hi, I’m mike.
I do Google Ads & SEO, and without intending to, became a webmaster along the way
what an SEO does each day
Many clients, past and present, have asked: ‘What goes into SEO? What is involved, and why the large cost?’. Google Ads is pretty straigtforward to most clients, but SEO is a term that means a lot of different things, depending who you ask.
In an effort to answer these questions and paint a picture on what a typical “day in the life of an SEO specialist” looks like, I give you the below. Tonnes of resources, links, names, brands, concepts, jargon, and more. The internet is a veritable “wild west” and us SEO cowboys try to keep the peace.
I have broken it down into a few categories here, and then below you can see the list of each item
web development
Building a website, migrating one, backing it up, ensuring it is SSL enabled, uses a CDN and more. These types of things help your website to be mobile-friendly, easy to parse, and performant in an age where Google insists that they are.
SEO services
Google admits that there are over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm; and it’s an algorithm that changes over 2,000 times a year! I try and focus on the most important factors whilst not ignoring the lesser ones. Content is key, and always has been, but you cannot ignore the rest.
tools
It’s not possible to do much on a computer without the right tools, and we need many of them! I love being 100% transparent, so read on below to see what I have in my digital “toolbox”. It can takes months to just master one tool, so imagine the years behind them all.
Advertising
Although I focus mainlyon Google Search Ads – which perfectly complements SEO – it is vital I have some proficiency in the below. LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Remarketing, Display Ads, Newsletter Mailers, Google Shopping Ads. And all backed up by solid understanding of tried-and-tested, Classic Marketing.
Platforms
Much like the tools in the toolbox, there are various platforms – like Google Ads, Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio, and Google Analytics – that I use to get the work done. Maybe it is just my choice of wording but I see these more as the “battlefield”, and the tools as the “weapons”.
Marketing strategy
SEO sits within a bigger function, and that is marketing. To do SEO correctly a “digital architect” would need to know what is happening with sales, marketing, advertising and their respective goals. Often I find small businesses have zero strategy to build on, and I aim to address and/or fix this.
The Year I ventured into SEO & PPC
all time clients i have helped
Active Clients i'm working on
Percent of my day I spend learning, and upskilling
now for more detail.
breathe in.
and get ready for lists upon lists….
web development
- Domain purchasing from a registrar like Afrihost, or Namecheap
- Domain hosting from a host like Digital Ocean
- Website migration using SSH, SFTP, or a plugin like All in One WP Migration
- Website build on Webflow, Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, or the lesser known Sanity
- Setting up xml sitemaps, and submitting them to the index
- E-commerce dominance via high level strategy and tips from years of experience
- Site backups on a Digital Ocean Droplet, WPEngine, or other
- Setting up a CDN with Cloudflare or Fastly
- Caching tricks using Redis, or one of many plugins
- Website maintenance so things are up to speed
- Minifying CSS, HTML, and Javascript
- Crushing image sizes, optimising them, without losing quality
- Adding metadata to images, so they are parsed correctly.
- Creating free Maps on Google Maps that add driving directions, and more, to help your local search presence.
- Working in Google Tag Manager to sort out conversions, and web traffic
- Playing around with Fathom, and other new Analytics tools
- Making useful and dynamic reports in Looker Studio
- And plenty more
SEO outline
- Backlink GAP Analysis – What links do your competitors have that you don’t?
- Backlink profile – Who is linking to you and using what anchors?
- Bing Indexing – Google is one search engine, and the biggest, but ensure you are indexed by Bing, too.
- Business Citations – Get your company listed in numerous business directories.
- Content Strategy – Don’t just write mindlessly, write knowing what people are searching for. Answer their questions and be rewarded.
- Conversion Tracking – What works and what does not? Set this up to know the difference.
- Keyword GAP Analysis – What do your competitors rank for that you don’t?
- Keyword Strategy – Based on the above, and other work, I can work out what you should try and rank for.
- Keyword Tracking – Importantly, we then need to see if we can move the rankings up for the chosen terms.
- Press Release – In some cases it helps to use this to syndicate awesome content.
- Partnering with similar brands for win-win marketing results
- Map Pack Ranking – Generally speaking, a local business will want to rank in Google’s Map results, in what is called “Position Zero”.
- Reporting – Every month I compile a report of key data we are tracking and try to keep it simple. In addition, I create a dynamic dashboard within Looker Studio.
- Rich Snippets – Ever seen a search result with more than just a link to a website? Perhaps an answer to a question (like “when is the best time to visit London”) can have you appear at the top!
- Structured Data/Schema – In light of that, you want your whole website coded up in JSON-LD format (where applicable) so that you can appear in these.
Tools
- Answer The Public
- Asana
- AudioPen
- Cloudflare
- Divi Builder
- Experte
- Google Ads Editor
- G-Suite
- Google Docs
- Google Drive
- Google Sheets
- Screaming Frog
- SEMRush
- Server Pilot
- Sitebulb
- Siteliner
- Slack
- Storyxpress
- Structured Data Tool
- Terminal (Mac OS)
- Trello
advertising
- Google Ads (PPC)
- Google Display Network (GDN)
- Google Merchant Centre
- Google Remarketing
- UTM Tagging
- YouTube
platforms
- Atom
- Clockify
- Digital Ocean
- Google Ads
- Google Analytics
- Looker Studio
- Google My Business
- Google Search Console
- Google Tag Manager
- Mailblaze
- Sanity
- Woocommerce
- WordPress
marketing
- Brand Strategy
- E-commerce consulting
- Google My Business
- Newsletters
- Source Icons
- Source Stock Images
- Website Design
- Writing Articles
Ensure that your website has “all the boxes ticked” so that Google prefers your website to the competition. I can help.
some of the articles, posts, and
resources from my blog
A perfect page of content in terms of SEO
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Basic Social Media Strategy
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