SEO for Beginners with John McAlpin
Search engine optimization is a methodology used to increase traffic to a website by obtaining high-ranking placement in search results pages. But all of the tools and strategies for SEO can be overwhelming to beginners.
Today’s guest, John McAlpin, is the SEO Director at Cardinal Digital Marketing and writes for Search Engine Journal about strategies, concepts, and insights regarding search engine optimization and digital marketing.
John joins James and Dean as they discuss the ins and outs of search engine optimization. From creating traffic, tracking the traffic and how to start using SEO, John shares his vast knowledge about how a business can use SEO as a cost-effective way of digital marketing — even if you’re a beginner.
See what your competitors are putting and then match it and do one more. Leave no room for them to close that competitive content gap. – John McAlpin
Outline of This Episode
– [05:50] Short-term gains – link building
– [09:04] Three ways to track traffic
– [14:22] Page speed affects the traffic
– [18:22] Two tips to drive customers through a funnel
– [30:03] Where to begin with SEO
Three ways to track traffic
John mentions three ways a business can track the number of visitors a page or website receives. One is through referral traffic, second is through link building and the third is through Domain Authority developed by Moz.
The first way is when one goes into Google Analytics and tracks the traffic from there, while Domain Authority has its own algorithm where it compares quality over quantity and it will give you an impression on how Google might view a business link profile.
How to drive customers through a funnel
The idea of a funnel is to create the journey for a customer that will eventually lead to a purchase of either a product or service being sold by the business. But how can businesses design their funnel to make that a success?
John reveals a couple of ways to do so. One is focused on long-form content where the website must have on-page quick links. This helps people find and get the information they need.
Where to begin with SEO
If you are fairly new to the e-commerce setting and you’re still wondering how to go about using SEO, John shares how you can accomplish it.
You can either do it in-house or go through an agency. They will be the ones to handle all that is needed to be done to optimize your website, manage the operations, and make sure that things are running smoothly.
Resources & People Mentioned
– John McAlpin’s Website: https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/about/
– John McAlpin’s latest article: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/citations-local-seo-guide/347380/?ver=347380X2
– John McAlpin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/seocounseling
– John McAlpin’s Company: https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/about/
Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
