You're blogging - check. You're doing your keyword research and focusing on competitive keywords - check. You're optimizing all of your blog posts for SEO - check.

You're probably doing all of the above, but you're still not ranking in Google - why?

That is exactly the situation I was in until I embarked on doing some research. And from that research, I have come to some conclusions.

The final frontier of SEO and ranking in search engines is in generating backlinks. And if you want to generate backlinks you need to be proactive in doing so.

This episode will hopefully be an eye-opener for you as I introduce my own research and methodology so that you can maximize your own social influence.

Episodes Mentioned in the Show:

• 181: How to Optimize Your Content Publishing on Your Blog and Social Media
• 177: The 11 Blogging Mistakes Your Business _Might_ Be Making
• 160: SEO and Social: Honing the Skills Needed for a Modern Marketer [Cyrus Shepard Interview]
• 137: How To Optimize Your Blog Posts For Higher Search Rankings And Stay Ahead Of The Competition

Key Highlights

[02:46 ] The Three Pillars of Digital Marketing That Every Company Needs

[03:24 ] Site Usability and Interface

[04:52 ] Three Areas I Recommend To Rank for Your Blog Posts

[07:34 ] The Primary Purpose of Blogging

[10:12 ] All About Backlinking

[12:47 ] How to Do A Backlink and Domain Authority Analysis

[13:29 ] Ways to Get Backlinks

[14:52 ] Three Different Areas Where High Domain Sites Get Backlinks

[18:30 ] Blogging Outreach

[23:45 ] What Is A Link Swap?

[25:26 ] Why You Need to Focus On Your Site's Influence

Notable Quotes

• The first thing before even writing blog content is to understand the keyword research. It starts with the keyword research for your website.
• When people are linking to you, it means that they're listening, and they're paying attention. And as more and more people pay attention to what you say, you get more links back to your property. And Google sees you have a lot of authority. 
• So when done, right, guest blogging is extremely impactful, and can really help the SEO of your own blog posts that you link to.
• Do this backlink analysis, find a lot of websites that are linking back to your competitor, not to you, if they are blog content, pay attention to the writers.
• If it's done in a natural, organic way you're serving, at the end of the day, the reader looking for information, and hopefully, your information is better than your competitors. And this increases the chance that they find your information. 
• When your site has more influence, it becomes easier to guess a blog.

Reference Links:

• SEMrush: https://nealschaffer.com/semrush (affiliate)
• Brandon Gailie's The Blogging Millionaire Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-blogging-millionaire/id1072931592
• Neil Patel: https://neilpatel.com

Learn More:

• Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
• Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
• Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/freebies/
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
• All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com