What does Google mean to you and your business?
Given that Google runs more than 160 billion searches every month (or 60,000 searches per second every day) you potentially have billions of opportunities to be found by prospective clients looking for financial advice and services.
And yet, there are just as many chances to be lost in the crowd.
Since 96% of clicks go to the top four organic search listings, it’s easy to understand why people obsess over search engine optimization (SEO) and Google rankings.
That is, unless you’re Jay Abraham.
The legendary direct response marketing consultant and executive coach Jay Abraham knows that content—rich in ideas and generously shared—makes customers and prospects happy.
When you make people happy, you make Google happy… and that’s the real SEO.
Here’s how you too can stop worrying about how to get Google rankings for financial advisors and learn to focus on what really counts.
It’s Not About “Gaming The Google Machine”
There’s a joke I heard years ago that reminds me of Jay and his approach to all things marketing. It goes like this:
One night a grizzly bear wanders into the camp of a couple hikers. Hearing a noise outside their tent, the two peek out and see the huge bear rummaging around. One hiker panics, starts pacing about in the tent and crying, “What are we going to do?”
The second hiker quietly sits down and puts on his shoes and socks.
“What are you doing?” the first hiker screams. “Why are you being so meticulous about your footwear? We’ve got to run for our lives.”
“No,” replied the second hiker. “As I see it, all I have to do is outrun you.”
Google is our bear. And while we’re not worried about becoming dinner, we have to outrun our competition–both our direct competitors and everyone who’s competing for the attention of our best prospects.
You have two choices. You can run with the pack and hope for the best. Or you can follow Jay’s lead and think differently.
Using email as an example, Jay told our audience marketers need to “build enormous trust and exceptional connection” with people.
In other words, forget about the latest marketing tricks, techniques and trends. Rather than playing the same game as everyone else, focus on “understanding what people are looking for in communications and valuable content.”
Great SEO is Simply Great Content
At the Elite Marketing Mastery conference in Tokyo, Jay spent an hour picking my brain on digital marketing techniques his massive audience could use to improve their bottom lines.
While I would like to hope that I shared some good ideas, by the end of that session I was convinced that I was the real beneficiary.
That’s because for each digital marketing technique I shared, Jay found a way to link it back to the power of building trust with clients and prospects.
Where Jay builds trust better than anyone I know is with content.
His process–while ridiculously simple–blows me away: “To be great, content needs to be real. It needs to be compelling enough for people to read on.”
You can do this too:
Start by asking, what would I want to see when coming to my website if I were a brand new prospect looking for help? Then deliver that.
Produce as much great content as you can and share it for free. As you build trust with your audience, Google will notice and elevate your content in the search results.
In preparation for this post, I ran a search on “Jay Abraham,” and Google returned almost 45 million results.
As you might expect, Jay’s prolific content—available on his website, LinkedIn profile, YouTube channel, Facebook page and Amazon—dominates the first page of Google.
Move on to page two, three and beyond, and you begin to see the real ROI from Jay’s generosity:
A veritable who’s who of top bloggers, entrepreneurs and business and marketing gurus all sharing Jay’s content, including the former pro football player turned blogger Lewis Howes, author and poet Adam Siddiq, entrepreneur and leadership guru Tony Robbins, real estate coach Tom Ferry, The CEO Warrior and the list goes on.
Jay’s body of work has become one of the most referenced bodies of marketing information on the planet.
Top businesses, bloggers, and personalities interview him, quote his articles and share his insights.
His penchant for value maximizes his SEO, without any time wasted trying to hoodwink the algorithms.
More Content, More Value, More Trust – So Give It All Away
Known casually as Jay’s Blog, When the Mood Strikes is a repository for the thoughts and ideas of Jay and other members of the Abraham Group.
The first post, dated February 2, 2011 epitomizes Jay’s intellectual generosity:
Buckle your seat belts, get your pen and pad ready, and put some coffee on! Our featured videos showcase vintage Jay at his finest and [as] he takes you step by step down the road of expanding your business.
Jay gives away more than any marketer I know.
He gives away what lesser marketers bury behind a paywall.
If you’re a prospective client, you’re going to look at Jay’s content and think, If this is what the man is giving away for free, the insight, information and instruction he’s charging for must be out of this world!
That’s what you’re looking to do for your own prospective clients.
See how it’s done for yourself.
Visit Jay’s website and social sites–there’s insane value across all platforms.
The Abraham Group website offers literally hundreds of hours of free content.
Even Jay’s tweets are rich with free insight and takeaways, such as this recent comment: “W. Edwards Deming extolled a philosophy of optimization, which in my opinion means you should never do anything unless you can get maximum benefit and yield, currently and forever, from the minimal effort.”
With Jay, there are no throwaways. No gimmicks. No fluff.
As he explains, “Content needs to be meaningful, respectful and relevant. It needs to be both provocative [to get you thinking] and evocative [to trigger strong visuals and emotions].”
Here’s Your Takeaway
While it takes years, even decades, to build a library of content as impressive as Jay’s, you can start building trust with your audience today.
Write good content: meaningful information, insightful ideas and actionable tips. Give people what they would want to read.
Instead of approaching content thinking about what to hold back to get them to buy, ask yourself (or even your audience) what questions you hear most from your prospects and where they are getting stuck or confused, and then answer them to the best of your ability (and compliantly, of course!).
Gradually, as people begin to share your tweets, quote your articles and blog posts, like your Facebook blurbs and follow your LinkedIn content, Google will take notice.
These are the social signals that will earn trust and recognition, and maximize your SEO… the Jay Abraham way.
One Response
Excellent