Optimize Episode 041: Brett Pharis on Content Strategy, User Experience, and Recovering from Algorithm Updates

Join Nate Matherson as he sits down with Brett Pharis for the forty-first episode of the Optimize podcast. Brett Pharis is a content and SEO expert with over 15 years of digital marketing experience across numerous niche consumer comparison websites. Brett is the Co-founder & CEO of Vital Brands, a digital media business focused on the health and wellness industry. Currently, Vital Brands is building GymBird.com, a fitness-focused brand determined to assist folks in taking the next step in their fitness journey. During the episode, Brett and Nate discuss the importance of developing a content strategy focused on your user and how to build content with first-hand user experience. Brett dissects one of his top-performing articles (linked below), demonstrating user value. In this week’s deep dive, Brett shares the importance of building a content strategy correctly from the start, addressing common pitfalls in the content production process while stressing the need for commitment and focus to build the depth required to generate user value. Brett outlines why efficiency is critical for content creation and emphasizes the importance of operational efficiency in content creation processes through streamlining workflows and leveraging automation tools where possible. Rounding out the episode, Brett and Nate cover topics like recovering from algorithm updates, indexing challenges, building multiple teams for various properties at once, and media industry dynamics. Closing the episode is our popular lightning round of questions!

Mar 13, 2024

Learn More About Brett Pharis

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettpharis/ 

GymBird Website: https://www.gymbird.com/ 

VitalBrands Website: https://www.vitalbrands.co/

Important Links:

Orange Theory Review Article: https://www.gymbird.com/gyms/orangetheory-fitness-review 

Follow Dwayne Hogan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwaynehogan/

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As an SEO novice, Positional makes it easy. I can quickly go from keyword research, to clustering, to content outlines, then go focus on just making good content. I felt like it helped bridge the gaps between what would’ve taken 3 or more tools in the past.

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Head of Growth at Definite

The first time we used Positional's toolset was to revamp an older but important piece of content. We used Optimize for optimization, and Internals for internal linking suggestions. We went from position #6 to #1 with the changes and increased our organic search traffic to the page by 400%. Today, Positional is an integral part of our blogging strategy, from topic generation to blog renovation.

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Alex Bass
CEO & Co-Founder

Positional takes the guessing game out of our content and SEO strategy. It allows me to do extremely quick keyword research which I can then turn into detailed instructions for our content writers through their Optimize tool. I love the speed new capabilities are being added!

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CEO & Co-Founder at AccessOwl

I've been using Positional since its closed beta, and it boosted our SEO results so far! We've published over 80 articles with Positional and it has gained traction very well. The "Optimize" tool is my favorite — it ensures we use the right keywords for better rankings. The "Content Analytics" tool is also great for showing us exactly where we should improve our content.

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Positional's tools are an essential supplement to any search-driven content effort. They help us save time and produce better content for both our company blog and our clients.

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