[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is five SEO skills you must master as a fit pro and this one is most definitely James's wheelhouse. Me and Andrew are going to sit back and relax now as James takes us through the wondrous world of SEO.
[00:00:20] James Breese: Thank you so much. I wouldn't sit back and relax too much though because I'm going to need you to rein me in and make sure I don't get too technical and bore everyone to death.
[00:00:28] How does that sound? Please
[00:00:29] Josh Kennedy: keep it in more in layman's terms. Exactly. Don't bore. Don't bore people to death.
[00:00:33] Andrew Wallis: Yeah, we're hoping to learn ourselves
[00:00:35] Josh Kennedy: Exactly. Exactly. So firstly, and I don't know whether this links into number one Anyway, could you just quickly define what exactly is SEO? And then the first point is technical SEO
[00:00:47] James Breese: Yeah So very quickly SEO stands for search engine optimization and it's all about having a website and building a presence online That allows you to be found by clients and prospects who are looking for [00:01:00] you and your business.
[00:01:01] So it's all about your professional. Uh, persona and profile online and making sure you get found correctly, because it's so important these days, if people search for you, they, they need to find you in a professional manner, not just some random, like, uh, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok type reel where you're posting random cat reels or pizza, I don't know, whatever it is, like a pizza cat, for example.
[00:01:26] Well,
[00:01:26] Josh Kennedy: we'll go back to our, we'll go back to our favorite stat, right? 96 percent of pages on Google get no
[00:01:31] James Breese: traffic. No, exactly. They don't. So we, we want to make sure you're part of the 4%, basically, to, to be here. So technical SEO is all about getting you found when people search for you in the, you know, in Google, basically.
[00:01:46] Let's just talk about Google, Yahoo, Bing, all those search engines. They make sure that you get found. So, yeah, there are kind of four or five elements to this. But the first thing is you need to understand is the technical SEO aspect. Right. And that is making sure you have [00:02:00] all the technical stuff in place.
[00:02:02] To allow your website to be read and found by Google, because Google use a special code to read your website. Basically, it's called schema code. So the schema code allows you to be found properly. It gets read by Google properly is part of the algorithm, and it makes sure it gets updated correctly. If you don't have this type of schema code on your website, it means you're going to be struggled to be found or you're It'll take longer for Google to find and index your pages.
[00:02:29] So that's really important. Okay. In terms of that. So do websites
[00:02:34] Josh Kennedy: not automatically come with schema in install?
[00:02:38] James Breese: Nope,
[00:02:39] Josh Kennedy: not at all. I would have thought in a sensible world, they would do. Well, you would have
[00:02:42] Andrew Wallis: thought so, wouldn't you? It would make sense. And I guess that's why so many websites aren't set up correctly, uh, enabling people to find them.
[00:02:51] So
[00:02:51] James Breese: interesting. It is, it's, you know, it's, it's something that you have to develop and there's different types of schema for different types of websites, different types of [00:03:00] posts, blog posts, reviews, videos, like there's different schema for different things. It's why we can rank so quickly so fast is because we know how to use the schema.
[00:03:09] For each of the pages and posts that we do. So don't get too caught up in what Schema is. The most important thing is you could understand is that in terms of technical SEO, you've got to set your website up to be found in Google. And that means first and foremost, making sure it goes into Google search console.
[00:03:25] Cause that's where the Schema starts, right? That's where everything gets started to get found. And you can tell and point to Google, your website exists. So your first thing is to point to Google search console, say this, your website exists. And then you can start building the schema code on top of that.
[00:03:41] That's essentially what you're trying to do. So first and foremost, right, I know this may be getting a little bit too technical for most people now, but you want to have and be found in Google Search Console. You want to make sure your website is mobile first, mobile ready. And you want to make sure that you have good metadata and the [00:04:00] metadata is what you call the headlines and the taglines of the top of each page that you use.
[00:04:05] That is a starting point. Right, I can go, I can go way more into this because there's about 10 or 12 different KPIs and stuff we can go into. But that is really important in the very simple layman's terms as best I possibly can. Get into Google Search Console, make your website mobile first, mobile friendly and have good metadata.
[00:04:25] Right. For each of the headlines of each of the pages, does that make sense to you guys? First and foremost, this is a
[00:04:30] Josh Kennedy: bite sized podcast. Remember James. So, uh, sorry. Right. Next one. It
[00:04:34] Andrew Wallis: makes sense. No, no. I was going to say it makes sense, but yeah, it can, I can understand why it seems overwhelming to, to the majority.
[00:04:43] So having somebody like ourselves that can, can guide them, um, it makes complete
[00:04:49] James Breese: sense to me. So that's, that's, that's a term of technical stuff. And there's, yeah. There you go. Yeah. So the next is on page SEO and that is the words you're using on your website to tell them what you do. So that one of the most [00:05:00] important things you can do is know who you're, what you are, what you're doing and who you're trying to attract.
[00:05:06] And then when you do that, you've got to use certain keywords. So, for example, let's say, let's use Simon Bradbrook from Stronger Bodies in Forest Hill. Indulge. Just outside Dulwich in London. So we're helping him rank his website highly at the moment. He's a personal trainer based in Forest Hill. So what are the words we're using a lot on this homepage?
[00:05:26] Personal trainer, Forest Hill. Those are the keywords. So you need to know what your keywords are. What do you do? Where do you do it? That's a really simple example, okay? That is what you've got to focus on and make sure that you have this type of keyword structure in place knowing what you're doing. Now, the other on page SEO stuff is to make sure you have good quality content that you spell properly.
[00:05:47] You can spell correctly. You have content long enough to be read. You don't need anything less. You need more than about 750 words ideally and about 2, 000 words for blog posts, that type of stuff. And you also have good calls to action. That's [00:06:00] the most important thing with on page SEO. Again, there's a whole other element inside to this, but in simple terms, know your audience and know what you do and where you do it.
[00:06:09] Josh Kennedy: Made sense. Uh, off page SEO. This one, I
[00:06:13] James Breese: definitely have. Right, here we go. This is, this is where off page SEO, this gets hard. So you want to build what we call domain authority for your website. You go from 0 to 100 in terms of domain authority. I'll give you an example. Google scores 100. It's one of the most popular, if not the most popular website in the whole world.
[00:06:32] So it scores 100. Strength Matters has a domain authority of 35 at time of writing. So most traders websites that we see Don't even have a domain authority because they don't even know what appointed to so it's between nought to five most of them But you want to try and increase this a domain authority So you see you're seen as a trusted resource in the eyes of Google and the only way to start doing this is creating a brand around yourself a persona and also getting other websites and [00:07:00] And companies to link back to your website because the more links and quality links you have, the more it tells Google your trustworthy website.
[00:07:08] So it's not just about building links. It's also having a good domain, good presence on social media. If you have lots of followers on social media and you have high interaction, Google takes those interactions into consideration too. So it all adds and builds your Your professional image essentially to Google to raise it up.
[00:07:26] So brands will always get elevated. So the bigger your brand you build, the more it's going to be. So the off page SEO is about link building and building authority with your social media. But also, making sure you have, don't have what we call bad links back to your website. For example, let's talk about the Russian attacks we had in 2016 17.
[00:07:47] Remember that Josh? Where we literally, people were literally trying to hack us for a whole month. And we had to fight them off tooth and nail to make sure they didn't get into us. But they were trying to use our website to distribute [00:08:00] all sorts of pornographic material. It was insane. It was so hard. But what happened is we got Google slapped, basically telling us that we were a terrible website because we were trying to share all this information around the world.
[00:08:12] So if you have links from websites going back to your website from bad links and bad Russian sites or sites or hackers, it's going to drop your authority in Google. So you gotta make sure you have Your reputation here intact and make sure no one's linking back to you in this way. And most people don't even know if anybody's linking to them at all.
[00:08:31] Here's a special
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[00:09:09] Josh Kennedy: I was going to say, if I had a website, I wouldn't have a clue. I wouldn't have a clue. So you probably need someone who knows what they're doing, right?
[00:09:15] James Breese: Yeah, exactly. And then one last thing on the off pay SEO.
[00:09:18] It's all about your brand reputation. So that means reviews, ideally Google reviews, Trustpilot reviews, Yelp reviews, all these types of reviews carry over to the quality of your website and what people are saying about you too. So there's a lot, there's a lot taking place here now. I appreciate it to be a short episode, but.
[00:09:38] That gives you some idea of what you need to be thinking about as well in terms of your website to share your presence online
[00:09:44] Josh Kennedy: Andrew, you've got a good, uh, quick tip on how many reviews you should have, haven't you? Yeah, a rule
[00:09:49] Andrew Wallis: of thumb that I was given was that for every year you've been in business, you should have 10, 10 reviews.
[00:09:56] Hopefully positive reviews, of course. Yeah, fingers crossed. [00:10:00] So, you know, quick maths, simple maths for a simple person. You know, if you've been in business 10 years, you'd have Um, baseline of a hundred
[00:10:07] Josh Kennedy: reviews. Yeah. I was gonna say at least a hundred reviews. So get on your reviews guys. Yeah. Uh, next one, James, local SEO.
[00:10:15] Keep it short and sweet
[00:10:15] James Breese: boy. Really short and sweet. Make sure, make sure all the businesses on Google, Google business can find you. So people search for you in the Google maps in Google business, you're listed on the local search terms of business. Think about it. If you're looking for a coffee shop near you, I keep saying this, but if you look at coffee shop.
[00:10:33] Where do people find you in the local guides, right? People review you there. So you need to be on Google, My Business, Google Maps, and start building relationships with local business who may be sharing links between you two. So that's really important, but not just Google. Think about Bing Business as well, because Bing is massively on the uptake because of ChatGBT4 and Apple Business too.
[00:10:54] So those three things would be on those places. So local people, local business can find you because it's all about [00:11:00] owning your backyard first. before trying to take over the world.
[00:11:03] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. And finally, uh, Google Algorithm.
[00:11:08] James Breese: Right, so, the Google Algorithm is the biggest algorithm in the world. It's the most popular, but it's similar to Bing, Yahoo, all these other databases too.
[00:11:17] So, you've got to remember this phrase. It's the double eat. E. E. A. T. Expertise, experience, authority and trust. That is Google's factors for ranking your website. So you've got to demonstrate experience, expertise, authority, and trust. So you've got to make sure you, what you're sharing is high quality. It's got to be great content almost, right?
[00:11:41] Great. And you know, with like a, almost like Tony the tiger style from like the Frosties adverts, like great, that type of thing. Right? So think about that. It's got to be great content. You've got to make sure and demonstrate your expertise, share what you know, be passionate about what you know, be authentic about what you know, okay, have good experience about what you're doing, [00:12:00] share your personal tips about it, right?
[00:12:02] People don't need to know the same old stuff, because guess what? AI is making everybody sound the same right now. Share your own unique experience on these certain factors, and that's what's going to help you rank higher. And authority and trust, it all comes down to all the other stuff I spoke about before.
[00:12:16] So the Google algorithm changes all the time. Right, which is good because it's got our user experience at heart. So you've got to benefit that so it's got to be quality content You can have a fast website that loads quickly because it's all like a user experience Like I just said and you've got to have quality content that people want to read and learn and understand and learn about And that is the google algorithm in a nutshell There you go.
[00:12:41] How about that and breathe?
[00:12:44] Josh Kennedy: Very good. Very good in terms of quickly in terms of load speed. We're talking seconds, right?
[00:12:49] James Breese: Milliseconds. Milliseconds. Milliseconds. Yeah, milliseconds. So Literally, if you go to your website Go to page speed insights or page speed [00:13:00] review by Google just type into Google and you'll find it See how fast your website is.
[00:13:05] If it isn't above 90 percent on both desktop and mobile, your website's too slow. Simple as that.
[00:13:12] Josh Kennedy: Uh, there we go. Yep. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe. And if all that sounded very technical and scary, uh, then we can help you out with that. If you go to strength matters.
[00:13:22] com forward slash audit, you can get yourself a free website audit.