How to steal SEO rankings

Happy Monday! Today I talk about how to grow your SaaS by stealing your competitor’s SEO rankings, outsourcing your cold calls, financial model templates and "backchanneling". I’m limiting the newsletter to 1k words this week. Do you think that’s optimal?  - Eve D. 

Growth Strategy 

Steal your competitor’s SEO 

Every time someone searches for something and then clicks on your competitor’s link, you are at risk of losing out. It helps to know what that “something” is, so you can create the best content for that search keyword, and win the click. This LinkedIn post from Jake Ward shows how you can steal your competitor’s SEO ranking. I’ve summarized the key points below (adding my own insight), but read the full post for finer details. 

  • First, identify who your SEO competitors are. You’ll either know this already, or you can use Ahrefs or SEMrush to research it (look for “competing domains”)

  • Once you have a competitor in mind, use Ahrefs to explore the organic keywords for which they rank. (You’ll need a paid plan to explore domains that are not yours)

  • Export it as a CSV. 

  • You will likely end up with a list of thousands of keywords, which need to be collated into topics. You can do it by hand, or you can use KeywordCupid to do it for you. With KeywordCupid, you will end up with a spreadsheet that suggests overall topics, together with the actual keywords your competitor uses, as well as the topic difficulty score and potential search volume.

  • You can now go through the topics (much easier than going through the keywords individually!), and figure out which ones you want to tackle first. You should obviously choose ones that are most relevant to you, and that offer some hope of success. 

  • Choose as many as you can handle, but the focus is on quality of the content, not quantity. Don’t overwhelm yourself.  

Of course, you still have the tough road of creating content that is better than what is already out there, but at least you are playing in the right arena. AI writing tools should make the job easier, but remember that everyone has access to them, so bring your own insight into every piece. 

Know that your competitors can do the same to you so protect your valuable ranking with the usual tactics: excellent content, correct SEO structure, internal linking, and collecting backlinks. I will have a quick, success-guaranteed tip to increase backlinks in tomorrows newsletter. 

Growth: sales

Outsource your cold calls

If you hate cold calling, or are too overwhelmed by the volume, consider outsourcing the task offshore. Mitchell (@mitchell_sorkin) found a VA in the Philippines for $6.50 an hour, and raves about this hack. He focuses on finding the leads to keep the pipeline full, while someone else makes the calls. 

You can use Upwork to source your VA, or go through a recruitment firm that specialises in outsourcing. Mitchell recommends @sullybusiness and @eanddstaffing. If you use a firm expect to pay a premium for the VA, in exchange for all admin, testing, and vetting. 

Money and Strategy

Pre-made financial models

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. But you don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Stephane Nasser compares 12 financial model templates  (some free, some paid) that include financial statements, revenue modelling, cost modelling and more. Not only will this give you added clarity wrt your strategy, it will also make you look like a pro in the eyes of VCs or private investors. 

Funding

Backchanneling - not just for investments!

Backchanneling” refers to the communication that happens between an investor you’ve pitched to and people who can endorse you to them. Michael Houck says it's the "most underrated way to convince investors...even after a pitch meeting". (He wrote a great newsletter on it.) Example: You’ve met with a VC, it went well. Now you want an extra push. You notice on LinkedIn that you have common connections, some of whom you have a good working relationship with. You contact those people, and ask them to contact the VC and sing your praises

It’s a common practice, and you can imagine that for investors who have many options of where to put their money, this extra level of endorsement make a much needed solid impression. As Michael says, before investing any money with you, investors will "want to gather opinions from people in their network either about you from mutual connections or from experts in your space that they know before writing a check."

So, how to backchannel well? According to Michael, you should:

  • Only ask those who know you well to backchannel on your behalf.

  • Include context for how the meetings with the investor have gone thus far, and what the concerns are.

  • Include one specific thing to highlight on your behalf. 

But I don't think this is just for investors! If you are 1-on-1 pitching to big clients, and you know they are going to be doing reference checks, you can follow a similar process if you know people in common. 

Growth Tools

I’m putting together a Growth Tools guide for SaaS founders who struggle to find the right growth tool / agency for their needs. If you want to include your growth tool, or have a favourite one you think should be included, please let me know [email protected]

See you tomorrow

That's it for today... 

Do you realise this is the last week of Jan? It's a bit of a mind fck, to be honest. If I ease into Jan (as I always do), and take July and December off, then I need to start admitting to myself that my work year is 9 months, and plan accordingly. 

Coming up this week

  • How to easily get backlinks

  • Why magnets are a very weak lead generating tool for SaaS

  • Is brand marketing worth it?

  • Is it the end of "open" startups?

  • VC scams to look out for

Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow!

Eve D

Growth SaaS, Up and to the Right

I'm a digital strategist and founder, and author of Up and to the Right. I consult with early stage SaaS startups to help founders evaluate the strength of their PMF, or refine their go-to-market strategy.  I advise teams to develop in-house growth execution, but can help with  vetting of resources that need to be outsourced. Contact me on [email protected] or find me on @eved