13 Ways Businesses Can Use SEO & Marketing to Combat Coronavirus Impact by Miranda Miller PART 2 #480

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burrs, one of the owners here at eWebResults. My name is Matt Bertram, your SEO strategist. Welcome back to another fun-filled edition of our podcast. This is podcast number 480. That's a lot. I mean, let's try to get through 500. I want to like... We'll get there. I mean, if you think, if they were only 30 minutes of podcasts, that's 240 hours... Do you count for that now? Well, I just divide by 10. It's pretty easy. It's 240 hours of content. 240 hours? That's a lot of content. That's a lot of content. Some of them are longer, too. That doesn't even count the videos. Remember that day we worked until like well past 11 p.m. and we were working and all those videos. And then some of it didn't record like... Yeah, that was a great time. It was fun. And it was a lot of fun. Welcome back to another fun-filled edition of our podcast. We are broadcasting live from Houston, Texas. Matt and I, we are your Results Rebels. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We're just going to jump right in, although we will ask you to shiko us. Yeah, share, like, follow. Yeah. Follow, like, share. Those three... Share, like, follow. In any order. Like, we really don't care in any order. I feel like there could be a song here. And we're not going to ask you to do that unless you think you're getting good value. Yeah, don't share bad stuff. Yeah. You've got to have good quality sound. Good quality. Good quality. 4K, like, shots. Yep. You've got to have, like, good content. Yep. And you can't get bored. Yeah, and you can't be bored. It must be infotainment. Yes, that's exactly what it is. You're an infotainer. Infotainer. The article that we're covering is the second half, actually. So this is a two-part podcast. 13 Ways Businesses Can Use SEO and Marketing to Combat Coronavirus Impact. Yeah, it's impacting all

of us. And there's things that we can do from a marketing perspective to make sure that we are impacted as little as possible and bounce back when things come back. Well, that's one thing you can control. Yeah. Okay, like, I think people are feeling out of control. They can't do anything about it if they have a business. Now, there's certain businesses that are just, we have a client, but knock on the door, shut down. Yeah. And we're helping him. To figure out, to reach, to pivot. To pivot, to go all online. Yeah. Like, it's a music school. It's a music school, and they said you can't have this many people in this small location. So we're setting up, bringing the instructors in, doing some Zoom calls. We're redoing the website. So there's things that you can do if you don't think the world's ending. But the one thing you can't control is your marketing, your messaging, how people maybe are viewing or interacting with you, you know, like how their buyer behavior or how their behavior is changing online. And seeing how you might be able to provide value or a solution for them. Because that's why people buy things, right? They want a solution. Yeah. Right? So how is what you have a solution to their needs? Also know, based on data, like 95% of all purchasing decisions are emotional. Yeah. Okay? So, you know, you need to understand maybe what people are going through and understand what their needs might be. But a lot of their needs are emotional right now. So you said 95% are emotional. I think the other 5% are just accidental. Really? I think, no. I think, like, it's true. I mean, logic doesn't play into a lot of things, even though it should. Logic is the thing that justifies the decision I've already made emotionally, right? Yeah. A hundred percent. So we're covering this article. It's by Miranda Miller. Patiff to Miranda Miller. Like, just a phenomenal article. Yep. Our last podcast, we actually covered the first six

ways, the first six items, you know, ways businesses can use SEO and marketing to combat coronavirus impact. And now we're going to cover the remaining, what, seven through 13. So that's seven. You were doing all kinds of math today. Am I? Yeah. I feel like my brain's not on the math track. I mean, I've been doing, like, analytic research, but really, I haven't been doing that this week. Really, what I've been doing mostly is overall messaging, marketing strategy. So I'm, like, in the branding mode right now. Well, and then, like, connecting with existing clients and, like, saying, hey, what's the pivot for you? How are we going to make this? Yeah, I mean, that's, like, you're just, like, oh, math. It's a lot. Calculators. I did it. I subtracted six from 13 successfully. That's pretty good. All right. Number seven. Work on your online reviews strategy. Matt, are reviews important? Review? You've got to have at least 12 reviews. Like, people look at reviews to make decisions. Like, you know, video review is the best. You know, someone's name or full name and, like, either how they're associated, business, whatever, neighborhood, if you can include that. But reviews are absolutely critical. They help people that are on the fence make that decision. So you love numbers. And I was actually on a call the other day, despite your brain being fried and not being able to process numbers. You love numbers. I do love numbers. I was going to call the other day. I'm going to get a shirt that says, I love numbers. And the number they gave, they say, one review can increase conversions by 365%. And I'm, like. That's why you've got to put them on the buy page, Chris. Got to be on the buy page. Yeah. Yeah. On the contact us page. Contact us page. They need to be on the home page. They need to be on the product page. You've got to sprinkle them all throughout. There shouldn't be, like, a reviews page that's tucked away. Right. Now,

Google does like that. But I like to take those reviews and sprinkle them all throughout the website. I did that with a number of websites. You can call that little sprinkling, little purchasing fairy dust. Ooh, I like it. Throughout it. So, work on your online reviews. The web is littered with online review companies, reviews that companies haven't answered. So, this, in this context, it's not just about getting reviews, which you've got time and you should do that. Absolutely. It's also about responding to reviews. Well, you need to be responding to negative reviews. Okay? 100%. Like, you don't need to banter. Like, there's, like, I have some examples in my book of, like, how you don't respond. Do not respond this way. Yeah, do not respond this way. But you want to acknowledge that in a manner that other people can see that you're trying. There's going to be people that are going to be upset or not like you. I'm getting some reviews of people that just are haters. They just don't like you? Yeah. Well, I mean, and then the good ones. But they're not about anything that we've done. Yeah. They're about me specifically. They're just like, I don't like Matt. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm like, okay. I was like, yeah, well, maybe you should stop listening to him and read the book that he wrote called Build Your Brand Mania. I mean, how do you have an argument with somebody when their knowledge base is so focused, right? That if you're talking, online marketing doesn't work. Yeah. Where do you go from there? Well, like, if that is your belief structure and you've seen it in this vertical, and I'm talking about all these different ways that I'm constantly seeing it work. The entire market, yeah. Like, how do I have that debate? I just, I just, I have to just, that's it. I've got to shut it down. I watched this hilarious, it was a debunker, a guy debunking flat earthers, right? Okay, yeah. And it was

brilliant, it was so hilarious because there's this, I forget what it's called, but it's like knowledge confidence curve. Like, you have the most confidence in your knowledge when you actually have the least amount of knowledge. And then as you start to get more knowledge, what happens is you realize how much you don't know, right? So your confidence in what you know actually goes down, even though you know a whole lot more. Well, that's why, like, getting people to run through brick walls, right? Like, like, people that are not in the industry, that you get them in the industry, like, they can punch through areas that other people are, I mean, but, okay, flat earth. Like, you can see, you can track the trash in space. No, it's good. But it was hilarious because they've got this model where the sun is going over the earth. They're trying to, like, shoot. This doesn't work. In fact, you have to provide two separate models to explain, like, daylight and gravity. Like, it's, it's, and he did such a great, and he kept coming back, you know, like. You know there's dating sites that are for, like, flat earthers. Like, I watched the documentary, I had to turn it off because it was just ridiculous. Just not even, yeah. But I was, like, trying to understand what they were thinking. I was like, I mean, my uncle worked for NASA. Like, you know what I mean? Like, the earth is round. So, you're admitting that your uncle is part of the conspiracy. Potentially, you know. So, make sure. Like, the tooth fairy. So, Santa Claus. One of the points that Miranda mentioned was, if you're going to answer these reviews, and you should, you should respond to them. One, what's the most powerful way to answer a review? I don't, I mean, like. With a video. Yeah, well, that's what's insane. With a video. Like, you answer a review. I thought you were going to ask me a trick question again. I was like. I know this answer,

but I feel like the way you've asked it. But I was like, I was like, you can't always post a video. That's true, yeah. So, I thought. But it is the most powerful. Well, yeah. But I just thought you were going to ask me some kind of trick questions. So, her point is, like, if you've got reviews for eons and you haven't responded to them, you don't have to, like, don't start old. Start new and go backwards and just go back whatever makes sense. But you want to make sure you've got good responses. If you have good reviews, it's like someone's saying they love you. Yeah. And then you're not saying anything back. Yeah. Which, you know, like, that's cool and awkward. Like, don't do that. Like, so, you know, if someone's saying something nice, like, you want to, you don't have to say something nice. At least say thank you. Yeah. Like, you don't have to say something nice back. You don't have to say, I love you too. You got to just say, oh, thank you. You can say, that's great. You know how I feel about you. Create a review policy. And if you have a good candidate in your company, they may be working from home right now, train that employee to manage your online reviews going forward. So, it's the time, like, put that, that's a little kind of housekeeping. Keep that, get that in place. Coach them to respond to, how to respond to negative reviews. And one, if and when there are negative reviews to make sure that they escalate that to legitimate customer service, if it's legitimate. Yeah, no, I think, I think that that's really important. Feedback helps you improve. What's the data point on how many people actually respond? Like, are negative reviews or positive reviews? Oh, it's like, I think it's nine to one. You're nine times more likely to get a negative review than you are to get a positive review. So, if you have a bunch of positive reviews, how many people

think it's... You're killing, yeah, you're killing it. Like, if you, yeah, it's... So, like, 117 five-star reviews on Google My Business is okay? I feel like 117 five-star reviews... Times, what, eight, nine? What did you say? It's phenomenal, yeah. It's basically, like, pass around circulation with print ads. Yeah, it's really phenomenal. Now, this is one, I've got, you know, sometimes you find points in an article that we may not agree with. I was totally bashing print articles there. I don't know what you call it. Oh. But it didn't, like, correlate with reviews, so I just... You went with it. But I don't know. I, like, my brain's mush. Yeah. It's a long day. We're wrapping up this. Yeah. So, Miranda, she's the person who wrote the article. Yeah, she's awesome. Okay. She did a great job. One of the things she says in this context, show them, show this new employee what you expect as far as measuring the value of reviews and monthly reporting. I don't know how to measure the value of reviews. Like, we know they're insanely valuable. Obviously, somebody in that data point that I gave 365 times more likely to purchase, that's a way to measure it. But, like, if I task somebody on the company to say, hey, I want you to manage these reviews, and you're just responding, what's the value of responding? I don't know how you're going to figure that out. Well, so how I kind of related to reviews of tracking internally, right, is 40% of people... By the way, we're still only on eight. So, dang. All right. So, I'll be quick. So, basically, 40% of people that you ask for a review will potentially give you one, right? So, as people are coming on, they're handling, like, inbound requests. We were doing consulting sessions. We're now doing videos, okay? I evaluate them based upon, on a weekly basis, how many reviews they're generating. Because, really, the customer is going to tell us if what you're doing is valuable or not. And if you

don't feel that you've earned a review, I said don't ask for it. But if you feel you've earned a review, ask for it. And 40% of the time, the people will acknowledge you. So, we have a lot of reviews with people getting mentioned specifically. Yeah. And that's one of the ways that I'm measuring reviews. But it's really, like, really measuring the value and the performance of their bringing through reviews. Yeah. And I do have reporting associated with that. And that makes sense. And, like, you know, you nitpick, like, this is a brilliant article. Yeah, like, my article. How are you, I? You started with the title. You're, like, just ripping it apart. Well, this one, they changed the title before I got to it. That was the right change. Yeah. They made a good choice. And, yeah, they made a good choice on this article. For those of you who haven't listened to the last podcast, first, shame on you. Go back and listen to the last podcast. And then, second, we pointed out that we printed this. And by the time I had to kind of re-look up the name of the author, they had already changed the title. Like, from the time we printed it and just moments later. So, and the new title is a better decision, like, flat out. All right. Number eight. We're on to the second one. One to the second one, yeah. Get behind digital. And your math is working. That's good. Get behind digital in a big way. And so, this is, like, get your storefront online so that people can shift from personal shopping. Maybe they're coming. Maybe you've got a brick and mortar. And make it available for them to actually purchase online. Maybe you have been hesitant. Maybe you're like, oh, I really do need to do that. Now's a good time to do that. Like, hopefully it was done already or now is a time to optimize that site so it performs better and gives a good experience. Because it's easy to kind

of throw up a website and say, oh, I've got my e-commerce site but nobody ever uses it. Maybe they don't use it because it's not easy to use. And now that you're in a situation where maybe not as many people are coming in or no people are coming in, it's time to revisit that particular e-commerce site and make it work. Preach. Preach. Get behind digital. Yeah. Number nine. Update your Google My Business profile for local customers. There's a number of things to say here. Are you changing your hours because of COVID-19? Are you... We actually need to do that. Yeah. I mean, we need to forward the phone to... To the team. Well, they have that app that they can... Yeah. So, I don't know if we're doing that. But we're here right now. For how much longer? Who knows? Yep. So, take special care to avoid the... Like, I don't... This just got thrown in there. Are you taking special care to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 virus? Put that on your Google My Business listing. That's a good thing to put out there. Yeah, I like that. People want to know that. Let customers know what has changed. Have you changed the hours of operation? Have you changed tools that are available? Get through a Google post, which I know is something that you talk about from a GMB perspective, being very valuable for SEO, update that in a Google post. I like it. Number 10. Show your website some love. Go fix your site. I was literally just talking about that. If you've thrown up an e-commerce website and you haven't really given it much attention because you're mostly brick and mortar, now's the time to do that and turn it into the kind of profit engine that you always dreamed it would be. And it can be. Number 11. Sniff out unnatural links. This is what I'm excited about. You got excited about this one. So in one case, a site had received a manual Google penalty. So she's given

some examples here. But they achieved a top three positioning within a week of removing a disavow file, right? So they found all the links that they wanted to disavow, submitted the disavow file, and within weeks, they were in third position. And that disavow file removed 1,900 unnatural links. I wonder where those came from. Yeah, there's a lot of bad links, like 0 to 10 DA links. Look at this. Another site lost 82% of its traffic after building thousands of unnatural links, right? So you can see in like Ahrefs or however you want to say it, basically the link velocity, okay? And if you're coming out of the gate producing all these links that are all low quality, and if you're launching a new website, okay? So there's instances where a lot of links are going to be created. If you're launching a new website, there's going to be a lot of social shares. There's going to be a lot of things happening. But if out of nowhere, you just start creating all these links and like also they're from bad neighborhoods and, you know, like there's a lot of ways to get scary links, it messes with your overall link profile. We had a couple of clients come in that were having to really, you know, detoxify their link profiles and even like, so we're having to build links that they're losing, but also we're getting rid of bad links and we've seen them shoot up in the rankings, right? So I would say focus on high quality links. One link's worth like a thousand bad links. And if you look at all these websites that got like a hundred thousand links and then there's like, there's no high quality links, right? I would focus on true, like Google devalues those algorithmically or if you get a manual penalty, you're like done. Okay. And so you really got to be careful with link building. You need to know what you're doing. I wouldn't be just all over the place getting out there, getting links. I

would focus on building high quality relationships because the link is like online PR. It's like a vote for you and it depends who that vote is. So, you know, um, there are certain directories, um, that have a lot of credibility that you can get links from. There was one directory that was in like the legal space that I created and then it created like a hundred or 200 links from that one. And I was like, ah, no, no, I don't want that. I was like, I don't want that. Turn it off. Turn it off. Yeah. So like you got to really be careful of what people are doing and how, how they're utilizing this and what people are doing to your site. Like you got to think about like your off page link profile. You, you can control your on page link profile and I don't want to go into this too much, but you can rank a site. If you have a large site, like certain pages by, by kind of directing like where everything goes from the site architecture to kind of the cross link, you know, all that. But also, you know, uh, partner sites or, or, um, sites that are in your industry, get it, getting links from those local links are really, really important. Uh, if you're, if you're a local business, um, links are a whole thing. I feel like you read the next, uh, the next one. What did I read? All right. Consider an outreach strategy. I mean, and it tied in perfectly. No, like you jumped right into the next one. So number 12 is consider an outreach strategy and that's what you're talking about. So keep, well, so, so, so we have, um, people that we've trained to do, um, you know, blog outreach link building, um, you know, really, uh, podcast outreach. Like it's all kind of the same process. It's kind of outbound sales or, you know, like whatever you want to call it, but it's, it's reaching out and connecting with people

and, and pulling them into kind of your sphere of influence or getting them to, uh, be part of, you know, be, be behind what you're doing. Cause it's like a, a vote in, in, in your regards. So, you know, that's like 40% of all SEO is off page. And so it's super, super important. Um, now more and more so is what they do once they get there and how long they stay and all those different kinds of metrics, um, those, those on page conversion metrics, um, the dwell time, all those sorts of things are becoming more and more important because Google's really, uh, how the algorithm was built was based on links. Okay. So the, the, the, if you look at the patent, it's always going to have a strong weighting, uh, but, but they are how it's evolving, how it's evolving is very interesting. But man, you just get one high quality link and it'll move the needle over doing all this work. So it's kind of, you know, working the efficient or I don't know what the analogy is, but my brain's mush, but yeah, you know what I mean? Working hard or working smart. Yeah. So work smart, not hard. Yeah. Yeah. And she talks about outreach in another context, which is, Hey, are your customers used to hearing from you regularly? Like via email or via SMS messaging, via social media. Love it. Don't let that relationship drop off. Let that outreach to your customers continue making the decision to cut your budget at this time is a reactionary rather than strategic, right? Is it is reactionary SEO and online marketing are avenues to build connection and trust with people and how you do that during challenging times matters just as much, if not more, uh, than you're ready to serve them again. Yeah. Now there, there are a lot of companies, uh, doing PR. Okay. So I'll give you an example. I think like Chick-fil-A or something brought, uh, food to, um, I don't know, Walmart workers or, or something

like that, or target workers, or even like a food bank. Like there's, there's a lot of things that, that you need to think about doing to, to keep your business top of mind, but doing the right thing. Cause we're all in this together. Yeah. Okay. And I think it's like the, the, uh, basketball player, the, the young rookie who offered to pay for, um, the salaries of all of the workers who work the concession stands. That's awesome. Like he just, he's new to the league and it's kind of throwing down the gauntlet. Like, look, I'm the new kid on the block, but this is the right thing. Well, I mean, we're like, we're, we're all trying to figure this out together. And I think that we can help each other in doing that. And you want to, you want to find ways if, if like, I just hate, honestly, I hate it. It's just bothers me so much that we throw away, like whole foods throws away food at the end of the day. Okay. Like, I don't know if they've changed that, but, um, they got sued or something like that. So they used to give it away and they don't do that anymore. Like there are opportunities, like there's teachers that are delivering food for kids because they're out of school and they depend on that food. Like there, there's so many different things that you could, uh, redirect resources to do and to provide some community support. And, you know, I think that, uh, if you do the right thing, it will come back to you. Okay. And I think that, you know, and there's nothing wrong with tooting your own horn about what you're doing, right? That's you're adding value. And so some people are like, oh, I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do. And I don't want to be braggadocious about it. But remember this, this current market, like marketing strategies now have totally changed and it's about the persona of your business. And if your business

is a kind, caring business, you doing these things is, and talking about doing those things is actually sharing with your consumer base, what kind of business you actually are. Like who you are. Like, I mean, like it goes back to like Tom's shoes or something like that. Like, like what drives you, right? And I think that this is an opportunity to kind of see, um, you know, what, what you can do when you have additional time, how can you help out? Where can you offer resources? What can you do? And the thing is, people will hear about this stuff and what, what this is all talking about is reassurance, social connection, tangible assistance. Like you do those things, you're building community with your clients. The majority of our clients that, that I've interacted with, like, I don't, you know, we're growing. So I don't, I don't talk to all of them, right. Um, you know, especially anymore on a regular basis, even ones that, that, that I've worked with. Um, but they're doing business with you because of the connection. Yeah. They're doing business with you because of the value, because of the results. There's a lot of reasons they're doing business, but if they don't know, like, and trust you, like they can choose to take their business elsewhere. And, and now's the time to stay in front of them. One of the things that I do talk about in my book and I have talked about in past podcasts, I think it's important is what is your level of connection, right? Right. So what do you want it to be? You know, is it monthly? Is it weekly? Is it daily? How do you interact with people in your life that you talk to daily or weekly or monthly? Yeah. Cause there's people who fit into those categories. You know, and, and anything beyond that, in my opinion, like you're kind of an acquaintance, right? But, but right now, okay. With all that's going on, you might want to become a little bit

closer. Yeah. Right. Like, and if you have more time or you can move some resources around, you might be talking to a monthly or you might not even be talking to them at all. It's time to, to, to maybe get a little bit closer, connect with them, find out what their issues are, figure out how your product might be able to solve, come up with maybe a new offer, um, you know, change that experience so they can more easily access your product or service online or remotely or understand what that is or explainer videos, or there's so many different things that you can do, um, to operate in this environment. But don't put your head in the sand. I just don't, you know, I like, you know, marketing helps you change that conversation, um, and gives you the ability to, to share your message, whatever that is, or a PR or anything like that. And, and, and I think that now is the time to take those action steps. So, so more people can get to know you, you stay top of mind with your existing clients and, and as the needs change for your customer, you, you can better service them with whatever you're, you're, you're offering and, and, um, you know, change that messaging. So absolutely that connection is so important. All right. So we have come to our final, this is the 13th of 13 ways businesses can use SEO and marketing to combat the coronavirus impact. Um, and this is get to know customers better with a deep dive into your first party data. Uh, and I think like just to piggyback first off of what you were saying, get to know them better. If you've got a small client base, reach out to them and understand what's going on. They want to appreciate that. They'll appreciate that connection. And if you've got a much bigger client base, like dig into it, go through your analytics and sales data. What do you know about your customers? Uh, what do you know

about prospects that didn't pick you? Uh, what is in the analytics data that you may have missed in the past? And, and, you know, are they all on iPhones or maybe they're all from city X, like dig into the data and look for trends that can help you hone your marketing so that you can be significantly more effective, uh, with that marketing. Um, and I like this, you know, we always talk about this. Remember to put your own oxygen mask first, right? Absolutely. You have responsibilities to employees, customers, and other stakeholders, but you need to take care of yourself so that you're in shape to take care of others first. You got to need to take care of yourself first. So you're in shape to take care of others. And, and that's, that's absolutely true. I circled here words matter. Perspective matters. Yeah. Like I really, I really like that. I think that that's what marketing is. Okay. And that's the power of marketing. Um, but with that, I'll leave you with like probably one of the, my favorite kind of like tidbits. Yeah. From this whole thing is keep calm and optimize on keep calm and optimize on. I think that has to be a shirt now. Hey, uh, this is bringing our, our podcast to a close. You can find a transcript audio video of the podcast at bestseopodcast.com. Uh, you can actually, we'll film soon. Not right now, but maybe by the time that year, that'll be part of our cleaning up. Like this, we've got, no, we have, we have, we have like most of the podcasts, we have the, uh, transcripts up there, but I'm just saying this one specifically, we'll tell you it'll be up. We're going to push this one up pretty, pretty fast. We were filmed live in Houston, Texas at 13105 Northwest freeway suite 515. You got it. 515. Thank you guys very much for that. If you do like what you're getting from this, please go ahead and share, like, and follow. So, so shiko

us, um, that would be much appreciated if you're interested in growing, like we're doing these, Hey, how could I potentially pivot my business? Um, we are operating. Yeah. Okay. We are operating this climate. We are operating remotely. If you need a strategy session, reach out. If you're looking to pivot your business and need some ideas, reach out. If you're thinking that this might be the opportunity, uh, to, to change like your story, now's the time to do it. I think that, um, you know, crisis opportunity, and I think that's like the same word in Chinese or something like that. Um, you know, it's all about, it's a words matter. Perspective matters. Yeah. Yeah. That's all I got. Become optimized on. Yeah. Uh, so thank you guys. And until the next podcast, my name is Chris Burris. My name is Matt Burris. Bye bye for now.