The ultimate guide to SEO | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

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What is programmatic editorial SEO?

Programmatic SEO is the automatic generation of pages from a database of information, such as product pages for eBay or address pages for Zillow. Editorial SEO is the creation of content by a person, like articles or guides. Editorial SEO is becoming more important and driving more traffic than programmatic SEO. Technical SEO focuses on the infrastructure of a website, such as internal link architecture and page speed. Editorial SEO is generally the best option, but it depends on the category and target queries. Programmatic SEO is cost-effective since pages are automatically generated, while editorial SEO incurs a cost for each page. However, editorial SEO is an opportunity for every company, while programmatic SEO is more specific to certain industries.

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Manoj Nayak

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Ethan Smith is the CEO of Graphite, a boutique growth agency that’s helped companies like MasterClass, Thumbtack, Robinhood, Medium, and Honey develop and execute their SEO strategies. SEO is one of the least-understood levers for growth, while also one with the biggest payoff. This episode is a true master class on all things SEO. Ethan shares a wealth of information, including when you should begin investing in SEO, how to build an SEO team, and the three main buckets of SEO. He explains the difference between topics and keywords, gives the exact heuristics and tools to help you be successful in developing and implementing your own SEO strategy, and also goes deep on how to deal with roadblocks and advocate for resources.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-seo-ethan-smith

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Where to find Ethan Smith:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethan_l_s

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanls/

• Graphite: https://www.graphitehq.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

• Coda: https://coda.io/lenny

• Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/startups

• Lemon.io: https://lemon.io/lenny

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Referenced:

• Product-Led SEO: The Why Behind Building Your Organic Growth Strategy https://a.co/d/2wkN4dx

• Topical Authority Analysis: https://bit.ly/topical-authority-tool

• SEO Link Analysis: https://bit.ly/diagnostic-internal-links

• SEO Links API: https://bit.ly/graphite-internal-links-api

• Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

• Brandon Lee of Power: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonhli

• Similarweb traffic analysis: https://www.similarweb.com/

• MasterClass: https://www.masterclass.com/

• BetterUp: https://www.betterup.com/

• NerdWallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com/

• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

• Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

• Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/

• Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console/about

• Clearscope: https://www.clearscope.io/

• Yuriy Timen on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-grow-a-subscription-business-yuriy-timen-grammarly-canva-airtable/

• Gokul Rajaram on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/gokul-rajaram-on-designing-your-product-development-process-when-and-how-to-hire-your-first-pm-a-playbook-for-hiring-leaders-getting-ahead-in-you-career-how-to-get-started-angel-investing-more/

• Luc Levesque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/luclevesque

• Search Off the Record: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/search-off-the-record/id1512522198

• GPT-3: https://gpt3demo.com/apps/openai-gpt-3-playground

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In this episode, we cover:

(03:53) Ethan’s background

(07:53) Why technical audits are the biggest myth in SEO

(10:05) When to invest in SEO

(16:09) Heuristics to determine if SEO is worth it

(18:36) The three buckets of SEO: programmatic, editorial, and technical

(23:30) The process for creating an SEO strategy

(27:00) Why you shouldn’t be too formulaic

(28:33) What is site engagement?

(29:31) Which pages need to be indexed

(31:49) Topics vs. keywords

(36:33) How to mine competitors’ sites for information

(37:41) Useful tools for developing your SEO strategy

(40:14) How long will it take to see results?

(45:16) Factors to consider when looking to hire an SEO person

(47:33) The functions of a programmatic SEO person

(49:19) How to do testing

(54:06) Editorial SEO strategy

(57:14) How to scale based on the size of the site

(59:51) Page types

(1:01:53) How to win in a topic category

(1:03:12) How to build solid hypotheses and test them

(1:06:13) How to deal with roadblocks and advocate for resources

(1:08:54) How topical and domain authority are determined

(1:16:43) The power of internal links

(1:24:32) Why AI is not usually useful for content creation

(1:28:31) Final tips for getting started with SEO

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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