The #1 SEO Productivity Mistake That’s Killing Your Results

The consequences of not doing what I am going to talk about on this episode of the show are so tremendous. I can't even tell you. And this episode I haven't talked about this actually in around a year. This is something that applies to way more than search engine optimization, but the search engine optimization consequences are crazy as well. If you're not doing this, you will have, I guarantee you, you will have increased pogo sticking, hours wasted every single day, major flaws in your site and your keyword targeting, your strategy will be off, everything will be lacking. And so, what is this magical thing that if you're not doing everything is going to fall apart? This magical thing is it is taking breaks. And okay, don't click away Don't Don't click away yet. I discovered I want to I want to just give a a short story about this. I discovered how important this is in 2020 during lockdowns when I was just at home making bottom of funnel SEO landing pages all day. That is when I learned about the technique that I share in compact keywords that is very focused on these conversion-based SEO landing pages. You start by doing a lot of keyword research, then you put together an outline, then you fill in that outline, and then you put up the page with images. To write an entire bottom of funnel SEO landing page at that time was taking me around two to four hours. I was doing it in a niche that I knew nothing about. So, I had to learn about the niche, I had to learn about what people cared about and how to make the landing pages sell to this niche because conversion-based SEO landing pages, they need to sell to people. This They are for people who already know what they want, and now these people they come to your page through search, and they just need to be told, "We are going to give you what you want for these reasons." And when I wasn't taking breaks, my pages were so much worse. I would go down rabbit holes that didn't matter at all. Waste hours there doing research on I would get caught up in something that just wasn't going to move the needle. And then I would get distracted by that thing. All of a sudden it would be two hours later. I would have just wasted two hours on something that didn't matter. Or I would include a bunch of things on the page that weren't going to do a great job convincing the searcher that we are the solution for them. I'd leave out sections that were very important. That were a no-brainer. Of course I should have a section for the person who is looking for this saying, "Yeah, this is one of the features that is that is going to be important to you." All these different things. And so, I started doing the Pomodoro Technique where you work for two-hour sessions. Within each two-hour sessions you have four 25-minute sessions, and these four 25-minute sessions are separated by three to five-minute breaks. And it really was incredible when I started doing this. I stopped going down these rabbit holes because I might be going down a a rabbit hole for 20 minutes. First five minutes of the the 25-minute session was going great, then I get distracted by something, and then 20 minutes later the alarm goes off and I realize then I step away, and two minutes into the break I realize that this thing that I had just spent 20 minutes on actually wasn't really going to do much for me, and I don't need to waste time on it. If I hadn't stepped away, not only would I have wasted a lot more time on that, I would have wasted energy on that, and maybe I would have tired myself out, and then the work that was actually going to move the needle, I would have to push on until the next day. Really the consequences are crazy. It's not just you're wasting hours on one thing, you're wasting energy as well, and you might be tired, and now you have to do the work that is actually going to get results the next day. So, that was that was one thing. I'd come up with all of these different things that I should include during the breaks. The breaks are actually some of the most productive times because you have all these things swimming around your brain. During the 25-minute session, you step away for three to five minutes, and then you realize, "Oh my gosh, I need to put this in, and I need to put this high up on the page. This is going to do a great job convincing people. This is what the hero image needs to look like. Oh, yeah, of course." Or I I was struggling how to relate this thing to the keyword, and now I know how to I step away, and it's like, "Yeah, this is of course how to relate this thing to the keyword." It's It's the same thing as going on a walk. There's a expression that I really love, and I'm I'm going to butcher it, but it's like, "No problem can survive a 30-minute walk." Because during the walk you always think of the solution that you're looking for. And when you take a a three to five-minute break, you really think of the solution that you're looking for. Now, these breaks, you can't spend them in front of the computer. You have to actually turn off your screens if you can. I I like to turn off my screens, and but the most important thing is you step the F away from your computer. You step away from your computer. Please step away from your computer. You can sit down somewhere else. Don't sit at your desk. Sit down somewhere else or pace around somewhere. You got to get away from your from your desk and from your computer. That is extremely important. It makes And you want to do this for your three to five-minute breaks. It makes such a huge huge huge difference. Okay, I'm going to give another example. This one isn't just in search engine optimization. I recently hired new editor for this show who is editing this right now. And when we started working, he wasn't actually doing this. He would just grind for hours and hours and hours without getting up. And the work got really sloppy. And I asked him, like, "Is your brain getting fatigued?" We had to We had to figure out why the work was so sloppy. And he's like, "Well, yeah, I I'm getting tired, and I'm getting less patient, and the work Yeah, the work is decreasing." And I'm like, "I can tell that the work is decreasing." I said, "Are you taking breaks?" He's like, "No, I'm just grinding for hours." And I said, "Okay, I want you to do this technique that I just described. And in between every two-hour session, you will have to take a minimum 20-minute break. And again, that cannot be in front of the computer. Cannot be in front of the computer, cannot be at your desk. Step away for 20 minutes. If you can go on a walk, if you can walk around the block, do that. If you live in the woods, go walk through the woods, but please get away for minimum 20 minutes. This is after the two-hour sessions." So, I told him this technique, the technique that I had learned while I was doing bottom of funnel SEO landing pages. And he started doing it, and our review times, which previously were taking three hours, were cut down by half or sometimes he just got it on the first try. It made a tremendous tremendous difference in the quality of the edits for this podcast because he wasn't getting fatigued, he was realizing things that needed to be included. He was coming up with solutions to like It's like, "How do I represent this complex SEO topic with a visual metaphor?" And you you realize that by stepping away. It saved us so much time in the reviews. Something that a lot of people don't know about the show is I review every edit personally, and we always make changes. People don't really realize just how much work goes into each episode because I want this show to do a really great job teaching people search engine optimization and digital marketing. And I go to crazy lengths to do that to make sure that the quality is is up to snuff. My editor can attest to that that I am very particular and very focused on just having a great product every episode. Stepping away for three to five-minute breaks between 25-minute sessions, and then a 20-minute break between every two-hour session, it allows you to work longer, make less mistakes, include things that are actually going to move the needle, not focus on things that are not going to move the needle. It occurred to me, too, with this new venture that I'm funding and advising that's growing with my method of SEO that I've been talking about a lot on this show. The reason actually I'm making this podcast is because just yesterday I was talking to the operator for this. I noticed that we were focusing on things that aren't actually going to be getting results. And for this for this operator, until we reach profitability, his time is my money. I said this, "Your time is my money. So, if we are focusing on things that is not going to get us to profitability where the amount of money that we are making is offsetting completely offsetting what I am paying you, every day that we prolong to get there, that is more money that I am spending on salary. So, we we want to get to profitability because I am paying for the salary until we reach a certain point of revenue, in which case revenue pays for the salary." The agreement is something like that. All the money that we get goes into offsetting what I am paying for salary. So, his time is my money. And I said, "Are you taking Are you taking frequent breaks?" And he's like, "Well, no, I'm grinding." So, I told him about this technique, two-hour sessions divided into four 25-minute sessions, three to five-minute breaks, 20 minutes of breaks between sessions. And he's like, "Okay, I'm going to do that." Because And he told me he would think about something and then go down this rabbit hole for hours without getting up, without leaving his computer. And I know I know I know I know that a lot of these things were just were rabbit holes that weren't going to move the needle, and if he was just stepping away, he would be a lot more productive. And he wouldn't get sidetracked on things that actually weren't important. You don't realize that in the moment until you force yourself to step away. And so, the implications of not doing this are so great as I talked about at the beginning of the episode. And the rewards for doing this are so great as well. It is a technique that makes the biggest difference in outcomes. And I had to make another episode on it, and I will make future episodes on it. It is so important. It drives me crazy when people don't do it. So, I hope that you will take this to heart, and you will do it like I do it, and like my editor does it, and like the operator is going to start doing this for this new company. And I hope you will get amazing results with it. And that is what I wanted to talk about on today's episode of the podcast, episode 1,014 of the Edward Show, 1,014 days in a row doing this show. If you want to learn how to make these conversion-based SEO landing pages like I talked about my method of search engine optimization. It is the thing on my shirt, compact keywords, compactkeywords.com. It is a method of SEO where you are focused on getting customers, on getting users, on getting warm leads, on finding keywords that are hot with intent, purchase intent keywords. How to structure your site for these conversion-based SEO landing pages, how to do a site audit to make sure that your site is crawled and indexed in the first place, how to build links, all these fun things in SEO. That is at compactkeywords.com. Check out the testimonials on the landing page. You can look at the people's LinkedIns. You can see the video testimonials. Some people are sharing their results in their video testimonials. You are going to love it. compactkeywords.com. That's everything that I got for you today. If you watch this on YouTube, thank you so much for watching. If you listened on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, thank you so much for listening. And I will talk to you again tomorrow. Bye now.