Since 2020, Ash has been building a niche blog empire. Starting with LivingCozy.com, which focuses on home & furniture product reviews. The site received over 335,000 monthly page views in Feb 2023 and earned ~$10K a m...
May 01, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Learn about E-E-A-T and how to demonstrate it with SEO expert, Olga Zarr. Topics: What is E-E-A-T? Does it matter for everyone? How can I demonstrate it to Google? Key Links: Mentioned SEO brief template Read this in article format . Become a How the F*ck member & unlock 30+ SEO case studies....
Apr 19, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Eli Schwartz has advised the who's who of technology companies: Zendesk, Coinbase, Quora, InsightTimer, and many more. During his 7-year tenure at SurveyMonkey, his growth team of 5 was responsible for 2/3 of their annual revenue. In total, over $1bn in organic value (yes, that includes both branded search and content strategy). "By the time I left, we were generating an average $200 million a year in revenue sourced from organic search."—Eli Schwartz He systemized his learnings at SurveyMonkey ...
Apr 11, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 27
In the final episode with Adam Smith, we look at the keyword research system behind his "beast" SEO case study. Here's the background on the niche site: He bought an aged domain (DR 27) He wrote 4 million words (2,300 blog posts) It's currently at ~40,000 monthly visitors in <6 months We've already heard: How to identify a profitable niche to target. How to leverage aged domains to fuel traffic growth. In this week's episode, we explore how to raid competitor sites for content ideas that you'...
Apr 04, 2023•25 min•Season 2Ep. 26
More with Adam Smith! This time? The hardest part of niche blogging: Actually choosing a sub-niche you don't regret. This is the best methodology I've seen to find areas of traffic you can win, quickly. Adam tells us how to take a data-led approach to this. The savvy ones of you out there will have already noticed—this methodology (for finding untapped, uncompetitive traffic to win) also applies to SaaS and services. Really, it's one of the most fundamental principles of SEO research. But taken ...
Mar 29, 2023•22 min•Season 2Ep. 25
This week, I caught up with niche website expert, Adam Smith, to learn how to use aged domains to accelerate traffic-building success. Expert to learn: What is an aged domain? What use cases do they have in SEO? How can you evaluate them properly (9-step process) so you don't buy a red flag domain? How to implement them without Google knowing (the ENTIRE redirect process) — Get How the F*ck Premium: Premium case study: Aged Domains Premium Library: Access our library of 25+ Premium SEO strategy ...
Mar 22, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 24
In this week's SEO case study, we revisit a story we released in December 2022: How Monday.com Scaled its SEO (1,000 articles in 12 months). In part one, we lifted the hood of the content operation that underpinned Monday's very first major investment into SEO. We learned how Monday worked with the content production company, Codeless.io, to make up for lost time. In part two, we hear from two Monday insiders. Eliana Atia, Brand and SEO Content Team Lead , who joined the team just after the IPO,...
Mar 15, 2023•47 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Gaetano developed the strategy that took Aura's SEO traffic to close to ~1 million monthly visitors in 12 months. The blog started with zero content and low domain authority. Now, with only 100-200 pieces of content, Aura holds its own in competition against rivals like McAfee, Norton, and Experian. In this week's SEO case study, we learn how Aura approached content. Everything from their publishing schedule to why they built a YouTube channel. Key questions: What is "introductionless content?" ...
Mar 01, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Downloadable LEMA framework template: https://www.thefxck.com/lema-framework-template — In SEO, creating quality, experience-driven content has never been more important. It now takes 5 minutes to write a better-than-average article using AI. Which means we have just entered into an age of content commoditization. You need to differentiate your strategy. Fast. Great content that *actually* wins in the next 5-10 years needs to be the kind of stuff that you bookmark and come back to read. It needs...
Feb 22, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 21
eCommerce SEO expert, Louis Smith , came on the podcast this week to talk through one of his case studies. He helped this company grow from £80m monthly revenue to ~£100m in 12 months. When he started working with this fashion brand, they'd grown rapidly through paid acquisition channels. SEO hadn't been a focus at all, so they had a ton of technical issues, content strategy needs, and best practices to implement across the board. We look at what those SEO implementations were and why they were ...
Feb 15, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Andy Francos was the Group Head of Organic Performance at Cazoo from day one through to IPO. In this episode, we learn: How Cazoo built a customer-centric organic strategy for the long-term Why Cazoo's non-branded search traffic grew from 6k to 120k a month within 2 weeks The interplay between PR, national TV ad campaigns, high-profile acquisitions, and SEO This one's a real masterclass in SEO from one the UKs biggest tech success stories of recent years. -- Read the teardown: Access our full li...
Feb 07, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Bonus: Find the full content operations guide here. This week I’ve got a very special guest Gordana Stretenovic from Workello. Gordana and her team have grown multiple company's search traffic exponentially again and again from 0 to up to a crazy 1.5m visitors per month. At one point, her agency produced 800 blog posts per month for their clients with in-house 45 writers and editors. To get an operation like that producing high-quality content you need: Hiring processes Enablement docs Templates...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Jake Stainer joined Typeform in June 2015 as employee #29. In his first couple of weeks, they celebrated hitting £1M in annual revenue from 5,000 customers. By the time he left just 3.5 years later? Typeform had: 10x the employees Grown to $13M in ARR Grown their SEO channel to $3M in yearly lifetime value revenue In this week's SEO case study, we hear how a growth marketer scales SEO. --- Read this episode with extras: Access our full library of 25+ Premium SEO case studies and deep best practi...
Jan 17, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Hotjar's search volume increased 47% over the past 2 years. That's millions of new visitors each year. And the best thing? Revenue results. It's driving *actual* revenue results. Hotjar's SEO strategy is mission-critical to its customer acquisition strategy. And as a channel, the costs are proving to be significantly lower. On the podcast this week, I've got Hotjar's SEO content mastermind, Sean Potter, to discuss how one of the most authoritative websites in the world approaches SEO-led growth....
Jan 11, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 16
My guest this week built the most successful Retro Gaming website around today. In this episode, we hear how Brandon's multimedia approach to content creation helped him build a brand with ~100k social followers, 270k YouTube subscribers, and 1 million monthly clicks. It's extraordinary to think that Brandon's background is in video production. He's not an SEO by trade, he only just realized that he's been naturally building content clusters all along. Instead of overfocusing on the algorithms, ...
Jan 04, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 15
This week, I catch up with a world-class content strategist, Jakub Rudnik. Safe to say he's been around the block. He was at G2 as a senior content strategist during the hyper-growth years (seeing all the errors they made with content) and prior to that, he worked at places like the Chicago Tribune as a writer. Now, leading content at Scribe, I catch up with Jakub to hear how his team built content into a leading growth driver. Since his arrival, they grew from zero to a lot more than 30,000 mon...
Dec 21, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 14
It took UserPilot three years to get its first 25,000 monthly organic visitors. And, just 10 months to get to 100,000. Whaaaat?! Triple the growth rate. 🤯 How on earth did they... Well, in short, they: Learned how to build efficient content operations (scaling from 4 monthly blogs to 40) Leveraged programmatic SEO to scale production even further All without a drop in quality. Interesting. 🤔 This week, I talk to UserPilot’s Head of Marketing, Emilia Korczyńska to hear her story. It wasn't an e...
Dec 14, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 13
