Content Marketing Decoded: The SEO Hacks of Neil Patel – Part 1

Whoever deals with content marketing knows that the World Wide Web offers a wealth of concentrated knowledge, expert tips and training on social media marketing, content strategies, SEO and SEM, link building and much more. But in everyday life there is often no time to follow all these digital experts and platforms. Therefore we have created our new blog series “Decoded”. Each article is dedicated to a different specialist and his input on a topic from online marketing. We start with Neil Patel and his most important SEO hacks. In this first article we will introduce you to eight of the most important SEO hacks by Neil Patel. What can you expect? Tips on content marketing, branding strategy, free SEO tools and user experience that can improve your website’s ranking many times over.

Who is Neil Patel?

Neil Patel is one of the world’s best-known experts in digital marketing. He is just 35 years old and has built several successful companies, including Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and Quicksprout. The road to success has not been easy: He is now sharing the lessons he has learned from his successes and mistakes over the past 20 years in online marketing on his blog, his YouTube channel and together with Eric Siu in the Marketing School podcast series. 

Hack 1: Use free tools to improve search engine rankings

Why spend a lot of money when there are free tools to help you with your SEO strategy? Neil Patel sees it the same way. And these are his recommendations: With Animalz Revive and Content Decay you can monitor your content and see which posts you should be update (see Hack 2).

AnswerThePublic supports with new content ideas and Keyworddit provides the keywords. And you can find out how your website will be displayed in the results with BROWSSEO.

If your domain is available in distinct languages, you can generate the correct hreflang tags with Aleyda Solis’ tag generator tool.

Neil Patel presents even more SEO tools in his video „STOP Paying for SEO Tools“.

Hack 2: Using older website content effectively

Wouldn’t it be great if you could improve your organic ranking with as minor effort as possible? Neil Patel has some cool tips for this. He starts with the content: Instead of writing recent articles, you can update old articles or add one or two paragraphs and add new keywords. Or you can link the recent blog article in earlier thematically relevant posts.

It can also be worthwhile to create a so-called “Power Page” on which you combine all blog contents to a certain keyword and make it easily accessible through a table of contents. In this way, even pages that have attracted less traffic so far will rank better. Very simple, isn’t it? The idea comes from Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko. We will look at his hacks in one of the next blog posts.

You can find more tips on how to make the best use of existing website content for SEO in podcast episodes #1288 and #1288 by Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Hack 3: No content for the sake of content

Content is king! This was the motto for years. 2020 is the motto: Unique content is king! According to Neil Patel, the times when we should publish content for the sake of content are over. You just can’t stand out from the crowd anymore. Instead, write fewer articles that are well-researched and offer real added value to your readers. Publish short podcasts instead of hours of interviews and get your topics to the point. Content has to be original and unique these days – there’s just too much competition out there. For example, Neil publishes articles on his blog sharing his personal experiences or presenting new data. This way he attracts readers, even though he’s working on topics that hundreds of other bloggers have already written about.

How you can create such unique content and what tools help you do it, Neil reports in his article “The Future of Content Marketing”.

Hack 4: Integrate videos and podcast episodes into content

Your website visitors only stay for an insufficient time and rarely come back? Then it’s time to incorporate media such as YouTube videos and podcast episodes, because in 2020 users want more than just classic content. Neil’s experience is that videos will increase the time spent on the site and make users feel more connected to the brand. They will want to interact more, share content or comment on it. When you answer the comments, users have a reason to come back. The advantage for your search engine rankings is that your KPIs will develop better than those of your competitors, which in time will catapult you higher up the SERPs. Producing quality content like videos is expensive, but it’s worth it. Neil has tried it.

Hack 5: Long-Tail Keywords instead of generic keywords

You want to rank high in the search engines with generic keywords like “online marketing” or “SEO”? Neil Patel and his colleague Eric Siu have tried it and they are not very enthusiastic. The competition is fierce, the prices are high, the effort is immense – and the ROI tends towards zero.

Such general search terms hardly generate any leads. The two experts therefore recommend long-tail keywords that comprise several terms. This way, the results displayed fit much better to the user’s detailed search, which leads to more qualified website visitors and ultimately to more deals. To find such long-tail keywords, you can use the Ubersuggest tool, which Neil Patel developed.

In his blog post “3 Simple Steps to Get Your First 10,000 Visitors from Google” he explains how to develop the right long-tail keywords and improve your ranking

Hack 6: Use your brand to improve your search engine ranking

If you use your brand effectively, you can improve your search engine ranking. How to do that? Neil Patel recommends several approaches. One of them is a domain name with an exact match, best suited for the market. You may also use incorrect spelling. For example, many people in English-speaking countries write Shofer instead of Chauffeur. The test with a corresponding domain ShoferDriver.co.uk achieved a high ranking in a quick time.

Second tip: Stick to what you are known for. A niche offer generates many more leads in the corresponding target group than a variety of topics. For example, use long-tail keywords (Hack 5) so that users see exactly the results they expect when they search.

Third tip: Interact with your community. Respond to all comments on social networks, develop a live chat on your website so that visitors can easily communicate with you or your team. This will not only strengthen the bond with your brand, but it will lead to more traffic to your site and ultimately better results in the SERPs.

Hack 7: Provide free products

And what’s new in 2020? The trend is towards product-driven traffic growth. Provide your website visitors with free content that benefits them – Neil suggests. These include:

• E-books
• Industry reports and studies
• specially developed tools/services
• Webinars

This way you generate more leads: Website visitors receive more content and expert knowledge for their e-mail address. They become potential customers, which you can turn into paying customers on their way through the Conversion Funnel.

Another option is upgrades for your blog posts or transcripts. The principle is the same: If you want to see the additional content, enter your email address and name in a form. And what can you offer your website visitors? How about:

• Worksheets,
• Video tutorials,
• a list of resources/sources,
• bonus interviews or
• Checklists?

It is important that the contents offer added value. Only then are visitors willing to give their e-mail address for this purpose.

Hack 8: Pay attention to the loading times of your website

What Google’s recent update from May 2020 puts even more emphasis on is the user experience. And a key factor for UX is the loading time of a website. The faster this works, the more satisfied your visitors are and the higher you rank in Google. But how do you improve loading times? Start with the Google Page Speed Insights. Enter your URL and you will receive an analysis of how your page is performing. If something has to be done, the tool will show you how to do it. To speed up the loading time of your website on mobile devices, Neil Patel recommends an AMP framework.

Setting up a CDN (Content Delivery Network) can also be worthwhile, especially if your website visitors come from all over the world. It stores an image of your website on servers in key regions of the world, allowing users from those regions to access your website more quickly.

Another thing that increases the load time of your website is too many ads. The more of them you have, the more external resources need to be accessed and loaded each time. Select them well and integrate them harmoniously into your content so it does not affect the user experience.

What does Gerrit from Crispy Content® say about this?

“Neil Patel is so successful with his SEO hacks because his goal is not search engine optimization, but the optimization of content and measures for a better user experience.

Neil always has the right answer to the user’s question, and fortunately the user finds this answer quickly and easily. Google thanks Neil Patel with high visibility and tons of organic traffic: both are pulling in the same direction”.

The Second Part

In the second part you can expect a lot more SEO hacks from Neil Patel. So you don’t miss the next date, just register for our newsletter – that way we keep you up-to-date!

Editorial Team Crispy Content® Team

Creative, smart and talkative. Analytical, tech-savvy and hands-on. These are the ingredients for a content marketer at Crispy Content® - whether he or she is a content strategist, content creator, SEO expert, performance marketer or topic expert. Our content marketers are "T-Shaped Marketers". They have a broad range of knowledge paired with in-depth knowledge and skills in a single area.