Leonid Grokhovsky

Ivan Sevostyanov, Dmitry Ivanov, Fedor Fironov

Promotion of portals and online stores

A practical guide for marketers and business leaders

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

The cover design uses illustrations from shutterstock.com.

My name is Leonid Grokhovsky, I am the head of the consulting agency “Promotion of Portals”.

Our project is focused on large web portals, where SEO brings maximum benefits. I have been promoting websites for more than eight years, have worked with 500 projects and opened the TopExpert training center. For the last few years I have been working on portals: woman.ru, komandirovka.ru, cian.ru, etc. have become my clients.

It wasn't always like this. I once worked alone and did everything myself. I missed the team and the scale. The result is missed deadlines, customer disappointment, and money back. One day I decided to take a break to change things up. This is how a training center, team and laboratory of new technologies appeared. Later, the consulting agency “Promotion of Portals” grew on their basis. I was lucky enough to fail and change in time. This is how the understanding emerged that quality is necessary in everything we do today.

This book is about how to promote large complex projects. We tried to consider SEO in the broadest sense, including not only information search, but also PR, marketing and working with content in general. It describes technologies and approaches that are unpopular in the market. It’s about how to promote a website with a team of two, three, five or even 15 people (this is a new practice for Runet - usually one specialist promotes 10, 15, 30, 50 sites). Only using this approach can you make a project a leader in search traffic.

What is this book for? In order to, using modern promotion technologies, qualitatively promote the site and become a leader in traffic. If you don't aspire to be a leader, this book won't do you any good.

Who needs this book? With its help, current and future owners or managers of large online stores and portals will be able to choose the right promotion strategy, evaluate the resources needed for promotion and predict the result. Heads of promotion departments will learn a lot of useful information about organizing processes and developing automation tools. Specialists will be able to understand what a high-quality approach to website promotion is.

Structure of the book. Since experience in such a complex and dynamic field consists of many very small “I know where” and “I know how”, they also have to be presented in small theses. So don't be surprised if some subsections only have a few sentences.

Portals and their promotion

A portal is a large Internet project that is visited daily by thousands and sometimes millions of users. According to Wikipedia (ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web portal), portals are conditionally divided into:

□ on vertical portals(Vertical portal), niche portals (Niche portal) – portals with a narrow thematic focus, providing various services for Network users based on specific interests and focused on full coverage of topics or areas of activity;

□ horizontal portals(or universal portals, portals general purpose(General portal) - portals covering a variety of topics, providing a set of services (serving, if possible, all topics) and aimed at the widest possible audience and the maximum coverage of its interests. The most famous horizontal portals (by Internet sectors) are Yahoo! (English), Mail.ru (Russian), Yandex, Ukr.net (Russian and Ukrainian).

Let's look at how things are going with the promotion of such sites in Russia.

Russian portal promotion market

At the moment, there is practically no market for promoting portals in Russia. Large and small SEO companies successfully promote small and medium-sized sites, but none of them specialize in promoting portals specifically and creating real leaders from portals. Moreover, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the very approach to promoting portals is fundamentally wrong - it is simply entrusted to an optimizer who can simultaneously manage five, ten or more projects. This approach, quite justified for business card websites, becomes simply fatal when applied to large web projects.

Will the situation ever change? Definitely yes, but this service will be very expensive. The fact is that to promote each portal, a whole team of specialists is needed - in fact, a small SEO company. A company that has entered into an agreement to promote a portal must, as soon as possible:

□ create a new department;

□ find a manager who will simultaneously good manager, an optimizer and, if possible, a specialist in the subject of the portal (such people are extremely rare);

□ with its help, find and invite ordinary performers, some of whom - at least specialists in content creation - must be familiar with the topic.

Upon completion of cooperation, it is necessary to either quickly transfer all employees of this department to other projects (and there may not be projects of similar or similar topics), or fire them. The first is difficult, the second is even worse.

Thus, a company specializing in working with large sites will be forced to either include large risks in the cost of promotion or suffer losses.

An alternative to this approach is to create a promotion department internal to the portal, outsource a number of processes and regularly contact consultants. We will return to organizing the work of internal departments and the possibility of improving the qualifications of managers.

DMITRY IVANOV:

“The Russian Internet audience and its purchasing power continue to grow rapidly. Competition is also growing, including for positions in search results. Search technologies are becoming more complex, search engines are evolving from link and text algorithms to assessing user behavior.

New search technologies require the use of new promotion strategies. Unfortunately, many agencies providing SEO services continue to follow the path of cutting costs. Quality issues fade into the background. As a rule, one specialist promotes 20-30 projects. With this approach, it is impossible to effectively promote medium-sized and especially large sites.

Today, most successful portals are promoted by internal resources. In particularly difficult cases, a team of 15 people can promote one portal. In an agency, on the contrary, the site goes on a standard conveyor belt, where 5-10 hours a month are allocated for “assembly”. The result is the lack of an acceptable result, delays, unfulfilled promises and financial losses, often amounting to millions of rubles.”

How do portals differ from regular websites?

Home distinctive feature portals have a large number of pages – up to several million. Several consequences follow from this.

1. The need for automation. Everything that can be automated should be automated. Manual work when promoting a portal is only the most complex and intellectual. Collecting semantics, creating content, linking, analyzing effectiveness, generating anchors, placing links - all this can and should work automatically.

2. The need for standardization. You need standard page templates, a unified standard for constructing diagrams, a unified standard for placing graphics, media materials, etc. All standards must be represented by templates and scripts, by editing which you will automatically edit tens of thousands of pages.

3. Large amount of content. The volume is really huge - good portal contains tens and even hundreds of thousands of informative and useful texts for the user. Investments in content and its protection are the most profitable from the point of view of portal promotion. It is necessary to constantly work on improving and increasing the mass of content.

4. Large semantic core. The core can include several hundred thousand queries, and therefore the selection of semantics should be taken with all possible seriousness.

5. High traffic and significant load on the server. The portal must work quickly and without failures even during peak load. This is important for search engine promotion, it is important for visitors, and ultimately for automation.

I always wanted to give such a textbook, because... it has been available for download for a long time and while it is still possible, it is worth downloading and reading immediately. You'll probably find a lot of useful things there.

Book “SEO for Business”

A book about how, in today’s realities, an entrepreneur can attract customers from search:

With your own hands
by the hands of an employee
by contacting the agency

Honestly about what marketing tricks they will use against you, what is behind the guarantees, what employees do not discuss, how much promotion actually costs, what to do if there is no result.

For those who want to do effective SEO.

Volume 200 pages.
Format.PDF
EBook

It's a little unclear about downloading.

everything works, I downloaded it twice with a different email, tested it

There is also this video. It is primarily for beginners and will certainly be interesting. From the second part there is an analysis of sites - which ones need SEO, which ones don’t and why.

Leonid Grokhovsky: “SEO course: how to promote a website in Yandex and Google”

— How SEO has changed in 4.5 years
— Minusinsk: do the links work or not?
— Changes in agency payment schemes
— New agency marketing tricks
— Trend: complication of old technologies
— Online merchandising instead of a semantic core
— Linguistics, statistics, automation
— Project management in SEO
— SEO as part of integrated marketing
— 7 SEO technologies that give quick results

This is just one of the videos, but in general, and not only from Grokhovsky, but also from many other specialists.

For example:

— Promotion of content portals and large eCommerce — 2015
— Promotion of online stores
— Answers to questions on the topic “Managing a web studio”
— Creation of a complete semantic core of queries using the example of Mercedes Benz
— Master class “Promotion of portals and stores”
— Behavioral factors. Leonid Grokhovsky, Roman Morozov and others.
— Consultation for readers of the book “SEO for Business”
— From black to white in foreign SEO. Anton Voronyuk
- Well contextual advertising: cheap traffic for online stores
— CRM course: email marketing for online stores
— How to promote a young website
— How to quickly promote a website in Yandex and Google
— Advanced SEO course analytics: internet marketing
— Foreign SEO: Google Panda, Google Penguin
— How to promote a website in Google USA

and much more, they generously share large posts on a variety of topics there

All my projects except this SEO blog:

TOP Base- high-quality base for semi-automatic registration with Allsubmitter or for completely manual placement - for independent free promotion any website, attracting targeted visitors to the site, increasing sales, naturally diluting the link profile. I have been collecting and updating the database for 10 years. There are all types of sites, all topics and regions.

SEO-Topshop- SEO software with DISCOUNTS, on favorable terms, news of SEO services, databases, manuals. Including Xrumer on the most favorable terms and with free training, Zennoposter, Zebroid and various others.

My free comprehensive SEO courses- 20 detailed lessons in PDF format.
- catalogs of sites, articles, press release sites, bulletin boards, company directories, forums, social networks, blog systems, etc.

"Approaching.."- my blog on the topic of self-development, psychology, relationships, personal effectiveness

When professionals leave any field, the question inevitably arises: “Why?” And the constantly developing area is no exception: the demand for consulting and promotion is growing, tasks and technical solutions are constantly changing, while well-known specialists are in demand more than ever. However, Leonid Grokhovsky announced his resignation from SEO in favor of managing the consulting agency and training center TopExpert. He talks about the prospects for education in the field of SEO, about consulting and the situation on the labor market, about salaries and a free lifestyle. Leonid Grokhovsky.

Leonid, you announced your resignation fromSEOand announced "LastSEOseminar" . What is the reason for your decision?

I've been doing SEO for over eight years. Over the past years, I have gone from creating web pages and writing SEO texts for 400 types of tires to creating and promoting large-scale projects with more than 500,000 visitors a day. A few years ago, I noticed that no matter what project I was working on at the moment, I kept coming back to teaching. This process gives me a lot of positive emotions and forces me to constantly develop, without stopping there.

At the same time, we have to admit the fact that today there is a huge shortage of specialists in the SEO field. On the one hand, we are observing an amazing phenomenon - the salary offer for SEO exceeds the level of applicants’ requests. On the other hand, people who come for interviews today often cannot work effectively. The market is rapidly developing, tasks are becoming more complex every day, and there are practically no specialized institutions capable of training specialists. That's why I'm leaving my job as a technologist and analyst to get more involved in running my consulting agency and training center.

In your opinion, why has there been a discrepancy between the expectations of employers and the skills of specialists?

This is primarily due to the fact that SEO is rapidly moving from banal spam to consulting. Just ten years ago, only a few dozen people knew how to promote websites. For $100, they could bring the company to the Top for search queries and provide a large influx of clients to the companies, as well as good income for themselves. Grateful company owners shared their “find” with their colleagues, thereby increasing demand for services. Further, individual promotion work turned into a business, and individual organizations began to actively capture the SEO market.

A little time passed and the situation changed dramatically. Initially, a simple and understandable model worked: specialists literally in a month with a 100% guarantee brought the company to the Top of search engines and supported it there. But as soon as Yandex changed its algorithm, most SEO organizations were unable to fulfill their obligations. But the requests remained, clients believed in this tool, and there was a need for competent analysts, specialists who are able to work despite the changed rules of the game.

Leonid, what should a specialist’s education be like in order for it to correspond to a dynamically developing field? SEO?

In SEO, as in any other specialty, there is basic fundamental knowledge, with the mastery of which the training of specialists begins. Three aspects are extremely important: fundamental knowledge, understanding of basic algorithms, design search engine. The skill of self-learning, searching for new information, and the ability to analyze are also important. Existing universities cope with these tasks more or less normally, however, they could use some reorganization.

However, the current education system does not take into account the relevance of knowledge, which is especially important for those already working in the field SEO specialists. Therefore, the TopExpert training center provides almost weekly seminars, round tables, and master classes. We invite recognized experts in the field of SEO to participate in them. The team of experts I have assembled allows you not only to increase your level of knowledge by listening to seminars, but also to be aware of upcoming changes in SEO and be prepared for them.

As a result, competent specialists must be able to do quality work, and not just act according to outdated instructions. These are the kind of personnel we want to see in the labor market. We try to prepare such people in our courses, answering for them with our name and reputation.

What did you mean when you spoke about the reorganization of existing education?

For example, new professions have appeared in SEO: analyst and marketer. They didn’t exist before, but technologies have changed, new needs have emerged, and this is the answer to them. In general, in the field of high technology, new specialties may appear every six months. A good specialist simply must constantly learn, and basic programs cannot be “canned”. I believe that after receiving fundamental knowledge and a bachelor’s degree, a person must determine for himself which blocks and subjects are most important to study in his future specialization. If we talk about education in the field of high technologies globally, then I see four main points of development.

Talking about change existing system, I meant the approach itself higher education. First, you need to learn from practitioners. If a teacher is exclusively engaged in teaching, then in an actively changing environment, his knowledge quickly becomes outdated and its effectiveness decreases. Lack of integration between education and business is one of the huge problems that exists today.

Secondly, the teacher should not be tied to a specific educational institution. Technologies distance learning allow you to effectively learn from a person, regardless of his geographical location. Thirdly, the age of entry into a teaching position should be significantly reduced. Even at a young age, despite the lack of an academic degree, a specialist in his field can teach his own courses. Finally, the validity of the diploma must be limited. Within six months, a graduate must find a job: otherwise, his knowledge will become outdated and he will need to take advanced training courses to confirm his diploma. Ideally, potential employers should be present at the graduation ceremony to evaluate the graduate and immediately hire him.

Leonid, TopExpert corresponds to the scheme you proposed?

We have created a training center that provides a real opportunity, regardless of the geographical location of students, to obtain a very high level of knowledge and get a job in the company they dreamed of. Moreover, the salary level is significantly higher than the market one. Our mission is to give people the opportunity to do what they are truly interested in and make great money at the same time.

For example, in the fall we are planning to launch a three-month course, as a result of which students will be able to reorganize their own lives in such a way as not to be tied to the office and the city, but at the same time not to lose at all financially. This will be one of our New Year's gifts, because the course will be completely free. In winter, I plan to take my office to Bali and show by my own example how to work effectively remotely. All students who have completed the course will be able to join us. Moreover, the status of the student is not at all important - they can be students without work experience, experienced specialists, or business owners.

Too often people create boundaries and restrictions. We want to show that you can learn to do things differently. SEO today is closely related to other activities and cannot exist without good texts, layout, programming, user interface, marketing, web analytics. We can say that we want to change the lifestyle of many people working in various fields. Teach them not only to realize themselves at work, but also to allow them to lead the lifestyle they dreamed of.

Leonid, during our conversation you mentioned more than onceSEO-consulting. This is a promising direction inSEO?

As for consulting, most companies cannot provide high-quality services in this area, because they are designed for conveyor work. SEO has changed a lot, and today, in order to produce high-quality results, it is necessary to involve thinking specialists, and not work according to the standard scheme. A specialist who promotes 30 sites can afford to spend a maximum of four hours a month on the project. During this time, you can correct a simple error in a semi-automatic mode, and this directly affects the quality of the service. And the goal of SEO consulting is maximum quality, high impact and personalized approach.

And, of course, it is important for me not only to pass on the accumulated knowledge and experience within the TopExpert training center through courses, but also to prepare worthy recipients. Strictly speaking, for six months now I have been training people who will do high-quality promotion work large portals. The work will be carried out using my technology, and until I see that there is a person who can completely replace me, I will supervise these projects myself.

Promotion of portals and online stores Grokhovsky Leonid O.

Leonid Grokhovsky

Leonid Grokhovsky

Internet business manager, entrepreneur, business coach.

Implemented projects: SEO training center “TopExpert” (www.topexpert.pro), development from scratch and bringing the SEO department of Arrowmedia agencies (top 5 SEO companies) to a leading position, as well as entry of Optimism.ru into the top 10 SEO companies, consulting agency SEENA.

Took part in promoting the websites www.championat.com, www.woman.ru, www.cian.ru, www.komandirovka.ru, www.panasonic.ru, www.aforex.ru, etc.

He is the developer and organizer of more than 30 studies and 10 automation systems. Implemented more than 500 projects, trained more than 2,500 specialists, and gave more than 100 presentations.

Personal blog: bLog.grohovskiy.ru.

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