I’m all about the ‘do less’ mindset. Life is for the living. You’ve got a business to grow, and if there are ten items on your to-do list, you should focus on the items that will make the highest impact with the least effort.
It’s the same in SEO. Rather than doing all the things, I want to find the high-impact, low-effort opportunities and focus on those. (Heck, that’s what my SEO Opportunity Report is all about.)
TL;DR: Do less SEO. Focus on what works, and you don’t need to do more.
A few days ago, some friends and I in a Slack community were talking about this recent Moz article (“The Helpful Content Update Was Not What You Think”) and part of the conclusion of the piece, specifically this bit:
And a friend said this:
“TL;DR: Do everything you always did, and more besides.” I’m ready for some “do less” messaging, even if it’s a lie.
That got me thinking, and I wrote a version of these six bullets for my friend. It’s the idea of doing less than everything and focusing on the core helpful bits.
Six high-impact SEO tactics to focus on
Here’s my personal ‘do less’ advice for SEO in e-commerce. You don’t need to do everything. You won’t need to do more if you do the right things. Here are the core tactics I like focusing on:
- Create content that addresses a relevant problem your customers face with your products.
Incorporate first-hand research and experience—try recommended solutions, experiment, or interview an expert and share what you learn. This separates your content from generic rewrites, where someone just rehashes the top articles.
- Don’t overthink your first draft.
Knock out and publish a quick draft like an old-school blog post in ~20 minutes and a few paragraphs. Check where it’s ranking after a few weeks and rewrite to improve. “Hey, people often say you can make grain free bread for the auto-immune paleo diet these three ways. I’m testing them out and reporting back on which makes the best sandwich; here’s what i found.” Good start. You can always come back, edit it further, and optimize it later.
- Use the search console to spot new content opportunities from your existing work.
If an article/page is ranking ~20-30th for a phrase it doesn’t fully cover/isn’t fully related to, that’s your cue that Google is searching for a relevant page on your site for this relevant query. Create a new page on that topic. Aim for the optimized version of the page to be as good as the average of the top ~5 articles for that topic — and mix in some of that first-hand research and experience.
- Search the keyword phrase/term/query you’re thinking about writing a page for and see what types of pages Google ranks there today.
Are they transactional pages, informational articles/blogs, or something else? This can guide you on the best format and angle for your content.
- Got a page stuck around ~10-15th for a relevant keyword? Build internal links aggressively.
Add text links from your homepage, new posts, and high-linked pages. Aim for ~3-5 internal links with exact match anchors to start. Give it a few weeks and come back. If it’s still stuck, optimize the title tag and build more internal links from new pages.
- Promote your content and business in ways that naturally generate links.
Collaborate on blog posts with other businesses, co-brand something, guest on a podcast, or just ask a friend to naturally mention your latest <link> when they blog next.
That’s still six items, but it’s much less than ‘do everything you always did, and more besides.’
So next time you’re sitting down to work on your SEO, review this list and focus on one of these high-impact, lower-effort opportunities.
Excelsior!
Kai, your Shopify SEO guy
P.S. Want a clear action plan for the top 5 SEO opportunities to boost your store’s growth and revenue? Check out my SEO Opportunity Report. I’ll dive deep into your site’s SEO, content, keywords, and rankings with my “SEO X-Ray” audit and deliver targeted ‘do this, not that’ advice so you know exactly where to focus your efforts to grow and increase revenue.