[Top Agency Series] Mastering SEO Success With Damon Burton of SEO National

Damon Burton is the Founder and President of SEO National, a company specializing in strategic search engine optimization, where he leverages over 17 years of experience. Throughout his career, Damon has achieved notable success, working with high-profile clients such as Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson, and Rockwell Watches, while also being a Forbes contributor. He is the author of Outrank, where he shares his knowledge and strategies about SEO. His approach emphasizes integrity, maintaining quality control through rigorous SOPs, and establishing a strong personal brand that resonates with both clients and followers.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:47] Why Damon Burton focused on SEO and built an agency powerhouse
• [06:15] How to bring in clients through referrals
• [08:09] The impact of E-Myth and 4-Hour Workweek on Damon’s success
• [11:09] Why ClickUp is essential for Damon’s project management and SOPs
• [16:00] How Damon manages 80 accounts without a project manager
• [23:44] How offering a no-brainer deal landed Damon’s first client
• [29:23] The $50,000 decision that changed Damon’s entrepreneurial trajectory
• [37:05] The critical role of a COO and the value of hiring the right person
• [40:36] Leveraging personal branding and social media for success

In this episode…

In a world where digital presence can make or break a business, how does one successfully navigate the complex landscape of search engine optimization while avoiding common pitfalls? The journey from obscurity to high visibility on Google is fraught with challenges, but for those who master the art, the rewards can be significant. What if there was a way to bypass the noise and effectively outrank even billion-dollar companies?

Damon Burton has done just that, leveraging his expertise to help businesses scale through innovative SEO strategies. Damon shares insights into how he has crafted SEO National into a powerhouse consultancy by focusing on client success stories and maintaining a lean, SOP-driven operation. His personal strategy emphasizes the importance of setting clear expectations and nurturing relationships, both in business and with his family, showcasing a blend of professional acumen and personal authenticity.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Damon Burton, the Founder and President of SEO National, about the intricacies of SEO and personal branding. He shares his strategies for client acquisition and retention, which have been crucial to his success. By weaving his life values into his professional story, Damon demonstrates how aligning business objectives with personal ethics can foster sustainable growth.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Damon Burton LinkedIn | Website
• SEO National
• Outrank: Your Guide to Making More Online By Showing Up Higher on Search Engines and Outranking Your Competition by Damon Burton
• Overdeliver: Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing by Brian Kurtz
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
• SweetProcess
• Inside The Inner Circle: Get A Sneak Peak Inside The Doors Of ‘THE INNER CIRCLE’ And Hear Conversations From The Most Innovative And Aggressive Marketers In The World! by Russell Brunson

Special Mentions:

• Behdad Jamshidi on LinkedIn
• CJAM Marketing
• Russell Brunson on LinkedIn
• ClickFunnels

Related episodes:

• “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Sweet Process Series] How to Make Your Business the Next McDonalds of Your Industry with Michael E. Gerber” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Black Business Leaders Series] Insource: How to Increase Efficiency with Existing Staff and Rapidly Onboard New Staff with Owen McGab Enaohwo of SweetProcess” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “SEO is not about gaming the system; it’s about bridging the gap between customer pain points and your solution through content.”
• “A strong personal brand is where people start to follow you for your expertise but convert because they relate to you as a human.”
• “My team will be as good or as bad as the documentation I provide them. Including the ‘why’ is just as important as the ‘how’.”
• “When you’re willing to bet on yourself by offering a ‘no-brainer’ deal, that’s when you open the door to real growth.”
• “By setting boundaries upfront with clients, I’ve gained more respect and closed more deals.”

Action Steps:

1. Embrace the “give without expecting in return” principle: Build strong relationships and build a trust-based community that can lead to valuable business opportunities.
2. Set clear boundaries and expectations with clients early: Articulating limitations ensures mutual respect and establishes a foundation for a productive and long-lasting business relationship.
3. Implement systematic standard operating procedures in business operations: Documented processes provide consistency and scalability, helping your business grow without relying on individual talent.
4. Build a personal brand alongside your business: Sharing your personality and values can attract clients who resonate with your message, leading to conversions based on authentic connections.
5. Invest in coaching and masterminds strategically: Gaining access to a network of high-performing individuals can accelerate your learning curve and uncover new possibilities for your business.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Damon Burton. You can check him out at SEOnational.com. And Damon, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out.

Since this is part of the Top Agency Series, I had Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech. He had an agency. He started his agency in 1995, so it was really interesting, Damon, to hear the evolution of the internet space, the business world and the agency space since 1995. So that was an interesting episode.

Also had Todd Taskey on. Todd Taskey helps match agencies with private equity. He has the Second Bite Podcast. The second bite because he helps agencies sell. And then if private equity sells again, sometimes they make more in the second bite than they do on the first. So again talked about the M&A space, valuation space agency space. He has an interesting perspective on that as well. So that and many more on InspiredInsider.com.

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. So kind of Damon, we call ourselves the magic elves that are running in the background and make it look easy for the hosts so they can create amazing content, create amazing relationships, and most importantly, run their business.

You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships, and I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. Actually, Damon feels the same way. It’s a weird thing about giving without expecting anything in return. So I have found no better way over the past 15 years to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should. If you have questions, you can go to Rise25.com or email us at support@rise 25.com.

And a big shout out to B Jamshidi. He introduced Damon and I. He’s amazing. You could check him out at cjammarketing.com. He’s a marketing matchmaker so he helps companies find the perfect agency to fit their needs. So you can check him out.

But a little bit about Damon. I’m excited to chat. And over a decade ago, Damon Burton beat a $1 billion company. He did that by outranking them on Google. And he says some really good stories about getting clients, which we’ll dig into.

And he knew he was on to something. And he’s gone on to build an international search engine marketing company. They’ve worked with MBA teams, Inc. 5000, and Shark Tank featured businesses and many more. He founded the company in 2007.

He also writes for Forbes. He’s been featured in publications like USA weekly and many more, and has helped many high profile clients make more in a month than they used to, sometimes in a year. So, Damon, thanks for joining me.

Damon Burton 03:28

Jeremy, I’m excited to chat. You know, there’s so much you covered. I want to go back and hit on all of it, but we’ll see where we go.

Jeremy Weisz 03:34

Yeah. So we’ll start with SEO National and what you do. And I’m going to share your website as we’re doing it. So if people are listening to the audio there’s a video component. So tell people a little bit about SEO National.

Damon Burton 03:47

Yeah. So it’s an agency I founded, like I said in 2007. So going on nearly two decades and I knew early on, you know, we’ll probably talk a lot about entrepreneurship. And so for me, in the beginning of my entrepreneurship, the one thing that I did know was I didn’t want to be an agency that offered it all. And so we’ll probably unpack how I got into SEO.

But once I started to go down that path, I said, let’s see if that’s my thing. And 17 years later, I ended up working with a lot of cool people. You can see right there on Russell Brunson. I’m actually at Russell Brunson’s headquarters right now as we record this. I’m at ClickFunnels in Boise.

I’m working with him, working with Tony Robbins. But in addition to these like big, cool names, some of my favorite stories are the mom and pops. We’ve taken a lot of clients. You know, we still have our first client from 17 years ago with us from day one, and it’s cool to see these family-started businesses literally from kitchen tables and garages, grow into these 50,000 square foot warehouses. And so that’s kind of the crash course of what I’ve been doing the last 17 years, just stayed in my lane of SEO, and it’s worked out really well.

Jeremy Weisz 04:48

One of my favorite stories of yours, which we will get into is how you got your first client. But before we get there, I want you to point out, you were going to mention your website when we’re on your website. And so, so talk about that for a second.

Damon Burton 05:05

Yeah. So we never touch this website. So which is you know, for being a marketing company is a little bit ironic. And so we get all of our leads currently from referrals and social proof. And so we very rarely do any marketing of our own leads directly.

And it’s actually intentional because, you know, the last thing I want to rank for is the word SEO, which sounds contradictory. But the reason why is because it’s an unqualified term, right? And it doesn’t tell me if people want to learn SEO, it doesn’t tell me if they want to hire SEO. And so there’s more to that story. But we haven’t touched this website in years.

And it was like basically like, let’s just make something that’s presentable and then good enough. And so now I hired a COO about two years ago, and he’s gone through the learning curves and I feel really comfortable with where he’s at now. He’s been taking over the agency. And so now it’s like, well, okay, if we’ve accomplished this much without doing any direct lead gen or advertising, let’s see what the next phase is and where that takes us. So, you know, 17 years later, we’re finally actually starting to work on building a formal website.

Jeremy Weisz 06:15

To me, it looks nice. Talk about Outrank for a second. We’re looking here and you have the book Outrank. I love the title.

Damon Burton 06:23

Thanks. Yeah. You know, Outrank was kind of a passion project. Being in it this long, there’s a lot of myths and misconceptions and lies about the world of SEO. And, you know, the problem with optimized content, SEO content that’s out there for people to read is it’s been optimized.

And so it sticks well. And whether that means it maintains its truth over time or not may not necessarily be true. And so you touched on giving without expecting in return. And the way you said it is exactly the way I said it. And so I love how you phrased that.

And so how that ties into the book is a lot of times I like to help people, but, you know, it’s either a mismatch on budget or time frame or whatever. And so I wanted a resource to still be able to help people and go, look, if you can’t afford us but you want to put in the time, this is literally an A to Z blueprint. So, you know, the credibility part was just an added bonus. It’s taken me a lot of places and closed a lot of deals, but mostly it was to go, look, you know, if you want a fighting chance against the big boys and you don’t have the big boy budget, then put in the time and this will get you there.

Jeremy Weisz 07:31

I’d love to hear Damon, some of your favorite books or resources that you’ve learned from. You know, obviously we’ve Outrank here. One of my favorites over, you know, when we think of giving without expecting Brian Kurtz — colleague, friend, wrote Overdeliver, which is a fantastic book and he talks a lot about his hundred zero, which is he just gives not expecting anything in return. What are some of your favorite books, resources?

Obviously you probably have to mention some of Russell Brunson’s books. I think I have some of them right over there too. So, what are some of your favorites?

Damon Burton 08:09

There’s two books that usually come to mind. E-Myth Revisited and The 4-Hour Workweek, because they kind of came in a compressed window of time, where I was listening to them on audio in a short time frame to, you know, kind of back to back. And the reason why they made a big difference is because E-Myth teaches you to build a business that’s dependent on processes, not people. And so that way, as the talent comes and goes, you don’t lose that skill set. Instead, you can, you know, interchange and maintain quality control. And then 4-Hour Workweek teaches you basically how to cut corners.

And so what was interesting in reading those around the same time is it made me, you know, on the SOP side of things, you know, I had documentation, but some was in my head, some was on a spreadsheet, some was on a doc. And so I was like, okay, this helps me kind of visualize the importance of having it in a consolidated resource. And we talked briefly before we kind of jumped on the recording about the importance of SOPs. And what’s fascinating is, especially when you’re starting a business, like you don’t have more time later, you have less time.

And so the thought of doing your SOPs is never going to be easier, but it becomes increasingly important. And so when we did our SOPs, it sucked. Like it’s just straight up sucked. Like it took like an hour or two every other day for a year. Because for me, we have so many different dynamic situations where a client could be on different platforms. They could be e-commerce, they could be non e-commerce.

The point of me explaining this is that as soon as those SOPs were done, that’s really where we started to scale, and that’s when we first had our client. Our first client was over $10,000 a month retainer on a single client. And like, those are things I wouldn’t have felt comfortable bidding on because I knew we couldn’t do the quality control at scale. So that’s why that book is important.

Now, why 4-Hour Workweek was important is because, you know, compressing time is obviously important or saving time. But what was interesting in reading those two books at the same time is it also made me realize you shouldn’t cut corners and do a four-hour work week until you know what your documented processes are and what’s at stake. And so if you’re going to read them, do E-Myth first, figure out your processes, how to maintain quality control, then figure out where the opportunities to compress time are.

Jeremy Weisz 10:23

Let’s talk about SOPs for a second. And I love this topic actually. And by the way, people, Michael Gerber’s book E-Myth, I did have him on the podcast. So you can check that episode out on Inspired Insider. It’s a really great episode. He’s got an amazing book.

So how do you house them? What are some of the structures that you use? We use actually SweetProcess. The software, it houses all of our SOPs and makes it very searchable. I had Owen McGab on the show who’s the founder. I love it. Do anyways, I’d love to hear how you structure yours.

Damon Burton 11:02

I was laughing because that was one of the first interviews I ever did. Probably like ten years ago. It was with SweetProcess.

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