👾 Leveling Up 👾

Welcome to Leveling Up. Today’s newsletter is a 3-minute read. 

Here’s what we’re going to cover: 

• What marketing tools and experiments we’re using

• Whether paid ads are worth the money

• Finding your post ‘ask’

Have you heard of our Agency Owners Association (AOA)? 

We’re about to start a Q&A, so make sure you join today (join here). 

Thanks,

Eric Siu :)

Actionable Tip

We went back to our old Marketing School days this week with a rundown of what Neil and I are doing right now in our businesses.

Here are all the tools and experiments we’re running right now, which you can copy (link).

Give some of them a try, and let us know if you have similar results.

New Interview: How To ACTUALLY Get ANYTHING You Want | Marie Forleo

Embracing creativity and intuition in decision-making

• 📚 Embracing multiple passions and exploring creativity can give you a unique edge in business and life, even if it goes against the traditional focus and rules.

• 🤔 Listening to your inner instinct can save you from wasting time and energy on opportunities that aren't right for you.

• 🤔 "Close your eyes and think about saying yes to this opportunity. Does the idea of saying yes to this make me feel expansive or contracted?"

• 🌍 Making decisions about opportunities should be contextual and not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing.

• 🗺️ Having a clear map when starting a project is important, but being open to new information and ideas that may be better than the original plan is crucial for success
  

Importance of mindset and habits in personal and professional success

• 💡 Clarity is one of the things that actually removes overwhelm, knowing what's most important and being willing to put aside what's not.

• 😊 Developing tiny habits like showing up early and remembering people's names can make a huge difference in how others perceive you and the experience they have.

• 🌟 Showing up with a positive attitude and going above and beyond can lead to better results and opportunities in any job or situation.

• 🌱 The impact of free content and sharing knowledge can change the trajectory of people's lives and their families' lives.

• 👍 "And it's just because it is simple and it's effective."
  

Links You Might Like

Here are some of the best links I’ve found since our last email. 

🏢 Business

Are paid ads a waste of money? (link)

💌 Email

The three levels of email marketing (link)

🤖 AI

Some predictions for what the next level of Chat GPT could be (link)

📊 Social Media

Do you know what your post ‘ask’ is? (link)

📈Marketing

How to attract an audience from zero (link)

Deep Dive: Rising SEO Strategies

Here are some rising SEO strategies, as well as some old-school strategies that are highly relevant for generating search traffic.

1. Generative Engine Optimization 

Google still has the lion's share of the search market, but it is starting to decline. Platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT are generative engine platforms that people are starting to optimize for. 

I believe in the next decade, Google will still have a large chunk of the search market, but it will be significantly lower.

For now, citations seem to be working. That is, links, reviews, mentions, etc. all help signal to these engines that a result is worth ranking.

2. Reddit & Quora Optimization 

Reddit and Quora's SEO traffic has exploded recently and it's only going to continue to go up. 

The fact that you're seeing more Reddit and Quora answers in SERPs is no accident. UGC content is ascending.

3. AI-assisted content

AI-assisted content production will continue to decrease costs while increasing output. We do this for our clients at Single Grain and for ourselves and it works well.

For example, with my podcasts, we take the transcripts and convert them into blog posts using OpenAI's APIs. Then we have a human in the loop fact-check and add context, links, and media before we hit publish. 

4. Programmatic SEO 

There's a reason why sites like TripAdvisor get over 100M visitors from SEO per month - programmatic SEO.

This isn't necessarily new – it's just more widely available to people like you and me. Simply design a template, map out the keywords that you'd like to rank for, and produce a small set of pages and QA before you scale.

This works well for niches that have many geographies, like travel. 

Examples: things to do in Rome, things to eat in Japan, etc.

5. YouTube Optimization 

YouTube is the second largest search engine and it'll continue to grow. I think it's the biggest opportunity in the next decade.

In February, we got 5M views alone on YouTube and we're now getting a consistent flow of prospects asking us to help them achieve the same results.

In a world of deep fakes and AI-driven content, brands will continue to stand out.

6. M&A for SEO 

When people think about buying businesses, they are often thinking about it from a financial mindset. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you layer on a marketing mindset when you're doing a transaction, you'll be able to extract more value from the deal.

Buying a company that's not only profitable but has an audience via its e-mail list or SEO traffic is a mega bonus.

Or if you can buy a website that has great SEO traffic but its under-monetized (e.g. using AdSense), you can take over and plug in a better business model e.g. selling products or services vs ads.

7. Zero-Click Optimization 

A lot of the SERP results have featured snippets. Usually, when people see the featured snippet, there's no incentive to click on the webpage because the user has already gotten the result.

It's good for the user, but bad for publishers. So focusing on optimizing for featured snippets will at least get you brand recognition. It's not ideal, but it's the world we live in. 

Optimize your header tags and try your best to answer questions succinctly to have the best odds of ranking for the featured snippet.

Old SEO Strategies (That Still Work):

1. Deleting Pages 

By cleaning up pages on your site, you make it easier for search engines to find the right things to show in their search results. 

2. Consolidating Pages

Sometimes, you'll have overlapping pages that are cannibalizing rankings from each other. Combine them and you'll have a stronger page that pushes higher in the rankings.

3. SEO A/B Testing 

Your title and meta description still play an important factor in generating click-throughs. If you're showing on the SERPs but you're not generating a click, you haven't done your job as a marketer. Test your headlines and titles from time to time.

One of the easiest things you can do is open your Google Search Console and sort your pages that have a high impression count but low clickthrough rate, and optimize those. 

4. Updating Pages 

If you have pages that are performing decently, update them every 1-3 months or so. You'll see outsized returns from this. This is part of the reason why you see Wikipedia ranking top 3 for so many terms. It's because their pages are being updated often. 

5. Link building 

Links still aren't dead today. They're still a very important signal. But think about link building from an advanced standpoint: 

• What tools, widgets, and calculators can you build to attract links?

• What statistics or trends can you share?

• What product can you buy that has a strong link profile already?

• Is there a site you can buy?

Think outside the box. 

6. UX 

There's a reason why Google places an emphasis on Core Web Vitals. If your site loads slowly and is inundated with ads, you deserve to be penalized. Think about the user constantly and you will be rewarded.

7. Keyword/topical research 

Keyword research still isn't dead today. You'll want to layer on trending topics by using tools like Exploding Topics combined with keyword research so you can capture the past and the future.

What did I miss? Reply to this email and let me know.

How I Can Help You

If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to collaborate with me, there are a few options available:

1. You can apply to work with my agency (link)

2. You can join my Skool community (link)

3. You can apply to join my mastermind (link)

Interested in working at Single Grain? We have some new open roles:

• Paid Media Manager (link)

• SEO Manager (link)