How to Get Started with SEO – In Just 7 Minutes with Andrew Allen

Resources/Links:

• Free SEO Report. Get Your Free SEO Report: https://hikeseo.co/free-seo-audit/

Summary

Does it trouble you to get your hands on the perfect SEO for your website because you either don’t have the budget to hire an SEO agency or you just don’t have any knowledge about it?

Andrew Allen has been doing SEO, search engine optimization, for more than eight years. He has helped a huge variety of clients from one-man bands like to international retailers. He now runs a very interesting service called Hike SEO. It’s a platform that helps small to medium-sized business owners conquer Google.

In this episode, Andrew shares his insights on how important it is to have the right and proper SEO for your business’ website in order to increase its visibility and interaction.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:50 – Andrew’s ideal client: “So, our ideal client is someone who owns a website, or small business that runs a website and understands that the visibility online is important. So, making sure that their business is visible, Google where their customers are searching for products and services. So, they understand the power and the volume that Google has.”
• 03:32 – Problem Andrew helps solve: “Yeah, yeah, exactly that. So, it’s making sure that your business is found on Google and whether that’s, if you’re a local business, you might only be found at, you know, the top of the Google Map results. Now that requires some methodology to get to that. Or perhaps e-commerce site, you want to get to the top, like, above all every e-commerce store. Or you’re a service-based business and you want to get to the top of the regular organic listings. Yup, that’s the problem that people have.”
• 04:50 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Andrew: “So, one common route people take to us is that they potentially use an agency before, they might have hired a freelancer, a consultant, or use an SEO agency. They might not have seen the results they wanted them. They’ve spent a lot of money, you pay for someone else’s expertise and for them to learn SEO previously, right? And they might not have been aware of what the SEO agency was actually doing. There’s a lack of transparency in our industry. Many business owners say, “I was paying for SEO but I didn’t know what they would do,” you know, “I wasn’t aware of what was going on.” And the thing about Hike is it just takes away all of that lack of clarity, it makes it completely transparent. You know exactly what’s happening, exactly what you need to do to improve yourself. And it’s not rocket science. SEO isn’t hard, it’s very nature.”
• 06:33 – Andrew’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Go and get Google Search Console setup, that’s a great starting point. “
• 07:11 – Andrew’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Free SEO Report. Get Your Free SEO Report: https://hikeseo.co/free-seo-audit/
• 08:08 – Q: What’s the future of SEO in five years? A: I think people need to start thinking about voice search. Now that makes sense, I use my Google Home a lot of time, people use Alexa all the time. People ask their search engines a lot of questions. People went to buy shoes before they go to Google their searches. Now they’ll ask their Alexa, or their Google Home they’ll go, “Okay, you know, where can I buy my shoes, or what’s the best style?”

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“SEO isn't hard, it's very nature.” -@hike_seo Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: 0:09
Hello everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Andrew Allen. Andrew, good day, sir. A very warm welcome. Where are you hanging out?

Andrew Allen 0:20
I’m based in Warwickshire, in England.

Tom Poland: 0:23
England, I believe you’re having a beautiful summer.

Andrew Allen 0:28
Well, we are, until this very morning where it’s gray, wet, and horrible.

Tom Poland: 0:33
Commentators curse, right?

Andrew Allen 0:35
Yeah, commentators curse.

Tom Poland: 0:37
Sorry about that. I believe you had a very nice summer. All right, I’m sure there’s more to come.

Tom Poland: 0:44
Off the weather and geography. Folks, for those of you don’t know Andrew, he’s been an SEO, search engine optimization, for more than eight years, helped a huge variety of clients from one-man bands like, you know, a lot of us, to international retailers. But he now runs a very, very interesting service called Hike, H-I-K-E, SEO. It’s a platform that helps small to medium sized business owners conquer Google, oohh.

Tom Poland: 1:14
So, I got introduced to Andrew by someone whom I respect enormously. And we met and I’m absolutely fascinated by what you’re doing, Andrew, because you’ve taken an incredibly complex subject, and made it accessible and effective to Neanderthals like me. Title therefore, as appropriately, “How to Get Started with Search Engine Optimization,” Andrew’s going to tell you how to do that in less than seven minutes. Andrew, that’s the challenge, our time starts now. Question number one, sir, is, who is your ideal client?

Andrew Allen 1:50
So, our ideal client is someone who owns a website, or small business that runs a website and understands that the visibility online is important. So, making sure that their business is visible, Google where their customers are searching for products and services. So, they understand the power and the volume that Google has.

Tom Poland: 2:16

Right.

Andrew Allen 2:17
But they don’t necessarily have (A) the time to learn it themselves, and (B) potentially the resource to hire internally or pay for an expensive SEO agency to do it for them. And so that’s basically it, you know, they know SEO is important but they can’t do it themselves. Like, they don’t necessarily want to hire or outsource an agency, that’s where I come in because essentially, what the point we’ll do is, and the analogy I like is, is painting by numbers instead of going to an art class.

Tom Poland: 2:49
Right.

Andrew Allen 2:49
So, you know, if you want to learn to paint, then go to art class. They’ll teach you all the technique, and you’ll learn it all inside out, right? Alternatively, if you want to paint a beautiful picture, you can paint by numbers, where you just follow the numbers. Exactly like this, I just tell you, like, this is exactly what you need to do in order to achieve what you want to achieve. You’ll learn as you go along as well.

Tom Poland: 3:11
Thank you. So that’s a great description, paint by numbers. Someone else has done all the hard work, figure it all out. Just join the dots, paint by numbers, and you’ll get the result. So, question two is, what’s the problem you solve? Cause you’re getting found on Google but not doing it in the manner which is required, here’s a complicated learning and a hell of a lot of money.

Andrew Allen 3:32
Yeah, yeah, exactly that. So, it’s making sure that your business is found on Google and whether that’s, if you’re a local business, you might only be found at, you know, the top of the Google Map results. Now that requires some methodology to get to that. Or perhaps e-commerce site, you want to get to the top, like, above all every e-commerce stores. Or you’re a service-based business and you want to get to the top of the regular organic listings. Yup, that’s the problem that people have.

Andrew Allen 3:57
The problem is they just, it’s really difficult to learn actually because, like you said, it can become very complicated. I mean by the fact because there are hundreds of ranking factors that Google take into consideration when they decide who comes top, you can look at so many different factors. No one factor will make or break your site, you have to be good and proficient in all of them. And the more you are the better your rank. Now, that’s a lot to learn for someone, even if you’re trying to train an internal team member, that’s a lot to learn.

Tom Poland: 4:28
Yeah, I could see you take that problem away from them. Sorry to butt in, but only four minutes left, and still getting to questions three. So, let’s, question three is around the typical symptoms that one of your clients would have been experienced prior to finding your solution. So, what are some of those? What’s going on in their businesses or in their lives before they find your solution?

Andrew Allen 4:50
Yeah, sure. So, one common route people take to us is that they potentially use an agency before, they might have hired a freelancer, a consultant, or use an SEO agency. They might not have seen the results they wanted them. They’ve spent a lot of money, you pay for someone else’s expertise and for them to learn SEO previously, right? And they might not have been aware what the SEO agency was actually doing. There’s a lack of transparency in our industry. Many business owners say, “I was paying for SEO but I didn’t know what they would do,” you know, “I wasn’t aware of what was going on.” And the thing about Hike is it just takes away all of that lack of clarity, it makes completely transparent. You know exactly what’s happening, exactly what you need to do to improve yourself. And it’s not rocket science. SEO isn’t hard, it’s very nature.

Tom Poland: 5:43
Well, it’s bloody hard if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s because it’s so complicated to learn. So, because there’s a lot that must have to go in like foundation work with backlinks and all sorts of things before people start seeing the result. So, what part of the problem you take away from people and one of the symptoms that get removed, by the sound of it, is the not knowing, it’s the frustration of say, the impatience, etc.

Tom Poland: 6:07
So, question four, two and a half minutes left. Question four, you probably already answered this, the common mistakes people make is probably hiring agencies with their arches and transparency. Or trying to figure it all out themselves and just taking years and then Google changes the rules and so on. So, let’s get to question five, just over two minutes left, what’s a valuable free action? So, one idea that someone could take that’s not going to solve the whole problem but it’ll take them a step in the right direction in regard to getting found.

Andrew Allen 6:33
Yeah. You know, and, interestingly, Google actually release, actually have a Help Center on their website around SEO. Around the basics of search engine optimization. And I always recommend people to go there and read that. And then they follow that up by installing the free Google SEO tool and everyone should get it set up, it’s called a search console, Google Search Console.

Now it may seem complicated when you go in there first, but have a look around, it’s data straight from the horse’s mouth. It won’t give you everything you need to get to the top of Google but it will highlight if there’s any real fundamental issues. So, go and get Google Search Console setup, that’s a great starting point.

Tom Poland: 7:11
Great start, and if you want to know how to find it, just google search for Google Search tools. So, there’s 75 seconds left. Questions six, one valuable free resource we could direct people to. I’m going to give them the answer to this for the sake of time. Folks, you go to www.hikeseo.com/free-seo-audit, hikeseo.com/free-seo-audit, go get that. What are they going to get there, very quickly, Andrew?

Andrew Allen 7:47
They’re going to get a report on their current SEO. So, where there’s new words of ranking. Some initial things they need to fix on their website and stuff like that.

Tom Poland: 7:55
For free. Fantastic. So, a whopping 33 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Andrew Allen 8:02
What’s the future of SEO in five years?

Tom Poland: 8:04
So, in 25 seconds, what is the future of SEO in five years?

Andrew Allen 8:08
Well, you know, I think people need to start thinking about voice search. Now that makes sense, I use my Google Home a lot of time, people use Alexa all the time. People ask their search engines a lot of questions. People went to buy shoes before they go to Google their searches. Now they’ll ask their Alexa, or their Google Home they’ll go, “Okay, you know, where can I buy my shoes, or what’s the best style?”

Tom Poland: 8:34
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks for your time, great content.

Andrew Allen 8:37
Thanks, Tom.

Tom Poland: 8:38
Cheers.

Tom Poland: 8:40
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.