Speaker: 00:00:00

You're listening to JFDI with the

Two Lauras, the podcast for social

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: 00:00:03

media freelancers who want to get more

visible, streamline their systems, master

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: 00:00:07

their mindset, and make more sales.

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: 00:00:09

I'm Laura Moore, and alongside my co-host

Laura Davis, we are on a mission to

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: 00:00:13

make working as a freelancer easier

because honestly, working from home

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: 00:00:17

shouldn't feel like you're working alone.

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: 00:00:19

We believe that relying solely on

long-term clients is a big mistake.

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: 00:00:23

It means that your bank

balance can become capped.

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: 00:00:25

It puts your income at risk when a

client cancels, and we're on a mission

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: 00:00:29

to help you to avoid that retainer trap.

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: 00:00:30

And we want to help you to

build a more flexible business,

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: 00:00:33

That means that you can make

more money without working

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: 00:00:35

with more retainer clients.

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: 00:00:37

If you're worried about being

stuck in that retainer trap, the

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: 00:00:39

membership is the place to be.

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: 00:00:41

Inside, we give you the systems,

the training, the support, and the

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: 00:00:43

accountability to build out new offers

that don't mean taking on more long-term

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: 00:00:47

clients and more long-term commitments.

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: 00:00:50

You get monthly training from

world experts in their field.

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: 00:00:53

You get coaching and support from

us and our incredible community

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: 00:00:56

of hundreds of other social media

freelancers, and it all works together

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: 00:00:59

to make your life even easier.

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: 00:01:01

Plus, you also get access to

Hubsy, the only software that

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: 00:01:04

you need to run your business.

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: 00:01:05

So whether you need to send an invoice,

schedule your content, manage your

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: 00:01:08

email marketing, or set up a website

or sales page, we have got you covered.

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: 00:01:12

Annual Membership costs less

than £3 a day, and all the

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details are in the description.

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: 00:01:16

But for now, let's get on with the show

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: 00:01:21

Hello and welcome back.

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: 00:01:23

Picture the scene.

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: 00:01:24

You're doing the work, you're creating

the content, you're scheduling it, you're

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writing captions, you're hitting publish.

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: 00:01:31

Your clients' accounts

are looking g- great.

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: 00:01:36

But their ideal clients, the people

who are actively out there searching

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: 00:01:41

for exactly what your client does,

have literally never seen it Now that's

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not because your content is bad, but

it's because it's invisible to them.

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And that is the thing I

want to talk about today.

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Because something happened this

month that changes how we should

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be thinking about social media

management entirely, and I think most

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people haven't even clocked it yet.

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Google has just announced that you can

now track how your Instagram, TikTok,

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X, and YouTube posts perform on Google

Search, so in Google's own Search Console.

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So like a website, like

a proper search property.

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And if you're thinking, "Okay, so what?

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That's a bit techy.

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That doesn't really affect my day-to-day

life," I want to, I don't know, gently

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suggest that actually it very much does.

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And by the end of this episode, you're

going to have three things you can

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do this week that could add a very

specific line to your next proposal.

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Let's dive in, and let's start

with what the actual Google update

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was and why it matters to you as

a freelance social media marketer.

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On the 7th of July this year, so 2026

if you're listening to this in the

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future , Google launched something

called Platform Properties in Search

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Con- so Search Console, if you

don't know, is basically Google's

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behind-the-scene tool for understanding

how content performs in Search.

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So up until now, it was

only for your websites.

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You'd verify your website, and

then you could see which Google

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searches were driving people to your

website and which particular pages.

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Now you can do the exact same thing

for your social media accounts.

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So you can connect your client's

Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube,

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and Google shows you exactly which

search terms people type into

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Google before clicking through to

that particular post or profile.

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So this is Google basically saying

social media content is search content,

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and that is a massive deal because

here's what it means in practice.

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Right now, if someone in your client's

target audience types in the best,

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insert what their client does, into

Google, their Instagram post could show

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up in those results, or their Reel, or

their TikTok alongside obviously the

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usual websites and blog posts that you

would tend to see in search results.

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Now that has always technically been

possible to some extent, but now for the

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first time you can actually measure it.

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You can see which posts are pulling

Google traffic, which search terms

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they're ranking for, and what's

actually working, which means for the

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first time you can report on that.

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And in my opinion, if you can report

on it, you can charge for it But

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here's an extra thing to think about.

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The Google update is

only part of the story.

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The biggest shift is that the platforms

themselves have become search engines.

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A survey of about 1,000 18 to

24-year-olds, admittedly this is just

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in the US, found that when it comes to

finding local businesses, Instagram is now

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the first place they go ahead of Google.

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TikTok came second, and Google came third.

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Now, you and I both know that age

group isn't necessarily every client's

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audience, but that behavior will bleed

out into the other demographics, and

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it will happen fast in my opinion.

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I know for sure that I use social media

to search more than I use Google nowadays.

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People are not just using

social media to scroll anymore.

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They're using it to search.

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Now, this isn't necessarily new news.

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Laura and I have recorded

podcasts about this in the past.

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We've created a lot of

content around this.

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This isn't something that has

suddenly popped up overnight, but the

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reality is this is changing quickly.

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People are typing in, I don't

know, the best accountant for

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freelancers in Manchester.

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They're going onto Instagram and literally

opening the search bar and typing that.

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They're typing how to choose a

wedding photographer in TikTok.

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They're looking for answers to specific

questions on the platforms in exactly the

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same way that they used to look on Google.

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And the content that comes up

for those searches isn't random.

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It's content that has been optimized.

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Now admittedly, some of it by accident,

some of it will be deliberate,

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but they've been using the right

words, and that is social SEO.

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And it's no longer just a nice to

have or a slightly nerdy add-on.

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It's a fundamental part of how content

gets discovered, and in my opinion, it's

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what makes you different as a social

media marketer to just a content creator.

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So what actually happens

to get your post found?

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So this is where I just want

to get a little bit practical.

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We have covered some of this before,

but I do think it's probably, given the

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news, worth a bit of a refresher because

I know some of you will be nodding along

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thinking, "Okay, yeah, this, this all

sounds great," but you maybe just want

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a bit of that refresher information too.

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So the short version is We all

know now hashtags have been

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demoted, but keywords are now king.

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For years, we've all sat to listen to

how we have to slap 20 to 30 hashtags

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on every post, and the algorithm sends

it to people who follow those hashtags.

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That's largely not how it works anymore.

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Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram,

has said that pretty much himself.

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He said that the hashtags don't

meaningfully improve your reach.

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So they help with categorization,

they're useful for search, but they're

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not the reach hack that they used to be.

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But what does work now is natural

keyword language woven into the

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places that algorithms actually need

that information and reads it from.

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And every platform is slightly different,

so I'm just going to walk through a couple

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of them to give you a bit of an idea.

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So Instagram That reads the captions, it

reads your bio, it reads the name feed.

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It also reads alt text on images and the

described audio on search text in reels.

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So three things most people skip

that actually move the needle are,

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first, the first line of that caption.

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That's what shows before more

in the feed, and it's what the

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algorithm weights more heavily.

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So get a natural keyword

into that first line.

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Second, the bio and the name feed.

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Instagram uses those when they're

indexing for search results.

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So where you someone might have,

"Making your brand beautiful,"

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it is doing absolutely nothing

for your discoverability.

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The name field and the bio should

contain the words that your

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client's ideal customer would

actually type into that search bar.

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So this is not to be rushed.

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And the third thing is alt text.

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Every image has an option

to add a custom alt text.

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Now, you should be using this anyway

because a huge proport- proportion of

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your audience will be needing that alt

text from an accessibility perspective.

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But if you are not using it, then I'd

highly recommend it purely for that

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reason alone, but also because it can be

used to help with your discoverability.

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So writing a proper description of

the image and w- using that to work

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naturally in those keywords, we don't

wanna be seeing keyword stuffing in

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the alt text, but naturally using

those keywords are going to help give

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the algorithm something to index that.

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So the chances are your competitors are

probably not using that, so this is a

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definite kind of fast way to get results.

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Uh, and I do want to just stress,

please make sure that you are

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considering the accessibility

elements of out- alt text here.

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You're not just stuffing

in a load of random words.

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Okay, TikTok.

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TikTok reads four different layers.

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So it's what you say out

loud, the on-screen text, the

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caption, and the hashtags.

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The goal is to get roughly the same

topic across all four and b- making it

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as natural as possible, so you don't want

to kind of robotically be repeating it.

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So for example, a tutorial or

maybe some how-to content, you

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wanna say the search phrase in the

first few seconds of the videos.

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You wanna put it on the screen

text in the first frame and

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develop it into that caption.

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TikTok transcribes the audio, so

what's spoken counts as much as

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what's written, if that makes sense.

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And if you're not using TikTok's

Creator Search Insights yet, I would

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absolutely recommend you go and do that.

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It's basically their version of a

keyword planner, so it's so useful

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and it's- they're literally giving

you the information on a plate.

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Just go and t- uh, search, um, c-

Creator Search Insights into TikTok

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search, and it will bring it up.

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And then once you're in there, it's fairly

self-explanatory, but you can type in

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the topic, you can see what people are

actually searching for, and it's very…

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It's really useful.

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Uh, just not enough people are

using it, and I genuinely think

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a lot of that information will be

transferable to other platforms too.

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So even if you don't use TikTok, maybe

just go and have a look in there anyway

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and get to grips with it and start to

understand and start testing and seeing

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if actually the suggestions in TikTok

are transferable to other platforms.

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You're only gonna know if you actually

test it So for those of you who are

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using YouTube, YouTube has alway-

always been a, a search engine.

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Like, this is not new news for them.

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So this one's more about maybe

refining what you're doing.

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The hierarchy in 2026 really is that the

title comes first, so very much front-load

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that keyword into the first, like, 40

characters, I think it is, on YouTube.

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Secondly to that, you want to

consider the description of the

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video, so again, prioritizing those

first couple of lines 'cause that's

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what comes up in Google results.

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Um, and thirdly, you want to be thinking

about obviously the spoken word, like what

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you're actually saying, because again,

it uses this transcription of that audio.

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So trying to make sure that topic

keyword is said in the very s- first 60

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seconds of what you're talking about.

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And tags, very similar to

the hashtags on Instagram.

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They're pretty much dead now.

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Um, YouTube have said that themselves,

so they play a kind of very minimum role.

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So I would maybe consider a couple

of tags, but then just move on.

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I wouldn't be wasting much time with it.

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It's worth mentioning as well, LinkedIn,

although that doesn't- isn't gonna be

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appearing in the Google Search Console

anytime soon, that I'm aware of.

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LinkedIn is, ha- very much had this

overhaul in the last year or two

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and moved from showing your content

from people you're connected with to

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very much showing your content about

the topics you're interested in.

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So the practical upshot there

is Topical consistency is

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now the single biggest lever.

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Okay, so that's just touching

on a couple of platforms.

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We wanna think about now

what does this actually mean?

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Is this something that we can charge for?

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And this is something that I really

want you to sit and kind of think about.

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Most of your clients have no idea that

social media has search components to it.

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They think it's about … They think

social media's like a broadcast medium.

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They're just posting something.

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People are gonna see it, or

maybe they don't, and that's it.

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That's the only lever.

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So the only thing that they think

that they can play around with

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really is how often you post

and how good that content is.

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The idea that their content is actually

findable by people actively searching

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for what they do, and that you could

be the person making it findable and

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measuring it, is completely different

conversation, and it's one most of the

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people competing with you are not having.

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There is a statistic that I'm gonna find.

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Hang on.

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I want to share it here.

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It's got … If … It's from

a: 2026

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marketers, and it found that only

about half are currently using

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keyword-based captions as a strategy.

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Custom alt text, keyword-rich bios,

searchable how-to content, optimized

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onscreen text, all of these things

are sitting below 16% adoption,

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which means the vast majority of

social media accounts out there are

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leaving discoverability on the table.

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And that, I think, for you

guys, is a massive opportunity.

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So And what are we gonna do about it?

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There's three things that I

want you to do when you're-

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after listening to this podcast.

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Number one, I want you to go and set up

your Search Console platform property.

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Uh, do it for your business.

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Do it for your client's business.

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It's not kind of retrospectively

going to collect that data, so the

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sooner you can do it, the better.

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However, the caveat here, it is a

gradual rollout, so at the point that

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I'm recording this, it's very slow.

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Not everybody's got it.

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So you do just want to maybe

diarize to keep checking in.

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Go to Google Search Console and

see if you have access to it.

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The way in which you do it, it's really

simple, is you log into Google Search

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Console, you hit on the Add Property

button, you look for the option to add

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a social or video platform property.

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You're gonna connect to your account.

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You're obviously gonna have to

verify it, so you obviously can only

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connect your own or your client's.

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And within … They're saying within

48 hours you should start to see Google

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search terms that are driving people to

the profile, or not, as the case may be.

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So definitely keep an eye on that, and

as soon as you're able to add it, then

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I definitely recommend you do that.

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And then once you've done it for

yourself, I'd maybe create a resource

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so you'll get your clients to do

that too, or use it as a lead magnet.

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Um, there's definitely opportunity

there to position yourself

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with this kind of knowledge.

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Number two, do a bio and name field, I

don't know, audit, I guess, across your

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accounts and your clients' accounts.

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Open up each account that

you have got access to.

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Look at the bio.

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Look at the, that display name field.

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Ask yourself If someone typed the

thing that your client does into a

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search bar, would those words show up?

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If the bio is saying, like we mentioned

before, 'Making your brand beautiful,' and

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the name field is just the business name,

there's definitely work to be done there.

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Find a way to work in a very clear,

natural description of what the

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client does and who they serve.

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And this isn't gonna

necessarily be a quick job.

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You're gonna have to sit with this,

think about it, do some research.

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But then update your bios, but also

your client bios, and this could have a

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massive leverage on people finding your

clients' profiles and your own, obviously.

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Number three is write a keyword map.

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That's for your own business,

and then you can also do this

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for your client's business.

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And you can also do this as a potential

to, to win new clients in the future.

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You could accrete this as a service.

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But before you sit down and plan your

next content for your business or for

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your clients, I would definitely recommend

opening up TikTok Creator Search Insights,

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as we've already mentioned, or going onto

the Instagram search bar and type in the

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client's or your business broad topic.

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So for example, we would look at

social media manager, and then look

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at what the autocomplete suggests.

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Those are real search terms

that real people are using.

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Now, you wanna pull out 15 if you

can, maybe 20, depending on obviously

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how niche the service or business is.

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But pull out as many search terms

that are relevant to your client.

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Those become your content pillars

in a sense for the next month or so.

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They need to be in every caption.

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They need to be onscreen text.

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The video title needs

to be informed by them.

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The opening words on spoken

reels need to include them.

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This is your social SEO.

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This is the thing that you can put in

your proposal as a distinctive service

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line, and right now very few people are

doing this, so you have the opportunity to

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really jump on this and position yourself.

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And, and get your clients and get

your prospective clients to understand

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how exciting and important this is

in terms of discoverability Okay.

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So I, just before we wrap up, I just want

to say, in case you're listening to this

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going, "Oh my God, I'm not an SEO expert.

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I need to go and read up

on it," you really don't.

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You, y- you already know

a lot of this stuff.

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I'm saying really that, yes, you have to

be aware of social SEO and be implementing

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it obviously, but you're not having

to reinvent yourself as an SEO expert.

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But what I am saying is that social

media is definitely changing, and the

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freelancers who understand the search

layer of their job are going to be

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able to command a whole different

conversation with their clients

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than basically the ones who don't.

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And this is exactly the kind of

thing that moves you from the person

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who does your posts to the person

who understands how people find us

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online when people describe you.

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And that second person is

a much harder to replace.

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It's much harder to discount.

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It's much easier to retain The

AI conversation is happening.

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Clients who are asking questions

about what they're paying for, and the

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freelancers who can point to measurable

search discoverability, click data from

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Google, search impressions from TikTok,

and say, "This is the work I do that

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makes you findable," you are going to be

a lot more secure than the ones who can

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only point to a pretty Instagram feed.

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You already know this stuff.

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It, this is not new.

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: 00:21:46

You understand the platforms.

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You understand what people search for.

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You understand how to write captions

and copy and what resonates with people.

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Social SEO isn't completely new skill.

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We've been talking about this for a while.

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It's an, just a new way to look at

the skills that you already have.

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: 00:22:06

So definitely go and do the th-

three things that I've mentioned.

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So setting up the Search Console

property as soon as you can.

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Audit those bios.

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Build out that keyword map for your

business as well as your clients.

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: 00:22:19

And if you wanna talk about this, if

you wanna think about how we can put

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: 00:22:23

this as an offer or a service, come and

have the conversation in the membership.

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: 00:22:27

Um, if you haven't joined the

membership yet and you wanna have

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these kind of conversations about

how you can monetize these kind of

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expertise, then come and check us out.

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I'll pop the link in the show notes.

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And come and have that

conversation with us.

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: 00:22:41

It's a really exciting time.

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: 00:22:44

And just before I go, if you have

enjoyed our podcast recently, I

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would love to hear what you think.

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: 00:22:50

Now, as always, we love it when

people jump into our DMs and tell

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us what's resonated with them,

what they found really useful.

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Please don't stop doing that.

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: 00:22:59

But can I just be really, really bold

and say please, can you go and le-

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: 00:23:05

leave us a review on whichever platform

you're listening to this podcast on?

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: 00:23:10

Do go and tell us what you think.

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: 00:23:12

It will help more social media

managers find us, and hopefully all

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benefit from some of this advice.

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: 00:23:19

Thank you so much for tuning into this

episode of JFDI with the Two Lauras.

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: 00:23:22

We really hope you enjoyed it, and

if you want more support, strategy,

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: 00:23:25

and systems to run your social media

business, consider joining the membership.

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: 00:23:29

All the details are at

thetwolauras.com/membership,

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: 00:23:32

or you can find them in the show notes.

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: 00:23:34

Make sure you also follow along

on Instagram, we're on there as

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@thetwolauras, and check out our website

for loads more advice and support.

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: 00:23:41

Thank you so much for being

part of our podcast community.

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: 00:23:44

We'll see you next time