The WP SEO Show – Demystifying SEO for WordPress Websites – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, Pete and Jeff chat through the benefits and the process that moves an agency away from just being a "website provider" to a "trusted advisor" for your clients. They also discuss why this is sometimes out of our comfort zone and give some strategies and tips on where to start.

• Understanding Client Needs
• Recurring Revenue and Growth Plans
• Client Communication and Strategy
• Low-Hanging Fruit and Long-Term Goals
• Confidence and Expertise

In this episode, Pete and Jeff cover the following:

• The problem with selling SEO on its own
• Why broadening the scope beyond SEO is a good thing
• Why SEO should be part of a larger growth strategy
• The importance of having an initial discovery process / triage process
• Building recurring revenue 
• Building long-term relationships with clients

In this episode, Pete and Jeff explore a real example of a content AI checker, and how a client interpreted the results.

Needless to say, the outcome wasn’t exactly “easy” to understand, so they chat through the results, the pitfalls and how these checkers are placed in the market at the moment.

Initiating SEO discussions with clients can be hard – regardless of if this is a new client on a client you've had for years...

In this episode we explore strategies for approaching SEO sales conversations, emphasizing the importance of presenting SEO as an opportunity rather than a hard sell. We discuss the importance of understanding a client's current business state, objectives, and expectations for SEO.

We also cover themes such as assessing a client's website performance, conducting keyword research, setting realistic targets, the challenges of working with brand new businesses and the importance of not overcommitting to unattainable goals.

• Approaching SEO sales conversations: Presenting SEO as an opportunity rather than a hard sell.
• Understanding the client's business: Assessing the current state, objectives, and expectations for SEO.
• Assessing website performance: Analyzing client's website for SEO readiness.
• Conducting keyword research: Importance of selecting appropriate keywords for client's business.
• Setting realistic SEO targets: Importance of achievable goals, especially for new businesses.
• Charging for SEO services: The need for agencies to charge fairly.
• Long-term client relationships: Focusing on sustained growth and consistent results.

Download the SEOHive SEO Audit & Sales Presentation Template.

Our first show of 2024 focuses on three core SEO principles expected to be significant in the year. The first is the enduring importance of content, especially in the context of AI's growing influence and the need for authentic, human-generated material. Secondly, technical SEO – emphasizing the increasing relevance, especially given the rise of AI-generated content and its impact on search rankings. Finally, the growing prominence of local SEO, including the importance of optimizing for local search results and map pack traffic.\

In summary:

• Importance of Content: Emphasizing the need for authentic, human-generated content in the age of AI.
• Technical SEO: Increasing relevance due to the rise of AI-generated content affecting search rankings.
• Local SEO: Highlighting the significance of optimizing for local search results and map pack traffic.
• AI's Impact: Discussing how AI is shaping SEO strategies and content creation.

Shoutouts

• Isaac's Skiing YouTube Channel
• The Admin Bar
• Alex Curtis / The Lead Engine

We kick off this episode walking through the six Core Web Vitals – a set of metrics used by Google to evaluate the user experience of a website.

These are:

• First Contentful Paint (FCP)
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• Time to Interactive
• Speed Index
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
• Total Blocking Time (TBT)

Each vital is then discussed in detail, explaining what they measure and their importance in website performance.

• Importance of optimizing images and videos, including best practices for media file sizes and formats.
• Discussion on the use of WordPress and how various tools can impact Core Web Vitals.
• Techniques for optimizing JavaScript loading, such as deferring or minifying scripts.
• The significance of setting correct image sizes and the impact of media on layout shifts.

Pete & Jeff share practical experiences and challenges they've faced in optimizing websites, offering insights into real-world application of these strategies.

• Importance of Testing and Iteration: Emphasis on the necessity of testing optimizations and understanding the impact of changes on overall website performance.
• SEO and Core Web Vitals as Part of a Larger Strategy: They discuss how Core Web Vitals fit into a broader SEO strategy and the need to balance technical optimization with other SEO elements.

In this episode, Jeff and Pete discuss the concept of "Paid Discovery" in SEO projects. They delve into why it's crucial for agencies to charge for the discovery phase of an SEO project, how it benefits both the agency and the client, and best practices for implementing this approach.

• Getting paid to figure out if you'll work with a client and cover the time needed to determine if it's a good fit
• Puts skin in the game for the client to show they are serious

• Allows agency to demonstrate expertise without giving away full strategy
• Helps ensure client is equipped for the SEO work required
• Provides opportunity to align on commercial goals and objectives
• Screens out clients not suitable to work with

• Be clear it's not a sales pitch, though the goal is to agree on a proposal
• Focus on trust building and showing your capabilities as an expert
• Include a "low risk offer" like a coupon to incentivize signing on for ongoing work

• Take the time upfront to understand infrastructure and capacity limitations clients may have
• Be willing to walk away from bad fits even when it's uncomfortable
• Have your own audit process or leverage tools like Scout Reports to qualify leads

In this episode, Pete and Jeff dive into how you can better utilize some built-in but overlooked WordPress features to improve SEO on your site.

• Post types are the highest level for categorizing different content across your site, like pages and posts.
• Avoid going overboard and creating a lot of custom post types. Keep it simple.

• Use categories (which are a default taxonomy) to group related content within post types. This allows better content targeting.
• For example, an ecommerce site could have categories for different product types under the default WooCommerce products post type.

• The archive template controls the display of taxonomy and date-based archive pages.
• You can add unique, relevant content to archive templates to make these pages more useful, like FAQs, videos, etc related to the category topic.
• This helps demonstrate your authority for those category-related keywords.

• Ideally, post types, taxonomies and site structure get planned early on along with actual content and keywords being targeted.
• Don't let developers make these organizational decisions solo without client input. Logic doesn't always translate for real visitors.

• Author archive pages usually only make sense on content-heavy sites like newspapers where the actual author is important.
• For small business sites, you likely want to disable these from being indexed to avoiding duplicate content issues.

• The goal with post types, taxonomies and archive templates is ultimately to better leverage your existing on-site content for improved SEO targeting - not complex tricks.
• Take what WordPress offers out-of-the-box and customize it to your advantage.

In this episode, Pete and Jeff muse about the trials and tribulations of WordPress Core Updates and how the latest release – WordPress 6.4 – went, as it wasn't as smooth as others have been. 

They cover: 

• What core updates are and why they're important
• Best practices when performing WordPress updates
• What to do to ensure nothing goes wrong

We come into contact with a LOT of websites – we audit them, we optimise them and we work hard to get them ranking in the SERPs. 

In this episode, Pete and Jeff take a look through the top 10 most common SEO mistakes they come across in dealing with client websites. 

** SPOILER ALERT – here's the list ** 

1. Unchecking "Disallow the search engines from indexing this site"
2. Not undertaking keyword research
3. Overusing target keywords 
4. Leaving development URLs in place when a site gets pushed live 
5. Not optimising Images properly
6. Ignoring technical SEO features (particularly in the build) – See Ep 8 - The Importance of Technical SEO 
7. Not running your SEO Plugin through it's Optimisation Process 
8. Having a flat URL structure
9. Not reviewing performance once built and populated 
10. Not building internal links to key target pages