SEO Evolution: My Ever Changing Views on SEO
My views on effective SEO strategies and tactics are definitely changing. Everything seems to be in constant flux now. This is SEO Evolution.
It was only a short 33 days ago that I was so sold on the efficacy of "low hanging fruit" keywords, asking so many enthusiastic questions about the best ways to use such low competition keywords in great content I could write, the nuances of how meta titles and descriptions by themselves affect your rankings, and how important were my permalinks.
Indeed, my actions taken so far have certainly succeeded in getting my site’s landing page, over 160 alt text images, and blog posts indexed and ranked on Google Page 1, 2 under certain keyword search terms.
Did you hear that?
Let me repeat that: my website, my over 160 alt text images that link to my site, my You Tube videos, my Facebook Page and posts, my local directories listings, and blog posts are now ranked on Google Pages 1 and 2 for certain keywords even when doing an incognito search.
You would think that would be a great thing, right?
Well it is, but…..
This doesn’t tell the entire story.
My SEO Journey
Here’s what I’ve done so far, and continue to do to try to improve my SEO site health:
1) Researching and finding great relevant "low hanging fruit" long-tail keywords for my niche in Jaaxy. (QSR <100, searches >40). I continue to find different long-tail keywords related to my niche and to include them in my new content.
2) Writing great content using many niche-relevant "low hanging fruit" long-tail keywords within the content of 8 blog long posts on my website and in WA.
3) Organically without checking my word count, I’m continuing to write such content with each new blog post anywhere between 1700-2500+ words. That is long form, and is something that Google sees as very favorable.
My SEO Results for 5 Great Keywords:
Take a look at these screenshots viewed from an incognito search window when I type in one of my (5) low competition keywords and ANY permutation of “Kaju” in them (in parentheses):
Here are the results for all keywords. Notice I am typing without quotes:
1) kaju party band
Permutations: (part kaju band | kaju band party | band kaju party | party band kaju)
On Google Pg 1, my website on top, my,blog, several of my over 80+ You Tube videos, my Reverb nation my local directory listings (Yelp, The Knot, Wedding Wire), my Facebook page and post, Tumblr, and new WA blog posts take up ALL 10 spots.
And on Google Page 2, three of the first five spots are taken - and there's even a 5 star review from my Yelp listing:
In fact, my website, blog, Reverb nation, You Tube videos, Facebook page, and 3 different local directories (Yelp, The Knot, Wedding Wire) all DOMINATE Google pages 1 and 2, with 13 entries carrying over 1.5 million results.
2) kaju off the hook
Permutations: (off the hook kaju | off the kaju hook | kaju off hook | )
And on Google Page 2, three of the first five spots are taken - and there's even a 5 star review from my Yelp listing:
3) Most Exciting Party Band
Okay for this keyword I'm only ranking in 3 entries on Google Pg 1, but many would still love to rank for three on the 1st page of Google. You can even see a Wealthy Affiliate post here!
4) off the hook band
For this keyword, my Facebook Page is on top of Google Pg 1, and then I have my Reverbnation as entry # 5, and one local directory ranking (The Wedding Wire). # 6, for a total of 3 entries on page 1 - still very good one would think. And that's 3 entries on Page 1 out of 21,400,000 results.
5) off the hook
Even for the most generic keyword, my Facebook Page is ranked # 5 on Google Pg 1 out of 74,500,000 results.
However, here’s bottom line:
Despite correctly implementing a sound core SEO strategy of loading great “low hanging fruit” long-tailed keywords in my great content.
For all these high ranking links I'm getting, I am still not getting significant traffic. People are finding me, but simply not clicking on my links.
Or are they?
So what gives?
Is My Niche Way too Competitive?
It certainly appears that way.
Even the low competition keywords (QSR<100) that are getting some searches (>40) - the ones that a stranger will likely type in to find your business- are even too competitive.
Save a few Facebook posts, type in THOSE keywords without quotes, and my new site (Feb 1) is no where to be found. My competition dominates.
Here are my SEO Conclusions:
Bottom Line: You Need to Do Many different things to improve your site traffic.
It certainly appears I cannot succeed in my niche relying on organic traffic alone.
I realize now it's going take a multi-pronged approach to drive traffic and conversions to my website, as writing great content and using many such relevant low competition keywords alone is simply not enough.
My niche presents different challenges as I am selling a high ticket item in a very competitive local enviroment.
It requires that I bring the prospect to the website as a first step make a face-to-face appointment of they like what they see as they would never make a first purchase directly on the site - SEO only gets them there. So to get conversions, I need to make direct appointments. In the past, much of the business was driven by word of mouth.
So for new prospects it also requires they see 5 star reviews in testimonials about us in local directories such as Yelp which I am receiving now. Go to my site if you would like to see it
Here's what I feel I now MUST do to increase traffic moving forward:
1) Reviews, reviews, reviews!
Posting 5 star reviews only from overjoyed clients on all the local directories. This has already started,
2) Paid advertising. Local advertising, Facebook ads, PPC, etc.. I never wanted to do this. but it appears this may be the only way.
3) Targeting social media groups - this is what Paul Goodwin advocates. Join Facebook groups, Linked In groups, Instagram groups,and other social media. However, I must do my research first!
4) Continue to write Great content - and post it on my site. No I'm not giving up, I will continue to "write my heart out" and use a good keyword strategy. And I love to write. I'm just not depending on it.
3) Shameless self-promotion - Network, network. network!
Brick and mortar. Word of mouth advertising. Handing out lots of business cards at shows, performances, social gatherings, sports events, on the street and in the subway (no I'm just kidding!).
Let me just say we have always received great testimonials from our clients, and everyone who has seen, and continues to come to our shows loves the band.
Do you know why I am not getting significant traffic, despite so many great ranking entries?
Please let me know if you have any other ideas.
I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Kaju
Here's proof I'm in the pudding:
Recent Comments
53
Ok so how long have you been here as far as I can see you joined the same time I did and look at your ranking. How has been able to accomplish that.
You want every thing know. You are brilliant and you know it. Your time will come. Every body is just starting to see you.Your plastered everywhere. Your in there faces. Know people are starting to think how is this guy. They don't know you from a hole in the wall.
Rome wasn't constructed in a few short months. How are you targeting.
You have to remember that you are world wide not just in your own pudding as you put it.
How do want to reach, those that are relevant to your work will find you.
Fame and fortune doesn't come over night. Take a breath and sit back and have a real good look at what you have accomplished.
Well, for what ever it is worth.
Sending blessings your way,
always a better way,
Linda
WOW! What an assessment!! :)
I take it that everyone should take this step once they start getting traffic and learn how to tweak it for better results.
Do you think every niche would be different? Meaning someone who has very low competition would be doing extremely well with your results but because you are in such a competitive niche there is just so much more work involved to stand out and get the gigs.
I really enjoyed reading this and have a broader perspective thanks to your article Kaju.
Best regards,
Kamil
The answer is an absolute YES Kambas!, Your results are HIGHLY NICHE DEPENDENT and depending on your competition. you will have to do MUCH, MUCH MORE to drive sales.
Look at my search results. I am walking proof of this. 16 results yielded ranked at the top (out of millions) on Google Pages 1 and 2 - and still not getting significant traffic?
As I said earlier to Jovo, when you are selling items for $0 - $150 in volume like in an e-commerce store, you can rank high on Google with SEO alone and get traffic, and then create incentives for people to buy immediately with lead magnets and trip wires
But for a high ticket product or service niche like mine its different. An organic approach alone will not work.The name of the game is sales, traffic only gets them there (hopefully) to make face to face appointments. They rarely will ever purchase such a service on the basis of a video on your site alone, and certainly not sight unseen.
These results were certainly an eye-opener for me, and I appreciate you gained something from my perspective. Thank you for reading, Kambas.
Thank you Kaju, you have really helped out ;)
I totally get what you saying. Another cool thing is that most of my sales come from the same repeat customers so I have built a customer base that doesn't require traffic anymore. I guess once someone hires you and likes the music you can get referrals and repeat customers as well, then just managing those.
Your repeat customers are your BEST customers. Most of the high end work over the years I have received have been referrals from repeat customers, that's automatic trust. The remaining "first" customers were strangers who happened to see our performances who became fans. Tap into those first.
So the greater challenge is what if those repeat customers dry up? And you are selling a high ticket item or service? That's where you need to do everything, such as asking for the 5 star reviews from past elated customers, joining social media groups, paid ads, etc.
Hello Kaju
A well written blog with lots of good info on what you hope to accomplish.
Seems like you are stuck getting buying visitors though.
You did mention it in your blog so perhaps a small PPC campaign to see what's working and what's not?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.
Have a great Thursday.
Robert
Excellent points Robert. I'm open to all avenues and willing to try everything that makes sense.
Thanks for stopping by.
Good morning Kaju,
I am very impressed by the picture you are painting and I realize that I better not start having sleepless nights while comparing what you do to the little I do. I really am not in the right position to give any advice so I can only wish you all the best thinking that this huge effort will bear its fruit one day.
Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske
Taetske, thanks for coming by. Your comments are always appreciated! Mine is a challenging situation as I sell a high ticket service. I need to utilize many things to traffic and drive sales.
BUT if you have the RIGHT niche with high-in demand lower priced products (like an e-commerce store), the SEO model coupled with buyer incentives alone can work to increase sales.
ANY advice or input is always welcome.
Hi Kaju. I missed the point so my comment may be inaccurate because of that. The first part about great ranking appears to be a different site from the one started on Feb. 1, right?
So if your question is about this new site, do you seriously expect anything from it yet? Let us see the results after a year or two.
I am relying only on organic traffic, so it is painfully slow, but it is progress, I can see it, a few thousands of visitors more each month.
Social media bring sudden jumps in traffic and 2 days later you are back to normal. I have seen this with Flipboard (until it stopped working), a few thousand in one single day, worthless traffic in every sense.
Rely on organic and you will have a business.
Part of the problem is also that estimated traffic from keyword tools is totally wrong. I know this for sure, have more than 200 posts on the top page in Google. So forget what it gives, you will never have this traffic. Realistically, you can expect 1.5-2 visitors per top post, this may depend on niche, I am speaking about average values.
About clicks and conversions: do the math. 10% of visitors will click, 10% of those will buy. End result: 1%, roughly speaking, but it can also be half of it or a bit more. So, you need huge traffic, huge number of posts, huge everything. Big numbers game.
Jovo, what I love about you is that you never mince your words! You bring up very solid points, albeit dark and morose there may be quite a bit of truth there. I definitely believe you when you say keyword tool metrics are not always reliable.
However I don't think you read the article in all detail.
My point is it is a fact I'm getting high rankings on at least 13 different links I own (as is evidenced by this incognito search) but still not driving significant traffic. That's possible since although my website is new (Feb 1) my URL is old and is a trusted one. For my site and social media, posts, You Tube videos.and directories if SEO and keywords are good, you will get ranked.
But it doesn't matter. If you are in a very competitive niche selling a high ticket service or product like mine, no matter high you are ranked with many clickable links you cannot rely on SEO tactics alone because you need other incentives to get searchers to go to your site - and even if they go to your site no one certainly is going to purchase your high ticket product or service the first time without meeting you face to face.
Perhaps if you are selling items for $0 - $150 in volume, you can rank high on Google with SEO, and create an incentive for people to buy immediately with lead magnets and trip wires by drive traffic.
For a high ticket product or service niche its different.
For the latter that's why I now believe in my case I need a multi-pronged strategy - writing consistent Great content, SEO, paid advertising, awesome social media presence, 5 star reviews, and much more - all working in synergy to succeed in making appointments and driving sales.
I agree, your story is more complex, you are right about high ticket products. Jay was telling this in his tutorials, about the price range which sells relatively easily. He sets the limit to around $50, saying that people are more willing to bite such small amounts, not a big deal even if it turns out to be a mistake. I can remove my comment if you wish.
Heck now, I like and welcome your comment! I always want to hear a different point of view. It's great for discussion.
Keep 'em comin'!
Hi, Kaju...
Lots of work reflected in your content and good results...As you say SEO is just one side of the picture.
My thoughts are as follows:
(1) What kind of traffic and potential does the niche have overall and where are you positioned in relation to that audience?
(2) What is the competition doing that you are not to get traffic/gigs/leads/conversions?
(3) Are there related forums that you can join/contribute to/gain authority in/leverage?
(4) Are you also using the high authority sites like Quora and Blogger dot com to add synapses of your posts with links back to your website?
(5) Have you considered the social platforms that best complement your niche (i.e. a Facebook Group or page, Twitter, etc.)?
(6) If you are using the social platforms, how are you keeping up with interactions i.e. are you using a tool to help you automate them?
(7) Since some of what you do is actual performances, are you using Facebook Live, YouuTube, and other mediums to offer some live shows to your fans (Everyone from Sheila E to my local friends are)?
(8) There are many groups on Facebook for selling used instruments and equipment that all the musos here are members of and that helps with your brand, etc. Are you participating in these?
(9) Do you have a marketing plan over and above content, i.e. an email newsletter, social ads, even offline ads if appropriate?
Lastly...
(10) Are there 'shoulder niches' that you could add into the niche you are now focusing on that will bring you traffic that is interested in that niche but also this one?
Just some ideas for you, that and that $5 will get you a cup of coffee!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Wonderful and comprehensive information Dave , as usual -
THANK YOU.. The high ticket private event business has mainly been a direct referral /word of mouth business model through the years with us.
Then tragedy set in, I had to let new private business go for awhile, of which details of this is in my previous post Mysterious Hand Disorders and Reconnections: Part 1 There is SO much that I need to continue doing to optimize my online sales funnel, I am way behind in the game compared to the top earners in my field, BUT I am slowly catching up.
My #1 priority (and we touched on this before) IS OPTIMIZING my meta tags and back links for my over 80+ You Tube videos, of which many are already ranking high. Using consistent keywords in the content between all of them, and to get these ALL linking back to my site. Big job.
Great point! I need to start using sites like Quora and Blogger to add synapses with back links to my site. Same thing with back links on You Tube. That's a next step too.
I've been on TV shows, and done interviews in the past on radio, It certainly would not hurt to seek out and become more active in other forums to gain authority/ leverage, I will look into that. Perhaps even do a podcast. Al good ideas.
Never became involved in selling musical instruments or talking/blogging about them. Maybe I should but it's really not my thing. My time would be better spent elsewhere.
Yes, I'm doing Facebook Live for shows and posting those live videos on my Facebook fan page. I'm on lots of social media already i.e. got a Facebook Group page, a Twitter handle, Reverbnation, and Tumblr all ranking high with certain keywords, ....but honestly am not exploiting all the benefits to the full degree I could from it. For instance, I am NOT using an automated tool to keep up. Perhaps you can give me advice on that.
My marketing plan above content is what I''m doing now - generating 5 star reviews from past overjoyed clients and theu are posting these reviews on the local directories, which are now appearing high on the Google ranks for certain keywords.
The few bands doing successful repeat high end business are either full-flee talent agencies that have been around for many years and are generally driving the business word of mouth from direct referrals.as I used to do. Those big agencies are the "bands" that come on top of Google in more generic keyword searches. Conversions in my niche for NEW business generally only happen with direct face to face meetings. But other than relying on direct referrals only, you need new traffic to expand the base of those direct meetings.
It seems to me in my competitive niche, paid ads might now be necessary (Facebook $5 per day), but this will only get me appointments. Still that this is stronger than waiting for organic SEO.to drive traffic, which may never happen.
I think I address everything you brought up. The poitn I'm making is that there is an OVERWHELMING amount of work to do to stay visiblr and relevant when you are in a competitive niche.
Thank you brother, I will send you a PM about anything else we may have missed.
Cheers,
Kaju
What an amazing journey you have had and in such a short space of time. Your results are very impressive and indicative of the amount of hard work required.
A message for all of us is that " a multi-pronged approach" is definitely needed. We cannot rely on just one avenue and expect sales. This has been an eye-opener for me and probably many others.
Well done!
Indeed Allegro, a multi-pronged approach is most needed and I am walking proof. I'm really thrilled this point Is coming across, and many don't simply view SEO and getting traffic through "rose-colored glasses - that was the reason I felt I needed to write this post.
Searchers need a greater incentive to click on your site than simply being on top of page 1 of Google. Particularly in my niche for a ticket service item, where traffic is only the irst step to making the sale, you first need to engage, follow up to make appointments, then hopefully make the sale.
So let's keep our mind open to do many things simultaneously to boost our traffic.
Wow. On one hand, I am really impressed and amazed.You are doing an amazing job.
On the other hand, I can't help but feel that if you have results like that and still lack traffic, then I am doomed to never have more than my usual 2 visitors per day.
Craig, you are a super analytical guy like myself, always questioning yourself. That is a critical attribute any the only way we can succeed in such a challenging competitive environment.
The next step I need to do is getting my meta descriptions optimized on my 80+ You Videos, adding back links to them, and to get them all pointing to my website. Work is never done.
But don't be discouraged my friend. High Google rankings can be very effective for traffic if you are in the niche. You might already be. However, for my niche I need to do much more.
Amazing post Kaju .. I am not an SEO expert and you have done much better at it than I have. Having said that I am a firm believer (as you know) in pushing Social Media hard and that does require a budget. Also my thinking is "local business" needs an online/offline approach. My thinking is that you are very on-track with what you plan to do. Cheers, William.
Bill, great compliment coming especially from you. I think you provide great detail and analytics in all of your posts.
Yeah, I think social media is the next step. Right now, the most important thing is to continue collecting and posting 5 star reviews from past overjoyed clients.
Reading your posts and Paul Goodwin's inspire me to go social media and to keep an open mind. Thanks for the great compliment and I will keep you posted.
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Hello my friend and you are doing all the right things and I have something to offer - yes I really do!!!
I am actually testing a program out for a month and so far after three weeks it has made a difference to my site and has in fact given me far more exposure. Taken me from below 20% to over 42% and this is by using SEO techniques !
I have a week left but I can see now that is really works great and
So I will be able to give you full details very soon ok
Paul, Wow,that is HUGE! You have me on the edge of my seat -. 20% to 42% is unbelievable!
Yes,thanks for stopping by my blog, my friend - we will definitely be in touch!