Product-driven SEO [Podcast]

Do you know which SEO strategies will successfully generate traffic, leads, and sales for your business?

Do you need information on how to approach online visibility?

When it comes to SEO, success often doesn’t depend on what you do but how you do it.

Eli Schwartz, author of the book “Product-Led SEO”, joins Loren Baker in this episode to discuss long-term SEO strategies and how to implement an SEO mindset throughout your business.

Instead of offering step-by-step guidelines and techniques, this discussion delves into the logic and theory of SEO as a whole.

“What I call product-driven SEO is taking a big step back and asking yourself these questions:

Why will a search user find us?
How will the search user discover our website?
Is there a reason why Google should send us search users?
When our audience finds us, will it fall into some kind of funnel? “ –Eli Schwartz

“Often times engineers aren’t convinced about SEO at all, so you need to get them to do something for you that doesn’t actually benefit their bonus or how they’re going to be measured.

This is more important than a victory, because if someone cares about your goals and you can scratch their back, and they will scratch your back, it will help you further down the road. –Eli Schwartz

[0:00] – How Eli started and how SEJ led him on the path to his book
[02:41] – Where Eli has spent most of his career
[04:12] – What he learned while working for a company like Survey Monkey
[04:53] – What VPs and Chief Product Officers generally think about SEO
[06:06] – How Survey Monkey was in 2012 without SEO but with a lot of brand value
[06:33] – What prompted Eli to completely change his approach to SEO?
[08:00] – The reason why he says “no” to some customers
[09:23] – When is it wise to hire an SEO consultant?
[11:01] – Things to watch out for in addition to communication with CTOs and engineers
[11:34] – What Eli does during the first conversations with customers
[14:47] – Steps to become an insider of a company for which you consult
[16:04] – Why is internal SEO broken?
[17:41] – How Eli approaches each new customer
[19:06] – The way most businesses think about SEO
[20:31] – Why is it so much better to hire a consultant than to hire staff?
[23:46] – Where do consultants fill the void?
[25:24] – What brought Eli to the Bay Area?
[27:39] – Eli’s mentor positions
[29:42] – Highlight the chapters of Eli’s book “Product Led SEO”
[30:57] – What is product oriented SEO?
[33:28] – What should SEO move away from?
[35:12] – The big picture you must see
[36:51] – Obtain buy-in from the rest of the marketing team
[37:23] – What Eli Learned About Goals
[40:02] – Benefits of being in-house at Survey Monkey
[44:48] – When Eli did SEO on his own behalf and discovered the world famous epidemiologist
[50:56] – The story behind the @ 5le Twitter account

“The reason I wrote the book was that I wanted to change the conversation about what SEO is. Product oriented SEO is not something I invented or invented at all; it’s just one way to approach SEO. –Eli Schwartz

“Can you do the job? Is there a buy-in? Even if you can’t do it 100% before signing the contract, see what you can do. What is going to be able to shake things up to get buy-in and get the champions within the company to communicate this accordingly. ” – Loren Baker

“I think SEO needs to move away from this conversation about where I rank, what my keywords are and focus on who my users are and why should I build for them.” –Eli Schwartz

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Connect with Eli Schwartz:

Eli Schwartz has worked for large B2B and B2C companies for over a decade as an SEO expert and consultant. Eli’s strategies have generated millions in revenue for some of the world’s most popular websites. In his book “Product-Led SEO”, he explores the logic and theory behind SEO. You will be able to develop your own best practices and see where most SEO strategies go wrong. Most importantly, you will understand why behind building an SEO strategy.

Join him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/5le

Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze/

Visit his website: https://www.productledseo.com

Connect with Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal:

Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lorenbaker

Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker