Master SEO: Answers to Your Most Common Questions

Kasra Dash: I'm joined with James and today we're going to be answering the most commonly asked questions. I reckon this will probably be like a two- or three-part series, which we might do one every single week. So, first one: how long does it take to rank? How long does it take to rank? James Dooley: Generally speaking now? 7.3 days. 7.3 days if you’ve got the correct backlink velocity and… no, I’m just messing with you. It’s a commonly asked question in the SEO industry – “how long does it take to rank?” – and obviously the answer that I hate, which is normally the most common answer, is: it completely depends. But it does depend: how competitive the keyword is how strong the competition is what your backlink profile looks like what your topical authority looks like So the bad answer is “it depends,” because there are so many different moving parts that influence how fast you rank in Google. Kasra Dash: Let me throw a spanner in the works, right? Prehistoric data is a massive ranking factor. If you’re trying to rank for a new keyword and your website’s been going for five or six years, you’ve obviously got all that historic data. It’s going to take a lot less time than a brand new website trying to rank for that same difficult keyword. But would you agree, in the last maybe couple of years, that it’s actually a lot quicker to rank for some difficult keywords than it used to be? James Dooley: Yes, it is – if you’ve got: the right type of links a technically well-built site and some level of topical authority I’ll give you an example. If I was a large mortgage broker and I was scaling out, wanting to rank for “mortgage broker” in a specific area, it would be a lot easier for me to rank for “mortgage broker in London” if I already had: lots of content about current mortgage rates interest rates all the lenders and all the related informational content If you don’t have all those pages, you don’t have the backlink profile and you don’t have a well-built website, then going after “mortgage broker in London” is going to be near impossible until you’ve built all that up. Kasra Dash: Yeah, definitely. I think we can both agree on that: topical authority is massive. And not only that – some difficult keywords you can actually rank for fairly quickly, but you just need to spend more money. That’s another factor as well. For example, if you’re competing against someone who is spending, say, £10k a month on SEO and you’re only spending £5k, they’re going to get results twice as fast as you. So for a given keyword, it might take you 12 months, but them six months – if all things are equal. James Dooley: I think the hard part for a lot of business owners or marketing managers is they’ve had their fingers burnt by hiring the wrong type of SEOs. If you get a good SEO who understands what’s needed, then yeah – generally speaking, the more you spend (wisely), the more: high-quality, relevant backlinks you can buy the more good content you can produce …and those backlinks will move the needle and help you. If you try to cut corners and only spend £500–£1,000–£2,000 a month in a competitive niche, it’s going to be a slow burner. You need to understand it’s probably going to take years to rank. If you want to rank faster, you need to spend more. Spending more means: more content more backlinks But it has to be the right type of content and the right type of backlinks. That’s the key. Is building links ethical? Kasra Dash: We’ve obviously been talking a lot about backlinks and acquiring them.

One commonly asked question I constantly get is: “Is building links ethical?”

Is it going against Google’s T&Cs? Are you going to end up burning the website in 12 months by building or acquiring links? James Dooley: So, I’m partially biased because I’m an investor in Searcharoo, right? But to give the right answer: You could wear one hat that says it’s unethical because it’s “against Google guidelines”. But the way that Searcharoo does it – which is a company we’ve both invested in – is through genuine outreach. Yes, sometimes money might be passed to pay the journalist or editor to upload the article – just like you’d pay any freelancer or contractor to do a job. If we’re working with a webmaster to get a link placed on their site to a client’s website, there’s work involved. And does everyone charge for work? Yes. We’re not placing links on hacked domains or spam PBNs. This is genuine outreach and these are earned links because: the website we’re linking to is relevant and good quality the article we place is topically relevant and adds value That’s very different from going to Fiverr and buying some spammy “5,000 backlinks” package. So, yes, technically it’s “against the guidelines”, but practically, done properly, it’s ethical and it’s how the web has always worked: relationships, outreach, value. Kasra Dash: Yeah, the reason I ask is because I get it a lot from marketing managers and business owners. They’re always a bit afraid – “Should we be building links? Should we not?” Then as soon as you start showing them what their competitors are doing – outreach acquiring links directory listings digital PR – once they see the bigger picture, they become much more on board. It’s one of those questions people are scared to answer in black-and-white terms. James Dooley: It is a difficult one, because you need backlinks. However you acquire them – buy, earn, PR, relationships – you’re not going to rank without links. People who say, “Just write good content and the links will come”… they won’t. If you don’t rank, no one sees the article to link to it. You’ve got to be doing the three pillars: Technical Content Backlinks And backlinks are probably still the most important ranking factor there is. Now with AI, you can scale content faster. So the big differentiator becomes: Who has the better backlinks? Who has more powerful referring domains? That’s why links are still key. What is topical authority (for a cleaning company)? Kasra Dash: So, another commonly asked question is topical authority – what is it, and how would you do it for, say, a cleaning company? James Dooley:

Topical authority basically means: if you just write one article on a subject, you’ll struggle to rank for it.

You need lots of articles on a given subject, all closely related and properly categorised. For a carpet cleaning company in the North West of England, for example, you might have: “Carpet cleaning in Manchester” “Carpet cleaning in Liverpool” “Carpet cleaning in Cheshire” Those are local area pages – service area pages – where you’re willing to work. That’s one type. Then you have blog posts, like: “How to remove red wine from a carpet” “How to remove blood from a carpet” In those articles, if you’re trying to sell your services, you’d: explain how to do it make it clear it’s a bit complicated then say “Or you can just hire us – we’re experts at carpet cleaning.” Those are informational blog posts that can lead to business. Over time, with dozens of posts like that, Google starts to say: “These guys are an expert on carpet cleaning.” Because: all those pages are related all use the right entities all interlink correctly That’s topical authority. Kasra Dash: Yeah, and you’ve got: the local area pages (Manchester carpet cleaning etc.) the blog content / longtails and the service pages So for a cleaning company your services might be: rug cleaning oven cleaning commercial office cleaning You need to build the bigger picture. The days of uploading one page listing all your services and expecting it to rank for everything are gone. Every service has: a different intent often a different set of SERP results If you search a term and it brings back a different set of results, you need a separate page for it. If you’ve just got one “we do this, this, this, this and this” page, you’re not going to rank. You need to split those into individual pages where the search intent differs. How important are GMBs / Google Business Profiles? Kasra Dash:

Last question: How important are GMBs / Google Business Profiles?

And how would you go about getting a lot of reviews? James Dooley: A Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) is unbelievable for local businesses. If I was a restaurant and I could only choose one – website or GBP – I’d choose the Google Business Profile. For cafes, breakfast places, restaurants, trades – it’s huge. I was in London recently and asked my mum and brother where we should go for breakfast. All of us went straight to Google Maps and searched “breakfast near me”. We looked at: review scores number of reviews photos We were literally going: “That’s 4.1 – next.” “This one’s 4.6 with loads of reviews – let’s check the photos.” My mum wanted pancakes, I wanted eggs benedict. We saw photos, the food looked good, boom – we went there. For local, reviews are critical, not just for ranking in the map pack, but for conversions. Kasra Dash: It can be difficult at times trying to get reviews though. A few tips I’d give: Incentivise reviews – e.g. an ice cream shop offering a free scoop if you leave a 5-star review Email blasts – if you’ve got a big list of past clients, email them asking for a review QR cards – little cards on tables/counters with a QR code that opens your review link directly Have you seen much difference from photos and videos on a GBP in terms of performance? James Dooley: Photos and videos make a huge difference – not just for ranking in the map pack, but for conversion. People are scrolling, tapping into your profile and instantly judging: Do the photos look good? Does the food/place/service look appealing? It really is like Tinder – swipe yes or no in a couple of seconds. Good photos & videos = better conversion rate optimisation. Also, if you’ve not seen it yet, check the link in the description – we’ve actually done a full video together on the best ways of ranking a Google Business Profile. I think it was a 25–30 minute deep dive showing: how to optimise the profile what to post how to use photos and videos and a bunch of other ranking factors Personally, I’m always one of those who prefers outsourcing. If I’m a plumber, I want to do more plumbing – so I’d hire a GBP expert to: optimise the listing sort the photos and videos upload posts keep everything fresh Rather than trying to learn it all myself. Kasra Dash: So that has been Episode 1 of the SEO commonly asked questions. If you guys want your questions answered, make sure to leave them in the comments below. And if you want a free 15-minute growth strategy call, check the link in the description. James Dooley: Yeah, definitely make sure you leave a comment – ask us some questions. We can answer them in the comments, but we can also do follow-up videos and turn this into a little mini-series of the most common SEO questions.