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Ethan Smith is the CEO of Graphite, a boutique growth agency that\u2019s 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:

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethan_l_s

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanls/

\u2022 Graphite: https://www.graphitehq.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

\u2022 Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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

\u2022 Coda: https://coda.io/lenny

\u2022 Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/startups

\u2022 Lemon.io: https://lemon.io/lenny

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Referenced:

\u2022 Product-Led SEO: The Why Behind Building Your Organic Growth Strategy https://a.co/d/2wkN4dx

\u2022 Topical Authority Analysis: https://bit.ly/topical-authority-tool

\u2022 SEO Link Analysis:\xa0https://bit.ly/diagnostic-internal-links

\u2022 SEO Links API: https://bit.ly/graphite-internal-links-api

\u2022 Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

\u2022 Brandon Lee of Power:\xa0https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonhli

\u2022 Similarweb traffic analysis: https://www.similarweb.com/

\u2022 MasterClass: https://www.masterclass.com/

\u2022 BetterUp: https://www.betterup.com/

\u2022 NerdWallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com/

\u2022 HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

\u2022 Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

\u2022 Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/

\u2022 Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console/about

\u2022 Clearscope: https://www.clearscope.io/

\u2022 Yuriy Timen on Lenny\u2019s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-grow-a-subscription-business-yuriy-timen-grammarly-canva-airtable/

\u2022 Gokul Rajaram on Lenny\u2019s 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/

\u2022 Luc Levesque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/luclevesque

\u2022 Search Off the Record: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/search-off-the-record/id1512522198

\u2022 GPT-3: https://gpt3demo.com/apps/openai-gpt-3-playground

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In this episode, we cover:

(03:53) Ethan\u2019s 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\u2019t be too formulaic\xa0

(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\u2019 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\xa0

(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.