B (3:15)

Okay?

A (3:16)

Next thing you need is content. Now, content does two things. One, it places content on your site so there is something for a viewer to see and something for a search engine to find.

B (3:30)

Okay?

A (3:30)

The second thing content does is it creates relevancy, which we're gonna talk about in a minute. But I just wanna mention here very quickly, and I know most of you know what I'm gonna say already. When it comes to content, quality is not a ranking factor.

B (3:42)

Okay?

A (3:42)

We've talked about this many, many times before. I just wanna be very clear. If somebody is telling you, oh, just write really good content and you will rank, that person does not comprehend how SEO works. That person writing better quality content is not going to get you to the top of the search engines.

B (3:57)

Okay?

A (3:58)

There's plenty of websites that have supreme quality content, okay? But they don't rank and it has nothing to do with their content. So let's just be very clear, quality of content is not a ranking factor. Okay, onto the next topic. So. Well, almost. So I said content does two things. I said one of the things it does is establish relevancy. If you're writing about blue widgets, then you are relevant for blue widgets. Pretty straightforward. But we're gonna talk about this more later. Okay, so now let's talk about relevancy. Okay, Relevancy again, we just talked about this means what is the topic of your website? If your website has content about blue Widgets, then you're relevant for blue widgets, okay? If your website has content for washing machines, then you're relevant for washing machines, okay? You have to be relevant in order to rank for a keyword, okay? And it makes sense. Okay, let's really, really po for a moment.

B (4:52)

Okay?

A (4:54)

Why would you rank for something that you are not relevant for? Think about it. Think. If somebody searches for washing machines, why would your website show up if you're not relevant for washing machines? I mean, it could, but then the search engines wouldn't be doing a great job and people would stop using them, okay? So if you're searching for something, you're going to see websites that are relevant for that keyword. Now, there's two ways to get relevancy, by the way, let's talk about relevancy. So there's two ways to get relevancy, okay? One way is with backlinks. So the anchor text from a backlink, meaning the words that are in the backlink, create relevancy. So if somebody links to you, okay, and they use the words blue widgets in the backlink, then you are gaining relevancy for the term blue widgets, okay? So one way to get relevancy is with backlinks, or more specifically, with the anchor text of the backlink. So whatever the backlink says, that is the anchor text, and whatever those words are that is providing you relevancy. By the way, we have an entire episode on anchor text and why it's important. And I will put that link in the description. So that's one way to get relevancy. The other way to get relevancy is with your content, okay? If your content talks about blue widgets, then you have relevancy for blue widgets. That's how you get relevancy. We're gonna talk about why this is important in a minute. But before we do that, we're gonna talk about the last thing that you need, authority. Authority is trustworthiness. Authority is strength. It is power. It is clout. It is popularity.

B (6:27)

Okay?

A (6:29)

Authority just means how does your website compare in terms of trustworthiness to the other websites on the Internet?

B (6:37)

Okay?

A (6:37)

That's all it means. You need authority to rank. Authority comes from backlinks. So all backlink. Well, most backlinks provide authority. Okay, some authority. Now, they provide a different amount of authority.

B (6:48)

Okay?

A (6:49)

But the way. And we have episodes on this. I'll put a link in the description to at least one of these episodes. But the way to get authority is from backlinks, okay? The way to get authority is from backlinks, okay? By the way, that is the only way to get authority. The only way to get authority is by getting backlinks from another site to your website, okay? That's how it works. It's the only way to get authority. So let me be clear about this, okay? No, we'll just leave it like that. So that's the only way to get authority. All right? So. And I'm trying to keep this episode a little bit shorter, but it's not just about the number of backlinks that you get. Backlinks can be good or bad, okay? Some backlinks help you. Some backlinks do not help you. Some backlinks help you a lot. Some backlinks only help you a little bit, okay? The point is, most backlinks will probably help you, but you want to try to make sure that you're doing it correctly, okay? Anyways, so relevancy and authority, right? So let's just guess for the rest of this conversation that you do not have a penalty. So you're fine with number one, and you have content, so you're fine with number two. So what we're talking about now is relevancy and authority. Now, let's talk about how these work with the algorithm to determine where you rank.

B (8:07)

Okay?

A (8:08)

So this might not be exactly how the search engines work. I don't work for a search engine.

B (8:13)

Okay.

A (8:14)

But this is pretty much how they probably work.

B (8:18)

Okay?

A (8:19)

Just to be clear on this, okay, so let's talk about relevancy and authority. When you search for something, the first thing the search engine does is it makes two lists of websites, okay? It makes a list of websites that are relevant for that keyword, and it makes a list of websites that are not relevant for that keyword.

B (8:40)

Okay?

A (8:41)

So if you search for. So if you search for dishwashers, the search engine will create two lists. One list is a list of websites that are relevant for dishwashers, and the other list is a list of websites that are not relevant for dishwashers, okay? Now, it's only going to use the list of websites that are relevant for dishwashers because you're searching for dishwashers, okay? It is understandable that you would get websites that are relevant for dishwashers or whatever you search for, right? So of all of those websites that are relevant for whatever you searched for, those are the websites that are going to appear in the search results.

B (9:23)

Okay?

A (9:24)

But wait, we're not done yet. How does the search engine know what website to put in the first position, how does it know what website to put? In the second position, we have all these websites that are relevant, but how do we arrange them in the results? Authority. We arrange them in the results with authority.

B (9:43)

Okay?

A (9:44)

So of all the websites that are relevant for your keyword that you searched for, the one with the most authority will be number one, the one with the second most authority will be number two, and so on.

B (9:56)

Okay?

A (9:56)

Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. People are going to have all sorts of questions. But what about. But what about. But that's how it works, okay? To the best of my knowledge, that's how it works. Now I want to be very clear about something. People are going to use different SEO software that estimates the value of authority of a website. For example, Ahrefs is a good tool and it estimates authority with something called Dr. Domain rating. Okay, but I want to be very clear doctor and we use Ahrefs normally. It's a very, it's a great tool. I'm actually recommending it. It's a very good tool. But listen, doctor is an approximation. It is a guess of authority. It is not actual authority. So why I'm telling you this is sometimes people see a website, for example, that has higher Dr. But it's ranking under a website with less Dr. And they're like, this is wrong. You've got more Dr. But it's not ranking as high. You're wrong, grumpy SEO guy. Okay, but Dr. Is not actual authority. It is an approximation. It is a guess of authority. The real value of authority, which by the way is referred to as page rank, is hidden by Google. So nobody other than Google knows how much authority a page actually has, okay? So that's why these tools like Ahrefs estimate the authority, because nobody knows the real authority. So anyways, look, that's how it works. So you have a list of websites that are relevant for your keywords, okay? And then that website gets ordered. That's how it works. Let me give you another example that is completely distinct from SEO, okay? Cause if that didn't make sense, I hope this next example does make sense.

B (11:37)

Okay?

A (11:37)

Let's say that you work in a store. Let's say you work in a record store and you're selling records and you know a lot about music, alright? So somebody comes in and they say, hey, I want a jazz album. I don't know anything about jazz. Somebody told me that jazz is pretty good. I would like to listen to a jazz album. Can you recommend a jazz album? Now you Work at a music store. So this is what your process is going to be like. The first thing that you're gonna do is you're gonna take them over to the jazz section.

B (12:08)

Okay.

A (12:08)

Why? Because the albums in the jazz section are relevant for jazz, and each other section in the music store is not relevant for jazz. So why would you take them there? This person wants a jazz album. You're gonna take them to the jazz section. So now you've got all of these albums that are relevant for jazz.

B (12:28)

Okay?

A (12:29)

Do you see how that is near what was happening with search engines? Okay, but now this person wants a jazz album, but they don't know anything about jazz. So what are you probably likely to recommend to this person? A popular jazz album.

B (12:44)

Okay.

A (12:45)

Not some weird jazz album that only, you know, serious jazz fans listen to. Right? This person who doesn't know anything about jazz probably wouldn't like that album. Album. They probably would like a popular jazz album, right? Which is like, what? It's like a popular website that has good authority.

B (13:04)

Okay.

A (13:04)

It's like a website that is likely to be in the first position. So this person who doesn't know anything all about jazz, Hey, I would like a jazz album. You take them to the jazz area.

B (13:13)

Okay.

A (13:14)

And then you recommend to them a popular jazz album.

B (13:19)

Okay?

A (13:19)

It's a good starting place. Hey, here's a trendy jazz album. This is what I recommend based on the things that you said you were looking for. That's basically how the results work when you search for something. Okay, I hope this makes sense. Let me know what questions you have. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders, because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder, and it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast, because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do so@patreon.com Grumpy SEO Guy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode.

B (14:45)

Sam.