Why SEO is all about relationships: Suresh Babu & Adam Franklin
I had the fortune of speaking at the International Conference for Travel Technology (ICTT) in India in June. Suresh Babu was a fellow speaker and SEO specialist who I learnt a lot from. I got to do this interview with Suresh Babu whilst we were in Kerala, India.
Here is a transcript
Adam Franklin: Hi, it’s Adam Franklin here. And I’m here with a friend, Suresh Babu. He is the founder of the Web Marketing Academy in India. Thanks for joining us today, Suresh.
Suresh Babu: Thanks, Adam. It’s a pleasure. So, we had a great time, all these Mondays, all your students.
Adam Franklin: It’s very fantastic, we spoke at the International Conference for Travel Tourism and Suresh was one of the speakers. I watched Suresh. Like me, he’s got a huge passion for analytics, inbound marketing, content marketing and Susresh’s specialty is search. So I’ve got a question I’d like to ask you.
Suresh Babu: Always, always, always.
The SEO basics
Adam Franklin: Normally when I explain to clients about search engine optimisation or SEO, as it’s known, I basically say it comes down to having good content and back links. Now you’re an expert in this area, can you expand a little on that, so that our viewers know more specifically what they should be focusing on?
Suresh Babu: Sure. So let me start off with how search works. It’s easy and to start off, let me explain, Google has got a separate page dedicated for search. It’s called google.com/howsearchworks. That’s a good place to start to understand how search works.
Let me back up and talk a little bit about link building, something everybody thinks that links are absolutely necessary, yes it is. So, what Google is looking for is something linked from other sites. It’s basically of three different things. It looks at link volume, link authority and link anchor text.
Relationships, not links
Now, I do not like the term “link”, because it’s overused. But what I call it is relationship, right? It’s all about relationship and it’s all about what people are talking about and who’s talking about, and what context are they using. These three things are important. So, I take it as a relationship building, for example. A simple example, me and Adam met at the conference. We were strangers, we had something in common, that we were speakers. However, during the storm, this five days after the conference, was that we understood a lot of things about each other.
That is a good link or a relationship of it, right? We understood about yourself, me and what we do. So, link building is not that easy. It takes time, just like relationship; there is no difference. Just like relationship. Now, in order to build a relationship, it takes a lot of time. Most importantly, it takes a lot of trust. And understanding each other, it’s a mutual understanding.
Trust
So, Google also looks something like this. This particular site is there, what are others talking about? And who are these people talking about, right? One of the words that they use, for example, I would say now Adam is a friendly guy. And he’s a warm guy and something we have in common. Now Google is looking at something like that.
Okay. If I would have come and started, at the beginning, I didn’t know anything about you, right? Now I know a lot of things; you know me. So, that’s actually a trust and it takes some time. It looks at that and it also looks at, “Who are these people?”
If I’m trying to get the links from Adam’s site, who is this guy, Adam, in the Internet? Authorship, and he is already well known. And in Australia you have a large company and it looks at all those things. Not only a link from your site, but what authority does this particular site has got? Just like you, right? It takes a long time for you to convince that relationship. And if you refer me, or if you talk about me, what is it that you are talking about me?
We can talk about something like, “Okay. So there is this guy running an institute.” And all of these things so Google can understand. Okay. This is not only a link from this, what do you call, site. But the site, that is you, your site has got some value. And then, what does the context stand for? So there’s three things based on these fundamentals. That is what, content marketing is.
Adam Franklin: So the content element and I know you always say that content is king…
Suresh Babu: Right.
Where to focus your time
Adam Franklin: … and you should be looking at relationship building and where the links are coming in. And also the content, what ratio should people be focusing their time and attention on these two various components?
Suresh Babu: On content and link building?
Adam Franklin: Yeah.
Content vs relationship building
Suresh Babu: Okay. Now if you ask me, 99 percent spend on content, right? And if you do good content, automatically people are going to link to you. A simple example, this event was an excellent place for link building. During, before, during and after the event, we can do a lot of activities if I wanted to build links. Simple, now before they started to talk about that in a blog. And then I said, what is ICCT, so I got a lot of people linking about it.
During the event, I came up with a blog post about the presentation and I gave a simple example, how to get by. That morning I did it, so I showed it during the presentation. During that time, there were a lot of people who tweeted about it, right? It’s all about content economics. Pictures, videos I took, and whatever you are doing right now. Is going to be linked, right? It is content that we are creating. So when you create this, the marketing part, or not getting the links is much more, I would say, 90 percent spend on content.
More on Suresh Babu
Adam Franklin: I see. And where can people go and find out more about you, Suresh?
Suresh Babu: Simple, Facebook.com/sureshbabuTR. That’s a mouthful, right?
Are you can just do a Google search. “Suresh Babu Web Marketing Academy“.
Adam Franklin: And I’ll put all the details for Suresh and his business on the blog
post next, as well. Thank you.
Suresh Babu: Thank you, Adam…
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Follow Suresh on Twitter @SureshBabu_
or visit his website Web Marketing Academy
Content Marketing Sales Funnel
Your content marketing sales funnel is all about getting people to know, like and trust you by nurturing them with the right information at the right time.
