5 things that I learned in 2023

I’ve gotta say…

2023 was one hell of a year for me, my agency, and all of the brands that we work with.

I started the year off with pretty much nothing to show for and finished the year making the most money I’ve ever made.

And over the course, I’ve learned a lot.

I’ve not only become even better at my craft but I’ve also learned other skills that have helped me and my agency a ton.

So, we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you…

5 things that I’ve learned in 2023

1) The answer to almost all of your SEO problems is more backlinks.

The reason I believe this?

Well, we didn’t have major issues with any brands we’ve worked with in 2023. 

The reason being…

We built backlinks consistently every month — all year round — and every single site that I know got penalized either didn’t build links at all or built shady links.

(Another good reason why you shouldn’t build Fiverr links)

Google is largely a link-based algorithm and that’s not changing any time soon.

And if you’re struggling to get traffic or you got hit by an algorithm update then I would like to ask you a couple of questions:

“Are you building links? If you are, how are you doing it?”

“If you aren’t building links, why not?”

Google is not going to rank you out of the kindness of their heart because they don’t care about you or your site.

They don’t care about my website or my brand's website either but I make them care about it by building links.

2) The answer to almost all of your content problems is quality over quantity.

2023 was the first year we saw widespread adoption of ChatGPT and subsequently, a bunch of other AI writing tools.

A lot of people realized that they could publish over a 100 blogs in just a minute. And they ended up doing exactly that but what they didn’t realize is this…

That strategy works for probably a couple of weeks or months — if you’re lucky — until Google decides to penalize your website.

If you’re an eCommerce brand and want to build a sustainable brand for years and decades, then your primary goal should be to produce 4-5 really high-value blogs per month rather than publishing 100 unedited AI-written blogs at once.

Remember it’s ALWAYS quality >>> quantity.

3) I learned how to be more than just an SEO

I learned how to build a business, handle operations, take sales calls, build a personal brand, and write better. 

And without a doubt, all of these things have helped me become a better SEO and an agency operator.

I definitely improved a lot in 2023 because of the things I worked on every single day – these took my entire game to a completely different level. 

And no, this isn’t one long pat on the back –  I promise. 

But if you’re still reading this, my advice to you for 2024 would be this: figure out how you can be a better operator across the board, not just a better SEO.

Whether it’s figuring out how SEO factors in with other channels or leveraging it to print money with affiliate schemes or even learning how to sell better….

All of these things will benefit you not only as an SEO but as a well-rounded business operator. 

4) Good things take time

Initially, when I started my agency, I was regularly putting in 14-16 hours a day. 

I had pretty much nothing to show for it for the first 6 months of the year, but I’m sitting here at the end of the year and from a quick summation, I think I made more money this year than I’ve made in my entire life combined.

And as I write this email, I feel nothing but grateful.

In fact, I was talking to my friend a few days ago about winning the lottery. The amount of money that I’ve made this year is nowhere near a jackpot.

But I honestly believe what I feel right now might be better than winning the lottery.

And the reason I say that is because I know how much work it’s taken for me to get here.

If you’re an eCommerce founder then you know that you can’t build a good brand overnight.

The same goes for SEO…

You can’t rank #1 on Google overnight.

It takes months and probably even years in some cases.

But when you get there… trust me you will appreciate it.

5) There is so much opportunity in eCommerce SEO

Honestly, I think eCommerce SEO is the biggest blue ocean that I’ve come across online.

If you’re an eCommerce brand and you have the money then I think you would be doing yourself a disservice by not investing in SEO.

Yes, it is expensive.

Yes, it takes time but… the payout is pretty insane.

And there’s a pretty good chance that your competitors aren’t investing in SEO. Instead, you could take advantage of that and invest small amounts like one of our brands did.

This brand signed with us last year and took complete advantage of SEO because its competitors never did. 

They outrank a brand that did $50m in sales; our brand did 1/10 of that, and yet we were able to get them to the #1 spot and grow their organic search revenue from $12K to $30K+ with SEO. 

PS: I told the Head of eCommerce that I’d like to get to $50k by the end of 2024 – so I hope to write a similar email next year. 

Watch the complete video here:

Until next time,

Kai Cromwell.