Listen as Russ Macumber talks Travel SEO with Brennen Bliss of Propellic

Episode 19: SEO Success Stories with Brennen Bliss from Propellic

What is the #1 biggest challenge SEOs face in 2023?

It’s not new; it’s the lack of transparency and all of the best practice decision-making that everybody is doing, even though there are algorithm updates every three months and smaller ones every day. We’re still using practices we were using six years ago.

Brennen Bliss is the CEO of the award-winning SEO agency Propellic, a business focused solely on travel and tourism in the US. Becoming an SEO expert from a young age, this entrepreneur continually works to leverage the power of SEO in the highly competitive travel and tourism market to deliver the best results and visibility for his clients. With a history of web dev, it runs true that Brennen believes in following the data to find success, as he has with his own agency. Brennen was also a recent winner of the 2019 US Search Awards as professional of the year.

“When I think about leading the pack, it’s a concept about how can we make decisions differently, how can we use data to make decisions and see what’s working today vs. using that list from a journal written in 2018-19 with a completely different research landscape.” – Brennen Bliss.

JOIN RUSS MACUMBER AS HE SPEAKS WITH BRENNEN BLISS ON EVERYTHING PROPELLIC AND THE JOURNEY OF A TRAVEL INDUSTRY-BASED AGENCY.

“(At Propellic) we’re really really trying to stabilize their businesses, which is a meaningful crusade.” – Brennen Bliss.

Join us as we hear about Brennen Bliss’s journey into SEO, including the in-depth story of his successful travel-based SEO agency Propellic. Learn more about their behind-the-scenes inner workings and how SEO works in a travel-based market for Brennen and his team.

The conversation covers:

Biggest challenge SEO faces in 2022? (00:47)
Brennen’s beginnings in marketing (2:25)
Propellic’s refocus (13:25)
How does travel SEO differ, and how to understand your audience? (15:05)
Organic visibility framework (19:50)
Key things Propellic are looking at towards their clients (21:20)
Resources of Propellic clients (22:25)
First 90 days at Propellic (24:45)
Propellic client planning process (27:46)
The biggest hurdles (31:24)
Non-obvious SEO tools Propellic’s team likes to use (36:55)
Vox Pop Q&A (39:10)

Quickfire Vox Pop Q&A

Which previous Google algorithm change still keeps you up at night?

The next one.

Gun to your head… which do you prefer: content or links?

Content, hard content.

What’s the most effective link-building technique you have used?

Good content.

Is the skyscraper technique still relevant today?

If it’s good content, yes. If it’s serving a purpose, and if it’s not like dont write a long post, write a long post or what’s the weather in Asheville, and then write a 400-word post, nobody wants that.

What do you love most about SEO?

I love that we can impact so many different businesses. You can choose your market segment just like you do with eCommerce and reach out with the work you do, know this is who I want to help, and it’s applicable across it. When someone comes from a different market and looks for help, it’s something that feels good, is good, and we can get paid for.

How do you apply SEO principles to your daily life?

Quality, not quantity. Friends, experience, money, everything.

WFH life, or Office life, or Hybrid life?

Hate it all! There are drawbacks to all, I personally love people, but I need to be alone to do work. So what I’ve found is best is to go to a room in my house that’s empty.

SEMrush or Ahrefs?

Ahrefs.

Agency or In-house or Combo?

The magic you get when you connect the two together is powerful when they trust each other and facilitate each other growth; that’s the most powerful mix that I’ve seen. Outside of that agency cause you can reach more people and have more of an impact on organizations.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of our podcast! Please tune in for more SEO success stories by hitting “subscribe.”