Issues (and Solutions) of Ecommerce SEO, According to Jeff Oxford, 180 Marketing’s Founder

Welcome to the Marketing Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Shane Barker. Today’s podcast guest is Jeff Oxford, the founder and SEO director of 180 Marketing, a marketing agency that specializes in providing low-cost eCommerce SEO. Jeff is a Google Analytics–certified SEO expert with over 200 SEO campaigns under his belt. He is a pro at keyword research, website diagnostics, and link building. He’s also the founder of Link Hunter, an email outreach platform that helps businesses find links effectively. He joins us to discuss his corporate journey, the challenges in eCommerce, SEO, and also the most critical ranking factors in 2021.

All right, you guys—hey, Shane Barker here. Thank you guys for tapping into the Marketing Growth Podcast. I have with me today Jeff Oxford. What’s going on, buddy? How are you doing?

Absolutely. Man, yeah, I was—I’m glad you’re able to make some time for us. I say I was excited about having you on today. We’ve had some past guests that have touched on SEO, but we haven’t had anybody with your expertise when it comes to eCommerce, so we’re excited about to be able to drill deep into that and kind of what you got going. You guys have niched down. And once again, eCommerce SEO, if you’ve tried it, you’re—you know, if anybody out there has tried it, it’s not the easiest thing to do. It definitely is, and this is why we brought Jeff on, because he has years of expertise, and he’s going to tell us some strategies on being able to do that and do it effectively.

Before we drill down into eCommerce SEO with Jeff Oxford, I’d like to mention that there are other forms of marketing that can work wonders for eCommerce companies, like influencer marketing and content marketing. In fact, my team and I managed to deliver three and a half times ROI for our clients just with effective influencer marketing campaigns. I’d like to take a minute to explain to you guys what kind of services we offer at Shane Barker Consulting. You can contact us for end-to-end influencer marketing, online PR, and content marketing. We can provide results-oriented consultations and manage services at competitive prices. For more details on how we can help you, visit our website at shanebarker.com—that’s S, H, A, N, E, B, A, R, K, E, R.com—and now let’s get back to our conversation with Jeff.

Once again, excited about chatting with you today. But what I usually do to start off the podcast is I usually kind of talk a little bit about the individual, right? So obviously, you’ve got 180 Marketing—we’re going to talk about that and your expertise—but I’d like to talk a little bit about yourself. I know that you’ve got a remote team. Anyway, there’s some synergies that we’ve got there, and I just wanted to touch on that. But let’s go into you—you as an individual. Jeff, so where did you, where did you grow up at, man?

Yeah, not a bad little place to grow up.

Yeah, that’s not cheap, but San Diego is—like, what does it say? I think it stays like 79 degrees, pretty much like 365.

Yeah, it is. It’s absolutely beautiful weather down there, but I’m a huge fan of San Diego. So how big was your family in San Diego?

Gotcha. And then how old’s your younger brother?

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Not a big family, little San Diego family, just out there. Any surfing? Anything fun out there?

That’s it. I hear you. See, I get that. So it’s funny—back in the day, when I was younger, I mean, I would say, you know, 16, 17, there was—I remember the one time I went to a church camp, and they were…

Yeah. And this was in—wherever we were, I think we were in Kansas. And anyway, the funny part was, because I was from California, they were like, “Oh, you’re from California.” Like, “Oh, you must surf.” Like, if you’re in California, like, do you surf to school? And I’m like, “No,” while because I said my board doesn’t fit my locker. And they’re like, “Are you serious?” “Oh yeah, that’s the reason why, bro.” I’m like, that’s all we do. Surf’s up, buddy. And I’m like, “No, just cousin from California,” which is cool. I mean, it’s not a bad image to have everybody assume that, you know—Pamela Anderson, you know, my girlfriend and stuff like that, which we were close. I mean, we did kiss once, but I don’t want to go into, like, start rumors or anything like that. But speaking of interesting facts—anything, you know, and I lied a little bit about Pamela—that never happened. But any interesting facts on your side? Anything fun about growing up? Anything interesting?

That is awesome. That’s, you know, it’s funny. So I’m in Sacramento. We actually had wakeboarding—I was able to take wakeboarding. Yeah, so that was—I was like, do they not have wakeboarding? I wasn’t, like, a huge wakeboarder, but it was like, hey, they touch you out, then you go out there on the boat. Of course, it was a little—your class was an hour long, but it took some time to get out there. But it was like a grant. I can imagine surfing—like, you’re like, this is extracurricular. This is what we got going. This is awesome. So cool. Once you—that’s, man, that is cool. You can’t go wrong with a little surf action.

And then where do you currently live now? You’re still in San Diego?

They’re moving everywhere. Oregon. Like, it is, it is, you know—and not to get heavy into politics—but there, I’ll tell you right now, I, myself, even though I love California, my wife and I recently, in the last year, talked about moving just because of—which the awesome part is, that if you own a piece of property here, you pretty much go anywhere in the United States and have a lot of money left over and buy a beautiful home. So we’ve actually entertained that as well. I mean, I do love the state of California, but it’s not cheap. Not cheap, man.

They’ll get you every time. They’ll get you every time. And the crazy part is, if you don’t pay, then they knock on your door and they come to your house. I mean, I can’t confirm that, but I’m just saying—rumor has it, they’ll find you.

Always get their money. So cool. So you’re in Bend, Oregon. How do you like Bend, Oregon?

No, that’s awesome, man. That’s, you know, we like—it’s getting my wife and I have looked at, actually. Our plan this summer was to go to, like, there’s about 10 cities on our map of places we just want to go check out, because we love the outdoors, you know. I mean, I do like the beach, but I’m—you can’t. People can’t tell this from the podcast, but I’ve got extremely white, milky skin. Like, I might look dark here, it’s because I have lighting, but I’m not a dark like, so if I go to the beach, it’s like, dangerous because I’m Irish, and we’ll just burn.

But the mountains and all that kind of stuff is, like, we’re huge fans. And then foodies as well. So there’s, like, some things that we have, like, “What are we—you know—where we want to move?” and certain things that we’re looking at. So we might have to add Bend to that list, if it’s a good mountain town. I mean, it’s—we’re looking in Colorado too because of that. I mean, it’s just got, you know, great place to travel.

So anyways, we’ll check that out. So where did you—did you go to school in San Diego? You go to college in San Diego?

That’s awesome. Is it the Aztecs? Right? Is it?

Look at that. Who knew? I can’t remember my wife’s birthday, but I can remember that San Diego State is the Aztecs…

Yeah, yeah. Well, she doesn’t listen to my podcast, so we should be safe, but I’m sure one of her friends might. Or, who knows? I don’t know. I’ve only two listeners. I didn’t tell you that before we started the podcast, but it’s my mom and my aunt, and they’re huge fans, and they love e-commerce, so they’re going to be super pumped about this one. Yeah, they’re—sounds like, “Mom, get your notepad ready. This is going to be a lot of fun.” And then what was your major?

I was gonna say San Diego. I think that’s—I. Can we say maybe you majored in that? Or do you think you get a double major?

That’s true. That’s true. I get it. I get it. I’m not judging you. I went to school in Chico and opened a bar in Chico, California.

Yeah, it’s not—yeah, we, yeah, we definitely do good times out there. But also finance, that’s interesting. So I tell you, man, I have nothing but respect for people that are in finance. It’s—I took my macroeconomics and microeconomics, and I was like, “Man, I don’t think I could ever do finance.”
In fact, even now, I just hired a CFO to look at my stuff, because just numbers are not my thing. Like, I’m definitely, obviously on the marketing side and business development and sales, but man, when it comes to numbers, I’m just like, I just try to sell more. That’s usually my goal. And it’s just not—that’s just not the way it is.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I just tried to find people that are smarter than me. That’s not—yeah, that’s not that hard. I’m like, just gotta find somebody smarter. So then, what was your first job out of college, man?

I love it. So I know that—out of mind, the college I graduated from, Target was a big employer, but I also know they had a high turnover rate because it’s like you start off with, what, 60 hours a week? I mean, they come in like, “Here’s your salary, and now you’re never going home.”

Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is, it’s weird. I think Enterprise Rent-A-Car was another big employer that did that too—80 hours a week or something. Then I see people here in Sacramento working 16-hour days, washing cars in a full suit, and I’m like, “Dude, that’s just not for me.” So, yeah, I started my own business because I didn’t want to do that. But I mean, you know, we come out, you start off with a salary, and you’re getting it. But then the money, the hopes—once you realize the hours, there’s no stability, even if you’ve got a nice paycheck and you’re working for a good company. It’s a weird trade-off.

It’s funny—your background is a little similar to mine. I jumped into blogging, which I guess is kind of SEO, but I didn’t realize it until, like, 2008. I’m older—I’m 40 now, or maybe 48, I forget my age sometimes, so go me.

Here’s the question: I’d love to hear more about you. You touched on that experience. I mean, I’d love to hear how you got into eCommerce, because it’s not easy—there’s no standard path. When you’re talking about building a business and playing around with it, I’d love to hear your story with that—how you came into eCommerce. Give me a little background there.

That’s funny. I did see that you had a beerpongstadium.com. Wasn’t that the thing you’ve done? Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I’d heard some about that. I was like, “Okay, this guy’s, he’s super San Diego.” Like, when you got the beer pong, and that’s Chico too, man. It was a funny little story, so my son ended up going to Chico, which is kind of a crazy story, but what was funny about it was my wife, and I was kind of telling my wife, like, you know, Chico drank in town. And she went to, obviously, went to college, but didn’t go to, like, a big party school, and she goes, “Okay.” And so we, like, drove into town, and this was, like, a Friday. It was, like, around noon or something, and everybody’s at the ping pong, and they’re playing, you know, ping pong, and they do this and drinking and shirts off, and you know, guns out. And my wife’s like, “Is this like a movie set or something?” And I go, “Baby, this is, like, this is college. This is, like, the frat house.” She didn’t really get that. I mean, my wife’s extremely smart, but just wasn’t in the party scene. And, you know, for you know, if you tell some people like beer pong, they’re like, beer pong, they’re like, “What do you mean, beer pong?” But for me, I was like, “Look at this guy, beer pong.” Like, that’s awesome. Yeah, that’s cool. So, so you started by shipping those things out. You guys obviously didn’t. You just did, like, drop shipping?

That’s awesome. And then, so that’s how you grind your teeth in the E-commerce space?

Well, and that’s the thing, is, you kind of touched on this, like, that’s, I think that’s the best way to learn. Now you have Udemy, you’ve got all kinds of different platforms, and I do think colleges, over time, will start to, you know, to focus more on, you know, whether it be SEO or content marketing, and really start to kind of educate the kids on how to do that. But you know, back in the day, there was nothing like you didn’t your SEO thing was like, “What did you look up?” There was just not a lot of resources, you know. And now there’s tons of resources, which is awesome. I mean, there’s great blogs out there you could get, you know, good information from. So how did you’re grinding your teeth? You’re doing the ping pong thing, obviously. And then at what point did you decide to start 180 Marketing?

I love that. So at what point? So it’s so funny, like, it’s, I don’t know if it’s like, you really understand the magnitude of Tim’s book, of him writing that book, and, like, because I actually comes up a lot with people with interviews that I’ve done. I mean, I’ve done probably hundreds of interviews at this point, but it’s funny how much people have read that, especially when you start looking at remote working, right? And I know that you have, you were in the Philippines for a while, and stuff like that. So I think that’s a kind of a backbone to what you’ve built, which is interesting, right? I also have, you know, people that I’ve worked with all over the world. My team is also fully remote, so it’s just, it’s kind of interesting. But at that book, I think definitely it changed so many people’s lives and the way they looked at work and how they did things. So what Tell me a little bit about the Philippines, because I want to, like, is that one of the reasons you moved out there to kind of check some things out, or was it just because you looked at the Philippines and said, that’s where I want to go?

That’s awesome. You’re in the, in the mecca of virtual assistants. That’s not a, not a bad place to be an extremely nice people. I mean, just over the top, over the top, nice. So, okay, so you’re building this out. So you’re starting to build your team on the E commerce side of things. What are, I mean, what have you seen? Obviously, you’ve been doing this a long time. What are some of the like? Give me some personal experience of like, some of the common issues that you’ve seen that are holding like, e commerce sites from getting ranked. Like, what are some of the most common things that you see that the first thing they look at, like, we don’t have these three things, because most e commerce, most e commerce websites, don’t do this, this and this.

Yeah, I love that. I think, you know, backlinks. I think site structure is probably something that most people don’t think about, right? It’s like they don’t really know. Like you kind of hear about backlinks, you kind of hear about content. Now, whether you do that right and get relevant backlinks is a whole other conversation, but I’m with you. I mean, I think the issue is, is that you’re, when you’re an e-commerce, you just, there’s such big players, man, it’s like being a real estate agent. They’re like, I want to be number one for this keyword. I’m like, you have Zillow, and you got everybody else that’s just crushing it. They’ve got millions of dollars that they probably spend on SEO. It’s like, what do you gotta figure out your little area to kind of get in to get your little piece of the pie. You’re one or 2% whatever you can do there. So I love that insight structure I think is important. And I think a lot of people, they don’t understand what that means, right? Like, what to make it searchable for Google just cares about the fact that it can get on your site and know where things are at extremely fast rate. And if that doesn’t happen, guess what? You’re not indexed. So let’s talk about. Factor of, you know, how many seconds say is it? If it takes too long, then Google’s just like, now move on to the next one. So, what do you think? So let’s say you’re out here we are in 2021 like, which ranking factors do you think are most important for E-commerce websites? Like, are there some things? I mean, I know that. You know, obviously with SEO, a lot of the stuff has been the same. But were there any other ranking, ranking factors that you can think of that you’re like, these are some hot ones.

Yeah, I see that with a lot of, like, the niche sites that you can build right off like these, these things where you can build them out. It’s about, you know, hunting knives or something like that, right?
Exactly. It’s very specific. And you can have 30 different types, but that way Google looks at and says, hey, when it comes to hunting knives, it should be Shane’s website, opposed to Cabela’s, let’s say, as an example, right? Assume you can, you know, to outrank them, but, yeah, it’s interesting. I think that’s awesome. I think that’s, that’s, if you’re, it’s always better to do that, right? Because you’re building those niche sites. And once again, that you can, that’s when you can sometimes beat out the big players. I love that. I love that. So what? Let me ask you this question. So what happens if you’re not niche down, like you’re not, you’re not very specific. You are the mini Amazon. Anything? Any recommendations there that?

Well, what I love about that is that it’s like, obviously Google is telling you, hey, this is where you need to be, right? Like, if you hit 90% your traffic is coming to this one thing. Like, why fight that? If you’re looking to, I’m not going to say game Google, but you’re looking to, you know, get up in the rankings, then that’s what I always tell people, is like, don’t ignore the signs you’re seeing, right? Like it’s you’re getting. It’s very clear messaging here. And people like, Yeah, but I want to do this. I’m like, Okay, well, can you want to pay for that absolutely, potentially. Can we rank potentially? But really, at the end of the day, it comes down to, like, what are the signs that Google, Google’s telling you, Google’s telling you, hey, for this right here, we’re giving you favorable rankings because we really like what you got going on there. So, you know, don’t, don’t try to get in the way of the best and try to fight the beast like go along with the system and figure out you need to do with the grain 100% and I love to, know, knowing that. That was awesome.

I would love to have that back. That would be nice to have back, because it was, I don’t think people understood the value of that, because that’s that’s big right now you’re saying, Okay, why write content about this, this and this, in Google’s eyes, I’m favorable in this area. So once again, why, why fight the beast?

Yeah. Absolutely.

Thanks, Jeff. It’s been very great having you on this episode. Decoding e-commerce SEO with you has been super informative and fun for our listeners. Thanks for tuning in to this conversation, but there’s more to come on my next episode, Jeff is going to discuss the gravity of backlink for modern e-commerce businesses, so stay tuned to the Marketing Growth Podcast.