Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Developing Content with SEO in Mind with Kendra Lee

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Developing Content with SEO in Mind with Kendra Lee · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  If you're not focused on your search engine optimization, you want to be developing your
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  content with search engine optimization in mind.
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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff, Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number one small business spurt, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small beshed podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners, bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, America's number one small business expert, and
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  I'm so excited to welcome you to another episode of the small biz chat podcast.
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  Now today's show is really amazing.
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  We're gonna be talking about how to drive more revenue from your website.
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  Also gonna talk about how to tackle that content beast that you weighing so many of
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  down.
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  And if you wanna know how to attract target customers to you, we have an expert here who's
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  gonna talk about how to develop that killer pitch.
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  Now if you're looking for ways to grow your sales online, you are in the right place My
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  expert has tools to boost your sales by, and we're also gonna talk about if you struggle
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  with content, if if you dread content.
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  We're gonna give you some information that's gonna help you think about it the right way and
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  be able to develop content that is relevant and valuable.
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  And most importantly, attracts your target customer.
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  Now how many of you know that you need different pitches about your business for
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  different situations.
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  Well, we have the killer pitch master in the house, and she's gonna be breaking it down for
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  us about all the well, first of all, what makes a good pitch and how many different pitches
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  every small business owner should have.
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  Now here on the small bizchef podcast, We talk about how to start and grow a successful small
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  business, and my guests have valuable insight to share And you're gonna either advise because
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  they are from all different walks of life and stages of business, but all of them are pure
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  experts in their field.
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  Now here at the small business chat podcast, we are a peer to peer mentoring program.
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  Our mission at the small business chat podcast is to end small business failure.
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  And we just want you to get invaluable price advice that you do not have to pay for.
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  Now it's time for me to get started with our interviews.
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  Now my guest today is Kendra Lee.
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  She is an author speaker and revenue generator.
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  She's the founder of KLA Group, a sales consultancy and marketing agency that helps
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  small and medium businesses get singing, get hurt, and get traction to achieve their dream.
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  She's also the author of the sales magnet, And for more information, you can go to
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  klagroup.com.
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  Kendra, welcome to the small Bishop podcast.
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  Well, thank you for having me, Melinda.
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  Now tell us, how did you become the web guru?
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  Like, the web sales guru.
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  I wanna hear your back story.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  You know, I never in a 1000000 years thought that I would be doing marketing and sales.
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  Because I started my career in accounting.
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  How at her, I knew that there was something more something more exciting out there And I
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  had a colleague who said, oh, you know what?
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  You should be in sales.
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  And that started my whole career When I went into sales, I discovered I really like new
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  business.
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  I like meeting all these new people and talking with them.
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  And even more, I like working with small companies, and that's what led me down the path
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  to sales and marketing.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  So let's talk websites first.
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  What is the biggest mistake that people make when building a website?
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  I think the Biggest mistake.
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  I'm gonna give you a couple of them.
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  1 is focusing only on themselves and not really thinking about who is it that is coming to the
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  site.
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  So all your content is about you, but not from the perspective of what your audience cares
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  about, and it really needs to be about the target market.
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  A second mistake that they tend to make Is it when somebody gets there, there's nothing for
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  them to do.
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  There's nothing for them to download.
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  There's just call me.
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  Or email me, but there are no other assets.
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  There's no content for them to read.
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  So they don't really get to know, like, and trust you.
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  Instead, you're thinking, oh, just sign up.
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  Call me.
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  We'll help you, but you haven't done anything to earn that trust.
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  Wow.
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  And now let's talk about SEO because SEO is one of these, like, I don't know Kabuki words that
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  people have been using.
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  Like, there's all these snake oil sales went out here that sell SEO promising to
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  get you on the first page of Google.
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  Right?
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  You know, but I
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  you know, that SEO is in important, but can you explain to us how SEO work a concert with your
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  content?
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  Right?
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  Cause there's on-site SEO and there's off-site SEO but I really kinda wanna talk about the SEO
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  that you can kinda do yourself before you engage professionals to.
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  Okay.
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  So SEO for all of you that don't know is when the search engines will serve you up when
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  somebody goes and puts in the Google line, a request.
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  So they're searching for something.
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  And if you have strong search engine optimization, Then you, your goal is to be on
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  that first page where people will find you.
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  Content is one of the key ways to build your authority and your level of search engine
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  credibility.
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  When you're writing your content, or things that you need to do are to be using keywords
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  that people would search.
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  So you wanna think about when they sit down to search for your services or the problems that
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  they have, what are the words that they're using?
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  How are they describing it?
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  You use those keywords in the content that you are writing.
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  As it relates to your website, there are places that you wanna make sure that you have it.
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  So definitely on page on the page when you're writing, you wanna have your keywords used
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  throughout, but it's not just there.
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  When search engines are reading, they're not reading all the content as much as they're
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  reading what your URL is.
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  So what the link is, they're reading the headings, the content as well, and then they're
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  reading the content itself.
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  So you want to have used keywords throughout your content, as well as in the link that
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  you're using, and when you put descriptions, hex, you want keywords there, and you want
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  keywords in the headings themselves.
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  Within your content.
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  So as you're writing, the keyword strategy is really important.
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  Do you want me to keep going, we'll end up?
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  No.
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  I actually have a follow-up question to that.
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  So that is so you're talking about keyword strategy.
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  So now let's talk about Prontage strategy.
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  Does everybody need a blog?
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  You know?
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  You know, how can you I know we're, you know, content is like this big hairy beast.
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  Like, if people are are, you know, get overwhelmed by steamrolled over and, you know,
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  and and then there's people that just don't do it well.
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  And they put up content that's just okay or mediocre or littered with typos.
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  Right?
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  So I I want to really kinda understand from you Like, it, like, okay.
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  I have my keywords.
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  I know what they are.
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  Now how about getting to this content?
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  Like, what what what is a good robust you know, content mix really made up.
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  So you asked about blogs when when people come to your website, They're coming to learn more
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  about you, your business, who you help, and how you help them.
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  So you want your content to answer those questions for them.
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  And you want it to be very, very clear.
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  Should you have a blog?
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  Should you not have a blog?
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  1 of the benefits of a blog, whether it's video or just text based, is that it helps people get
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  to know you to hear how you address the problems that they had, hear more about the
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  problems that they have, and what they should be thinking about.
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  So blonde gives you an opportunity to continually add new content.
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  At the same time, your web pages need to describe your services Some of the frequently
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  asked questions that people have, how they can reach you, something about you as a company, so
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  they can feel like they can get to know you and like you.
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  So you have your your website content as well as your blog content.
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  Should you have a blog?
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  Should you not have a blog?
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  Not everybody needs one.
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  One of the benefits is that when you have 1, you're continually adding to it, and that shows
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  Google that you're paying attention to your website It likes that, and it will help your
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  search engine optimization.
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  And I can testify to that someone who's written over 5000 articles about how to start
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  and grow a successful small business to keep presenting the traffic to my website is organic
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  search for that very reason.
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  But I've been blogging continuously since 2009.
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  Right?
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  You know, so it you know, that's a whole lot of blogging.
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  But I'm glad you talked about that because I think people there are people that hate your
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  right.
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  Right?
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  And then you tell them, oh, you need to be blogging.
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  And I'm like, look, if you hate to write, please don't do that.
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  I don't want you I don't want you to go through the pain of that, but I I'm really glad that
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  you talked about the stuff people wanna know.
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  How what who you help and how you help them and how to contact you and some FAQs on there.
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  Now, there was a trick that was going around on websites a couple of years ago, where when you
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  would hit the contact us page or the about us page, a little video would start playing.
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  Now what's your thoughts about that?
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  Is that played out, or is that still effective?
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  You know, video is fabulous, and video is more engaging than just tech.
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  A lot
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  of people want to press and watch a video.
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  So from my perspective, use video wherever you can.
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  You don't like to write, maybe you're very comfortable going on video.
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  So put yourself on video, create a 30 second 1 minute video, Put one on your homepage, put it
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  on your contact page, put it on your about us page.
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  So you can have different videos to different places, and then people really get to know you,
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  and you can talk about the things that they care about.
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  So I'm a very strong believer in video.
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  I don't like having it automatically start.
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  So our recommendation is when you put it on your website, you have the play button So you
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  have the option to start the video, but you don't automatically just have it start playing
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  anymore.
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  Thank you for setting the record straight on that because autoplay videos make me crazy, but
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  I didn't know if I was like, you know, it was a SEO thing or something.
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  Now Can you clear up a myth for me?
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  There's all these people that talk about search engine rankings and algorithm that I know it,
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  you know, it seems like every 10 minutes, the algorithm changes, whether it speaks with
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  Google or whatever.
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  So can you just talk about this whole this concept of search engine raking?
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  Like, is it something that you can even do anything about?
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  Is it something that you can even control, or is it, like, Just put keep putting quality
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  content out there, and the world will find you.
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  You know what I mean?
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  Or is it like tree fall of the woods and nobody heard it fall?
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  Right?
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  You know, I don't I don't know But there's so much conversation about search engine rent, you
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  know, search and and how can help you beat the system in white hat and black hat stuff.
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  And so I really want you to kind of talk about what, you know, what goes into the algorithm
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  and what could help you rank higher.
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  So at the very least, if you're not focused on your search engine optimization, you want to be
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  developing your content with search engine optimization in mind.
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  Because if you're gonna write the content, why not write it in a way that it could be found?
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  You took time to do it.
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  You've got 5000 articles out there.
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  You want somebody to read them.
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  So you wanna use search engine optimization best practices.
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  There are 3 core elements that go into search engine optimization.
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  There's the on page, which is your content.
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  There's off page, which are all those things that surround your website that could push
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  people back to your website.
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  So think you're out on social media and you link back to your website.
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  Another Organization likes an article, they link back to your website.
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  But that's the off page.
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  And then there is the technical aspect, which says that you have a clean website.
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  It doesn't have technical problems with it.
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  You don't have errors on it.
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  It it is structured correctly.
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  So those are the 3 primary elements that go into your search engine optimization.
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  Depending what you do and where you're located and what keywords you use It can be hard to
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  rank because there are other bigger behemoths out there spending 100 of 1000 of dollars every
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  year focused on making sure they rank.
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  So does that mean you should give up?
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  Absolutely not.
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  But it says that we wanna use search engine optimization best practices, and we're going to
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  focus on keywords, because our keyword strategy is important, that may not be as popular, but
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  are still searched by our audience.
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  So, no, it's not a myth.
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  Do you spend all your time on it?
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  No.
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  Because it's only one of many marketing strategies you should use.
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  Should you not do it?
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  Yes.
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  You should do it because if somebody's gonna go do an organic search, don't you wanna be found?
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  So use the best practices for it.
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  And when you get to a size where you can afford it, then you're probably gonna use outsource
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  burn because it is pretty complex as you talked about.
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  Alright.
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  Well, when we go back, we're gonna talk about if you wanna engage outside SEO farm to work
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  with your business, we're gonna talk about how much you can expect to pay.
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  You're watching the small biz chat podcast, and we will be right back.
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  Hi.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to small biz lady university.
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  Our mission here is to end small business failure.
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  So all the courses here are about 2 things.
• 16:10
  How to become your own boss or how to make money online.
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  So that's what we do here.
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  Commerce, you might wanna jump into our how to sell and market online course.
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  you need here at small bus lady diversity.com.
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  If you have any questions or have any technical problems getting signed up, just email us at
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  support at melendamerson.com.
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  Take care.
• 16:52
  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome back to the Small Bishop podcast I'm Melinda Everson's small business lady, your
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  host.
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  And we're talking with Kendra Lee about all things websites and SEO.
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  So Kendra, I wanna know if I'm gonna engage an SEO firm to work with my company.
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  What should I really be?
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  What should my expectations be of what the investment might be like monthly to get
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  support.
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  Sure.
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  So, of course, I can say, oh, it ranges all over everywhere.
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  Part of it's gonna depend on what they're doing for you.
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  To net it out at the beginning, I would say expect that it's gonna be somewhere between
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  1500 to 25100 at the low end.
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  And, really, it depends on how much they're doing for you.
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  Because there are some companies depending on how much you're having that can go up to
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  $506,000 a month.
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  But with SEO, because content is so important, there should be a blogging element as part of
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  that.
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  There may be social posting that is included as part of that.
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  That gives you a range that you could expect.
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  I'm seeing some firms try to charge by the keyword that they work on.
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  So if they work on 10 keywords a month or they work on 25 keywords a month, that's how that's
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  what the difference is
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  in your pricing.
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  Is that legit or no?
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  It can be really challenging and it puts a lot of pressure on the firm because if they're
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  doing it based only on keywords, then you as the client are gonna pay attention to those
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  keywords and look to see, are you ranking better?
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  What you wanna look at when it relates to the keywords is what's the keyword density.
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  And that term means how frequently is that word searched?
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  The more frequent the search The higher the density, the harder to rank for it, because
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  there's a lot of competition because a lot of people are searching for it.
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  So, yes, I have seen the same thing where it may be based on a number of keywords or the
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  total overall keyword density count.
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  Now let's talk about that, though.
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  So how should one measure the ROI of SEO because I know a
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  lot of times when you hire a firm to work with you, they're always like, look.
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  You're not gonna see any results of this until 4 months.
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  Like, is that true?
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  Or, I mean, and once the 4 months hit, what are the markers we should be looking
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  Absolutely.
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  So SEL is all about organic ranking and capturing those people who are out doing the
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  searches.
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  It can take realistically, it's not 4 months.
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  It's probably 6 months to a year However, you can see progress every single month.
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  So a lot of people will come to us Research engine optimization, they'll say, okay.
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  We wanna get x number of leads every single bond.
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  Well, SEO isn't about The leads as much as driving more traffic to your website.
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  So the real metric that you're looking for is is there an increase in traffic on your
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  website?
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  Then your content strategy picks up from there, because you're driving them to the website and
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  you wanna have good calls to action throughout the site.
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  You wanna have different types of content that people can engage with.
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  And you want some gated content where people have to register because then you can start to
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  see conversions.
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  But your SEO is about getting them to the site.
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  And then your content is about having the right things on the site so they will sign up and
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  convert.
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  So pay attention to traffic.
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  You're looking for an increase in traffic.
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  Alright.
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  Alright.
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  And last question for you.
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  What is the best business advice you've ever got.
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  The best business advice that I still fall back on is that when you hire someone, that you hire
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  a person who can do more than one role.
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  They may do only the primary thing you want them to do but they have to be able to do other
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  things in the event that that need for the role that you hired them for changes.
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  I would say.
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  Perfect.
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  Well, thank you so much, Kendra.
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  This has been so, so, so, so, so helpful.
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  And I really think you've even enlightened me about things that people need to know about SEO
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  for one that SEO should include content, not just overworking on these keywords for you.
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  So thank you for that.
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  And when we come back, we're gonna talk about how to tackle the content beast.
• 21:38
  I'm Belinda Emerson's small biz lady.
• 21:40
  You're watching the small biz chat podcast.
• 21:43
  We'll be right back.
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