Brian Dean Interview - Backlinko growth, SEO today, AI in Search & Youtube
Brian Dean - the Founder of Backlinko (recently acquired by SEMRush) joins us today for a chat. I learned so much from Brian when I was getting into the space, its amazing I was able to speak to him for a bit.
Drawing on his wealth of expertise, Brian shares unique insights and actionable tips that can supercharge your digital marketing strategy. From cutting-edge link building techniques to the secrets of creating SEO-friendly content, we've covered it all. If you're looking to demystify Google's algorithms and climb the SERPs, this conversation is your ultimate roadmap. Tune in and equip yourself with the knowledge to stay ahead of the SEO curve.
QUESTIONS:
What was your first success in SEO and how did that lead to building backlinko?
Backlinko -
when you were starting out - what was your expectation of how the site would go? / what did you think was going to work? and what actually started working?
How were you doing link building back then for it?
Why go into courses and not an agency / consulting
Content
Can you walk me through what it would look like to create a blog post for backlinko?
How many of these were you publishing a month?
For those massive data study posts - where you for example analyzed 900 million blog posts - how did you get that done? - and how did you think of getting into those?
What did your work-life-balance look like when you were in the thick of it?
Looking back on your time with backlinko and entering a quite crowded and extremely competitive space - what do you think gave you the edge - and what advice can you give to those entering competitive spaces?
Its been a little more than a year since the sale to Semrush - How are you feeling about it?
Exploding Topics -
Why / when did you start it?
Where does the data come from?
Whats the current growth strategy / SEO?
SEO (I feel like my audience would kill me if i didn’t ask you the generic SEO questions):
Link building today - how would you go about it?
Creating content today - what is everyone doing wrong? Are you a fan of these AI tools?
Topical Authority - and building topical maps / Silos, i’ve heard you disagree with the notion thats its essential to build topical maps to rank
Thoughts on EAT -
Brand new website - what are the 3 first things you’re doing
Youtube - first of all you have more than 500K subs with only 50 vids - You obviously deliver some outstanding high quality videos - but thats insane - you haven’t deleted any vids have you?
What made you get into YT? You were really early into YT
What was easier to make for you a YT video or a massive blog post?
You took a break from it? Did you burn out?
Are you feeling the hit in views because of the break? How do you keep the Youtube gods happy without posting consistently?
Especially when constantly trying to one up yourself
Whats your process/ goals for the channel now that you’re back?
Now it feels like you’ve gone through the whole spectrum of online business, from building an audience, to selling courses, consulting and now a SAAS - whats your preferred business type?
To finish off - AI in search SGE - Google taking over a big chunk of real estate ur thoughts?
Timestamps:
0:00 Talking to Brian Dean of Backlinko!
0:10 From a PHD in Nutrition to SEO
1:43 What was his first success in the SEO space?
3:19 Brian's expectation starting Backlinko
5:06 What Link Building Methods helped Backlinko?
6:20 How long until serious traffic?
7:30 Why Courses vs. Agency / Consulting?
9:10 What was creating content like for Backlinko?
10:50 How often was he posting content?
11:30 What about work/life balance?
12:55 Backlinko's successful data blog posts
15:20 Do those data blog posts still work?
17:15 What gave Brian the edge with Backlinko?
18:25 How is Brian feeling about the sale to SEMRush?
19:20 When and Why start Exploding Topics?
21:20 Whats the SEO Strategy for Exploding Topics?
22:30 How are you doing Link Building for Exploding Topics?
23:30 Link Building Today - How to do it
25:05 Creating content Journalists are looking for
26:30 What happened to Clubhouse?
27:20 Creating content today - AI tools?
29:20 Brian isn't a fan of Topical Authority
30:52 Brian's thoughts on EAT?
32:03 Brand new Website - 3 first things for rankings
33:30 Youtube - Why did Brian start his channel?
35:07 Easier to write a blog post or create a video?
35:25 Process for making YT vids
37:15 Brian's Youtube Break
38:55 Is Brian feeling the hit after not posting on YT?
40:55 Why is Brian back on Youtube?
41:50 What's Brian's preferred type of Business
44:10 SGE - AI in Search - Is SEO DEAD?
48:10 Go Sub to Brian's Youtube!
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