Curious how to skyrocket your website traffic without spending money on advertising? This week’s podcast guest can help you defy the odds! Episode #9 of the Wild Business Growth podcast is HERE and features superstar SEO Expert and Sure Oak Founder Tom Casano! Presented by Hippo Direct. Listen today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and your other favorite audio platforms – subscribe and leave a 5-star review if you’re hungry for more business growth!
What is the Wild Business Growth Podcast?
Hear how entrepreneurs & innovators unleash creativity to grow bigger and better businesses. Hear from an exciting new guest every single week who’s turning wild ideas into wild growth. Guests include startup founders, product inventors, social media influencers, and much more. Hosted by our digital marketing dude Max Branstetter.
Episode #9: Tom Casano – World’s Best SEO Expert, Founder of Sure Oak
Tom Casano, the super stellar SEO Expert, Founder of Sure Oak, and Host of the Sure Oak Podcast joins the show to reveal how to organically boost your website traffic and what movie still makes him cry every time. I was introduced to Tom through the always amazing Mike Kawula, who promptly recommended Tom after we recorded Episode #6. Tom and I realized very quickly we have the same sense of humor and same appreciation for creative marketing campaigns and game-changing entrepreneurs, which made for a SUPER fun and insightful recording session. Tom is a true expert in the SEO and Entrepreneurship spaces, a fantastic leader, and an all-around hilarious and awesome guy! This episode covers everything from how to drive more revenue through SEO to how to come up with ideas in the dark. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
- Tom’s evolution from Musician to Day Trader to Entrepreneur
- The Top 3 things to focus on for SEO
- How to constantly learn while effectively managing time
- What you can learn from billionaires
- How to cut out distractions and focus on what’s important
- What advertising campaign is effectively dominating NYC
- How to keep your mind fresh with different hobbies
- The benefits of being kind to others
Connect with Tom on Twitter at @TomCasano, on LinkedIn, or at TomCasano.com and his business at SureOak.com and the Sure Oak Podcast.
Enjoy the show and don’t SWEAT the small stuff! Check out the show notes below for much more detail.
Show Notes
- Intro
- [0:42] Tom Casano, Sure Oak
- [0:45] SEO = Search Engine Optimization
- [0:55] Google, Yahoo!
- [1:25] NYC heat wave
- [1:49] Mike Kawula
- [2:27] Sure Oak Podcast
- [2:35] Wild Business Growth Podcast Episode #6: Mike Kawula – Serial Entrepreneur and Daily Podcaster
- [3:10] Tom’s background
- [3:32] Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Course
- [3:34] Dane Maxwell
- [3:36] The Foundation
- [3:39] SaaS = Software as a Service
- SEO
- [4:40] How Tom got into SEO
- [5:20] What he did to boost website traffic 500% in 2 months (!!)
- [6:20] If he ever gets sick of SEO
- [7:01] Shiny Object Syndrome – Introduced by Gina Schreck in Episode #5
- [7:11] What has changed in SEO over the past several years
- [7:30] Stats on the future usage of Voice Search
- [7:45] The value of 100K organic site visitors per month
- [7:53] Facebook Ads
- [8:50] Most important keys to get started with SEO
- [9:25] 1. Keyword research & optimization
- [10:31] 2. Authoritative & Longform Content
- [10:45] WordPress
- [11:40] 3. Link Building (most important thing to focus on with SEO)
- [11:55] The Wall Street Journal
- [12:00] What’s Google’s most heavily weighted ranking factor
- [12:31] Forbes, Entrepreneur
- [12:55] Tips for Link building
- [13:15] Directories (i.e. car sites)
- [13:23] Infographic
- [14:30] How much Tom optimizes for Bing, Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves
- [14:52] Google vs. Bing stats
- Unleashing Creativity
- [15:17] How much creativity plays into even SEO
- [16:18] What Tom does to stay creative
- [16:39] Sensory Deprivation Chamber
- [16:53] Why Tom takes showers in the dark
- [16:59] Elon Musk
- [17:37] Shower Thoughts Twitter, Shower Thoughts Reddit
- [18:12] How often Tom meditates
- [18:39] Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff, Salesforce
- [18:49] Tim Ferriss, Tribe of Mentors, The Tim Ferriss Show
- Inspiration: People, Hobbies, and Resources
- [20:13] Tom’s biggest influences
- [20:33] Why he looks at billionaires
- [20:44] Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos
- [20:50] YouTube
- [21:02] How to be a Billionaire
- [21:19] Hobbies
- [21:58] Tom’s years as a musician
- [22:03] Podcast Episode: From Musician to Day Trader
- [22:26] What Tom studied what in college
- [22:28] What he wanted to be when he grew up
- [22:47] Why he stopped playing music
- [23:06] Spectrum of passion vs. money
- [23:55] Hedge Fund Manager
- [24:10] Biggest difference between day trading and being an entrepreneur
- [24:20] Why you can be more creative with your own business
- [24:57] Tom’s favorite books
- [25:01] The E-Myth Revisited
- [25:10] Our President and Founder of Hippo Direct, Greg Branstetter (he’s also my dad)
- [25:25] Traction by Gino Wickman
- [25:55] Why you can get any information you want on demand
- [26:08] My favorite “How to start a podcast” resources: GaryVee, Shopify, Pat Flynn
- [27:00] Tom’s favorite podcasts
- [27:25] Sure Oak Podcast
- [27:35] Aaron Ross, Predictable Revenue
- [27:55] iTunes
- [28:26] Alexa
- [28:30] Wild Business Growth Podcast Episode #6: Mike Kawula – Serial Entrepreneur and Daily Podcaster
- [28:38] Why you don’t always need more information
- [29:00] Tony Robbins
- [29:12] Why too much content consumption can be detrimental
- Wild Business Shoutout of the Week
- The Unusual: Phrases, Quirks, and Pet Peeves
- [33:00] Tom’s biggest pet peeve
- [33:27] Grinds your gears
- [33:40] Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin
- [34:09] Venmo
- [34:53] PayPal
- [35:08] Quirks
- [35:38] Levi’s CEO: Don’t wash your jeans
- [36:10] My morning routine
- [36:40] Don’t listen to Tom – subscribe to the Hippo Digest
- [37:35] Macy’s
- [37:40] Why you need to cut stuff out to focus on what’s important
- [38:01] Slack
- [38:28] Phrases
- [38:39] Benefits of being amazing to other people
- [38:56] Mike Kawula, His Power House Family Podcast
- [39:43] Planet Earth
- [39:55] Wild Business Growth Podcast Episode #2: Brendan O’Marra – Digital Marketing Director at Bic
- [40:10] How to handle negativity
- [40:40] Tom’s recent bad client experience
- Rapid Fire Q&A
- [41:49] Tom’s favorite type of music
- [41:57] Zero 7, Sia
- [42:06] Pink Floyd
- [42:11] Contact
- [42:22] My alma mater Indiana University, The Search for Life in the Universe class
- [42:38] Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico
- [42:47] What movie makes him cry every time
- [42:58] Netflix
- [43:03] Elon Musk Interview
- [43:29] Siem Reap
- [43:38] Tomb Raider
- [43:57] Holiday in Cambodia
- [44:32] Why you really don’t need anything on an island
- [44:36] Tom Hanks, Cast Away, Wilson
- [44:58] Sun Bum
- [45:05] How Tom came up with name Sure Oak
- [45:18] How to pick your domain name, Yahoo!, Google
- [45:45] What an oak tree represents, tie to Tom’s dad
- [46:20] Oak.com
- [46:37] Whether he planned for “SEO” letters to be in order in the company name
- [47:52] Tom LinkedIn, Tom Twitter, TomCasano.com, SureOak.com
- [48:18] Sure Oak Podcast
- [49:00] Tom’s closing thoughts
- [49:07] Why you should be intentional
- [49:44] Airbnb
- [50:10] Wild Business Growth Podcast
- [50:28] Subscribe, Review, ,and Rate 5 Stars on iTunes
- [50:40] Sign up for the Hippo Digest
- Theme Song: Freestyle Percussion Magik – Jungle Tribe – provided by Jamendo
Keep your head on a swivel for a new mind-blowing guest coming every single week! Let us know any guests you’d like to see on the show and follow along for all our marketing tips and business tips on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Sign up for the Hippo Digest email newsletter for your weekly recap of creative marketing. Let your business Run Wild…and Bring on the Bongos!!
