The truth is – SEO is really just really good marketing and  understanding your audience. It’s creating content that frankly resonates with your audience but also has demand, which is where keyword research comes in. The idea of manipulating Google and trying to do SEO to rank is where people kind of go astray.

But, if you look at SEO as just another kind of marketing practice that’s based on understanding your audience and positioning, your website and your brand will be discovered. Your ideal customer will find you when they search for the parts or services you offer. If you can wrap your head around that basic understanding of SEO, then it becomes incredibly powerful.

Transcript:

Glenn: Welcome back to the show. Today I’m speaking with Garrett Mehrguth. Garrett, welcome to the show.

Garrett: Thanks for having me, man. Just excited to be here and chat with you and your audience. So, thanks for having me.

Glenn: It’s totally our pleasure. The thing everybody wants to know though is, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Garrett: Yeah. So, my name is Garrett Mehrguth. I started Directive about five-and-a-half years ago and we’re going out six years actually sitting here. We’re a search marketing agency. So, we do SEO and PPC, primarily for mid-market and enterprise companies, helping them generate more leads. So, yeah, I mean, we have an awesome business. It’s been really fun to kind of just grow and be a part of it as well as lead it. And we’re having a good time. And yeah.

Glenn: Okay. So, I have a question that seems to pop up quite a bit when I talk to people, and that is this idea that SEO is this black box and nobody really knows how to actually do SEO well. Is that a myth? I mean, is it something that can be done well?

Garrett: Yeah, I think that the problem is when you try to do SEO is actually the problem, because the truth is SEO is really just really good marketing, understanding your audience. It’s creating content that frankly resonates with your audience but also has demand, you know, where keyword research comes in. But I think the idea of manipulating Google and trying to do SEO to rank is where people kind of go astray, but instead if you look about as SEO as just another kind of marketing practice that’s based on understanding your audience and positioning your website and your brand to be discovered by your ideal customer when they search for the parts or services you offer, I mean if you can do that, that’s really the whole premise of SEO. And when you focus into that type of area, it becomes incredibly powerful.

Glenn: I really like that point-of-view because I think in the early days it was all about the kind of hacking, right, you know, how do I hack the system, how do I understand what the algorithm is so I can optimize specifically for that? And what I’m hearing is that it’s more about let’s just get back down to basics, let’s figure out the language and messaging people want.

Garrett: Yeah, I mean, that, and how – like, when people are looking for what you sell, do you show up, are you discoverable? Like, that needs to be the most important part and for the longest time, people – and still actually today – people really focus on, does my website show up? Like, what keywords does my website rank for? But I’ve actually have a fundamentally different belief on SEO and I believe that it’s about your brand. So, you have to ask yourself, does my brand show up when people are doing their research for what I sell? And because there are these things like, third-party review sites. If you’re a local business, there’s Yelp, there’s Google My Business, there’s Search Ads, there’s TripAdvisor, there’s all these different aggregators of data. And due to what I call the Yelp and Amazon affect,