Featuring Joseph Appiah-Duku
In this episode of Colours of Social Media, we dive deep into #SEO with Joseph Appiah-Duku of Nalo Solutions, who has extensive experience helping brands attract and nurture leads through copywriting, SEO, and content. We discuss common misconceptions about SEO, break down the key components of a successful strategy for 2024, and explore both on-page and off-page SEO techniques and technical SEO
[0:00] Whenever you're trying to do outreach, it's very difficult. Sometimes you message people, you don't even reply to their emails. I mean, that is how it is.
[0:07] Joe, what are you saying? Are you telling me something without telling me? My tech-up, GH, alone was able to generate about a million impressions in about three months.
[0:19] And if it is very big down, my tech-up, GH, they can do about two million impressions for you. And then these are people who are there to help you. And then you're able to optimize these keywords for about a year. And now they are seeing about 8,000% increase in their revenues.
[0:37] So from Bildx Studios, this is Colours of Social Media, the podcast for digital marketers and small business owners who believe in digital marketing.
[0:46] I'm your host, Enoch Roboto, Appiah Jr. And if this is your first time listening to this podcast or watching this podcast on YouTube, subscribe to this podcast or follow this podcast on Spotify, because that's the only way you're not going to miss any of my subsequent episodes that is coming up. Today, my topic is going to surround search engine optimization, or SEO, as most people in this industry call it. And I have a very good friend of mine, Joseph Appiah Dooku of NOLA, of Nalo Solutions to help me out with this one.
[1:25] Joseph, welcome to Colours of Social Media. Hello, Enoch. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Today, you know what we are going to talk about. We are going to talk about search engine optimization. And before we dive into it, I just want to tell you my whole objective for this episode. Basically, the least that you can do for me on this episode is tell me the full meaning of SEO. Meaning with because I know SEO is full of abbreviations and genres.
[2:00] So yeah, I believe by the time I finished this episode, my listeners and viewers out there would understand what SEO is about, how they will implement them. I mean, they will implement it in their digital marketing practices and the essence of, you know, including SEO in your marketing mix.
[2:23] Yeah. I believe we shared that same objective. Yes. Yes. I'm excited to be here. And then I really want to educate you and then the followers. So I'm excited to be here. Great. So you are the main point of contact at Nalo Solutions. Yes. Actually, for the digital marketing department, for marketing as a whole, I have my manager, Mary Abner, Sarah Dixon, who takes charge of the whole departments as a head. And then I'm the head lead for the departments as well. Yeah.
[2:57] So what does Nalo do? Okay. So at Nalo Solutions, we are a bulk SMS or we are a value added service company. So we help businesses and bulk SMSs, USSD services, and then email services, payment services as well. So we are all about helping you communicate with your customers in any way possible that is using a value added service. So let me take you back into history.
[3:23] Value added service is any additional service built on top of their mobile phone capabilities or the, yes, the mobile phone capabilities. So when the mobile phone came at first, it was only used for mobile calls or phone calls. And then technology advanced and then we had SMS, we had even USSD, and then now people can even check their emails on their mobile phones as well.
[3:45] So these are value added services apart from the original service, which their phone was made. So any channel you would want to use on the mobile phone that you want to reach your customers on, we are there to assist you. So for example, when you want to check your mobile money balance, you start 1-7-0 hash. So at Nalo, we have our own USSD code, 9-2-0 hash.
[4:09] So we can help you get an extension of the 9-2-0 to help you communicate with your customers. And then for bulk SMS as well, we all receive messages every day from companies that we know, and then email services as well. So we are there to help you communicate with your business.
[4:26] And I know we are going to talk about SEO, pardon me, but I just want to dive in with this one. The example that you just gave, USSD, do people patronize it? I just want to get it.
[4:37] Yes. So USSD works on your phone to assist you when there is no internet connection. So a lot of people are moving the data, but then USSD in a way is the data because when you find yourself in a very remote area that you won't need, you won't have access to internet. I mean, you don't want to dial their code and then access your bank, access your business or access any service that you have with your value-added service provider. So USSD service is still on the rise these days. There are several companies around using USSD as an option.
[5:18] For example, this political season, we've seen that people are using USSD code to make donations. So this is a service that is not going anywhere. It's an alternative to the internet service that people are using.
[5:34] So let's talk about SEO now. AI is everywhere, right? And I just want to know the essence of SEO with the proliferation of AI on the market because at first, what I know about SEO is you have to do your keyword research, you write your long form article with, you know, you insert the keywords here and there, then hopefully the search engine will pop your articles up, then it will drive people to visit your website. Now, a lot of people are doing, especially digital markets are inclusive.
[6:10] They are doing AI. So do you think SEO is so relevant? Yes. So for SEO, I believe AI is only there to help us do more because for people who want to use that channel to improve on their business game, I mean, you can just ditch SEO like that and then say, yeah, fine. A tool like CharGPT is good, but then it's a trained model.
[6:41] It's not a search engine yet. So a difference between that is with a trained model, there are data sets that have been trained on it. So for example, now the solutions or Colours of Social Media, the AI is trained on responses on these subsets or these subsets.
[7:00] Now, when you search for things that the AI don't know, it starts to have a hallucinate and then predict and then think about things that they don't know.
[7:08] Because they definitely need to give you something. Exactly. They won't tell you, I can't find it. So far as they are there to give you something, they always try to do something and give you.
[7:20] They follow lots of robots. You know, Isaac Asimov, I don't know if you are into, that's one of my favorite artists. He wrote this article about robots and gave out a setting rules. I mean, setting rules that, you know, human beings, when they created robots, they gave them that they should follow. One of them is not to kill human beings and all that.
[7:39] So I think charge a pity flows that angle. Yes. Okay. So, like I was saying, they have data points that they are trained on. So if, unfortunately, your website is not trained on that data, it's kind of fetch. That's where the solution is coming.
[7:56] But then for now, AI robots has ways that they can be able to fetch data from your website directly. So they can give a little information on it, but then not all. But then what happens with their search engine is the search engine has a library of everybody's data. So for that, you are able to query, you are able to query issues and then get responses from it rather than the AI chatbot.
[8:28] And go to search for issues, then you get actual responses. Displayed on the search engine results. And I believe with Nalo and even you personally, you've been in SEO for quite some time now. What are some of the misconceptions that people, let's start with our fellow friends in the industry, digital marketers. What are some of the misconceptions that they have come to meet when they start running, you know, executing SEO strategies?
[8:59] So the first misconception I'll say is people think SEO is so hard. That's what people go with. SEO is so hard. I mean, you have a lot of technical jargon to go around. Some people even go further to say SEO doesn't even work. But for me, being someone who practices SEO for say the past four years, I've seen it work. I've seen it give out numbers consistently.
[9:26] So if I walk around being an SEO disciple, I know what I'm saying. For the first misconception that SEO doesn't work. I mean, these are people who have tried for a long time and then they are seeing little but no results. So SEO has changed from how it was at first. Those times we used to write informational queries and informational blogs to make sure article pops up and then you are getting traffic all over. But these days when you do that, they won't rank.
[10:03] There are new optimization techniques that you have to use in able to get that result. So you try that for once and then you say, no, it's not working. And then SEO2 is a very long game.
[10:16] I mean, when I started doing SEO, I started seeing the results in about six to eight months. It's a very long game. And then if when I started, I actually started seeing results in three months. And you are saying, wow. Yes, because sometimes the website is not even visible at all.
[10:36] And then if it's not visible, so Google has a way or even the search engines, they have their way or their time of coming to your page to crawl. Now, they've not been to your page before, so they don't know the frequency that they should come to your page to crawl.
[10:52] Pause that. When you say crawl, what do you mean? So this is how search engines work. So when you create a page or a website, what the search engines does it to invite spiders or robots, let me call it that way.
[11:11] Okay. Okay. Now, are we doing biology here? Okay. When you say spiders, it's like maybe some of the tools for lack of better way, there are tools that you send it to your website for them to crawl, search for stuff on there.
[11:28] Exactly. So let me put it in English. So what happens when you create your website and then you give it to the search engines is when you give it to, when you finish creating your website, okay. And then you tell Google or the other search engines that, hey, my page is ready.
[11:47] I want you to display it. What's it that says when you give that request, we will send in robots. I think now we understand spiders. They send these spiders to come and see, oh, your page is actually nice. This is the content on your page. This and this and this and this. Okay.
[12:06] Then let me take it and put it in my drawer. Now, when I put it in my drawer, that is called indexing. So the first crawl, they come to your website and inspects and then they put it in their drawer or their index file. Now, when someone makes a query, say Colours of Social Media, when they make that query, Google checks and it's draw and see, okay, I have these files inside.
[12:26] This is called Colours of Social Media. So let me draw this one out and then put it in number two or number one. And then when people start clicking on it more, then it may be it can move from number two to number one. So that is the whole search engine process. So you crawl or the spiders crawl on it and then they index it, put it in their file and then they now display it on their search results.
[12:49] To see it. Yeah. Also, I'm seeing stars, but then everything was set to that. Yes. All right. So let's take my guy, Ellie over here. Okay. Let's say Ellie is a small business owner. Okay. How would you describe SEO to him? I mean, you've gotten Ellie's business. You want to do SEO magic for him, but Ellie doesn't understand SEO. Yeah. So how are you going to do that? How are you going to do that? And most importantly, the essence of SEO for his business. Yes. I'll tell him is the best approach to go for your business. I mean, unfortunately, this part of the world that we are, when a new business brings up and then you try to discuss websites with them, even at their start with, who me, how websites made you my idea. Yeah. And I don't need websites, but then that's the first point. Immediately you can, I can convince Ellie to get a website. I can convince him to get SEO because there's this, there's this report that SEM rash did recently. And then this company, their French company who they sell women, women underwears and then it's for, they said it's administration underwears, something like that. And then they were able to each thousand times triple their revenue because of only SEO, how they did it was they optimized for keywords that people would want to use. And then they took it from their countless articles, countless PR rich, countless even digital advertising. And then they were able to optimize these keywords for about a year. And now they are seeing about 8,000% increase in their revenues. So if I'm able to convince, if I want to convince Ellie, I'll tell you now, look, if you want to do your business, like how everyone else is doing your business, then you can, you can hold on and then do other things. But then if you want a long, long term profits, then you have to invest in SEO because this is going to be there for a very long time. If you have one keyword that is fetching you about 200 traffic every single month in a year, 200 by 12 is about 2,400. Yes. 2,400 people.
[15:07] Coming to your website free of charge, you are not paying. And then say even a 1% of those people are buying, this is free money, free traffic that you are inviting to your site. So SEO is good.
[15:19] I mean, you have to, you have to invest in it. It's a very lucrative venture that businesses are missing on. And then I would encourage everyone to move on to SEO. So describe it to Ellie.
[15:32] This is the benefit of SEO. Yes. So describe it to Ellie. What is SEO? Okay. So our, our, I would say SEO is, is just about getting your page known on Google. It's just, it's just about getting your page known on Google. And then when you get your page known on Google, Google will reward you with traffic because they're such people, people, people are looking for information or solutions to their issue. So if you are able to provide that information to the customer, that is it. You are gone. You are, you are the leader in that industry. And recently I checked, I checked the popular sites in Ghana. I realized Ghana web was still leading. Even though they've come down a little bit, they are still leading. And then Ghana web is fetching a lot of traffic. That's why these days when you go to Ghana web, there are a lot of ads over there. They are fetching a lot of traffic and then this is free traffic. They didn't do anything about it. They are not paying money for it. These are people who like Ghana web because they've, they've got some funds.
[16:37] They've got some people who like the service same as my job online. Okay. We can say it's a news channel. People want to read, but do people really want to read people or people go there because they feel they are attached to my job online.com and then they go and read every day. So when, um, Ellie, um, set up his business or yes, set up his business and then wants to make sure that he gets, um, a couple of fans that will follow him through thick and thin, then SEO is the best option because when you are able to get these people to visit your website once and then they fall in love with your page, that is all they are going to come every single day, every, um, single month and then every single year. Awesome. Okay. So thank you. And, uh, I believe Ellie, Ellie, Ellie, Ellie has gotten it, but let's talk about money. How expensive is SEO?
[17:26] Well, uh, I would say it depends. It depends on, um, a lot of factors because with SEO, you need tools. Are you willing to buy the tools because some people hire SEO, um, persons and then they'd be like, okay, um, I want you, I want you to give me a thousand visitors every month. And then, um, it's, it's, it's a big job to, um, to just say, I want you to do this. I want you to do that. You need tools firstly, because if your website is not visible, you need tools to make sure they are visible. So you need to pay subscription service. I know SEMrush is somewhere about $125 per month. Um, after, um, tools you would need, you'd need, uh, people who are good in writing because SEO goes with writing, but I like it. So with the rates of, um, people who writes, you'd also have to, um, pay them. So after paying them, you'd need, um, to do outreach. Now with the outreach, with the outreach, there are people who you'd want to do the outreach for you because with outages is, is, is, it's a special job for special people. So people crafting emails, sending it to big websites to tell them, Hey, I want to write on your site because I feel this and this and this is the new topics that I can, I've found that is going to be beneficial to you and also best beneficial to me. So you need these three things set aside. So, um, it depends for, for, for me, when I'm doing SEO, I try to go as lean as possible. Yeah. Yes. Except when, except when, um, it's, there's a need to buy a tool.
[19:09] I mean, there are, there are, there are, there are ways that you can do it. I would say without the tools, but then you'd need, um, there are some free tools around, um, big apps to, um, uh, what's his name? Uh, this guy who runs, um, who best, who best, yes, his tool is very free.
[19:27] Yeah. And then he suggests it's very free and then you can use it compared to SEM rash, which would give you even a broader, um, retrospection of what you want. So, I mean, it depends is, is it depends. Okay. Have you written, I mean, we are in September, 2024. So I think this answer, I think that I actually know by now, but I just want to ask, have you written any strategy as your strategies in, uh, 2024? Uh, for 2024, yes. I think I've written about three of them. Also, first of them being the new, um, updates that, um, Google made to it. Um, search engines. Second one being, um, Google, um, overview search, um, overview, uh, AI overview. Yeah. And last of which, I think, uh, I've forgotten a little, but I think I've, I've done about three of the, the strategies. All right. So the reason I asked you this question is I want to know the success rate of your strategies and the component, how, you know, what and what you put into this strategy that made it successful for the business. So what are some of the components of, uh, you know, a successful SEO strategy?
[20:43] So, um, the, the, the component of a successful SEO strategy, um, um, ideally, ideally, um, depends on the, the, um, the article that you are writing, the articles have to be reached.
[21:00] Gone are the days where we would inspect, um, what do you say rich? What do you mean? With images or videos? Yes. So where'd rich? Yes. So where'd rich infographics, images, videos, it has to, uh, because users don't like to read anymore. Users don't like to read anymore. And then that is a fact these days, people would only like to, um, get a summary of whatever you've written.
[21:24] So you have to cater for all these different users. And then Google has to identify your page and see that, okay, you satisfy for all of these people because the goal of Google is to keep people on set as much as possible, not to take people away because if you make a query and then they come and then they feel like, nah, this page is no good. They go away and then Google loses money. They're not able to see ads. So, um, Google wants people to stay on set as possible.
[21:51] So if they come to your page and then they feel like your page is not good enough, they go and then when they go, Google punishes you for letting the user go. And then you go, you can be from number one and then you go to number six. That is your punishment. So you have to make sure that you let Google make money and then Google also make you get money.
[22:11] Yes, exactly. So some of the successful strategies include, um, some of the successful strategies include writing rich articles. It's non-negotiable. You have to make sure that your articles are very rich. And then also, um, you have to find ways to build authority. Now with authority, it's, it's basically means getting, uh, you see when you're back in school, when, uh, we, we were in class and then there's this boy who knows, um, a lot. Now when the teacher asks question, we all can. So you have to be that guy. So in order to be that guy, yes, you have to put yourself in places to be that guy. So one of the ways that you can do is to write as much as possible to give yourself, um, the brand figure that you are able to answer the person's query. If you are able to do that, then we will find out and see that why we only Monday, I mean, let me talk to him. He, he can make people stay on set for a long time. One other thing is also to do outreach. Um, for, for these parts of the region, I mean, Africa, um, which whenever you are trying to do outreach is very difficult. Sometimes you message people, you don't even reply to your emails. I mean, that is how it is. Joe, what are you saying? Are you, are you telling me something without telling me? I've told you the reason why it took a while before I replied. So in this, in this, in this region, people take a long time to reply emails.
[23:51] So when you send outreach emails that you want to guess blog on their website, so you have this site and article that you want to put on the website, because we will use this link immediately.
[23:59] You have, you write on my journal online and then it's going back to your website. My, if my journal online is 75, you pull some juice from my journal and add it to yours, because if you are able to write on my journal online, that means you are credible. So when you do outreach to my journal online, they are not replying you. I mean, it's a big deal. So, um, we, we, this, this region that we are getting outreach is very difficult, but in our, they encourage, um, people who want to be successful with their SEO strategies to do outreach a lot. I mean, every month, craft some emails, send it out to people. At least one or two people will reply. If they reply, good news. You are able to post your article there and then get some of the juice to your, to your website. Of course I'm straight bullet. So yeah, next time I will reply.
[24:46] Yeah, I will tell you, of course I'm straight bullets. Yeah. All right. So Joe, I want us to go into some technologies in SEO, right? I have a couple of technologies around there that I need you to explain, you know, give differences and all that.
[25:02] I'm going to start with off page and on page SEO. Okay. What is the difference between this off page and on page SEO? Okay. So there are three, three forms of SEO. Okay. There is the technical SEO. There's the off page that you said and then on page. Now on page is any type of SEO that you do on the page. So, um, when you're writing an article, you make sure your head is match your keyword. That's on, on pages. What is heading now let's break it. You see, you see the difficulty in SEO, right? All like other, uh, digital marketing, uh, strategies. It's more like the moment you see it, you'll understand it, but then with SEO, you guys are doing all these terminologies, technicalities. So what is heading this cafe, it's just your supporters like you on buymeacoffee.com. Now by visiting buymeacoffee.com, you can help keep the college social media podcast alive and thriving by buying me or my guest a cup of coffee or as many as you'd like.
[26:14] And here's how your support makes a difference with some exciting perks along the way. One, become a supporter. Now with every coffee you buy, you directly contribute to keeping the show running. You're not just helping me, but also treating my guests to a cafe or whatever drink they prefer when they come on the show, but to an insider club membership. Now when you buy me a coffee, you unlock the chance to join the college social media for insider and monthly membership that gives you access to exclusive posts and updates, special shout outs for new members, a comprehensive digital marketing tutorial library, all for this for just $10 a month. Number three, VIP Coffee Meisters. Now for my top supporters, you can take it to the next level by joining the exclusive VIP Coffee Meisters. A membership is limited to just 10 people for now and you get everything included in the Insider membership, plus one-on-one sessions tailored to your needs, a sense to my full collection of digital marketing templates. So if you're enjoying the podcast and want to show your support, head over to buymeacoffee.com forward slash iamrobotboy. Again buymeacoffee.com forward slash iamrobotboy. There are even more ways to support the show that I don't have time to cover yet, so check out the full details on the website. Thank you. So when you're writing an article, you have your main heading or your title. So that's your title, say five strategies to boost your business and then maybe you are targeting strategies to boost your business. Now your keyword is in your title. So right now, okay, in that title, what would be our keyword?
[28:18] So let's pick a keyword. I mean, let's write an article now, in fact. Okay, so we can say the keyword we are trying to optimize is, so let's choose a long form keyword. So let's see, strategies to optimize your business. Why is it a long form? You see, if you keep telling me these steps, I will keep on asking. So long form means it contains multiple words. It's like a freeze.
[28:42] So some people do SEO, but I say, so let's pick my industry. Bork SMS. If you are trying to rank for the keyword Bork SMS, you are in trouble. There are lots of Bork SMS companies around.
[29:00] And then this, this, this is a topic that has been expanded several times. So you are, unless you are bringing a new way of doing SEO, if not, don't target it because it's too big. So when you use tools like age, you are able to see the keyword difficulty. And then that keyword difficulty will be somewhere around 60. When you use it and then you see a keyword around zero to five or zero to 30, try to work on it because they are all long form keywords.
[29:29] But then when you get a short keyword that is around more than 30, don't, don't try it. You are never going to rank unless you are bringing in a new idea for it. So we try to optimize for longer form keywords. So if Bork SMS is not available, maybe you can say Bork SMS companies in Ghana. So we are targeting Bork SMS companies in Ghana.
[29:51] So that's it. So right now the keyword that we are focusing on is Bork SMS companies in Ghana. All right. So let's write an article. Good. So when you use the title or the heading. Yes. So Bork SMS companies in Ghana, your keyword is Bork SMS companies in Ghana. So you can even expand their title so you can see 10 Bork SMS companies in Ghana. So that you still have your keyword in the heading or the title. And then that means you are going to write a list article or a listicle or you can see Bork SMS companies in Ghana field. So now it's not a listicle anymore, but then it's a write up. So these are things that you have to consider. But then the most important thing is your keyword is in your title. Now you have to break down the article.
[30:47] So you see, you are going to have at least five headings. Now five headings, heading one, heading two. They are going to address different matters. So if we are going with five Bork SMS companies in Ghana field. Now the first article is maybe the first heading. We can see what is Bork SMS.
[31:06] And we the first sub heading. Yes, the first sub heading. What is Bork SMS? Maybe the next sub heading we can say, try these Bork SMS strategies. The next heading is top five Bork SMS companies in Ghana. So we are going further with making sure that our keyword is in the headings and then in the title as well. Because that's the only way. So the keyword is in the subheadings at the same time in the title as well. Yes, because you need it over there. Because when the spiders come onto your page, they don't understand English. These days, they are using machine learning protocols where they can be able to understand some form of the words.
[31:53] It's not like they understand. They are only able to take the data that you've written and interpret it in machine code. Yes, machine language. So it's not like they understand. So you have to make sure that these robots understand whatever you've written. And then the user also can also understand. So when the user also comes and then they have maybe a table of contents, they can just come through it and then see that, no, I don't want to read all of this. I need only the list because that's what is important. Yeah, I do that. Exactly. When you're able to do that, then you are optimizing well. So that is on page. On page. So you are making sure that your page or on the page, you are doing SEO that is able to bring people to the page.
[32:40] And then we have off-page SEO. So off-page SEO means outreach. It's all about outreach. Reach out to people as much as you can right on their website. Because when you do that, you are inviting links to your page. Now, every time people try to find out what to do in order to rank high, the number one topic that Google cannot take away from, or Google never says how it runs pages. But then the number one way that we've seen that it works is links. If you have a lot of links, you are going to rank. Because if you have a lot of ways, more like a credibility building platform, everyone is saying you are the best. So you are the best. So if you are able to write on other people's websites a lot, that means you are credible. They are feeding some of their juice or some of their authority. So if in a month, every, in every month you are writing to, you are writing about two articles on other people's websites. If they are 90, 90, 90, 90, in a month, you are able to get about one, one, one from them. If they are five, if you are on two, you are now on 10, then you are going.
[33:52] But then moving from zero to say 30 is very easy. But then from 40 is very simple. But it doesn't matter. Bring in as much links as possible. Write on people's websites as much as possible in order to get the links back to your page. Another off-page technique is writing or posting on social media. Your social media links, it's also links. Every link is links. And then it's links back to your website. So if you have a YouTube channel, post on there, whatever you've written, bring it back to your website. A link, if you have a YouTube page, create a website, a one-page app for it. Write, put the YouTube video on it. Because these days, Google is referencing videos more. Most of the video, most of the search queries, videos pop up.
[34:40] So it's a overhead. Just bring the video there and put it there. Write another website on social media. Post and bring it back to your website because the link is very important to Google.
[34:51] And then there's the last one, which is technical ICU. Now, this is the type of ICU that has a lot of jargon. Everyone tries to run away from technical ICU. I'd say it's also one of the most easiest type of ICU. Yeah, because once you do it, that's it. That's it. You don't do it again, compared to the off-page and on-page that you do it consistently every single time.
[35:14] But every day, technical ICU, you need to do it once. That's it. So technical ICU is all about making sure your page is visible on search. So you have to make sure your robot file. So your robot file contains how many times Google should come to your page, which pages Google should visit.
[35:32] A robot file. Yes. So where does, what is robot file and where does it stay? Okay. Is it like everybody have a robot file in their website? I mean, explain. So when you build your website, when you build your website, this is, that's why it's a technical, it's technical. When you build your website, you have to give it at least for the first few months, give it to the ICU guy and then they do the technical ICU for you. So the technical ICU, the first thing that they are going to do is to make sure your site is indexable. So when the crawlers come to your website and then they scan through and then skip and then they see that, okay, this website does this, they do this, they do that. Then they index it, but then they don't index it just like that. The index is by your robot file, the only video robot file. So you create a robot file by telling Google which pages is available to them to crawl. So mostly in the robots file, the only command inside is user agent star or user agent slash. So the star means crawl all the pages. So it's a, it's a word card for all pages. And then you say user agent star, that's all. And then you name it robots.txt and add it to the root file of where your website is hosted. So when you do that, that means Google, I want you to come and crawl my page. I've made this word card available to you to crawl all my pages. Now, sometimes, sometimes they, they just recently, when chat GPT was able to read the website, some people were calling for people to block chat GPT from reading the website. I mean, we had the chat bot will find, if they don't read your site. No, they will even read someone else's website that has copied your content. And then they also have your content. So what do you do? Let them copy. And they need to copy maybe do reference you that it is yours. So when charge GPT announced that people were like, okay, let's block charge GPT. So you do user agent charge GPT, you slash or something. And then that's so charge GPT cannot read your website. But then it's not a good approach.
[38:00] If you don't let them read, for example, Washington post, stop charge GPT from reading their site because they escaped. At the end of the day, someone copied the whole Washington post.
[38:15] Now charge GPT doesn't care. They are only scrolling the web and seeing data. And then they want to copy everything. They didn't even reference Washington post. So at the end of the day, you're in trouble. Yeah. So there's, there's no need trying to block and robots from reading accepts. They are very dangerous. Some people like hacking through the robots.txt file. So when you do user agents, maybe Google bots, and then you give it the word card access. Every bot that uses the Google system can read apart from that. No, no one. So that is your first file, the robots.txt file. And then you have your site map. Now the site map file contains every directory. All of these are part of the technical issue. Yes. So we've talked about the robots.txt file and then the site map. Yeah. Okay. So the site map is a file that contains all the directory of your page, every directory. So this is how websites are built. So when you build your website, you see maybe Colours of Social Media.com is a folder. So every website is a folder and then you store it in the directory of where you are posting it. So Colours of Social Media.com is a folder. Now you have Colours of Social Media.com slash home. It's a file. So you put that file in the folder and then Colours of Social Media slash maybe services in the folder. All of these things are folders. Sometimes you even have Colours of Social Media.com slash services slash home slash this slash that all of these are in bits, folder bits, and then they are placed into them and the bigger folder. If I get you right, you know that you are where we put the website and Colours of Social Media.com slash hope. Yeah. That is the folder. Yes. So me as an average Joe, I'm seeing it as a website link. Yes. But then you and SEO aspect, technical as you are, you are looking at this as a folder. Yes. Because they're, they're slash home or the home file is, um, it's a file that is stored in the folder. So when you visit it, these days we don't use slash home again. Those times when you are visiting the website, yeah, every time you have to do slash home, but then now the index file or the original file, the homepage, it is, it is, um, giving a no string. So you just say, um, Colours of Social Media.com and then the home file, no, but those times you used to do a slash.
[40:50] So the site map, make sure that it's got us all of these directories, everything on your website, all of these directories. So I use WordPress, you're able to see the posts, um, post folder, um, the pages folder. If you are someone who uses WordPress a lot, you, when you are posting, you post on posts, when you are doing an execute post on post or you are doing a website speech, you post on pages when you are using a knowledge base, you do on the knowledge base.
[41:18] So it's got us all of this data and then where your page, um, your page images are stored, where your page videos are stored. It is all of the data and then you store it in the, um, the site match. Yes. So the site map dot XML file. So when you, um, there are three tools, of course, that you can use the screaming frog scream, when you search for screaming frog, you just download it and then you make, um, you use it for site map generator to generate your site map for you. And then the site map contains the XML file of where everything is stored. So you download that file, that dot XML file, and then you attach it to the robot file and then you put it in the roots directory. Oh, so now when you search for that stuff, okay, for technical SEO, you have to tackle the robot.tsd file. Yeah. Uh, site maps. Yeah.
[42:13] What? I think you mentioned one. I'll judge the two now. Yeah. Okay. So when your site map dot XML file is ready, you just download it and then you, you put it in the roots file.
[42:26] Now, when you want to search for it or see what that is, where can you just do Colours of Social Media dot com slash site map dot XML and then to show you all the pages, all the directories. Now what it does is it tells you that, um, this page it's, um, this page is available for you to crawl. This page is available for you. And so if you have, um, you have studied, um, sometimes when you search for say Colours of Social Media or on Google, just the search engine, not using the URL portion, it will list the pages for you.
[42:55] So that is a site map. So Google automatically generates site map for you. But then if you want to tell Google what pages are very important to you, then you have to do it. So it will list maybe, um, the homepage, the, um, the services page, any page that defined, it's very useful to the user to display it over there. So these are the two most important files on your technicality. And then there's the last one, there's a, there's a metadata metadata file.
[43:24] Now the metadata file, after you've done this to the website, it's not visible to Google. So unless you tell Google on the websites that, Hey, Google, this is my website. I want you to index it and follow it. So the, the, the, the syntax is meta data is meta robots is equal to index. So that means you are indexing the robots file and the XML file available to you.
[43:53] Because Google doesn't come and read the roots directory of your phone. Unless when your page load, they use that string and tell it, okay, this page is found here.
[44:02] This page is funded. So when you do that, that's the last part of your technical SEO. So when you do that immediately, Google starts coming to your page. And then interestingly, the site map file contains the frequency you update your page. So if you are someone who updates, so someone like my join online.com, they update their page every second.
[44:24] So what it does is sometimes you are looking for information like rapidly, but no one else, no one else has published it. You see now when you refresh again, my join online has it.
[44:33] Now they've told Google that I update my page every second. So every second comes to my page and crawl. So when you do that, Google is able to see that, okay, these people, they post a lot because I can't see their data and then their value is also very rich. So every second, Google go to my join online, they make test information and put it on site because people are looking for information. For example, yesterday's bulletin. And I saw the news about 10 minutes after they were done. And they went on search, my join online has it.
[45:03] It was a no brainer. I just went and read it because that's what is available at that moment. So that means they've told Google that maybe every second they update their page to come and fetch that page, put it on site so that when people are looking for information, they click on that. Because if the page is not there, Google is also lucid. Because Google wants people to come to search as much as possible. If you are going there and you can't find the information, they will go, they will go to TikTok and go and fetch it. By that time, someone has shot a video live from there. So I mean, so it's very important to do that.
[45:38] A lot. I mean, you've broken everything down bit by bit and actually got the whole angle of SEO, you know, on page, off page, technical SEO. Now, whilst you were delivering the on page, on page SEO page, you made mention of links, links. Is that what we call link building? Yes. All right. So how is it like? And what is the essence when it comes to SEO?
[46:06] Okay. So like I mentioned before, Google never wants to tell us that links is what brings people authority. They never want to see it. Because immediately it says people will start spamming links. People will go to Fiverr, buy links, and then put it on their website rank higher.
[46:26] Google never wants to tell you that. And if you do that too, they spam your websites and they have to sanction. They have a soft sanction and then the hard sanction. The soft sanction, they show your pages for some queries. The hard sanction, they take everything from the index.
[46:42] Wow. It's important. They look through the file, take it and dump it somewhere. You are not going to come on such a game. Go and look for another channel. We've sanctioned you because they feel you went to buy links. So they never want to tell you links works, but then link really works as much as possible. The new links. Let's put it out there. The new links. So sometime ago, I took a brand through why links matter. And then I found out they did a CSR. It's a CSR.
[47:12] Yeah. They did a CSR that they published on my job. There was no link back to it. The whole my job online, it was either my job online or city, one of the news platforms.
[47:26] There was no link to it. So I went back to the, uh, they see you and then I access it. I mean, why, why you are losing like that. You spent money to put your article on the big platform like this. Just one link. It's not on your page. And he said, Oh, I'm working on it. I'll, I'll tell them. And then they, it's very important. If you, um, if you do backlinks, it's very important. So the new links work like the outreach form that I said. So, um, you go to say my job online, you have a new vision of how, say, um, so let's take a financial institution or an insurance company. They write or they do a research on, um, how people are doing insurance in Ghana. Then they do a very in depth article, because these ones are supposed to be done by the news station, but then they don't do it.
[48:20] You find a need to do it. You do research and everything. Then you tell my job online, you send them an email, you tell them that, Oh, I have this article. I think it will be very valuable to your readers. They will listen to you. They'll publish it on their website.
[48:34] And then if you, on your email, you tell them that, well, I wanted to publish it too, but please, you can also reference me. And then when you do that, you get a free backlink on your website. Now, my job online is so credible that if they even mention you, that you are my job online, it's good. It's good for you. So one day you do my job, not targeting a big website. I mean, always, I mean, that's why it is called building.
[49:00] It's your link. Yes. Link building. Yes. Yeah. So it's not always about a big brand. Sometimes someone in your industry, you can collaborate, um, maybe two bulk SMS companies come together, do a research about how the bulk SMS industry is going.
[49:16] You put it over there and you link yourself back. And then that is, um, you are, you are, you are talking, the links come and then you're pulling juices from both of you.
[49:26] And then the good news about link building is when you give someone shout outs, they don't stick your link away. You only help them to get to your level. They don't, and we would all say you are not loose. Yes, you don't lose. We don't say you are 90. So I'm pulling your 90. Yes. They just did him the 10% still doing your 90. But then the good news is now that people are looking for that article, okay, you will reference higher because you are the, um, you are bigger than the person who puts his article over there because you, um, you, you are the authority in that instance. So you will be referenced that so people read your small, but then you are not tagged you that you put your article on there. You're not targeting to be, um, the leader in that, um, because you have a lot of articles over there that you can, you only need just that bit. So you don't have to be really worried that you've got to be going to put your article on my journal line. My journal line is reading the traffic. No, don't worry. They are giving you something that is even valuable than that page that you've gone to do at the moment. So if you don't want to be doing, um, these outages is fine. Just, um, your CSR programs that you are doing, make sure that you get it referenced back to you. It's non-negotiable. It's very important because you spent so much money in publicizing it. Why don't you want to take back the links?
[50:50] Interesting. Yeah. Let's talk about keywords. How has keywords evolved? I mean, keyword strategies evolved in 2024. How were you doing it? And in 2024, how have you changed it?
[51:05] Or are you still maintaining the same strategy when you started keyword, keyword optimization has changed. These days, we don't do, um, which keyword is ranking. Let's go and write articles. We do a lot of research on that. These days you do more on intents. So instead of saying, do you want to use Colours of Social Media? Yes. Let me use that. So you're saying let's say digital marketing podcast. Yes. So instead of saying, okay, so with that, um, let me use a more, um, so Colours of Social Media, apart from, um, we doing podcasts, we rent our services as well. So instead of writing about articles that, um, let people come in, read and go away. We start targeting intents, intense traffic. So, um, how much does, um, um, making a podcast at Colours of Social Media costs? Uh, so exactly. So these are, these are articles that have pure intents. So intent of purchasing decisions rather than just being given information, even information, because these days, even information is not selling anymore because AI overviews is there. It just gives a briefer day and then you read, you go away.
[52:23] But then if you have, um, um, intense built on it, the AI cannot, um, summarize that part because Google has a policy called, um, your, your money, your life. These, um, articles that teach people about their money or their life. They don't like using AI to, um, summarize for it because they feel these are big decisions that people want to take. And read and they're not exactly, they know they decide. So they don't want to summarize this information to them.
[52:56] So when you have these, um, keywords that are built on intents, the AI overview, we want to do it rather than information that will summarize information and give it to them.
[53:05] So when you are, um, doing keyword optimization these days, focus more on intents because this is what is going to make the user buy something rather than just being informational. So these days, most of the articles that, um, are going out has intents, um, towards it. So whether it's purchasing intents, whether it's, um, query or, um, quotes intent. So, um, a financial institution can do something like, um, how much does, uh, so how much does, um, a premium cost. So rather than writing, um, five types of, uh, insurance premiums in Ghana, you can see, um, how much, um, does, uh, an insurance premium costs. You do it with your infographics. You do it with your videos. You do it with your headings and titles. Everything's saved. Now what happens is when the person is coming to the page, because on their customer journey, they've moved. Yeah. Exactly. So you can just feed them information, feed them with what they came in for. And then in that way, you're also able to, um, um, focus on things that help. Rather than writing a lot of informational articles, people read it and they go away. That's why the AI overviews is there. Let's go use AI overview to read someone else's article and summarize for them. But for you there, you're supposed to be about, um, making a purchase. So, um, if you, you sell diaries for, for instance, you can do, um, an article about, um, free trials of, uh, diaries, because when someone wants to try a diary, you have to be there rather than why, or reasons why you should, um, diary or when you do that. So these, these focus on key words that have intent or purchase intent or purchase decisions rather than informational queries, because AI overviews is there. They'll do their job. We'll go and charge GPT to settle creative things that you, um, your business is offered. So on charge GPT, they come by, don't let it come to your website. That means you have to do, um, you have to write, um, articles about intents, pure intents, purchase and decisions, and this will help your business.
[55:16] Also, we're talking about the tools because in your submission, since we began this conversation, you've been talking about a lot of tools. If I'm not mistaken, I know, I remember you talking about SEMRASH, that is SEMRASH, and you made mention of Ahrefs. Ahrefs. I mean, that's how I pronounce it. Ahrefs is a mouth possibility. Ahrefs. Actually, if I say Ahrefs, it reminds me of when we were starting to build website way back in the day when we were using noteparts to build website. It started with Hefs. Yes. Each Ahrefs. Yes. So yeah. So with this question, I want to know, what's your favorite SEO tools and how do you use them? You can just list a couple of the tools that you use in your work and how. Yeah. So for me, I would say, um, Uber suggests it's my first because it's free. Ah, for some, and you mean it doesn't work for someone who is starting out. Yes, it does. You just, um, have to find keywords that are in your industry. So for what these, um, the French company I mentioned previously did was, um, they, they said, um, ladies have a problem searching online about, um, um, menstruation underwears.
[56:39] So they found a keyword as what they want to target, um, as a broader keyword. And then they look for something like menstruation underwear prices in France, menstruation underwear prices, menstruation, underwear, whatever. So when you have, when you have, um, when you have, um, these tools, you just have to set for keywords that are related to what you want to do. For example, a bank can say, um, saving or interest rates in Ghana as their broader keywords for Nalo Solutions, our, our bigger keyword is value added service or bulk estimates because, um, for us, that's our biggest product yet. And then if, um, it's for, um, Colours of Social Media dot co, um, for, for that we can see your broader keyword is maybe podcast shoes in Ghana.
[57:32] That's when you put these keywords inside, people will be searching around that keyword and then you'll be getting several expansions and then you'll be able to target. So you've mentioned Ubersuggest. So for I'll say Ubersuggest, you can try Ahrefs for keyword research for Ahrefs.
[57:54] I mean, it's the premium one is for way better than the free one. It's way better than the free one. But then if you only want to look for keywords, there's a free version of Ahrefs that you can use for SEMrush. It's very expensive, but it's a very good tool, a very good tool.
[58:14] They can even show you link building or opportunities that you have. You just have to put in your, your website URL. That is it. They take over from the keywords, um, the contents that you are writing.
[58:26] They even have a content writer. They have their own AI, SEO writer that you can use. They give you opportunities to do, um, opportunities to do link building and other, other amazing things that you can do. That is also the company that their friends, uh, use and they help them a lot.
[58:46] I mean, I couldn't agree with you more that, uh, for SEMrush SEMrush, that is like my go-to whenever I want to do SEO, because usually with my work, I want centralized platforms. So, and yeah, and I, I think SEMrush does everything. Yeah. It does keyword, everything.
[59:09] And the one thing I love about SEMrush is that as a company, they also have this academy. Yes. You know, SEO academy that you can learn. So even, even if I don't have any job on SEO to do, I just go there to reach them. Yeah. And I think, uh, I would recommend to anybody, anybody who is starting out on SEO. Yeah. If you want to learn about SEO, you might want to sign up for S I mean SEMrush academy. And then again, you can also reach out to Joseph up here, uh, Dooku.
[59:42] Yeah. Of Nalo. He, I mean, his LinkedIn is that open. Yeah. He can just give you a few tips here and there for you to start. Okay. All right. So let's talk about metrics. In fact, let's talk about this one first, before we go into metrics, what is the measure of effectiveness when it comes to SEO?
[1:00:02] I think the most important thing is conversion. Ah, I know. I know just like any marketing activity. It's just conversion because if people are coming to your site is good. Um, during the peak errors of SEO, I think four or three years ago, you have, you have computer, I used to have a website called, uh, my tech hub G H this website was bringing a lot of traffic.
[1:00:25] There was a point we had about 1 million impressions on Google search alone in about four months. Wow. It was SEO was booming those times. I remember, um, I remember the site, infinity dot com. Oh yeah. Yes. So we, we were neck on neck with them. Yes, because we were writing tech. But these days the, the, the thing has changed. So it's not about how you write anymore.
[1:00:53] It's just about, um, how helpful you want. So it has changed by those times when it was booming. I remember I wrote one article on, um, is it 2020 that they started doing the Ghana card?
[1:01:06] Um, one of the periods is that they're doing gonna get 2021. Okay. So I wrote another code about, um, Ghana card registration centers. I mean, my phone was calling, um, I was getting calls every single, about 10 calls every single day. Joseph, how can I, um, wait, wait to the streets are my, you know, go to the websites, I'll put a data because I went to NIA for where, um, you can register for your Ghana card. And then I had this, did districts by districts in Ghana. So in Accra, if they're about, um, 20 districts, I don't know how many districts I have the data for. And then the list for, and everyone with their digital address. And then I, I, I spent, I spent too much time.
[1:01:57] I took about two months to complete the article. It was a lot. And then it was, it was, it was, um, it was, it was a nice experience. Every single day, about 10 calls, someone will call, please, I don't know my district. They have to read the website, but you only see the title. Come on, look for my contacts. Can I find my district? And now, so if these are, if I am NIA, this is free money that I've gotten, but I'm not NIA. So what I can do is only to show you, then if there are, there are also bad actors in that, they can also use that in them to start money from them. But I'm happy. I was able to assist people in a total, I think a lot, of course, a lot. And then if, even if you are not calling, you are reading the article to find your district, then that was the era where, um, we will close in this week. If you don't come this week, we are gone. We have, we have moved from here. We are going to another place. So people were in rush in a hurry. And then people were finding solution on the article that I have written.
[1:03:03] And then this is, um, the joy that it comes with. If you are able to optimize for, um, these kinds of keywords and things, and then people are visiting your websites every single day, this is, um, this is revenue. Yeah. This is pure revenue. Unfortunately, I'm not NIA, so I didn't enjoy the revenue. Yeah. But then there, I mean, yes, my, my biggest, um, achievement in that was helping people because everything, when you call me, um, where can I find my district? I mean, come on, say, where is my district? Now go to the website, look for the information. Now people came to trust, um, there were several articles on, on, on it. So yes, yes, yes, yes. Has gone down a bit. Yeah. And kudos to, um, if you did, let's come for that. But then for now, they also do it. And they also move into the digital marketing aspects, which I think that's the, the division for all the tech, um, bloggers who were, who were there, moved to the digital marketing because that's his way.
[1:04:12] I mean, I understand them because they have the experience. They actually practice. Yes. SEO. Yes. They help. So they can just show these are guys who, when you give your website, because they have experience. Yes. Um, uh, my tech up G H alone was able to generate about, um, a million impressions in about three months. And if it is very big down, my tech up G H, they can do about two million impressions for you. And then these are people who are there to help you.
[1:04:39] So if they move understandable, yeah, they are there to help. So for this podcast, for digital marketers and small business, I want us to come here. Do you mention conversion? Yes.
[1:04:51] And a sample version. Yeah. You understand. But then what about the small business owner? What are some of the, what is conversions when it comes to websites? Because the small business like Ellie, again, Ellie, you've convinced Ellie to create a website, conveys him to include SEO into his mechanics. Now you are saying, Oh, we are getting a lot of conversion. Oh, conversion.
[1:05:16] What are some of the conversions for you? It depends for, for us at Snarlow conversion means sign on, sign on, how soon they sign up to your newsletter or your services. So for example, I think for us, we are doing about 40% of our new signups coming from search. So that's good news for us. Yeah. That is free conversions that we are sleeping and getting.
[1:05:46] We are not sleeping, but we are sleeping and getting. So for every business, you would have to define what count as conversion to you. So conversion may be a signup, conversion may be a purchase, conversion may be even someone visiting a particular page. Because for example, someone may visit your code speech. If they visit, maybe you can count that as a conversion because they're giving their details because there are some people who visit websites and then give out their details. These are people who you would want to call later.
[1:06:18] You can mark that as conversion. So conversion depends on what you want to call as conversion. As your top most business goal. Yes, your top most business goal. Because if you want signups to be conversion, that means if 100 people are coming to the website and then 10 people are giving out their details. You can see that you're having a 10% conversion every month coming because when you immediately are able to get about 100 visitors every month, it is consistent because you've worked on it for about three years and then, oh, three years is a lot, about three months, about three to six months, and then 100 people are consistently going to come. So if out of the 100 people and 10 people are converting every month or every year, you're able to see that, okay, SEO gives you a conversion rate of 10% year on year and then you can expand from. So if 100 people are coming, that means you have to do more to get 1000. That means that 10% of 100 will change to a 10% of 1000. That means more people, more money for you. So it depends on what you want to call as the business conversion. How do you see the future? Let's focus on Ghana. How do you see the future of SEO? I'm very optimistic about the future of SEO because I feel here in Utah, we have businesses, we have digital in mind. We have a lot of strategies that moves digital, businesses digital, because I think in recent reports, I can't remember the publisher, but then during the COVID, there was about a lot of e-commerce companies springing up, a lot of them, a lot of e-commerce companies, and then all of these e-commerce companies, if they spring up like that, now there are a lot of websites because everyone wants to make money from online.
[1:08:16] Now even I can say businesses that those times, they were not having websites. Most of them are having websites and then these at a time, they're little people who are coming, they'll share amongst themselves. There'll be one person who would want more.
[1:08:34] That is where he will need SEO. I believe the future for SEO is very big. A lot of businesses are springing and moving online. Recently, I wanted to buy a polytank and then I realised polytank has their websites now and then you can actually pay on polytank's websites. That's big because for a very long time, these are things that we work into offices to buy.
[1:08:56] Yeah, the shops. Yes, but now you can... Then they'll deliver it. Exactly. You can buy polytank online. That is all. That means businesses are understanding the reason to move online.
[1:09:08] Melcom is also online. Melcom has an online shop maxed by these... A lot of these brands. A lot of them. They are moving online now. The potential for SEO is very big.
[1:09:22] The youth who want to do something with the guitar marketing, take some time, visit Ahref Academy, Half Sports Academy, SEM Rush Academy, learn something about SEO optimisation because businesses are going to get out these days and then a lot of people would need people who know how to do SEO and then hire them for these SEO jobs and gigs.
[1:09:49] For my next question, you're sort of giving my answer. I want to ask about two advices. One for the upcoming digital marketer and one for the small business owner. What advice will you give to these two parties? Let's start with digital marketers first. For digital marketers, I would want to say most of the time the work that we do is... I don't want to say it's unappreciated, but then the kind of region that we find ourselves. Those times, oh yeah, things online or you even look at this guy, car lights. A lot of people were kind of moved aback. That's all. That is the boom now. The guitar is what is moving brands these days. Now he has signed on to... I don't know how credible that is, but then he signed on to the keyboard guys. It means that there's a little potential with the guitar. One of my good colleagues, coffee chairman, let me mention his name. He tells me the digital industry or in fact structure has about 50 billion dollars of money that people have to go and think because this is an industry that is coming that in for influences, for digital marketers, for videographers, for podcast hosts, for everybody.
[1:11:23] This is an industry that is going to boom to about a 50 million dollars or is valued at a 50 million dollars industry. That means there's an opportunity for everyone to go into the industry. So what I would say is kind of put yourself in positions like that. These days, businesses don't want to hire someone who only do SEO. Unless it's a gig. Yeah, you want to be like a full staff marketer.
[1:11:54] Exactly. So when you learn SEO a little, go to, what's the name? HubSpot. I really love HubSpot's resources. I love HubSpot because they go in depth on their resources. Go to HubSpot.
[1:12:07] There are lots of resources on email marketing, SMS marketing. I actually started my learning on HubSpot. I started with inbound marketing. So inbound marketing is sort of engraved. What about the activity that I'm doing? Even with this, I want to give value to the people. So inbound marketing, they have a very good, I believe every marketing agency should be like HubSpot. They are very good. They are very good with the people they have to teach you about one, digital marketing and two, their product and services. I would recommend HubSpot Academy for every digital marketer out there. You can use SEMrush to also learn about SEO. Just learn about four or five things about digital marketing. And then you can move and then work on internships and then volunteers work on SEO. If not, you can also sign up to AppWake. There's this resource people that I follow. Copy that. So they are into copywriting. They are very good.
[1:13:16] Just go on there. They'll teach you how to do a profile on AppWake and then we get engaged. I know it's not going to be easy because AppWake has a lot of people who are there.
[1:13:25] For AppWake, I think I have to call my guy Kelly Backman. I don't know if you know him. Kelly Backman. He does a lot of AppWake stuff. He goes live on YouTube a lot. So yeah, I'm thinking of a session for him. So what advice will you give to small business owners when it comes to SEO?
[1:13:46] Yeah, so for small business owners, I'll tell them to have patience with SEO guys. Some or most of them see SEO as, oh, it's really not important. Or even, or let me take it from having a website.
[1:14:05] So there are lots of small businesses these days who spring up. They only go to Instagram, do an Instagram profile or weeks and things. They say that's okay. Let me say it on Instagram because I feel like my customers are on Instagram, are only on Instagram. But Instagram can close down.
[1:14:21] Exactly. Instagram belongs to Max. Yeah, because it's a challenge. Exactly. I know they won't do Instagram again. Instagram so come. Me, every time, what I say is social media, it is a face.
[1:14:33] Every day, something new will come. Who knew TikTok would come and become big like this. So by then, having a website is forever and ever because at least you can trust Google that who is going to be forever there. And then they are also trying to move on to the future with the AI. They don't want to leave, lose their power. So I would say for businesses, it's good you have Instagram. It's good you have money for Instagram. But then if you can also get a website, get someone who can do the SEO for you and then have patience with them because SEO is a very long haul. Sometimes you can't do six months. You're not seeing anything. Because when I started in my TikTok GH, about four months, I wasn't seeing anything. But then I still kept on writing until Ghana Card came in. When the Ghana Card issue came in. Now, all the articles that I've written about four months or five months ago, they started making it.
[1:15:25] You just only need one source of traffic or one source of one big article to take all the other articles away. So I would advise business owners that as much as possible, get a website because these days, even e-commerce sites are not difficult to build.
[1:15:42] When you create your own Paystack account, Paystack gives you a storefront. Try to get an e-commerce site as much as possible. Get an SEO guy, do the technical SEO, do the on-page, do the off-page, and then see how it goes. By at least three to six months, you should see something happen. Even if it's only 20 people who are consistently visiting in a month, that's 20 by 12. If only one person buys. I mean, yeah, that's where we've gotten.
[1:16:10] So you should all move on to getting a website and then stop focusing so much on social media. I mean, it's enough. Anyone will come and you have to delete everything and go back.
[1:16:24] Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, people trust Google results. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, people will go back to Google and search.
[1:16:35] I mean, I don't even want to even focus on Google because Google too can't close it. But then the internet cannot. And we all need a website. So once you have a website, they can just put it on the URL bar. Then they just visit your website. So yeah, I mean, getting a website as a business is really essential. It's your own media.
[1:16:56] It's 2024. All right, Joseph. Thank you so much.