So a while back, we grew a SaaS website from 0 to 200,000 monthly organic traffic in less than 2 years with zero active link-building. We ranked them for some very high-competition keywords (15 USD CPC and above), so thought you guys might appreciate the case study.

Tl;dr:

• Audited the client’s existing keyword sheet. Scrapped everything that wasn’t (at least loosely) related to the product (workflow software).
• Audited the content already published and marked a ton of the articles for a rewrite.
• Took over content operations. Established writing guidelines to make sure that the writing team created the right type of content from then on.
• Set up internal linking ops. Taught writers how to do internal linking right and made sure old/new content was linked together.
• Overhauled the blog visuals. Removed stock photos of “office people smiling” and added graphic CSS boxes that added value to the content.

Freebies: DM me for a link to our writer guidelines (as mentioned in the post below), an example of a content outline, site speed optimization checklist, and other free stuff.

Case Study - 0 to 200,000 Monthly Organic Traffic

Step #1 - Pick and Prioritize the Right Keywords

When we started working with the client, they already had a list of keywords they wanted to rank for, and some content pieces published on the blog.

There was, however, a major problem with their keyword strategy: it wasn't focused at all.

They were trying to rank for ALL sorts of keywords - computer science, workflow management, task management, and so on, without having any specific focus.

So, the first step was to revamp their keyword strategy (and practically start from scratch).

As a start, we decided to laser-focus on the following types of keywords:

• Workflow management keywords. These are self-explanatory - anyone that's interested in workflow management is probably also interested in workflow management software. Some keywords included: workflow improvement, workflow analysis, workflow system, and so on.
• Project management (PM) keywords. Workflow software is, technically, a substitute PM software. You can always use most workflow software solutions to manage tasks in addition to processes.
• Brand-jacking software comparison keywords. E.g. Asana vs Todoist, Basecamp VS Asana, etc. The reasoning here is that anyone interested in Asana might also be interested in the client's SaaS.

Then, we did some competitor keyword research. Sure, you c

Alright, so Google claims that Joe was born in 1990, and the Cobra Kai wiki and IMDB claims 1998. He was actually born in 1980 though. Proof? Visit his Facebook account, and you can see pics of him in 2006/2007, where is already a fully grown adult. He also appeared in Gridiron Gang and Freedom Writers (2006, 2007), looking like an adult. Also, he was a part of Crescenta Valley High School Class of 1998. Last, and final thing that almost confirms this, is this website: https://www.hancinema.net/korean_Joseph_Seo.php

This is a Korean cinema site. Prior to Cobra Kai, Joe moved to Asia for more acting roles, and he is sort of well-known there.

I've always had a little bit of trouble grasping programming logic concepts, so I am feeling a little accomplished that I was able to make my script work! Fairly basic script, but works exactly how I need it to work for my use case. I've just done the freecodecamp and udemy stuff and while I understood basic theory and syntax, making something that I can actually apply in a real world use case to was another story.

And in case anyone is curious, since I am a marketer by trade, it was a script to extract certain elements off a page (with an unknown total number of elements) to load into Google Tag Manager variables which are fed into our advertising platforms when certain events/triggers happen (user reaches thank you page confirmation, etc.)

If you’ve got anything bad to say about Fidelity, refer to them by name and nothing else.

Sure it’s tempting (and funny) to call them fudelity, but what you’re inadvertently doing is disconnecting their corporate identity from absolutely any wrongdoing they’ve been involved in.

Name them, explain who they are & what they’ve done, and make it loud. That way, SEO will allow people on the outside of Superstonk to hear you too.

Hold them to the flame of the fires they lit.

SEO Basics ✅

• Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster Tools

• Set up Google Analytics (GA)

• Install and configure an SEO plugin (Wordpress)

• Generate and submit a sitemap to GSC and Bing

• Create a Robots.txt

• Check Webmaster Tools for any manual actions

• Make sure the site is indexed

Keyword Research ✅

• Identify the competitors

• Find the main keywords

• Find long-tail keyword variations

• Create a keyword map

• Analyse the page intent of ranked results

• Make a list of questions being asked

• Check the target keyword difficulty

Technical SEO ✅

• Ensure the site is using HTTPS

• Check for duplicate versions of the site

• Check for crawl errors and fix them

• Improve site speed

• Check for broken internal and external links

• Find and fix HTTP links on HTTPS pages

• Use SEO-friendly URL structure

• Add schema markup

• Check the page depth

• Check for redirects (301 & 302)

On-Site + Content SEO ✅

• Check & fix duplicate or missing title tags

• Check & fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions

• Find & fix multiple H1 tags

• Improve title tags, meta descriptions and page content

• Perform a content audit and prune low performing content

• Add alt tags to images

• Improve internal linking

• Check for keyword cannibalisation

• Update content to ensure its still relevant

Off-Site SEO ✅

• Audit competitor backlinks

• Perform link intersect analysis

• Find and reach out to unlinked mentions

• Look for new link building opportunities

• Optimise Google My Business listing (GMB)

What would be the absolutely best process to acquire links with this budget every month?

I'm a newb, be gentle, but I have a good amount of people I can put to work.

Any steps on implementing a process for the best type of link outreach? I want to make sure I spend every dime as effectively as possible every month

Seo himself has claimed non-jokingly, multiple times, that he was born in 1998 and that he is currently 23 years old. However, this is obviously not true as he played characters in the mid two-thousands in movies where he looks fully grown. Other sources report that he was born on July 21, 1990, and is around 31 years old. This would mean Seo is using even a fake birth date, as he claims to have been born in August. There even goes so much as further reports of people saying they knew him in high school and that he graduated Crescenta Valley High in the class of 1998. This would place him at around 40 years old or over. Almost every report also gives his age as “presumably” or “roughly” instead of providing a definite date for his age. No matter how you look at it, there’s something fishy going on with Joe Seo’s age, and he is definitely not 23.

Just looking at current qualifications for some employers on indeed it seems to be a buzzword that shows up fairly often? At my current job (not web dev just e-commerce) I don’t really understand how to optimize for SEO that well and it seems like an abstract concept to me as there is no real right way to do it.

Do you guys think this is a skill I should take seriously and learn? Can I learn it well? Do you guys have to know this when you found your jobs as web developers??

Question in the title. I've noticed lately there is a trend of making the root of a drop-down menu on a marketing site not clickable. Why are people doing this? All the research I've ever read and my experience tells me that having a root element clickable is better for ux, accessibility and SEO.

Are people only doing this because of the shift to focusing on mobile? Or is there new data?

Example: Stripe.com

Same goes for hamburger menus, the data shows they're not the best experience but people keep doing them.

title

Hi there,

I work for an SaaS company and we're looking to bring on a blog writer who has experience with SEO to write a 1000-1500 word blog every week.

The topics will vary but will generally center around things that small to medium sized businesses may find interesting.

If you'd like to apply please DM your portfolio as well as an email you can be reached at.

Cheers,

Jared

I have a very specific SEO issue that I need consultation on. However, every agency that I talk to assures me that they can fix it, but won't give me any details on how unless I commit to their 5 figure productized service.

The whole thing strikes me as very snake oily. I just want to talk to someone knowledgeable about the issue for 2-3 hours but I have no idea how to find someone who is both knowledgeable and will consult by the hour.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

EDIT: I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who reached out directly to offer help. Awesome suggestions for what might be going on. I really appreciate the free advice.

Also, I shit on a couple of people who came into this thread prospecting for business. I regret that - I shouldn't have done it. I recognize that people with knowledge about how to solve a problem should be compensated for that knowledge. I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with salespeople.

I'm Kevin Gibbons, founder and CEO at specialist SEO agency Re:signal.

I've been involved in the search industry since 2003, running an SEO agency since 2006. In that time, I have experienced the highs, lows and everything in-between. If you want to learn from mistakes, I've made more than I care to remember - but I'm still standing and grateful for the learnings it's brought along the way.

Background:

• 2003: failed at uni, got into SEO industry, earning affiliate income / beer money
• 2006: travelled to Australia for a year + started an agency (SEOptimise)
• 2007-2012: fast growth, grew to £1m+ revenue (Deloitte fast 50 growth listed), built a fantastic team, worked with incredible brands, and built a strong reputation as a leading UK agency
• 2012-2013: world fell apart (my dad died of cancer), I decided to leave agency I founded because I wasn't enjoying it (hindsight I wasn't enjoying life), merged with a US company (BlueGlass) which quickly became a disaster and collapsed.
• 2013-2018: picked up the pieces, focused back on core of what we're good at (SEO + content marketing), won amazing client brands (Expedia, Better Gyms, Healthspan), very proud to have won UK Search Personality of the Year (only won by 6-7 people), listed for 2nd time as Deloitte Fast 50 company and the FT's fastest growing companies in Europe.
• 2018-2019: very challenging time, went through a divorce + share buyback, extremely close to being financially bankrupt and had to make hard decisions to down-size the team, office and cost base due to large drops in revenue. 100% believed in Re:signal and the team were unbelievable in getting behind me and helping to get us back on track.
• 2020-2021: turned a big corner with client wins (ASICS + other well known brands)... covid hit, went backwards... turned another corner... won more incredible clients, won Best Small SEO Agency (alongside what is now 30x Search Award wins), built a senior leadership team and grew Re:signal into the £2m agency it is today.

Phew... and those are just some of the high/low lights!

Hopefully from that you can see being an agency founder is an emotional rollercoaster...

I do my best to not get too carried away on the successes, and equally not too down on the lows. I won't lie, it's f'ing tough at times. But looking back, I feel very lucky. I've made a lot of very good friends in this industry, I'm extremely grateful for the care

Hey guys!

So I've seen the question of hiring writers pop up on just about every SEO sub, so thought I'd make a mega-comprehensive post to share our experiences with it. The guys at Just Start loved the post, so thought I'd share here too.

For context, I've sourced and vetted thousands of writers from literally every sources - Facebook ads, groups, problogger, job boards, referrals, and so on.

And yeah, the entire process is a pain in the ass. Most writers you source WILL suck, and you'll end up spending long hours sourcing, vetting, and trialing these writers.

Luckily, there ARE ways to make the process of writers less of a pain. In this post, I'll teach you what worked for us so far.

Freebies: For free stuff, DM me. Includes content outline example, SEO learning track, free local SEO checklist, and a bunch of other stuff. No opt-in or any of that BS required. There's a limit of how many people I can DM on Reddit so, if you want the freebies, YOU need to dm ME. If you really dig this post, I'd appreciate it if you subscribed to my subreddit, /r/seogrowth <3

So, first thing's first - let's start with:

Writer Sourcing by the Numbers

When sourcing writers, here's the general picture we get:

• When you post a job ad on almost any online job board, you'll get around 100 plus applicants. For some job boards, this can be up to 200 - 300. ProBlogger, specifically, gets us a TON of applicants.
• If you source around 100 writers total, you'll see that:
• 90/100 of those writers are going to suck. That's just part of the game, nothing you can do.
• Around 3-5 out of those 100 are going to be the "I wrote for Forbes and charge a dollar per word" type. You won't be able to hire those without breaking bank big-time.
• The final 5 of the 100 writers sourced are going to look good on paper. If you trial all 5 of them, chances are, you'll end up hiring 1-2. You'll discover that one of them is commiting identity theft (cosplaying a good writer), and another is not as good as they claim to be (they worked with an amazing editor, so their samples don't represent the quality you'll be getting).
• So, at the end of the day, from sourcing 100 writers and trialing 5, you end up hiring 1-2 writers tops.

So the lesson here is, hiring writers is a numbers game. You have to source and vet a whole lot of them if you want to make a handful of hires.

Sourcing Writers

Here's a list of writer sourcing channels that worked for us, sorted by how well they

I woke up the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and as I ate my morning breakfast I thought to myself today's going to be a good day. I went to my computer pulled up all of my client's sites and began going through the data in order to check their rankings for any movement. Everything seemed to check out with many of them keeping on pace and making steady improvements until I got to the last website.

This website belonged to a remodeling company that was relatively new to my SEO services and for some reason, I noticed an unusual increase in the total number of links they had gained for the month. Now don't get me wrong I do backlinking services as part of my SEO process but I noticed almost 500 backlinks over the course of 2 days which isn't something I recommend or preach to my clients. I always explain quality or quantity when it comes to backlinking, and let me tell you these links were definitely quantity. Many of them were spammy sites with absolutely no power, and a large portion of them weren't even niche relevant.

I decided to call my client and see if they knew anything about this or if it was a competitor trying to mess with our site. After going through the typical introduction I asked said "Hey so I noticed a ton of new links on the website but I didn't add them, do you know anything about this?. He told me about the Fiverr guy he had hired for backlinks to help out and was going to text me about it. I didn't really break it to him that the links were awful as his heart was in the right place, but I told him that I wouldn't use Fiverr in the future for links and that in order for this to work we really have to be on the same page at all times so it might be best to consult me when it comes to SEO related decisions because aside from actually doing the work that's what I'm here for. He agreed, but it looks like I know what I'll be doing for the next few days. Disavowing bad links..........

Has anyone applied and heard back about final decisions? The website says that admissions decisions should be coming out sometime this week. I have been actively refreshing my inbox haha. Does anyone also know the time commitment per week and logistics of the program once it starts in February?

Hello,

I hired an SEO agency recently to help me rank for some keywords and we are 1 month into the work. I am currently paying around $2500 a month for their work. So far, they've created a 2,000 word count blog post for my website and that's about it so far. The agreement was to have on-site optimization, backlink outreach, and blogging done.

Right now, they want to wait for the google update volatility to settle before they make any changes or continue with their work.

Is this a normal procedure? My issue is I can't afford to just pay them to sit idle while they wait for the google update volatility to settle. I need to see some sort of progress on a weekly basis that work is being done and we are moving forward. If that was the case, It would've been smarter financially to just hire them a month after the google December update because right now in my shoes, I feel like I am just paying for this month for 1 blog post and that's about it.

Update #1: So it sounds like I'm getting the runaround and being taken advantage of. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow and have them explain their work. If they continue to give me excuses I will shame their company here so the next business won't be taken advantage of.

Update #2 Red Flag Discovery. I decided to look up their team members on their about profile and it seems they are all using stock images of their employees.... none of them are real. This isn't looking good for me.

Austria declared that Google Analytics is in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In short 1)Austria does not believe the data has adequate protection during its transfer to US 2) US laws do not protect data of non-citizens the same as its own citizens

How do you think SEO roles will be impacted by this decision?

*Wired article “Europe’s Move Against Google Analytics Is Just the Beginning” is a solid overview of the situation

Hello there.

I've recently started working for a digital marketing agency and they've dumped a load of half-abandoned SEO projects on me and no training or support whatsoever. The onboarding process was more or less a pat on the back and an email that contained SEMRush credentials.

I have a rich copywriting background and my content-related SEO skills are fairly decent, but when it comes to the more technical stuff I'm at a loss.

At this point, it's obvious that it falls to me to figure out everything on my own - there's nobody in the agency I can turn to, and I really can't afford to mess this up. I kinda have to go from SEO zero to SEO hero as quickly as possible.

What would you have me do?

Hey guys, decided to do this again since the last 2 threads were super interesting and got a lot of love.

Tl;dr, you drop your website down in the comments and I give you feedback on how/what you can improve. Here's how this works:

1. You drop a link to your site in the comments.
2. You let me know the scope of the roast. Do you need comments on copy? SEO? Something else?
3. You add any other relevant information that you think I should know. E.g. "we published 100 articles and none are ranking" or "our landing page just doesn't seem to convert"

As usual, the roasting is first come first serve, and will continue for the next few hours till I OD on the roasting.

If the sites are particularly interesting, might also come back to this tomorrow.

Why should you care about my feedback: I've been in marketing for quite a while now and have helped drive 6 and 7 digit traffic numbers to several SaaS sites. I also happen to be real good at roasting after the last 2 threads ;)

If you dig the roast, I'd appreciate if you checked out my sub, /r/seogrowth.

So, let's do go!

Edit: I'm done for today, but I'll get back to this tomorrow morning so keep em' coming!

Heya,

We're a digital agency from London. We've tried different web builders between our projects and clients over the years. Some were easier to work with than others. What is the best web builder/platform in your experience?

1. Webflow
2. WordPress
3. Squarespace
4. Wix
5. Duda
6. Manually coding
7. Something else?

Hey, I was wondering what tools are available that would help me find the best keywords to use to enhance my SEO, what are the best tools free and premium

So let me start by saying that I know this question is subjective.

However, I see a lot of reputable agencies charging a between $3,000 - $10,000 per month for managed SEO, and I was trying to understand how they justify that?

Basically, I was hoping for some examples to help me see the effect SEO has on different companies bottomlines.

That will help me calculate the ROI I would be able to provide prospective clients, which in turn will inform whether I’m a good fit for them and whether I’m charging enough.

Looking forward to your answers!

To preface this I would like to start out by saying that my current full-time job is to run the SEO department at a Digital Marketing Agency. It is quite literally my job to be as knowledgeable in this field as possible.

What Is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the practice of optimizing a website, through both on-page and off-page tactics, to try and show as high as possible in organic search results (You know those search results buried down beneath an ever-increasing number of ads

Let's go over some other important information to understand before I dive in. Google hosts roughly 92% of search engine traffic. Bing, Duck Duck Go, Yahoo all have their own search algorithm but the one that is studied most often is Google for obvious reasons.

It is estimated by experts that the Google algorithm is updated between 500-600 times a year. The industry is constantly evolving, Something that worked to achieve a ranking 2 months ago might now be responsible for your Rankings tanking. This is especially true for what is considered "Black Hat SEO" Which is the name given to SEO Tactics that are designed to exploit the algorithm for ranking instead of having good on-page and good Off-page SEO.

Why Are you writing this?

Great question, I have noticed an extreme uptick in posts trying to explain SEO and how the way we speak is hurting SEO for Reddit. I am sorry to burst every one of your bubbles but in terms of SEO, we are fighting a battle we literally cannot win by design.

This post was top awarded and collected 53 awards in 9 hours and is completely false, an awfully convenient way to slide real info

Google's Purpose as a Search Engine

To show as many ads as possible. Here is Googles Official wording from The Search Quality Raters Guide "Search engines exist to help people find what they are looking for. To do that, search engines must provide a diverse set of helpful, high quality search results, presented in the most helpful order." So how do they decide what websites that fit these criteria? The use hundreds of different ranking factors, and Google isn't exactly offering

First month is all about meeting the people, understanding the product, etc. but the videos I'm watching show of implementing a small change after each month along with general 30-60-90 day tasks. Maybe I'm over thinking it but I don't think a simple new blog would suffice as an impactful change to my first 30 days.

Experienced SEO professionals, what are some things you did that made you successful when starting a new role?

So a while back, we grew a SaaS website from 0 to 200,000 monthly organic traffic in less than 2 years with zero active link-building. We ranked them for some very high-competition keywords (15 USD CPC and above). The SEO sub really liked the case study so thought you guys might dig it too.

Tl;dr:

• Audited the client’s existing keyword sheet. Scrapped everything that wasn’t (at least loosely) related to the product (workflow software).
• Audited the content already published and marked a ton of the articles for a rewrite.
• Took over content operations. Established writing guidelines to make sure that the writing team created the right type of content from then on.
• Set up internal linking ops. Taught writers how to do internal linking right and made sure old/new content was linked together.
• Overhauled the blog visuals. Removed stock photos of “office people smiling” and added graphic CSS boxes that added value to the content.

Freebies: There's a bunch of free resources I mention in the post below (content outline examples, writer guidelines, and so on). You can grab them on this Google Doc here, no email opt-in or other BS required <3

If you find the resources useful, though, I'd really appreciate if you subscribed to my subreddit, /r/seogrowth. I post SEO tips and case studies on the daily and stuff <3

So, on to the post:

Case Study - 0 to 200,000 Monthly Organic Traffic

Step #1 - Pick and Prioritize the Right Keywords

When we started working with the client, they already had a list of keywords they wanted to rank for, and some content pieces published on the blog.

There was, however, a major problem with their keyword strategy: it wasn't focused at all.

They were trying to rank for ALL sorts of keywords - computer science, workflow management, task management, and so on, without having any specific focus.

So, the first step was to revamp their keyword strategy (and practically start from scratch).

As a start, we decided to laser-focus on the following types of keywords:

• Workflow management keywords. These are self-explanatory - anyone that's interested in workflow management is probably also interested in workflow management software. Some keywords included: workflow improvement, workflow analysis, workflow system, and so on.
• Project management (PM) keywords. Workflow software is, technically, a substitute PM soft