Itamar Blauer is a seasoned Search Engine Optimization Expert in the UK. He is also one of the moderators in the SEO Fundamentals Room in Marketing Club – ClubHouse. I have the privilege to invite him as a guest to my Talks with SEO Experts Video Series.
Here are highlights from our Discussion:
00:00:01 Introduction
00:00:50 What’s your take on SEO in 2021?
00:00:20 What are the common SEO mistakes made in 2021? How can you avoid them?
00:02:40 People are missing the basics and the common sense in SEO. Everything has to start with your users in mind. A simple question to ask is “Have you ever thought about what kind of journey your users will take on your site? What are they searching for? Who are your competitors? Due diligence is very important. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Every website has a different story. Therefore, every site deserves a custom-tailored unique solution. You can’t apply the same checklist for every website.
00:07:15 What Rand Fiskin said about the significance of branded searches is true. It’s again common sense that the more people search about your brand and branded terms the higher the conversions are. If there are more branded searches this also means that people are trusting as a credible resource. Link building is still important for SEO but link building cannot be something that you jump into at the start by ignoring the other elements on the basics about your brand.
00:09:27 What is keyword pioneering?
00:09:32 Sometimes people will take search volume metrics too seriously. Of course, it’s important but the way that we withdraw data with APIs can not be always 100% accurate. Especially when you know your industry well and always keep yourself up to date with any developments, you can make predictions about its future. You’ll know what the future will look like in your industry and this unique insight will help you what kind of content you need to create even before the keywords get popular. You position yourself as a pioneer. This is what Itamar calls “keyword pioneering”. Itamar has personally experienced it with his clients.
00:16:47 What are you thinking about gaining backlinks through HARO (Help a Reporter Out)? Can you give us the description of HARO?
00:16:59 HARO is a service that you can sign up to and select categories that you would get information on. Maybe a journalist is writing a piece and want to get some input from experts. Itamar has created a lot of backlinks by HARO for his clients. Some of the best practices are
1) Only answer pitches that you are an expert of and really know well.
2) Don’t try to answer everything because the quality of the answers won’t be high
3) Answer a query as quickly as possible because HARO is getting more and more competitive these days.
4) If you answered a question profoundly next time the reporter will prefer your answer
00:19:57 Can you explain what link prospecting is?
00:20:00 When you need to build backlinks you need to understand what type of website you need to target. Make a list of websites that you can analyze and decide which ones are a good fit for your website. You can use any tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs. Check:
1) Is the website relevant to your industry?
2) Does the website add value to your website?
3) Does it match the topic and theme of your website
00:21:58 What are your expectations for Google and SEO?
00:22:15 A lot of SEO is commonsense. Google gets more sophisticated in understanding your website’s value by looking: What is the purpose of your website that you’ll do SEO for? What is the value that you create for your users when they land on your website? Can you match the intent of the user when they visit your website?
00:26:08 What are some advanced Youtube SEO methods?
1) Metadata is very important/incorporate the relevant keywords in the file names.
2) Utilize competitor names in your tags
3) Use location There are 4 more and you can find them on Itamar’s youtube channel. Can you match the user intent when they are on your website? Here is the information for connecting with Itamar Youtube Channel:
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ItamarBlauer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwPNtasHHt8 Backlinks with HARO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syOtU0mCLfI&t=26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwPNtasHHt8
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itamarblauer/
Twitter: @ItamarBlauer
ING: @itamarblauer
