I deleted a bunch of crap on my laptop yesterday.
It was all stuff I’d been thinking might be useful someday. Apps, folders, documents, etc.
Call it minimalism, call it OCD, whatever. I like to work simply, and only with the tools that actually work for me.
SEO, content marketing, email marketing, these can all seem to be very complicated responsibilities of the modern online publisher. But, with a few good tools — and one “killer app” in particular — you’ll be on your way.
This stuff isn’t easy, but getting down to what actually works is fairly simple.
So let’s do just that …
Also, Brian writes a big check, and Sonia turns down the Executive title “Creedence Clearwater Officer.”
In this episode Brian, Sonia and I discuss:
- Why good SEO is like getting the hot girl in high school
- The super-secret, embarrassingly simple, copywriting tip that converts
- Is your product your best marketing? It had better be …
- Why SEO is way more than good keyword math
- Why most ad agencies can’t sell their way out of a paper bag
- The 2 words that get you 4 times more Retweets
Hit the flash player below to listen now:
Audio PlayerOther listening options:
- Click here to download the mp3 | 28.7 MB | 24:58
- Click here to subscribe via iTunes
- Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
- Click here for the show archive
- Click here for the transcript of What Works With SEO Right Now…
The Show Notes:
- Internet Marketing for Smart People 20-Part Course (free)
- Report: SEO Copywriting Made Simple (free)
- SEO Lessons From Apple’s Steve Jobs
- A Food Pyramid for Content Marketing
- How to Be a Copywriting Genius: The Brilliantly Sneaky Trick You Must Learn
- Does Telling Someone to “Click Here” Work?
- Is Your Social Media Strategy Stalling Because You’re Not Doing This One Thing?
- We left the building with Girl Talk
About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s Chief Copywriter and Resident Recluse.
Reader Comments (33)
Solid stuff, Copyblogger always delivers when it comes to SEO copywriting.
The three of you are having way too much fun over there at Copyblogger.com. Quality content will never die! Thank you for your simple SEO mantra this morning–it makes my day!
![😉](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f609.svg)
We do have entirely too much fun.![🙂](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f642.svg)
Can I just say THANK YOU for bringing back the podcasts? I will have to listen when I am doing one of in my rituals – driving, making green juices or stretching …. It helps me be creative and think about new ideas when I listen then rather than on my computer. Robert, thank you for being a fantastic host (and I am very hard to please, trust me ;))!
Thanks for listening!
I agree, Robert is an awesome host.![🙂](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f642.svg)
Good SEO, as you said in the podcast, does start with good content. That headline is the most important part though. Not only does it have to contain your keywords for the SE, but it has to be written in a way to get your customers to click on it. I’ve found that writing it so it matches the personality style of your prospects is the biggest secret in getting click-throughs.
Headlines are critical, I agree, but if what’s on the other side of the click doesn’t work for the audience, there’s no point in ranking for the term.
There are a lot of potential points of failure.![🙂](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f642.svg)
We talked quite a bit about headlines in last week’s show, in case you missed it.
Nice Audio explainup.
As far as i know everyone talks about good contents and backlinks when talking about seo.
Thanks for it.
Unfortunately, a lot of professional SEOs are still keyword stuffing and buying bargain-basement links rather than promoting really good content — because creating really good content is hard, and they think their customers will balk.
For me it goes back to the line I quoted from the Steve Jobs article — do you deserve to rank on page one for Google with that particular piece of content? If the answer is yes, then you’re ready to optimize — not before.
I totally agree with Sonia. It’s amazing how many website’s we come across that are still trying to “stuff” and “swap” their way to the top. Buying 10k profile links for $50 should cause a giant red light to come on… Just like our parents always told us, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
To this day, I still find that quality, useful commenting on industry blogs (such as this) continues to be a solid way to build highly relevant links – regardless if they’re do-follow or not.
Guest blogging is fantastic. Strategic press releases. It’s fine to outsource certain link building activities to qualified company with proven results, but manual is still – and always will be – the best way to go![🙂](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f642.svg)
Another great podcast.
I’d guess that SEO folk don’t like the idea of writing great content as a strategy is that it requires human effort, not automation… and your customers can see and read great content.
The beauty of all of this is that if you write great content, you’ll never be “algorithmed out”. Your content is good, your links are authentic.
The magic is that there is no magic.
By the way, when are you going to start bundling your software products together into the CopyPress Suite or something?
You are a highlight of my week.
Thanks,
Steve
Steven, the good SEOs have been all about content for a while now. It’s really difficult to get anything to rank these days otherwise.
Sorry, I do not know what SEO refers to. What is it?
Search engine optimization — basically the art and science of getting content to rank higher in search engines for relevant searches.
Koombah yah my lord Koombah yah… Koombah yah my lord, Koombah yah. Good shit Brian, and Robert the Bruce.
This is gonna be good…I haven’t listened to it yet, but the topic is right up my street. Thanks guys!
As far as i know content is king in internet marketing. If you have engaing and informative content then everyone is going to enjoy the reading. But writing rock solid content (engaging content) is not an easy task to do. If you able to write rock solid content then 80% of seo task is completed. Now all you have to do is just make a way for people to reach at your rock solid content by using old school or new school seo techniques….like directory submission, guest post, blog carnivals etc…
Really great podcast Robert, brian, sonia.. Robert you’re really a very good host… You rocks robert![🙂](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f642.svg)
I was dying to read this article but I’m in a cubicle and playing it really isn’t an option. Do you have the key points that can be taken from this (I caught a few from reading the user comments). Being a long time journalist, great headlines and even better copy is the ONLY thing I know how to do. I don’t understand the keyword thing or backlinks that some are bringing up.
Hey Jen,
No problem at all, you can get into our free SEO Copywriting report right now:
https://copyblogger.com/seo-copywriting/
I enjoyed listening to the audio. For some time, I’ve been hoping that Google and the other search engines would learn to distinguish well-written content from garbage that is created exclusively to generate traffic. Hopefully, they are getting closer to reaching that elusive goal. Thanks!
Hey, where was the funky intro music!?!?
The perfect spot came right after the second time Brian said he wrote his wife a check. But it wasn’t there.
Still a great podcast guys – one of my favorites so far!
I am listening right now and I am already in. Content, content content…..unique, interesting, well written content is crucial and it is that content that starts to generate the natural link building and buzz around your site.
Thanks for the post Robert!
That audio-clip runs for about 22 min., it’s very inspiring and filled with practical pointers. I learned a lot from you guys. Keep in mind, it’s IM for Smart People. Good conversation, rocks!
I saw that article on Steve Jobs and SEO and immediately thought: SKIP! Maybe I should learn to recognize author names a little more… This one sentence in particular though “You have to feel that the content you create belongs on that first page of Google”, well that’s just gold right there.
Uh, and am I the only one left searching through the show notes, links and comments trying to figure out what this one “killer app” is?
This is a great infomation about SEO. I always like reading about it. Download…..Thanks for sharing
Yeah thanks for sharing, must keep up to date with my blog..Will bookmark and have another good listen later.
Dan
If Darren’s book is worth it for the pictures, this audio is worth it for the music. And the other stuff, too.![😉](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f609.svg)
The audio is nice, but I don’t have time …
Putting the podcast into text would be super-helpful … and really good for SEO, btw.
You got it John, grab it right here:
https://copyblogger.com/seo-content-marketing-transcript/
I love these podcasts and gain such valuable information from them. HOWEVER. it was brutal listening to the beginning of this audio. Sounded like someone was unwrapping paper for the first 5 minutes. Just saying
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