How James Dooley Starts a New SEO Site (650 Industries Deep) — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00This is how James Dooley starts a new
- 0:02SEO site. How he thinks about using
- 0:04fresh versus aged domains, how he even
- 0:07evaluates aged domains, how he builds
- 0:10local lead generation sites, and his
- 0:12approach to content and brand building.
- 0:14And I got to give some background before
- 0:16we jump into this episode. This episode
- 0:18was recorded a week ago, and then 17
- 0:21minutes into the recording, David Quaid
- 0:24called. And that turned into me, James
- 0:27Dooley, and David Quaid doing this epic
- 0:303-hour episode, which dropped last week.
- 0:33But this one-on-one with James was so
- 0:36valuable. I'm like, "We can't lose this.
- 0:37We got to We got to use this." And so,
- 0:39that's what you're getting on this
- 0:40episode. Let's jump into it.
- 0:43>> We're doing a short a short episode
- 0:44today with Mr. James Dooley. And James
- 0:47has been one of the leaders in SEO for
- 0:50the last, I don't know, long long long
- 0:52long time. Uh James, thank you for
- 0:53coming back on the pod. This is what
- 0:55we're doing. I want to know how James
- 0:58Dooley starts a new website.
- 1:01I have like so many listeners of the
- 1:03podcast, they have established websites,
- 1:04but they want to start their own
- 1:05websites. Maybe it's an exact match
- 1:07domain. Maybe it's just a new project
- 1:09that they want to do. How do I start
- 1:11with SEO? Very common question. And so,
- 1:13I'm asking James Dooley, how do you
- 1:16start? What do you do when you start a
- 1:18new website?
- 1:20>> I need a little bit more context around
- 1:22the new website. So, is it um a local
- 1:24lead generation website? Is it an
- 1:26affiliate website? Like, how how
- 1:28competitive? Cuz what I'm not willing to
- 1:30do is go and do, let's say, an exact
- 1:32match domain um if it's going to be in
- 1:34finance. I'm probably going to need to
- 1:36go and buy an aged domain or an expired
- 1:38domain that's already got some sort of
- 1:40power and trust. So, give me a little
- 1:42bit more context, and then we can work
- 1:44out or we can do two different
- 1:45scenarios. One easy to rank for, and one
- 1:48where it's a little bit more
- 1:49competitive, and I might need to get
- 1:51some sort of power to start with.
- 1:53>> How come you wouldn't do an EMD in
- 1:54finance?
- 1:56>> You Well, you can do. You can go after
- 1:57the long tails. But it depends on how
- 2:00big you're wanting to go after. So we've
- 2:02got a lot of partial match and exact
- 2:04match domains like micro sites going
- 2:07after a very very specific long tail
- 2:09keyword.
- 2:10So prime example, let's say in the debt
- 2:12market, we might go after catalog debt.
- 2:16And it's only people that's in debt with
- 2:17a specific catalog like Littlewoods
- 2:19catalog. And we can say, "Look, we can
- 2:21help with your repayments for the debt."
- 2:24You might get paid 500 commission in the
- 2:27UK for that. So for that, okay, we could
- 2:29do it if it's a very specific type of
- 2:32debt on an exact match domain. But if
- 2:35you're going to try and go after the
- 2:37insolvency practitioners within the debt
- 2:39industry, they've all got DR 70 plus
- 2:42websites.
- 2:44So you're going to need to build up
- 2:46topical authority. It's going to take a
- 2:48while.
- 2:49Probably going to take four or five
- 2:50months before you can really start to
- 2:52get some sort of traction with regards
- 2:55to rankings. So I mean, we can
- 2:59role play finance if you want or we can
- 3:01role play an easier. Which whichever one
- 3:03you want to do.
- 3:04>> I think interesting question is you are
- 3:07active. You have like so many different
- 3:08businesses. What niches are you in?
- 3:11>> Well, good question. We're in over 650
- 3:14different industries. So
- 3:17>> How do you How do you How do you have
- 3:18time to go on podcasts, James?
- 3:20>> It's not really much to be honest with
- 3:22you. Like my my day-to-day isn't My
- 3:24day-to-day is doing stuff like this.
- 3:27I've kind of give up my own I've give up
- 3:29I've created my own role called head of
- 3:31innovation.
- 3:32So I'm I'm building my personal brand
- 3:35and head of innovation.
- 3:36The team and this is a bit boring to be
- 3:39honest with you, but like the team run
- 3:40everything now. So and we've got
- 3:42different industries and different
- 3:44departments that kind of run the
- 3:45day-to-day.
- 3:47So we've got like an ideation team who
- 3:49might be going and engineering places
- 3:51like Bark, Checkatrade, Yell,
- 3:55um or maybe going on to like places like
- 3:56SEMrush or Ahrefs, going looking at the
- 3:59search volume versus the cost per click
- 4:03and seeing what industries that we're
- 4:04not in that could be worth entering from
- 4:08a there's enough search volume and
- 4:09there's enough sort of
- 4:11CPC like cost per click demand for it to
- 4:13go, "Okay, we think this could be worth
- 4:15it." Also, like one we didn't head out
- 4:19we never started to enter 650
- 4:21industries. So, initially we was just
- 4:24like by the shoulder niches like we
- 4:26started working in finance then we got
- 4:27referred to payday loans, we got
- 4:29referred to debt, we got referred to car
- 4:31finance, we got referred to mortgages,
- 4:33and so on and so on. So, we just within
- 4:36kind of um
- 4:37the finance sector you get referred into
- 4:39other markets. Then you've got pensions,
- 4:42then you've got retirement mortgages,
- 4:44um and then they then start referring
- 4:46you into other markets as well kind of
- 4:48like life insurance, wills and LPAs.
- 4:51Now, they're more lawyers, so then you
- 4:53get into the law the law firm market and
- 4:55then they start going all personal
- 4:56injury, motorbike accident claims,
- 4:58bicycle claims, dog bite claims. So,
- 5:01it's just one thing leads on to another.
- 5:03Um then you've got like director
- 5:05disputes, and then you then start going
- 5:07down that road then of like investing in
- 5:10businesses.
- 5:11Um
- 5:12and then it then starts going from
- 5:13plumbing to electricians to what people
- 5:16need on an extension of a website of a
- 5:18um house. So, like roofing, plastering.
- 5:22And yeah, it just kind of it just ends
- 5:24up you end up going into so many
- 5:26different in but it's all lead
- 5:27generation, so it's not like we're
- 5:29providing a different service. It's just
- 5:31every single time it's lead generation.
- 5:34Um we've got a rinse and repeat strategy
- 5:36here
- 5:37depending on how difficult the market
- 5:39is. So, this is what I was saying like
- 5:40if it's in the finance and we think it's
- 5:41difficult, we'd go and buy like an aged
- 5:43domains from ODYS or from Cal at
- 5:46SEO.domains cuz that's already got maybe
- 5:49a thousand referring domains in some
- 5:50sort of trust.
- 5:52Um there's certain places still like
- 5:53Flippa and places like that where you
- 5:55can buy a domain for that's already got
- 5:57some sort of rankings and traffic but
- 6:00they're struggling to monetize it and
- 6:02then you can take that site over and
- 6:04improve the conversion rate
- 6:05optimization, republish content that's
- 6:08not indexed or repurpose somewhere
- 6:11you're thinking, "Do you know what? I
- 6:12can improve upon this content or what
- 6:14you have." There's any gaps in the
- 6:16content from a topical authority we can
- 6:18build that out and then start
- 6:20strengthening up certain categories with
- 6:22more backlinks.
- 6:23>> This method of marketing is so effective
- 6:25I had to make sure it wasn't against
- 6:26Google's rules before I kept doing it.
- 6:28It's a form of S E O I call compact
- 6:31keywords. Whereas most S E O focuses on
- 6:33putting up articles to answer questions
- 6:35how, what, when, compact keywords
- 6:38focuses on putting up dozens of pages
- 6:40that sell to searchers who are actually
- 6:42looking to buy. These pages rank on
- 6:45Google and convert so much better than
- 6:47normal that when I discovered this years
- 6:49ago I couldn't believe this was allowed.
- 6:51It's less work too. The average compact
- 6:54keywords page is only 415 words. Compact
- 6:58keywords is a 13-hour deep course on
- 7:00getting sales with S E O. A customer
- 7:03recently said, "Each lesson is dense
- 7:05with information. You're giving years
- 7:08worth of experience boiled down into 15
- 7:10to 30-minute lessons with no filler or
- 7:13fluff. I feel like I'm gaining a new
- 7:15superpower." Compact keywords is about
- 7:17setting up an S E O funnel that brings
- 7:19you sales for years and years and years.
- 7:22It works with A I, it's less work than
- 7:24traditional S E O, and it makes way more
- 7:28money. You can get it now at
- 7:29compactkeywords.com.
- 7:31Back to the podcast. What do you look
- 7:33for when you buy an aged domain and what
- 7:35do you think the biggest mistakes people
- 7:37make are when they try to do it? Like if
- 7:38they like
- 7:40the newbies when the newbies are buying
- 7:41an aged domain they've never bought an
- 7:43aged domain before, like what mistakes
- 7:45do they make and what do you do really
- 7:46well?
- 7:47>> So, you know what, that's a brilliant
- 7:49question to ask because there's so many
- 7:50people that do do it wrong. Um,
- 7:53and the reason why they do it wrong is a
- 7:54lot of people are obsessed, and this is
- 7:56the exact same thing with buying
- 7:57backlinks. They're obsessed with DR, and
- 8:01the the point is a lot of these people
- 8:02that are selling on places like Flippa,
- 8:04or they're selling backlinks, for
- 8:05example, as well. They're manipulating
- 8:08the DR, so it looks great from a Ahrefs
- 8:12kind of domain authority point of view,
- 8:15but actually it's it's terrible. It's
- 8:17not It's They're not a good site. Um, we
- 8:20want trust. Um, so we're looking at
- 8:22certain things like does it have a
- 8:24Google Business Profile?
- 8:26Um, are they attached cuz that that
- 8:27means that it's got a KGMID for the
- 8:29location.
- 8:30Um, does it have any sort of branded
- 8:32search? Is the backlink profile Is it
- 8:35that the backlink profile looks clean?
- 8:37So, there's not loads of exact match
- 8:38domains and stuff like that. Any Chinese
- 8:40or porn anchor text and stuff like that.
- 8:43Um, so we're looking for a clean anchor
- 8:45text. Have they got a Google Business
- 8:47Profile?
- 8:47>> let's let's let's pause for a second.
- 8:49You're looking at the backlink profile,
- 8:50but if there's like a ton of backlinks,
- 8:52then are you looking through everyone?
- 8:54Are you just exporting a CSV and giving
- 8:57it to an LLM? How are you going through
- 8:59like tons of backlinks to look for shady
- 9:01backlinks? And how many How many
- 9:03backlinks is too many shady backlinks?
- 9:05>> So, um, that's a good question overall
- 9:07cuz obviously it it The answer is it
- 9:09depends. Um, but we use every I'm one of
- 9:13them kind of people that I use every
- 9:15platform possible, and we get We've got
- 9:17three data scientists in house. So, when
- 9:19they're looking at something, we we
- 9:20export all the information that we can.
- 9:22So, we've got Trust Flow and Citation
- 9:24Flow from Majestic. We've got We still
- 9:27actually use, even though it's a very
- 9:28old school method, um, Moz for DA and
- 9:31PA. We'll use SEMrush with regards to
- 9:34the spam score. We'll use Ahrefs for DR
- 9:38and UR, and then we'll use link research
- 9:40tools for
- 9:42um the
- 9:43I think it's trust, power, trust, and
- 9:45toxicity.
- 9:46And we're going to get all the
- 9:47information, we'll put it all back
- 9:48together, and then generally speaking
- 9:50with regards to looking at the
- 9:51backlinks, it's just looking at the
- 9:53anchor text percentages. So, we're
- 9:56looking to make certain that
- 9:58ideally in the top three or four anchors
- 10:01is the branded anchors and naked URL.
- 10:03And if it's not and there's loads of
- 10:05like random anchors,
- 10:07we might be scared away from doing that.
- 10:09However,
- 10:11and this is a little shady technique
- 10:12that some people are doing.
- 10:14>> Let's go.
- 10:14>> Some people are
- 10:16um
- 10:17getting sites put being posted on
- 10:19Flippa, and then what people doing is
- 10:21people are going to spamming it with GSA
- 10:23and doing like porn links.
- 10:25But what they're actually doing is
- 10:26they're spoofing um the links of what's
- 10:29coming through, or they can remove the
- 10:31links at any point. So, even So, then as
- 10:33people are posting it, they're wanting
- 10:35them to buy it. They're spamming the
- 10:37backlink profile, then saying, "Oh, I
- 10:39don't want to get it." this thing, and
- 10:40then negotiating rates to be cheaper.
- 10:43And some people are posting websites for
- 10:4530, 40,000 pounds, and they're ending up
- 10:47getting it for so much cheaper.
- 10:49Um
- 10:50The issue with it I've always thought of
- 10:52when you are sending some sort of spammy
- 10:54links to a domain to then try and buy
- 10:56it, and then you're having them to
- 10:57remove it, it's just like, is there any
- 10:59sort of footprint being done there? Any
- 11:01sort of like it's just a shady
- 11:03technique that we don't really do. But
- 11:05there's that many domains available to
- 11:07purchase.
- 11:09Like the ones it's easy going, "Oh, we
- 11:11want a DR 60 that's got high trust,
- 11:13that's got power, that's got a um a
- 11:16Wikipedia link, that's got BBC and
- 11:18Telegraph links, and it's got a Google
- 11:20Business Profile." But the truth of the
- 11:22matter is them websites are going for 80
- 11:24to 100,000 pounds. So, at that point
- 11:27you're going, "Well,
- 11:28you're you're paying for what you get."
- 11:30Sometimes you can buy
- 11:31>> 80
- 11:32to 100,000 pounds for Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 11:34For for some
- 11:35I mean in the iGaming space people are
- 11:37buying them up left, right, and center.
- 11:38They're going doing it. They're turning
- 11:39it into a casino site, and they're
- 11:41earning back that back in a single day.
- 11:43Like in some of the non-licensed casino
- 11:46markets, you can earn easily over a
- 11:49million in a month.
- 11:51So there's some serious money to be
- 11:52made, and a lot of these sites, big, big
- 11:55brands that are dropping, they're
- 11:57spending good money on that. You used to
- 11:59be able to pick them up for about 10 to
- 12:0020,000, but now they're like 10 times
- 12:03the price, mainly because of the iGaming
- 12:05space, if I'm being honest with you.
- 12:07>> When you when you buy a domain for
- 12:09100,000 pounds and and you're turning it
- 12:11into
- 12:13uh into an iGaming site, and it wasn't
- 12:15an iGaming site, how how long is it is
- 12:18that going to take to get the benefits
- 12:21that you want to actually start like
- 12:23making money, and then how long will
- 12:24that last for before it's just
- 12:26>> no, normally it takes about 48 hours to
- 12:28get the rankings. Um and normally it
- 12:32lasts for about 6 to 8 weeks.
- 12:35Um now
- 12:37it's a very churn and burn market cuz
- 12:39they're normally doing it in the
- 12:40non-licensed markets. Um so what they'll
- 12:43do is they'll go and buy any any domain.
- 12:45It could be a butcher's website selling
- 12:46meat. It's just not relevant whatsoever,
- 12:49or it could be um a cafe, hotel. They go
- 12:52and buy this domain. They're going to do
- 12:54like something like depending on the how
- 12:56many existing links they have, but
- 12:58normally around 5,000 blog roll links,
- 13:01which are like PBN homepage links, to
- 13:03restructure the anchor text ratios to be
- 13:06about casino, slots, sports betting, and
- 13:09stuff like that. Um and then from there
- 13:11then they'll hit virality that comes
- 13:14through to it, and then it's normally
- 13:16enough cuz normally the the trust and
- 13:18the brand of the old domain just allows
- 13:21it to come in and rank. The issue is
- 13:23then normally within a couple of weeks
- 13:24when it's you're for big terms, you get
- 13:26in DMCA takedowns, negative SEO, uh um
- 13:30you get so many different attacks um
- 13:32from that. And that's another reason why
- 13:33we we're moving out from iGaming, if I'm
- 13:36being honest with you, um just because
- 13:38of the negative kind of SEO that goes on
- 13:41within that.
- 13:41>> Just what you said last time, it's not
- 13:42fun. It just stopped being fun.
- 13:44>> Yeah, stopped fun, yeah. But in a in a
- 13:46local, you can like you can make an EMD
- 13:49within a week easily.
- 13:50Um
- 13:51so,
- 13:52doing um good quality content, so you
- 13:55might only need 50 pages. Um so, it
- 13:58could be the main service of what you're
- 13:59doing 50 locations in a local area. Um
- 14:03if you're getting it with where it's a
- 14:04domain that's got an existing Google
- 14:06Business Profile, that's even better
- 14:09um because there's a little bit more
- 14:11trust behind it. Um
- 14:13and yeah, you can then start getting
- 14:14that to earn,
- 14:16let's say, 3 to 500 pounds a month,
- 14:18start reinvesting that, building out
- 14:20second websites, third websites,
- 14:22building out some of the micro sites,
- 14:24and then in time start to think,
- 14:26"Actually, do you know what? This client
- 14:27pays nicely. I'm going to start building
- 14:29out some
- 14:30bigger, more brandable kind of sites
- 14:33that might go after multiple multiple
- 14:35services of what they do."
- 14:37>> What does good quality content mean?
- 14:39That's something that a lot of people in
- 14:40SEO wonder themselves.
- 14:42>> Well, do you know what? Like, this is
- 14:44going to be a good debate for if you
- 14:46ever jump on a podcast with David Kwei.
- 14:48>> If we ever can get you and David Kwei on
- 14:50a podcast together, that would be so
- 14:52epic.
- 14:53100 100% yeah.
- 14:55>> So, there is obviously a lot of kind of
- 14:58debate within the industry of what is
- 15:00good quality content. I I've seen pages
- 15:03rank with two or three sentences.
- 15:05Um and as long as it's kind of meeting
- 15:07the exact intent of what the question is
- 15:09of the H1, within two or three
- 15:11sentences, it's good enough to rank.
- 15:13Now, some people, the Google parrots of
- 15:15the world, would turn around and say
- 15:16that's thin content, you can't do that,
- 15:18and you're going to get penalized.
- 15:20Well, I've seen it happening for 15
- 15:21years and still not being penalized. So,
- 15:24to those people, it's just like it's
- 15:26fine what you say, but you've got to
- 15:28look at what's actually happening. Now,
- 15:30would I recommend go doing 5,000 pages
- 15:33all with less than 50 words of content?
- 15:36No, I wouldn't. Like, I In an ideal
- 15:38world, if someone wants a plumber in
- 15:40Manchester, you've got to think to
- 15:42yourself, what questions might they
- 15:44have? And that plumber in Man- is
- 15:46looking for a plumber in Manchester,
- 15:47they might want to know how much is it?
- 15:49How fast can you come out and call out?
- 15:52What services do you offer? And they
- 15:54might want to know specific questions.
- 15:55So, all you've got to try to do is think
- 15:58of the user. I'm going to sound very
- 16:00white out here, but think of the user,
- 16:03think about what they want and what
- 16:04questions they might have, and answer it
- 16:07in a short, concise manner that you're
- 16:09not playing hide-and-seek with your
- 16:11content. Where I think a lot of people
- 16:12in the SEO industry used to do
- 16:155, 6, 7,000 words of content and play
- 16:18hide-and-seek with the content. And
- 16:20someone was asking a question, and it
- 16:22was the 15th page to the back.
- 16:23>> crazy. Why were we doing that? Why was
- 16:25the industry doing that?
- 16:27>> Mental, mental. Um So, I'd say it needs
- 16:31to be The best bit of advice I can say
- 16:33is and this is a great saying. It needs
- 16:36to be as short as possible,
- 16:39but as long as necessary. And I think
- 16:41remove all the fluff, make it as concise
- 16:43as possible, giving him the answers of
- 16:46what they want, but try and make certain
- 16:48you are covering all the different
- 16:49answers that they might want to know.
- 16:52>> You were talking about having brandable
- 16:56like uh brandable sites, brandable
- 16:58businesses that can Yeah, so what what
- 17:00is what does that mean? Like a brandable
- 17:01site, a brandable business?
- 17:03>> So, brandable business, I would then
- 17:04start going down the road of there's
- 17:06going to be a lot of off-page signals of
- 17:08what's going to start coming along. So,
- 17:09I need to make certain that I'm getting
- 17:10the um the citations being built out on
- 17:13the main maybe like 20 to 50 citations.
- 17:16So, the main business listings, trying
- 17:18to make sure that I'm getting like a
- 17:19Trustpilot
- 17:21and making sure that I'm getting like a
- 17:22Yelp and these places where I can leave
- 17:24reviews on third-party sources. Try and
- 17:26get a Google Business Profile where I
- 17:28can get reviews put onto there. I'm
- 17:30going to build up a lot of case studies.
- 17:33Um I'm going to try and make it an
- 17:34award-winning brand. So, I'm going to
- 17:36say, "Okay, what awards are being given
- 17:38out in this industry? How do I win them
- 17:40awards?" and apply to win those awards.
- 17:43Because now I can then start saying I'm
- 17:45an award-winning. As I win that award,
- 17:47I'm going to share that out on all my
- 17:49social media. So, I'll go and do what's
- 17:51called a branded social fortress. Um so,
- 17:54that's like a Twitter, a Facebook, a
- 17:55LinkedIn,
- 17:57um a Flickr, all the Web 2.0 properties.
- 18:00And now with AI, especially if you've
- 18:02got any autonomous AI agents, it's never
- 18:05been easier to get an award that you've
- 18:08won, get two or three photos if you like
- 18:10you're holding the trophy, turn that
- 18:12into a video, create a few images get a
- 18:15few images of it, and then just
- 18:17distribute it everywhere. And and that
- 18:20one award that you've won could be
- 18:21distributed and it could be 50 articles
- 18:25now, if not more with the press release,
- 18:27that's syndicate syndicating everything
- 18:29out that now you're an award-winning
- 18:31business. You've got the reviews
- 18:33um and you're building up the the kind
- 18:36of
- 18:36firsthand experience
- 18:39and the reputation. Now, this is where I
- 18:42This is where I would challenge and this
- 18:44is where it's going to be fun
- 18:46David Quaid about EEAT, right? Now,
- 18:50>> David was just calling me. Funny That is
- 18:52crazy. David was literally just calling
- 18:54me as you were as you were saying that.
- 18:56He literally just called me. Was he
- 18:58nervous? Yeah, let me let me call let me
- 19:00call him and put him on on speaker.
- 19:02Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to do I'm
- 19:04going to just have him come through my
- 19:05my my mic.
- 19:07>> Yeah.
- 19:07>> All right, here we go. Can you hear?
- 19:09>> Yeah, yeah.
- 19:12>> Hey, how are you?
- 19:13>> All right, if you haven't checked out
- 19:14that episode with David Quaid, it is so
- 19:17good. People are loving it. Episode
- 19:191,131
- 19:21of the show, James Dooley and David
- 19:23Quaid, the SEO best practices we ignore.
- 19:26Again, that is an epic episode. I would
- 19:29very highly recommend it. And this one
- 19:31is episode 1,138
- 19:33of the podcast. 1,138
- 19:36days in a row doing this show. If you
- 19:38watch this on YouTube, thank you so much
- 19:40for watching. If you listened on Spotify
- 19:42or Apple Podcasts, thank you so much for
- 19:44listening. And I will talk to you again
- 19:48tomorrow. Bye now.
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