#606 Senthilkumar Subramanian: Rank on Google Page 1 with Senthil’s 5-Step SEO System

Want to know how to rank your website on Google Page 1—without expensive ads or complicated tech?

In this episode of Talking with the Experts, I’m joined by SEO strategist and founder of SEO with Senthil, Senthilkumar Subramanian. He’s here to share his 5 Step Jumpstart Your SEO system that’s helped him rank for hundreds of keywords, generate over $1 million in revenue, and grow multiple businesses—all through organic search.

Whether you're a first-time entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, this episode is packed with real, usable insights. Senthil walks us through:

• Why ranking on Google is more critical now than ever
• The first steps any beginner can take to start ranking
• The common reasons most websites fail to get found online
• How his proven SEO system delivers traffic that converts—not just visits

Senthil’s approach is refreshingly simple and effective, helping everyday businesses move from invisible to influential in their space.

You’ll walk away with clarity, tools, and the confidence to start (or fix) your SEO journey.

🎯 Ready to get your content seen by the right audience?
Don’t miss this episode—it’s time to unlock organic growth!

👉 Learn more about Senthil at https://seowithsenthil.com

✨ CONNECT WITH SENTHIL

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senthil.kumar.96387/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/senthilkumar-subramanianba02a783/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seowithsenthil

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@senthilkumar46740
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Transcript

Voiceover | 00:01
Welcome to Talking With The Experts. Here we discuss all things business. By business owners. For business owners. Here is your host, Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:12
Hello, welcome to Talking With The Experts. I'm your host, Rose Davidson from rosedavidson.com.au. Today, it's my very great pleasure to introduce you to Senthil Kumar. And we're going to be discussing his five-step jumpstart system to jumpstart your SEO system to rank on Google page one. Now, Senthil is the founder and SEO... Using that particular system and has ranked for 100s of words on Google page one and has made $1 million in revenue across his printing business and art studio business, which he has now sold. He is passionate about strategic SCA that brings results for business owners. Through SEO, Senthil wants to help businesses grow their reach, revenue and impact by leveraging the power of organic search traffic. And I can't really tell you anything more about him, so I'll let him tell you. Senthil, welcome to Talking With The Experts. 

 Senthilkumar | 01:17
Hi, Rose. I'm happy to be here. 

 Rose | 01:19
It's wonderful to have you on. Tell me a little bit about... Going from, you know, being a, business and art studio jobs. Owner to, you know, getting into SEO, what prompted that move? 

 Senthilkumar | 01:35
That's a... Rather long story, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible. 
 So, I think close to 10 years ago, my dad, he had surprised me with a birthday gift, a very unusual birthday gift. It was a three-day WordPress website creation and SEO program. And I attended the program with an open mind, not knowing what to expect. And at the end of the program, the instructor challenged us to start a service-based business. As a group and, do SEO for that business. And me and my group, we started a cleaning services website and within about four months we started ranking for our very first keyword on google page one which was office cleaning services Singapore even though we didn't go on with the business, we, It taught me that SEO done right can bring in leads and sales to a business. And it showed me the power of SEO. 
 So around that same period of time, I was in university at that time, and I was in this minor in entrepreneurship program, we were trying to customize and sell paper notebooks. And then eventually we decided, you know what, like, it's hard to sell these notebooks individually. Why not? We do bulk notebook printing, bulk t-shirt printing. 
 And then that was how we started the t-shirt printing company. And of course, I was put in charge of the SEO aspect of things to rank our website. And within about one to two years, we even started ranking for So, of course, it was a lot of work. I wouldn't deny that. But after putting in very focused work into our website, we started ranking for very competitive terms like T-shirt printing Singapore, hoodie printing Singapore. And we started getting a lot of volume in terms of the inquiries, leads, sales and reviews. The art studio was another pivot. 
 So it was like, why print on T-shirts? We can paint on T-shirts. And one of my co-founders here went for a corporate event and he said it's a very good corporate team bonding activity. 
 So we had branched out. We had started an art studio. Things were picking up because we were ranking for terms like corporate team bonding activities in Singapore. A lot of corporate teams were coming downstairs to our studio, we used to take even up to like 50 people at a time. And, just after about a year, COVID happened. Yes. 
 So there was a major blow because the art studio was doing pretty well and we had closed down the printing company because we felt like we didn't really have much of a differentiation there. Like every other printing company was doing the same and our revenue for the art studio was hit by close to 80-90%. There were like government lockdowns and capacity restrictions, so we couldn't function the same way we did. We had to close down the studio. My team left and I was left alone trying to handle the business online, like, you know, sending some painting kits to people to paint at homes. And during this point of time this whole COVID period was a time of reflection for me, whether I wanted to open the studio back up again when COVID eased, right? 
 Like once everything was back to normal. And I realized that it wasn't something that resonated with me. 
 Like art isn't really my thing. I don't do art myself. It just so happened that I was there. And I thought, okay, why not do something that excites me and brings me joy more than just... Offering some service I'm not into myself. And that was when the whole idea of helping businesses grow with SEO, not just rank for keywords, but actually grow their business with SEO came about. And Initially, while I was doing more of a coaching model to help business owners to grow using SEO, this year I just pivoted into offering agency services because I realized a lot of business owners, they have so many things on their plate and they Putting like that time and energy into SEO and really having to figure everything out, even with help. It, takes up a lot of, commitment, I would say, and a lot of business owners are not able to give that much of energy to SEO today. 
 So I thought I'm doing offering SEO agency services right now. 

 Rose | 06:44
Wonderful. My goodness. And, you know, SEO is a really... Challenging and time-consuming Pursuit. I run three websites. I designed them all myself. And to try And, you know, to keep all the SEO... 

 Senthilkumar | 06:58
It... I'd love to take a look at your website. 

 Rose | 07:07
Up to date and I'm sure I've done a lot of things wrong. And so I would like your advice on why ranking our website on Google is important. Yes. 

 Senthilkumar | 07:21
I think the very first thing is that It helps you attract the people who are looking for information related to your products and services. Whereas if you go to social media and you just do a shout out to your friends, or even if you run an app, you may not be searching, I mean, reaching those people searching for that service. 
 Like, for example, if I'm, running a t-shirt printing company like i was right like i'm trying to look for corporate's who are looking for t-shirt printing services at a particular point of time. And I can't go and find these I can find corporate people on Facebook, but how am I going to find the people who are looking for these services at that point of time? 
 So that's the nuance here. And this applies for a lot of other services as well. 
 Like people are searching for, say, clinics or they're searching for SaaS products or they're searching for law firms or... Anything like for that matter, right? And if they don't find you online, then they're not You got to know that you exist. And your product or service And not. Reach. Peace. People whom you could impact with, your product or service. 

 Rose | 08:48
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And, you know, and it's, right you're right when you say that if you if people can't find you online they're not going to know who you are and that is so important if you want to grow your business and sell your product or your services but You know, I'd like to touch a little bit on one of those five steps of SEO that we really must do to be able to, you know, get our websites to rank on Google. 

 Senthilkumar | 09:18
So the very first step of SEO that I think is very important for founders, even more so if you're doing it yourself, is to understand the fundamentals behind SEO. And to do that, I often ask people this question is, Do you know how Google makes money? 

 Rose | 09:43
Advertising, I would have thought. 

 Senthilkumar | 09:45
Exactly, right? So, Google advertising, Google ads especially, they make quite a bit from that channel. Before Google can get. Advertisers. To spend on Google Ads. Right. What does Google Meet? 

 Rose | 10:07
Well, I guess they named I guess the advertiser to have a product that's worth selling for a start or a service that's worth selling. 

 Senthilkumar | 10:19
Correct. What I mean is why would businesses want to pay for Google Ads? 
 Like before paying for Google Ads, Google Meet ads. To make sure that it has. 

 Rose | 10:30
Well, I guess it. 

 Senthilkumar | 10:35
That's with a U. It needs to make sure it has users, right? It needs to make sure that people are searching. 
 Yeah, exactly. Google's customers are people like you and me searching on Google. 
 So only if Google has... Millions of people trusting Google and searching on Google, then More advertisers will want to advertise with Google and spend with Google Drive spend money with Google so Google's objective is to give people a is to give people the best value or the best informative content or engaging content that it searches and find relevant and are going to love. 
 So Google is, like with AI and everything, like the ultimate objective is still for Google Meet find the, What the people searching for these products and services are going to relate to and engage with and enjoy the most. And when Google can do that. And it can make people coming back to Google. It can get more advertisers on Google. 
 So you need to understand this fundamental principle before you're make going into any of the other steps of SU. So if any time during the whole SEO process, you get stuck, then you go back to the fundamental principle, like what is it that Google Sheets? Right. And oftentimes it helps you improve or refine your strategy. To get higher in the Google rankings. 

 Rose | 12:17
And you have to have that strategy too. You can't just pick, you know, keywords out of the blue. And this is where, you know, keyword searchers are. - Correct. - So Proper keywords. 

 Senthilkumar | 12:31
Actually five steps. You have named the second step in the five steps process. 
 So first step is you nail the fundamentals and then you understand the whole fundamental principle around SEO and how SEO works and everything. The second step is to do keyword research. And for keyword research, you need to be identifying keywords. That are not just keywords that your target audience is searching for. You need to understand the difference between educational keywords and profitable keywords. 
 So there's a difference. Profitable or sometimes people call it transactional keywords, more transactional keywords. 
 So what do I mean by that? If let's say that someone is searching for How to groom a dog, for example. Right. They are just looking for an educational piece to help them group their dog, for example, but they're not looking to buy anything. Whereas the psychology behind someone searching for you say, at Guma. Right. Or let's say for my niche that I used to, work on where people search for t-shirt printing methods. Perhaps they are just looking to educate themselves on the different printing methods out there. But if someone is searching for t-shirt printing Singapore, t-shirt printing company in Singapore, then they are It's a lot. More transactional keyword, they are looking, their intent to purchase is a lot higher. 
 So just by looking at different keywords, and I think having a bit of experience helps, you can tell the difference between educational keywords and transactional keywords. And you, especially as a business owner, you shouldn't just be ranking for educational keywords. You need to have a mix of both because of course, educational keywords can still build your brand, your credibility, but you still need to have those transactional keywords or high intent keywords where it helps to move the needle for your business. Right. 
 So that's the second step. And the third step is Content creation. 
 So usually a lot of websites, I noticed they tend to write content without doing the keyword research. So that's like going into a car without an end destination in mind, right? 
 So you have to decide that, okay, these are the keywords that I'm working on, and I'm writing this piece of content to address this keyword. Right. And the content you write, should not just be relevant to that keyword because every competitor you have is going to write relevant content to a keyword. But What is going to separate your content from... Your competitors. What is going to add value to people searching for their keywords? More than what is already out there. 
 So these are nuances, but these really help you set yourself a in those Google rankings. When Everyone is providing relevant content, right? After you create these outstanding pieces of content, so we understood the fundamentals, keyword research, and then we wrote the content, then of course there's optimizing the content and making sure that your website, This part is a little bit technical, but it's, for example, making sure your website loads fast, it's easy to navigate. And of course, there are a lot of smaller technical things there, but The fourth step, it's called on-page optimization. It is everything you can do within your website to make your website more appealing to your website visitors and Google as well, right? To keep people engaged on your website, interacting, everything is clear, navigation is clear, people like your website, and that's the fourth step. And the fifth and final step, is a step that is attracting referrals from other websites to your website. 
 So it's called backlink building. So when other websites point to your website, it's a signal to Google Meet, hey, this is a reliable website. A lot of other websites are pointing to this website. Right. But at the same time, a lot of people forget here that. Quality is essential because you can have thieves and robbers, or you can have spammy websites referring to you. And if Google thinks, hey, these kind of low-quality websites are the only ones referring to this guy or this website, then it doesn't add value. What helps is to make sure that you get these referrals from other... And this is a very important thing to do. It's another factor that, helps you to rank better on Google. Yep. And, A lot of people, like a lot of websites I see, they fall short in Okay, I think let's make this a little interactive. 
 So among these five steps, where do you think most businesses struggle to get things right? 

 Rose | 18:11
I think it's the keywords for me. It's putting the keyword and stuffing the website with the same keyword on the on blog posts or other pages and Try to make sure that you're not overstuffing your website with the same keywords. 

 Senthilkumar | 18:31
Yeah, it is important not to stuff your website with the same keywords, but there are a lot of keyword tools out there where you can see how many people are searching for a particular keyword and whether this is a keyword that you want to work on ranking for. And some websites, they even know that... If they had SEO in mind from the start, they're going to know that, okay, this is the keyword that I want to rank for. They even know that. But where they actually struggle in is the third step and the fifth step. The third step is beading content that differentiates themselves from what is out there while staying relevant to people searching for that keyword. That is one area that websites lack because they think, this keyword, I just write something around this keyword and it's going to rank. It's not so straightforward. The other thing is that when you engage some of these agencies especially some agencies that charge like cheap prices of course they're not going to be able to afford getting you backlinks from great websites right yeah so you end up getting spammy backlinks or if you know you just don't have a proper strategy in place to attract good quality backlinks, then that's another area that a lot of websites struggle with. 

 Rose | 20:05
Yeah, it's not, it's, you know, one thing to have a pretty website, you know, and everyone wants a pretty website, but you've got to be able to have the content in that website that will allow you to rank on Google Meet keep your customers or clients engaged. So they're not going to... 
 You know, scroll through and think, well, this is boring. It's, you know, and you've got to have it so that, you know, yes, pretty is nice, but make sure that there's engaging content in there and all the pages are relevant to the business and that, You know, all your blog posts are relevant to what it is that you're doing. 
 You know, it's no good having a podcast website like myself and, you know, putting a heap of business stuff in there which isn't really relevant to you podcasting. 

 Senthilkumar | 20:55
Yeah. And one more thing is that it doesn't just stop at ranking for a keyword. You have to remember that someone searching on Google Meet a keyword, they're not just only going to be looking at your website. They're going to be probably looking at least two to three other websites like So what is going to get these people to contact you over your competitors or to want to work with you over your competitors you need to make that as convincing as clear as possible so it goes beyond just ranking it goes into your site layout ui ux your copy especially how convincing you are how much they trust you and how much... Delight. Your X factor more than the other competitors in your industry. 

 Rose | 21:53
Absolutely. No, I totally agree. I think, you know, to keep your customers engaged, you've got to have the information on there that is going to keep them on your page, you know, especially your front page. You know, if they're not going to go through there, there's no good having a lot of bells and whistles and buttons and links and so forth if they're, you know, don't like the information that you've got there and that is your first point of contact usually is your website so if they're searching for a podcast host or podcast mentor podcast coach you've got to make sure that your front page tells the people that that's what you are and that's what you're doing and if you're not doing that then you know that they're not going to stay very long. 

 Senthilkumar | 22:43
Exactly. So there needs to be clarity around the service that you offer, what makes you stand out, and of course, what makes you differentiate yourself from the others in your industry. 

 Rose | 23:01
You've got to have that point of difference. I think that's really important is you've got to stand out. You've got to have something that's different, something that's unusual, something that's not what the others are offering because there's, I mean, for me, there's a lot of podcast coaches out there. And, you know, I like to think that my point of difference is that of the service and the type of shows that I offer my clients. However, you know, having researched it quite a lot there are people doing similar things so I have to be different from the rest. In some the time I was a kid. 

 Senthilkumar | 23:35
Way. Exactly. No, I can trust you from Just to clarify, so you are a podcast coach, meaning that you help people to start their own podcast? I do. 

 Rose | 23:48
Yeah, I'll do that. 

 Senthilkumar | 23:50
That's very interesting. 

 Rose | 23:51
Yeah, so that's what I do. I have an online program and I have a one-on-one program as well. 
 And then I have a done-for-you service, so I'll actually – Someone wants to do their podcast, I will do all the behind-the-scenes things. So I offer three different things that they can – do to get a podcast up and going. 
 So I have to be different from everybody else. And pricing too is a big thing in this space, because if you're too cheap, people will think you haven't got a very good service. And if you're too expensive, then people think, well, I can't really afford that yet, but I'll come back to it. But it doesn't help when you're searching for that client and When you're overpriced and pricing yourself out of customers'. 

 Senthilkumar | 24:41
Yeah. So that's where you want to get their foot in the door. 
 Like you don't, I tell my science like not to always go straight for the sale, especially if you're selling something high ticket or People need a bit more consideration than you should have a lead magnet, for example, or something for them to just contact you, get to know you first. And people buy into people, right? 
 So they need to like your personality. It can show on your website. You can share your story, which sets you apart. 
 So these are just small nuances, but they can make a big difference. Yeah. 

 Rose | 25:24
Absolutely. And you've got to make sure that you're ranking in anything that you put on any page that you're ranking on that particular keyword that you want to be known for. 

 Senthilkumar | 25:33
Exactly. 

 Rose | 25:36
Yes, I'm too. We can find you on Facebook at Senthil dot Kumar and there's a bunch of numbers behind it but you just look up Senthil dot Kumar and you'll find it. He's on LinkedIn, as well, you can find him there and all the links will be in the show notes. His website is SEO with Senthil. He's on Instagram he's on TikTok and you've got a product or service that you'd like to share with our listeners today. 

 Senthilkumar | 26:03
So right now, as I told you, I'm offering SEO agency services. So if you are looking for someone to do the SEO work for you, then I have a free consultation call where I look into your website and then give you some recommendations and we'll discuss how we can work together. Or I have a website audit. 
 So if you don't want to, you know, like get on a call immediately, you could let me take a look at your website and I will. Review it for you I’ll give you like a written report and a video and then We could explore how to work together to grow your business. 

 Rose | 26:47
Thank you. Wonderful. Senthil, it's been an absolute pleasure. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners today? 

 Senthilkumar | 26:54
I think. That's it. 
 Like, Thank you. Just, Make sure that if you're writing content, Like, start with the keyword research, right? Know what you want to rank for and then work from there if you're doing it yourself. And another very important thing, I think, This is beyond SEO. It's more like a business thing, which is to have clarity on your product or service offering, know what it is you're offering and what makes you special. Right. 
 So, yeah, that's just a little tip there. 

 Rose | 27:33
Absolutely. No, I take that 100%. I think that's great advice. Senthil, thank you so much for your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure meeting you. 

 Senthilkumar | 27:40
Thank you so much, Rose. Thank you. It was nice talking with you and I hope your audience finds this valuable. Thank you. I'm. 

 Rose | 27:49
Sure they will. I'm sure they will. Bye for now. 

 Speaker 4 | 27:52
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.