Always Be Optimizing – Search Engine Optimization Secrets With Meg Casebolt

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED [00:00:00] Hey. Hey, today's case, Meg Casebolt is the founder of Love at First Search an Agency dedicated to helping online businesses get found in search results. So if you're like me and SEO feels overwhelming, but you still want your business to get found on Google, listen up. Hey Meg, welcome to the show. Meg: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Diane: So I'm really excited to talk seo. I know that sounds really weird, but I am super Meg: Nobody's excited to talk. Diane: before we go into that little rabbit hole, let's do a quick intro to you and your business. Meg: Sure. So my name is Meg Casebolt. I am the founder of Love at First Search, where we help online entrepreneurs to show up and search results, and then take those new people who find you on places like Google or YouTube or iTunes, and turn those new readers or listeners. Into clients because usually the folks who I'm working with are business owners, so we want to use our platform in order to get people to buy from us, not just let's listen to this show and then you're gonna get paid by ad revenue and sponsorships later. That's fine too. But most of my people are business owners, Diane: So, seo, it's not an area that I've spent a lot of time. Right, Meg: Lucky you, Diane: well, no, like it's, It's one of those things that's kind of on your to-do list that keeps moving on your to-do list. You know, like when you write tomorrow's to-do list and it's still got today's things on it, SEO is one of those things, but I think it's because it feels so big, Meg: Yes. And I think it's very much in that, like if you've heard of the Eisenhower framework where it's like things can be important or urgent or both, or neither, it very much falls into that like important but not urgent quadrant where you know that you want to get found in Google search results, but. It's gonna take three months minimum to actually see the results. So like what does it matter if you start tomorrow? Diane: Right. And I think there's also, that's like the second element of it. So A, it's this huge big thing to [00:02:00] tackle. And then B, I'm not gonna know until three months time if what I've done has worked. So there's a really good chance that I'm gonna get it wrong for three months and then find out that I've spent all this time getting something wrong again. Right. Meg: it, it can be intimidating for sure. Diane: Right, So, so let's start really simple. Let's assume we slash I have not really done anything on SEO What are like a couple of things that I could do this weekend to just almost, I like to like do something little that gives me a little bit of momentum. And then the next thing, a little bit of momentum. What could start my seo. Meg: Okay, so there's a free tool that Google gives you. It's called Google Search Console. It can be connected to your Google Analytics if you already have that set up, but you don't need to do Google Analytics. I know that's a bit of a controversial platform right now, which we won't get into those details. Google Search Console will tell you every single search term that your website shows up for in search. Even if people aren't clicking on it, even if you're showing up like number 200, if people are clicking through and seeing you show up in search results, Google Search Console will tell you every single search term. And if you get that information, you have a baseline of here's the things that are already working. and I like to start from there because if you have like a keyword that people are searching for and you're showing up for, and you're showing up at. 20th now, you know, you can talk about that term. You can integrate it more into what it is that you're doing. You can move it up the page or put it in your SEO title, and that might help you move from 20th to like 10th, eighth, seventh, and show up in those search results at a higher space. It can also tell you keywords that you're showing up for that like aren't actually that relevant. I have a client who shows up for like how to conjure a werewolf, and I'm like, I don't. [00:04:00] She used a metaphor and Google was like, Well, that's relevant to this question. Right? So, so Diane: If I don't come up for something like anywhere near as cool as how to conjure a will wolf, I want you to know how disappointed I'm gonna be. I'm gonna actually hold you responsible for my disappointment now, Meg: Well, now I, maybe we should call this episode how to conquer wear Wolves with SEO so that, so that, you can show up for it. Let's do it. Let's do this. Diane: with the word wol and like every paragraph, what we talked about will Wolfs key takeaway. We, Meg: Yes. Bullet point. Wear wolves are sometimes called lichens in Scottish society, whatever, right? So , I've been reading too many, like paranormal romance. I know way too much about wear wolves. .But anyway, you can, once you have that information, you can figure out like maybe I'm being too flowery in my language and I need to be a little bit clearer. Or maybe I used to talk about this thing and people are still finding it, but it's not what I do anymore, so I can go into what. Used to work for me and make updates, so it works for what I do now. Having that sort of finger on the pulse of here's what Google thinks I should be found for, can be really helpful in terms of knowing, like, is it hitting the mark or do I need to adjust my messaging? Diane: That's so helpful for a starting point. I think that just reduces, I need to do ACO from like this behemoth to like, okay, now it just feels like an elephant. Like I can do that. Or I'm invited at a time, you know? Meg: Yeah. Diane: Now once I've done this and I've got over that little hump of like, Hey, this is working, this is not working. I'm weirdly showing up for this. What are my kind of golden SEO rules? My Like Must do this and whatever the heck you do don't do that. Meg: Yes. So I think the next phase in it, once we have that baseline, once we have that finger on the pulse of [00:06:00] what's happening on your website, or if you're just starting and you're like, I don't know what words tip outta my website, this is where empathy comes into play. Because when pe, when, when are your clients. When are your customers going to turn to Google or to YouTube or to iTunes or whatever their podcasting platform of choice is? and seek out the things that you are offering. So there may be, you know if, if people are looking for me, they're probably gonna look for my name or they're gonna look for love at first search. And those are what's called branded search terms. That's like, if you already know what you're looking for, then you can be found for that. But I, in order to be found for my name, I have to put my name on my website. You'd be surprised how often people just go like, Hi, I'm Meg. And never say like, This is my last. Diane: last. name Meg: Actually, my name is Margaret. So if you're looking for Margaret Casebolt, you're not gonna find me if you're looking for Mag only, right? Like making sure that everything that you wanna be found for is like mapped to a specific page. So if people are looking for love at for search, I want em to go to my home page. If they're looking for my name, I want em to go to my about page. But there are gonna be people who are like, I want to learn about seo but I don't know this love at first search thing yet. I just want like an SEO course. .And so I wanna think about what page of my website would I want the person who's looking for an SEO course or an SEO training, what page would I want them to go to? Oh, my courses page. If they're looking for an agency, I want them to go to my services page. Right? Like just thinking about what is the term that your ideal client would use to seek out every page of your website and then use that term in your. Diane: On that page. Meg: that page. Don't be clever, be clear. I could say I have this [00:08:00] course page and I'm gonna call it like you know, SEO wizardry. But that does, No one's looking for that. They're looking for, I need some, I need some starter courses. It seems obvious and it, when you're writing it, you're gonna be like, God, this is boring. But we want it to be clear more than we want it to be Clever. Diane: And that's so interesting because if you think about the amount of time people waste trying to come up with a cute or Clever. name for their course or group, program or offer or whatever it is, which is great if someone's already found you, but it's not actually gonna get you found. Meg: Right. So you can still be cute. You can still be clever, but you also have to be descriptive and clear. In your descriptions, and there are specific places that Google looks for information. So you can say like, This is the name of my program, and then put a colon in, and then a description of what it is, and you can put that in your SEO title, which is, you know, if you're on. WordPress, you can use like the Yost plugin to do the SEO title. If you're on like Squarespace or Shopify or something, you're gonna go into your page settings. But there's a specific place where you can use like 60 or 70 characters to define what shows up in those search engine results. . That's what Google pays attention to. It doesn't need every single word on the page to be sounding like a robot. You can still have fun. You can still, you know you can still be. a human with a voice, but there are specific places that Google just pays more attention. Your headings, your subheadings, they're so important. And it also, like if you're writing a page and you have certain sections that you're delineating, here is the part of the page where I'm gonna tell you about this. Say that. Because your readers don't read everything on your page either. They're skimming through what's on there, so they're paying attention to the biggest, boldest text. They're not gonna read every single word. Give them an idea of what's in there, and if they're interested, then they'll go deeper. But give people the ability to skim, give Google an idea of what the most important pieces [00:10:00] are, and just kind of be clear about what every section of your page is trying to get done. Diane: Okay, so let's take my podcast show notes page for this episode as an example. And so I want your particular episode to be found for people looking for seo, right? Meg: And ols? Yes, Diane: And werewolves obviously, obviously. I normally have the podcast player. I have the full transcript in text form on the page. I then have a intro subheading we talk about, then a subheading key takeaway, then a subhead about Meg. So I would be better off in SEO terms, doing things we talked about around seo. Meg: Yeah, Diane: And then about Meg case bolt and key takeaway on seo. Meg: yeah. Or maybe, I mean, and here's, here's something else to think about, and here's kind of the next step of the empathy, which is sometimes people will go, Okay, I know I'm looking for this person. Sometimes they'll go, Okay, I know I'm looking for this service or this outcome. Or sometimes people might just go like, What should I put in my podcast show notes? They're not thinking like, This is SEO for podcast. They're going like, What information should I put in there? Right. You're solving a problem, but they don't necessarily know the problem and they wouldn't define it the way that you do. So I actually, I actually show up really well in search results for the term. Podcast seo transcriptions because those or just podcast transcriptions, those aren't people who are looking for SEO advice. That's people going, Should I put a transcription in it? And there's my explanation of why it's important for your seo. So also part of the empathy as you're thinking about what words to put on your website is what do people think they need from me? What are the questions that they have? And then you can put that in through your. [00:12:00] What? Whatever content you're creating in this case, show notes. ,you might, like you said, adjust some of those subheadings to be able to say, instead of just like key takeaways, you could say key takeaways about SEO or, and, and then maybe you wanna break it up into sections. Here's where we talk about keyword research. Here are some key takeaways about content strategy. Here are some key takeaways about SEO copywriting, right? Like these are all the things that we're talking about, but you can clearly delineate to your readers and to Google's like little crawler robots. We didn't just have key takeaways because every, every show note on your website is going to have key takeaways. But with Meg, we talked about this, and with Jacquelyn, we talked about this, and these are the key takeaways from the conversation with Jacquelyn. So there may be people who are like, Oh, I just wanna go listen to everything that Jacqueline Malone talks on, which like, I don't blame you. She's great. But if you're specifically talking about podcast hosting, in that you can say key takeaways about how to ask really great interview questions. Diane: Right. Meg: And that way Google understands what that podcast episode is about. And people who are searching for that information can go directly to those show notes without knowing that they need Jacqueline to be the episode that they're listening to. Diane: Right. So it's kind of like a like almost like a matrix view of like, is it the person, is it the topic? What is it about the topic? And then you can start to. look for, I guess, which one connects the most with your. Meg: exactly. So there's a relevance factor here too in in like a copywriting framework that I like to talk about is our customer awareness spectrum. Where there are going to be people who are com, you know, aware of you, they listen to every podcast episode that you're, you put out, they're already subscribers, they're huge fans, and then there's gonna be people who. Solution aware. They know they want a podcast episode about this topic. And then there's gonna be people who are problem aware, who know, like, should my, should my podcast have a transcript? I don't [00:14:00] know. Let me just Google that, right? So you can hit people. You don't wanna hit people. You can be found for search terms across every stage of that spectrum. The easiest place to start, if you're just getting started with this, is what are people who already know me? Where do I need to put those terms? And then people who know that there's a solution that they're seeking, where do I put those terms? And then you can kind of start to use your content and to talk about what specifically was in the episodes to be found for those terms. And every page of your website can be found for like infinite numbers of search terms, because different people are searching for things. The exact same question can be asked in 4,000 different ways. Diane: Oh, okay. So let's say for example, I wanna move on to URLs, but let's say for example, someone had a podcast and their show notes, pages were always like the episode number, so I don't. dire.com/ 55, for example, and they later realized that actually it made more sense from an SEO perspective to leave the episode title and the guest's name in the URL And pretty link the number, right? So you can still do that, but it'll just, it'll refer you. So would said imaginary person B, are they A, Are they right that it is better to do it the longer url? And B, should they go back and change the old URLs from the numbers to the sexy title of the episode? Meg: Our Theoretical. friend has not a ton to worry about. Is it better to have specific descriptive terms in your PERMA links? Sure. Is it gonna make or break things? No. I would say like everything that we've talked about here is like, maybe like a 2% differential, right? So, maybe like the SEO title, the, the post [00:16:00] headline, that kind of stuff is maybe like a 4% difference, right? These start to add up over time. So if you have a system that works, Use the system that works, especially if it works well for you if your listeners are accustomed to it. Maybe moving forward, if, I don't know what episode number this is, but you just said 55 maybe. Moving forward, you wanna have it be like 55 dash SEO dash techniques, dash meg dash case vault. Right. And it's like gross looking. So you can do the pretty link to just make it 55 and then you can share it on social and it'll just redirect to it But it is an extra step. and if it throws off your workflow, like. Again, it's like Google will still be able to read everything on that page. It'll still look at all of those pieces. You don't have to go back and redo your show notes for the past hundred episodes. Here's what I'm gonna tell you to do is go into your Google search console, find your top like 20% of pages that are already doing good work for you, and maybe go back and update those Diane: And you would you, change the url? Meg: You can, if you do wanna change the url, you're gonna wanna set up a a 3 0 1 redirect, which is basically like a pretty link where it will say, Okay, this used to be 55, now it's this, you know, 55 dash seo dash da da da da. . So if you don't set up a redirect that goes from, this is the old URL to this is the new url, Google will basically see that as a new page. And the old URL will have that like error four or four page not found. And so if you have any traffic going to that, whether it's going from Google or it's going from social or it's going from anywhere else, Google's gonna be like, Well, that page doesn't exist anymore. Poof, there goes all your traffic for that page. But if you just go, It used to be here, now it's. Then all that traffic will remain, and you're giving Google that extra information about that. This is what that page is about. If you're worried about it, [00:18:00] don't change. But you can still go in and update, Oh, I need to redo my title and my SEO title, and maybe I'll do my subheadings. And as long as I'm in here, maybe I'll take some of these Pinterest images that I have and I'll put some alt text on 'em. So that way when people are looking for 'em on Pinterest, they have a default text. And like there are these ways that you can go through an update what you've already created. So you don't have to always be creating new things. Diane: Right. Yeah. I mean, said person, imaginary person is, is very relieved to hear that. But when. We made the switch when I went, Oh, actually this doesn't make any sense. Like it was only, I don't know, episode 155 probably where I went, Oh, actually that's not so great. What I've noticed is that since I've done that, I get more traffic coming from Google to my podcast episodes than to say like, forward slash 55 got right. So I did pay attention to the data before and after, before I kept doing it. But I do think, like seo, I think we're so afraid to do anything to like ruin seo. Right. And I I think SEO is like this full time job. Like, like it really, Meg: Literally it is my full-time job. Yes. Diane: you're like nodding at me like, Yes, I, I am aware of this. This is not news to me. But as someone who isn't their full-time, When is enough enough? So When do I draw a line to say, Okay, that's good enough for me. And then if I wanna invest further, like it's time to hire a professional. Meg: Well, I think like if we can think of seo, not as, this is an entirely different marketing strategy that I need to create, but instead maybe think of it. This is a layer of my marketing that can help me be found for the things I'm already be like I'm already doing. Diane: It's essentially repurposing, is what you're saying. Meg: It's optimizing. Diane: Ooh. Meg: right? We're talking about search engine [00:20:00] optimization. That's what, I don't know if we ever fully defined SEO or if we just kinda went like, it's Google, right? But we're talking about search engine optimization. And when I say optimization, and I wanna be clear about that because you're saying like, I don't wanna do anything wrong. I don't wanna mess things up. We can always be optimizing. You can always, you know, An hour once a month and go look at what's working and then go in and update one old piece of content. And this is, especially if you're in a space where you're like, I have 150 podcast episodes. And yeah, people wanna listen to the, the new ones for sure. And I have these subscriber base and they want that new content, but maybe once a month I also just go into an old show notes and I'm like, I'm gonna re-release this and I'm gonna. 20 minutes and just update the show notes. Or maybe you don't even re-release it, you're just like, I'm gonna send this one out to my email list. Cuz I know people like this episode and maybe they missed it a while ago. And I'm gonna go through and update the titles. I'm gonna maybe go through and like go back to episode 55 and be like, since I recorded that, I also have all these 10 other great episodes on this topic that I didn't know I was gonna record when I, made those show notes. And I should link between these different pages on my site. That is a huge part of this optimization we're talking about where it's like we want people to find us on Google and land on like, Oh, this is the show notes for this episode. But then once they're there, once we have their attention, Let's establish our expertise. Let's say, Oh, we, you listened to this episode with Jacqueline, so you should go back and listen to this episode with this person and this person. And we also talked about this here, here and here. And, hey, don't you wanna come b book, a consulting call with me, right? Once they've landed on the page, that's not The goal The goal is what's the next step After that, they found the podcast episode, they subscribe to the podcast. [00:22:00] But we're not making money yet. Let's also get 'em on the email list. Let's also encourage them to come check out the course. Let's get them to buy the product. Let's get them to book a call, right? Like what are all the ways that traffic doesn't pay for itself? What are the ways that we can, once people get to us, what do, what path do we need to create so that they will actually become a customer? SEO is just like swiping right on Tinder. It's not getting a date, it's just getting an intro. I don't know. I've been, I've been married for like 12 years. I don't know what Tinder is. Someone told me you swipe Diane: I'm just cracking up. I don't think I've ever heard SEO described as as Tinder before, and you know that that's going on. A quote, God. Meg: It's a matchmaking service, right? It's you going, it, you're, you're basically your website. Or if you're running a local business and you wanna show up on Google Maps, there's this thing called Google Business Profile, but like your website is your dating. and then somebody is going in and going, Here are my criteria. And then Google's going, Well, here's the best choice that we have, and you click on the ones that you like. It's basically just speed dating on the internet for information. Diane: This is hands down my favorite explanation of SEO ever because it's so. Clear. Right? It takes it from being this weird black box of Google to being. How are you letting people who are searching for what you do know that you do it, essentially? Meg: Yeah. How are you setting yourself up? How are you making yourself look desirable? So that way they actually want to click through to it. And I mean like the, the way that Google search engine results pages look are constantly evolving. It used to be like you just had this. You know, 60 characters of the blue text and 150 characters of the black text, and that's all you had. But now they're throwing in, you know, here's, they're indexing podcast show notes and podcast information through Google Podcast Manager, and they're showing [00:24:00] podcast episodes in those results. They're showing video results so that way you see the thumbnail. They're starting to pull in images from websites to show in, especially for like e-commerce websites, not just the Google Shopping ads, but they're pulling 'em into the organic listings now too. So we are able to cultivate what we look. Like on that search engine results page so that more people are not just are, were showing up in the search results, but more people are clicking through to our website. They're finding the thing that they need and they're clicking through and they're finding out about you, and they're taking that next step and they're, you know, joining your email list or whatever you're call to action is. All of that can be part of this optimization strategy. Diane: . Like it's optimizing how you look to the world personally. But then this is how you do it for your website. Like you've left your website just steering there quietly and it's like three day nons showered, no hair wash, dry shampoo Meg: I feel personally attacked by this example. I don't think I've washed my hair in a week. I have mostly made of dry shampoo at this Diane: yeah, we are all surviving on coffee and dry shampoo. It's fine. Meg: that's, why it's here in the title of the podcast. But to answer your initial question, which is like, when is enough? Enough it's like, how long is a string, right? Like, how much do you need? I think with anything where we're talking about creating a pattern ,of excellence, like when are you good enough at playing piano? when? When are you healthy enough? you may just hit a point where you're like, Listen, I can play the whole Elton John catalog. I'm good. I don't need anymore. For me, that's actually Sarah Barres, like covering Elton John. I love all of it. But like I don't need to be a piano virtuoso. I just need to get the satisfaction of playing piano. But that, it's, never gonna be like, Okay, I'm done with piano because now I can play these Sarah Barella songs. Right? like the same is true for your website. figure out. What is the goal of SEO for you? We have people that have, you know, worked with me. We have clients who, [00:26:00] like, I made these optimizations to the website and now I'm getting enough traffic of new people finding me and booking a call with me that I don't have to be on social media anymore and I don't have to blog anymore. I just like, I have a client who shows up for metabolic efficiency testing. And it's such a specific keyword for her target audience that people find her and then they're like, Okay, I'll just hire Katie to do my metabolic efficiency testing. and she has enough traffic coming in that she doesn't have to do anything else. She can be. but for you, where you're already creating this podcast and this is part of your ongoing marketing strategy, you're investing an hour in the conversation with me, then you're investing in the time for the editing and you're writing the show notes. So probably every episode is taking you three or four hours to actually produce and distribute and you know, to promote. Like take an extra 20 minutes and go do a little bit of keyword research and be like, what are the terms that people would look for if they wanted to hear the conversation that we had? What are the other episodes that we've already created? What are the ways that I can make both the show notes? and the podcast description that's showing up so that we, people who are looking for it in a place like iTunes in the name of the episode about Conjuring wear wolves and seo and Tinder and all of these things. And that's the other part is like we can say, you could create show notes that say like, and we talked about all of these metaphors cuz I love a good metaphor, but also like, let's make sure that the episode title is. Diane: also, yeah, so it could be like what Conjuring OLS taught me about Optima SEO for my website. Just Meg: way we make sure With Meg Case Bolt, founder of love at first search, right? Like, and, and sometimes all of these different like keywords and like what could different people be looking for? It can feel a little bit like alphabet soup, where you're just like keyword, keyword, like ping, ping P playing. You're putting them in, like sprinkling them in through your content. And that's okay. as long as you're continuing to [00:28:00] create value, you don't have to use the same keyword in 10 different places. You know? it doesn't have to be like you choose the keyword, like learn seo, and then you have to use that phrase Exactly, because Yost tells you that you're not gonna get a green light unless you do it. And if you don't get a green light, then Google doesn't care. No, not true. Right. For a person. Think about what that person would be searching for. Put it in, put like maybe one or two keywords in each of these key places, but like, you don't have to use the same five word phrase in each of the places for Google to pay attention. Yos doesn't talk to Google. Google looks at what's on your page, yos the checklist, or whatever your, you know, SEO plugin of choice is. So don't let this. Green light rule. If you're using WordPress plugins, don't let that dissuade. You don't spend so much time, like I had someone who said, like, I wrote a blog post for an hour, and then it took me an hour to get yos to gimme a green light. Oh my gosh. No, no, no, no, no, no. Like let's not waste your time on the green lights. Let's write something that people want. Let's put the keywords into places that make sense. And then in a month, go look and see if you're ranking for it in your Google search console. But don't let this be this big cloud hanging over your head of everything has to be perfect because there are gonna be 80% of the pages on your site aren't gonna be things that Google cares about or that you can rank for. So like, let's figure out what the entry points are into your website, the, the pages that you want people to be found or to find you for, and really spend your time on those. And not everything has to be optimiz. I'm trying to give all the permissions to just like double down on what's working and let go of this feeling of perfectionism. Diane: well, massive. Massive permission to just be like, Okay, I can dip my toe into seo, and it's almost impossible for me to break it. Meg: Yeah, and if you break it, then you back off and then you try something else, right? Like it's optimization, It's not following a specific structure. [00:30:00] It's like, see, and I'm very much like a test and pivot kind of person, and that works really well with seo where it's like, Oh, this page I thought it was gonna rank for this term, but actually it's ranking for this one, so let me go rewrite it. Like maybe just make some adjustments. It doesn't always have to be huge overhauls or big, you know, giant strategies. Sometimes it's like someone, me, this question, I put it in an. I'm gonna take it and throw it on my website as a blog post, and then I'll structure it in a way that like has section headings and then in a month or two I'm gonna look at it and go, Oh, hey, that's what people want. cool, cool, cool. cool. Right. Diane: Yeah. Meg: It can be an experiment, Diane: Oh, I was gonna ask if there was one thing you wish that everybody knew about SEO or like that thing that. You feel like you're screaming into the abyss and like my one is that like, structuring your business like a big business doesn't create a big business culture. I feel like I say that on repeat. Like, structure gets your freedom. Structure gets your freedom. What's the SEO version of that Meg: It doesn't have to be all or nothing. And, and, okay, so here's my, here's my better answer. You don't have to be found for your entire in. If you are an artist, you don't have to be found for the word art, right? You can be found for like black and white hummingbird wood panel, right? Like, and that can be enough. The more specific you get about the ways that you solve your problems for your a. The easier it is for you to get people who are like so relevant to the offer that you have, so you don't have to write so much that you're gonna, you know, push the New York Times outta the first result. You're not, that's not The goal. The goal is figure out what your people need, answer the [00:32:00] questions that they're already asking. and then lead those people to a sale. Get them to trust you. But once they realize that you're there, doesn't have to be giant. I have clients who are like, you know, they have search terms that are consistently performing for them, that have like 50 people a month looking for 'em, where it's like, I wanna, I did a, a YouTube video about this, so I don't feel bad using this as an example. I want a Squarespace website for yoga. I have a client who's made her entire business on a keyword that gets 50 people searching for it a month because she ranks number one for it. Diane: Yeah. Meg: And those people who are like, I need a Squarespace website for a yoga studio, they find Connie, they go Hire Connie. That's all she needs, but she's not gonna rank for Square space because Square space does Diane: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Square space is definitely killing you on that Meg: Right. You're never gonna rank for Squarespace, even if you're a Squarespace Circle on Squarespace consultant school, you can put Squarespace at all those places. But Squarespace website for yoga studios don't, don't go for that one. Connie's got it. But pick a different industry. Pick a different specialty, pick a different problem to solve, and just go all in on it. And the, the more you go all in on it, the easier it is to be found for it. If you spread yourself too thin, then it's gonna be a lot hard. Diane: Mm, just absorbing that. I think you just like, just lifted a massive SEO weight off my shoulders. Meg: Pick one thing Diane: Do you Meg: and talk about it for like, I don't know, 10 podcast episodes or five blog posts. Not the same thing in every one. I don't want it to be like, Here's, you know, this is our, our, our series on topic X part one. Now every single one of those can be found for something a little bit different. so find a keyword for each of those and then link between 'em so that way people can come into episode one or episode five or episode 20, and then they can see the entire body of work. You just need one [00:34:00] introduction and then people can start to absorb and learn about you and get to know you, sEO is just a discovery tool. Go be found by your perfect people. Set up your strategy so that way you're answering their specific problems and the more specific you may, you, you are able to identify with them, the faster they're gonna trust you. Diane: So I feel like we've gone through a lot. Meg: Yes, we have Diane: I feel like we've covered from basics to secret specialist tricks to all the things. So how can you help the people do more of this? Is there a nice little resource that they can print out and tick off as they go step by step? Or they can just. Help them to continue on their SEO journey because it is a journey, not a destination. Meg: Absolutely. If you are just getting started, you can head over toLove@firstsearch.com. You can download our. Free SEO starter kit. It's a, you know, 13 page document that has workflows and madlibs and flow charts that have different gifts in 'em, so that way we can kind of make it a little bit less overwhelming, more fun. And then we'll share more resources with you via email when you feel like you're ready for them. I try not to overwhelm people with like, Here's everything you need to know, but just like, what's the first step? What's square one? You don't need to know what mile 26 is. When you start your marathon, you can start with a 5k. You can start with a walk around the block. Right, Diane: Yeah. Can start by putting on your trainers. Oh, this has been very hard. I'm very excited to like, go and see what I show up for. Like please let it be something anywhere near as cool as the WWF one. Meg: We'll have to find out. You'll have to tell me. That'll go in the outro you can tell people what it is that you're ranking for Diane: um, maybe I'll put it on the show notes page. You have to go to the show notes page to see What I ranked for. So to finish up, I always ask my guests the same two questions. First of all, what is your number one lifestyle boundary for your business? Meg: I don't work after four. Diane: Oh, I thought you were gonna stop there [00:36:00] for a moment. I don't work Meg: ever. I just talk on podcasts. . Oh my gosh, I wish. No no. It's like I just shut down. My brain's just like, Nope, I'm done. I probably work 25 hours a week if that, because like I just, I can't, I can't do this like 80 hour work all the time thing. When it's four o'clock, my computer goes off and you can find me again at my desk, maybe like 10 o'clock the next morning. Diane: Oh, sounds like a very, very healthy approach to working hours. Meg: Yeah. And, like, I mean, why are we doing all of this if we have to just sit at our desks all the time? Diane: and and very little that we do as an emergency. Meg: For real. And like one of the reasons that I love SEO as a marketing strategy is that like you don't have to post every day. You don't have to post every month. Things that I wrote, you know, five years ago are still bringing traffic into my website so I can take a month off. And if you have the systems in place, like you don't need to work all the time to be found in Google all the time. You don't have to post, you know Twitter every 18 minutes. No. Create it once. Be found for it forever. Diane: You chose wisely. Meg: I like to think so Diane: finally, what is the worst piece of KO Karo advice you've been given as an entrepreneur Meg: , I think because I'm now kind of known for helping people get off of social media probably the worst cookie cutter advice that I have taken and regret is like, just start a Facebook group and put all your leads in. because like you don't own it, you don't own anything. And if people are in a Facebook group, there's no impetus to actually make a decision and move on it. I'm a huge fan of like, just get everyone on your email address and then you can use your social if you want to nurture, but you don't have to create for social media if you don't want to. If you do, if you love it. Great. Awesome. But that's not a requirement of being a business. Your, your business is not your [00:38:00] Facebook page. It's not your Instagram profile. Your business is what you actually sell. And if you're spending so much time on social that you can't actually serve your clients, then you have actually, it's more like you've like become an employee of the Zuckerberg Empire. Then you know, if you're spending more time marketing your business than you are delivering, then we have an essential problem Diane: Yeah. .So get found on Google. Or some form of search, bring them to their specific webpage and then take them on a journey so they land up on your email list and eventually buy from you. Meg: That's the goal, right? That's the dream. That's my dream. They may not be everyone's, but that's my dream is be found on Google. Get 'em on my email list, get to know 'em there, nurture 'em there, and then when they're ready to buy, they're ready to buy. And they know that they trust me. Diane: Amazing. This has been fabulous. I've enjoyed it. No end. I never thought we would be talking about Tinder or werewolves, But But there we go. , watch this page. Rank , Tinder, and Wws as a combination. How to find werewolves on Tinder for the transcript. Meg: I am fascinated to see what kind of traffic finds this. This show notes page. Diane: So whereabouts on the socials can people find you? So we've told them where your website is. Are you on the socials? Can they come say Hi? Meg: Yes, when we're talking about different platforms you can come find me on YouTube if that, if you would consider that social, which like Google Analytics does. So I'm gonna throw it in there. I also have a podcast, which is called Social Slowdown, which is all about how to become less dependent on social media in your marketing, and probably the only. Space that I actually spend any time on social media is like, I log into Instagram once a week, so you can find me on Instagram. Love it. First search. But if I don't respond to, or, you know, tag you out in a story, do not take it personally. It's because I didn't see it. Diane: I'm just not there. Meg: I'm just like, I have just leaned [00:40:00] into this brand so much that sometimes people will like send me a legitimate, like, Hey, can we get on a call to work together? And it'll be like two weeks by the time I see it, just email me. Okay. Get on my email list, Email me, I'll respond there. That's how I want there. Maybe that's my bigger boundary. It's like, don't DM me. I don't want your dms. I'm sorry. I like you a whole lot. Just email me Diane: I love that lean into that brand. Well, this has been quite the adventure of an episode. Thank you so Meg: It was my pleasure Diane: information and the entertainment. Meg: I love when podcast episodes just become coaching sessions. It's great