Indie Hackers Community 🗞 What's New: For those frustrated by SEO

Is demystifying SEO getting you down?

• This SEO guide breaks it down step-by-step, including creative advice on how to rank. Run this test before diving in, though, to determine whether you even need search traffic to land paying users.
• How can you make sure that your second launch is even better than your first? These takeaways can help.
• Founder Maxime Dupré gave up a $300,000 per year job as a blockchain developer to kick off his indie hacking journey with Microbreak Boss, a pomodoro timer. Here are his thoughts on Web3, and how he deals with uncertainty about the future.

Want to share something with over 85,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

🤯 Understanding SEO

by Jamie Sewell

I've spent hours reading and watching videos on how SEO works, best practices, tips, and what to avoid, and I'm still flummoxed at what to do beyond the bare minimum.

There's so much info out there, but it just feels impractical when you're a solo founder that doesn't have loads of cash to throw around. Staying on top of SEO changes is like a full-time job. Oftentimes, these frustrations make me avoid marketing altogether, which I know I can't do. So much of SEO feels gimmicky, and I want to avoid that.

Does anyone else feel this way? How can I learn the SEO game?

A quick, dirty SEO guide

StartupSales cuts to the chase with this guide:

• Learn basic keyword research. You can use a tool like Ahrefs for a week for $7, and it's worth every penny, in my opinion. It's also not too complicated.

• Find long-tail keywords with low competition.

• Look up what ranks for those keywords.

• Write a better piece of content than what is ranking. Make it longer and add a chart, bullet points, or images. If the top ranking piece is 1K words, write 1.5K.

• Answer the actual question that people want answered.

• Use a tool like Yoast to help you with the technical SEO requirements.

• Publish.

• Share on Indie Hackers, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

• Have patience.

• Update the content in a few months.

• Share again on Indie Hackers, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

• Make sure that your Google Search Console and Google Analytics are set up.

• Have more patience.

Use creative channels

Darko has analyzed hundreds of interviews with indie hackers, and has put together this guide on creative SEO hacks:

First things first...you're making a major assumption by focusing on SEO: The idea that search traffic will bring you paying users.

Are you sure about this? Before diving all in, you should be sure.

One way to test this assumption is to spend some money on Google Ads bidding for your keywords. These days, you can take advantage of Google Ads credits to get started for free.

Once you're sure that you need to know SEO, here's a pro tip that I've uncovered. Most indie hackers found success with SEO as a result of another acquisition channel working for them, such as press or blogging on other websites. Focusing on those channels brought them users and links (the most important factor for SEO), which in turn, got Google to rank them higher.

What was interesting is that almost nobody focused on tapping into channels like press or guest blogging to increase their search traffic. The founders that did focus on press and guest blogging happened to notice that search traffic started bringing them paying users.

So, if you want to focus on SEO and acquiring users at the same time, my recommendation is to focus on channels where:

1. The direct result is getting potential users, and
2. The indirect result is getting valuable links that would cause Google to rank you higher for more relevant phrases.

Some of these channels include press, posting on other blogs with relevant traffic, and getting included in resource pages.

Another way is to try to integrate yourself into sites that already rank for your target phrases. Say you have a team collaboration SaaS, and there's a blog post ranking for "team collaboration tools" that lists 10 tools similar to yours. Asking the blog owner to include you there for a week, in exchange for something, is much more resource efficient than spending months trying to rank for that phrase (and, perhaps, finding that it brings no paying users anyway).

The key here is to make the request small. First, ask if there's a possibility to be included in the first place; many websites may be really hard to edit. Then, mention that you're open to striking some sort of a deal. Also, maybe mention that you're looking to be there for a week or so because, as they know, ranking for a keyword takes months. At the start, you don't know whether working for months to rank there would be worth it.

Cornerstone strategy

Aske Schou's business is built entirely around SEO, and he says that SEO is a longterm strategy. You need to think a year or two ahead in terms of your time investment. So, if you are looking to get customers tomorrow, SEO is not your friend.

This is actually good news, because many companies are not patient enough for this. This makes SEO an open field for anyone willing to invest long-term. Personally, I do evergreen content, so I stay away from anything that doesn't age well on my site.

Give people the answers they are looking for on your website, and give them reasons to come back. If you can make something useful that people would link to on their own website or on social media, your website gains authority. With authority, you will be able to rank more quickly on new topics. You've created a flywheel, hopefully.

Google "cornerstone strategy," and build your content around this. Keyword analysis and building your content around this cornerstone is key. Also, always have the business model of Google in the back of your mind: Google wants its users to have good experiences. So, if it lists you on the first page, Google expects you to provide users with a "first page experience." Your goal should be to do it better than everyone else on the first page for any given result.

Trick for backlinks: Check out link-building experts' own websites for backlinks. They're full of good ideas for your own strategy.

Trick for content: Always make sure that your content serves other purposes than simply SEO, and always try to make it the best out there. Create content that you could use in a sales pitch for a customer, add to your documentation, or other useful purposes.

Also, make sure that every piece of content, whether it's for SEO purposes or not, has a researched keyword. This is part of your cornerstone strategy.

What are your top SEO tips? Share in the comments below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Indie Economy for more.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

🚲 Peleton: When scaling goes wrong.

🛩 Airlines say that the US 5G crisis has been averted.

🍼 Seoul is offering people over $1.6K to have babies.

🏖 Travel tastes are changing in 2022.

🏥 This viral challenge is leading to teen hospitalizations.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

🚀 Make Your Second Launch Better Than Your First

from the Deep Dive newsletter by Seth King

NIPYATA! started as a homemade product: A piñata filled with mini plastic bottles of booze, brought to college parties. Here's how the company made the most of its second launch!

Boozy piñatas

Indie Hackers interviewed one of Nipyata's cofounders, Will Hench, three years ago. At that time, the product was almost perfect. It was hitting $50K MRR, and everything was going smoothly. There were just two problems:

1. NIPYATA's flagship product, "Pinyatas," could only hold plastic bottles.

2. Plastic bottles limited the amount of variety that NIPYATA! could offer to its customers.

The company needed a way to address these issues, and a bit of experimenting helped uncover a solution.

A new idea

During the pandemic, NIPYATA! had a second launch. The company began offering drinkable greeting cards, cards that come with small bottles of high-end booze. This launch allowed NIPYATA! to:

1. Offer higher-end alcohol to its customers.

2. Reach a wider audience than those solely looking for plastic nips, since higher-end spirits are only packaged in glass.

The greeting cards were priced at $25. The low price point made it easier for customers to decide to take a risk on them. By comparison, Pinyatas sold for $100.

There are two main takeaways from this second launch:

1. Launch a product that complements your first product well. Complementary products are those that solve a need that your first product doesn't. NIPYATA! wasn't able to cater to a certain audience with its first product, but the company's virtual greeting cards allowed it to reach a different audience at an even lower price point.

2. Don't wait for the first product to lose steam. Keep launching! NIPYATA's cofounders have experimented with new ideas throughout the pandemic, and launched the drinkable greeting cards to hedge their bets on COVID-19's impact on the alcohol industry. COVID-19 didn't impact their business in the way that they expected; they now have two successful product lines instead of just one.

What did your second launch teach you? Please share below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Deep Dive for more.

🌐 Best Around the Web: Posts Submitted to Indie Hackers This Week

📝 I'll suggest an SEO strategy for you. Posted by Ankur Singh.

🤔 What kinds of posts would you like to see on Indie Hackers? Posted by Courtland Allen.

⚖️ Givers vs. takers among founders. Posted by Noosh Baratpour.

😖 What are you struggling with? Posted by James Fleischmann.

👀 Does coding favor the youth? Posted by Seth King.

🤷‍♀️ I've built my MVP. Now what? Posted by Sam Pistorius.

Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.

👨‍💻 Maxime Dupré Talks Blockchain Development

by Maxime Dupré

Hey everyone! I'm Maxime Dupré, a full stack developer with about 15 years of experience. In three months, I went from having no blockchain knowledge to making $155 an hour as a blockchain Solidity developer.

Later, I decided that I'd rather live life on my own terms and scratch my own itch as an indie app maker, so I quit my job. I am currently freelancing to pay the bills, but I make sure to dedicate most of my time to making apps. I'm currently working on Microbreak Boss, a pretty unique macOS break timer. I started this project to learn Swift, and I will likely branch off to other apps in the future. Right now, though, I'm having a blast trying to find my first 100 customers!

AMA!

How did you learn blockchain dev?

First, I took this course on Udemy. But honestly, I learned much more by working on random projects than I did by watching any course. Here's my advice:

• Take a very basic course just to get an overview. The more basic, the better.
• Find something that you are excited to build. It doesn't even need to be valuable to others at this stage. The goal is learning.
• Start building it, and learn just enough so that you can make progress. Every time you get stuck, allot time for another learning session.

What's your plan for acquiring your first 100 paid users?

I currently have ~20 customers. To hit 100, I plan on using Twitter and Reddit as search engines to close cold one-on-one sales. Here's my full plan!

So far, I've had relative success with that strategy. I've gotten some sales, but nothing too crazy. I'll keep putting in work and adapting my plan, while also encouraging slow, organic growth. Right now, I'm going for replies instead of DMs. My thought process is that, since everyone can see the replies, I might reach more interested people.

Here's my copy for cold selling:

• I created this cool break/focus/pomodoro timer for macOS if you're interested. 😇

• Microbreak Boss: Stay productive with a cool BOSS on your menu bar. Fully customizable.

• My favorite feature: See how many other users are working while you are. 😊

Also, doing cold sales seems to have boosted my app store optimization (which is SEO for app stores) by quite a lot, so maybe I'll start getting more sales from that exposure.

How was the transition from your job?

It's been nothing short of life-changing. If you want to go all in, here's my advice:

1. Make sure you understand the sacrifices that you'll be making, and make sure that you fully accept them in advance. Accept the worst outcome before even going into this adventure.
2. Make sure that you reduce your expenses beforehand, and have a Job MED (minimum effective dose) if you have no savings or runway. You can read more on a Job MED here.

Has leaning into marketing been an issue for you?

I was really scared of marketing before starting my indie hacking journey and building in public. But now, being active on Twitter has really become a source of joy for me.

My ideal scenario would be to do 75% building and 25% marketing, but truthfully I'm kind of addicted to Twitter now! I need to work on that; we should always be focused on building, in my opinion. So if anything, I'm having the opposite issue right now. I like marketing too much!

Thoughts on Web3?

I do think that Web3 will change the world, but I'm not so sure that it will get rid of our beloved Web2 apps.

What might happen is that Web2 apps may start including more Web3 primitives, like a merge of some sort. I see Web2 as an extension of Web1, and Web3 as an extension of Web2. I don't think that's a perfect comparison, but I don't think that Web2 and Web3 are competing against each other.

But who knows? Web3 is clearly disrupting finance, art, and gaming, amongst other things. None of these have a clear association with Web2 in my head. I hope that this rant made sense! As you all know, this is a complicated and nuanced subject.

How do you deal with uncertainty about the future?

I've come to enjoy those emotions, or at least embrace them. I've realized that uncertainty brings pure excitement, and at this point of my life, I'm choosing excitement over comfort and security. Furthermore, those challenging emotions bring out the best in me, and they force me to grow.

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Jamie Sewell, Priyanka Vazirani, Seth King, and Maxime Dupré for contributing posts. —Channing