TRENDING: The All-In-One Digital Marketing Software
Stephan Spencer is the author of Google Power Search co-author of The Art of SEO, and co-author of Social eCommerce, all published by O’Reilly. Stephan founded Netconcepts in 1995 and grew it into a multi-national SEO agency before selling it in 2010 to Covario. Stephan is the inventor of the pay-for-performance SEO technology platform GravityStream, now part of the Rio SEO toolset.
“The secret to success is to become outcome-focused. Identify your ultimate outcome or goal, then concentrate on that outcome with laser-like focus. Once you achieve it, you set a new goal rather than resort to working down the list of lower return activities.”
“Links are the currency of the web. Not only do their drive traffic in their own right, but they also are essential to high search engine rankings. Without good inbound links to your web site, your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts won’t get off the ground.”
“Sales is an art and science. Some of us are born salespeople, while others need years of training. Some even try to avoid selling altogether. Unfortunately, if you run a business, you’re going to have to deal with sales on some level.”
“The truth is, organic traffic and SEO are not going anywhere anytime soon. Google is unlikely to move to a 100% paid search model and even if organic clicks decline further, optimization will only become more important, as you will be fighting with your competitors over a smaller slice of the search pie.”
“Persuasion is a key skill every salesperson should have. After all, how can you make the sale if you can’t make a persuasive argument?”
“There’s no magic bullet to increase conversions. What works for one business may not translate to another. If you want to boost your conversions, unfortunately, you have to put in the work.”
“The best way to avoid a drop in traffic in the first place is to ensure that you are adhering to best practice guidelines. If you’re not sure what that means for your site, it could be a worthwhile investment to talk to an SEO consultant before you start feeling the effects of an algorithm update.”
“Think about SEO activities as arrows in your quiver to reach your outcome. You may only need to use a few of those arrows. When you’ve reached your target, stop using those arrows.”
“If you don’t have an exit strategy, you have a very expensive job — meaning it’s a job you can never quit, one with terrible hours, full of stress, with rare or nonexistent vacations, and paychecks that may or may not come depending on the cash flow of the business (you pay yourself last, right?).”
“Effective search engine optimization (“SEO”) starts with keyword research. Chasing after the wrong keywords is a waste, costing you the time and effort you have put into search engine optimization.”
Geoff Breitling: If you want to build or scale a 7 figure SEO agency, you should watch this short video.