Building a Customer-Centric SEO Strategy – Stephen Kenwright – Co-Founder and Technical Director at Rise at Seven (GMT057)

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SEO is a complicated discipline that often requires technical tools and evolves constantly with frequent Google algorithm updates. But, according to Stephen Kenwright, Co-Founder and Technical Director at Rise at Seven, a creative SEO agency, and Co-Founder of SearchLeeds, what you need to focus on to win with SEO is to just give searchers the best customer experience overall. In this episode, Stephen discusses a customer-centric approach to SEO strategy.

In episode 57, you’ll learn:

What is customer-centric search
Why SEO is not a channel, but a business case
Two things founders and marketers need to focus on if they’re just start with SEO

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Tweet Some Quotes from This Episode

With SEO, people are literally looking for you, whereas other forms of marketing has some degree of interruptions to it. – @stekenwright from @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full podcast episode 👇 Click To Tweet Customer-centricity is about giving people what they want. Google is all about that. - @stekenwright from @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet In an ideal company, you shouldn’t really need an SEO team. It should be more about getting most out of every other channel than a thing on its own. – @attackofthetext from the @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet SEO is NOT a channel, but a business case that involves every other department (PR, content, sales, IT, design) – @stekenwright from the @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet Technical SEO is no longer a checklist but a competitive advantage. You have a faster website that has a meaningful difference to you. – @stekenwright from the @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet

My Takeaways from This Episode

Trust is everything. As marketers and founders, it’s tempting to look at SEO as just a checklist of things to do so we can appease the Google search engine gods. But, Stephen made a point that everything Google has been doing is to improve the searcher’s customer experience, everything from prioritizing mobile, encouraging websites use https and creating a great user experience on-site. Next time you’re putting together a campaign, think about how you can provide the best customer experience.
SEO is not a channel. I’ve also seen search as a channel. But, according to Stephen, SEO is a business case that requires multi-disciplinary teams to come together. This means that PR, content, sales, design and IT have to come together to build the best customer experience for searchers.
Now is the best time to start with SEO. It’s so easy to look at all the bad stuff happening in SEO. Stephen points out that more people are using search engines than ever. For most websites, SEO is the highest source of traffic as well. If you haven’t gotten started with SEO for your website, you should get started now. Stephen suggests you focus on two things if you’re just starting out – creating great content and getting links back to those content.

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About Stephen Kenwright

Stephen Kenwright is the Co-Founder and Technical Director at Rise at Seven, a specialist creative SEO agency based in Sheffield, United Kingdom. He also co-founded and organizes SearchLeeds, the biggest digital conference in the north of England.

Show Notes

4:08

Stephen’s journey from being a copywriter to co-founding Rise at Seven, a creative SEO agency
6:33

What is customer-centric search
8:55

What should companies be doing to build trust with searchers
10:10

Why SEO is not a channel
12:04

What is the role of SEO folks in a company
15:42

How to use video marketing to influence search
21:06

How do you use podcast and audio to influence search
21:40

Where is search going in 2020 and beyond
25:00

How can founders and marketers get started with SEO today
26:54

Stephen’s advice to any marketer who’s interested in starting an agency
27:40

What should marketers and founders look for when they’re looking to hire an SEO agency or freelancer
29:18

Resources and blogs that Stephen reads
30:21

How did SearchLeeds come about and where is it going?
32:48

What is Stephen’s call-to-action