How to Optimize SEO in 2021

I want you to shift your thinking about SEO away from rankings to traffic.

We all know ranking reports. Among 50 different keyword phrases, you maybe rank 10, 8, 2, or whatever. That’s all great. But the problem with rankings is that they don’t equal traffic and the whole point of marketing is to gain traffic, build a brand, and gain new customers. So rather than focus on SEO production in terms of rankings, let’s look at SEO production in terms of traffic.

HOMEWORK: After this video finishes, go into your Google Analytics account, into the acquisition section, and look at your channel production report. Look at your organic traffic from Google, Bing, etc. month-over-month and year-over-year. How has it changed sing 2017, 2018, 2019, to 2020? This will help you gain a sense of how important organic SEO really is for your business.

Too many businesses put an agency payment for SEO on autopilot. That payment is usually between $500 – $2,000 a month just on SEO. And they’re getting ranking reports that show rankings improving. But the problem is that doesn’t mean traffic is improving. You might be ranking high on keywords that don’t have much search volume. People have shifted their consumer shopping and research habits to other channels other than SEO.

So in 2021, start looking at your organic traffic reports more heavily than your ranking reports for SEO. Also, go check out a previous video of ours where I answer the question, “Is SEO Still Important?” In that video, I give my stance on SEO and tips on how much budget and emphasis you should be putting on it.