Today’s co-host is Tom Hirst, a longtime freelancer, WordPress developer, mentor, author, and creator. Tom breaks down his outlook on SEO and why landing pages are your best weapon for lead generation.
Like most entrepreneurs, Tom realized at a young age that working for someone else would never fulfill him. Luckily he’s found success as a full-time freelancer and has a few lessons to share about his path to financial freedom. He credits his accomplishments to a focus on business rather than a blind love for coding. And he reminds us that experimentation is key to creating a website that works.
In this episode, Tom talks about his process for driving new and qualified leads, how to discover killer keywords, what most people miss when building a great website, and why there’s more to success than SEO.
“What you’ve got to think is, the person, the prospect, the lead, are coming in and seeing that page, they’re landing on that page, and a lot of the time, they’re not really going off that page. So if you’ve got one page with one specific focus, it doesn’t really matter what the other pages look like, per se.” ~ @tom_hirst
Main Takeaways
- A service-specific landing page is the key to generating leads, and many freelancers miss that when caught up in SEO technicalities. SEO is only one piece of the discovery puzzle.
- When you pivot, there’s no need to create an entirely new website. Just take your existing site and build out a new landing page that calls out the benefits of your new service.
- There’s no exact science to discovering great keywords. Sometimes you just have to experiment with different landing pages that are optimized for different content and keywords.
- Always put contact information on the same page as trust signals. This creates a frictionless experience for users. In other words, it doesn’t leave them searching for ways to find you.
- You have to focus on the business behind your craft to get ahead.
- Tom on Twitter
- Tom’s website
- Tom’s resources
- Tom’s mentorship program
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- Gatsby
- Check out a bonus episode with Tom
Links and Important Mentions
Stay in Touch
Season 9: Building a Profitable Service
More episodes in this season:
S09 E01 - Prioritizing Process, Delegating Smart, and Doing What You Love with Austin Church
S09 E02 - Staying Curious, Capitalizing on Your Network, and Adding Value with Samar Owais
S09 E03 - Intentional Parenting, Handling Social Media, and Scheduling Me-Time with Rob Roseman
S09 E04 - Finding Your Niche, Building an Audience, and the Art of Podcasting with Joe Casabona
S09 E05 - Doing Your Research, Communicating ROI, and Innovating Outside Your Niche with Eman Zabi
S09 E06 - How To Pivot, The Secret to Great SEO, and Why Business Is More Important Than Craft with Tom Hirst
S09 E07 - Stacking Power-Ups, Maintaining Focus, and the Art of the Steal with Eric Siu
S09 E08 - Understanding Emotional Data and Listening to Your Audience with Adrienne Barnes
S09 E09 - Launching a Business, Finding Balance, and Staying Valuable
S09 E10 - How Specialties Lead to Priceless Referrable Moments with Chase Dimond
S09 E11 - Differentiation, Reputation, and Pivoting From the Top-Down with Peep Laja
