Episode•July 28, 2022•15 min

SEO Optimizing with Brandon Leibowitz | Ep. 127

Brandon joins Tiffany this episode to break down the different between running ads and SEO, and what small business owners need to know about increasing their traffic and getting customers online. About Our Guest Brandon Leibowitz runs and operate SEO Optimizers since 2007. We are a digital marketing company that focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses get more online traffic, which in turn converts into clients, sales, leads, etc. Connect with Brandon Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandonleibs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrandonLeibs Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leibowitzbrandon/ Website: seooptimizers.com Connect with Tiffany on Social Media Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff Twitter: @moneytalkwitht Instagram: @moneytalkwitht LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

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Key Takeaways

1
Ads provide immediate visibility but disappear when spending stops; SEO builds lasting organic traffic
Ads work instantly but cost money continuously and visibility vanishes when campaigns stop
SEO takes time to build but rankings persist even after stopping optimization efforts
Small businesses should prioritize SEO for long-term strategy and use ads for short-term boosts
2
Remarketing ads to warm leads (your own traffic and competitor traffic) deliver the highest ROI
Install tracking code on your website to follow visitors who didn't convert
Use Google Ads to target people who visited competitor websites
Remarketing converts better because these are warm leads already familiar with your brand
3
Google search ads should be prioritized over social media ads for most businesses
Google captures high-intent traffic where people are actively searching for solutions
Social media ads interrupt users who aren't currently looking for your product
Only move to social media ads after exhausting Google and Bing budgets
4
Adding substantial text content (minimum 400 words per page) is the easiest on-page SEO improvement
Google relies heavily on text to understand and rank pages
Include keywords naturally, use header tags, bullet points, and numbered lists
Incorporate questions from Google's "People Also Ask" section and related searches
5
Quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites are essential for SEO success
Backlinks signal trust to Google and are required for ranking
Focus on relevance over quantity when building links
Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to analyze competitor backlinks

Intro

Tiffany discusses the critical differences between paid advertising and SEO with Brandon Leibowitz, helping small business owners understand how to drive sustainable online traffic and conversions.
Brandon Leibowitz has run SEO Optimizers since 2007, a digital marketing company helping small and medium-sized businesses increase online traffic that converts into clients, sales, and leads.

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– Understanding Ads vs. SEO

Brandon explains that ads are paid visibility across platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, while SEO provides free organic visibility.

When you stop running ads, you just disappear. Whereas with SEO, you stop doing SEO, you're not just going to disappear. It's going to take some time for your competitors to outrank you.

– Remarketing: The Most Effective Ad Strategy

Brandon identifies remarketing as the highest-ROI ad type because it targets warm leads who have already visited your website but didn't convert.

Always 100% everyone should run remarketing ads just because half your traffic's gonna leave immediately.

He also recommends remarketing to competitor traffic using Google Ads, which allows targeting visitors to other websites in your niche.

– Google Ads vs. Social Media Ads

Brandon advises prioritizing Google search ads because users are actively looking for solutions, unlike social media where you're interrupting people based on interests.

I would only focus on Google until you spend all your money on Google, then spend your money on Bing. Once you spent all your money on Bing, then you could go to social.

He notes that with tens of thousands of dollars monthly, businesses can expand to other platforms, but Google alone can absorb $100,000/month for many businesses.

– Quick SEO Wins: Adding Content

Brandon's top immediate SEO tip is adding more text content to pages, recommending a minimum of 400 words per page to help search engines understand and rank content.

Google can't read images or videos yet. They're getting there, but they still rely heavily on text.

– On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO Explained

Brandon defines on-page SEO as optimizing website coding and content, while off-page SEO includes anything external like social media mentions and backlinks from other sites.

– Advanced On-Page SEO Optimization

Write compelling titles with target keywords
Interlink blog posts to keep visitors on your site
Answer questions from Google's "People Also Ask" section
Use header tags, bullet points, and numbered lists
Add schema.org markup
Optimize SEO title tags and meta descriptions
Include alt tags and keyword-rich file names for images
Add videos with keyword-rich file names

– Building Quality Backlinks

Brandon emphasizes that businesses must actively build backlinks rather than just accepting them, as Google requires backlinks to rank websites.

A quality backlink is a website that's related to you and authoritative but more relevancy.

He recommends using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to analyze competitor backlinks and conducting targeted blogger outreach with valuable content.