Brian Dean vs Neil Patel: Who Is Better?

Who is Brian Dean?

What names usually come to mind when someone mentions SEO? Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin of Moz, and Brian Dean of Backlinko are our top SEO experts.

These “dark art” search engine optimization luminaries make better search rankings appear to be magic. All of these experts provide their audiences with regular, consistent content about the constant changes in Google algorithms, and Brian Dean is one of the best when it comes to SEO.

Dean’s online audience has grown to over 193,000 monthly visitors thanks to an impressive 800,000+ backlinks to his site. Brian Dean began his online career in 2010 and quickly realized the importance of ranking high in the major search engines (primarily Google).

Dean claims, ” I felt that search engine optimization would be huge. So I read everything I could about SEO that I could find on forums and blog posts. And I worked my fingers to the bone applying the advice I read.”

It takes work to rank at the top of Google search results. You need to do more than create great content and hope that search engines will find it. Dean discovered this the hard way. He checked all of the usual boxes but still got no results.

Brian Dean Distinct Characteristics

SEO that Works

What Brian is ultimately teaching in this program is known as content advertising. The ultimate goal is to build strong backlinks to your own content.

In other words, Brian’s method entails creating solid web content, which he refers to as The Power Page. Then you market that power website to a variety of other bloggers and influencers in your specific niche, asking them to link to and advertise on their sites.

The main point is that bloggers always want to link to extremely reliable content because it increases their credibility (if someone else supports their position or insurance claim) and makes them appear smarter if the web page is truly fantastic.

However, this is not a guest post. In fact, Brian does not educate you in any way about uploading your content to other sites.

His plan is to create power pages with built-in “share sets off.” Share triggers are elements within content that entice us to share it online.

Backlinko

Backlinko is a blog that Brian Dean created to share his SEO knowledge with his audience of bloggers, digital marketers, and business owners.

While it is a blog, it is more of a resource site chock-full of valuable SEO tactics to help you take your blog to the next level. Dean’s most notable Backlinko work was his skyscraper technique. That specific post has been regarded as a rule to follow in the SEO world, with Brian Dean serving as the scientist.

The Skyscraper technique is a three-step strategy for attracting more links and increasing blog traffic.

It all starts with locating link-worthy content that has received numerous links in your industry. And the best way to do so is to use Ahrefs, BuzzSumo, or Google search.

Then you make better content. Better content necessitates providing a better content experience for your readers.

Finally, you contact the people who linked to the other content. These people are better link prospects because they have previously connected to one piece of content.

This technique has been well-received in the industry.

Brian, if nothing else, has made significant contributions to the SEO industry through his frequent case studies and experiments.

Who is Neil Patel?

Neil Patel is the most well-known digital marketing expert. His blog receives thousands of daily visitors, and millions of people use his marketing tools. What entrepreneur wouldn’t want to market like Neil Patel?

You can hire Neil Pate Digital, his marketing agency if you want to run your marketing like Neil. Working with Neil Patel Digital is a high-ROI experience, based on the reviews he has received. But there is an alternative if you can’t afford marketing rock star prices. Neil is very open about his marketing ideas, which he shares through webinars, blog posts, podcasts, videos, and guest posts.

He makes it as simple as possible for you to implement the Neil Patel marketing strategy, tools, and tactics that attract millions of eyes each month in order to bring in more business. Based on what he teaches on his blog and in his Marketing School podcast, here are some of the most important takeaways from reviewing Neil Patel and his marketing strategies.

Neil Patel Customer Reviews

According to what Neil blogs about, customer reviews are essential to Neil’s marketing strategy. His review strategies are straightforward and open, as evidenced by his numerous posts on the subject.

For starters, Neil solicits feedback regularly, without hesitation. Every blog post concludes with a question about your thoughts on the subject. This constant request for feedback produces results.

Furthermore, Neil makes it extremely simple for people to leave a review. He’s on every central social media platform and has a comments section on every blog post and YouTube video. He also makes an effort to respond to the comments and reviews that people leave, from short comments like “Let’s talk about that leather jacket you’re wearing” and “Great tips!” to long questions from new bloggers and business owners who are attempting to implement his strategies.

Neil Patel’s Distinct Characteristics

SEO

Neil Patel Digital’s list of services includes SEO as one of the primary strategies, and the importance of SEO and new ways to maximize it are among the main topics on Neil’s marketing blog. Neil’s blog ranks first for digital marketing, the most competitive keyword available, indicating that his strategies are effective.

Neil considers SEO to be a critical component of content marketing, saying, “While I frequently spend 4-5 hours writing my blog posts, the ten minutes I spend optimizing each post are easily the most important.”

Neil’s SEO strategies are multifaceted, but the following are some of the most important:

• Neil has his own SEO tools to optimize his overall strategy and individual articles and landing pages. He advises all businesses to start with the basics, such as keywords in tags, alt-image descriptions, and meta-descriptions, but he also advises you to include keywords in URLs. If you look at Neil’s blog post URLs, you’ll notice that they’re all cleverly optimized.

• Use keywords to your advantage. Neil recommends using keyword planners and conducting keyword research to find the right keywords for your business. He recommends avoiding keywords that are so competitive that you will only be able to rank for them sometimes.

• Create as many linkbacks to your site as possible. Neil always does this, but because he is so popular, he receives linkbacks from the New York Times and Forbes. He reminds readers to check their accumulated linkbacks on a regular basis to ensure that they aren’t broken and to ensure that these links go to valuable sites that help build their reputation.

• Neil ensures that his content is of high quality and not just keyword-stuffed, as evidenced by every blog post he publishes.

• Neil’s SEO strategies include technical issues such as mobile friendliness and page speed.

• Make your content available in multiple languages. Neil’s blog has been translated into languages other than English, such as Portuguese, for his large Brazilian audience.

Public Relations

Neil’s PR posts appear to be guest posts by other writers, but we’ll assume he agrees with their advice. Neil emphasizes the merger of content marketing and PR through guest posts on his own blog and his own activity on third-party publications, emphasizing that PR is what makes your content visible and brings it to more eyes.

When you do public relations like Neil, you’ll reach out to the right people to get your stories in front of the people who want to read them. Neil’s candid advice is that PR is best handled by a professional, but if you do it yourself, you can use social media to connect with influencers who can help you reach a wider audience.

Neil suggests that you build relationships with individuals in the media by reaching out via email, explaining what value you bring to the table while still accepting their “no” if you are turned down.

Inbound Marketing

Based on his blog posts, Neil’s inbound marketing strategy is very strong. One important component is guest blogging, which you may have noticed he frequently does.

Neil makes certain that his guest blog posts are long-form, in-depth, and valuable. He suggests postings of 2,200-2,500 words several times per week, and he writes them himself. Neil’s blog posts stand out because they are long, detailed, actionable guides that provide real-world assistance.

It also helps to have strong co-marketing relationships in place if you want to get more guest posts. You can read about Neil Patel’s “partner networks” strategies here.

Neil’s inbound marketing strategies also include using live chat rather than forms to collect visitor information because no one wants to fill out a form these days. Neil’s blog, for example, has a live chat window but no forms.

Brian Dean vs Neil Patel: Final Verdict

One distinction between Neil and Brian that most digital marketers will have noticed: 

Neil’s studies and lessons are mostly about ‘Above the fold’ things, which most people with no digital background or who want to get into digital marketing are interested in. In my opinion, he has a very aggressive style of explaining digital marketing, but most of his techniques are impractical. Or, to put it another way, they appear to be listening well (For those who are not in digital marketing but are interested.)

By no means is he the in-depth SEO lord like Brian. He explains real-world examples, fine points, and strategies that can be practiced and applied in a short amount of time. Looking his SEO Skyscraper is a fantastic technique that is 100% practical and applicable to any SEO newbie.

At the end of the day, it is still your own ideas on who is better for SEO and the like. Most experiences are case-to-case, so what’s good for you may not be good for others.