Darren Jamieson: On this episode of The Engaging Marketeer, I’m pissed off again.
Sorry. I’m going to apologise in advance. I’m going to get very annoyed, and the reason I’m going to get very annoyed—and have been annoyed again—is because I’m still seeing these web designers.
I’m not going to name anyone in particular, but you know these web designers. When they advertise their website packages, they say, “Includes SEO,” as though SEO is something you can just drop into a website, plug it in, and there it is. It’s all good.
[00:48]
Darren Jamieson: I’m not going to name any of them, but 1&1 Internet does this—1&1 IONOS. I’ve talked about this before on the podcast.
They advertise their website package—their 1&1 IONOS package, or 1&1 MyWebsite as it used to be—and they say it includes SEO.
It gives people completely the wrong impression because they think SEO is something that can just be included.
The number of times I’ve had conversations with people who think the website they’ve had built includes SEO, as though it’s a switch you press or something you sprinkle on…
[01:14]
Darren Jamieson: You’ve seen Salt Bae, right? That guy who sprinkles salt on a steak as though he’s Picasso, and people pay $10,000 for a steak at his restaurant because he’s done this [bleep] with his fingers and put gold leaf on it, or some bollocks like that.
People pay whatever he wants for it.
It’s as though you’re sprinkling SEO onto a website and that’s it. It’s just magically done.
The number of times I’ve had conversations with people who think that’s how it works, and they say, “Oh, I thought my website included SEO.”
I can remember one in particular. It was a cleaning company, and I had this long conversation on the phone with him while he was trying to say to me, “I thought it included SEO. I thought all websites included SEO.”
[02:11]
Darren Jamieson: I’m trying to explain that, actually, no. SEO isn’t something you just include with a website.
It’s not a button. It’s not a click. It’s not a switch. It’s not, “Oh, yes, your website has SEO, but this website hasn’t, so that one is better.”
It doesn’t work like that.
I’ve tried to put this into words before, and I think I’ve probably failed to explain the complexities of what SEO actually is and why it isn’t something a web designer can just say is included with a website.
I’m going to try to make this as clear as I possibly can. Apologies if I get angry and go off on one.
[02:49]
Darren Jamieson: When a web designer says a website includes SEO, what they really mean is that they’re ripping you off, lying to you and talking absolute horseshit to get you to go with them.
They think you don’t know the difference between what is and isn’t SEO, so they’re conning you. They are taking money from you under false pretences. They are bullshitting you.
It does not include SEO.
A web designer cannot design a website that “includes SEO”. Anyone who says they can—and I will happily fight them—is a [bleep]. You can take that from me right now.
[03:33]
Darren Jamieson: Any web designer who says, “The website I’ve built includes SEO. There you go. Take it away. It’s done,” is a [bleep] liar.
They are a liar.
It really pisses me off because people are getting conned by it. Businesses are getting [bleep] ripped off by [bleep] who are trying to pull the wool over their eyes and assume they don’t know any better.
I can’t be any clearer about it. It is a lie. It is a con. It is a swizz. It is somebody chancing their arm because they think you’re not going to know the difference.
They’re telling you it includes SEO when it [bleep] doesn’t, because it does not work like that.
[04:12]
Darren Jamieson: The only thing it could possibly include—and all websites should be built like this anyway—is the ability to be search-engine friendly.
It should be built in a way that allows search engines to index it. Search engines such as Google should be able to access it and do what they need to do, with nothing getting in the way.
For example, it might have what are called search-engine-friendly URLs. That is the structure appearing after the top-level domain.
[04:45]
Darren Jamieson: For example, Engage Web is the domain name, .co.uk is the TLD—the top-level domain—and then you have what comes after that.
You might have engageweb.co.uk/seo.
That is the page about SEO.
You would not have engageweb.co.uk/default.php?id=36974.
That is not search-engine friendly. The first version is search-engine friendly.
That’s what it means.
It means your pages are open to being indexed. It means you have H1 tags and a title tag. The website isn’t slow; it’s relatively quick. It has text on it and isn’t made entirely from images. It can be indexed.
It is a search-engine-friendly website.
That is not SEO.
[05:30]
That is the bare minimum—the bare freaking minimum—a web designer should be doing when they build a website.
When they say it includes SEO, that is [bleep] of the highest calibre.
It does not include SEO. They are lying to you. They are full of [bleep]. They are conning you. They are taking money from you by pretending they’re doing something they are not.
So, what does SEO entail?
I wrote an article today for a page on our website, and I went through some of the things SEO includes. I’m trying to remember them off the top of my head now.
First of all, there is the client avatar—your ideal target client.
[06:10]
You need to work out who they are, what they need and where they are right now.
What problems do they have? What are they looking for as a solution to those problems? What kind of language do they use? What kind of platforms do they use? What terminology do they type into Google?
The ideal starting point is working out who your target client is. You need to know who you’re aiming at before you do anything.
Then there is your keyword research.
Now you know what problems they have and what they need from you, what keywords are they searching for?
[06:46]
What search terms are they entering into Google? What search terms are they entering into Bing, Yahoo or some of the other stupid ones that people still use?
What is the search volume for those terms? How many people are searching for them? How competitive are they?
Are they keywords with intent? Do the users have an intention to purchase or make an enquiry, or are they simply gathering information?
For example, if somebody searches for “mobile phones”, that’s an information-gathering keyword. They’re probably not yet at the point where they’re ready to make a purchase.
If somebody searches for “iPhone 14, 256GB, rose gold”, they’re in a position where they’re ready to make a purchase because they know exactly what they want.
That’s an intent keyword.
So, that’s your keyword research.
[07:52]
Then you look at your competitors. What are your competitors doing?
You carry out a full analysis of their websites. You analyse their content structure and the content they’re writing about.
How frequently are they creating content? What landing pages and functional pillar pages do they have? How are they generating enquiries?
Do they have a contact form? Do they have a quote form? Do they use lead magnets?
What links do they have coming into their websites? Do they have links from suppliers, clients or trade bodies?
Are those the sorts of links you should have as well? Because if they have those links and you don’t, you’re never going to compete with them. You need to get those links as well.
[08:24]
Then you conduct a full link analysis of your own website.
What links do you have coming in? How many of those links are what we call toxic links? Are they bad links? Are they links from really poor directories?
Did you employ somebody to do SEO in the past who paid for loads of links from poor-quality Indian websites—websites with thousands and thousands of pages linking to yours?
You might need to disavow those links to get rid of them, because you’re going to struggle with your rankings if you don’t.
Then you look at your own content strategy.
[08:50]
What should you be writing about?
You create a full strategy covering the types of content you’re going to produce, breaking it down into many different levels of content that you’re going to structure over the next six months, 12 months or perhaps even 24 months.
This is the content people are going to enter your website through, and it needs to be written for your ideal target client.
It needs to address their needs so that they resonate with it.
Remember, it isn’t written for you. It is written for your target client.
Then you look at the technical SEO on the website.
[09:17]
Do you have issues that are preventing your website from ranking?
Do you have issues with page speed? Do you have issues with schema? Do you have 404 errors on the website because pages have disappeared?
Do you have a problem with the link structure on your website? Do you have pages that are not being linked to properly? Are you channelling the right links into the pages you want to rank?
Then you look at your actual keyword rankings and the traffic coming to your website.
Once you’ve done all this, you examine where you’re ranking, where your competitors are ranking and how you can improve.
[09:45]
What are people doing when they arrive on your website?
Are they doing what you want them to do, or are they disappearing? Are they following the paths you want them to follow?
Then you look at the value of the enquiries you’re receiving.
Are they the right kinds of enquiries? Are they coming from the right kinds of people? Is it the sort of business you want to be getting?
Then you look at conversions.
Why aren’t people enquiring with you? How can you improve that? What minor tweaks can you make to get a better return on your investment?
[10:39]
Then you go back through it all and do it again, and again, and again, and again.
You keep improving. You keep tweaking. You keep changing.
I haven’t even mentioned Google’s updates yet. I haven’t mentioned the fact that Google makes changes to its algorithm several times per day.
In 2021, was it 5,000 changes it made to its algorithm over the course of the year? Five thousand in a year.
Isn’t that a mental number of changes?
How are you supposed to keep on top of those sorts of things?
You need to keep on top of them because something that works today might not work tomorrow. You need to know all of this.
[11:13]
But let’s not forget that when web designers put their websites live, they say, “It includes SEO.”
Does it bollocks. Does it absolute bollocks.
Yet they keep saying it.
Please remember this when you’re talking to a web designer: if they tell you the website includes SEO, it doesn’t.
They’re lying to you. They’re trying to rip you off. They haven’t got the faintest clue what SEO is, and they think they’re going to get away with it.
It is far more complicated than something you can sprinkle onto a website or activate by clicking a button.
[11:51]
It requires an ongoing process—a complete, circular campaign that happens again and again.
You need to keep looking at it, refining it, changing it, reviewing it, refining it and changing it to get the most from your website and the best return on your investment.
It is not a button you click or a bit of salt you sprinkle.
Now I’m going to go away and lie down in a dark room.
Thank you very much for listening. I’ve been Darren, this has been The Engaging Marketeer, and hopefully, if I haven’t put you off, I’ll see you on the next podcast.
