Don’t Overwhelm – Outsmart With the Right SEO Strategy

Today, we have with us Anatolii Ulitovskyi, a Search Engine Optimization executive at SEO Tools. With 10-plus years of experience in digital marketing, Anatoli offers practical advice to businesses on how to get organic traffic through personalized marketing efforts. If you could please turn on your camera and Anatoli so that the audience can see you.

Anatolii Ulitovskyi:

Hello, everyone.

Shanaz:

Thanks for doing this, Anatolii. I’m sure there will be a plethora of insights to take back from this session today. So before I pass on the mic to you, I’d like to thank everyone for tuning in for this session from all across the world and inform the audience that we will be taking up questions at the end of the session. So please feel free to drop your questions at any given point during the presentation. With that, Anatolii Ulitovskyi, the stage is all yours.

Anatolii:

Okay. Thanks a lot. I’ll try my best to share value as maximum as possible because I love digital marketing. And, I do it every day. You know, content marketing works perfectly fine. Okay. The main topic – Don’t overwhelm, outsmart. I can explain why I chose this topic. The main reason is that many startups fail. They usually, take some generic strategies, about 1000 of others, can do it totally the same. You don’t need to compete with them. It’s better to choose another direction. I often get the question, what’s going on? I don’t know why I can’t get results for a few years. 

And the main reason is that they just do it totally the same that many others do it. It’s better to skip it and find your competitor’s weaknesses. Let me tell you how you can do it. My second screen is about time. I can explain why. 

For example, you can lose money, wellness, everything. Properties, it’s up to you, and get it back. But if you lose time, you can’t get it back. There is no time machine, and that’s why it’s better to, choose the right strategy. I can’t promise you that this strategy will work for you, but it’s better to, choose the right direction and, minimize any risks that can get. 

On my first screen, let me introduce myself. I’m the CEO and founder, of SEO tools. I started my life journey in 2008. It’s interesting that I didn’t, have any marketing education. When I graduated from university, I got a financial education and after working in 3 banks I decided to launch my business. That was a financial company, and the company worked perfectly fine. I got a lot of revenue. And decided to invest more, to extend my business. But in 2008, when, the world crisis came to Ukraine, I lost all my investments, and all my business, even worse, I had a lot of debts, and I needed to give them back. 

And that’s why I decided to choose another direction. If I remember correctly, I needed to get back, 3000 average salaries in Ukraine. It’s a lot. But, you know, it’s interesting that we don’t know the future, and it’s better to learn from your failures to go ahead. I decided to learn more about online and, in 2008, I opened my online shop. For over 2 years, I couldn’t promote my shop. I tried to cooperate with freelancers but they didn’t provide any results, that’s why I started to learn about digital marketing. And, in some time, I got results, very good positions, and, a lot of traffic, and sales. 

My friends came to me to ask for help. They wanted to promote their projects as well. And, after this, I decided to, start my SEO agency and move all my attention there, especially in 2013 we got a new crisis in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Revolution, and a war. Yep, It’s not good, that was a hard time, but, you know, I decided to switch directions. So when I can do it myself and, find new economies, not only Ukraine or Russia, and extend my business globally. 

In 2021, I self-started my agency, number 7 in Ukraine, and number 15 in Russia, not bad positions, but my direction was to extend my business globally, which I do today. And, from my experience, freelancers couldn’t get results, I learned that I can lead in the right direction and minimize any risks. On my next screen, you can see, what you need to do, you should know the platform where you wanna promote, and your audience needs to be there and focusing. 

I know that many marketing books that I love to read and blogs claim that it’s better to find platforms where your audience is. I disagree. We have this point because you need to love it. For example, my audience might be on Twitter, but I don’t like to tweet. I know that it’s, hard to get attention, especially when you compete with Elon Musk, who gets a lot of attention. Twitter works perfectly fine if you spend time there. It’s up to you, but, I chose LinkedIn, because of engagement, some of my posts get 100,000 views. It’s a lot. I get a lot of attention there because I love LinkedIn. That’s why it’s better to choose a platform where you are willing to spend your time. Most time. And, of course, to search for your audience as well. 

And number 3, focusing. I can explain why you need to focus a lot. For example, many startups try to cope with Gary V, to be everywhere, even Gary V, proclaims that you need to do everything, to report your content to different platforms. But, you know, even he started from Twitter and, after the switch to YouTube, and Facebook, today, he has these resources to promote TikTok, LinkedIn, and many other platforms. But when you start from scratch and have limited resources, that I have, it’s better to focus on one platform or direction. For example, when, I searched for this platform, I spent some time on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and got, 5 to 10 followers a day. But when I focused, only on LinkedIn, I got 200 followers a day because of focusing in one direction. Even reposting or resharing content takes time, that’s why, I prefer to focus on one direction.

Okay. Let me finish my screen. About paid marketing. I’m not a big fan of paid marketing, because it’s overwhelming and oversaturated, especially for new projects. For example, if you have strong recognition, yes, you can use it, and set up a pay-per-click campaign on Facebook or Google. But when you start from scratch and nobody knows you, it’s better to skip this marketing. I can tell why. For example, Google considers, click-through rate, and Facebook as well. And, people, when, users and customers don’t click your, paid campaigns, that means they usually, choose other campaigns, from, famous brands. For example, when you wanna buy new sneakers, you probably choose Amazon, not any unrecognizable, online shop. And after this, you can’t invest a dollar and get two dollars back. It’s better to start from organic reach, and that’s perfectly fine. You don’t need to even think about paid campaigns. 

We have 3 directions for getting organic reach. Search engines, social media forums, and Q&A websites like Reddit and Quora. Probably, Reddit & Quora are good directions for someone, but, it’s better to choose search engines or social media. For example, I pay a lot of attention to YouTube and, LinkedIn. And, you can choose some directions as well. Don’t try to cover everything. It’s better to choose priorities and, Google and YouTube, by the way, YouTube is more a search engine than a social media platform because, we use keyword research tools there, or you can get engagement from suggestions or recommendations from YouTube. 

Okay. Let’s start with Google. I often see when web experts try to promote generic keywords. For example, they usually open, keyword research tools and, search for, generic words, like, for example, weight loss and see, volume and traffic and, try to promote. You need to understand that thousands of others can see totally the same. If you search on Google, you can see that Google lists a million results for any keywords. And, I try to avoid, keyword research tools, and, I like more to search for topics, because, Google and even Bing understand user intent and, each page has a lot of keywords. For example, if you use Ahrefs, you can search for topics. You can see on my screen that I use the example of weight loss, they have some filters here, referring domains, then page traffic from 500, domain rating to 20 words up to 1000, and you can submit the additional filters. For example, first published over 3 years ago. It helps to find topics with a lack of quality content, dated information, low competition, news, and trends. Spend some time choosing all these topics, and analyzing them. 

By the way, you can use Semrush, or, others, suggest other tools, search for topics and, then you can create something better, much better. For example, if you feel that all topics are covered, you know, it’s better to avoid them. And, for example, I usually spend time creating a content plan, it takes, 5 to 10 days to create, a content plan. And, when I feel that I can create something better, much better than existing content, it’s not only to write more words. It’s more about share value. For example, some content might have, many words, but the information is outdated. Google recognizes such intent and, users might skip it. What you need to do is analyze and think about how you can create and share something better, much better than competitors have. 

Don’t try to cover all topics. For example, Brian Deam usually posts one article a month, on his YouTube channel he posts one video in 3 months. It depends. And, it’s interesting that he learns user intent and tries to create 10 times better than existing content. That’s why he has a lot of traffic. And I often see when the webmasters post mediocre content, 10 articles, a hundred pages, and, can’t get any results. So when you check out all of them, you can see that it’s low quality, it’s better to, pay attention and prioritize and feel when you know exactly that you can create something better. 

By the way, don’t hire copywriters because copywriters usually write about broad topics. What you can do, it’s better to find experts, it’s better to find journalists or someone who knows your topic and pay three times more for this specialist. They create 10 times less content, but the quality will be much better. I try to avoid any copywriters. I search for experts. For example, you can use Upwork, and analyze their portfolio. If you see that a specialist writes about everything, skip them and search for someone who focuses on one topic. 

Okay. Let’s switch to YouTube. For YouTube, it’s good to use a keyword research tool as well. For example, on Ahrefs, you can choose the filter YouTube, you can use YouTube highlights, and you can see on the screen that I’m hosting the event. And, for my YouTube channel, I use consistency. For example, I don’t know what works for my competitors. I tried many different methods. If you open my auto channel, you can see that I submitted over 300 videos because I test a lot. I’m searching for the best content. For example, if you learn from Pewdiepie or Mr.Beast, these guys have a million followers. Pewdiepie has hundreds of millions of subscribers, and Mr.Beast has 60 million subscribers. It’s interesting that, for example, Pewdiepie couldn’t get the results for over a year. And he, got, if I remember correctly, 285 subscribers after posting 100 videos. Mr. Beast couldn’t get 1000 subscribers for over a year and a half. That means this, famous, YouTubers, search a lot, test, and never give up on getting these many subscribers. You can use totally the same, just learn from others, and post a lot of content. 

For example, when I started my YouTube channel, that was a Russian channel. You know, I didn’t feel confident to film any videos. I felt it was much better to break my leg than a film a new video, but with consistency, you can love it. Today, can, open my camera and tell about my life and topics. I like testing and, you know, results depend on me. I often see when, new YouTubers give up because they feel that they can get results after posting one or two videos, or maybe 10 videos. You don’t need to copy Brian Dean who has high authority and posts only, I do not remember correctly, but it’s like 30 videos, and he has a lot of subscribers. But, because of his authority, everyone knows him in the digital marketing and SEO field. It’s better to choose your direction and, post a lot because, when you, post a lot of content, you can increase your confidence, and, results. 

Okay. Let’s go to another screen – Social media promotion. It’s my life and topic. I’m active on LinkedIn as I told you. I decided to pay attention to this platform because I got much better results. How you can promote on LinkedIn or choose other social media, Twitter, Instagram, etc. it’s up to you. If you like Instagram, why not? You can get attention there. By the way, my wife got a lot of engagement on Instagram, and my son who is 10 years old, posts content on TikTok, that’s okay. You know, you can choose your learning platform. And I chose LinkedIn because of the audience and because it has all the features that Facebook has. It’s interesting that, when I started to learn about LinkedIn, I searched on Google. I got LinkedIn guides, LinkedIn marketing, and about a hundred articles about LinkedIn, and how we can promote, and, many of the techniques or methods don’t work for me. I only tested. I test a lot. I post and comment. I know that some guys proclaimed that you need to post, one or two times a week, but I don’t like the strategy. I’m not a big fan of that. It’s better to post many times a day if I have, more time, I could post 24 times a day, but, of course, it’s a lack of time. And today, for example, I can do it, 10 times a day. Post some different content formats on LinkedIn or any other social media, you can repost your content. If you can’t get engagement, you can repost it if you feel that your content is good and your audience might check it out the next time. And, along with other influencers, I analyze their posts. If you start from scratch on LinkedIn. For example, you don’t need to have a mass following, or, a loyal audience. It’s hard on Instagram or YouTube where you need to invite people to your channel from other resources. But on LinkedIn, they have a connection system, and, you can connect. That’s why, it’s much better to get attention on LinkedIn. And, what you need to do to be active, for example, to comment on other posts, analyze them, open your feed, and comment, comment, comment. I usually search for posts that, were published, in less than an hour because, in this short time, you can get more attention when you, comment on a post, in more than an hour, I think that your common can, lose attention. And, yep, it’s better to search for, fresh content, post, and comment a lot. In your post, don’t, listen to anybody who told you, for example, that you need to post only short videos, long videos, or medium videos. I remember when one influencer told me, you know if you wanna get attention, you need to post short content. That’s wrong! You know, because it worked for someone, it might not work for you. 

You can find another format. For example, I like to post long-form content, if I feel that, I can get attention. But, testing is the best approach to figuring out what works for you. On LinkedIn or any other social media platform, you can comment on the other posts and get this engagement. For example, it’s better to start from your profile and optimize your profile. Because when you comment on other posts or, active groups, people can open your profile, and if they can’t get some trust they can skip it. Yeah. And, for example, if you open my LinkedIn profile, you can see that, I use a straightforward message in my bio, a high-quality picture. And I often see when many profiles are selfish. They usually tell why they are great, people proclaim that they are gurus. They know everything, they can help anyone, but, you know, people don’t trust these profiles. It’s better to share how you can help and support others. For example, in my profile, you can see that, I can help you, and lead you in the right direction. I can create a marketing strategy. I can provide a free analysis.

Do it the same. It doesn’t matter which section you use. It’s experience, education, or any other sections just provide, some information on how you can help and support others, on other social media platforms as well. For example, on Instagram, it’s better to choose a format that works for you. For example, you can use entertainment, education, and, just analyze and don’t think that you can get results fast, you know, FAST results don’t exist anymore. It’s better to spend time and learn from big influencers. 

For example, Gary V spent 7 years on Twitter to tweet content and to get this engagement. Okay, guys. That’s it. Ask me anything. I will reply to all your questions about digital marketing, social media platforms, search systems, or anything else.

Shanaz:

That was awesome, Anatolii. Thanks a ton. So I have a few questions that I jotted down during the session that we got. So I’m gonna start with the first one. You mentioned skipping paid marketing. But, how can a newly built organization make sure they’re reaching a wide yet relevant audience with their organic efforts?

Anatolii:

You can’t be 100% sure even in paid marketing. For example, for pay-per-click, you will spend a lot of time customizing your buying persona, because it’s overpriced and overwhelming. And, even there, you need to spend time to filter some audiences, but, with organic reach, you can get the same results, that you customize with paid marketing, but you can reach a broader audience. For example, when you get 100,000 views from one post or a video. Why not? It’s a lot. You know, if you paid marketing, with the same money, you can get a few clicks. It’s, it’s not the same. It’s not a similar view of that. I can tell that paid marketing is a great channel, but when you have strong brand recognition. If everyone knows your startup. For example, Semrush uses paid marketing, that is good, but, everyone knows of Semrush. If you start from scratch, it’s not your channel. You can lose money. For example, I remember a few projects came to me and said, “We lost a lot of money. We did pay-per-click on Facebook, and Google. I told them nobody knows you. Why did you try to use these channels? Skip them, build your name, and get strong recognition. For example, even Neil Patel once told me that he doesn’t use paid marketing because he’s getting this insane organic reach. You know, it depends. It always depends. For example, in paid marketing, even when you have strong brand recognition, after investing a dollar, you can get two dollars back, but it doesn’t help to cover all your expenses. That means, your customers need to buy a few times, and ask a few friends to recommend your, products. You need to be 100% sure that your products are very good quality. But, when you start from scratch, you can be sure. It’s better to use organic reach. And, you can’t get the exact audience that you need for your products, but, the audience is much bigger. Not a few clicks. It’s like a thousand people, a thousand hundred people. For example, on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram your post might be seen by many people. Yeah. It’s my answer.

Shanaz:

Yeah. Thanks for answering that, Anatolii. I hope that answered the question. There’s another question, from Karan. He’s saying what is your take on B2B marketing? Specifically, B2B marketing, what are your suggestions and recommendations, do’s, don’ts, anything that comes to mind?

Anatolii:

You know, I think that B2B marketing is, related to B2C as well. Because you don’t sell businesses. You don’t sell, brands. You sell to a person who can decide to buy from you or not. It’s a big mistake when you, try to, cover businesses. You need to cover responsible people who make decisions on these businesses. That’s why I usually even up any campaigns for, B2B. I analyze, competitors first, and, I don’t try to use the same methods, or similar methods. I search for their weaknesses and think about how I can cover business-related people, decision-makers. For example, for B2B you should choose one direction. You can use outreach. If you have great products, you can promote your products with outreach. In SaaS, many companies use these methods, they reach out to people on LinkedIn or by mail, ask them to check out their products, and, get high results. If you feel that, you need to choose another direction with organic reach yet, it’s perfectly fine because decision-makers, use social media, analyze content, and yes, it’s a big mistake to try to, sell to businesses. Think about people Yeah. We are people human and, and robots don’t decide whether to buy products or not.

Shanaz:

Yes. Yeah. I agree with that, Anatolii. Yeah. I think understanding your end user and taking their pain points, I think that’s the key to every marketing effort that that a marketer can put out. Thank you for answering that. The next question is, in your 15-plus years of doing digital marketing and in your SEO journey, what are some of the common mistakes that you come across and you would warn against?

Anatolii:

I think I made many mistakes, as anybody else. Yeah, it’s better to be honest with that because nobody knows exactly what works and it’s better to test a lot. And that’s okay. Elon Musk made mistakes, many other influencers make mistakes, because when you get failures, you can learn from them and analyze how you can go ahead. And, for example, sometimes when you analyze your competitors, you see only a picture that you can see. Your competitors can hide something, and, it’s the process and actions. And, it’s better to test a lot because when you don’t know exactly what works, just test them. 

I think today, it’s better to, forget about SEO methods. I often tell my customers to forget about SEO. You don’t need SEO. If you think only about human, because Google serves human. When you create content, you need to serve humans. SEO only helps to optimize this content for search engines. By the way, when you optimize this content, you don’t need to cure user experience as well. For example, it’s better to, leave SEO methods, and techniques, and create content for a human. How you can do it? When you have a list of keywords or topics, just check out them on Google. Learn user intent, and think how you can create something better, much better. If you see in the top 10 results, articles did the question how to, or, for example, a list of products, you know, just create similar content. 10 years ago when we started our SEO journey, we didn’t consider user intent. And, it worked perfectly fine because Google couldn’t recognize the user intent. Today, it’s not. Google has a lot of resources to check it out. Because Google has own its competition with Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines. And, think that’s what you need to do to learn user intent. Think how you can satisfy this intent. If you see that these topics are overwhelmed and many other content creators, cover them. Skip them. Forget. Okay. Okay. I can choose another topic. I usually create content when I feel that, I can bring a lot more than my competitors. I can reply to more questions. It doesn’t mean that I need to create longer content. It depends, of course. But, when I feel that, information is outdated, it’s a lack of quality content. And, I feel that my copywriters, it’s not only by the way about copywriters. It’s more about designers, content managers, and developers. It’s a team, where, today, if you wanna promote on Google, you need to have a strong team who can, create this high-quality content. For example, I usually write articles about digital marketing. After this, I send this article to an editor. He can check it out and fix all mistakes, and even make great book authors, usually, if I remember correctly, have more than 6 editors when they write a book. They have 6 editors who can check out emotions. It’s not only about grammar. It’s more about covering mistakes. For example, users prefer content from experts than from copywriters. I can share an example. Let’s imagine, your friend, got an illness, a cold flu. It doesn’t matter. COVID. And, you want to help him. I’m not sure that you are interested in content from copywriters who have no experience, or education, who only, took the topic, rewrote the old content, and shared it. Today, Google can recognize this content. That’s why we have this parameter. EAT – Expert, Authority, and Trust. It is better to pay for doctors who, has extensive experience and can share some value to tell more about this one. 

And yes, if you wanna promote on Google, you need to build your, authority trust, I mean, like, to use link building, learn user intent, and don’t try to cover a lot. If you have such competition. When you have the right content strategy, marketing plan, yes, you can overcome your competitors, and, the main point is patience. Because I often see why many projects fail. They wanna get results for a few months. It takes years, you know, years. It’s true. You know, you can’t get results when you build your authority. Google needs to recognize that you have this authority, you have many authoritative websites in your niche, linked to you. When you create awesome content, it takes time. And, for example, sometimes I tell my clients you don’t need SEO. Forget about SEO. Okay. If you have more time, if you wanna get results right now, start from social media, and get followers there, but, you know, it takes time as well. You know, patience, it’s important for social media as well.

Shanaz:

Yeah. Yeah. Completely agree. In fact, Anatolii, I think you answered another question here that we had, which was, “Should we target large-volume keywords or keywords that lack enough quality information?” I think you’ve, partly answered that question. If you want to add anything to that, then you can add it, or we can move on to the next question.

Anatolii:

Yes. Of course. I can add more. I usually search for, low competition, not, high volume. When you see that your competitors in the top 10, have low competition, you can check out these parameters with Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush, and Uber Suggest, Analyze low competition, it’s better to analyze, cost per click. When you see that cost per click is high and low competition in the SEO, Yep. It’s a chance, you know, because that means, these keywords sell, you can get results from them. And, it’s low competition. It takes time to analyze and figure out these keywords. You need to submit your content plan. About high volume, everyone knows about this keyword. All competitors start with keyword research tools, type them, and try to get results from them. 80% of all sales come from long-tail keywords. That means it’s better to choose them. It’s better to analyze, what your competitors ignore. 

For example, if you remember Elon Musk, when he created Tesla, he didn’t try to overcome. He found what all competitors ignored, and today we can see that all other car brands created their electric cars and tried to jump to this boat as well. But, at that point in time, he, got high results. And today, Tesla is the most expensive car company in the world. And, yes, just, search for your competitor’s weaknesses in SEO, and spend time. Don’t try to, start tomorrow. Spend 10 days, 15 days to analyze to, create the best content plan and choose priorities.

Shanaz:

Yeah. I agree, Anatolii. I think I spent most of my career as a content marketer. And, what I learned in that period is that the key is to fill the gap the knowledge gap as well as the product gap in the market. if you succeed in doing that, I think, your content and your product are not going to lag behind. In fact, it’s going to advance further and faster than your competitors. In fact, we even ran a campaign at VWO where we identified keywords which lacked quality content, and then we started producing quality content in high numbers in those keywords. And we saw rankings that were unreal. We saw traffic that was unreal. So I think that’s one thing that that we’d like to take back, from our SEO initiatives and one thing, I guess, even our audience can take back and try it there. So, yeah. 

Alright. So, this is the last question, Anatolii. Are there any books or resources or courses that you’d recommend to someone who’s just starting in SEO marketing and, organic marketing.

Anatolii:

Oh, many courses, many courses, many books, blogs, you know, I love reading blogs. I think that everyone has their own format. I’m not a big fan of courses, but, I took a few courses as well. Google Analytics and other courses. But, I like more, reading books and acting, you know, because acting brings the best knowledge ever. For example, when I wanna find a new direction, I usually go to Google and type ‘LinkedIn guide’, ‘LinkedIn marketing guide’, or ‘tutorial’ or, something similar, and read 100 articles. Simple. 

You don’t need to pay for any courses. If you check out YouTube, you can see that these people who sell courses, don’t sell secrets. You can get some secrets from them and use them to get this result. No way. For example, after reading 100 articles, I used totally different methods, but, I learned directions from others. I learned from, my competitors. I spent time to figure out what works for me. The first step, what you need to do, go to Google. Type, your keyword. If you wanna learn about Instagram, type ‘Instagram guide’. If you wanna learn about SEO, type ‘SEO guide’. Read 100 articles and you’ll get a lot of information about where you need to go next. For example, if you wanna learn more about on-page SEO, you can type ‘On-page SEO guide’ and get a lot of information. Read all of them. Go to YouTube, do the same, watch many videos and, you can learn from them. If you wanna read books, for example, I usually, start from Google as well. I type ‘best books about marketing’. Read these books. I usually read one or two books a week. I love them. This format is more for foundation. It’s not about my first techniques, but when you learn, when you read books, you can get human psychology, why they buy, why they spend their, money, and change with your products, you need to convince them. You can read, all of them from books. And, you can’t cover all books, all blog posts, all tutorials, and all courses, you need to choose priorities. Just, read reviews before starting to read, find your loving authors. And, from my experience, I didn’t pay for education, and, I got a financial education, and today I work in digital marketing. I love these news because I can discover a lot more just, use Google. You know it’s the best tool ever.

Shanaz:

Yeah. Yeah. Just Google everything, and you’ll have answers to that. So alright, Anatolii. I think that’s it. We’ve covered all of the questions, most of the questions were clubbed together. So you answered almost all of them. And I had fun doing this. I hope you had fun doing this. And, I hope our audience had fun listening to you, listening to what you had to say, and taking back all the key actionable insights that you offered. So thank you so much, Anatolii.

Anatolii:

Yeah. Hey. It’s enjoyable. We can do it one more time if you like it. And, yeah, thanks for the great questions. I hope you enjoyed it.