Video Transcript

Chris: Hi and welcome to the SEO Podcast: Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burres, owner of eWebResults.

Matt: My name is Matt Bertram.

Chris: It is. If you’re watching the podcast – you YouTubers out there, you can catch us on YouTube – you’ll notice that we have some accessories that may not make sense to you now. We’re hoping– yes, spices.

Matt: No, these are my guns.

Chris: And cerveza.

Matt: Well, si. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know.

Matt: And then like this is–

Chris: Tasty waves. This is from Karbach.

Matt: Well, no, no, no. Karbach.

Chris: It’s from Karbach, yeah.

Matt: They’re probably pretty upset about that.

Chris: Yeah, that’s true.

Matt: That’s kind of sacrilegious.

Chris: Sacrilege that we have wine. We have red wine in our Karbach glasses. Actually kinda cool, Karbach is just around the corner. I don’t know how far and wide across the country Karbach is. I know it’s like–

Matt: It’s distributed now ‘cause it was bought by I think–

Chris: Anheuser.

Matt: Anheuser, yeah.

Chris: Yeah, there were all sorts of people upset about that.

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: I was excited that the weight and marketing power of Anheuser-Busch was gonna be behind a kind of local brand and excited for that. So, welcome to the podcast. This is gonna be another fun-filled edition of our podcast. This is podcast number 415. As always we have a tip from our previous podcast which is not here. So I don’t know what–

Matt: Adam, come on and give the tip.

Chris: Adam, do you remember the tip?

Matt: Come on, come on. Come give the tip. Come on. Come on.

Chris: Do you remember? Adam: About geofencing?

Matt: Just make something up.

Chris: It was about geo– yeah, make something up.

Matt: Come on, step on here.

Chris: Right here in the middle so you can hear in the mics.

Matt: Yeah, yeah. Right here and give your tip.

Chris: Yeah. Adam: Um. Um. You caught me off guard.

Chris: Let’s see.

Matt: Do geofencing! Targeting your leads.

Chris: Oh here, I think it was something along these lines: make sure you hire an expert if you’re gonna do geofencing.

Matt: It is tricky.

Chris: One consideration is actually legal, right? Adam: Yes.

Chris: So there are legal considerations depending on what country, city or state– not country or city but state you’re in, ‘cause we’re all in the same country. And we happen to be in the same city here in Houston.

Matt: Subscribe. Follow. Boom!

Chris: Boom! Alright. So, hey! I just wanted to start off with this review. This was really cool. Punch in the face to you Allie Dickson, right? Punch in the face. This review is of course 5 stars! It says, “I’m a total newbie in internet marketing, so I just started listening to this podcast about 2 weeks ago and have already gotten TONS–” that’s what I say– that’s how I say it when they capitalize it.

Matt: That’s how you–?

Chris: Yeah, “TONS of value from it! I get tricks and things I can do to improve my website on every single episode. I just got my free analysis of my website and now have a plan of action on how I’ll take over my niche.” Wow.

Matt: Wow, awesome.

Chris: Wow, we gave that away in the free analysis? We need to talk. No, you get a lot of value in that free analysis. “These guys really know what they’re talking about and I can’t wait to see how far my business will grow when I apply all of their knowledge. Punch in the face to you, eWebResults!!!” Punch in the face to you Allie Dickson.

Matt: Oh, thank you, thank you. Thank you.

Chris: Man, that was really awesome.

Matt: So, a boxing platypus?

Chris: Boxing platypus.

Matt: What do you think about that?

Chris: I think it’s a great mascot for anyone, yeah.

Matt: Okay, ‘cause we were talking about eWebber.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

Matt: And we were talking about boxing platypus.

Chris: And if you talk about web, right?

Matt: Yeah, that’s kind of where we went to.

Chris: Did you know that the platypuses– platypi are dangerous?

Matt: Platypi.

Chris: They actually have poisoned spurs.

Matt: So Sammie said that they were cute but deadly.

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: Our copywriter, said they were cute but deadly. Sammie: They’re one of the most venomous– well the only venomous mammal.

Chris: The only venomous mammal

Matt: Did you hear that people out there in YouTube land? The only venomous mammal.

Chris: Yeah, it’s the platypus.

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: So it’s gonna be our eWebber’s?

Matt: Yeah, we’re thinking about it. We’ll have some designs.

Chris: Chyme in, send a note to podcast@

Matt: eWebResults

Chris: .com Adam: [00:03:52] [Indiscernible]

Matt: We have–

Chris: Well, yeah. I think the platypus–

Matt: Do we have the domain–? Adam: I think any– if they’re [00:03:56] [Indiscernible]

Chris: Oh yeah, if you’re gonna make a suggestion

Matt: Well, let’s run a contest of–

Chris: What should we call people who listen to eWebResults podcast?

Matt: What is an eWebber? What is an eWebber? I don’t know, everybody kind of gravitated to platypus.

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: So I don’t know.

Chris: Well, we considered ducks, and then– you know.

Matt: Because I was like, “Is that a good mascot?” Like, will it punch you in the face?

Chris: It’ll stab you with it’s hind spur.

Matt: Yeah, and spit poison apparently.

Chris: Well no, no. That’s the spur.

Matt: Oh, okay. Gotcha.

Chris: The spur does that.

Matt: I haven’t done my research.

Chris: Hey if– hey back on track. Alright?

Matt: Alright, sorry.

Chris: I feel like I need to take this incredibly heavy hat off. By the way, this hat is one because we are gonna be running a 5 de Mayo special. So keep your eyes open for a 5 de Mayo special.

Matt: I want some– I want– you know what I want?

Chris: Maracas.

Matt: Maraca. Mm, mm, yeah.

Chris: I like it.

Matt: Yeah, we gotta get back on track. People are unhappy about our lack of focus.

Chris: Yeah, people who don’t like the potatoes. Yeah. So if you’ve listened to the podcast before, you may be back because we give you wonderful tips. Just like we gave wonderful trips to Allie.

Matt: Trips?

Chris: Trips or tips, either way. You can get 5 Online Marketing Mistakes That Can Tank Your Business & How to Avoid Them, all you need to do is go to eWebResults.com/

Chris & Matt: SEOTip!

Chris: If you’re new to the podcast, howdy and welcome. We’re gonna cover– right now this is called the potatoes of the podcast. We’re gonna get into the meat–

Matt: How to be an authority.

Chris: And the meat of this podcast is by Mr. Dave Davies. Punch in the face to you Dave.

Matt: Ooooh, like the name too. Punch in the face.

Chris: The title is: What is Topical Authority: Everything You Need to Know about topical authority. I think it’s great.

Matt: Interesting.

Chris: By the way, if you’re in a position to you can tweet or you know, do those kind of social things?

Matt: Social share button!

Chris: Go ahead and tweet #SEOPodcast, this is Podcast #415. Tag us in it @BestSEOPodcast, @eWebResults and make sure you tag Dave Davies in it. He’s @beanstalk, spelled exactly the way it sounds. We’ll get into his article when we get into the meat of the podcast here pretty shortly.

Matt: Cool.

Chris: As you– If you’ve listened to the podcast before, you know we run a contest. We run that contest each and every week. And yeah, we did get– so good. So the way the contest works, is if we get 10 shikos–

Matt: A share, and a like and a follow.

Chris: If we get 10 of those, like on any one of our platforms and we get review, then we skip the section where we tell you how to leave us a review at eWebResults.com/Trust. We skip that until the end. So we’ll put that at the end, and also like all of our platforms.

Matt: Mm-hm.

Chris: So we did get 10 shikos and we just a read a review. So apparently we got a review – again punch in the face to you Allie – so we’re gonna skip that section. What I want to do, is I wanna give some– well let’s do: if you would like a free website analysis and Allie got it and enjoyed it, right?

Matt: They’re solid, yeah.

Chris: So she says that she now has a plan of action on how to take over her niche. If you would like a plan of action on how to take over your niche, you can get a free website analysis. Just go to eWebResults.com and click the button that says, “Free Website Analysis,” and you will get that. I wanna give a couple PITFs, punch in the faces. That’s really good. I actually– this is the first time this happens, right? So we’ve been since 2009 broadcasting this podcast. This is Podcast #415, right? I’ve met people, like people have reached out to us and I’ve actually met them in person who listen to the podcast.

Matt: Okay, awesome.

Chris: We’ve had people– and this may have happened to you.

Matt: Yeah, that has happened.

Chris: People calling like, “I feel like I’m talking to a celebrity,” ‘cause they’ve been listening to us, and that’s very flattering, really appreciate that. The first time anyone’s recognized me in public happened. Now, they didn’t recognize me, and you’re probably thinking they recognized the voice.

Matt: Their voice, they were sitting behind you.

Chris: The didn’t recognize my voice. He actually came up and he was talking to my wife and I, we were at an event in Dallas this last weekend. And it was like, “Yeah, my name is Chris Burres.” I introduce myself. He goes, “That sounds really familiar.” And then so we were talking and he handed me his card, and one of the line items on his card was marketing, right? And I was like, “Hey, I’m the host of the most popular internet marketing podcast on iTunes.” And he goes, “That’s how I know you!” I was like, that was really cool. So he wanted a picture with me as much as I wanted a picture with him. So punch in the face to you [00:08:21] [Indiscernible] Yeah, it was great making contact with you. Also, we gotta give a big punch in the face to Brian Lobig.

Matt: Yes.

Chris: He is with LobigInc.com So if you’re in the Maryland area and you really wanna work with somebody close – and so you kinda rule us out ‘cause we’re in Houston – I highly encourage you to use Brian Lobig. We’ve actually done business together. It’s L-O-B-I-G-I-N-C.com in Maryland, punch in the face to you. He wrote a really like just amazing review. It’s long, really it’s an article about our podcast.

Matt: Very cool.

Chris: It mentions you, he mentions kind of previous podcast hosts, and the meat and the potatoes, and all of this.

Matt: Awesome.

Chris: And yeah, punch in the face to you.

Matt: Very cool.

Chris: Really good. My only little news, you know Mark Zuckerberg, right?

Matt: Yeah, he’s been all over.

Chris: He’s been the most troubling takeaway from two days of congressional hearings on Facebook Inc was this: Mark Zuckerberg didn’t want to explain how the social network operates. Yeah, not a big surprise.

Matt: Well so–

Chris: It’s troubling, right?

Matt: What’s interesting is we’ve already seen some shifts in what we’re allowed and not allowed to do. You used to be able to grab some really great audiences and import them to Facebook and now you cannot do that. So yeah.

Chris: And that since he’s been testifying or–?

Matt: That was like the week before, yeah. Yeah, so a lot of stuff changed–

Chris: He was preparing for the testifying.

Matt: And I think there’s a lot more changes coming. I mean he is to the size of a monopoly, you know?

Chris: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Matt: Like Microsoft when they broke that up. I mean who knows, Google could be next too but you never know.

Chris: And then the next piece of news. “Facebook suffers celebrity exodus as Zuckerberg acknowledges the #DeleteFacebook trend.”

Matt: Yeah, Elon Musk. There’s a few others, you know?

Chris: Some pretty heavy hitters.

Matt: Yeah, yeah.

Chris: That’s it. Unless you had– did you have any PITFs or anything today?

Matt: No.

Chris: Alright, then let’s–

Matt: I’m just coming back from vacations.

Chris: That’s true. You had a good relaxing– he came back on Monday and literally we talked for like an hour and half, right? Kind of plans, it was like, “You did get well rested while you were gone.” We got these plans of action, so it’s really exiting. It’s been a really exiting week this week here at eWebResults with all the eWebbers. Alright, so What is Topical Authority? We’re gonna tell you everything you need to know and this article is by Dave Davies. Again, you can reach him on Twitter @Beanstalk, right? So Topical Authority as many of us think of it today will die and with it’s enormous resources that went into developing it for its sites. So I wanna save this for the end, ‘cause that’s interesting.

Matt: I mean, but you wanna write an article that’s polarizing, right? Because it creates–

Chris: A lot of us especially kind of in the sales arena, we’re always taught to try and get Yes’s right? So let’s be in agreement. And I don’t remember what particular speaker I was listening to–

Matt: Split the difference?

Chris: Well he was really good, right? And he said, “Let’s focus on No.” There was one particular speaker – and I think it was at an Action Coach event – who pointed out like no interesting conversation ever happens with agreement.

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: Right? So I’m like, “Hey, Zuckerberg’s a jerk,” and you say, “Yes, he is.”

Matt: Oh, we’re in agreement.

Chris: Hey, Bill Gates is a genius.

Chris & Matt: “Yes, he is.”

Chris: Like there’s no conversation there. So yeah, you know this is some of it. But he has an interesting point. So I really wanna talk about that and we’ll push that towards the end. So you might be wondering what is Topical Authority? Because it’s the title of the article, What is Topical Authority: Everything You Need to Know. Topical authority is a perceived authority over a niche or broad idea set as opposed to authority over a single idea or a particular term, right?

So I wanted to give you the example– so let’s talk a really good example. Say you have a website that’s about different websites, right?

Matt: Okay.

Chris: And one of those pages that’s about different types of websites or things you can do on a website, it’s about branding a website.

Matt: Okay.

Chris: And then let’s talk about another website entirely– so I know we’re using the website analogy could get a little circular here. But this other website is entirely about branding, right? And one of their pages is about branding on a website, right? So very similar content, but if you’re looking for content about branding a website, you’re probably gonna get better results ‘cause branding encompasses so many things, right? You know there are branding experts out there who will charge large amounts of money and come into your office, and interview all the sea level people, and come up with this whole branding strategy. And by the way we do proposals against those types of companies, and they like ask, “So I’ve got this branding company, and branding is so very important.” Yes, it is. “And I’ve got you guys who are pitching this, why should I use you guys?” And I give the example, said, “Look, listen. If you really wanna build a sexy brand that you’re gonna sell in 5 years, we might not be the company for you. If you want business in 6 months or sooner, right? But really quickly.”

Matt: Direct response.

Chris: “Direct response, get great SEO placement, then you probably should use us. Oh, and by the way, there’s nothing sexier than lots of business.” If somebody’s gonna buy you out.

Matt: Okay, so what it is? What is it? Aim– no.

Chris: Ready, aim, fire is the normal.

Matt: Ready, fire, aim.

Chris: Yup.

Matt: That talks a lot about building a business from 0 to 1 million. And if you’re in that phase, sell, sell, sell. You know?

Chris: Yup.

Matt: And so that’s the most important thing that you need to be doing out there.

Chris: So branding has all of these topics, right? So you know, how your customer service answers the phone is part of branding. How does the invoices that you sent out? That’s part of branding. Of course how your website looks, how you tweet, how your Facebook page looks. All of those things are part of branding, and branding on your website is one topic of that. So it’s probably that the person with topical authority when you’re speaking of branding website, right? A website and how branding intertwines with it is the branding site, not the site that does lots of websites.

Matt: Whoa Chris. That was a good example.

Chris: Just confusing.

Matt: I got lost halfway through that.

Chris: Yeah, because there’s lots of– hopefully you got that. If not, then Dave Davies has another example.

Matt: Well, I’ve actually never really heard the term topical, right?

Chris: Right, right.

Matt: I’ve heard like subject-matter expert.

Chris: Right.

Matt: I would say one of the best ways to explain it in my opinion, is you can be an expert at something, right? And you can know a lot about something, but to be an authority means you have influence.

Chris: Or to be a topical expert means you got more than just like one particular–

Matt: So you’re in a whole like area–

Chris: Different arena.

Matt: Yeah, a whole area. You know everything there is to know about branding frontway and forwards, or whatnot.

Chris: Right, instead of just like on how to do it on a website potentially?

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: Cool. Yeah. Go read his article, it’s a good article. Anyway, so next! “Why Should You Care About Topical Authority,” right? So if my example wasn’t confusing enough and you followed it, you’re like, “Okay, well is that really that important?” And Dave gave four reasons. He said “When people are looking for places to reference to link to or socially share,” it will be you if you have this topical authority, right?

“When users are looking for answers to their supplemental questions – they will remain at your site and not be forced to go off your site.” “When Google is looking for answers to a question – you will have the answer to the question.” And, “When Google is determining if additional information to meet user’s intents – you will have that covered,” as well. So again, that website that’s all about branding, like if I’m asking you about how to brand on a website, I might be asking how do I band in PPC? How do I brand in social media?

Matt: Well, what are the subareas that you would say of branding? So if branding’s like the overall, like over arching theme, it’s like the subareas underneath that.

Chris: Right, right.

Matt: Right?

Chris: Exactly, so when you go down this path of, “Hey, how do I do branding on a website?” Then what’s my next question gonna be? “Okay, well great. Yeah, I need a logo.” Right? That’s gonna be part of it. So you might wanna talk about branding and a logo. What goes into a logo.

Matt: Okay, I like that. Yeah.

Chris: I’m gonna talk about how do I powerfully use pay-per-click, right? And include my brand in pay-per-click. How does–? So there’s– yeah.

Matt: And if you stack kind of all those silos next to each other now, if you have the overarching theme of branding, you become a topical authority.

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: Boom.

Chris: Absolutely. Alright, so basically it does all the things you want, to have topical authority, right?

Matt: Okay.

Chris: And so the example he gives is more pages capturing more keywords, attracting more links and improving rankings. I put in, “You keep people on you site,” right? Again if I came there because I’m looking at how to brand on a website, and then I’m like, “Well, my next question is, ‘what should my logo look like?’ or ‘What am I gonna do with PPC?’”

Matt: So I guess, even from Google’s standpoint, are you answering the question that people are seeking?

Chris: Yup.

Matt: When they come to your website, one the things actually to side note real quickly – I know we’ve gone all over the place – but I’ve been doing a lot of stuff on usability lately.

Chris: Right, right.

Matt: And really–

Chris: Website usability.

Matt: Website usability, UX interface, that sort of thing. And one of the things you really wanna think about is: okay, what question are you answering? What place in the customer journey are they in? And then, you might wanna have a mini FAQ, of some different things, some links to other sites. And then even have something at the bottom, which I really would like to implement this for us as well is: did I answer your question?

Chris: Oh yeah, and if no then ask it. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah, yeah. So really interesting stuff.

Chris: I like that. Alright, so that was why you should care about tocability– topical authority. I kinda put it together in one word. How to build topical authority. So at it’s root, topical authority is about content, right?

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: How many relevant pieces of information and user’s questions have you covered? Again, right? So I’ve come in under branding and how to brand on website, and then I’ve got other questions. So he goes through this exercise, how to find the questions users are asking? So yes, I wanna write this page about website branding and how to brand on a website, how do I figure out– and if that’s our focus, how do I figure out what additional questions, prospects, customers, visitors, might be asking, right?

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: And so he gives a couple examples. Leaning on the keyword data, right? So if you’ve got– you’re running pay-per-click campaigns, you’re able to get keyword data. If you’re just doing organic, then you gotta extrapolate that data. You can use Google Webmaster Tools to figure that out.

Matt: There’s tons of tools.

Chris: SEMrush does a really good job of what showing.

Matt: Word Finder, Wordtracker. Yeah, there’s tons of stuff. Yup.

Chris: You can ask your sales and support team what questions do they get asked on a regular basis. Those are the kinds of questions that your prospects and visitors are gonna want.

Matt: Or even interview your clients–

Chris: Interview your clients!

Matt: Or do a survey, or anything.

Chris: Did you cheat?

Matt: No.

Chris: Because the next one is ask your clients.

Matt: No, I really didn’t do that.

Chris: You do realize you were supposed to cheat. So then you’re like– just keep in mind there’s more sources of questions you draw– the more sources for those types of questions you draw on, the better. He gives Answer the Public, by the way you can go to AnswerThePublic.com. It think it’s AnswerThePublic.com.

Matt: Yes, it’s pure gold.

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: This is awesome.

Chris: It’s really cool, there’s these really cool images. They break down the questions into all sorts of– you know, who, what, why, when, where, how, questions.

Matt: And if you’re listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, and you didn’t know about Answer the Public, like you’ve gotten your one golden nugget.

Chris: Yeah, that’s that.

Matt: It’s been worth it right there to know about that site.

Chris: That’s the Pro Tip, that’s the free Pro Tip, right? Okay. Now, especially look a this in his particular article– and for you YouTubers, I’ll kind of hold this up so you can see. This is like a spider graph, there’s probably a better name for it.

Matt: Spider graph.

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: I like it.

Chris: So this is like a spider graph of different questions people might have asked in this particular case about widgets. And you can see all of these questions and then you’re like, “Okay, well if I’m gonna start creating content for these.” You do need to take some time to figure out– by the way, this is not in the article. Which articles do you wanna cover first? So do some keyword research, figure out which terms get more traffic, and which questions get asked more often, and then start your content on that.

Matt: And then even look at what areas are not as competitive.

Chris: Right.

Matt: Right?

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: That’s all I have so far.

Chris: His next kind of headline is– so I just need to create content, right? Because I keep talking about content and the key– even just what you mentioned Chris was about– keywords and then making sure that you’re focusing on the right content. I just need to make content, right?

Matt: Yeah, yeah.

Chris: And the answer is yes and no, right? So just making more content isn’t gonna get you there, right? So since the humming bird update in 2013, Google’s been improving it’s context and relationships between words. You think about RankBrain and how accurate it’s getting at determining the content and the quality of the content. So we’re not just talking about content, we’re literally talking about the answers. So what I want you to remember is, at the absolute core of it, Google wants to maximize the probability that the result they send to a user will fulfill the intent of the search when they search.

Matt: Yes.

Chris: I believe an easy way to say that is, as long as you’re making the Google user happy, Google will look favorably upon you. So, “Basically – produce the content and the answers the question people have about the topic.” He does throw in here and that’s why I highlighted it, “It’s best if it’s in various formats.”

Matt: Yes.

Chris: Right, so if you can put it in a YouTube video, and that could be a YouTube video just with your phone. It doesn’t have to have super high production value in order to be valuable in the space. It can just have images, infographics, right? And then of course text, you know?

Matt: Yeah, I mean one of the things that works well with the team here is targeting the different DISC profiles.

Chris: Right, right.

Matt: Right? And some people want a 30%–

Chris: So if you’re not familiar with DISC, it’s a personality profile, D-I-S-C. And it kind of breaks down how people tend to communicate. Whether they’re extroverted or introverted, and whether they’re kind of task-oriented or people-oriented.

Matt: And like how you would want to interact with them. What kind of information is important to them. Is it the relationship? Is it facts? You know, one of the interesting stats out there is like 30% of people will go immediately to the search bar. Like think about walking into Home Depot.

Chris: Oh, when they land on a webpage.

Matt: Yeah, when they go to a webpage.

Chris: A webpage, they don’t even start searching the menu. They’re just like–

Matt: Yeah, they go there or is it delivered for them in facts. Is that impactful? Is stories impactful? Would they rather listen to it, look at it, watch it? You know, like how do people consume information? Everybody consumes information differently, and so you wanna kind of try to target those different segments. There’s a big debate out there about long or short content. The reason long winds is it hits more of those DISC profiles, I think.

Chris: Well, and you’re probably answering more of the questions. So DISC profile and more of the questions that they’re probably looking for answers too. Alright, good. But what about links, right? So we’re SEOers, we know– whatever, at least 40% of the value in search is coming from links. And he suggests, Dave suggests that, “Authoritative and high-quality content and answers will naturally attract links.”

Matt: Absolutely.

Chris: We know what won’t attract links: useless disorganized, hard to read content. That’s not gonna attract links, right?

Matt: No.

Chris: So, when you’re writing good quality stuff, that maybe has a video, maybe has an image associated, maybe even has an infographic associated with it, it’s gonna naturally attract links, right?

Matt: Stuff that answers questions.

Chris: Yeah, absolutely. Right? And it’s interesting ‘cause I can tell he’s been in the business for a long time, and he has. He says, “By old-fashioned processes,” he says, “I simply mean seeking out links for topical and/or authoritative sites, not that you should buy into a blog network or reset the old forum profile activation spree you might have found yourself doing in 2002.”

Matt: That still kind of works.

Chris: You may not want it be your focus like it was in 2002.

Matt: It’s a tool in the tool belt.

Chris: And so he says, when he’s looking for topical relevant links, he tends to look in two places, and those two places are: In the rankings.

Matt: Okay, where else?

Chris: And then in the Rankings.

Matt: Oh, okay.

Chris: Right? It’s kind of like the real estate, what’s important in real estate? Location, location, location. What’s important when you’re trying to get links first, like trying to find good places to link to you, the ranking’s the rankings.

Matt: Fo’ sure.

Chris: Find some opportunities. Yeah, try finding opportunities to get links on sites that rank well for the same phrases, right? And then he says there’s tools out there, right? There are tools out there that will allow you to compare websites that maybe are linking to relevant content, but aren’t linking to you or your competitor. And so if they’re not linking to your competitor, but they’re still relevant, you might still be able to get some good links from those websites.

Matt: I like it.

Chris: Alright, “Keep your eyes open for opportunities to get involved in community events, sponsorships, niche press opportunities,” and anything else that Google’s gonna like.

Matt: I mean, do you wanna talk about how we donate a certain portion of our time to a charity?

Chris: Yeah, so it’s company policy that we donate 5% of company time to a charity. We’re actually going through a little shift in that process right now because it had always been my vision to– you know, it’s a great bonding opportunity if some of our customers have like a really focused charity, and we can donate that time to that particular charity, so it serves multiple purposes. And then kind of the team was like, “You know what? If we spend 5% of our time and did it on internet marketing–”

Matt: For the charity.

Chris: “For a charity, it’s probably gonna have a lot more value.” I mean there’s a multiplier in our expertise that gets applied because we’re doing that. So that’s our kind of current process. Give back to the community, very important.

Alright, so here is his bad news about topical relevance. He says it’s a short-term fix. He says many will disagree with him. He’s hoping he’s wrong ‘cause he’s already said in the article, he’s already pumping lots of effort into kind of topical relevancy. And probably creating these publishing schedules so that you can build out a website so that it is topically relevant, right? Or the topical authority. But he just doesn’t think it’s gonna last long.

And here’s why he says. So Google’s gotten better and better with the Knowledge Graph of just answering your questions, right? And that’s gonna get stronger with the Google Home, right? So when you’re answering questions– right? So when you’re at your computer, you can ask a question and great, you got 10 results and you can kind of spot check and figure out which one works. When you’re talking to a Google Home device, that’s not an option. You need Google to tell you the answer.

Matt: Okay, yeah.

Chris: And so, what he says is if that’s what’s gonna happen, right? So you become topically relevant. If you become the topical authority and you’ve got this content that’s out there, and somebody asks a question. And in this Knowledge Graph that’s right there at the top is their answer, then it’s gonna diminish the value of being the provider of the answer.

Matt: Interesting.

Chris: And so I get, right? It makes sense. At the same point, those people who are in the Knowledge– like when we got our first client in the Knowledge Graph, we like got up, and everybody and the team was dancing, running around the office. It was like, “We’re in the Knowledge Graph!” Right? So it’s valuable, it’s really valuable. Especially when you want to be– like if you’re in the Knowledge Graph, you are the topical authority.

Matt: Yeah, yeah.

Chris: Right? And so depending on where you end up in the Knowledge Graph in terms of the sales process– so are people thinking they might have a problem? Or people realize they have a problem and are looking for a solution. Being in the Knowledge Graph is gonna actually be more valuable, and so pursuing that and ultimately having the top topical authority is gonna be even more valuable, is what I would argue. I don’t know.

Matt: Okay. I can see where he’s coming from.

Chris: Yeah, me too.

Matt: You know? I don’t totally agree with everything.

Chris: As we don’t have to. So you did do your homework, you did cheat, good. That’s good.

Matt: Like I looked at the headlines.

Chris: And he does say, so perhaps death was a little bit strong, right? So again, he’s kind of, “No good conversation starts with agreement.”

Matt: So I mean, if you’re looking at it from the paradigm that you’re in your own home and you’re asking AI what the answer is to something, I can see where that would be the case.

Chris: Right.

Matt: Now, is that gonna be what percentage of all searches?

Chris: Right.

Matt: Right? I don’t know. I know that Google’s like one channel, okay? On the internet. There’s tons and hundreds and more continuing to be social channels, right?

Chris: Well, even Google – and we were talking about this earlier today – has multiple channels withing Google itself, yeah.

Matt: Yeah, I mean everything’s like a different channel. So a lot of stuff I’ve been reading too that I’m more in support of, and it’s funny that Facebook’s kind of where it is, but Facebook’s becoming people’s new homepage, right? Like when they go to the internet, they’re going to Facebook, right?

Chris: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Matt: And then Facebook has search abilities within that. And so you’re using reviews, but what are reviews? Reviews are something in [00:30:44] [Indiscernible] of not having a recommendation from a friend.

Chris: Right, right.

Matt: Right? And so people wanna see what their friends are doing. There’s always gonna be influence that’s gonna be created, and a lot more searches are done on other platforms besides Google search and the percentage of people that are just gonna ask their AI in their home something. I get that, and I actually have a whole book coming out on how to build yourself as an authority. So I would probably take the other side of this argument to a large degree, right?

Chris: Right, right. Yeah, and not just ‘cause the book– well yeah, just ‘cause the book.

Matt: No! I wrote it on something that I believe is the future.

Chris: Not silly, yeah. And I’m there too, and he is too, clearly. Right? Perhaps death was a bit strong. I think what ultimately this means, it’s just kind of what I said, and what your book is about. Almost done with it, reading it.

Matt: I just need someone to write the foreword.

Chris: I will write the foreword. I feel like I need to finish the book, I feel like I need to cheat before I write the foreword. Is that it just becomes even more important to be THE authority, right?

Matt: Yeah!

Chris: And you used that. You used that in your book where I’m not talking about being A authority or AN authority, I’m talking about being–

Chris & Matt: THE authority.

Chris: Yeah.

Matt: Absolutely, yeah.

Chris: Alright, so in the end he’s gonna cast away topical authority as something to pursue. No, you just shouldn’t throw it away. It works incredibly well presently and the changes coming are inevitable. Okay, I think they’re– yes! Changes are inevitable. I’m not sure it’s like these changes are inevitable.

Matt: Well okay. So quick story. So living out in Florida when I was at A&M, graduated. They didn’t have the thing called Red Box, right?

Chris: Right, right.

Matt: It was right kind of before that, there was a bunch of different– maybe they did have Red Box, I don’t know. But I moved out to Florida up in the panhandle, there was none of these DVDs that you can go rent, like a Red Box, right? And so I was really thinking about setting those up, right?

Chris: Right.

Matt: And being the distributor for those with my “Entrepreneurial Mind.” And you know, my mom working at Microsoft–

Chris: By the way, you probably shouldn’t put the fake quotes when you say Entrepreneurial Mind about yourself, ‘cause it’s clear that you actually do have The Entrepreneurial Mind.

Matt: Well, so I was having this debate with my mom who Microsoft’s whole goal was to have a personal computer like in the phone in someone’s hand. They were actually in someone’s living room all the time. She was like, “We’re gonna be streaming stuff so soon, like it’s gonna be outta date before you even get it going. Blah blah blah. Look at like Red Box.” You know what I mean? And I was like, “I could’ve had distribution across all of north–”

Chris: Yeah ‘cause it’s still going well.

Matt: Yeah, so I think that these changes are moving in that direction, but I’ve also read there’s about a 20 year, 20 year lag between what humans are able to realistically– like there’s always gonna be early adopters but as the whole of humanity moves forward, there’s about a 20 year lag with technology ‘cause it’s just–

Chris: It’s going so fast, yeah.

Matt: It’s going so fast, there’s gonna be that [00:34:03] [Indiscernible]

Chris: I don’t wanna get rid of my flip phone yet. Are you saying I have to get rid of my flip phone?

Matt: I do know people that still have that and pagers. And someone had a Blackberry.

Chris: Do you have to crank them?

Matt: Somebody had a Blackberry and I was like, “I didn’t even–”

Chris: Does it even work?

Matt: I was like, “Do they make those still?” It’s like a company phone.

Chris: Does the network receive the signals from that device? It’s moved on.

Matt: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah, very cool. So that is the meat of our podcast. So if you liked this podcast, we ask you to share the podcast with say, 3 people. We would really appreciate that. If you’re looking to grow your business with the largest, simplest marketing tool on the planet–

Matt: The internet!

Chris: The internet! Call eWebResults for increased revenue in you business, our phone number is 713-592-6724. We would very much like for you to leave us a review. Trustpilot is our review destination of choice right now. So go ahead and go to eWebResults.com/

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Chris: And that’ll take you to our Trustpilot profile and you can leave us– hopefully you will leave us a–

Chris & Matt: 5 star!

Chris: Review there. Also we would appreciate it if you shiko us, that’s part of the contest that keeps this piece at the end. You can shiko us on our profiles on these platforms by going like Facebook.com

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Chris: YouTube! All those are our profiles. Please shiko use there and keep us moving this to the end. Alright, please remember we were filmed here live in Houston, Texas. Actually you can get a transcript, audio and video of our podcast at our website, eWebResults.com. Filmed at 5999, West 34th Street, Suite 106, Houston, Texas, 77092.

By the way we didn’t say this in the beginning. Matt and I we are your–

Chris & Matt: Results Rebels!

Chris: And you guys have made us the most popular internet marketing podcast on iTunes. We appreciate all of you. We thank all of you. Thank you for tuning in. A punch in the face to Katherine and Marcus for joining us on Facebook Live. Also all you YouTuber– YouTube Webbers out there. YouTube eWebbers out there, thanks for tuning in. Until the next podcast, my name is Chris Burres.

Matt: My name is Matt Bertram.

Chris & Matt: Bye bye for now.

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