Latest / Curiously Guided Podcast / Ep.47 | Making SEO Easy: The Power of Letting Your Audience Find YOU with SEO Consultant & Podcast Co-Host, Mariah Magazine

Transcript

Ep.47 | Making SEO Easy: The Power of Letting Your Audience Find YOU with SEO Consultant & Podcast Co-Host, Mariah Magazine · Curiously Guided Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, welcome back to the Curiously Guided Podcast, the place for intuitive business owners.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're your hosts, Shay and Mariah.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're really excited.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We have a special episode for you.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: As Mariah and I were planning this season, we kind of realized, you know, we've really discovered a love for interviewing people about their zone of genius or whatever it is, the work that they're doing, the impact they want to make in the world.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we realized that we really had never interviewed each other about, you know, our particular zones of geniuses.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So today we have a very special, super surprised guest of Mariah.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to be asking her questions all around, you know, being visible online, but particularly being searchable, SEO.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mariah is really, I've always, one of the things that initially like drew me to her was her ability to really demystify SEO.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's something that a lot of a lot of us are intimidated by because it's talked about with a lot of like smoke and mirrors and like, oh, it's too complicated for you.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can't understand it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Mariah's got this really great way of like taking a really complex topic and talking about it from a really down-to-earth place where she makes it really easy to understand and really like approachable.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been kind of like a hobby SEO enthusiast.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm personally excited about this episode and getting to grill her.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we're hoping that this is gonna give our listeners quite a few takeaways of how you can actually go implement SEO.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not too complicated.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's things that we all can do.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we really tried to think about some like actionable takeaways that everyone could walk away with this episode with.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So with that, let me introduce you to my good friend and podcast co-host and SEO expert Mariah.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my God.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: This is so fun.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it's funny because like typically when we like interview people or like do a podcast, I'm just like not really nervous.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just like, oh, I'm just like showing up and it just like gets to be fun.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then as soon as we put the spotlight on me, I'm like, oh god, oh god.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's just funny noticing that it's like, oh man, everybody's everybody's gonna see what happens in my brain and how I think about things in my zone of genius.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: It just adds like that extra layer of um not complexity, but pressure, essentially.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, there's a reason that you're going first.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly feel it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's very, it's very funny to me.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so before we get too deep, I think this is so funny that you're interviewing me.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: So typically, then I would just go and read the guest bio, but I'm just gonna fucking read my own here.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: So, okay, so what's up?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Mariah, an SEO consultant and visibility strategist for online business owners over at MariahMagazine.com.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And basically, in a nutshell, I'm just a really firm believer that showing up on Google, increasing your visibility, growing your business, all of that shit, it doesn't have to be as difficult and overwhelming as everybody makes it.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I have over seven years of experience as an entrepreneur in the online and digital marketing space.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: And in that time, I've been able to help over a hundred clients get their websites found on Google by implementing a strategy that feels both doable and aligned.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like especially when you pair SEO with strategic collaborations like being on podcasts, because SEO and collaborative marketing, by nature, they just have a longer shelf life compared to the fast-moving platforms like Instagram.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: And they allow yourself to be seen in the places that your audience is already hanging out in.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the reason why I really love SEO, I love podcasts, being a guest on podcast, being a host of podcasts, is like there's just less doing just to do, and there's more sustainability behind it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Marketing with sustainability or minimalist marketing is a topic that you and I talk a lot about and feel passionately about.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that SEO is like the epitome of working smarter, not harder.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can be, and honestly, learning the fundamentals of SEO has helped me literally in everything.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like understanding keywords and like how to know what's popular will help you title, it helps us title podcast episodes.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it helps me in my selling and sales and talking to people dealing in the online world.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It helped me as a web designer.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's just so many, it's it's kind of like how the world works these days in the online space.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think having a fundamental understanding of it is crucial.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and before we dive too far into like SEO itself, would you mind just giving us?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Mariah tells her full story of how she got here in one of our very first episodes.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: But can you give us just an abbreviated version of like how did you how did you discover SEO and decide you wanted to build a business around it?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's funny because if you're a listener of the podcast, you know that like one of my inklings of like that I need to explore something is like I'm repulsed or like disgusted by it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's funny.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: I got into the online business space in 2015.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: I um I quit college and I quit like my full-time big girl job all within the same month.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, fuck it, I'm about to get taxes, like my tax return back.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna fucking wing it.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: I can pay my bills.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was also very lucky.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: I was 22 years old, still living at home with my parents.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: They were really gracious to allow me to stay.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna figure it out.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like I want to do something for myself.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've always worked for these business owners that ran their own business, and I kind of was able to see the back end of it.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, if these some of them were schmucks, and I'm like, if these fucking schmucks can do it, I can do it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what that looked like, but I got a little taste.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then, like when I was in school, I was in school for website development, and the shit that they were teaching me was already three years outdated.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: They were teaching me how to HTML code a website like uh like a table layout.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, what the fuck?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no, like WordPress is already a thing at this point.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just like, ain't nobody gonna hire me to HTML code their website.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Get out of here.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, I'm done.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta go.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I quit school and I was like, fuck it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna whip up a portfolio online.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I used that shitty HTML table layout that I learned, created a bullshit like online resume portfolio.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went on Craigslist and I was like, I want some kind of like entry-level job.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't need a career.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: I've already decided, or I don't need a degree, I've already decided that in my head.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: So like I'm just gonna figure it out.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: I ended up landing an internship, and this this business was super small.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: It was two dudes that were like four years older than me.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: They were running like a website design agency, and like it looked super polished on the outside.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then I meet with them and they are just like the most down-to-earth, like coolest dudes ever.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: And the one guy was like the person that went out and like did sales.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then the other guy was the one that like did development, did design, and dabbled in SEO a little bit.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: He ended up teaching me everything that he knew about WordPress development within like six months.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so he like I ended up finding this mentor that I didn't even know that I needed and still to this day we're like really good friends.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: But they ended up after about a year working there or working for them, they ended up deciding to go their separate ways.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so they would just send me clients that they were getting like leads through on the website because their website was still up.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, cool.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so then I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna start my own business.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I started my own business doing website design and development.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, like we talk about on this podcast, there's no shame in having a part-time job too.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, I was also a bartender at night for a couple of months until things took off.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: But like my bills also weren't expensive because I was living at home.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: I had to what pay for my car insurance.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like it really wasn't very much of anything.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I was able to really kind of bootstrap this business from the ground up.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: But after working with clients and like really getting my footing in website design, the clients were loving it.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: We would launch their sites, everything was fun, it was super cool.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then everybody was coming back to me and being like, okay, how do I drive traffic to it?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember being like, I don't fucking know.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, dude, my job is done, my guy.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we created your website, and they were like, Well, how do I get found on Google?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I don't know.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, wait until you're being found on Google.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so back in the beginning of business, I had so much time, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I wasn't working uh like a full-time job too.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: I bartended like fucking two, three days a week.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: I had all of this time and I was like, I'm gonna create a blog.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I was horrified to create a blog, horrified.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: I remember pacing up and down the stairs.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: I posted this blog post about like, why should you create a blog, which is very meta.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, mom, I was like, mom, go and read this blog post.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: My mom, I love her, has no fucking idea even like how to use the latest iPhone, let alone like what a blog is.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, she plays backgammon online with her friends.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's about the extent.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so she reads it, she was like, Oh, it's so good, Mariah.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, literally beating myself up about it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: So much so, I don't think I've ever told anybody this.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: So much so that I made a medium appointment to get a reading from a medium.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: And in one of the questions, I was like, Should I continue with this blog?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how she continued with this vlog.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I literally, like, it's so funny, like just how afraid I was to really just put my thoughts and ideas out there.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I was sharing it on my personal Facebook page, because Facebook was much bigger at the time.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, everybody from high school is gonna judge me and fucking read me to shreds, like it's gonna be over.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And like then I'm thinking about the specific people that I'm nervous about, and I don't even give a fuck about them.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it's funny that it's like my ego was like, what are they gonna?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is Lisa gonna think?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, fuck Lisa, I don't even like Lisa.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: So then it's so then I started creating this blog and I started getting traffic from Google.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so I figured out Google Analytics and I set that up and I'm looking at things.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Basically, I started tiptoeing into SEO, but I hated it.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was the worst thing ever.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm on Google and I'm literally Googling like how to get on Google, also very meta.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, okay, I can't understand what these people are saying.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I realize that most of the content about SEO is either for like it's created by agencies to overwhelm people to then get them to just get their services.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Or the other thing was that it was like higher-level SEO people talking to developers or other high-level SEO people.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: There was literally no content out there about DIY SEO.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I was still in contact with my mentor at the time.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: He kind of like got the ball rolling with a couple of things, answered some questions.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: I just went full force into it and kind of was testing and tweaking.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: What I ended up doing is kind of like allowing myself to immerse into this rabbit hole.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I ended up taking SEO apart and putting it back together in a way that made sense.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then I tested that process on my own website and I was getting killer results.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like when I was creating blog posts about like this shit.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, at that time, I didn't have access to any big SEO tools.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have access to any competitive data that like I use now.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: I literally just had an inkling and like trusted the nudge and created the posts and then got them on Pinterest because I had this inkling.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, if I can get website traffic on Pinterest to pick this up, it's going to increase my authority with Pinterest, which is then going to increase my authority with Google because we're driving traffic to the site.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know that that was actually a thing.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: I just thought that it could be a thing.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I was fucking winging it.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm like doing these website design projects, and people are still asking me about it.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I remember going to a retreat and I was, they were like, What is your focus?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, website strategy.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: And she was like, So what do you do?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: And like I bullet pointer, I was like, Well, this, this, this, and that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: And she was like, So SEO.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: I was so fucking mad that she said that to me.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, no, that's not it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: And she was like, Well, to me, it sounds like SEO.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, No, I'm a website strategist.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: I avoided being an SEO consultant strategist, like whatever, for so long until I started like actually seeing results from clients.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the long-winded story of kind of how it fell into my lap.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I kind of say, like, SEO dug its teeth into me and like hasn't let me go.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm so obsessed with it because there's always something to learn.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: There's always testing and tweaking.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm consistently collecting data points.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, even sometimes I'm like, it cannot be this fucking easy.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: I got a client on page one for one of his target keywords within three fucking weeks.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, it cannot be this easy.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: He was like, no, Mariah, I'm literally on page one, like in position five.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, even to this day, it blows my mind about how it works because it's not as complicated.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I find myself questioning, do I actually know enough?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: I must be missing something.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: I must be missing this extra stuff.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And like, don't get me wrong, Google judges a website in over 200 factors.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of them are technical, a lot of them are user experience things, but a lot of them are also the fucking basics that we should be doing to implement on just a good, solid website.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: And we overlook the easy stuff and focus on the hard stuff.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like we don't end up making any progress with it.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, I love that.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think that you resisted the title for so far?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because you know, I think it's such a good sign.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, SEO has put its nails in me or hooks in me and not let go.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: They always say, like, you should be doing something around like what you spend your free time researching and going in rabbit holes.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I know just from knowing you that you are obsessed with SEO.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're constantly going down the rabbit holes.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: You love stand on the latest edge of everything.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why do you think it took you so long to actually embrace it and um take on that title?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because I thought that it couldn't be that easy.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: I thought that I was missing something, and I think part of it is I I wasn't certified.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't go to school, I didn't have a marketing degree.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: There is no way that these big SEO agencies that are charging$20,000 for an SEO package, there's no way that I could have taught myself that.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: There must be things that I'm missing.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's why I was so afraid of it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's because, like, there's no fucking way I could have figured it out.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's no way.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then the answer came.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I think is interesting.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pulling some dots together here.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: The answer came, the con answer, I'm saying confidence in you and yourself to embrace it came through proof.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like an idea I've been talking about with our former guest Ash Byrne side of um, you know, there's this idea like fake it till you make it in the online world.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I've always struggled with that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me to show up like with confidence and with integrity in something that I don't have that proof from.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's cool that you kind of like edged your way into it.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then you actually you got some real client results.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you have real client results, it's so much easier to like step into something and like own it with confidence and integrity because you have the proof to back you up.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that idea of like get some initial proof is so overlooked when it comes to this world.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: And even now, like it's been five years since really focusing on SEO.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: And even now, I check back in on old clients that like I haven't consulted with in a while and like want to see where their results are because it's like there's this nagging feeling of like it can't be that fucking easy.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll check in on clients and I'm like, holy, I just checked in on a client.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, we did an SEO uh strategy intensive back in 2021, and I checked in on her data.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: It is climbing, like continuing to build this momentum.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: She's tripled the amount of keywords that she's now on page one for.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: And all we did was an SEO strategy intensive.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: I reframed what SEO is, how it works.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Her VA was also on the call, walked her through and gave them access to just like my process, my basic, like I simplify it for my clients.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't give them like everything in the kitchen sink.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I try not to.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like obsessed with this stuff.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's pretty easy for me to slide into that.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I gave her like the very basics of what to do, gave them an SEO keyword research, like a list of keywords to target.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: And now, like, they're still killing it.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I have not consulted with them since 2021.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, yo, have you seen this?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: And like sent a screenshot.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: She was like, Holy shit.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Yeah.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, I we still need the proof, even with our genius.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like, because it's like it's so easy to overlook.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, yeah, but if it's this easy, it should be this easy for everybody.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's like, we're consistently needing proof for the thing that comes easy to us, which I find interesting.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I it is interesting because you it sounds illogical, but it's the thing that I need the most proof around.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I see in SEO world, you know, like um it is very, oh, this is so technical.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: You need an agency, and certainly it could be, but for the most most situations, it's actually pretty straightforward.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And like if you if you understand the basics of it, it it's almost, I don't want to say common sense, but like it's more straightforward than you realize.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you actually just mentioned um you were able to reframe SEO and what it is for a client and why it's important.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take us on that reframe right now?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that this is so important.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, this is how I start off every single one of my calls with my clients is reframing this because, like, it is foundational.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't get how it works, the whole thing will continue to be a mystery.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: I could teach you all the tips, all the hacks, all the tools, how to do X, Y, and Z.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't get how it works together, you're still going to be confused by it.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, SEO, it stands for search engine optimization.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: And complicated sounding words for something that's actually pretty simple.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: It basically means that like your website is optimized to show up in search results like Google.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: I say like Google because when you optimize your website to be found by search engines, the results trickle into all different search engines.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Us SEO people focus on Google because it has the biggest market share at this point in time.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: But at the time of this recording, ChatGBT got bought by I think Bing.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so Bing is really starting to like crawl their way back up the ladder.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: So Bing might be coming in hot sooner than later.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: But, anyways, SEO helps you get free and organic traffic from search results on search engines.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: So this is compared to paid ads.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: People think that SEO also includes paid ads and like Google AdWords.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's not true.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: They're two different strategies.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: They have the same kind of umbrella, but they're not the same exact thing, different data, different strategies, things like that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: To be honest, I don't think I've ever opened up the Google AdWords dashboard.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like I just, it's it's just not my thing.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: I even tried to force myself to get into it and I was like, this sounds fucking awful.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: So those paid ads that you see at the top of search result, they're only clicked around 25% of the time on average, depending on the industry.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Industries like lawyers, they tend to get hit a little bit more.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I think why 75% of the clicks are happening in the organic search results is because we've been trained to do that.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like when we click on an ad at the top, it usually takes us to a place that doesn't solve the solution that we need a solution for.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's like those people paid to get there.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we've been trained to avoid those ads.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Unless you're my boyfriend Andrew, who still does not get this, and this dude still clicks on fucking ads and then wonders why he's being taken to something that isn't helpful.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: But most of the time you're gonna get the best solution to the problem from the organic search results because that's how Google organizes the search results.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: So SEO is how we get Google to recommend you and your website as the solution to the problem.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: I want to make this clear here because I feel like people get this confused.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: Web pages show up on Google, not websites.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a page by page basis.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: People think, oh, if my website, like my homepage is optimized for SEO, my website is good to go.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's a page by page basis.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that that reframe is typically pretty helpful too.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: But in terms of marketing, SEO, like I said in the intro, it's one of the only website traffic strategies that give you long term results.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: So with both social media and with paid ads, when you stop paying or engaging, you end up losing traffic.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: SEO continues to build on itself correctly, like to build on itself if you do.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: It correctly.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like I wrote a blog post five years ago that's still on page one for keywords.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's because I became the best solution to the problem.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: But let me just break down this really quick analogy because this is where I get like a lot of aha moments.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: So how search actually works.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Google has little robots that kind of go through and crawl the web, and these robots take note of the web pages and the websites and the content that's on each page.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: So they scan the page content and they try to get an idea of like what the main idea of this specific page is so that they can put it into Google's index.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: All Google's index is is a really big filing cabinet.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you search Google, it's like Google goes into the filing cabinet and tries to pull out and show you the results that it best that it thinks best match what you searched for.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of the time with clients, they'll be like, Well, I haven't done SEO.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not in the filing cabinet.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not accurate because there's a fuck ton of content on the web.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Google has to have some way of organizing this content.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: So if you haven't done SEO, you're probably in the index or in the filing cabinet somewhere.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's just probably not where you want to be.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's gonna pull the words that are on each page to figure out what section to put you in the filing cabinet.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: So before I started focusing on SEO, I was a website designer, I was a developer, focused on WordPress, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was on page five for the phrase, what does the name Mariah mean?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because Mariah was all over my website in the strategic places that keywords should be.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: That Google was like, we don't know where else to put this girl.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: So they put me in that section of the filing cabinet.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is my target audience searching for that?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: Am I going to get conversions and clients from somebody searching for that?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm going to be in the back, shadowy part of the filing cabinet that literally never gets found.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I find that explaining it like that, people are like, okay, that actually makes sense.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, that's why the content on your website is so important because that determines where you are in the filing cabinet.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of people with SEO want to focus on backlinks and domain authority and driving traffic to the site.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: And all of that is very helpful, but not in phase one.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I break SEO down into two phases.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Phase one is foundational.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Where the fuck are you in the filing cabinet?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Are we in the place that we want to get found for?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not, you can do all of the backlinking, all of the PR, all of that other stuff, but you're gonna move from page five to page one for the phrase, what does the name Mariah mean?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why phase one, it's so overlooked.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I get it, like the foundations are not sexy.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: They're not.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: But like if we don't figure out how to get in the right section of the filing cabinet, nothing else will matter.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's really like where my zone of genius comes in is like, let's get the fucking foundations right.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then you can take it, we can take it and kind of run with it and build momentum that way.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's um I I appreciated that perspective from you because I do feel like what I see is always about like these elaborate content strategies and backlinking strategies and building domain authority, which basically just means you're building trustworthy points with Google.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but really when I started learning about SEO, the in that foundational piece, I think keyword research and understanding your keywords, in particular what you said there at the end, is your target audience searching for what you have on your website?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think asking yourself that question, like imagine your ideal person sitting down and typing something into Google.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Would your website pop up, or a blog post like Mariah talked about, or maybe a podcast episode you shot, or a YouTube video you made, or maybe they're on Instagram and like it's content that you made, but like thinking about what are you saying and are you saying it in a way that your audience is actually searching for is kind of the basis of it.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you mentioned kind of like that, it it all's like it all starts on the website, but if you can use these ideas to like really inform any content, anything you are putting online, I think if you can be aware of like the foundations and like especially what keyword research is and like knowing how to use keywords and where, that can be like huge, significantly huge.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Get like we said, like Mari said, getting to the right place in the filing cabinet and then really turning up the volume there.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So will you kind of take us into that?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are the foundations of this SEO work and what are like the mistakes you typically see people making um when it comes to the foundational work on their websites?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yes, SEO keyword research.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to go on a really quick tangent.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's so it's it's filled with so many fucking myths that it's shooting people in the foot.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Truly.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is probably one of the biggest things that my clients are like, I understand keywords.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then we get to talking and I'm like, no, you don't.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: You don't, and it's not your fault that you don't, it's the fact that every other person that's creating content around SEO is regurgitating the same shit in the same way, and and it's not clicking for people, also because they don't understand like how it all works, but keyword research is the basis of everything on the internet, essentially.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like hashtags on Instagram essentially are keywords, and like people think about keywords when they're like, Yeah, let me, I'm gonna create a blog now.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now keywords are important.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, you should have been doing keyword research when you were planning out your website because you can have keywords for blog posts, which are great, amazing.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: You can also have keywords on your homepage.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: On each of your services pages should be revolved around an SEO keyword.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people don't get this.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: So put all of their services on one page.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: And like, listen, if SEO is not your priority, I get it.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you just need like a quick informational educational website, like by all means have at it.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to start getting traffic from Google, consider what people are going to Google and typing in to find the solution that you help them solve.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of the time it's your services pages.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: SEO consulting is a keyword.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: I should create a page on my website for SEO consulting.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I have some for other keywords, but it's like every like because that specific page of your services solves a specific problem that people are already searching for.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like people are like, well, I don't need SEO keywords because I'm not creating a blog.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but are you are you not offering services?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Do you not have products?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, even if you're just in e-commerce, like each product technically solves a different problem.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, each product is technically connected to a separate keyword.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: We should only be targeting one target keyword per page or posts on your website.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people get that wrong too.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: And they also think that like we need to target the same keywords, like SEO consultant on every single page of my website, because like that's how we tell Google what our whole website is about.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: But remember, I said pages show up on Google, not websites.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: So you're actually becoming your own competition if you like try to target SEO consultant or copywriter on every single one of your pages.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it's unhelpful.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why one of the things that I really care a lot about, especially now, is hitting this at the root cause and trying to figure out how to educate website designers on SEO best practices so that they can build a website that supports their clients getting found in search.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: I have a client who spent$15,000 on a website, comes to me for SEO, and I was like, we need to have a call with your website designer because half of these things and the way that they were designed on the website is hurting your SEO.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I can do all of the hacks, all of the tricks, it's going to shoot you in the foot.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like I tell us about some like real examples that like, because I see this too.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you work with a designer, unfortunately, a lot of designers are not very well versed.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not, I shouldn't say a lot.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's getting more popular thanks to Mariah and people like, you know, that offering that kind of support.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what are the typical things you see in like a really quote unquote well-designed website that make the SEO gods kind of angry?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my God.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: So font size, they're website designers, some of them want to be able to use font size in a way where they can manipulate the design easier.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I get it.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: I was a website designer.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: I fucking get it.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of these website designers are trying to create websites that look like magazines and forget how the internet actually works, being mobile responsive, how things and elements snap together.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the biggest things that I see is that they're using font sizes like 11 pixels, 12 pixels, 13 pixels.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, but for accessibility, Google recommends a minimum of 16 pixels.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I know if website designers are listening to this, they're like, shit, they're like, ugh, because 16 pixels to a website designer can look pretty big.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: But it's necessary in order to read the content on your website, especially on a mobile device.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then we have to think about the target audience.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: Is your target audience like, I don't know, 40 or over?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: If so, hello, like our eyes need some extra support.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: Give me a font size that I can read.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, even me, I'm only 30, but I'm just like, I would rather not have to squint to read or like zoom in and zoom out.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, that's one of the biggest ones.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: The other one is designers using headings for design purposes versus content hierarchy.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Designers don't want to hear this one either.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: I love you guys.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: I have been there.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: But we can only use one H1 heading per page.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: I see clients that are using, so the H1 heading is essentially it's kind of like the king or the queen of the headings.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like the top dog.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you go to a blog post, your blog post title naturally, if you're using uh Shopify Squarespace, WordPress, show it, naturally, they put your blog post title within an H1 heading.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: So on a blog post, we don't use any other H1 headings throughout the actual content because the Google bots look for the H1 heading to be able to understand what the main idea of this content is so that it can put it in the index.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: It can put it in the filing cabinet correctly.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: When you're using numerous H1 headings, Google's like, what the fuck is the main idea of this?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it's less likely happening on blog posts.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's very common for me to either see like six H1 headings on a home page, on an about page, on a services page, because those are the ones that have like more dynamic styling.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: Or they'll have no H1 headings because the heading is too big.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so the designer won't put an H1 heading.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Or the other thing is like the H1 heading, it needs to be the very first heading on the page.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: It does.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: I don't give a shit what it looks like.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: You can then have it, that specific H1 heading be 16 pixels and a different color.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't really care what it looks like.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: It needs to be the first heading on the page.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so I feel like those are the two things that I could like go off on consistently.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's because I'm always seeing this on clients' websites.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm like, we need to change this heading, we need to reconfigure this, we need to do that.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, well, it's gonna fuck up the design.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, then let me talk to your website designer.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like if I could solve this problem before the designs are created, it's like, let me, and I'm still trying to figure this out.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: So if we have any listeners that are website designers, brand designers that have communities of website designers or know of any programs that have website designers, let me know.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I will gladly pitch myself as an expert to teach this stuff to people.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna throw in my my low-hanging fruit um links that don't open into a new tab versus do open into a new tab is one of my pet peeves.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you always want to encourage people to stay on your website.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is like the babyist level thing, but I see it literally every single day.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you are ever linking out to another website, which is a good thing, right?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: It you want to be like social media profiles.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you want to be connected, you know, in the online space.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a big spider web.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are linking to another website in any way, you want that link to open in a new tab.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: The reason being you want to encourage one of the rankings that Google will look at when it's judging your website is how long people stay on the website.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing Mariah kind of mentioned earlier, but was like a big aha for me was basically understanding Google's motives.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Google wants to solve problems.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are doing anything that helps Google solve its users' problems, you're gonna make Google happy.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can understand that and then kind of ask yourself, like, is this making Google happy or not happy?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of helps with a lot of this stuff.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, dwell time, how long people spend on a web page is really important to Google because that signals to Google, hey, someone is sticking around on this site, they must be finding things that are helpful and useful to them.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: So the worst thing you can do is if you link to someone else's website or to your social profiles or to whatever, if you don't have that link open in a new tab, it just sends people right away from your website, which ruins the amount of time they're spending there.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of the SEO tips and the sales tips go hand in hand because of that fundamental idea that Google wants to solve problems for people.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I think for me, like understanding that really helped me like with like a basic rule that I can then like ask myself as I'm thinking about this stuff.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, Google and your website visitors essentially have the same goal, right?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: They want their problem to be solved.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like Google wants to showcase you is the solution to the problem, but your people get on their web on your website.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: They want to be able to trust you.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: So how are you showcasing trust and authority, not only with Google, with like backlinks and PR and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but also with your website visitors.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I will say this is this is something that a lot of people don't realize.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Google looks for an about page and a contact page to see if you are essentially like a real person.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it doesn't run it through the algorithm per se, but Google has this like document.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: They have users that kind of like work for them that like test out websites and go on and to make sure.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: And Google will release this document that tells these users how to judge a website.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the things in the user guidelines.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Does this website have an about page where you can see who the owner of the website is, whether it's a business or a person or a brand or whatever?
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do they have a contact page?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a way to contact the owner of this website?
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: Your website visitors also look for this stuff.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it's funny because when I first created my website when I was doing website design, I did not put a lot of thought into my about page.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, nobody's gonna fucking read this.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: This is just like me gassing myself up or like regurgitating stuff.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: I checked Google Analytics, it was the number two most visited page on my website, aside from my home page.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, your people give a shit about this.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so does Google.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: They really do.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there's something to your point here about using familiar, I call it familiar UX, but basically, I understand with designers there's this idea that like you want to be creative and like create this masterpiece, but you can almost shoot yourself.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: I worked on like a 25k e-com website that didn't work because the designer, we we look for those familiar pages.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it we have this pattern that we expect on a website.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: We expect to be able to go to the top to be able to find these key core pages, where to find them.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like we have these patterns that we're looking for on a website.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're if your website is like deviating from that too much, people will not know how to use it.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: You literally have a second and a half for someone to get on your site and like engage.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you confuse them in any way, you will lose them.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: So this econ website, it was beautiful.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was a piece of art, but it did not function how people expect an e com website.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's no card at the top right hand, there's no products pages.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was very artistic.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, we literally had to scrap it and start over.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: So just uh to Mariah's point, like you could I a lot of people you'll see this, like they'll title their blog something funny, but users don't know what that means and they won't ever click on it.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I've seen with data about pages are almost always one of the most popular pages on your website, and that's one of those things that I want to skip over too.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's a bit of like repetitiveness that works really well for SEO and good website design, but the nature of like creatives is to rebel against that.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times I think you don't realize that you're actually shooting yourself in the foot by getting too creative.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually are kind of rewarded for staying in the website lane, if that makes any sense.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean it's because we're essentially trying to get a bot to understand what our page is about.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so the bot has a way of operating because it's a computerized system.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it has things that it looks for in order to pick up these clues.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: I call them context clues.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, like the Google bots, when they're scanning a page, they're trying to, they're looking in specific areas of the page in order to understand and collect these context clues to be able to figure out what the main idea of this page is.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you want to know how to get found in the right section of the filing cabinet?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: Put your keyword in the place where the Googlebot is looking.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: So put it in that H1 heading.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure that you're mentioning it throughout the content.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you have an H2 heading, H3 heading, mention it in there.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a blog post, make sure that your target keyword is in your URL.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like I could talk about blog post SEO a lot too, because like a lot of people will name their blog posts something like the six things you didn't know about marketing.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, um, Google's gonna look how many other blog posts are the X things you didn't know about marketing.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: The only keyword in there is marketing.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's the only keyword in there that's connecting the topic idea to a keyword.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know how competitive the word marketing is?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're not gonna get found on Google for that.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Instead, you have to drill down and be very specific because think about how us as users, how we use Google.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: We go into Google and type in very specific things.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: Each very specific thing that you type into Google is a keyword.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so a lot of people get confused.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, oh, a keyword's only one or two words.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, whatever string of words that you type into Google at one time is a keyword.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care if it's five words, six words, seven words, doesn't really matter.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: It can also be called a key phrase, a long tail keyword, whatever.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: But as a user, if I'm looking for shoes for a wedding guest dress that I have to wear, I'm not gonna go to Google and type in shoes.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get hit with so many different options.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: What I'm gonna do is go into Google and type in black open toe high-heeled shoes.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get real size 10.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just revealing how big my feet are on this podcast episode.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like you're gonna be super specific on what you're typing in.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so, of course, that specific keyword isn't going to be searched as much.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people freak out about that.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, nobody's searching for it.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: There's only 20 people searching for it a month.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: 20 people a month, that's how many people a year.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: And each page on your website can show up for more than one keyword.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: We only target one keyword so that we can optimize correctly and accurately.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: But your that page can show up for 15 keywords, all synonyms and different ways of saying that exact thing.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, like size 10, high heeled black shoes, same thing.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: I could show up on page one for both of those different, technically different keywords, but they're both pushing people to the same solution to the problem because those people both have the same problem.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: They're just wording it differently.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you said uh oh, I'm sorry.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, go ahead.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was just gonna say the the real valuable piece there, uh long uh long tail keywords.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think like um there's a mistake that you should do some keyword research and then pick the keyword that has the most searches.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you would pick marketing or something.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: But really, the that that doesn't work anymore.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: The internet is way too saturated.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: You really need to focus in specifically.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: On those longer tail searches, they may not, if you're looking at keyword research data, it may not have the highest number of searches per month, but it doesn't have a ton of competition.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the better part is you're getting really qualified people to your site.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that, like what Mariah was saying, the problem with like kind of targeting those big words is yeah, there's a lot of people you're competing with, but also you're just attracting a ton of generic audience.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you type in open-toed black shoe for wedding, you're attracting 20 people, but those 20 people are ready to buy.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're at the right part of their buyer's journey.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: They know just what they want.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you are the perfect solution for them.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I really think the riches are in the niches in when it comes to keywords.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: When you can find those little pockets of opportunity, that can be a really powerful place to focus in.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, also think about those broad keywords like marketing.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: If somebody goes and types in marketing, what are they looking for?
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: Are they looking for information about marketing?
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: They want to DIY their marketing, they're looking for a marketing strategist, they're looking for a marketing agency, are they looking to become a marketer?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're not clear on the user intent of why they searched.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why long tail keywords are so powerful because, yeah, just like Shay said, they're further along in the buyer's journey, but they're also very specific to where you can know what content or what solution they're looking for.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: And how do we get on page one of Google?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: We become the best solution to the problem.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if we know exactly what kind of solution they're looking for, then it's going to be real fucking easy for us to then become that best solution instead of trying to answer every single question.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I do kind of just want to interject here for a hot second.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: If you guys are listening to this live and you're like, oh shit, I didn't realize like how powerful keywords were.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know where to start.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: Just know that as of right now, I am launching a live workshop about SEO keyword research.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm literally going to take your hand and walk you through my exact process of how to do keyword research that actually gets results.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, like I'm not just saying this as like a sales thing, but like I have not seen anybody in the industry fucking do this.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody will post the same information about how to do keywords.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody will pull back the curtain and show you how to do it because I mean, I'm essentially showing you my process, right?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like this is going to be so helpful in this workshop of learning and understanding the difference between good keywords, bad keywords, like what actually works, what doesn't, what to be aware of.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: So if you guys are interested in that, check the show notes below.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: Click the link to join the workshop.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: The ticket is only$97, which is honestly like a fucking steal.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's way cheaper than working with me one-on-one, and you can get a little taste of like what that would be like.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna walk away with a list of keywords, a better understanding, definitely some aha moments.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, or you can go to my website, MariahMagazine.com, and I have an announcement bar at the top of my website that'll take you right to the page to purchase a ticket for the workshop.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, like we've been talking about, I think that keywords and understanding keywords is the main skill here.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it will serve you not only on your website, literally in everything you do with your business, is understanding your business's main keywords.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I there's a lot, like Mariah said, of information out there about keywords, but having someone to actually like hold your hand through the process and look at your data and your specific information and answer your questions is very invaluable.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: I literally have never seen that before.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, what I did also want to talk about here is just like how people think about blog posts content.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like a lot of people think kind of like I mentioned before, it's like they're not thinking about keywords until they want to create a blog.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're like, oh my God, a blog just takes so much time.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how long does a blog post have to be?
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: What am I writing blogs about?
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it just feels kind of heavy.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I just wanted to kind of give some insight here where it's like if you start your content marketing strategy with blog post content first, which would start from SEO keywords.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, like your whole content marketing plan for your entire business.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: So Instagram, YouTube, whatever platform you're on, even your podcast.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: If you start that off with SEO keyword research, you are literally finding data and information about what people are looking for content about.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: I do keyword research literally before I do anything in my business.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: Before I created the workshop, did keyword research.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: Before we post a podcast episode, we do keyword research.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: Before I do a freebie, keyword research services page, keyword research.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_02: But when I'm doing keyword research for basically like content, it's like you can figure out what people are looking for.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can create a very helpful blog post about it and then repurpose that fucking blog post.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: Take that blog post and then you can, if you want to do Instagram reels, create three Instagram reels about it because Instagram reels are short and your blog posts will essentially be longer.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: You can use that blog post as a script for a podcast episode, for a YouTube video.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: You can create TikToks about it, whatever.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like you're getting all of your social media content that you know is helpful for your audience because you only came up with that idea because people are already searching Google for it.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like start your content marketing plan with keyword research so that you're clear on this stuff.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that blog post that's living on your website, it's sustainable.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's long form content.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: These fast-moving platforms like TikTok and Instagram, they're fun.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in a season right now where I am loving Instagram, but I don't always love Instagram.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like I don't want to put all of my eggs in that basket.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: I want to grow and show up as the solution to the problem before people realize that I'm the solution to the problem.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the benefit of being found on Google.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: But it's essentially like creating your content marketing plan based on this.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then after you create that blog post, publish it in three months, you can now create more Instagram reels, more TikToks, whatever, because those platforms are moving so fast.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: You can create the content that you already have the content created for and then create more short form content based off of one blog post.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like we need to get off of that content creation hamster wheel and just start working smarter when it comes to creating this content.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's really like why you should care about SEO in a nutshell is for people that are tired with their marketing strategy of just feeling like you're throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is a way to have a data-driven marketing strategy.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're basing everything you do off of what you know your people are already searching for.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just incredible.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a question.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I do think that starting with like a long form piece of content like a blog post makes a ton of sense.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: How long do you think a blog post needs to be to rank on Google?
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think this is a question that a lot of people have.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not sure that they're gonna really like my answer, but the length of the blog post that you need to create is dependent on the content that's already on page one for that keyword.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: So a couple of years ago, people used to be like, it needs to be at least 300 words.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: So blogs like blogger people were out here creating 350-word blog posts, thinking that that was enough.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not about the character count, it's about being the best solution to the problem.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, what I always tell my clients before you focus on targeting a keyword, go to Google and Google it.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_02: Use Google to get on Google.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: What is showing up on page one?
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: And when you see the results, we want to do kind of a few things.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: We want to A, make sure that the content that's showing up on page one is related to the content that you think is associated with that keyword.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, like I had a client, she was like, I want to show up on page one for powerful speaker.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Cool, let's Google it.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_02: Power audio and stereo speakers showed up.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, no, we don't actually want to target that keyword.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, even when you're doing the keyword research, if you're using another tool, you always have to come to Google and Google it to make sure that the search intent actually makes sense.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: And let me, I want to interject here for a second.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: What Mariah is saying about search intent, I think is it was one of my biggest like mind-blowing moments.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I would like to share that example again or share another example of like how, because I do think that like a lot of us think we know our keyword, and then you type it into Google or whatever, it comes up with like a weird variety of other things.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot of times you might have to like change the way you say something because the way you say it is not the way that your users are saying it.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can you explain that a little more?
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: So one word can completely change the search results.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: So another example is go to Google and type in singer.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: The sewing machine shows up.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: You type in the singer, lyrics show up.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same thing with like, let's say, marketing strategist.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_02: You want to maybe you want to target that on your homepage.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: Go to Google and see what content is showing up.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is it only content about people trying to become or get a job as a marketing strategist?
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: Or are you seeing people's services pages show up?
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: So Google sees that people are looking to hire a marketing strategist.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: So like we have to take note.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same thing.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, people will be like, well, I want to target this keyword for my course or my program.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_02: Go to Google.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: Is Google showing landing pages for people that are looking to check out or have a transaction?
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's like seeing what kind of content is showing up is important.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then, like I said, we have to see what, like how that content was built.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm not saying that you have to load all of the people showing up on page one into new tabs and then copy exactly what you're seeing.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_02: Google's actually pushing algorithm updates where they're trying not to show the same exact regurgitated solution to the problem.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why a lot of people with AI, they're like, AI is going to completely ruin SEO because people are just going to regurgitate the same thing.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: Google is actually trying to showcase different solutions to the problem.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: So the old way of just regurgitating the solutions that people already said on page one, it's not going to work anymore.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I saw this when I was trying to before, like basically there was a time when I was trying to run away from SEO again and I was trying to go into coaching.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember trying to like consider targeting like intuitive business coach, right?
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I Googled it.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_02: And what showed up was somebody that was like, why you need an intuitive business coach.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: And the next one in position two was why you don't need an intuitive business coach.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_02: And her content went into all of the issues that she has run into.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: And why you don't actually need an intuitive business coach?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_02: You need a business strategist.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: But Google wanted to put that on page one because it hit a different perspective.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, how long is the content?
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is it a 1500-word blog post?
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_02: Is it a 400-word blog post?
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_02: Is it a product page?
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is it a landing page?
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is it?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: How is it formatted?
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: What questions are being answered?
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_02: How helpful is it?
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then you can use that to inform your content and like the structure of it, but you can perspective shift in your content.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people don't think that you can do that and you can only regurgitate things.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's like if I want to show up for life coach for females, it's like I can put that specific keyword in the certain areas and then go into maybe why you don't need a life coach for females or why you need this instead of that, or just bring different perspectives because that's essentially our zone of genius, right?
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like we need to stop trying to also regurgitate the same shit that's always out there.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is like a trend that I find very exciting.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how long have you and I been saying, like, gosh, the online space just seems like a lot of people regurgitating what a lot of other people have said?
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing you and I, I think, could shoot shoot a whole episode about is the importance of novelty and saying something that grabs attention and saying something different and unique and new and having a different perspective because we are just overwhelmed with one perspective.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so the fact that now Google is going to start um prioritizing different perspectives, I think is really fun.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking forward to it.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take us to um what else is on the horizon in SEO?
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you think are the trends or what are the things we should be aware of kind of moving into the future?
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that AI is going to change the game for SEO.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not sure exactly why.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people are like, Are you nervous?
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I was, to be honest, I got interviewed on a podcast a couple of weeks ago before I like tested out chat GBT and I didn't even know what it was called.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: In the episode, I was like, chat W Z Y chat Z B, whatever the fuck it is.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't even give a fuck.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I was like real, like like a hard ass against it.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, okay, I'm gonna dive into this a little bit.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that AI is going to change the game with things.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: How I'm not quite sure yet.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I will say that AI is making, especially creating a blog post outline, it's making it a lot easier.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's making content creation and getting your message out there a lot more accessible.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: I have clients that I'm like, listen, we should create, let's say, three, these three blog posts hitting these topics.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of they're solopreneurs or they're not writers and they don't know how to do it.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, if we can use Chat GBT or hire a virtual assistant to do it, and then they can create the blog post outline.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then that gives my clients something to respond to and then go back into the outline, add their own perspectives, shift some things, put their own voice in it.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think that it allows us to create helpful content, getting our zone of genius out there without first staring at a blank page.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: Which is the hard thing.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that is going to be insanely helpful.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's going to matter even more about search intent because it's going to kind of be like Siri, right?
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like we can ask it a question and then it might not even bring people to a blog post to answer it.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, what kind of content are we creating?
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: Is it just informational content?
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: Or are we trying to get people to our services pages?
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: Because AI is not going to be able to be like, hey, these are the top three marketing experts, and then make you trust them based on the AI's responses.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like authority, expertise, credibility in your space, all of these are going to become even more important.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_02: And Google just did an algorithm change where they're prioritizing expertise even more.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so backlinks, they're going to be important, but in the same, it's funny because in the same sentence, they're actually changing the domain authority, like how they are calculating how authoritative a website is.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_02: Before you used to be able to submit your website to directories, online directories.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just use Yelp, for example.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: You used to be able to submit your website to Yelp.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it would be like, oh, that's a backlink.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like Mariah Magazine must be important because Yelp is linking to it.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: But as typical marketers, we fucking ruined it.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: And Google now is like, okay, well, everybody's doing that.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_02: So we're actually lowering how important that is.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so the backlinking structure is getting completely changed up and shifted.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think SEO agencies that are doing, I call it old school SEO because like the way that I focus on SEO, I feel like it's very intentional.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's very foundational.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's very sustainable.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_02: I like to empower and educate my clients so that they don't need me forever.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's truly why I love the consulting role.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: SEO agencies that are having people pay them$5,000 a month to generate backlinks for them and not doing anything sustainable and kind of doing like this old school way of doing it, where it's like, you're gonna fall out of search results if you don't pay me$5,000 a month, which a lot of SEO agencies say shit like that.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: But those agencies are gonna be running around like a chicken with their head cut off soon because, like, the Google algorithm because of AI, it's just it's shifting so much.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm excited because I feel like it's only going to become even more important to be focused and aligned on how you help your people, which, to be honest, like the people listening to this podcast episode, you are here on this earth to get your message, get your talents, get your gifts, your calling, your purpose, whatever the fuck you want to call it, into the world.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's like if we can then become focused and aligned on how to do that, it's only going to benefit us so that we stop trying to do everything under the sun to just get a few website clicks.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like that's that's the thing is like focus and alignment is going to become even more important.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you really just like tied everything up with a bow there of like use Google and like the idea of being searchable as a tool to get your work out in the world.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is how you make an impact.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: But you can just like sit in a corner and talk to yourself all day, or you can have this really powerful free tool that actually will get your message or your work, your services, whatever, out in front of the entire world.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is learn a couple few rules.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know we don't really have time to get into it, but there is one other thing on the horizon in the SEO world.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to bring it up to people's attention because Mariah brought it up to me and I had no idea.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the way we've kind of glossed over this, but the way you collect data around your website is called Google Analytics.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we've all been using for all these years to kind of gauge how our websites are performing.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: And there's you're probably, if you have Google Analytics, you're getting emails about this.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: Google is switching over into a system called GA4.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us just a little bit about that and like what we need to know as like website owners?
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yes.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_02: So the old way of Google Analytics was pristine.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, like, we don't realize how how good we got it until it's gone, right?
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: So the old way was called universal analytics.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: It was fucking magical.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like the dashboard, it was a little overwhelming, but there was like some tips and tricks to like be able to sift through some shit.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_02: Google is a business.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_02: So Google is seeing that they are generating more revenue, more awareness by having a tracking system that's better set up for tracking data on apps.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what GA4, that is like the primary goal for GA4 is to like be able to track analytics on apps better.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_02: Websites are kind of falling short under that.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_02: So Google basically, as of July of this year, 2023, they're going to be fully transitioning from universal analytics to GA4.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_02: So they're going to stop tracking data in that old dashboard.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have a universal analytics account, make sure that you are setting up a GA4 account because we're not going to be able to move our data.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_02: So start tracking data in the new one now, basically.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I can leave a link to how to do that in the show notes below.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_02: So once you're tracking data on there, but the thing is that the dashboard is awful.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_02: Universal Analytics, they used to set up these reports for us.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_02: We used to be able to see our bounce rate.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: We used to be able to see where people are coming from, what pages they're viewing, all of this really cool data.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_02: GA4, it's not fully developed yet.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know how this is all going to unravel, to be honest.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was in GA4 two weeks ago.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't even see what page somebody was viewing when they found when they clicked over to my website from Instagram.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_02: And like, that's that's a fucking pain in the ass, to be honest, especially when we've all been used to being being able to see that in universal analytics.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: So even with my clients right now, I'm telling them if you don't want Google Analytics set up, I'm not saying that you have to.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_02: There is also some issues with the old way that Google was tracking data, and a lot of people don't like it.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't think that Google Analytics, as of right now, the way that GA4 is right now, it's too complicated for a solopreneur or a small business owner to be able to sift through and understand this data.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if they're going to.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: Have iterations where it's going to become easier.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, I suggest starting to track data just in case.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: But Google Analytics isn't what it used to be.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the more important tool for SEO is actually Google Search Console.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: So if if you guys don't have that set up, I will leave a link to the show notes below.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: Basically, Google Analytics is how your website users use your website.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: Google Search Console is how Google sees your website.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_02: So very important.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's free, super easy to set up.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'll leave the link to that.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that, like, oh, sorry, go ahead.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was just going to say, I'm actually looking for and I'm hoping that this is creating a gap in the market for some kind of other analytics tracking tool.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard really good things about Fathom, but here's the thing you have to pay for it, which, like, okay, I'm also a business owner.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_02: I understand you have to charge for creating this.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_02: I wish that there was a light version that people could see how helpful it is.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because honestly, my clients, a lot of them, as of right now, I'm the one looking at their data and kind of dissecting it.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like my clients don't see how valuable it is until they see how valuable it is.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_02: And by that time, we wish that we already had data collected.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like I'm looking for another solution.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping that something, a gap in the market, a free option is going to become available.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe Google will figure their shit out.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: But that's essentially where we're at.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's one thing I'll say about SEO.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've had I've had a lot of clients I've sent to Mariah.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a bit of, it can be.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can rank in three weeks, but sometimes it's a bit of a slow burn.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it like Mariah said, it's one of those things where, like, if you think about like an Instagram post or a TikTok, I feel like it like almost is like a sparkler, like it lights up really fast, but then it dies right away.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas SEO is almost just like this like slower thing that builds momentum over time and literally can keep growing and building forever.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_00: And like a lot of my clients that have worked with Mariah, like we're now a year out and we're looking back and we're killing it on these search terms that we used to be totally invisible on.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I to your point there, there is a bit of like foresight, I think that it's hard for people to like think that far in advance.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_00: But like if you can leave this episode with anything, it's start, start somewhere, start tracking, start something.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, how would you recommend people just get started with SEO?
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I actually have a roadmap for free that you guys can download.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the roadmap to successful SEO.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I dive into the details of kind of like what we went through in here of just like what SEO is, why it's important, how search engines work.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I also dive into the details of my six-step process.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_02: Remember when I said I kind of learned SEO, took it apart, and put it back together in a way that makes sense?
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's the six-step process.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_02: So in the roadmap, I go over that and I go over why you're not getting the results that you want from SEO.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_02: Basically, like what happens when you skip a step of the system.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then I dive into three tasks that you can start doing today to help improve your SEO and get on Google's good side.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, one of those things is set up Google Search Console.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I walk you through exactly what to do, how to do it, all of that fun stuff.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_02: So if like you're just getting started with the SEO, you don't know where to turn, download the roadmap.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's at MariahMagazine.com slash roadmap.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you guys could tell by this episode, but I have some weird fucking gift of being able to explain SEO in a way that actually makes sense.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I try to be as honest and transparent as possible.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say download the roadmap, start with those three things.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then as always, DM me on Instagram if you have any questions about anything.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_02: Check out my website, MariahMagazine.com.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: You can check out my YouTube channel.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, my name's Mariah Magazine over there too.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I definitely have a bunch of tools and resources for people to get started.
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And also, you know, I really want to plug your workshop.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people hire Mariah to do exactly what she's doing in this workshop for a lot more money.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I I've done it myself.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, the more money price is way worth it.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you're, I can't encourage you enough.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in this stuff and you want to get some live time with Mariah, check out this workshop.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's going to be insanely value-packed.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so with that, Mariah, we like to close down every episode by asking our guests what is currently sparking your curiosity.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Shit.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny because I didn't even uh I didn't even think about this.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Fuck.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, I'm I'm truly a guest on my own podcast today.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, okay, so I think right now, two things.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_02: A brand partnerships.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm still very interested in that and seeing how I can kind of start getting paid to create content.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_02: I fucking love creating content.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_02: It comes easy to me.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's exciting for me.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_02: I love doing it.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_02: So being able to get paid to create content for other brands feels really fun.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And also, I talk about foundations of SEO a lot.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_02: What I'm very excited about recently is reworking my own foundations.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like I got started doing website design and development, moved into SEO, then tried running away from SEO again into coaching.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm so laser focused on SEO.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, is it ironic that my um my Saturn return is finally coming to an end?
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like I'm finally clear on like what I'm here to communicate and like talk about.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like just reworking my home page copy, my about page copy, my services.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how do I want to be of service in this way?
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_02: And just like being able to explain it in an even simpler way.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_02: And like, how do I get my message out here?
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_02: How do I allow people to see me as the expert or the explorer of SEO and like really being able to educate and consult people on it?
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, really finagling my own foundations is the rabbit hole that I seem to be on.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know I'm all about the rabbit holes.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I found this so fascinating.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard you say all that stuff multiple times, and I can't get enough.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I really love Mariah's six pillars.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've had uh a workshop done by her where she broke that down.
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna encourage y'all check out the roadmap as well.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have never, I just feel like you've helped me level up my own knowledge of SEO just by being in your proximity, and it's helped me in like literally everything I do.
• 1:12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I really want to encourage you guys.
• 1:12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know this topic can be a little bit like, ugh, but like Mariah is the person to um pull the curtain back and make it seem as easy.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, I think we're gonna close this episode down.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a long and juicy one.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you guys for sticking around.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to share it with someone you think would enjoy it and also tag us on social media.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_00: If something really popped out to you, please DM us.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_00: We would love to hear it.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and as always, thank you so much for listening.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And if you haven't yet already, subscribe to the podcast.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what are you doing?
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Subscribe to us, leave us a review so that we can all continue to grow together.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_02: And until next time, remember that you truly have the power to create whatever the fuck you want.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Follow the nudge, ask the questions, and let curiosity guide the way.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you in the next episode.