Speaker 1: 0:54

Hello and welcome to. Seo is not that hard. I'm your host, ed Dawson, the founder of the SEO intelligence platform, keywordspeopleusercom, where we help you discover the questions people ask online and learn how to optimize your content to build traffic and authority. I've been in SEO and online marketing for over 20 years and I'm here to share the wealth of knowledge, hints and tips I've amassed over that time. Hello and welcome back to SEO is not that hard. Me here at Dawson hosting, as always, and today is where I'm going to talk to you about my growth process.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Now, this is the episode that I promised two weeks ago when I did an episode about accountability. So if you didn't hear that episode, basically what I was saying that whole episode was about how, fundamentally, if you, the more you tell people you're going to do something, the more you are then held accountable to do that thing. Now you don't have to tell the world you're going to do something, but if you've got just somebody or a group of people who can hold you accountable to that you're going to do something and you keep them updated on it, you're more likely you are to start it, get on with it and then complete it. And I finished that episode if you want to hear more about it. There's loads of ways of doing it. Go and listen to the episode two weeks back from now, just titled accountability. Now, at the end of that episode. Right, I'm going to use everyone here listens to the podcast as my accountability partners to help me get something done that I've been trying to do and wanting to do for a couple of years now. Even though I've had a few false starts at it and sort of started and then stopped, I actually wanted to use the accountability method to actually make sure I actually produced it this time. So, yeah, I've co-opted everyone listening to be my accountability partners and to help me with this.

Speaker 1: 2:37

Now, if you go to the show notes, you'll see a document I've shared in there called the growth outline. Now, this is the document I held myself to you guys to keep me accountable on Two weeks ago. I said in two weeks time I will produce this document, this outline, so that you can see it and therefore you can help hold me accountable. So the fact if I don't produce it, you guys can say why haven't you produced it? You said you're going to produce it. Well, I have produced it because I didn't want to come to you and say, oh, you know, I didn't manage it, which, by the way, on the accountability method, is fine to be able to come back and say, actually, I didn't manage to do what I was going to do. But as long reason, you can show what you have done and you can explain what you're going to do going forward. You know, no one's perfect. Everyone has issues, life gets in the way sometimes. But I've produced it as promised. So if you go to the show notes, I've put a link to a version of the document in google docs that anyone with the link can view. So if you want to, before I go through it, if you want to pause the episode, go find the document, open it up and then come back and listen to the rest. That would be great. If you haven't been able to do that right now, do listen through. Still. I will try and explain, as we're going along, what's in that document. Okay, so this document is essentially it's just the outline of what I plan to produce. So it's very high level and yet its subjects change. Hopefully, if anyone's got any feedback, anything you think should add or even remove, then do let me know. But this is like the outline that I'm working on.

Speaker 1: 4:10

So, first of all, the growth framework. Why am I calling it the growth framework? Well, that's because A it really helps things. If you give a framework a name, a process, a name, then it helps people remember it when you refer to it. It's just good to have a name, like projects have a name, all sorts of things. It gives something a name, it makes it more tangible for people and easier for them to remember. So I've used GROWTH, because I'm a big fan of acronyms, so that you know the name of the framework says something in itself. So GROWTH, you know we're trying to grow our traffic, we're trying to grow our businesses, we're trying to grow our websites. So growth is a good name because that's what we're trying to aim for.

Speaker 1: 4:48

And also we can actually break down each section of the process to be one of the letters within the acronym. So it actually stands for, and I'll cover each one in a little bit of detail as we go on is gather, refine, optimize, tune and hone. Okay, but we'll go through each one individually. So the first section is the philosophy intro. So a lot of you listen to podcasts with who we talk about my philosophy. You know how I've always built sites for people by looking at answering their questions and then the whole process of doing that. So this is first section is just to say, yeah, this is who I am, this is what the philosophy is, this is how it's worked, this is how I've used it and also this is how keywords people use fits into this.

Speaker 1: 5:33

But I am do want to highlight that I want this framework to not rely completely on keywords people use, because you know there are other tools that individually do parts of the things that keywords people used to some not so well, some equivalent, some nearly equivalent, but there's not one that does everything that we've got in there, because obviously keywords people use has been designed around this process. But you know, some people might only want one part of the process. Some people, um, you know you can actually do it by hand if you want to, because that's what I used to do years ago. We didn't have the tools to help us do this, so we had to do it by hand. So it is still possible to replicate the process. It's a little bit more long. We'd obviously without tools, but you know I want it to be tool agnostic essentially, even though we will obviously talk about curious people using and how people can accelerate how they do things with it.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So that's the section A bit of an intro, so that someone's reading this for the first time. They get a flavour of who I am, why and how we developed this, how it worked and how there are tools to help do this. Then we go into the framework, which is the main section of the document. So this is going to be broken up First of all, a framework outline. So that's a brief, high level overview of the framework before we get into each interval section. So just to introduce it, what the aims are, what we're trying to get out of it, and then we'll go into each section in process in in turn. So the first one is gather. That's where we'll talk about why questions are so important to the process and how we can mine and discover questions. And then tips on searching strategies the kind of strategies I use when I'm searching and because it's not just a case of putting in one c keyword, obviously there's little strategies and tips for how you can come back and refine those searches. Then we'll go into the refine section and this is where we cluster things, this is where we take the big list of questions that we found and then how we refine those into clusters and how we interpret those clusters, how we prioritize those clusters ready for creating our content. Then we come to the optimize section. This is where we're going to.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Obviously, I will talk here a little bit about the right medium, because, although primarily a lot of people use this for written content doesn't necessarily have to be. There are people out there who create youtube, tiktoks, all sorts podcasts. I use it for podcasts out of this. So we'll talk about the right medium, whether it's better to create or update content, when you should be looking at doing one or the other some basic on-page best practice and how to think about user experience and how you might also put it into not just written content but maybe into other other forms of content as well, like tools, for example, when you can start to see patterns for how a tool might answer this or where you might want to use programmatic, that kind of thing. So this is a little bit about how to choose the right path to optimize based on the information you've found and how you've refined it. Obviously, I don't want this to be a big, massive SEO guide, because this is not what this document is trying to be. This is not what this guide is trying to be. It's not trying to be a complete SEO guide, but it wants to mention, probably just some of the basics for people to think about, just so they're top of mind, just so that you know that it is important to think about how you're content, not just splurging it out.

Speaker 1: 8:50

Then we move on to the next section, which is watch, and this is where we want to be monitoring how our content performs and how people are interacting with it. So this will talk about the kind of data you want to watch, and google search console data in particular, tips, what to monitor and why, maybe some tool recommendations for third party tools that you can use for doing this monitoring. So that's basically. Yeah, every time we want to create some new content, we need to put on a watching brief so that we see how it starts to get indexed, how it starts to queries it starts to rank for and how people start to interact with, and also talk about how long this kind of process might take, because new content can take longer, especially on newer sites, than existing content on well-established sites. So just little things like that.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Then we get to the tune section and this is where I'll talk about how you can improve the visibility and rankings by comparing your google search console data, particular to your on-page content to identify growth opportunities. So this is how the keywords people use, how we've built the tool which will download your Google Search Console data, go and crawl your actual site so we can understand the content and then compare the two to see where those opportunities are for improving existing content and then also tips for how to improve the content based on the data that's found. Because obviously, when I've been demoing this to people, you know there's various stages where you know it might. You need to identify what the best opportunities you have for making changes and then also how to implement those changes in a way that is good, natural, enhances the user experience and enhances the content on the site, rather than just trying to jam in queries and keywords sort of at random.

Speaker 1: 10:28

And then we come to the final section, which is hone and repeat, and this is where I really want to just construct and tell people this is not a one and done process. Okay, this is a process that you iterate over again and again to build a flywheel that constantly grows and improves your content, your visibility, your rankings and your clicks. This is all about how you know seo is never a one and done, but this is just to emphasize how you know you constantly need to look at your content, what you need to create new, what you need to optimize on existing content, and how doing so will build that flywheel. So this is like the home and repeat section. So that's basically covering the framework and within that I'll obviously put examples of how to do it. I'll show the kind of you know. I'll show be showing screenshots of how you do it on the tool, like explain how you can do it without the tool, all those kind of things. So that's the the whole kind of section. Obviously try and look at putting graphics in and explainers, that kind of thing. Then going to a case studies section now this and it's that kind of thing. Then go into a case studies section Now this, and it's highlighted in yellow on the actual document so you can't miss it. This is where I need your help If you've been following any of the tips and strategies and the processes that I've shared on the podcast, because essentially, if you've listened to podcasts long enough, you know this stuff, not putting this in the order I've put it and not putting one document.

Speaker 1: 11:38

I've sort of brain dumped this onto you over all the time. You've listened to this. So if you've been following any of my advice and you've had success on this, can I feature you in this section? Now I understand you know some people, quite rightly, don't want to necessarily share exactly what their niches is or exactly what their sites are. I can anonymize this and I can share broad details. You don't want to share exact details but again, I know some people out there. You've got sites where actually you want to promote that. You own the site, you want to promote your site and this could be an opportunity as well as doing me a great big favor. Also, to have you featured in here will give you a boost as well, because then you'll get other people will see and maybe share your example and that could help boost your seo as well as doing me a great favor. So if you want to be, if you're interested in doing that, then drop me an email at ed. At keywords, people, usecom. The email is in the document and we can have a chat. Love to speak to you on that.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Then we come to a frequently asked question section. So obviously the philosophy is all about answering people's questions. I'm going to make sure that any questions that I think that aren't answered within the document we've gone along I will put in here. And again, this is another part your help would be invaluable on. If you've got any questions about philosophy, if there's anything that you want to add in, do get in touch with me. And again, I'm going to be sharing more of this as I go through and write different parts of the process. Questions come up, let me know, I can get them in there on the FAQ. And then of the process, questions come up, let me know, I can get them in there on the faq. And then finally, we'll have a wrap-up section just to sort of, you know, to conclude, to go through the broad details again and to sign off, show people where to go for more info, ask nicely for reviews and shares, because obviously we want reviews and shares or anything we do and then, very final thing at the end, and more resources.

Speaker 1: 13:20

So this will be just anything else I can think needs sharing. This might be links to other other things like tools I might have mentioned if I've mentioned microsoft clarity, for example, or google search console anywhere. I've said here's something else just just be a big list of resources, a bio of me and a bio of keywords people use and anything else. If there's anything else you think should go in there, do let me know. So this is where I've got to. So this is what I'm sharing. I'd love any feedback. I'd love to hear specific, especially if anyone wants to be involved with those case studies as faqs. Um, that would be amazing. Um, so, yeah, let me know what you think. All feedback is welcome. Just drop me feedback, ed, which is e double d at keycom. So that's it for today. Hopefully, um, you're going to check that out and um, yeah, until next time.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Oh, I don't, I shouldn't do my sign off just yet, because I need because this is an accountability thing, of course to say when I am next going to get something available for you to look at. So let me look at the calendar, right? So february the 7th, I will come back with my next update. I should really say the bit that I'm going to work on first. I will work on the philosophy intro. Hopefully I will have by february the 7th, the philosophy intro at least first draft ready and to share and maybe more, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna commit to the philosophy intro being ready on, yeah, friday, february the 7th. So now, after adding that bit in, I can now do my sign off. So until next time, keep optimizing, stay curious and remember seo is not that hard when you understand the basics. Thanks for listening. It means a lot to me.

Speaker 1: 15:06

This is where I get to remind you where you can connect with me and my seo tools and services. You can find links to all the links I mentioned here in the show notes. Just remember, with all these places where I use my name, that ed is spelled with two d's. You can find me on linkedin and blue sky. Just search for ed dawson on both.

Speaker 1: 15:21

You can record a voice question to get answered on the podcast. The link is in the show notes. You can try our SEO intelligence platform, keywords People Use at keywordspeoplesusecom, where we can help you discover the questions and keywords people are asking online. Poster those questions and keywords into related groups so you know what content you need to build topical authority. And finally, connect your Google Search Console account for your sites so we can crawl and understand your actual content, find what keywords you rank for and then help you optimize. Continually refine your content, targeted, personalized advice, keep your traffic growing. If you're interested in learning more about me personally or looking for dedicated consulting advice, then visit wwweddawsoncom. Bye for now and see you in the next episode of sgo. Is not that hard.