This week we speak to Rejoice Ojiaku, SEO Manager & Co-Founder of B-DigitalUK, all about what keyword mapping is and why it is important. We also test her on her Disney knowledge (there is a tenuous link) and what inspires/empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is today.

Where to find Natalie:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RejiYates

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rejiaku/

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About B-DigitalUK

A social platform created for Black people to highlight and display specialist roles within marketing & advertising.

Where to find B-DigitalUK:

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BDigitallUK

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bdigital_uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/b-digitaluk/

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Episode Transcript:

This transcript is generated using an automated third party tool so will not be 100% accurate.

Sarah: Hello, and welcome to the Women in Tech SEO podcast, where your hosts are myself, Sarah McDowell, SEO content executive at Holland and Barrett, and the wonderful Areej AbuAli, who is an SEO Consultant and the founder of the glorious Women in Tech SEO community. This week, we have Rejoice Ojiaku, who is an SEO Manager experienced in technical and content SEO.

And she's also the co-founder of B-Digital UK, which is a marketing and advertising platform catered to the black demographic to inspire and educate. Good morning to the both of you.

Areej: Good morning. I'm so excited to be here and I'm so happy that rejoice is joining us today.

Rejoice: I'm very excited to be here.

This is very, very exciting. Thank you for having me.

Areej: We love having you here and Rejoice, you know, that we absolutely love involving you in as many projects and initiatives and events that we have to get started. I think it would be great for our audience to learn more about you and what got you into SEO in the first place.

Rejoice: Yeah. So I got into SEO after my marketing masters, and it was meant to be a graduate rotational program, but they sort of left me in SEO for six months, which was meant to be three. So by the six months I sort of fell in love with SEO. It was ideally where I wanted to sit because. I find that SEO is a good mix of it.

And marketing and this sort of does give me all that, you know, analytical skills and I get to sort of play around with websites. I get to sort of look at coding things that I was interested in. And from there I sort of continued to stick with SEO. There's so much to learn and I guess, because it's ever changing so many things coming in, going out I do kind of like that fast pace thinking about SEO.

So there's so many layers to it, which I really like to explore. So that's where I found my SEO love, I guess.

Areej: Yeah, I love that. And I love everything that you do with B-Digital UK. So if you can tell our audience more about what it is and what inspired you to start this in the first place.

Rejoice: So B-Digital UK was sort of started when I, myself and my friend Wilhemina went to the Women in Tech SEO conference. 

And I absolutely love the idea of an initiative that was catered to women, but in all things, I guess myself and Wilhelmina, we always look out for how many black people are present in SEO. And we saw that there weren't a lot of black women and women in attendance. And then we were sort of asking questions. Like, do we actually know any black person in digital marketing, just in general. And we didn't, and we couldn't actually say who we knew that was involved in digital marketing or someone that was up there. We already knew about the other counterparts, all the white people who are. So prominent within the space.

So that's when we decided we should create a platform that educates and inspires digital marketers who are already in the industry and people who are coming into the industry. So we wanted to show students. That marketing and advertising is a viable career. And you can take all those skills. You have a university, whether you are analytical, or not computer science, you can take all of those and bring it to digital marketing.

So B-Digital was then born. And so far it's been going great. We've received so many you know, So many well done, so many great jobs and every freedom we've collaborated with some people. And we also use it to tackle diversity and inclusion as a topic and what it means to be culturally sensitive, what it means in the hiring process.

And what's good salary transparency, all these topics. We mostly cater to the black demographic because there's I guess not as much education there. And from there you sort of blossomed into this beautiful thing. That's taken up a lot of my time.

Areej: Yeah. And, what can the industry do more to help support you in B-Digital UK and help spread the word more?

Rejoice: I think I will really get involved in the conversation with us. A lot of times we try to educate if there's something that, you know, people out there feel like they would like us to talk about, maybe make a post on via Instagram and Twitter. Also, we do quite a lot of educational content on Instagram.

So if there's a post to create, let us know if you haven't conversations about diversity inclusion. Let us know we would love to be involved in any panel talks. We would love to be involved in anything that any outreach that certain companies are doing or for universities or students, we would love to be involved.

Overall we would really like to create little programs for, for students that can maybe have a taste of the day with someone in the industry, whether it's PPC, just have a taste of them just so they know. Well, it's actually out there when it comes to marketing. I think people think marketing is, you know, TV, radio, and that's where it stays.

But marketing goes into the digital space. So having to show students, this is what it means or, and also jobs. People are always looking for jobs. So we definitely post any hiring. Vacancies are out there. So let us know. And we always ask in our jobs that we set the salary. By something that we want to be transparent about.

I don't want to sort of say, Oh, it'd be ambiguous about the salary aspect, because we're trying to talk about salary transparency. We would like to state that. So if you have any jobs, reach out to us for us to advertise and it does come with a few but we can definitely get shit with that. So that's a great way to help.

So lots of ways there then.

Sarah: No excuses, no excuses. Right. Are you ready for some quick fire questions?

Rejoice: Yes. Yes, that's good.

Sarah: Right. Question number one, do you prefer poached fried or scrambled eggs?

Rejoice: I would have to go with friends.

Sarah: Ooh. Are you, are you dipping your taste in the yellow bit at the top?

Rejoice: Yes. Yes, absolutely. I love the over the section,

Sarah: Favorite takeaway?

Rejoice: Between Chinese and Nigerian food.

Sarah: So I wouldn't dare, like if you could have like a blend of both,

Rejoice: that'd be you. I think you have Chinese ribs with . And I think they would go beautifully scuffle. I

Sarah: I mean, that just sounds wonderful.

It's coming up to lunch time and you're making me hungry. Plants or flowers,

Rejoice: Plants. I became a plant mum recently. So plants.

Sarah: Right. Can I just ask this right? Plants are a criminal age thing. I believe because I was never bothered about plants and then I got to a certain age and I can't get enough of them.

Rejoice: Same. I think now all my friends are now becoming implant moms and I just thought, Oh, is it because I'm older? I sort of like the whole green everything in my house now will I think.

Sarah: That it's also good for clean air as well. Yeah. Do you go by any nicknames?

Rejoice: I do. So some people call me reg Reggie or RJ.

Sarah: Which is your favorite? What can I call you today?

Rejoice: Reggie Reggie.

Sarah: Okay. Reggie, can you say the alphabet backwards?

Rejoice: No, not if I try though, I will be here for hours

Sarah: used to cause there's a little sort of rhyme sort of song thing. And I learned, I don't know why I learned it because it's not that you ever need to say the alphabet backwards ever in your life.

Rejoice: Yeah. Tough to say the alphabets and sign language. I can spell my name in sign language.

Sarah: I can as well. I took sign language. As a course at uni, I can stop my date as well.

I mean, I would suggest that we would like to sign the whole podcast, but I'd have to sign out that spell everywhere. So that would be really long.

Okay, last question. And then you survived my quick fire round section. What are the  languages? 

Rejoice: I would love to, Ooh, I would love to learn Spanish and I would love to learn a bit of Mandarin. Ooh. Very interesting.

Areej: Do you have any plans for learning these? Is it on your to do this

Rejoice: someday? Spanish?

Absolutely. I need to dominate, I think Duolingo I just think it's really been cool and I really do enjoy Spanish music. So I want to understand what's being said. Yeah,

Areej: love that. So I think, but before we kind of dive into our main topic that we're here to talk about with it being the women in tech SEO podcast, I'd love to learn a little bit more about, you know, what empowers you to be the brilliant woman you are today.

Rejoice: I think for me, what empowers me is I always think about the sort of life I want to live in general and the sort of person I would like to be for my siblings. So being the first daughter and the first child of my parents and we didn't have any boys I've always sort of wanted to be a really good example.

And I think for me that example would come from being kind, being respectful and actually having some sort of priority for yourself, whether you want to prioritize your career, prioritize home life. I think I want to show that you can be a woman of choice and in those choices you're able to, I guess, go wherever you want.

And that sort of empowers me to always. Uplifts women in a way, I feel that I love women who are breaking boundaries. I love women who know who they are and are very comfortable and very proud and loud about it. And those sort of things inspire me and empower me to sort of be brilliant in everything I do.

Areej: I love that. And what advice would you give women who are just starting out into the industry?

Rejoice: I would say my advice would be to expect the unexpected. And I will always say that because when you enter the industry, the same many things as women you face, and they say many things as women, you might go through that men wouldn't go through.

And I think, you know, whilst you're expecting the unexpected, I think make sure that underneath all that the roots is you're staying true to who you are. So you are, you know, the kind of woman you are, you know, And you understand who you are in womanhood, and that way don't be afraid to bring womanhood into your role because at the end of the day, being a woman is who you are.

It's not all you are, but bring womanhood into it. And I think a lot of times when we enter male dominated environments, we try to be like men, and I think it's no be like a woman and show that in my womanhood, I can do twice 10 times as better as my other counterparts and that she doesn't matter my gender, but your woman hits is something she celebrate.

I get to your role. You have a different perspective because you're a woman. And I think that will be great advice when you enter the industry. I

Sarah: Absolutely, I don't think that was words then I do apologize. I absolutely loved that. And yeah, like you should, you should celebrate your wonderful woman, woman, women hurt.

So I love how you phrase that. Awesome. Right. So let's get into the main topic of today and that is keyword mapping. So what is the main goal with keyword mapping?

Rejoice: I personally believe the main goal of the key with my pin is to target such as intent. I think ultimately you want to be able to put yourself in your consumer's shoes and think like how, how are they searching?

How are they? Looking for things. What, what words are they using to actually search? I think the main go-to map those keywords is just to understand I, like I said before, the session's intent and understand how to then be able to use our session's intent, use those keywords to now work for you and what for your brand, so that Google can also find you, but also making it organic at the same time.

Yup.

Areej: And I guess just a big shout-out because I know that you're, you're speaking in Brighton, SEO this summer on this very topic. How are you feeling?

Rejoice: Yes, I'm really excited. I'm trying to think about what angle I want to come in. And I think maybe I feel as though searcher's intent will probably be the focus for me.

Cause I, I do think a lot of brands remove the, the human side or keyword because yes, we're trying to. Key with Mac for a website, but ultimately we're trying to actually target humans. So you can't remove the human element out of your keywords. And you kind of have to add that back in, in order to effectively keyword mapping, keyword group things together.

Sarah: Wonderful. I'm very excited about your talk and hopefully I'll be on the first row there cheering you on just want  to quickly, cause obviously you said intent. So matching the user's intent. Can you just so for like, people who've not heard of that term before, what do you, what do you mean by intent?

Rejoice: So the tab will be, I guess. I guess for Intel, it would be the reason why your audience is looking for certain products. So if you understand the reasons why, and sometimes the reasons can change from they're trying to buy, or they're trying to learn about a certain product. So they might have different reasons for not all users ultimately buying, but some do search for more information, some do for Just those things.

So if you understand why or why your origins or on Sunday intent, you'll be able to, then he would map accordingly and then target that audience better. Yup.

Areej: And I know that your agency side, so what's, how does it feel having to do that for a multitude of clients and what's your current process for it?

Rejoice: I think for me it is the agency side of things. So when I've done keyword mapping for agencies, I used to do it for a BT Brian's and that was much easier for me because I'm a consumer of beauty products. So my process would be when I would do the keyword research and do keyword mapping, I'll always look at it from me as a consumer, not me as an SEO person, but as a consumer, what are the, what are the natural terms I search for?

Without actually knowing that this is what I'm doing. So I will also then input all those manually input, all these different search terms, and then you use certain tools to find out what the search volume is. And then start looking at which ones are the same, how are things found differently? And then that way you can start grouping things together.

Also sort of build this more holistic view. Oh what the brand wants and understanding, the brand's tone of voice, who the brand's audience are. Are they young? Are they old or the older I'm older audiences and stuff like that, that will definitely help you within your process. So you touched

Sarah: So you touched on grouping that grouping keywords.

So is there any like, sort of do's and don'ts here?

Rejoice: I think the  B would b, definitely not do today, but when you are grouping keywords together do with B use alternative as alternative. Was that mean? The same thing can be grouped together. So it doesn't have to be the same version, but setting was a half synonym that can be used as such terms that could be grouped together.

I think certain people just don't use cinnamon. Right. Thinking, Oh, it's not exactly the same phrase. It doesn't have to be exactly the same phrase, but you can, you can also look at it from you know, different versions of that word that a user can use, and those can be grouped together because those would be a similar search intent or similar search query.

I would say. Don't ignore long term, no long tail keywords. And don't ignore it to be groups. You can group long tail keywords because people write long tail keywords in different conversational ways. That should also be looked at in, in that, in that sense.

Areej: Yeah. And I think it's this idea of long tail keywords, you know, it's, it's probably less competition, but it's higher conversion.

So that's why it's something that should definitely be, you know, prioritized and considered and not just a big focus on like, you know, your big head commercial terms. Yep. So in terms of what type of data metrics do you focus on the most then when you're, when you're doing all forms of keyword research and mapping process, what are the data metrics that you focus on the most?

Rejoice: I definitely look up such volume as a given, et cetera. You have to look at certain search volumes. When I was doing the keyword keyword mapping, I always looked at, obviously the search volumes are a thousand plus are amazing. But we also looked at the opportunities. So if a search term is maybe, I don't know, 500, one 50, there's still an opportunity there that people are so such in, right.

Not a lot, but you wouldn't use that as a priority keyword, right? But you shouldn't discard that keyword. Another search term competition understands how high that keyword is, intelligent competitors, how you know, how many times good things are, maybe type the keyword into Google, see how many results come up and you can still see how high the competition is. A number won't be relevant.

I do understand with content, the keyword has to be very relevant to you. To actually what the website is about, what that page is about. If this does not have any relevance, it will be very difficult to sort of seamlessly add that in, into your method, title description, or the body of the content.

So these would be really the three metrics I sort of look at in order to then decide, okay, these are good things or not so good. Yes.

Sarah: Wonderful. And would you say it's important? So obviously the key words bring up different night set features. They may. So you gotta always put different things in search engine results.

So is it important to know what Google is showing, like what sort of feature snippets...