Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) with Deepak Shukla
Improving the SEO of webpages is how Deepak Sukla makes his living with his friends at Digital Estate New Zealand. We may have an idea or two about this topic, but it was refreshing to be guided by a real expert. Deepak joins The Next 100 Days Podcast to discuss SEO.
He kept us waiting a few minutes, so this was his welcome:
Deepak Shukla from Pearl Lemon Discusses SEO on The Next 100 Days Podcast
Deepak is the founder of Pearl Lemon. It was his partner Daniela who introduced Deepak to lemon dressing. This was a revelation. It was about the time he was thinking of a brand name. It appears Daniela is also a fan of pearl necklaces, so it came to pass that Pearl Lemon was named.
Search engine optimisation SEO is about helping companies rank on Google. As things are moving so quickly online, it has become a big enough specialism for Deepak to focus solely on SEO as a business, despite starting life as full service. Deepak found he had one area of preference ad that was SEO.
Magic Secrets Revealed By Deepak
What are the key things about SEO?
Here’s two to start with.
- Producing really really good content is better than producing loads and loads of content.
- Secondly, if you can re-purpose that content by turning a video into a podcast, into a blog post, into a sheet of key take-aways.
He advises business owners to focus on one system at a time. By that he means, how can I affordably and practically get one excellent piece of content? Like a blog post written a couple of times a month. Can you offer a summer intern a role in your company?
As an SEO, Deepak knows that if you have excellent content then he can do all kinds of things with it. Such as “Guest Posting”, “Acquiring Links”, “Being on Podcasts”.
Here’s Deepak Discussing SEO Tips
This is the number one opportunity for most business owners. Create quality content. Doing this is the key way to becoming an authority website.
Should Kevin Give Away His Knowledge in His Blog Posts?
Is there a conundrum? Will Kevin lose out to those people who want his advice, but don’t want to pay him for it?
Here’s what Deepak advises..
The ideal business owner that Kevin wants to work with is the kind of client who says “Kevin, you know what you are doing, I’m too busy to do that, so you do it for me.” By giving the game away you separate those who don’t have the ability to afford Kevin over a longer period of time. Or, some may try to implement based on the ideas given, but invariably the same thing will happen. After two months they will have a particular question which they don’t have the knowledge themselves to answer or implement. This repels the tyre kickers.
Work with the business owners who recognise your expertise.
Filter Out People You Don’t Want
So, Deepak encourages you to give the house away. If someone wants to pinch your content, they won’t become your clients anyway. You are looking for clients who recognise you as an authority. You raise your head about the parapet. A 2,500 word content piece is impressive. Those with the budget will be impressed.
People want experts who know what they are doing, so your thorough blog post is a sophisticated calling card.
How long should your blog post?
1-2,000 or 2,500? Is there a harder rule on length of copy? Over 70% of posts on page one, that ranks well, it will be 2,500 words plus. Why that length?
The blog itself becomes a content authority. Some people will bookmark it. Others will spend a lot of time digesting its content. Most importantly, people will link back to the content.
Outreach
This is about having a good product and then marketing it. Your blog is a product that can stand alone by itself.
It is important to realise that the way Google can ascertain the authority of a website is to look at word count. The assumption is that length and number of blogs helps your site look better to Google.
Most of your competition will not be doing this, but some will be. Getting to the top of page one, how do you take your 2,000 word post and make it the best?
Top SEO Tips
- Look at your competitors content pieces.
- Draw up a comparison between yours and theirs.
- Your task is to make sure your post is better. Preferably, it needs to be significantly better.
- Add things others do not.
- Once you have the quality better, then you look at where people get their links from.
- Figure out WHO is linking to your competitor’s pieces of content.
- There are free tools that allow you to do this, SEMRUSH, MOZ are tools.
- You can literally Google “Check Backlinks”
- Make a quick list of all those places that your competitors are getting links from.
- Reach out to them and say your piece of content is better than the one they are linking to, have a look, do you fancy linking to it?
Being realistic, you might get 1 in 10 people to link to your content. As people start linking back to your content, you will start getting further up the rankings.
What Next?
Now your content is better than your competitors. Is it a stand alone good read in its own right?
Most people will not do this. They’ll write 10 fluff pieces instead.
You can rely on fewer pieces with great links, rather than loads of content with no links. Where are your competitors getting links from? Reach out to these blogs that talk about your market. Are there forums? Or Facebook. It will work for you and make your content rank.
Why would people link to my content? Politely say, I see You’ve published XYZ for my competitor, would you review my piece of content and link to that instead?
What else is important in SEO?
A 2,500 word piece about your subject, your keywords will seep out. Don’t keyword stuff. It is about creating the most timely relevant information answers to people’s searches.
When you produce excellent content with keyword relevancy and you get kinks to it, you will rank.
How many is enough links? 5 to 10 links to your article may be enough. Look at your competitor’s number of links.
Also, make sure your website is functional and does what it intends to do and people link back to it. To get ‘good enough’ do the content and links. None of the other stuff about load times – they are secondary, quick wins not long term wins.
The icing on the cake is the Yoast plugin, 3 second load time. That will not get you the great piece of content, and links.
Pearl Lemon Fees
If you are thinking that Deepak is exactly the guy for you, his fees start around £2,000 per month and rise to around £6,000 per month. It rather depends on your objectives. Where you have a very competitive market, like pay-day loans, they might pay nearer the £5-6k per month.
The Power of Personal Branding
Market yourself. Podcasts are a good way to do this. Contact Kevin and Graham to help your business!
You’ll get 5 to 1 returns by building your brand to support the build of your personal brand.
Deepak made a concerted effort to go on 100 podcasts in a few months. Consistently turn up.
Alt Tags
Google rank images. We use several keywords for each. Most people don’t work on their personal brand. So, look at those people who are doing personal stuff.
Direct Response Copywriting
People do not do enough direct response copywriting on their websites. A typical SEO Agency, would write on their homepage, SEO Agency or SEO Agency London. Or even, Award Winning SEO Agency.
Pearl Lemon writes “Double your organic traffic in 90 days with Pearl Lemon”.
Think of your service pages as being a call to action instead of information. On their lead generation site, they say “Book 30 Calls in 30 Days with Pearl Lemon”
Look at things as a call to action. Solve my problem. Speak in terms of solutions.
How to Rank Video?
YouTube SEO is maybe 3 years behind SEO on Google.
So things like keywords have more bearing. Tags, Titles, Length (4-7 minutes), relevant Playlists (about the same issue).
Combine with your website, by adding videos on your website. Also make sure to take care of GMB if you have a business that uses videos and multimedia. You can follow this link- google map listing optimization by Web 20 Ranker LLC– to find out how you can do that.
Mediocre videos can rank above you because of authority, the benefit of being at number one helps you stay there. Start, just start.
Contact Deepak Shukla
Telephone Number: 02071833436
End Video – We Loved Deepak!
