283: Using SEO to Outrank your Competition - With Damon Burton

01/27/21 • 40 min

Meet Damon:

Since founding his company SEO National in 2007, Damon Burton Writes for Forbes has been featured in publications including Entrepreneur Magazine, BuzzFeed, and USA Weekly. He's helped high-profile clients make more in a month than they used to in a year. Not only does Burton bring an easy to follow approach to increasing your revenue and online visibility, but he’s also a trusted educator on this subject and has literally written the book on how to outrank your competition. His book, Outrank, serves as a guide to those who want to dominate Google's search results without paying for ads.

I was looking into your website and I'm intrigued by the story about how you beat a billion-dollar company in showing up higher than them in the search engines. Can you share that with our listeners?

Yeah, that's a fun story. It was actually kind of in the infancy of when I jumped into the SEO world and it was just a little hobby site. So this around 2007, my wife was watching the Bachelor and she says, "Hey, babe, it's the season finale, come in to watch this with me. So I went in and watched a little bit of it and from what I remember from watching season finales with her before, is that they wouldn't announce who the next bachelor was going to be, they'd leave a cliffhanger and you'd have to wait. What was interesting about this year, and now in subsequent years, is they announced who the gentleman was going to be. So I was curious about why they did that and I went and looked him up, assuming that I would find information on their website about it and I couldn't find anything on their website. But it was this guy who was a Navy Captain, and he runs triathlons. So I thought to myself if I'm not really that interested in it because it was more just a brief curiosity and all these huge diehard fans are going to be interested in it, they're certainly looking. So I told my wife, I said, "Hey, I'm gonna be in here for a little bit," and so that night, I spent 90 minutes building a website, and cataloged any public information I could find about this guy and put it up. By the end of the week, it was the number one website for this bachelor guy and we were able to outrank The Bachelor website and ABC is a multi-billion dollar brand so it's a fun story to share. So at the time, I was in my early 20s, and I put AdSense on there so I was making like 1000s of dollars a month in passive income. But at the core, why that's such a good success story is because I solved the problem. I answered questions that the consumers were demanding and so that's a simplistic way of looking at SEO. That was not the most beautiful website, but it solved the problem. It had some pictures of the guy that people were looking for, had the bio on the guy that people were looking for, had resources on the guy that people were looking for, and then I'm hesitant to admit it, but then I started adding updates at the end of each show that season about what was going on with his story on The Bachelor.

Let's talk about ads in search engines a little bit, why would you pay for ads when you can get sales from search engines for free?

There are some pros and cons to any marketing campaign. The nice thing about ads is that they're quicker than SEO, SEO is a slow game, but that's the only advantage. The disadvantages of ads are that you always have an ad budget. So as that space becomes more competitive, you have to pay more, you have to increase your budget. Then there's also a shelf life to your ad. A lot of people will be familiar with the term "ad fatigue," where someone has an ad on Google or Facebook and it runs great for six weeks, and then you wake up the next day, and it's dead. So you're always having a scramble on turning these ads off and on. A lot of people I know that actively run aggressive ad campaigns, they are literally in their ad campaigns every day and that becomes tiring. So to the opposite of that, I'm not wanting to say that SEO is the only way, I think there's a time in place for all of them. But with SEO, the advantages and disadvantage of the complete opposite of paid ads. The goal with SEO is to show up higher on search engines without paying for ads by building up the credibility of your website. So the only downside to SEO is that it's a slower play, you can easily be into it for six months to a year before you see any movement. I tell all our new clients that you need to mentally commit to at least a year. So you have to have not only the patience but you have to have the cash flow and the runway to pay for something that's not going to drive a return for probably at the earliest three to six months. But once it kicks in, then you have all these other advantages. You don't have the daily ad fatigue that you have to check all the time, you don't have a fluctuating ad budget, you have a fixed management fee to your SEO agency. Once you get to the top, unless you're play...

Meet Damon:

I was looking into your website and I'm intrigued by the story about how you beat a billion-dollar company in showing up higher than them in the search engines. Can you share that with our listeners?

Let's talk about ads in search engines a little bit, why would you pay for ads when you can get sales from search engines for free?

Previous Episode

282: How Our Subconscious Affects How We Do Business - with Cyrina Talbott

Meet Cyrina:

As a business mindset coach and rapid transformational therapist Cyrina is passionate about helping business owners understand how to navigate growth. Their business is leading them to a place that is amazing, but also unfamiliar. Her work focuses on mindset and becoming confident to step into the next level, bringing you scientifically proven techniques to get your subconscious on board so you have 100% of your mind working with you and for you, no longer working against you.

Why don't you share a little bit about how our subconscious affects our business?

So the main thing to understand is that science can hook up things to our brains and measure them. I think there's a lot of misconceptions about your subconscious that it’s this deep dark place or whatnot, but it's our autopilot, it's our programming, and what happens is there's a state they can measure brainwaves. So there's a state that we're living in, between the age of birth and 10, where that's all getting programmed. Then around 12, you start being able to think abstract and more logically, and all that kind of stuff. So that programming is set, and then it's running and a lot of times the way we were raised, the experiences we had, the beliefs about money, the beliefs about relationships, and success, and all those kinds of things are in contrast to the direction we want our business to go. We might have grown up learning that rich people are snobs or greedy, or we don't want to be like those people, or money is evil. You might not notice them until then, and as a business owner, we have to show up more, we have to put ourselves out there, we have to accept more money, we have to raise our prices, we have to sell. So all those things, if there's anything in your past that goes against where you're headed in your business, it's going to mess with you. So it's affecting business owners anytime you're struggling to take the action that you want to take and I think it's something inherent in all of us as well, this idea to put yourself out there and selling your product and service. That takes a lot of belief in ourselves and there's not a ton of people that had the ideal growing up experience where you didn't hit any bumps in the road that knock that down and take your confidence and have at least a couple of beliefs that go against how you need to show up in your business.

What is one way to change a limiting belief?

To me, the number one thing is knowing that we can change. Old science was like, Oh, well, you're wet cement before age 10 and you're getting imprinted or whatever and then you're just stuck. I think a lot of the belief to overcome is like, "Oh, I just don't do that, I can't do that, that's just not my personality." But when you know, any challenge that you're coming up against, you can change. To me, that's the most powerful one. But it's awareness, it's knowing, okay, I raised my prices and I'm procrastinating, I'm not taking action to let anybody know, maybe there's something here. That process of self-reflection and awareness is a huge step. I have people get out a piece of paper, write anything that they're struggling with, and ask why am I not showing up? Why am I afraid to raise my prices? Why am I freaking out and procrastinating about this? Just that process of asking that question and listening is crucial because our consciousness is just thinking, thinking all day long, your heartbeats and your lungs breathe, and your mind thinks. But if you write down a question on a piece of paper, you ask yourself a question, and you listen, then you're automatically in that different state, instead of just like this constant diatribe from your brain, of all the things, you just kind of get quiet and listen and see what comes up.

How is this different than positive thinking? Because that's another avenue that I see is just to remain positive to have a positive mindset, but this seems like it's a different approach.

It's funny because your subconscious runs around 95% of your brain. So if in your conscious, you're going, I'm successful, I'm amazing. I'm a millionaire. And you have a subconscious belief, it's going to kind of be like, Yeah, no, whatever. So it's understanding that to make lasting changes, you've got to get that subconscious on board. If you're saying these things to yourself in front of the mirror, a lot of people like the affirmations and these kinds of things, and there's a part of you that's arguing with it. Again, it's really important to listen to the part that's arguing and figuring out okay, what's that belief. That's why a lot of times the affirmations and the things we do in our conscious, don't work as well, because it's only 3% or 5% of our mind. Now, a lot of things you can look in the mirror and say, I'm wonderful, and I'm good and if there's no argument, if there's no part of your mind going, "Yeah, whatever, you're fu...

Next Episode

284: Networking Authentically and Honestly - with Elzie Flenard & Lorry Rifkin

Meet Elzie:

Don't even try to describe him this way and he'll point that one out. Change your perspective and he'll lead you down another path, maybe without you even realizing it. He's a creative dude, an entrepreneur, a family man, a business owner, no box fits, it doesn't even exist. He's a man of original thoughts, all products of unique thinking. Above all else, he is a storyteller he unpacks topics from unexpected directions, weaving influences into the music speaking and podcasting. Society, business current events, you can never predict his take. Suffice to say, it's probably different than you've encountered. Why do things happen? How do they drive behavior?

Meet Lorry:

He has a CPA, has 40 years of business experience ranging from accounting operations, sales, and marketing. He specializes in returning companies to profitability. He owns four businesses in Milwaukee, a business turnaround and profit improvement firm, a bookkeeping and accounting service company, a networking training and event company, and residential rental units on Milwaukee's East Side. A core introvert he wanted a large network, but there was one problem: networking terrified him.

How did the two of you get connected?

Elzie: Well, it was funny, because I met Lorry at a networking event, of course. I'm very sensitive to my gut when my gut tells me that this is a person that I need to connect with or deepen a relationship with. So I had seen him on LinkedIn with lunch with Lorry stuff. I said to him that I'd like to do lunch with Lorry and we just couldn't find a time that works, because everybody wants to have lunch with Lorry. So we ended up doing breakfast and very long story short, he would ask me these questions that a person that you were just meeting shouldn't be asking. I thought to myself, "Why is this guy asking me these types of questions?" But it was intriguing, and it made me open my perspective to deepening relationships and being curious and open to other people's perspectives. So that's kind of how it all got started in terms of our relationship. This was a little bit before COVID happened and we couldn't you couldn't do lunch with Lorry in person so I said do it virtually. Nine sessions later, in lunch with Laurie virtual is still around.

For those that are not familiar with Lunch with Lorry, why would someone want to attend?

Lorry: Because we don't get to tell the story of our lives, it's usually your rush to business or getting something networking. Lunch with Lorry is about telling some aspect of your life story and the stories are compelling. There had been lunches when people have cried because the stories are sad and there have been lots of stories and we can stop laughing. But one thing people learn they're not alone, because there's a lot of common themes from the Lunch with Lorry.

Elzie: I think I've learned things about people that I would have never learned in a zillion years in a business setting so it's refreshing to be able to see that side of people without even really knowing what they do for a business. It's cool to be able to genuinely meet people and have those authentic conversations.

What are some of these common themes and are there a couple of stories you can share?

Lorry: Well, I think some of the stories are amazing, there was a woman who I asked what her favorite charity was and why. But there have been people who have funny stories. We had a gentleman who drove a train. He's wasn't an engineer, he just drove a train. People have had cars going ditches when they're chasing people, it's just amazing stories. But one thing about it is it is equal opportunity networking because I don't let you say what you do for a living. I don't let you do your elevator pitch. That's probably the most unique part of it. I've had CEOs next to the unemployed, and everyone is equal and on a second part are equal. Every single person has to participate. Elzie and I call every single person to explain one of their answers.

You've got this phrase that you use, which is "Stop having zoom fatigue," and can you share a little bit about how you get around it?

Lorry: Most people come to zoom meetings and in my experience so far, this is not 100% to show up, they want to tell their boss or participating and when you do that, it becomes a routine you go I gotta go another zoom meeting. I have developed systems that supercharge your networking when you go to a zoom meeting. I have pre-built templates that have connection requests, they have a spot for pictures, a spot for me to write down who I want to connect to, the outline of a post for an event. So when I go to a zoom event, it's like networking in person for me because I come prepared. What usually happens is after an event, I do a post about an event's organization before they even think about doing it. So for me, the zoom meeting...