Kris Reid on His Favourite SEO Tactics and Tools with Growth Marketing Toolbox, Nicholas Scalice
On episode 108 of Growth Marketing Toolbox, Nicholas Scalice was joined by none other than the coolest guy in SEO, Kris Reid. The podcast is a lot shorter than most—clocking in at less than 30 minutes—but it’s packed with juicy information about effective tools and tactics for optimising a website.
Let’s Talk about the Show
Presented by Earnworthy, Growth Marketing Toolbox is a weekly podcast series that helps listeners discover the best marketing technology and tools for earning more conversions and growing business. They feature candid interviews with the people who create, sell, and use such tools. This time around, they invited the CEO of Ardor SEO for a very informative chat.
Getting to Know Kris Reid
To kick things off, Nicholas asked Kris share his background so the people tuning in would have a better idea as to who he was and what he did for a living.
He was once a software engineer in London though he originally hails from Australia. While it was soul-destroying, he worked professionally in the finance world as it came with big paycheques. The global financial crisis came around and he lost his job. So, he went back home and built an online game just for fun.
It was then he ran into the dilemma if getting people to his website to play his game. This led to him start learning about SEO and fell in love with backlinks. Being a computer geek, he created a system for organising these links to promote his site. Finding his creation to be a valuable tool, he offered it to digital marketing companies and went from there.
Learning About Ardor SEO
In response to a question about the current specialisation of his company, Kris shared that Ardor started out as a backlink company that worked with digital marketing agencies. Then they realised that adding links sometimes didn’t go so well so they began looking at the sites and found that they were in terrible shape.
From there, they started to provide audits, content, and whatever else their customers needed. They levelled up to serving full-service customers which they grew into. Soon after, Kris realised that nobody really cared about search engine rankings or traffic; they cared about customers and sales.
This revelation caused Ardor SEO to transition from backlink building to lead generation. The aim was now to ensure that the people searching for their clients would find them and convert into buyers. All of this was to gain more customers for life.
Thinking About the Whole Funnel
Continuing on the topic about conversions, Kris was queried about any tactics he could recommend to get people thinking about the end of journey. He answered that they should think about what users are looking for.
Often, people don’t know what the problem is so they aren’t certain what the solution is either. For example, they type in “I’ve got a headache” rather than “Panadol”. This makes it important to write content that will help them find the specific solution you’re offering. Building authority for the answers you provide can lead to product promotion and eventually the sales funnel.
Kris thinks that many tend to forget that marketing is really their desire to generate leads. He’s found that many business owners tend to get scared to talk to new prospects. It’s understandable as it can be hard to land that sale and it can be tempting to put that burden on other people.
But, sharing an insight from a business coach he recently had a call with, he stated that entrepreneurs are generally good at sales as they wouldn’t have been able to get their business off the ground if they weren’t. And the first person that should be hired is a project manager so the entrepreneur can focus on sales and marketing. Ardor SEO has since been restructured to this strategy.
It all sounds good but Nicholas believes that it’s easier said than done. So, he got curious whether Kris used any specific tactics or tools that made the transition easier in the early days of his company.
“Networking is what’s helped me the most and learning from other people.”
Jumping Into Link Building
Deciding to get a little tactical in SEO and SEM, the host requested the Ardor CEO to tell the listeners about what link building really is, what it entails, and what tactics he would recommend for anyone who would want to give it a try on their own.
What Is it?
Thinking about how Google works, they don’t implicitly trust anything a person says. An individual might claim they’re the best at their industry but Google will choose to trust the greater community. It’s really who’s linking to a site is where the trust comes from.
What Does It Entail?
Search engines get better at filtering out the chaff so things get complicated on a local level. Having someone in town linking back for a geographically targeted keyword is going to have more authority, for instance. But then having a niche-relevant backlink is going to weigh more for a niche-specific keyword. Really, it does get fuzzy as not every link is worth something.
What Is the Best Way?
Most businesses service a geographical area. An example is an Ardor customer who teaches yoga in Wellington, New Zealand. Kris says that he and his team contact other yoga studios around the world who are looking for content for their own sites. The customer provides them with a great article and gets a niche-relevant backlink in exchange; it’s a win-win situation.
Creating Quality Content
Nicholas understood that getting quality backlinks involves making a lot of good content and he wanted to know Kris’ secret for that. The answer is a rule that Ardor SEO uses all the time along with a few other stuff.
Would you like to know what they are? Then listen to the full podcast on Earnworthy.
There is also information on using podcasts for building backlinks, switching to AMP pages, and a whole lot more so do tune in!
You can subscribe to the Growth Marketing Toolbox on SoundCloud, RSS, Stitcher, and iTunes as well. Nicholas Scalice is on Twitter too.
