“SEO isn’t done unless your done growing.” Growth is something that John Jantsch has helped countless small businesses with in his decades of experience. As the author of the classic Duct Tape Marketing and founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, Janstch has written five books on marketing. His latest, SEO for Growth, asks marketers and brand builders to rethink how they think about SEO.

About John Jantsch

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, and The Referral Engine and the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network. His latest book, SEO for Growth – The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers, and Entrepreneurs, is changing the way the world thinks about SEO.

Episode Highlights

Why SEO? Why now? John noted that he gets this question a lot. “I wanted to change the mindset around this. SEO is a huge driver of growth. PR is a channel, content is a channel — so is SEO.” Yet too many view SEO as tactical. Something done after the fact. “They say, ‘we’re done with the campaign — now it’s time to SEO it.’”

SEO for growth starts strategically. “You have to know who your customer is. You have to do keyword research and spend time on forums, Wikipedia, Google’s keyword manager, KeywordTool.io, and more.” SEO is not an easy box to check.

What about SEO and branding? “Take out everything like the logo and the real workhorse of branding is messaging.” That gets you back to SEO. How do you position your brand around the people and problems that you serve?

“We overcomplicate SEO.” While many SEO firms focus on how complex Google’s search factors are, Jantsch asks businesses to get strategic and systematic with SEO. How do we get started? “Make an editorial calendar for the year. Map out your topics and themes by month. This leaves you with both a content and an SEO asset. It’s like the confluence of rivers — when they merge there’s something new.”

What brand has made John smile recently? “The Hello Happiness Card Company makes me smile so much — I’m wearing their shirt today!” John loves reading the adventures of the founders via their email newsletter. I know I’ll be subscribing to this quirky company.

To learn more, go to ducttapemarketing.com and SEOforGrowth.com.

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