In this episode, we cover:

Today, we speak to Alex Melen, the co-founder of SmartSites. He is also an Award-Winning Entrepreneur & Keynote Speaker. 

SmartSites has been featured in the INC5000 for three consecutive years as one of the fastest-growing digital agencies and has been featured in Business Week’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs, Bloomberg, Forbes, NPR & more.

In this episode, he will discuss  SEO goals agencies must try to achieve.

Stay tuned for the next podcast episode, where our guest, Ross Briggs, discusses the topic “E-commerce SEO: essential tips for brands to leverage conversions.”

Show notes

• [01:44-03:41] What types of SEO goals should agencies try to achieve?
• [04:09-05:44]  How can SEO agencies ensure that the client’s individual SEO goals are taken care of? 
• [06:10-07:11] How important is the alignment between SEO and CRM?
• [07:42-11:41]  How has the digital marketing industry changed since 2008?
• [12:15-14:25] What would be your response to sites that want 10X organic traffic?
• [14:52-16:33] To achieve the targeted traffic mentioned in the last question, what are some of the link profile strategies that you suggest? 
• [16:58-19:56] What events led you to start a digital marketing company? 
• [20:09-23:13] What types of goals do Smart Sites recommend to clients, and how do they achieve it? 

Show Notes Explanation

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of SEO On-Air. A set of specific and actionable SEO goals gives you the guidance that you need to build a strong SEO strategy. Understanding the best SEO goals for your business can be tough, but we have Mr. Alex Melen, the co-founder of Smartsites, to help you with it. 

He is an award-winning entrepreneur and keynote speaker. He has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, and other reputed publications. Welcome to our show, Alex.

Time Stamp: 01:44-03:41

Q. What types of SEO goals should agencies try to achieve?

• If expectations and goals aren’t set correctly, it’s going to be a disaster at the start.
• Having no goals is worse than having the wrong goals. 
• So it’s really important to set the right expectations.
• Clients should be made clear by the clients about the goals to set and why they should set such goals and how they can benefit from those goals to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Time Stamp: 04:09-05:44

Q. How can SEO agencies ensure that the client’s individual SEO goals are taken care of? 

• Some agencies solely focus on the on-page SEO or link building and won’t care about anything else.
• SEO agencies should become a partner for the client and help with the entire SEO process.
• If your SEO strategy is good, but the site is not up to mark, you won’t get the expected results. 
• SEO agencies should focus on the conversion funnel

Time Stamp: 06:10-07:11

Q. How important is the alignment between SEO and CRM?

It’s really important. There should be an agency that helps with all of it to streamline the process. If a team can work together to take care of all the SEO aspects and related factors, there’s nothing better than that. 

Time Stamp: 07:42-11:41

Q. How has the digital marketing industry changed since 2008?

• It has come a really long way since. 
• Nobody really believed in it till the early 2000s.
• But now people hire high executive positions for SEO and understand that SEO is not optional anymore.
• SEO has become really powerful right now.

Time Stamp: 12:15-14:25

Q. What would be your response to sites that want 10X organic traffic?

• I think it is an achievable goal, but SEO is a slow-moving process, and it takes a long time to show benefits.
• If you have a long-term mindset, you can get not only 10X but also 50X traffic. 
• Setting a goal such as 10X traffic in six months is not the right goal. Instead, the goal should be to reach 10X traffic gradually month over month.

Time Stamp: 14:52-16:33

Q. To achieve the targeted traffic mentioned in the last question, what are some of the link profile strategies that you suggest? 

• The strategy we’ve been using for that is the same for the last two decades
• My advice for that is following a strategy based on what your competitors are doing and considering what Google prefers
• You can use any SEO tools to track the link profile around a particular keyword. 

Time Stamp: 16:58-19:56

Q. What events led you to start a digital marketing company? 

• My brother was running one of the first SEO companies which were doing really well.
• I quit my job and joined him because I wanted to serve small and medium-sized businesses that are under-served.
• We have been going strong ever since with 140 employees and six offices and doubling in size every 2 years. 

Time Stamp: 20:09-23:13

Q. What types of goals do Smart Sites recommend to clients, and how do they achieve it? 

• It’s hard to promise anything about SEO to clients.
• We try to align with the client’s goal and help them achieve what they want.
• Small businesses don’t care about SEO traffic. But we try to educate them about their importance. 
• We take a holistic approach to help businesses succeed online.