Taking the Mystery Out of SEO and Giving You Control with Dima Sobovoy

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Hey, everybody, it's Jim Johnson here, your host with Contractor Radio and the head coach at Contractor Coach Pro, where we help contractors get control of their business so they can grow their business and find that personal and financial freedom they were chasing when they started their business. And I'm excited about the guy that I'm going to have on today. I've been following him for the last couple of years, and he's made this real impact. And one of the things that's, like, driving me nuts and why I actually got him on the show is I see him everywhere. Like Facebook feed, Google. Everywhere I'm at, I see this guy and I want to talk about how he's making that happen and what he does that can help you get more customers. But before we do that, we better go ahead and take care of those guys that keep the lights on. Let's go ahead and hear a little message from Atlas.

The Atlas Pro plus Contractor program is designed to help you build your business. It gives you tools and resources, training, industry insights, bonus structures, technical knowledge, the brand power and science of 3M Scotchgard and what we think is the best product and warranty in the industry. Become part of the family that is succeeding and growing their businesses.

We went from nobody ever heard of us to the number one roofing company in our region.

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We're on track right now to do 1,000 roofs this year.

You'll begin earning Atlas bucks and rewards as you move up to even greater reward levels, becoming Atlas Pro today.

So if you're a roofing contractor out there and you're looking for a way to separate yourself from the competition and have a manufacturer that really supports you, works hard with you to help you grow your business, Atlas is your choice. It's one of the reasons why we have worked with them and partnered with them in a lot of the things that we do. Super awesome being a partner with Atlas. So today we're going to talk about marketing and the mad science of seems like it's science and rocket science and all this difficult stuff. And we're gonna have a guy on today that wants to make that simple for you, especially the one that seems to be the hardest. Like, we can kind of figure out the whole Facebook ads thing. We can figure out the Google my business thing a little bit if we put in a little bit of effort. But when we start talking about SEO, everybody goes, oh, man. Oh, my God. I don't Want anything to do with that? I need somebody else to take care of that for me. So today I wanted to bring on Dima Sobovoy with roofing SEO school CEO, founder, and biggest and most of all educator that loves tacos. I offered him some tacos. He said, hey, let's talk some SEO.

I'll take your tacos. Oh, thanks for having me, Jim.

Man, it is good to have you on board. I. Like I said, I've been watching now for a couple of years, and the things you say are just so simple. Like, you make these things simple, which is the sign of a good educator. This idea that, hey, take this thing that's complicated, break it down into something simple. What got you to here today? Like, how long have you guys been doing this? And tell us the background.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for having us and for having me and SEO school. I didn't know you. You were watching us. So much so that that tells me we're doing something right. But, you know, as anything that's easy to explain, it takes years and years to master how to explain right? And anyone who understands how to teach something, he's good at it because he has done years and years of practicing these things. So, you know, we're no exception. I'm no exception. I started as a totally outside of SEO or roofing industry. I started in dental industry. That's really my training. I'm a dental lab technician by trade. You know, been working in dental industry for many years, running a dental lab, making. Producing thousands of dentures for. For. For clients. For. For. They're called. They're called. What are they called? I'm using clients.

Oh, no, I don't have any patients.

Yeah, I used to. I used to call my. My clients patients and patients clients. Now it's kind of. But it's. It's patients that. Yeah, I was doing dentures for.

Well, you're working with roofers. You need some patience. So that.

Right, right.

For sure.

And then in the back, you know, I was. I was learning se fun. It was something that was interesting to me. I wanted to figure out a way to, you know, to make money online, to be honest. Like, how do I. How do you make money in your sleep? That was the promise that everyone was trying to give to everyone. You know, Tai Lopez. You know, you heard those names, and I'm like, I want. I want to figure this out. I want to see what can be done and what cannot be done. I'm willing to risk my money, and I spent over $50,000 you know, over the last, what is it, five, six years, learning these things, practicing them, trying different trainings, filling in the gaps. And I've learned a lot more about what not to do than actually what to do. So and that's what the school is about, is to kind of show you and give you those tools to empower you and equip you to be independent and comfortable and confident in doing these things yourself.

So you hear that word, and there's. Or that acronym, SEO, Search Engine Optimization. There's also Search Engine marketing. You hear it called sometimes. Are those two things different?

Different search engine marketing? Well, you know, different people talk about a different word, different meaning, ascribing to these things. So I always, whenever I'm asking or talking with someone, I always try to understand what do they mean by what they say, because we can use the same vocabulary and totally have different meanings. So SEO is very fundamentally, it's a free traffic coming from Google. That's really what SEO is. It's how to get that free traffic coming from Google to your website. Not just any kind of traffic, not traffic from outside of your city or your services or somewhere else in the different country or different part of the world. Your traffic, your money traffic, how to get it without having to pay Google. That's SEO.

Awesome. So it always seems like it's some kind of big mystery, this SEO thing. So how do you take the mystery out of SEO for these contractors? Because I'm passionate about marketing all aspects of it. I love it. I love the branding aspect. I love the ads aspect. I love the organic aspect. I love everything about it. And like you, I've spent, man, I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to figure out this whole marketing online thing. Yeah. Especially whenever you do it. Like, roofing company is actually somewhat easy because it's a brick and mortar location. You work around that geographic location where guys like you and I, it's like this national and even international thing. That's a whole different science in and of itself. How do you make the SEO part for a contractor? Simple.

Yeah. So, you know, obviously, number one, you need to have experience. You need to. You need to practice, practice, practice and practice before you think of yourself as worthy to go and teach these things. So that's something we got. But number two is beyond that, you know, if you figured it out, why would you share it? That's another big hurdle. And I think that's way less about, you know, the practice and understanding, but more about the willingness to open the curtain. And I Think a lot of times SEOs are, you know, they have this mindset of once I figure it out, I better keep it, I better not share it, and better use it only for myself. And we chose a totally different direction. Absolutely different direction. And to be honest, a lot of our peers were kind of confused. Why are we doing that way? You know, why are we sharing all of these things that took us years to figure out? Why are we not monetizing them? Well, to a degree, we are monetizing right with this school. But we just have a bigger purpose, bigger meaning. And meaning and purpose, as you know, is what drives your company. That's really the force behind what you're doing and how long you can do it. So for us, it became bigger than just our own gain, but really to bring a real change into the industry that has a bad reputation, let's be honest. So I wanted to do more of a radical approach and basically open the curtain and say, hey, this is easy. And then number three is, you know, national SEO and local SEO, they're not the same. You know, national SEO is obviously, it's way harder. You're competing on a national arena, you know, you're going to try to rank for, you know, best roofing coach. That's going to be a little tough, you know, because there are a lot of coaches, most likely. But even though that's probably more of a niche thing. But let's say you want to, you want to rank for best motivational speaker, that is extremely hard. But if you're trying to rank for best roofing company in Spokane, Washington, that's different. You know, you're competing with only local companies. And I like to share this example. You know, if you're on the hunt, if you're on a hiking trip and there's a bear attack coming your way with, and you're with your friends, you don't need to be the fastest runner to survive. You just need to be faster than your friends.

I always love that analogy is one of my favorites. That's why I started working out. I was starting to be the slowest guy.

That's why you know who to invite to those hiking trips.

Always invite those out of shape guys. It's super funny. So when it comes to SEO, can you describe what it is though? Like, I think a lot of people don't really understand what SEO is because it's organic. It draws the attention of Google based on what it is that you're posting on your site and they use some kind of crazy algorithm to determine like, should I show that first? Or maybe not. Can you give us kind of a little breakdown of what it really is, what it really takes?

Yeah. Part of the reason it's, it's mystified so much, it's kind of considered to be dark magic is because there is no blueprint necessarily out there. There's no like a bible. There's no, like an objective guide out there. And that's for obvious reasons. It's because, guess what? Google doesn't like SEO. Am I, am I, why am I the only one saying this? Google doesn't like SEO. Google wanted, they want you to pay them. They're for profit business. Most of their revenue is coming through ads. If you stop, if everyone stops paying Google for ads, they are out of the business immediately. You know, everyone thinks of them as this, you know, morality, you know, ethics guide and filter on the Internet. They're not, they're for profit business. And there is a reason why I don't like, why they don't like SEO, why they don't have courses in SEO, why don't, why they, they don't teach SEO, why they punish SEO once they figure out that you are aggressive or too much aggressive. So that's one of the reasons it's so mystified. But fundamentally, SEO is this. It's what do you give to Google, to Google's algorithm so that Google algorithms trust you so much that it puts you naturally on the first page of the results for your best searches, for your best money searches, for your clients who are searching for roofing, you know, for repairs, for, you know, all of that solar stuff locally. What do you do to impress Google so much that it trusts you more than anyone else and puts you on the first page for free without having to pay them? So it's really a question of trust. What do you do to earn that trust? And that's why in the school we talk about, you know, that human like relationship with Google where there is that dating stage, engagement stage, marriage stage, and then ideally top three, I call it unconditional love stage, where you've reached the top and you can, you know, it's unprecedented amount of trust that Google gives you and you don't need to pay them.

So are there any key areas that we should focus on as roofing contractors and really any home service contractor? This applies to all of them. They're brick and mortar. Whether you're a painter, a fencer, whoever you are, you're competing against those companies in your market.

Yeah.

Are there certain things like on Your website that you should go, hey, you want to spend some time there? Is it the verbiage? Is it the videos? Is it blogs? Is it your sales pages? What is it that?

Is it that Google considers a factor when deciding who to trust? And there's three things, three primary things. Two that we control and one that we don't. The one that we don't control is time. It's the age, you know, the old guy gets the respect no matter what. Same with human relationships.

I get that when we've been around for a while. So that's the only thing that's helped our SEO. We've been around for a while.

Yeah, but you know, you respect your elders, so Google is no different. They respect the elders. But that's not the only thing. And a lot of times that's what companies think, that's the only thing. The other two is going to be content, written content on the website. And number two is backlinks. That's how simple it is to really explain it. It's content and backlinks. Now yes, there is additional things like optimization, optimizing your website, making sure that the name is correct, the title is correct. But that's one time thing. You just do it one time, you optimize it, you set it, you, you're very loud and clear about who you are, what you're about. That's like the, you know, describing your business but everything else, ongoing wise, it's going to be content, written content, that is quality, high, high end content, original content. And then number two is backlinks. Now each one of those deserves a book really if you want to, if you want to understand what it, what it actually should be. But in a simple terms, content is still the primary written content is still the primary content that Google considers when deciding who you are and what you're about. So the more clearer, the more often you can tell them that, the better it's for you really. It's not about doing some dark magic. It's about who is the most clear, the louder out there on the Internet and most consistent with communicating the same exact message. I am doing this in this location, I'm doing this in this location. And that's really what you're trying to do with content is you're being extremely loud and clear with who you are and what you're doing. And that's why I said a lot of times I learned a lot, a lot about what not to do, then what to do is because you are, if you're going to be Telling Google that you're everything doing you're everyone doing everything. Guess what? I'll be confused. What are you talking about? A computer? You know, I'll be confused. So the last thing you want is to confuse Google. And that means you need to be very loud and clear but also very consistent with your messaging. Who you are, what you do and where are you doing that, those, those things. So that's content and backlinks. Backlinks is essentially votes. You know, it's essentially votes, you know, the more votes you can collect the better. And the votes are in the form of links from other websites that you collect in your favor. It's kind of like almost, I call this references on your resume. You know, if you're going to hire someone, you want to make sure that you have, they have good references and unfortunately mom or dad doesn't qualify. You know, that's a good reference and that's a lot of times what Facebook link is, your YouTube link is, anyone can get those. You really need high end references on your resume and it's not about quantity, it's about quality of those. So you need to have backlinks coming from websites that are within your industry. That's number one.

Number two, so for like an example of that, if I was a Owens Corning Platinum or an Atlas Pro plus contractor, I would want to have a backlink to their.

Absolutely.

Program and to their shingles and like as many of them as possible.

Yeah, yeah. Well you want to have one, at least one from each of those websites because really Google looks at one. You know, if you have one, if you have 30 from the same website, doesn't matter. You know, you just need to have one. And especially you guys, especially if you're paying them, if you're buying their stuff, the last, the least thing they can do for you is to put, give you a backlink from there, you know, from their website, give you a vote. But at the same time you need to understand that, well then every one of your competitors probably could have that too. So that is not unique enough a lot of times.

I got one more question about the backlink thing. Yeah. So is that me just like let's say I wrote a blog and I was writing about shingles and I put Atlas Shingles in there. I put the URL and assign the URL to Atlas Shingles. You can go see them here. Or is that something that Atlas is giving me that's this specific link or is it just the one that I would normally go pull off of their Website.

So it's not something you even pull off. It has to be on their website, it has to be inside their website. That's how Google counts it as a vote, because they keep it on their website. That means they're vouching for you. That's like them saying, we like this guy, we have a link on our website. We're vouching for you. So Google looks at it. Oh, nice. One company, another company, another company, another vote. So the more of those high quality votes you have, the more, you know, obviously trust you're going to get because Google is not going to trust you just because you're telling you you are the best. You need to have people around you vouching for you. Websites, people, you know, now I know.

Why all of our partners want us to have their link on our website.

Exactly, yeah. And now you can start charging for that.

Hey, we need to talk after the show. I need to figure out what to charge for that. So, so you, you, you were saying that, that, that was good.

But yeah, that's good. That's foundational stuff. You definitely need to get your foundation, especially if you're working with someone, your partnership with someone, get that backlink from that supplier, you know, from that company, from, from, you know, anyone else that you're paying any, you know, even, even a cent, even a penny. So, but, but beyond that, what do you do to, to separate yourself? And that's where you really need to have a strategy. And that's what we teach in the school about how to get backlinks that are not readily available for your competition, for your competition, for your competitors. How do you get them? That's what we teach in the school, but essentially in the essence, like basically you need backlinks that are coming within that industry, from within that industry, but also from websites that have real traffic, like at least a thousand visitors per month. That's important for Google because the more traffic the website has, the more credibility Google gives it. You know, if you get a link from a website with no traffic, it's like, okay, I mean, they're vouching for me, but no people are visiting that website. So what? Google knows how many people visit your website, for example, Jim. And if your website has a thousand, two thousand, five thousand people, and you're within roofing industry, that's a very strong indicator. And we show you that's very easy to identify how many, how much, how much traffic each website has. You can do this within, you know, two minutes.

Yeah, we get it. I think about 7,000. Somewhere around there.

Yeah.

Yeah. So you know, quite a few people hit considering that it is contractors. Right, Right. It's not the general public.

Yeah. Another thing I wanted to add is that that link, if you want the most powerful impact, better be within a brand new written content about that industry. So that's the challenge of all of those supplier websites because it's more like a directory list. But if you're going after the highest possible quality, you're looking for a link that's inside a brand new fresh article that's related to home improvement. That is the cream of the crop type of backlink. And usually that's going to be a brand new article written by some kind of blogger within roofing or home improvement industry. That is the cream of the crop. And that's one of the biggest secrets of our school is how to get them, how to get those links. But I just shared you all of those characteristics. You can literally go and find those yourself and reach out to those bloggers and offer them some money and get a, get a vote. You know, get a vote because a lot of times that's what they, that's how they earn money anyway. That's how they live, is that they are. They make money by writing about someone who they trust. Obviously they will check you because they're giving you a vote. But if you're a good company and you're willing to pay a little bit, they'll give you an amazing vote and Google's going to love that.

Well, you put a lot of ideas in my head right there, Dima. Yeah, we might be able to help some of our clients out. You never know.

Absolutely.

Write some pretty cool articles about it. We have had some pretty amazing success stories so it'd be cool to write those articles.

Yeah.

Share them with those guys.

Fresh content, like I said in the very beginning, that's number one. But, but marry that with a backlink, that is the best marriage you can have. Yeah.

So I want to, I want to. I got a couple more questions for you. Can you hold on for just a minute? We got it. We got to play another sponsor here real quick. But I want to come back and I want to ask you a little bit more about those backlinks. And then I want to ask you a little bit about like Dema. I've never interviewed a Dema before, so I want to hear the story. Alright, we'll be right back, everybody.

Yes.

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That was a message from getthereferral. They are my guys. Referrals have always been a real hard thing to track and keep up with and, and reward people and make sure that they get the value of what it is that you've promised. And get the referral makes that super easy, makes it very easy to keep track of all of it and get about five times the referrals that you would get without using a tool like get the referral. So Dima, you were talking about these backlinks and this concept. They're votes, right? Somebody's voting for you. Yep. And then you talked about this, the concept of time. Right. Like, yeah, be fresh.

Yeah.

So let's say I get somebody to do that for me and they pop it out. You know, I, you know, I might even write it for them and say, hey, would you just put this out there?

Yeah, exactly.

And they put it out there. But over time it dwindles its. Or as a vote. Is that an accurate assessment?

Not necessarily.

No.

You know, obviously, you know, if the content is outdated, if you're, if you're creating some kind of guide that's outdated and that's something that's informational value and it has to be related to, you know, every year. Like if you're giving a best list of movies, you know, obviously in a couple of years it's going to be different than today. So. But if it's, if it's a timeless type of content, it's there, you know, it's there. And the only reason it could decline or the effect of that link could decline is just because that website itself can go down, can, can not be trusted as much by Google for whatever reason. Maybe, you know, they're breaking some rules. Maybe they are, you know, maybe their competitors are overtaking their area or maybe they're just not posting new, fresh content. But that's something you, you know, it's not for you to worry. I always teach, just worry about what you can control. Just get as much of those links as much of those votes. Get the highest quality ones, and that alone will separate you from your competition over time.

That's really good. And that's probably the best piece of information regarding SEO that I've ever had on the show. And I've done lots of these. You guys marketing, you love to hop on the show and talk about marketing, but you're so different. Like, everything that you do. Like I said, I've been paying attention. And you're uber passionate about it. You're all over the place. I see you in my Facebook feed. I'm like, I'm tired of seeing Dema. I mean, hide this ad. Like I said, enough of seeing them. So it means you're doing something really, really well. So are you doing more than just the SEO stuff for your own business? Like, out in front?

Yeah, I mean, if you see my. If you've seen my ads, you've been playing with Facebook ads a little bit.

You know, I'm not where you get me. Where you get me is in the middle of a reel. Like, I'm watching a reel on Instagram or I'm watching a reel on Facebook. And it's interesting. Like, I'm into whatever it is that they're doing. I don't know, some kind of woodworking thing or some guys jumping, you know, into swimming pools. And all of a sudden there's Dima's face right in the middle for 15 seconds. I'm like, all right, why. Why do I have to watch an ad to watch the rest of the video?

Is it an ad or is it organic real?

It's. It's an ad. It's like a 15 second ad that comes up with you on it. About the roofing SEO school. Yeah, like, that's just brilliant. How do I get my face up in there every time watches are real, is that something calculated on your part or is that being pushed somewhere?

No, you know, not really. You know, we are. You know, SEO is usually fundamentally, for me at least, is a way for. For. To equip others to not have to use ads, you know, so why do we use ads to a degree, when we started using ads maybe a couple. Couple months ago. Really? And it's primarily because SEO is focused on the demand. Search. Demand. Right. People who are searching. That's a foundational, fundamental assumption. When you're doing SEO, you need to first identify mining keywords. You need to first see your target. You need to first see who are the people who are searching and what are they searching. Nobody's searching for SEO school from Rufus.

Not very Many are searching for roofers.

We're new, we're spearheading this movement and that's why we wanted to kind of spread our word around a little bit, diversify how we do it, because nobody necessarily searching for in house SEO. So that's why we started playing with ads. I'll be honest, all of my ads were actually boosting our posts. It's like literally not even professional back end Facebook, you know, business, business layout, it's like boosting. So I'm like, let's see. I mean, it's getting views. I don't even, I didn't even know that people are seeing these especially reels. To me, they're like, I don't know if I'm seeing results. I'm just going to play it and see it. And now you're proving that some of that is getting through. But essentially we just want to spread the word around a little bit more because we're the only ones, we don't really have competition. So where they're spearheading this, this movement of freedom from having to hire, you know, SEO agencies that do some black magic in the back and giving it back to, to the owner, to the company.

Yeah. So I went through that whenever we first started. Like we were the only ones that ever really did anything. Like there was some old school kind of folks out there that have been around for a long time, but there's just a couple of them now. There's coach ever. You know, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one. So. But that's cool to me. I really is cool to me that it's like we almost created this new thing where people are actually searching for coaches for their contracting business, which was my original intent is coaching is fantastic. That's why I love interviewing you. You got this school, you're coaching people on how to take control of their SEO.

Yeah.

To me, that is the power. Even if I don't do it, I have the knowledge now that if I have a third party do it.

Exactly.

I can, I understand what's going on.

Yeah. And that's another piece of values. If you ever want to hire someone still to do it for you. Now you have a grid. Now you have a solid, you know, measurement. You have a solid tool to grade their work. Because let's be honest, all of those reports, it's like, it's like fluff, you know, you don't understand what it means. It looks beautiful, but you don't see the value. You don't see the phone like it's so hard to value it and so hard to keep accountable these SEO companies. And that's another big piece of value is how do you measure anyone that you potentially even would hire? And you can learn that. You can learn that.

I love the fact that you go after them in, like, your videos and your content and stuff. It is so cool because you're not, you're not negative about it. You're just factual about it.

Yeah.

I love how offended they get. They get so offended whenever you're. You're doing that type of thing to them. That's what actually drew my attention.

Okay.

Okay, that's good. I love it. He's pressing people's buttons, but he's doing it in a professional way.

Thank you.

It was super cool.

So. Yeah.

So why so passionate about, like, I don't know if you're necessarily passionate about SEO. Is it more the teaching aspect of it?

Well, I mean, if we're going to go to, you know, overarching themes in this thing. I'm a seminary student myself, actually. I'm studying to be like, right now, right now I'm on pause because we had another couple kids, so my wife needed a break a little bit, but I started school for two years, took a break, and I'm trying to resume. Well, we got pregnant again, so we'll see.

High fives, man. That's really cool.

Number six, though, man, that's, that's, that's an army. But we love, we love our family and, you know, that's what makes you into. Into a person that you want to be, really the family and then kids and the pressures of life to, to be a leader and a father. But I, I'm planning to resume probably within the next year. But, you know, my passion is, is just helping people as much as I can with. Trying to put myself away kind of. How, how far can I get? What's the farthest I can get to give the most amount of value without having me in mind, without necessarily having my benefit in mind, you know, what's the farthest we can go? And I, and I think in SEO, you know, there's a lot to be gained, a lot to be learned, but not a lot is offered in the free format, understandable format, or very affordable format. And that's what we're trying to do, make it as affordable as possible. That's why we switched to a subscription model versus, you know, when we first started, it was a $5,000 for the whole school. And we figured out a lot of companies cannot Afford that, especially brand new companies. So we're like, we want to help those brand new companies even more so than, you know, successful big companies because they're being eaten by these, you know, leeches by Angie, by home Advisor, by BBB that are dominating local markets. Like, let's stop talking a little bit about competing with ourselves and talk about these, these, you know, parasites who are basically dominating local markets, reselling those leads to companies on the second third page. Why do we have to, why do we have to play with them on their rules? Why can't I would just come and dominate them all and not have to pay them, but be above them and get all the leads and I get repurposed leads from months and months ago and share with, you know, 50 other companies and compete with them like just, just get to the top of your market, local market, and don't play their games, beat them. That's what makes me passionate.

I can tell you're passionate about it. I love it because you verbally poke people in the eye. It is great. Like the, the using the term par. I'm with you 100%. I cannot stand the home advisors and Angie's. All those type of things that go on out there where really and truthfully, it's taking advantage of somebody that just doesn't know. Yeah, yeah. It's really what it is.

Yeah. That's like, that's the only option for a lot of brand new companies and they feel like that's the obligated to play this game. And I'm saying you don't even. A brand new company. I'm even like, I'm saying, listen, if you know you're gonna open a roofing company in a year, start your SEO today, get your website ranking, get your website, the free traffic, get to the first page once your phone is ringing. That's when you know you should get a license. Okay.

That's actually really good advice. That is fantastic advice. Your phone rings now you're selling roofing. Yeah, that's, that's, that's pretty good. So there's a, it seems to be a hint of serving the underdog maybe is the best way for me to put it. Is that what's driving the passion? Is that, is that what it is? Yeah.

I mean to a large degree it is. Because the underdog is usually the one that's being abused the most. You know, they have the least tools to fight back, they have the least finances and they are forced to play a game they never chose. They have very little options, especially in today's world, where big players, they're abusing their power online. And to be honest, you know, for example, you're gonna get a badge on your website from Angie or HomeAdvisor or BBB that you are there. You know, you're approved by them. Within that badge itself, there's a link hidden to them. So they're basically getting free votes, like we just spoke, free votes from. From people that they're selling leads to. So you are a person who is empowering your own bondage to these companies by giving them votes through your website. And imagine, you know, you have 50 of these in one city. Now they get 50 localized backlinks from all these companies. Who do you think is gonna be on the first page?

Up they go. Up the ladder they go. Yeah, yeah. It's really frustrating because. And I don't know what it is that. That's frustrating about it, really, because there's a part of me. It goes. There's a little big bit of begrudging respect. Like, holy cow, you figured out how to do that, how to get all other people that should be paying you to actually pay. You should be paying to actually pay you to drive your website up. It's. And they're not honest about. I think that's the part that. Is the part that makes me go, I'm not a fan. Right. Which makes us have to be a little bit more agile a little bit and dig in a little bit and get a little bit smarter about what we do. So I love that. Just. Just laying it out there. I love the fact that you're there to serve. Does that come from this faith background? Is that just how you're wired?

I think so. Like, I. I don't want to overplay this card, but I. I'm trying to do everything that I'm doing, you know, for the good of men and for the glory of God.

Amen, brother. That's.

Yeah.

Same reason I'm here. Were you at. You were not at storm into a new era, were you?

No, no. But I've seen some of the messaging there, and it's. You know, if that's what they stand for, more power to them.

Yeah, I think you would. I think you would have fit right in on that one for sure. So, Dima. I mean, literally first time I've ever met a person with the name Dima.

Yeah.

What's the story? Where is their background there?

Well, it's very simple. Dima is short for Dimitri, but we got already one Dimitri, so why would I.

Yes, we do.

I thought, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah. So Dima is. Is really. It's a. It's a short version of Dimitri, and I used to be Dimitri. That's how I would kind of introduce myself to all of the Americans, because I'm originally from Ukraine, so when we came, that's how I would introduce myself. And I got into roofing. I'm like, okay, there is one already. Well, I don't want to. I don't want to compete with him. Who does?

I'm okay with it. I. I love Dimitri. He's another one of those guys that. He's willing to put it all on the line and what he absolutely believes in. And. Yeah, I got a lot of respect for that. I really do. Like, your delivery may be different than mine. I may not always, like, jive with it, but you know what? You passionate about it, you believe in it, and you're not really doing anything that's hateful or hurtful. I'm probably going to be on your side.

Cool.

Thank you. So, Ukraine, like, were you born there or, like, how long have you been in America?

Yeah. Half my life there, half my life here. So I am. I'm kind of stuck. I'm not sure who I am really, but that's. That's where my Christian background helps me to. To. To power my identity.

Where.

But I am. You know, I've spent half my life there TILL I was 17. I finished high school, moved here in 2007 with my family, and spend, what is it, 15 years here and, you know, still have a lot of family, friends. Everyone is there. I've been there multiple times. To be honest, part of the reason I'm doing SEO is to be able to go back there, you know, and still have. And be a missionary there. Yeah. And. And do. And do some missionary work there and. And probably stay there because Especially. Especially now. Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Do that, Dima. That's cool. I just.

Yeah. I don't. I don't like to say that too much, but, you know, I. If you're gonna go after my fundamental pre. You know, predispositions and kind of where. Where everything's coming from, I want to be able to. To both provide for my family, provide value out there for roofing industry, but also help help a country that's torn and give some spiritual value to them eventually and maybe even also help those local businesses with SEO.

That's really cool. So it's kind of odd. Like, I didn't ever think this was going to be where my world Leads. But I actually have a lot of friends that are Ukrainian. I'll introduce you to some of them if you don't know them. Do you know the guys from United Contractors? Have you met them out in Myrtle Beach?

I don't think so. Maybe I've. Maybe I have seen him, but I don't think so.

Their whole staff, literally their whole staff is there. They've immigrated to America. They've come from all over the place. Lots from the Ukraine, lots from Russia. It's everywhere. Georgia, like all of it. And their ability to work hard is off the charts. Just amazing because they're having to overcome some issues they're having. Like, one thing I would never have guessed about you is that I figured you were born here. You speak such clean English. The.

My wife is the. The one to get credit. My kids, who make. Who make fun of me non stop. Some of the words I'm still having very hard time pronouncing because they're so close. Body. Body, you know, and all it's like.

Well, just so you know us here at Contractor Radio and Contractor Coach Pro, we're on your side over there with.

Thank you. Thank you.

What's going on? And just. No, terrible.

We just did these things for our company, company hats. And this is what we got here.

Going, oh, wow, that's.

I'll send you this one. I'll send you this one.

I'll wear it on the show.

Anyone actually, you know, if you're watching this and anyone who, who has a Facebook profile picture with a Ukrainian flag supporting Ukraine, reach out to me, I'll send you one for free.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna change my Facebook profile picture today. We'll get that support going. Man, it is. It's so tough. Like, yeah, I just don't get it. Like, why is it even necessary? And there's probably more to the story. I'm sure we could do a whole podcast on that.

Yeah.

But why. Why human beings have to hurt human beings. Yeah, you know, it's a frustrating thing.

You know, if you, if you. Depending on your background, depending on your philosophical kind of foundations, you might have different reasons. But as a Christian, you know, it's no surprise, to be honest. Like, read first three chapters of Genesis, first three chapters of the whole Bible, you'll. You'll know why, why that happens. You know, human, human heart is. If uncontrolled and, you know, unsubmitted and it's not accountable, it goes wild. So that's why we need the, you know, systems and checks and balances in place. That's why us is a. Is a. You know, where it is right now, despite all the things that you can argue about. And fundamentally, we need new heart from God himself, you know, to be able to love others more than we love ourselves. And that's really the messaging that Christianity has, you know, that Jesus can give you a new heart and change the way that you treat others.

And it's so opposite of what the human wants. Human wants to take care of itself. And it's instinct. I mean, basic survival, survival instinct, fight or flight, all those things that, you know, just. We have to fight it. We really do.

Yeah.

To truly serve other people is counterintuitive to the human being. And that's why I think the message of Christ is so important. I think it's why sharing that and being open about that. We actually did a show on called Plant the Flag. And where do you plant your flag? Be bold.

Yeah.

So I'm cool with sharing it on my show. Anybody that's listening to my show knows that where I stand on it, if it's not. If it's not cool with them, I'm still cool with that. I really am. We share some great information on here that'll help you with your business.

Yeah.

And it's not my place to judge anybody. That's just. I'm gonna use good judgment, but I'm not the one that sits in ultimate judgment of. Of my actions on this planet or anybody else's. I just love them. That's my job. I'm here to love you, serve you, help you. It's really actually one of the reasons I reached out to you demons. I kind of felt that vibe from you, and I wanted to help you.

Like.

And I don't know if this is helping you or not, if it helps your business, but if I can get you out there in front of folks, I think you're one of those good guys out there that will truthfully put the contractor first.

Yeah.

And that's not as common as the other way, unfortunately.

So thank you, Dima.

It has been. It has been awesome having you on the show and getting to know you a little bit better. I hope that this is a relationship we can build up over time. Yeah, that's important. You mentioned another guy, Adam Sand. Yeah, I like quite a bit too.

Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Adam. Adam Sand. I know Joseph Hughes is also in the business of equipping companies to be independent, you know, and guys like you with the messaging that you are spreading, I think It's. It's immensely valuable. So would love to, you know, see how we can do something together, regardless of personal benefit. I think that comes naturally once you. Once you place other people's value first.

Yeah, we. It's in the Bible. This is actually biblical. We all have our own measure, right? Yeah. The people that hear us, the people that are attracted to us, are drawn to us and vice versa. Who we're drawn to, I'm glad to. And then. And the Latin term for that is your metron. Right. I'm glad to have you in my metron and I'm in yours.

Yeah.

I want to. I want to pursue more with the guys over roofing SEO school. I couldn't spit it out. I was kind of getting like, oh, it's hard to find good, good people to be in relationship and true fellowship with. It's just hard.

Right.

So who knows? Maybe we've got a budding little relationship going here.

Would love to. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you, Jim, man. Really appreciate it. It was awesome. If somebody wants to get a hold of you and roofing SEO schools@roofing seoschool.com. is that how they find you? Yep, yep.

Just. Just that. And you can watch some videos there and book a. Book a call with me, a video call. We can go over your situation. You know, this is perfect for a marketing manager if you have one. This is perfect for you if you just started a company or this is perfect for your spouse. We have a lot of spouses doing it for their husbands. Literally a lot of wives doing it for their husbands and even their own businesses because this, these principles are, you know, they are universal. And we have even some kids doing it for their parents who are, you know, teenagers, you know, just maybe high school age. They can do that. We're actually going to have even parents soon doing it for their kids. So cool stuff. Anyone can do it. If you have a smartphone, you can definitely do it. That's. That's my qualification.

I see some connection that we. We run this program called Contractor Boost for the. For the underserved contractor. The guy's just trying to get to seven figures, not, you know, even eight or anything. Like, he's just trying to get to seven, get out from behind the hammer and work on his business instead of in it. And part of that program is we help them get control over different aspects of their business. And one of those is marketing. Like, how do you get control over your own marketing so you're not having the wool pulled up. I remember buying a website and this third party platform that was going to help me build a website. And they did. I got a really cool, nice website when I first started. Unfortunately, it wasn't my website, it was theirs. They didn't tell me that. So I had to start over from scratch when things weren't going so well. Yeah. Help people avoid those kind of mistakes. And maybe this is a way that we can help you. You out by sending some folks your way whenever SEO needs to be gotten control of.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of things to be named and sometimes names to be named because unfortunately, you know, if you, if you ignore these things, they become a norm. And that's the situation with geopolitics. You know, if you ignore a tyrant for long enough, he's going to go after you or countries. But if you ignore wrong behaviors within your own industry, you are empowering that to, to flourish. And my industry is SEO. And I'm going to be naming things with, with as much, you know, respect as possible. But at some point, somebody has to call things the way that they are. Black, black and white. White.

And truth is truth, man.

Truth is truth. Feelings don't care about your. Or what is it? Truth. Truth doesn't, in fact, don't care about your feelings. Right. Ben Shapiro.

That the other Dimitri Santa.

That's Ben Shapiro, you know, but I mean, obviously you need to be kind and speak truth in love, but sometimes even that hurts. So we're here for the better good, you know, for, for the, for the greater good. And if we can help you, if you think that you might be a good fit or we might be a good fit, reach out, we'll talk.

That's awesome. Hey, Dima, I want to get you back on the show again in the future. I want to, you know, a couple years down the road from now, see how, like, I have no doubt that you're going to do very, very well in what you're doing. I can already see it, which is super cool. You guys. Roofingseoschool.com Go check it out. Can they do a free call? Can they talk to you? Like, is that what you guys do? Okay, cool.

That's on the, on the website. You book a call and we'll jump on the video call. We'll go over your strategy. I'll show you the school from the inside, talk about numbers, what it's going to require. And you know, and we do have private support group for all the students. So it's not like you're just. We're Setting you off and bye. Bye. But we do have a private support group on Facebook for all the students. We do weekly calls. There's, you know, you can set up a monthly video call with me to make sure that you're on the right track for free. That's for all the students. So we're here to stay. We're here to support you all, you know, along the way and provide new content, new updates of anything that needs to be updated. It's all. It's all gonna be there. We're here to stay. You know, we're here to change the industry and make SEO in house, SEO mainstream.

I love it. I love it. Thanks a lot, Dima. And we'll see you on a future episode, I have no doubt.

Absolutely. Jim, thank you so much for having me.

All right, man, we'll talk to you later.

Yes.

Hang out for just a minute. All right.

Yes.

All right, everybody. That was Dima Silvavoy from Roofing SEO School. Amazing interview. The SEO stuff was really good, but the stuff at the end where it was why he was so passionate about it and this idea of serving the underserved, that's. That's just cool to us here. It's cool to see others doing it. I hope that it impacted you. I hope you learned something today. Those backlinks are important. Get those votes from those that you are buying from and providing services to. It is important for your ranking. Let's not let those big guys take advantage of us. If you need any help with your business, when it comes to getting your business under control so it can grow, you can start to achieve some of that freedom you were looking for whenever you started your business. Reach out to us@contractorcoachpro.com Click on Book A call or take the free contractor assessment. Either one of those. Maybe take the assessment first and then book a call. We will sit down with you and go over a strategy call with you, no charge. If you find something interesting that day that you can apply to your business, great. Because we're going to look at the top three things that you could do right away to improve your business, and that would be it. But if you like what we're doing, you feel like coaching is the right thing for you, we'd be interested in talking about that as well. Thanks a lot for hanging out with us here on Contractor Radio. We will see you on our next episode.