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Drive 50% of leads through SEO

Author

Karthik Sridharan
September 14, 2023

Hey there,

A few weeks back I shared my views on ChatGPT vs SEO and also shared a 21-point framework to power your startup with SEO.

In response, I got many requests from founders to have a chat around how their startup can leverage SEO. The catch though was that many didn’t truly understand SEO.

And it is tough to leverage something that you don’t understand. No, you can’t delegate too - you need to understand what you are delegating as well.

So, I thought it would be best to explain SEO to you so you truly understand it. For that, I will explain it super simply. In a way that even a 5-year-old would understand.

Thereafter, you should be able to have an intelligent conversation about SEO with anyone.

So, let’s explain SEO to you like you are a 5-year-old

I will explain this to you using an analogy that we all can very easily relate to:

1. The characters involved

👩🏻‍🦰 Librarian = Google
📚 Books = All websites
🧔‍♂️ Person searching for a book = Your potential customer

I’ll connect it all in the end!

2. Potential customer searches Google

This is equivalent to the 🧔‍♂️ person coming to the 👩🏻‍🦰 librarian and asking her to suggest the most relevant 📘 book on say “Photosynthesis”.

3. Google has to show search results

The 👩🏻‍🦰 librarian now has to decide which 📚️Books to recommend from a sea of books.

So, she does this by setting certain parameters to rank the various books. now has to decide which Books to recommend from a sea of books.

Which parameters?

4. Google ranks results using a first set of parameters

The first set of parameters helps the 👩🏻‍🦰 librarian understand if a particular book is relevant to the topic being searched. Here are the proxies she will use to evaluate that:

  • Does “photosynthesis” appear in the title of the 📘 book?

  • Does it appear in the 📄 chapter titles?

  • How many times is it mentioned across the content 🔢?

5. Google shares final results using a final set of parameters

The final set of parameters helps the 👩🏻‍🦰 librarian ascertain the reputation of each book. For any particular book, here is how she gauges the reputation:

  • How many other 📚️ books cited this 📘 book as a reference?

  • Did any of those 📚️ books also recommend this 📘 book?

  • How credible are those other 📚️ books?

6. Google finally shows the results

Attaching various weights to these parameters, the 👩🏻‍🦰 librarian shares a list of 10 📚️books that the 🧔‍♂️ person should consider.

She has a longer list, but the person doesn’t care about the books beyond the top 10!

7. Connecting the analogy!

Referring to the content above:

→ In Step #2:

“Photosynthesis”: Is what we call a “Keyword”

→ In Step #4:

  • “Book title”: Is the Page Title of your webpage

  • “Chapter titles”: Are H1, H2... tags

  • “Mentions in book content”: Mentions in body content of your page

  • These are called the “on-page” factors

→ In Step #5:

  • “Citations by other books”: Are “Backlinks”

  • “Their recommendation”: Is a “Do-follow backlink”

  • “Their credibility”: An unofficial factor (not shared by Google) called “Domain Authority” (or DA)

  • These are called the “off-page” factors

8. So, how do you appear in Google’s results?

  • Choose a keyword your customer likely searches

  • Write an article & infuse it per “on-page factors”

  • Distribute it so that websites link back to it

  • Preferably credible ones that give a do-follow backlink

That’s it! 🚀

Get started with SEO to drive traffic to your website

Of course, like any subject, there’s a lot more nuance than just the above explanation. However, frankly, from a concept perspective that’s all there is to it. Now you just need to start executing.

Your next steps should be:

  • Making a list of keywords

  • Optimizing your existing pages for those keywords and/or creating new pages

  • Getting backlinks to your website

Best,
Karthik

P.S. Please consider forwarding this to a friend! It would really help my two startups.

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