Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- The more you get to know the people you serve, the more you can position your website to meet their needs.
- If you're building an e-commerce business, you must focus on discovering and creating things people want to buy.
- The more you learn, the more you can evolve and the better you'll be able to serve your audience.
- SEO is important because when you do it right, it will consistently bring new people into your world.
- Find ways to make your website the best answer to the questions people are asking.
- By positioning yourself as the answer, you get the clicks.
- Keep your site aligned with what people are searching for.
- Be clear with your product names and descriptions to highlight the benefits they provide.
- Put keywords people are looking for into the places that Google is looking for them.
- Always have a call to action on your site.
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 269 Ways of setting up your website
Speaker:so that Google and YouTube and Pinterest pay more attention to
Speaker:you. Attention gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights,
Speaker:midair, Sue,
Speaker:and thanks for hanging out with me here today.
Speaker:We just completed a four part series highlighting business owners who
Speaker:have changed,
Speaker:how they've been doing business to fit the times.
Speaker:If you haven't listened already,
Speaker:I encourage you to do so.
Speaker:It's just the first four episodes before this.
Speaker:They put things in place to attract new customers that they'll
Speaker:continue to use as we open back up again.
Speaker:Isn't it interesting how,
Speaker:when we're forced to do something different,
Speaker:it can become the best thing ever before we move on
Speaker:one quick announcement.
Speaker:I've heard from a number of you asking how to get
Speaker:into maker's MBA.
Speaker:I've been mentioning it more and more in the Facebook group
Speaker:gift biz breeze,
Speaker:and also here in the podcast.
Speaker:And I guess that's,
Speaker:what's been prompting the questions.
Speaker:So this program is originally created for a brand new business
Speaker:dreamer going from concept to profitable business,
Speaker:through a proven step by step strategy.
Speaker:But I'm listening to you because the truth is even when
Speaker:you have a business up and running,
Speaker:things can get messy and important.
Speaker:Foundational elements think websites and email marketing can be forgotten or
Speaker:never set up in the first place.
Speaker:And I get it.
Speaker:You're busy.
Speaker:So I've created a new option for you.
Speaker:If you're an established business listener,
Speaker:who's been in business for two years or more,
Speaker:it's called maker's MBA accelerator.
Speaker:And what it does is fast tracks you to the specific
Speaker:area of your business that you know,
Speaker:needs attention,
Speaker:but you just haven't had the time to focus on it.
Speaker:If this sounds like something you'd be interested in,
Speaker:please head over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash makers MBA there,
Speaker:you'll see a link for established businesses,
Speaker:click there,
Speaker:and you'll see a form where I'm asking you a couple
Speaker:of questions and then you can be in maker's MBA accelerator
Speaker:quickly from there,
Speaker:speaking of foundational elements put in place.
Speaker:Here's one that I know a lot of you,
Speaker:me included.
Speaker:I'm raising my hand here,
Speaker:have pushed aside until later,
Speaker:and you know what happens then it gets forgotten.
Speaker:And the result is we're losing out on a lot of
Speaker:potential sales and sales that can come with zero effort.
Speaker:Once you have everything set up properly,
Speaker:I'm talking of course about SEO search engine optimization agreed.
Speaker:Even the word sound intimidating,
Speaker:but today we're going to hear what it can do for
Speaker:your website and sales and specifically what you need to do
Speaker:to put it in place.
Speaker:And it ends up that it's not that difficult today.
Speaker:I am so excited to introduce you to Meg.
Speaker:Casebolt the owner of love.
Speaker:At first search Meg has been helping female business owners create
Speaker:beautiful search,
Speaker:friendly websites and strategic content for the past six years.
Speaker:She's your no BS bestie who makes it super easy for
Speaker:your dream customers to find and adore you online.
Speaker:This results in effortless web traffic,
Speaker:consistent customers,
Speaker:soaring, profit,
Speaker:and so much more free time.
Speaker:And sanity,
Speaker:Meg knows her clients have incredible messages to spread and she
Speaker:wants to help them get seen by new audiences,
Speaker:Meg, welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me here.
Speaker:See why I'm so excited to be here with you and
Speaker:share some of the wonders of Google with your audience.
Speaker:And we all want that and need that.
Speaker:The whole idea of SEO has been a topic that's been
Speaker:coming up a lot lately.
Speaker:And so figuring out some of the behind the scenes of
Speaker:how that works,
Speaker:I know already peaks my listeners interest.
Speaker:So thank you so much for being here.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I think especially,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so you and I are recording this in may of 2020.
Speaker:And so we're kind of at the reopening beginnings of the
Speaker:pandemic here in the States as we're recording.
Speaker:So SEO has been top of mind for a lot of
Speaker:people who suddenly don't necessarily have those in person connections or
Speaker:even wholesale relationships happening right now.
Speaker:And being able to sell direct to consumer and be found
Speaker:by those people is really essential right now.
Speaker:And I think that's the way that the economy is heading
Speaker:to. So SEO is so,
Speaker:so important,
Speaker:even more so than ever So true.
Speaker:And the other thing that I'm hearing a lot from my
Speaker:folks is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:well, I've put up a website,
Speaker:but I'm not getting any sales.
Speaker:So we're going to be talking specifically to that in a
Speaker:minute. But before we do make,
Speaker:I have this traditional question I have to ask you because
Speaker:all of us here listening are creators.
Speaker:And so this is a little bit of a different way
Speaker:to get to know you.
Speaker:And that is by way of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if I were to say,
Speaker:describe a candle that most resonates with you,
Speaker:what color and quote would be on your candle.
Speaker:I have to confess that I really struggled with this question
Speaker:because I'm such a tactical person that if you ask me,
Speaker:how do I make my website do X,
Speaker:Y, Z,
Speaker:I can give you a tutorial,
Speaker:but if you ask me something a little bit more aesthetic
Speaker:or esoteric,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:what candle have I I'm stretching you outside of your natural?
Speaker:Yes. You're stretching me into a creative though instead of into
Speaker:a technical space.
Speaker:So I think the color would be Navy blue,
Speaker:something nice and soothing.
Speaker:And the motivational quote that I came up with is actually
Speaker:one that I have on my wall in my office.
Speaker:It's a quote by Maya Angelou,
Speaker:which is do the best you can until,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:better than when you know,
Speaker:better do better.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:And that's so applies to the topic today.
Speaker:That's why it's the office,
Speaker:because the ways of updating your website,
Speaker:it's amazing to put up your website and then you have
Speaker:to iteratively make it better all the time.
Speaker:Because the more you get to know the people that you're
Speaker:trying to serve,
Speaker:the more you can carve your website to be meeting their
Speaker:needs. Absolutely.
Speaker:And it's so important for us all,
Speaker:to remember that growing businesses,
Speaker:setting them up,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:and then growing your business is an evolution.
Speaker:So a lot of people have gotten their website up just
Speaker:to the point that you're saying,
Speaker:but I think we have to make sure that they understand,
Speaker:like don't beat yourself up either.
Speaker:You're going to learn as you go.
Speaker:And that's why that quote is so great too,
Speaker:because I think Meg,
Speaker:if I'm going to be honest with you,
Speaker:a lot of us are starting with zero understanding.
Speaker:Well, we did not get degrees in web design,
Speaker:right? Like if you are building an eCommerce business,
Speaker:the thing that you should be focusing on is creating things
Speaker:that people want to buy from you.
Speaker:And then the marketing side of things is a totally different
Speaker:beast that has a very different skillset and trying to not
Speaker:just figure out what do people want to buy?
Speaker:How do I do that?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you got into this to be a creator.
Speaker:You didn't get into this to learn how to build a
Speaker:website or do your branding,
Speaker:or do the copywriting business side of running a business is
Speaker:very different than the creative side.
Speaker:Absolutely. Totally agree with you.
Speaker:How did you get into this?
Speaker:Give us a little bit of your back journey here.
Speaker:Sure. So I started in nonprofit communications right out of college,
Speaker:which I just got,
Speaker:this is may.
Speaker:So I just had the time hop,
Speaker:pop up and say like you were in college 12 years
Speaker:ago. And I was like,
Speaker:Oh God,
Speaker:it's been so long.
Speaker:Although I'm sure there are people in the audience who are
Speaker:like 12 years ago,
Speaker:she's a baby.
Speaker:That would be me.
Speaker:Time's all relative.
Speaker:So I started my first job in nonprofit communications must actually
Speaker:be longer ago than that.
Speaker:I spent eight years working in nonprofits.
Speaker:And when you work in nonprofits,
Speaker:you kind of have to wear a lot of hats.
Speaker:So I was designing their websites.
Speaker:I was working on their copywriting.
Speaker:I was doing graphic design for annual reports and donor mailings
Speaker:and all the different ways that you can communicate with people.
Speaker:I was creating social media accounts for them,
Speaker:just like any kind of marketing.
Speaker:I had my hand in it as a way to raise
Speaker:contributions for places.
Speaker:A lot of us have heard of places like big brothers,
Speaker:big sisters or partners in health.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I worked for some really amazing nonprofit companies.
Speaker:And then I fell in love,
Speaker:moved to a new town.
Speaker:Didn't know anybody got a job I didn't love and got
Speaker:pregnant, got married,
Speaker:got pregnant and looked at the cost of what my income
Speaker:was and then looked at the cost of what my childcare
Speaker:was going to be and thought,
Speaker:Hmm, those numbers don't necessarily add up.
Speaker:At which point I took those skills that I had from
Speaker:the nonprofit sector and from being in marketing positions all over.
Speaker:And I started to apply them to a side hustle.
Speaker:At first,
Speaker:I started just with invitations to people,
Speaker:to my own wedding first and then to other people's weddings
Speaker:and then baby showers,
Speaker:and then moved into,
Speaker:I had a law firm that I worked with that hired
Speaker:me to do all of their designs for nonprofit sponsorships.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:Oh, this is a fun way to tie in the nonprofit
Speaker:piece that I'd been working on.
Speaker:And then over time I started to get more and more
Speaker:into web design and brought myself into that world.
Speaker:I became a junior designer for a friend of mine who
Speaker:was building websites.
Speaker:And so she started to send smaller projects right in my
Speaker:way. And it kind of took off from there.
Speaker:And I started specializing in building websites and designing and doing
Speaker:the copywriting and helping small businesses and entrepreneurs to get themselves
Speaker:online. And as I was building those websites,
Speaker:I was billing out pretty substantial client invoices,
Speaker:and people would have these beautiful websites at the end of
Speaker:our time that I delivered those websites.
Speaker:And they'd say,
Speaker:okay, but yeah,
Speaker:but where's the traffic,
Speaker:where are the new leads coming from?
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:Oh, that wasn't in the scope of services.
Speaker:The scope was here's your brand and here's your logo and
Speaker:here's their website and here's your colors.
Speaker:And here's all these things that work for you.
Speaker:And it looks beautiful.
Speaker:We didn't necessarily talk about how to generate more leads with
Speaker:your website.
Speaker:So I started really doing the research and figuring out what
Speaker:are the things that I,
Speaker:as a designer can do to help my clients have better
Speaker:results with the deliverables that I gave them.
Speaker:And I learned more and more about SEO,
Speaker:which is what I now do.
Speaker:Almost exclusively.
Speaker:It's all search engine optimization.
Speaker:It's ways of setting up your website so that Google and
Speaker:YouTube and Pinterest pay more attention to you.
Speaker:Those are the big three in the SEO world.
Speaker:And I reached out to some of my friends who are
Speaker:also graphic designers and web designers.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:how do you guys balance keeping up with the trends that
Speaker:are happening in design and all of the different plugins and
Speaker:the styles,
Speaker:and are we doing parallax this year,
Speaker:or are we doing something else?
Speaker:And also make sure that those sites are optimized for search.
Speaker:And my friends who are designers said,
Speaker:like, we don't really know how to balance that.
Speaker:It really is two full time jobs and trying to be
Speaker:great at both of them is really hard.
Speaker:And then one of them paused and said,
Speaker:wait, are you getting good at SEO?
Speaker:Do you just want me to hire you for SEO from
Speaker:here on out?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:yes. And that was how things changed.
Speaker:And so you said,
Speaker:right at the beginning,
Speaker:all of our websites are evolutions,
Speaker:but I think to an extent,
Speaker:our businesses and the service offerings that we provide,
Speaker:the products that we're selling,
Speaker:those are all evolutions too.
Speaker:And it comes back to this idea of when you know,
Speaker:better do better,
Speaker:right? Like the more that you learn,
Speaker:the more you can evolve and the more you can serve
Speaker:an audience better,
Speaker:but you have to put those first steps in place and
Speaker:just see what doors open to you along the way.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I love your story for several reasons.
Speaker:First off you are a practitioner of what you now teach.
Speaker:Like you've been through the experience that a lot of your
Speaker:customers would have been through too,
Speaker:especially that point where you're stopped and you've got your website
Speaker:up and you're thinking you're done,
Speaker:that's it?
Speaker:Because no one told you that there's another layer.
Speaker:It's a whole different thing.
Speaker:When you're talking about SEO and ranking your pages and all
Speaker:that. And I liken it to a mistake that I made
Speaker:early on too,
Speaker:which was on the social media side,
Speaker:thinking that someone who does my social media posts,
Speaker:cause at one point I hired that out would also do
Speaker:ads. That's also a place where there's a split now.
Speaker:Yes. A lot of people who do social media will also
Speaker:add on and say that they can help you with your
Speaker:ads. But I do feel like it's a specialty too.
Speaker:Absolutely. And I think the same is true for Google.
Speaker:If people like me who are trying to get you to
Speaker:show up in those free rankings,
Speaker:have a very different skill set than people who are running
Speaker:ads for you to show up on Google or YouTube or
Speaker:another one of those platforms.
Speaker:That's a different goal with the different pace and a different
Speaker:approach to everything.
Speaker:And you can be a generalist in digital marketing,
Speaker:or you can go deep into one of the silos.
Speaker:But I think it's really hard to find one person who's
Speaker:good at everything.
Speaker:Yes. Totally agree with you.
Speaker:Well, let's start out because I would even bet that most
Speaker:people are exactly where you described.
Speaker:They've got a website up now,
Speaker:so they knew they needed to do that.
Speaker:They've checked it off the list and it's not performing.
Speaker:So let's start with why is search engine optimization important?
Speaker:Oh gosh.
Speaker:I mean it's might be obvious,
Speaker:but I want to just start there.
Speaker:So we're all on the same page For sure.
Speaker:So I would say search engine optimization is important because it
Speaker:can consistently bring new people into your world without you necessarily
Speaker:needing to be on top of your lead generation process all
Speaker:the time.
Speaker:So if you don't have Google consistently sending leads to you,
Speaker:you either have to be out networking and going to conferences
Speaker:and handing out business cards or developing wholesale relationships to get
Speaker:other people to sell for you or driving traffic to social
Speaker:media. But a lot of times social media doesn't necessarily want
Speaker:to take people off their platforms to go to someone else's
Speaker:website, unless you're paying them to send that traffic there.
Speaker:So that can either be incredibly time consuming or incredibly expensive.
Speaker:So the alternative that I have specialized in is search engine
Speaker:optimization, which is find ways to make your website the best
Speaker:answer to the questions that people are asking on Google or
Speaker:Bing or Yahoo or YouTube or whatever that looks like,
Speaker:make your brand,
Speaker:the answer.
Speaker:And by positioning yourself as the answer,
Speaker:then you get those clicks without necessarily needing to invest your
Speaker:resources of time or money.
Speaker:You can just become the expert.
Speaker:Okay. But going in the mind of our listeners,
Speaker:but Meg,
Speaker:I have my website it's up,
Speaker:so what's wrong.
Speaker:So a lot of times when people have their website,
Speaker:the problem is not necessarily that your website is bad.
Speaker:It's that it's not aligned with the things that people are
Speaker:searching for.
Speaker:Well, let me clarify that a little bit more.
Speaker:If you're selling a very specific product like Sue,
Speaker:give me an example of what people would be selling in
Speaker:your audience.
Speaker:Like a very specific type of business,
Speaker:Let's say handmade soaps.
Speaker:Ooh. I love that.
Speaker:Let's say that you're selling handmade soaps and you have this
Speaker:beautiful website that has the cuts of what all this stuff
Speaker:look like.
Speaker:And it has a detailed overview of every step that you
Speaker:go through when your soap making process.
Speaker:But it doesn't explain how each of the soaps solves a
Speaker:problem for that audience.
Speaker:So maybe you say this soap can help you with moisturizing
Speaker:and this soap can help with fine lines and wrinkles.
Speaker:And this soap can help with really sensitive skin.
Speaker:So people with psoriasis or eczema might be good to use
Speaker:this soap.
Speaker:And now your soap is not just something pretty that sits
Speaker:on the back of the sink.
Speaker:It's a solution that people are looking for because they have
Speaker:psoriasis. I have various specific soaps that I do and don't
Speaker:use because of the products that are in them and the
Speaker:ways that they're formulated.
Speaker:So to an extent I can just go look for,
Speaker:okay, I know that these products upset my skin and some
Speaker:of them don't,
Speaker:but also if somebody says this lotion is excellent for psoriasis,
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:Oh, Hey,
Speaker:that's the one that I'm going to try.
Speaker:Then I'm looking for specific products that solve my skincare issues.
Speaker:Okay. So what you're saying is,
Speaker:and this comes through whatever the wording is on the website,
Speaker:I'm thinking,
Speaker:right? So we need to be putting on our website sentences
Speaker:that talk to the benefits and solutions that the product provides,
Speaker:not just talking about the product and maybe its features Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. Features and benefits.
Speaker:So that's a great way to think of it.
Speaker:So, and it doesn't necessarily have to be this so helps
Speaker:you with this particular skin condition.
Speaker:It can be,
Speaker:this is vegan soap.
Speaker:That's cruelty free that doesn't use fail lights or parabins right.
Speaker:There are ways that you can set yourself apart.
Speaker:But if you just say,
Speaker:I make X soap,
Speaker:then it is going to get lost in the competition of
Speaker:all the other artisan handcrafted soaps.
Speaker:But if you can specifically say,
Speaker:I make a soap that has this unique value to it.
Speaker:And I know that people are looking for it.
Speaker:Are you doing that by the way of the product elements
Speaker:that you're talking about?
Speaker:Because someone might then be searching for soap,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:that has parafin or coconut oil or whatever it is.
Speaker:So are you saying that in the definitions or the descriptions
Speaker:of your product and then maybe individual products,
Speaker:Google is finding those words,
Speaker:those keywords That's one place that it's looking.
Speaker:Sure. So your product description is a piece of content that
Speaker:you are creating that Google can index.
Speaker:So it will send these like the calm crawler bots that
Speaker:go through and they look at the HTML of your website
Speaker:and they copy down exactly.
Speaker:What's on your website.
Speaker:And when somebody looks for a term that is on your
Speaker:website will match you up in that way.
Speaker:So your product description is one of those pieces of content
Speaker:that Google looks at,
Speaker:right? The product title is even more important than the product
Speaker:description. So trying to be clear about what is the benefit
Speaker:of this product for my audience,
Speaker:what makes this product different?
Speaker:So we're creative people,
Speaker:right? So we want all fun,
Speaker:cute, fancy names for our products.
Speaker:Yes you do.
Speaker:Are you suggesting that that isn't helpful for search Please?
Speaker:Don't I know,
Speaker:I feel like a dream killer a lot when I talk
Speaker:about how to be clear with your content.
Speaker:So if you have a bar of soap that is the
Speaker:color of the ocean,
Speaker:and you want to call it the seaside soap collection.
Speaker:Great. But also make it clear the seaside soap collection,
Speaker:colon, and then explain what the features are over the benefits
Speaker:are The calming effect or something that is descriptive to the
Speaker:result. Exactly.
Speaker:Because if I am looking for a particular type of soap
Speaker:or a particular type of product,
Speaker:I don't know what your name is.
Speaker:I can not look for something that I don't know what
Speaker:exists. So instead of thinking of trying to be clever,
Speaker:think about trying to be clear and to align yourself with
Speaker:things that people are already looking for.
Speaker:I can just hear people going,
Speaker:Oh, but we need the truth.
Speaker:Like we need to work with reality,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:And that doesn't mean that if you don't have a fun
Speaker:name, you don't put it in the description somewhere also.
Speaker:Exactly. You can still be cute.
Speaker:You can still be fun in your branding.
Speaker:It doesn't mean that you have to write like a robot.
Speaker:It means that you have to be clear about what your
Speaker:products are solving.
Speaker:Okay, perfect.
Speaker:So we need to be looking at our product titles and
Speaker:product descriptions.
Speaker:You said those are 2.2
Speaker:places, Two of many places.
Speaker:And then the main portions of your website,
Speaker:if you're a soap maker,
Speaker:where are you a soap maker,
Speaker:maybe you want to specially localize and say,
Speaker:I'm a soap maker in Boulder,
Speaker:Colorado. And here are the local fairs that you can find
Speaker:me at in Boulder.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:right now,
Speaker:not so many,
Speaker:but you can say,
Speaker:and I provide delivery to people within this area.
Speaker:So that's a huge part of SEO is being able to
Speaker:show up in local search for a specific area.
Speaker:And then also using the spaces around your website.
Speaker:So the headlines of your home page or your about page,
Speaker:or very specifically in those places,
Speaker:this is what makes me different.
Speaker:This is what I do.
Speaker:This is who I serve.
Speaker:This is how my products are different than other products on
Speaker:the market.
Speaker:This is how I solve your problems.
Speaker:Again. Giving results,
Speaker:oriented wording,
Speaker:I'm thinking.
Speaker:Yes. So I've been generally talking about results oriented,
Speaker:uh, but what I want to say even more specifically than
Speaker:that is that you can go and take a look at
Speaker:all the things that people are looking for.
Speaker:Google actually aggregates all of the search terms that people are
Speaker:doing every day,
Speaker:every month,
Speaker:every year,
Speaker:they share that with people,
Speaker:they actually share it that way people will spend money on
Speaker:Google ads.
Speaker:So that way they know how much of a return on
Speaker:investment they'll get on their ad spend.
Speaker:But other websites around the internet have taken that information from
Speaker:Google and said,
Speaker:Hey, 500 people this month are looking for body lotion with
Speaker:argan oil.
Speaker:And then you can say,
Speaker:Oh, I use Hargan oil in my body lotion.
Speaker:That's what I should put in there and call it maybe
Speaker:hydrating body lotion featuring argan oil,
Speaker:right? So it doesn't necessarily have to,
Speaker:and I'm looking at body lotion on my desk to make
Speaker:that kind of example,
Speaker:but being really specific,
Speaker:it doesn't necessarily have to be what are the exact features
Speaker:and benefits,
Speaker:but what are the search terms that people are actually looking
Speaker:for? Google is telling you what the demand is.
Speaker:And now you come over to your website and say,
Speaker:I am the supply.
Speaker:I am the place where you can get the thing that
Speaker:you need.
Speaker:Okay. And so where can we go to find all these
Speaker:search terms?
Speaker:Yep. The place that I like to start is a site
Speaker:called Uber,
Speaker:suggest U B E R S U G G E S
Speaker:T. It's a free keyword research tool where you can go
Speaker:type in something as generic as skincare or soap.
Speaker:And you can see,
Speaker:Oh, hundreds of thousands of people search for soap.
Speaker:But when I talk about vegan soap or goat,
Speaker:milk soap,
Speaker:or a specific product,
Speaker:or what exactly are the things that people are looking for
Speaker:and how many people are looking for them and how competitive
Speaker:are those search terms.
Speaker:So they have all sorts of metrics.
Speaker:I have a bunch of trainings all over my website about
Speaker:this. How about how you can figure out what are reasonable
Speaker:keywords for you to pursue.
Speaker:And when I say keywords,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:any query that somebody goes to Google and searches for is
Speaker:called a keyword.
Speaker:And so kind of like how tagging is,
Speaker:or the hashtags are in social media and they always say,
Speaker:go more finite.
Speaker:Don't try to get into this big population of millions of
Speaker:people, because you're probably never going to be seen.
Speaker:Does that also apply here?
Speaker:Nailed it.
Speaker:I love that correlation and example.
Speaker:Yes. You to say,
Speaker:I want to be found for soap.
Speaker:Then you're competing against dial and ivory.
Speaker:And I don't even know any other stuff,
Speaker:but like the big names,
Speaker:it's going to take a lot of work for you to
Speaker:develop a reputation among those folks.
Speaker:But if you can specialize,
Speaker:if you can own the specific unique value that you have
Speaker:within your marketplace,
Speaker:whether that's the audience that you serve,
Speaker:whether that's the ingredients that you use,
Speaker:whether that's the location where you are,
Speaker:if you can find a way to be specific,
Speaker:then you're much more likely to show up in those search
Speaker:results than if you try to go after the big guys,
Speaker:Are you loving this?
Speaker:As much as I am.
Speaker:We have new ideas for product names.
Speaker:We have new ideas for descriptions that will attract new business
Speaker:to us and keywords.
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Speaker:Should We be continuing to focus on a certain set of
Speaker:keywords or is it better to have lots of variety within
Speaker:the website of all different types of keywords?
Speaker:I would say go for kind of a silo of keywords.
Speaker:So I would say to assign one keyword to every page
Speaker:or product on your website,
Speaker:only one,
Speaker:one to three related supporting keywords.
Speaker:So if you have multiple products with the same ingredients,
Speaker:then it can be kind of hard to come up with
Speaker:different ways to make that relevant.
Speaker:But look at it from some different angles and say,
Speaker:this is my collection that all have olive oil in it.
Speaker:And this is my collection that has this ingredient.
Speaker:And this is my collection for this skin condition.
Speaker:And for those people who are not necessarily in the skincare
Speaker:line, because that was the example that Sue gave me.
Speaker:These are gift baskets for condolences,
Speaker:and these are gift baskets for weddings.
Speaker:And these are gifts for these opportunities that people are celebrating
Speaker:and then go into the key words and say,
Speaker:okay, but are people looking for gifts for condolences?
Speaker:Or are they looking for gifts for loss or for remembrance
Speaker:gifts? Like what are the actual words that people are using
Speaker:and align your categories and your product listings and any related
Speaker:blog posts,
Speaker:get those words in there.
Speaker:Because if you're talking about condolences gifts and other people are
Speaker:saying, Oh,
Speaker:no, those are remembrance gifts.
Speaker:Then you're not going to show for a membranous gifts.
Speaker:Cause you're not putting the words that people are looking for
Speaker:into the places that Google is looking for them.
Speaker:Sounds like a spreadsheet might be in order listing all of
Speaker:your products,
Speaker:then what the main category is.
Speaker:And then going in and doing a little bit of research
Speaker:on the secondary,
Speaker:like the more specific category.
Speaker:Yes. And I think this is one of the hardest things
Speaker:for eCommerce businesses is trying to come up with a unique
Speaker:way to talk about all your products,
Speaker:not to just copy and paste.
Speaker:This is the product description,
Speaker:but finding a unique positioning angle for similar things,
Speaker:it'd be really hard.
Speaker:Okay. So we definitely shouldn't just be doing the same keywords
Speaker:throughout the entire site.
Speaker:You should have like main keywords that kind of trickled down
Speaker:through the entire site,
Speaker:but not trying to get every page on the site to
Speaker:rank for the same keyword,
Speaker:because then you're just going to be competing against yourself.
Speaker:Oh, good point.
Speaker:Okay. And then when you're talking about putting these keywords on
Speaker:your site,
Speaker:you're talking about integrating it into the copy and then also
Speaker:something behind the scenes.
Speaker:Probably. Yes.
Speaker:So there's kind of two places to think about getting your
Speaker:keywords. And like you just said,
Speaker:so you nailed it.
Speaker:The first is on your page.
Speaker:So making sure that it's in your product descriptions on your
Speaker:homepage, copy in your footer text,
Speaker:wherever the titles of your products.
Speaker:If you write blog posts or create videos about your products,
Speaker:make sure that the keywords go into the blog post titles
Speaker:or all tags is so important for eCommerce businesses.
Speaker:If you have images on your site,
Speaker:Google cannot view those images.
Speaker:It cannot watch your videos.
Speaker:It cannot listen to your audio.
Speaker:So what you need to do is tell Google what's in
Speaker:that image.
Speaker:And the way to do that is to edit it and
Speaker:put in what's called an alt tag or alt text in
Speaker:the HTML related to that image where you say,
Speaker:this is a picture of a gift basket for a funeral.
Speaker:So you actually say a sentence like that.
Speaker:You can make it into a sentence.
Speaker:It should be words.
Speaker:It shouldn't be dashes in between,
Speaker:but maybe you just make it something like floral gift basket
Speaker:for funeral condolences.
Speaker:And then you can put your brand name into the Altecs
Speaker:too. Think of it this way.
Speaker:There are people who have visual disabilities or impairments that set
Speaker:the browsers to not show images.
Speaker:They just have this all text show up instead.
Speaker:So how would you describe what is in that image to
Speaker:somebody who cannot see it?
Speaker:Okay. That's important because I think a lot of people,
Speaker:if they're doing alt tags at all,
Speaker:won't necessarily do the description of the picture.
Speaker:They're doing something that has to do with their services maybe.
Speaker:And it's okay to also include your services.
Speaker:You could have an alt text that says something like floral
Speaker:gift basket and funeral arrangement.
Speaker:And then you could say delivery available within 20 miles of
Speaker:Boulder, Colorado,
Speaker:and have the name of your business there.
Speaker:You can put that into an Alltech.
Speaker:You can put that much in there.
Speaker:Yeah. Ooh.
Speaker:Didn't know that.
Speaker:I think about it also this way,
Speaker:that all texts are what Google image search pulls from.
Speaker:So if somebody is looking for a funeral gift basket,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:I'm stuck on this one and they want to see those
Speaker:flowers show up in the search results.
Speaker:What would be the things that you would want people to
Speaker:show up in a Google image search for that?
Speaker:What are the terms they would be looking for?
Speaker:That's such a good description.
Speaker:Okay. I got sidetracked talking about all texts that's okay.
Speaker:But it makes so much sense.
Speaker:So, okay.
Speaker:Keep going.
Speaker:Okay. So I was saying that there are two places on
Speaker:your website.
Speaker:It's important to think about getting these keywords into place.
Speaker:The first is actually on your website and the second are
Speaker:the places on your website that you update.
Speaker:That will actually be the parts that show up in the
Speaker:search engine results.
Speaker:So if you don't specify specifically what you want,
Speaker:the words on the search engine results to be,
Speaker:it will take the headline from your post or the name
Speaker:of the page.
Speaker:And it will take the first 150 characters of the post.
Speaker:And it will just put those up by default on the
Speaker:search engine results for that page.
Speaker:But for many of us,
Speaker:that's not necessarily the thing that somebody would click for.
Speaker:So you can be specific about what you want to show
Speaker:up in those SEO titles and descriptions.
Speaker:If you're using Shopify,
Speaker:it shows up right on every page,
Speaker:every product listing,
Speaker:same with woo commerce.
Speaker:You, every time you go into a product listing,
Speaker:if you're using WordPress and move commerce,
Speaker:you can download the Yoast plugin and it will have a
Speaker:space underneath each of those products.
Speaker:Each of those pages,
Speaker:each of those posts that says here's what the SEO title
Speaker:should be.
Speaker:And it'll tell you when you're getting close to that 67
Speaker:character limit,
Speaker:it'll tell you how long your meta-description should be.
Speaker:Let me explain what those two pieces are.
Speaker:So the SEO title is the part that shows up in
Speaker:Google search in blue text,
Speaker:which is telling Google,
Speaker:this is what this page is about.
Speaker:And so you want to get a searchable keyword into that
Speaker:title tag.
Speaker:You want it to say something like gift baskets,
Speaker:Boulder, Colorado,
Speaker:or delivery area or whatever that is.
Speaker:But if people are searching for gift baskets,
Speaker:Boulder, Colorado,
Speaker:you want that to show up in the SEO title on
Speaker:that page or product.
Speaker:And then beneath that,
Speaker:then the black text that we see in Google search results
Speaker:is the description it's sometimes called the SEO description.
Speaker:It's sometimes called the meta-description.
Speaker:It's usually about 150 characters.
Speaker:You don't necessarily have to get the keyword in here.
Speaker:This is the space where you want to invite people to
Speaker:come over to your site.
Speaker:This is the space where you can say there's nine other
Speaker:results showing up in this page,
Speaker:but here's why you should click through to my page.
Speaker:So you can say something here,
Speaker:like we've been delivering gift baskets around Boulder for 25 years
Speaker:for all sorts of special occasions,
Speaker:come over and contact us now.
Speaker:So giving people an invitation to your website in that description.
Speaker:So could you that same Wording for multiple products or should
Speaker:you be changing it out for each product?
Speaker:You can,
Speaker:the meta-description,
Speaker:isn't quite as important.
Speaker:If you can change it even just a little bit,
Speaker:then Google won't see it as duplicate content.
Speaker:But if you come up with something that works as a
Speaker:meta description and you don't have a ton of time,
Speaker:you can just kind of template it and adjust it.
Speaker:I would recommend trying to write something a little different for
Speaker:each one if possible.
Speaker:But I also know that a lot of eCommerce businesses have
Speaker:like hundreds of products and it sucks to have to come
Speaker:up with something different for each one.
Speaker:So do the best you can with what you have,
Speaker:Right? I mean,
Speaker:even if you're talking about colors or sense or sizes,
Speaker:or I think there's all different types of options there.
Speaker:Okay. So let me summarize where we are right now.
Speaker:So the places to be looking are,
Speaker:I said that we said this already,
Speaker:but we're gonna start from the top product title,
Speaker:product descriptions,
Speaker:the main portions of your website,
Speaker:like about pages,
Speaker:making sure you're putting in your geography,
Speaker:which is going to lead to a question I have in
Speaker:a second.
Speaker:But then also by product,
Speaker:you're looking at all tags for photos and then your SEO
Speaker:title and then the description.
Speaker:Yes. So those are all places like if any of you
Speaker:and Meg confirm that I'm right here,
Speaker:but I just want to bring out my thought here.
Speaker:If any of you are at the point where your website
Speaker:is up,
Speaker:you haven't really done anything else.
Speaker:This is where you can go in and start making adjustments
Speaker:right away.
Speaker:So, and it's just a matter of taking some time and
Speaker:maybe you take things step by step product.
Speaker:Maybe you do two products a day or three products a
Speaker:day, something like that.
Speaker:So it's not over cumbersome.
Speaker:But so question here,
Speaker:a lot of people are online only.
Speaker:Yeah. They're going to their local craft shows and displaying and
Speaker:getting local business as well.
Speaker:But they want online sales from all over the country because
Speaker:we can,
Speaker:right. How does any of this change then if you're looking
Speaker:at getting national customers,
Speaker:I don't think it has to be an either or I
Speaker:think you can say I'm here in Rochester,
Speaker:New York,
Speaker:but I can ship anywhere.
Speaker:And the people who are here in Rochester,
Speaker:New York with me,
Speaker:I can do curbside delivery.
Speaker:Now, normally I'd say we can meet up and I've bought
Speaker:from local artisans and gone to their homes and pick them
Speaker:up to save us on shipping fees.
Speaker:So you can do that.
Speaker:But I think also when people see where you are,
Speaker:even if they're buying from you online and you're shipping it
Speaker:to them,
Speaker:I think that there's a certain level of trust that happens
Speaker:with I'm a real person in a real place with a
Speaker:shop somewhere.
Speaker:And here's where you can buy it locally.
Speaker:And here's how you can buy it online.
Speaker:I'm a member of this community.
Speaker:I think it's still important to have there.
Speaker:If that's part of your business model,
Speaker:if you do sell things locally or online,
Speaker:it can't hurt to say that.
Speaker:Okay. Perfect.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's talk just a little bit about Yoast.
Speaker:I've used it in the past.
Speaker:It's been so great,
Speaker:but just as another tool for people to be aware of.
Speaker:Okay. So the thing about Yoast or any plugins,
Speaker:all in one SEO,
Speaker:plugin or page bath or something like that,
Speaker:there's a lot of SEO plugins out there and they're good,
Speaker:but think of them as checklists,
Speaker:not as rules.
Speaker:So Yoast does not know what is on your page.
Speaker:It does not know what the keyword is that you're putting
Speaker:in there as your focus keyword.
Speaker:It doesn't know how competitive it is.
Speaker:It doesn't know if people are actually looking for it.
Speaker:It's just saying,
Speaker:okay, you told me that this is your keyword and here
Speaker:are the 10 places you should put it.
Speaker:It's asking you to follow a checklist.
Speaker:It is not the strategic partner thinking it is.
Speaker:I had a blog post many years ago.
Speaker:I wrote before I was doing any SEO.
Speaker:That was like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:should you use WordPress or Squarespace for your website?
Speaker:Well, it's like,
Speaker:do you prefer Legos or cramps?
Speaker:Because I was making the point that like with WordPress,
Speaker:you have a lot more opportunities to change things the way
Speaker:that you want to.
Speaker:So it would be like buying Legos and you can build
Speaker:anything you want.
Speaker:And then I optimize that post for Legos,
Speaker:which is not at all the search term that it should
Speaker:be ranking for.
Speaker:Right. It almost was like,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:you haven't used the term Legos before and you used it
Speaker:in your title and you used it in your body text.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:this is great green light,
Speaker:but it wasn't actually going to help me get traffic from
Speaker:the people that I wanted to be found by.
Speaker:It wasn't a good keyword,
Speaker:even though I had the green light.
Speaker:Yeah. You know,
Speaker:and it also corrects your wording.
Speaker:Like if it doesn't like how you've said something,
Speaker:I would always get caught with,
Speaker:you have three sentences that start with the same word,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:seriously. And then what Yoast also does,
Speaker:I'm talking to our listeners because I know,
Speaker:you know this Meg,
Speaker:but is it is it gives you color rankings,
Speaker:like red is like,
Speaker:this is so not good.
Speaker:And then orange and then green.
Speaker:And I'll be darned.
Speaker:There were some like,
Speaker:and I'm thinking,
Speaker:especially like podcasts notes,
Speaker:the show notes pages,
Speaker:there was not a thing I could do to make it
Speaker:turn green.
Speaker:So some of them I've just had to let stay orange,
Speaker:Let him slide,
Speaker:use it as a reminder,
Speaker:but it's not actually going to make any difference.
Speaker:Cause I couldn't even figure out what I'm listening to their
Speaker:rules. I'm making the changes.
Speaker:And finally I'm like,
Speaker:okay, forget it.
Speaker:Also something to be noted here is that there are a
Speaker:lot of different ways that Google can look at a keyword,
Speaker:which is to say Yoast,
Speaker:when you say this is a post about SEO for eCommerce
Speaker:businesses, right?
Speaker:And you put in that focus keyword that says SEO for
Speaker:eCommerce businesses is what the show notes of this page is
Speaker:going to be on.
Speaker:Right. But if somebody looks up e-commerce SEO,
Speaker:Google would show the rank for that.
Speaker:But Yoast would be like,
Speaker:Nope, not close enough.
Speaker:Right? So it's not that the exact phrase that we're talking
Speaker:about has to appear in the exact order everywhere that I
Speaker:just listed for you,
Speaker:no related keywords will be fine or a different order of
Speaker:the same keywords would be fine.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if I say SEO for eCommerce businesses,
Speaker:and you say SEO for gift businesses,
Speaker:this would still rank for that.
Speaker:This would still show up for that.
Speaker:So you don't have to be pedantic about,
Speaker:this is the exact phrase.
Speaker:It's more like this is the concept trying to get into
Speaker:all of these places that we've listed out.
Speaker:Okay. Perfect.
Speaker:Couple more questions for you.
Speaker:I have other ideas too,
Speaker:so go for it.
Speaker:So, Oh,
Speaker:okay. Just a couple of questions.
Speaker:Well, I'll save one of them for last,
Speaker:but one thing that I know or I've heard,
Speaker:so verify this for us is once you put products up,
Speaker:let's say you're a business and your product line is set
Speaker:and you're not changing by season very often.
Speaker:Let's just say,
Speaker:I've heard in the past that Google likes websites that keep
Speaker:having changes or enhancements to them or additions to them versus
Speaker:a stagnant site.
Speaker:Is that true?
Speaker:Yes. Okay.
Speaker:This is tough.
Speaker:So here's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:sometimes people will say,
Speaker:how can I continue to create something new when my product
Speaker:line is done?
Speaker:Or I don't know what else to say.
Speaker:And I think this is where content comes into the mix,
Speaker:which is to say,
Speaker:if you have a product that solves a problem that people
Speaker:have, you can write a blog post about how your product
Speaker:solves that problem.
Speaker:So if you have a line of skincare that is all
Speaker:about anti-aging,
Speaker:you can write in your product descriptions that this product will
Speaker:help with fine lines.
Speaker:And this product will help with wrinkles and this product will
Speaker:help with moisturizing.
Speaker:But then maybe you want to create supplementary content that says,
Speaker:what are some vitamins that can help you decrease your fine
Speaker:lines and wrinkles,
Speaker:or what are nutritional choices you can make to make your
Speaker:skin look younger.
Speaker:And you're drawing people into your site then that are interested
Speaker:in the outcome that your products give them.
Speaker:Even if you're not specifically saying at the end of the
Speaker:post and Hey,
Speaker:buy this product,
Speaker:right? You need to,
Speaker:if you want to continue to create content beyond just your
Speaker:product listings,
Speaker:you can create content.
Speaker:That would be interesting to those people and lead them to
Speaker:the fact that you sell products that serve their needs.
Speaker:That isn't specifically just,
Speaker:here's a list of my ingredients and here's some of the
Speaker:benefits. But more than that,
Speaker:it's like for that,
Speaker:that soap that helps with my psoriasis.
Speaker:Here's some information about psoriasis and here's some different treatment options
Speaker:that you might consider.
Speaker:And here's why you should stay away from these food groups.
Speaker:And also,
Speaker:Hey, we have this lotion that would be really good for
Speaker:you, right?
Speaker:You're not just caring about selling your products,
Speaker:but you're caring about the problem that your products are supporting.
Speaker:So good Meg,
Speaker:because you're leading with giving and this is another way to
Speaker:attract people over to your site.
Speaker:And if they're over to your site and they're looking at
Speaker:the article,
Speaker:they're going to see probably a shop now tab on the
Speaker:top or however your website is.
Speaker:And so they'll automatically understand that you also have products.
Speaker:Exactly. And it doesn't even have to be as unclear as,
Speaker:okay, now you're on my page.
Speaker:Hey, look,
Speaker:I have a shop section.
Speaker:You can make the call to action.
Speaker:Go look at this product,
Speaker:come check out this listing.
Speaker:You can link directly to the correlation of,
Speaker:I wrote this because I sell this.
Speaker:So it doesn't have to just be,
Speaker:Oh, well I got them to my site and they'll figure
Speaker:how to buy from me once they get there.
Speaker:No, there needs to be a call to action on every
Speaker:piece of content or every page of your site that says,
Speaker:come over and shop now.
Speaker:Or if you have this problem,
Speaker:let me explain what the problem is.
Speaker:And here,
Speaker:this product is the solution that I've created for you.
Speaker:And I would suggest that so many makers don't do this.
Speaker:You separate yourself in this way.
Speaker:Also you're the specialist.
Speaker:You're teaching people,
Speaker:you're educating them.
Speaker:If they're interested and I'm thinking this can also be content
Speaker:for email newsletters.
Speaker:So it doesn't just have to sit one place.
Speaker:Yes. And if you have a jewelry line and so you
Speaker:aren't necessarily solving world hunger here,
Speaker:but you have something that's really incredibly beautiful.
Speaker:Think of all of the reasons why people would buy that.
Speaker:And maybe you do a mother's day.
Speaker:Roundup posts of here are 10 unusual things.
Speaker:You can get your mom for mother's day and include two
Speaker:of your products with eight other products on that list.
Speaker:So sometimes it can be curated content in that way.
Speaker:And people are always looking for unusual or unique mother's day
Speaker:gifts and they see your product in a list of other
Speaker:amazing products.
Speaker:Maybe you want to support some of your local makers in
Speaker:this way too,
Speaker:but creating content that displays what you are trying to sell
Speaker:as part of the answer to that question.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Okay. We're going to fast forward.
Speaker:You have more things to tell us.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:It was mostly mad.
Speaker:Actually. I wanted to talk.
Speaker:That's all good.
Speaker:Okay, wonderful.
Speaker:So how do we know if this is working,
Speaker:we go in and we do some adjustments,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Is there a place that we can go or somehow we
Speaker:can understand whether we're getting more traffic to our site or
Speaker:it's working,
Speaker:obviously we'd know if we're getting more sales.
Speaker:Yes. But is there another way before that actually happens,
Speaker:that we can see?
Speaker:Yes. So many of you probably also have Google analytics installed
Speaker:on your website.
Speaker:If you don't,
Speaker:you can go over to google.com/analytics,
Speaker:and there'll be a tutorial there to help you take the
Speaker:tracking code and put it on your website.
Speaker:And the way that will help you is that it will
Speaker:take a look at every single user who comes to your
Speaker:website and tell you how long they spent on the page,
Speaker:where they came from.
Speaker:Did they buy anything?
Speaker:This is also very,
Speaker:very important for my e-commerce people.
Speaker:Please go in and click the box in the settings that
Speaker:turns on enhanced.
Speaker:E-commerce tracking.
Speaker:If you do nothing else from this podcast interview,
Speaker:please go and turn on the enhanced eCommerce tracking.
Speaker:Because what that will do is it will directly pull the
Speaker:information about your sales into the Google analytics dashboard so that
Speaker:when people buy from you,
Speaker:you'll be able to reverse engineer that sale and say,
Speaker:Oh, 60% of my sales came from referral traffic.
Speaker:And 20% came from Instagram and 20% came from organic search.
Speaker:Those are the places I should be spending that time,
Speaker:not on LinkedIn or whatever that looks like for you by
Speaker:being able to work backwards and figure out where your sales
Speaker:are coming from with your enhanced eCommerce tracking,
Speaker:that will make it so much easier for you to come
Speaker:up with a marketing.
Speaker:That is so good.
Speaker:So I'm going to admit that I'm one who hasn't been
Speaker:really good with SEO.
Speaker:I bought into,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:how there was that challenge a while ago?
Speaker:Like SEO doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker:It used to be important.
Speaker:You forget about keywords.
Speaker:I kind of feel like since I didn't want to put
Speaker:in the work,
Speaker:I just bought it until maybe a year and a half
Speaker:ago. Okay.
Speaker:It's really easy to ask her Jada SEO because it is
Speaker:so freaking overwhelming.
Speaker:Well, but you make it sound so much more simple,
Speaker:honestly, but then I connected with you and you did an
Speaker:audit of my site.
Speaker:One of my sites,
Speaker:not both of them.
Speaker:We might have to get to the other ones on that,
Speaker:but you did an audit of my site,
Speaker:which was really helpful to see what I was doing.
Speaker:Right. Which was maybe a little and where I could use
Speaker:improvement. So I'd love for you just to share.
Speaker:I'm not trying to push Meg's audit on anybody,
Speaker:but just like what types of things are you finding are
Speaker:the weakest points when you're doing some of these audits and
Speaker:maybe explain what your audits all about also.
Speaker:So I would say that the biggest problems that I see
Speaker:are things that we've already talked about a little bit Sue,
Speaker:which are not creating content in a way that aligns with
Speaker:the things that people are searching for.
Speaker:And then when you do get people to your site,
Speaker:not telling them to buy things from you or getting them
Speaker:onto your email list,
Speaker:those are the two calls to action that can be everywhere
Speaker:on your website.
Speaker:So either driving them to a page on a product listing
Speaker:or a specific collection,
Speaker:or getting them to sign up for your email list.
Speaker:So you can keep in touch with them,
Speaker:getting people to your website is the first step of a
Speaker:longer marketing process.
Speaker:Okay, perfect.
Speaker:Got that.
Speaker:And I'm going to suggest to everybody that you go through
Speaker:now that you've heard all of this,
Speaker:you go through with a pen and paper and write down
Speaker:everything we've talked about to this point.
Speaker:Cause a lot of this,
Speaker:you can do yourself right now.
Speaker:So talk a little bit more about your audit and then
Speaker:the other services you provide.
Speaker:Sure. So I provide a quick audit where I will take
Speaker:a look at your website.
Speaker:I'll be able to give you three to five things that
Speaker:you can work on right away.
Speaker:Sometimes this also involves a little bit of keyword research where
Speaker:I say to you,
Speaker:Hey, people are looking for this,
Speaker:not this.
Speaker:And I'll show you the free tools that I'm using for
Speaker:you to be able to do that kind of work yourself.
Speaker:Sometimes you just specially when you're getting started,
Speaker:you just want someone to take your hand and walk you
Speaker:through the first couple of things that you can do that
Speaker:day. I also have an bunch of free trainings.
Speaker:I run free challenges twice a year,
Speaker:and I have a starter kit on my website.
Speaker:So if you go to love it,
Speaker:first certs.com/start,
Speaker:you can download my SEO starter kit and that we'll share
Speaker:a bunch of resources that I have all about everything SEO.
Speaker:So if you want to get started with content planning and
Speaker:keyword research,
Speaker:I have a course about that.
Speaker:If you want to make sure that your site is secure
Speaker:and it's running quickly and loading quickly,
Speaker:and it's mobile friendly,
Speaker:I have a course about that.
Speaker:If you want to learn better how to read your Google
Speaker:analytics and use another tool from Google called Google search console
Speaker:to figure out the exact keywords that you are showing up
Speaker:for in search.
Speaker:I have a course about that.
Speaker:So these are all things that I kind of break up
Speaker:into bite size,
Speaker:actionable steps to not just let SEO be some overwhelming thing
Speaker:on your,
Speaker:to do list that you just keep pushing off until next
Speaker:week, next month,
Speaker:next year,
Speaker:Which equates to never.
Speaker:Yeah. Wonderful.
Speaker:And give his listeners,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:on the show page,
Speaker:I'll have all the links to everything that Meg already referenced
Speaker:as well as all of her social media sites.
Speaker:Meg, thank you so much.
Speaker:This has been incredibly helpful and it makes me even feel
Speaker:like SEO is more doable.
Speaker:I've learned so much,
Speaker:even though I've already been talking with you,
Speaker:sometimes you have to hear these things a couple of times,
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Yeah, but you've given us an incredible gift because I think
Speaker:a lot of people can go back right now after listening
Speaker:to this and make some adjustments that are really going to
Speaker:help them out.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate you being here today.
Speaker:Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker:I really enjoyed talking with you so much,
Speaker:Sue. Thank you.
Speaker:Okay. Assignment time.
Speaker:Consider, blocking off time in your calendar to get started on
Speaker:upgrading your SEO because you,
Speaker:and I know if it doesn't get scheduled,
Speaker:it will never happen.
Speaker:Start with making sure your Google analytics are set up and
Speaker:that enhanced email tracking is turned on.
Speaker:Then relisten to this show.
Speaker:If you need to with pen and paper in hand and
Speaker:decide what you want to work on first,
Speaker:maybe it's reviewing the names of your products and the wording
Speaker:of your descriptions or the photo alt text or keywords.
Speaker:Take one thing or one product at a time and then
Speaker:advance to the next.
Speaker:It will be so worth it.
Speaker:When you see your website,
Speaker:traffic increase and you only have to do this major overhaul
Speaker:once because now you know how to do this correctly.
Speaker:When you add new products or blog posts to your site
Speaker:in the future,
Speaker:completely worth it.
Speaker:Okay. Next week we're entering into the first of two episodes
Speaker:all about you,
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:Yes, but mostly you,
Speaker:that's all you're getting from me for now though,
Speaker:tune in next Monday to find out what I'm talking about
Speaker:and until then make it a great week and be safe.
Speaker:And well,
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the products that everybody in
Speaker:the community is making my favorite post every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what,
Speaker:aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
