What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#1

Post by romain_g » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)
salon.thefamily.co

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#2

Post by saagarjha » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:13 PM UTC

> Connect your website to all the services that Google offers: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google My Business, YouTube… Google did not create them to please you. It created them to collect and analyze as much information about you as possible.

:(

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#3

Post by alexis_fr » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

> I must warn you: blog topics will seem really boring. That’s normal. You’re writing for Google, not really to bring lots of value to users. (But don’t worry, they only look at the pictures )

It always makes me sad that the sad state of the web is imposed by an artificial decision.

Good article, very different from past years where repeating a keyword was useful.

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#4

Post by mojuba » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:23 PM UTC

> Connect your website to all the services that Google offers: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google My Business, YouTube… Google [...] created them to collect and analyze as much information about you as possible.

Or rather, as much information about the users as possible. Add Google Fonts to the mix, also the hosted JS frameworks. Anything hosted by Google that is requested via your web site is information about the visitor for Google. This is evil in its purest form, but if you are to play the game then play it in full.

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#5

Post by franze » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

i have done seo since 2004 and now i'm leaving it behind for good. (reason: new google search console, amp, featured snippets and google ads the first 4 results anyway ... google lost its way a long time ago, they are internet cancer by now)

as i am leaving SEO for good, im selling my SEO book for 1€/$ (Kindle Version, i can't set it to 0)

https://www.fullstackoptimization.com/b/understanding-seo

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#6

Post by emerongi » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

The real SEO is getting backlinks. They dominate every other aspect. Getting a high rank through "natural" SEO is really hard.

I know someone who makes $12MM/year from high-ranking websites in extremely competitive keywords... and it's all about peddling links, really. The first page of results rarely has any correlation with quality (of information/product) and more than likely the correlation is actually negative. You will find content written by non-experts who mostly just summarize Wikipedia articles, but littered with unimportant info to hit keywords. Searching for a product? First page will be dominated by whoever has more $$.

I grew up with Google and it really feels like it was a different time back then. I Googled "how to make a website" as a teenager, found out about PHP and started studying PHP documentation. From there I expanded into other languages and eventually built a career. Today you Google "how to make a website" and you will be guided through a WordPress installation on a hosting website with a $5 monthly subscription. That's literally a website by the guy I mentioned making $12MM/year - he takes a cut from each referral.

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#7

Post by chiefalchemist » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:35 PM UTC

SEO is a tool. The myth is it's free. That's not so. It takes time. It's certain possible it's a tool that's not for you. That you get better marketing ROI elsewhere.

SEO is a good thing. But it's not always the best investment.

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#8

Post by seibelj » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:39 PM UTC

Use keyword search tool to find searches that have no high quality results. Then write a blog post for that topic and post the link casually on Reddit comments, twitter, etc. then wait a few weeks and it will be the #1 result. I have used this strategy for several years, it basically comes down to writing quality content on topics that don’t have any content.

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#9

Post by whsheet » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

Nice content marketing piece and guide for an SEO beginner but I stopped reading here:

> all with a 95% SEO acquisition strategy

That's so wrong. Free organic traffic is great. But if you rely fully on organic traffic, it rather shows that your LTV is not bigger than your CAC and if Google or competition kills your search traffic, your business is done and/or you can't scale when your mighty SEO doesn't work anymore.

Re: What I’ve learned about SEO (2018)

#10

Post by rolltiide » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

Just run instagram story ads

ZERO of those users will ever care or even notice your URL. Dont waste time on that

ZERO of those users will ever type in a search string on Google to find you

MANY of those users can order from you with their phone’s native payment system, or will pull out their credit card and type it in using the crude mobile interface.

It also works really well.

Really should consider ditching a lot of last decade’s logic. And by last decade I mean that the 2020s is starting in 3 months. What even are your goals? Identifying that there are SEO optimizations doesnt mean they arent irrelevant optimizations to earning revenue. Are we still trying to drive traffic to ad supported food blogs so that 0.2% of “people” accidentally click them? Come on. You want recurring revenue from your SaaS service or reselling crap from Alibaba to hipsters at a 1,000% mark up.