Meredith's Husband: 0:33

Hey, this is Meredith's husband. I've got some SEO advice for you, but I'm going to keep it really simple, so that you can understand it, so it makes sense, and most importantly, so you can actually use it. Oh, let's turn that off. Okay,

Meredith: 1:01

okay. Johnny Depp.

Meredith's Husband: 1:03

Johnny Depp, so you know, one thing I've realized more now, since I'm kind of teaching SEO outside the SEO and or teaching SEO in general, how much you love me in addition to that. Oh,

Meredith: 1:16

whoa. Oh God, SEO

Meredith's Husband: 1:18

is a pretty shady industry. I mean, I've always known it's a pretty shady industry. Yeah, it always does. It always has been since I, since I started, people thought, just many times, thought I was a shady character, just because I was in the SEO industry. But there's lots of people selling, like, snake oil, secrets, SEO, tips and tricks, how I got 100,000 visitors in one month with this one trick?

Meredith: 1:41

Yeah, that nobody else knows, except for me, for 999999,

Meredith's Husband: 1:46

yeah, usually selling something. Everyone's selling. And the problem with that, I mean, I think that happens in every industry, at least a little bit. I think so. Let's say that, yes, I have an SEO tip or trick or something that actually works. Okay, this is like the absolute best case scenario. It actually works, that you actually get 10,000 visitors next month. You know what the problem is? What? What goes up fast, comes down, fast. You remember the story I told you about Anil? Yes, yeah. Okay, so Anil was a, he was big on shortcuts, yeah, and he found one that worked for a long time. Worked for actually didn't, didn't work for that long, but it was definitely working, I would say, for probably more than a year. And you know, SEO secrets to be, I want to be like fair. That used to be the way SEO was, to a large extent, myself included, you are all what you are, not always, but very often, looking for, like a shortcut. You're looking for a loophole. And I saw that happen enough times that those loopholes are eventually closed. And when they are closed, your traffic goes from whatever it is to roughly zero, like overnight. And I started to realize, okay, that's clients. If clients come to me and pay me, and I get them a whole bunch of traffic and then overnight their business tanks, they're not going to be very happy, no. But people still sell the secrets, because everybody wants

Meredith: 3:10

shortcuts, right? Everyone wants it quick, simple.

Meredith's Husband: 3:13

And you know, to also, to be honest, some people still do this. Some people, some of my colleagues, not my colleagues in terms of SEO, but some people I know and respect professionally still do this. Now, they don't do this when selling it to clients, but they do this from their own sites, and it's just fun. They do it just for they like doing it. If that's what you like doing, that's fine, cutting corners, not cutting corners, but looking. You know, it's kind of a thrill when you figure out a loophole in Google's algorithm. Google's, I don't know if you know this, Google is a big company. They they hire a lot of PhD engineers and do stuff. And when you can do something, ever heard of it? And it somehow gets by their algorithm, and you see that site rank on the top of Google. It is pretty thrilling. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, now, but that is like, pre 2010 when this kind of, when this was common, common practice. Google has really done an excellent job of closing the loopholes, but people still say, and they don't call them loopholes now. They don't call them, you know, tricks. They just say, Oh, they kind of build them as secrets, top SEO secrets, you know. And like I said, best case scenario, these secrets work. They do really well. You get a whole bunch of traffic, but what, like I said, what goes up fast is going to come down fast? Yeah, usually after a site has, so let's say, been penalized, yeah, and your traffic has dropped like that. It's kind of hard to recover. That's, that's, yeah, that's your your website then kind of has a reputation with Google and not to be trusted. Yeah, you're on some sort of list that I would prefer my websites, not beyond. Yeah, me too. In fact, I know somebody, and this is, by the way, AI is a big deal right now, because lots not a problem, but it's a big deal because lots of people are looking for secrets. Hey, how do you use AI generate a whole bunch of content. Get somebody you know don't have to create your own content. Get overnight rankings. I was speaking with somebody just a few weeks ago, and they were doing fantastic. They were getting 1000s of visitors per month using AI generated content, and then one morning, guess what? Zero, none. So that's keep in mind, that's the best case scenario. Growth in SEO doesn't is not viral. So I think people are also with social media. They're used to, hey, I'm going to do a post. I'm gonna get a million views tonight or tomorrow or whatever, and I'm gonna be a huge success, like the $1 shave club or something. SEO does not do that now for social media, certainly, that's, you know, if you can get viral content on social media, yeah, that is the ticket to success. Yeah, I

Meredith: 5:50

helped. We helped the elephant get saved. Yes, yes, yeah.

Meredith's Husband: 5:54

You can do things like you can do good things. It is great. It can be great, good things. That's how well, actually, that's how social media works, yeah, like that, you know. So that's appropriate there. But in SEO, if that's your expectation, I would say, get a new expectation, one of two things. You're either going to have to be looking for new secrets all the time. Or you can adjust your expectations, just your expectations, if you want to. I have, I have taken the path if I adjust my expectations and I am looking long term. Not everybody does that. If you want to keep looking for shortcuts and revise your strategy every few months, and you like doing that, do it

Meredith: 6:34

however. You can't grow a string bean overnight. I've

Meredith's Husband: 6:40

never tried, but you're probably just telling you, if you want to take the, what I would call the long term approach, yeah, something that's going not only will take longer, but will also last longer, the tortoise and the hare. Ladies. Yes, exactly. That is a fantastic fact. I said that in my notes, at the end of my notes, if you want to take that approach, you're going to have to do one thing first. You're going to have to commit, yeah, you're going to have to stay in your mind, okay, this is not something I'm not going to find. A secret. I'm not going to my traffic is not going to 10x tomorrow, nope, but I'm going to work towards this, and in the end, come

Meredith: 7:18

hell or high water. Yeah, once you make

Meredith's Husband: 7:22

that commitment, the next step is to basically learn, if you need to learn, if you already know everything about SEO. I don't know why you're listening, but the next step is usually to learn. Okay, what do I need to do? First, second, third, and I hope that we do a lot on this podcast to teach that. Yeah, and the next episode, actually the next, probably two or three episodes, we're going to dig in a little bit into blog strategy, which is, which is another thing that you need, you have to commit to learning. And then you're going to need some sort of strategy. You can't just commit and say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, wow, you know, do this every day and then just do it willy nilly, right? Because you can end up then going down the

Meredith: 8:02

road. Is the term willy nilly come from,

Meredith's Husband: 8:06

I'm kind of a, I don't want to know exactly,

Meredith: 8:09

maybe one of it. But

Meredith's Husband: 8:12

to your point, the rabbit and the hair, yes,

Meredith: 8:15

no, no, no, no, the rabbit and the hair are the same person, the rabbit,

Meredith's Husband: 8:19

tortoise, the hair, the lizard, tortoise and the fish and the hair, the tortoise and the hair. Yes, that is that's a perfect

Meredith: 8:28

imagine the warm, slow and steady wins the race, my friends, slow

Meredith's Husband: 8:32

and steady. Now there's nothing against the hair. No, probably a very cool person, but didn't win the race. It's better off anyway. Remember the next time you see a headline that says, See how I got 50,000 visitors in SEO in one night by doing this one secret thing? Okay, that's somebody selling you a system, and they're promising the hair? Yes, best case scenario, that could work. Six months from now, you're going to need a new

Meredith: 9:01

SEO secret. You're going to wish you had a shell on your back.

Meredith's Husband: 9:05

I don't know. You can do whatever. This frustrates I don't know if you can tell, but this frustrates me a little bit people doing these sorts of things. Yeah,

Meredith: 9:12

I don't like it society, instant, instant, instant,

Meredith's Husband: 9:15

I don't like being part of an industry that is kind of known for this. And, yeah,

Meredith: 9:20

but you know what? Every industry has pitfalls and potholes. And, yeah.

Meredith's Husband: 9:26

Anyway, remember that you can be the hare or you can be the tortoise, tortoise, whichever you like, tortoises

Meredith: 9:32

also live longer. Oh, that's true, yes, and they can swim.

Meredith's Husband: 9:37

Tune in next week, and we'll talk about some strategy, the longer lasting strategy.

Meredith: 9:43

Hey, thank you so much for listening. We really hope that you find this helpful and useful, and if you do what you could do for us as a thanks would be to drum roll please, yes. Leave a review. Yes, everybody says it, I know, but it really does make a difference. Take three seconds, leave as many stars. Say something really nice about what you like, about the podcast, and maybe why other people would like it. It would mean the world to us, especially my husband, that better. I'm going to try one where I'm not going to be charming. I'm.