GR0 CEO Kevin Miller Shares his Tactical Guide to SEO

No matter what type of business you’re in these days, you’ve very likely heard of SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s one of the most important parts of running and operating a business in today’s virtual and digital era.

SEO came about in the wake of the era of information and the birth of the internet. Its main purpose is to organize all of the various web pages on the internet by content category, type, and quality. Getting to this point, though, was quite the journey.

SEO wasn’t always as smooth as it is today. In fact, before SEO came about, the earliest forms of internet information organization were manual attempts. This brought the world data-base-platforms like the original Yahoo. It was quickly realized, though, that the sheer volume of information existing on the internet was far too vast for any team of humans to comprehend, or successfully organize.

This is when the first iterations of SEO arrived on the scene. Even the first SEO algorithms were clunky, though, and brought us search results overpopulated with spam and junk websites because designers had found ways to manipulate the rankings through things like invisible texts.

Needless to say, SEO looks much different today as the algorithms and strategies behind it have evolved significantly. Mentorpass looks at this SEO evolution in a conversation with the founder of a startup content marketing agency that’s continuing to make strides, catch eyes, and turn heads.

Getting Started With SEO

As Kevin Miller, CEO of the popular content marketing firm Gr0, said on Dot.LA earlier this year in April, “The first and most important step of all comes right at the top: making a list of the keywords and phrases, in addition to your brand name, that you most want to emphasize in Google results.”

Identifying the keywords and key phrases for which you want your website and associated web pages to rank is one of the most crucial steps in creating your SEO strategy. Just as Kevin Miller said, too, this happens right at the beginning of your SEO journey. Selecting the keywords and key phrases for which you want your website and web pages to rank should feel relatively innate and organic.

However, besides the search terms, phrases, and words that come to you naturally, it can also be beneficial to look to market competitors and see where they’re directing their SEO efforts. Marketing professionals can even make use of SEO tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs in order to really dial in on their keyword and keyphrase strategy when it comes to SEO. I

t’s also important to note that modern SEO algorithms produced by search engines prioritize high-quality content. In other words, it isn’t enough to simply repeat a keyword or phrase over and over again in an otherwise blank document. Modern SEO algorithms will recognize this, and the ranking will be impacted accordingly.

The Power of Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the most important marketing strategies that’s come to pass in recent years. The popularity and success realized by content marketing has been influenced by a variety of factors. For instance, social media has fundamentally changed the way that young men and women think about and interact socially. Not only that, but it’s trained an expectation of and investment in instant gratification.

As such, content marketing connects with a generation of consumers who are already habitually consuming content. This sounds a little cyclical, but if you consider the way infinite scrolling, TV streaming, and viral-60-second videos all impact the mentality of the consumer, content marketing is suddenly a logical and natural conclusion.

Not all content is created equal, though, and this is the point of SEO. Current SEO algorithms prioritize high-quality content that’s relevant to the search query entered. In order to achieve highly ranked content, the produced pieces need to answer real consumer questions thoroughly and accurately. Furthermore, the pieces need to be engaging, well written, and somewhat aesthetically pleasing. These are all factors that current SEO algorithms take into consideration when calculating a website or web pages rank.

It’s all About Linking

An underrated and often overlooked aspect of highly ranked SEO content is the use of links. A brand cannot solely rely on linking to give them a high SEO rank, but it is a critical factor that SEO algorithms take into account.

There are a variety of links to be familiar with when it comes to SEO. There are internal links, external links, and backlinks. Internal links are links native to the website that direct a user to another webpage that’s still associated with the parent brand. External links are still hosted on a brand’s page, but point to an external source. Backlinks, however, are links on external pieces of content that direct users to a website or page associated with your brand.

Building a high-quality library of backlinks helps SEO algorithms recognize your brand as authoritative in any given industry.

Closing Thoughts on the Importance of SEO

Content marketing firms like Gr0 are growing at light-speed, and the value of SEO is a big part of the reason why. Understanding how the modern digital traffic funnel works, and the role that SEO plays in bringing your brand organic visitors is vital to being successful and competitive in today’s virtual and hyper saturated market.

Similar Stories