3 things that'll rank your store

Last week, I said that SEO really comes down to two things: content & links. 

I stand by that, though there’s a bit more nuance to it of course.

I’ll widen the net – your site needs these 3 things to rank. 

1) A solid technical foundation

No, you do not need to be a technical SEO expert, and no, you don’t need to be a web developer to handle your site's technical SEO.

I would even go as far as to say that you can get by as long as your site is:

• Crawled & indexed properly

• Free of broken links

• Not horribly slow or difficult to use

If all of those things are true, then you don’t need to spend much more time on technical SEO for eCommerce.

The reason is that you’re going to see diminishing returns the more time you spend on it.

Your time is far better spent on content and more links—trust me, it’s not even close.

So, your technical foundation doesn’t need to be perfect.

It just needs to be solid.

2) Above-average content

Notice I say “above-average content” and the reason I say that is because I’ve seen shitty content rank... even in the SERPs that our brands compete in.

A lot of people believe that Google is going to rank the best content on the internet, but that’s simply not true.

Here’s why:

If you write the greatest content in the world but haven’t built any links then... it’s not going to rank.

Personally, I believe that you should not spend more than 3–4 hours writing content.

If you’re trying to find the perfect combination of words to rank, then I’m sorry to disappoint you... they don’t exist!

You just need to be above average.

Think about it this way:

We use AI to write content — which is already pretty below average — and then we have our Head of Content go in and do her thing.

That piece of content is now well above average.

So… 

“Does that mean that it’s better than an article from Healthline ?”  —- I don’t know. 

“Is it better than the articles from Forbes?” — Maybe. 

“Is it going to be better than any of our other brand competitors?” — Absolutely! It’s always going to be better than our competitors because that’s the minimum.

It’s very unlikely that you’re going to outrank an article from Healthline or WebMD, unless you invest 6-8+ hours with tons of subject matter commentary from doctors, physicians, etc. 

But as long as your content is better than your DTC competitors, you’re in a good spot.  

Here’s my recommendation:

Just write content that you think is pretty good, publish it, and then wait for a couple of weeks or months to see how Google reacts to it.

If Google likes your content — it will start ranking and if Google doesn’t like it then… you won’t rank. 

Very simple feedback. 

If not, you’ll have to go back and make it better but don’t stress yourself out over the perfect piece of content because again…

DOES NOT EXIST!

3) High-quality backlinks

“Why would someone sell 5 links for $3000?”

It’s because they work!

I’ve seen people on Fiverr sell 500 links for $10

A lot of people think that’s a great investment but in reality, it isn’t.

You need to understand that more isn’t better… Better links are better.

There’s a reason why high-quality links and PR services are so expensive. The volume of backlinks is far lower, but the quality is far far higher. 

You can’t do one of these three right and expect to win your SERP. You have to do all three, all the time. 

Speaking of backlinks: 

The other day, I posted a detailed guide on tiered link-building. We’ve been using the exact same process at our agency, and we’ve seen some insane results. 

Believe me, this is the best tiered link-building guide on YouTube right now.

Watch the entire video here:

Until next time,

Kai Cromwell