Alessia Citro 0:02
Welcome to the corporate dropout podcast. I'm your host Alesia Citro. If you're sick of the corporate hamster wheel and looking to feel inspired and empowered to live a high vibe life as your own boss, you're in the right place. Dare to drop out in 321. Before we start the show, I want to tell you about the business I'm launching. Starting a business can be hard work, but it doesn't need to be confusing too. And that is why I founded Theia collective, a learning community for entrepreneurs, to learn from experts across law, finance, tax operations, marketing, sales, and more. And get the blueprint on how to set up and run your own business. Text biz, that's BIZ to 949-577-8709, or head to Theia dash collective.com. To learn more.

Alessia Citro 0:51
Hello, friends. So today I am back with Jim Carter, we had an amazing interview that aired yesterday, is sure to go back and listen to that if you have not already. And today he is back teaching us all about Seo 101. Before that, I want to quickly introduce him. So he is the founder of Carter and Custer, an agency providing growth and content services for purpose-driven brands and organizations of all sizes. He is a technology coach who uses his 20-plus years of knowledge, expertise, and experience to advise social impact organizations, brands, and experts. And he has helped raise over $20 million for nonprofits in his career through technology. He's also a husband, father of two public speakers, and loves a fine cup of coffee. So Jim, thank you for coming back. I cannot wait to learn all about SEO. This is something that has been on my list for a while truth be told.

Jim Carter 1:41
All right. So when it comes to SEO? I mean, first of all, take a minute and think to yourself, when somebody says the word SEO, do we just panic inside? Or does that actually lead us up because most of us will kind of hear that word and like a little piece of the inside of us just kind of like starts to crash? Like, I don't know where to start, oh my god, I can't write a blog post. And what I like to do is simply teach SEO in three pillars. And those three pillars are so important because it embodies how important each one works together in order for it to truly be a technique that can add virality and life to your business, your vision, and your mission or your passion, whatever it is. So just start with it. Even before we talk about those three, the importance of SEO is now more than just Google, right? You've also heard SEO when it comes to social media and searching. Right. So for example, on social media, your name may be both in your app handle, let's say on Instagram, but it's also maybe in your name. Well, technically, it doesn't need to be in both. Because if somebody searches for your name, they're going to find one or the other. Instead, you can optimize it. So that way, when somebody finds your name, they also can learn about what you do. And you're taking advantage of an optimization technique. So to zoom out and to think about it in kind of the macro. That's what gives us the space to actually zoom in and understand how do we actually take full advantage of this massive powerhouse, which is called Google, which runs our lives, which is the only place that we live almost every day of the week. And it's how we find the answers to the world's questions. So starting right from the top,

Jim Carter 3:23
The three pillars that really go into SEO, are one, original quality content. Two, there's the how do people like our website when they land on it factor? And then there's the third, which is who cares about us? Like who's promoting us? Who gives a shit? So right from the top? Number one, your website is nothing without original quality content? Yes, I said it. And if you're a photographer, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry, because your content is visual. But think about how hard it is to find your content as a photographer if you don't have any captions around them and if you don't have any contextual relevance that helps support your zone of genius. But now think about Alright, when was the last time you actually searched for something on Google? Like if you literally pull up your phone right now and you go to your Google search history? Maybe we're looking for the best iPhone app for notetaking. Maybe we're looking for the top foot insert for the fact that you might have, you know, plantar fasciitis or something, right? I'm just picking stuff off the top of my brain. Well, it's very likely that for most of your searches, you're finding articles, you're finding lists, you're finding listicles a combination of both. what you're finding is long-form content, right? We live in a short-form world now, right? Attention spans of fruit flies. If it doesn't fit in a tweet, we don't talk about it. If you can't get your full article update and a push notification you just don't feel like you understand. But for those of us who still like to read and Spoiler alert, Google loves to read the web, you have to be producing long-form content, long-form content, based on tons of data, tons of surveys, tons of evaluations by SEOs, like myself, consists of about 1900 words or more per article or per blog post. So we're not talking about a couple of paragraphs, like long days with a gun, where you can just write a blog post about the sandwich that you had for lunch and expect people to actually find you and care. Now, it's about quality, over quantity, right? There are a lot of ways on the internet that we still have to push more quantity over quality. Like, for example, if you're making reels on Instagram, it's no longer a quality thing. It is a quantity game. But if you go back about 20 years, Google was a quantity game. Also, they had to fill up their index, they had learned about the world's information, and they want to have the biggest database of information possible. Now, if you can't get the answer to one of your questions from Google, in the first couple of answers, we don't even go to a different search engine, we just give up. So it's so incredibly important for Google to get it right that first time, if they don't have long-form content, originally written and really good quality, they're probably not going to promote you, because it's a numbers game, they can go to the next blog, the next blog, the next blog, and they can promote them all day. Now, I'm gonna, I'm gonna explain how you can get on top of these strategies at the end of this, but I really want to dive into each of these three, just to make sure everybody understands the importance of each. So that's number one, we have original quality content. Number two, we're talking about the who enjoys our site when they land on our site type of ranking, right? This is a very, very technical, non-technical type of explanation. So the actual term is called the on-site score, or the on-site validation, or the on-site experience. So what does that mean? What does that mean? When was the last time you went to a website and it wasn't secure? Well, if you if it was, that was the last time you're ever gonna go to it, right? You did not feel good. When you landed on my website, I think the last time you loaded a website where it took longer than half a second to load, which you do, you probably swiped or got frustrated, or went and check something else and let it load in the background. You lost attention, you, you, you inherently don't trust it as much. Because psychologically, we realize, well, yeah, but this other site, they're, they're making it load fast. They're giving me better quality content. They're showing up and they're investing in my experience. So the question you have to ask yourself is, are you investing in your user's experience? Or do you just have a website to check the box to simply say that you have a website? Because if original quality content isn't on it, and it's slow to load, it's insecure. It's not optimized. It's got pop-ups everywhere. It's asking people to join your list. It breaks when you scroll, how do you expect somebody to actually stay there and consume that content? So that's number two. That's the actual score the qualitative and quantitative rankings of how good is your website for somebody when they actually land on your site, and then consume it? And then number three, this is the biggest one, because it's what put Google on the map. And what made Google Google today is the WHO CARES factor? Like, really, who cares? Again, you could have the best content ever that you write, you can be the most acclaimed journalist that ever published anything on the internet, you can have the fastest screaming website, perfectly optimized that looks like a medium.com article. But if literally, no one on the internet knows about it, and no one links to your site. Google will still not put you on the first page. And you might be asking, why not? And the answer is because if nobody is kicking the ball to you in that football game, then how are you supposed to score a shot. So if you think about it this way, the more content we put out into the world, the more opportunity we have to be seen, right? However, as long as we optimize it, and as long as that content is worthy of being shared, as long as that content is worthy, is noteworthy, it's newsworthy, it's something that somebody wants to raise their hand and say, You need to go see this. That's the breaking point, or the tipping point for Google to actually pay attention to your content and want to do more with it. So the technical term here is called a backlink. And the backlink is one of the oldest technologies that Google put into their algorithm when they created that algorithm in the late 90s. That allows the system to understand okay, so this site may have pretty good content, and it might have really good optimization. But it's got a ton of people linking to it. I'm talking about multiple blogs and multiple authoritative sources. It's cited on entrepreneur.com. It's cited on Forbes, Oprah links to it from her site, whatever the case is, it all goes into this mix. And then you might have another site that's got really great content super fast and optimized. And it's got minimal links, well, those two pages may rank about the same. You might be saying why? Well, and if I had an answer to that, then I would be inside of the vault at Google, probably making a lot more money than I am today. But even though they do not explain the actual things that go into the algorithm, they share with SEOs like myself, the understanding that as long as you are creating content, you are optimizing the experience, and you're making your content share-worthy for your user, then you're doing everything right. And that's the main takeaway from this lesson that I want you to know is that it doesn't matter if you're not the best writer. And it doesn't matter if it's not the fastest site on the internet. And it's also okay if you haven't been covered in Forbes and entrepreneur, and Oprah isn't your BFF. But by the way, I have two daughters. So like, if you hear me throw in slang or dad joke, this is just the way I roll. But when you keep showing up, and you keep now producing quality content, that is energetically you, that is something you believe in, and you invest in the platform in which you want to grow. And you do it from a place that you want people to give a damn, and you want them to link to you and you want them to share. These are the opportunities that allow you to finally get to the front page. These are the things that you put in that when you do all of them together. Over a period of time, incremental changes can change the world. So you got to ask yourself, am I writing original quality content? Am I actually investing in the output? And at the end of the day, can I make it so that people actually want to promote this? Because when you do all those three things, I guarantee you, you've got the success, and you've got the opportunity to actually hit the front page of Google. And you're truly optimizing your content for searchability and for the best user experience.

Alessia Citro 12:13
So I was taking notes. I never do that on interviews, but I did on this one. So good. Well, Jim, thank you for coming back. I appreciate the time so much on what has been a busy day for you. And I just can't wait to stay in touch and for our paths to continue crossing.

Jim Carter 12:31
I appreciate you so much. Thanks for having me on. Thank you for giving me the chance to talk about something I absolutely love. And if anybody has any questions on SEO, I absolutely love helping people understand this and make more sense of it so they can make a bigger impact in the world. Feel free to hit me up. I'd love to chat with you some more.

Alessia Citro 12:45
Yeah, and tell our listeners where can they connect with you and find you?

Jim Carter 12:49
Yeah, absolutely. You could find me on Instagram at cars hacker that's ca USC ha CK er think growth hacker for a cause. And you can also shoot me a text message I love when people join my tech community. It's where I send inspirational tech tips and things to help kind of look around the corner before the next person. You can also shoot me a text area code 310-496-3389 You can text me the word SEO and I'll know exactly where you're coming in. That was 310-496-3389 I'd love to hear from you on either channel and support your journey.

Alessia Citro 13:21
Well, thank you, Jim. This has been a pleasure. Always Thank you. This episode was brought to you by Theia collective the learning community I found it for entrepreneurs text biz, that's BIZ to 949-577-8709 or head to Theia dash collective.com That's THEIA dash collective.com to learn more. Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoyed today's episode, please help me get the word out about the corporate dropout by screenshotting and sharing this on social I would appreciate it so much if you would subscribe and leave a five-star rating and review as well. And I do the show for you and I want to hear from you. So tell me what is it that you want more of text me at 949-541-0951 or slide into the DMS at the corporate drop out official or Alesia Citro with two underscores until next time.