Atiba De Souza started his career in internet-based search in 1996. In the early 2000’s he consulted for several government agencies (INS, EPA, DLA) and several military departments and led teams that designed and built search tools. For the EPA, in 2001, Atiba and his team made a $10 million dollar system that allowed the EPA to search their data agency-wide easily. After almost ten years in government, Atiba turned to the private sector and the burgeoning SEO field. Using a unique method of blending storytelling with search keywords, Atiba has helped rank over 10, 000 pages on Google’s Page 1 for various search terms. When he is not geeking out on the latest SEO principles and trends, Atiba is a man of God, husband, father, and IG Food Influencer in the Washington, DC, area.
Atiba believes that no other content medium will connect directly with your viewers like video. Listening, watching, feeling, and connecting with them rather than just reading words on a page. You can get intimate with people and literally exist inside their heads. When Google came out in 2020 saying that at least 60% of their database needs to show a video on page one, that’s the biggest thing that happened. Secondly, in order to facilitate this, Google poured 800 million into YouTube shorts in 2022, paying creators to make more content for YouTube shorts specifically. Then TikTok decided it wanted to go from being an entertainment platform to a search engine and in 2022 for the first time, Google was unseated as the number one website in the world for about five days.
TikTok believes it can challenge Google in a war, producing videos as its ammunition. The beauty is that it’s actually easier to rank video to written content. This may be a bit of a paradigm shift, but if you follow all the steps that Atiba offers, you will rank number one on Google in a matter of days. He advises answering specific questions and figuring out what those questions are and that’ll be your content when you post the video. Don’t try to clean it up exactly the way they would’ve asked it. Also, transcribe your video yourself, don’t use Auto transcribe on YouTube. It’s about 60 to 70% accurate but what about the inaccurate 30 to 40% you don’t get to choose? Use services and tools like ‘Descript’, which will transcribe the video and give the video back in the exact format that YouTube needs it.
It’s also crucial to repeat the question multiple times when you hit record. Then put a name to your ideal customer and talk to this fictitious person on camera, pretend that they asked you the question, and answer them. If you don’t have a great imagination, then get somebody to feel the question for you. This is one of the big things they do for their clients, asking the questions as a conversation to help them feel comfortable.
In this episode:
[02:57] It’s crucial to master understanding your audience and content strategy.
- Taking the principles and applying them to create video content.
- The medium has changed, but the theory is still the same.
[05:45] There’s no other content medium that will connect directly with your viewers like video.
- Listening and connecting with people rather than having them read words on a page.
- The way you present and interact with people is what get’s their attention.
[09:09] TikTok decided it wanted to go from being an entertainment platform to a search engine.
- TikTok believes it can challenge Google, and we’re about to have a war.
- Making videos that get the point across in two minutes versus 20 minutes.
[12:56] Atiba gives an example of when someone took his advice about the way to do a video.
- At first, only did two of the points that he gave.
- Doing all of the steps and three hours later it was number one on Google.
[16:50] This is the most basic of all of the steps that most people forget.
- Repeat the question you decided on multiple times when you hit record.
- It’s not about having a topic that is so on point along with low competition.
[21:12] Atiba gives advice on getting over your stage fright.
- Put a name on your ideal customer and talk to them on camera.
- Pretend they ask the question and answer the question directly.
Watch the Interview:
Learn more and reach out:
- LinkedIn: Atiba De Souza
- Website: Client Attraction Pros
