Introduction

Neil Patel is the co-founder of NP Digital & author of New York Times best-selling book Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum. 

Neil has a multitude of accolades to his name. Forbes named him one of the world’s top 10 marketers, Wall Street Journal calls him one of the top influencers on the internet, & Entrepreneur Magazine calls his company one of the 100 most brilliant out there. 

He’s also been recognized by President Obama as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30, as well as gaining recognition by the United Nations as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35. 

What You’ll Hear

• [1:35] About Neil & his background
• [2:21] How Neil became an entrepreneur
• [2:48] Neil on SEO and how to do it well 
• [4:14] How to get great results without being known 
• [4:49] The role of links in ranking 
• [5:31] Tips on growing your domain authority 
• [5:56] Neil on Ubersuggest 
• [7:40] Neil’s content recommendations 
• [9:13] How often to post content 
• [12:17] How to convert traffic 
• [13:40] How to grow your traffic as a newish site 
• [18:05] Neil’s top tip 
• [19:14] Text vs Video 
• [22:40] SEO evolution 
• [26:40] Neil on ads 
• [27:56] Neil’s favorite place 
• [20:30] Final comments

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About Neil & His Background 

Neil is one of those serial entrepreneur types, having been doing entrepreneurial things for more than 2 decades. He started in the marketing space, where he discovered he was amazing at getting traffic to websites (but less great at turning that traffic into paying customers). 

How Neil Became an Entrepreneur

Neil’s original plan was to run his own business, market himself & sell his own products. However, when he realized how good he was at attracting high-quality traffic & how not-so-great he was at converting that traffic, it made sense to offer marketing as a service to other businesses instead. 

Not so much an accidental entrepreneur, but definitely not quite what he originally anticipated doing! 

Neil on SEO and How to Do It Well 

Search Engine Optimization is all about ranking on Google. On any search, paid ads appear at the top, but the goal of SEO is to appear as high up in the free listings as possible. 

Neil has some tips for doing SEO well. 1) Create a great product, 2) create really good content for it, 3) get others to link to it, 4) get social shares, 5) keep your content up to date, 6) make sure your site code is clean (so search engines can understand it). 

How to Get Great Results Without Being Known 

Nel’s first tip for bloggers or marketers who aren’t known online is to build a brand, either business or personal. Engage with people on social media, keep up a regular blog, create other content (videos, podcasts, interviews). 

People resonate with brands & when you have one that’s visible online, it’s much easier to get people to say yes to linking to your content. Patience is key, but it works! 

The Role of Links In Ranking 

There’s no obvious answer to how many links you need to rank well. It differs by industry & more links is not necessarily always better. If your content quality is excellent & your product is good, you won’t need as many links to rank. 

It’s also about the link quality. The more links you have to high-authority websites, the better. 

Tips for Growing Your Domain Authority 

Neil points out the domain authority is mostly about backlinks. He suggests taking advantage of that by giving away free tools (others link to useful tools often), excellent free content, & infographics (Canva is great). 

Neil on Ubersuggest 

Neil’s free keyword tool, Ubersuggest, is one of the most popular out there. He’s learned from Ubersuggest that you don’t always need to build the BEST tool. You need a GREAT tool, but give it away for free when people are expecting to pay 100s or 1000s for it. 

It may sound counterintuitive, but it does wonders for your business. Currently there are some full-service paid plans, but you can still use the tool for free. 

In comparison to others, Ubersuggest offers mostly everything they do. But it’s tailored more to individuals, rather than to agencies which most others are. The paid plans do cater more for agencies. 

Neil’s Content Recommendations 

Neil prefers long-from content, as is evident by his own content! However, he admits that it’s not ideal for everything. But in general, long-form content works better than short-form, provided it’s free of fluff. 

He views long-form content as 2,000 to 3,000 words on average, or more. However, he’s careful to remind us that it depends largely on the industry – for example, you definitely shouldn’t drag a recipe out to 2,000 words! 

Ultimately, it’s less about the number of words on the page and more about how much detail you can provide in those words. 

How Often to Post Content 

Once again, this depends on the industry. Neil’s recommendations are once a day for consumer-based business & 3x per week for B2B businesses. 

How to Convert Traffic 

Neil uses a combination of strong CTAs, sticky bars on his site, exit pop-ups, links to products/services in articles, quizzes, and 2-step checkouts. 

How to Grow Your Traffic As a Newish Site 

Neil’s top advice is to write new content. Find new topics instead of regurgitating old ones. Stats and data backing up your info tend to get more social shares. Repurposing your own website articles to social is all right, but try to stick to new, unique topics. Updating content is also a good idea. 

Neil’s Top Tip 

Neil suggests buying tools from sites like Codecanyon, white-label them, make them your own & put them on your site. Tools get the most traffic, the most backlinks, and boost your overall ranking. 

Text vs Video 

Text is not absolutely necessary. If you embed videos (as long as they’re your own), Google can still pick up on SEO and rank you. 

7 to 20 minutes is best for video! Neil recommends posting videos at least once a week if you’re on YouTube. To convert, CTAs are super important. You can add links as well. 

SEO Evolution 

Neil recommends going global with your content (other languages), updating old content, & focusing on creating the best product/service you can. 

Neil on Ads 

Neil prefers Facebook and Google ads as they have the most volume, so the highest chance of making a good ROI. He recommends an omni-channel approach. 

Neil’s Favorite Place 

Neil loves hummus, so his favorite spot is Abu Hassan restaurant in Jaffa, Israel. 

Final Comments

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