February 26, 2025 • 27 mins
Feeling lost when it comes to SEO? You’re not alone!
In this episode, we’re breaking down the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—without the overwhelm! I’m chatting with Lauren Gaglioli, a seasoned online entrepreneur who’s been in your shoes. She’s sharing how she went from frustrated and stuck to getting consistent traffic to her website—and how you can, too!
Connect with Lauren: laurengaggioli.com
We’ll talk about:
✨ Why Google Search Console is your best friend for getting more eyes on your business
✨ How to speak your audience’s language so they actually find (and love) your content
✨ Why social media should support your SEO strategy—not be the whole focus
The best part? You don’t have to be a tech wizard to make this work for your business. It’s all about simple, sustainable steps that fit into your life as a busy, faith-filled mompreneur.
So grab a cup of coffee, hit play, and let’s take the stress out of SEO together.
Don’t forget to subscribe & leave a 5 star review!
Grab the Healthy Sustainable Weekly Rhythm Guide for Busy Moms ► ► https://aliesehalcomb.com/weeklyrhythms
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Peaceful Mompreneur.
I'm super excited Today we aregoing to be talking to Lauren
Gaglioli.
That, no, not it.
Close, close.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
There's an extra L in that one, that's okay.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, she will introduce herself in a second
and she will say it correctlyand so okay.
So, but anywho, I'm excited tointroduce you to Lauren, and she
is gonna talk about SEO, whichcan be such a scary thought
whenever you're thinking about,like how do you get traffic?
What does SEO mean?
Like we know what the acronymstands for, but like how do you
actually do it?
(00:33):
And it feels like a big scarything.
But we're going to talk abouthow it isn't and what we really
can do practically with Lauren.
So, lauren, tell us about whoyou are, who you serve and why
we don't have to be scared ofSEO.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So it's Lauren Gaggioli, which is like Ravioli
You've got to use your hands tosay it.
It's weird and hard and so noworries.
But I am an online entrepreneurprimarily.
I say primarily because I'vedefinitely done stuff in the
real world as well.
You know craft fairs and thingslike that in the past, but my
(01:11):
first foray into online businesswas building out an ACT and SAT
prep company online that ranentirely through asynchronous
online courses, and I had thisexperience.
When I built it.
I was so excited and I'm sureyou know about this, right, you
have this like business babythat you launch out into the
world and you're like everyone'sgoing to love it, it's going to
(01:32):
go great.
And then crickets and you gowait a minute, what?
And so you have to back it upand go oh right, I love it
because it's mine.
Oh right, I love it becauseit's mine.
But how do I not only conveyits value in the marketplace,
but how do I then bring peoplethere when I don't have a
(01:54):
storefront on Main Street, acraft fair booth that people are
milling by and seeing and beingintrigued by?
And this is where I think theonline space is really tricky
for a lot of us, that themindset quickly shifts from
super excited to uh-oh.
I've made a huge mistake, andthat's because the inherent play
(02:14):
here is you are front-loadingthe effort, especially if you're
building out asynchronousofferings.
If you have courses or anythingthat's a product right, you
have to develop that first, andif you do that and you don't yet
have an audience, then therecan be a mismatch.
And then, for me, what I foundwith ACT and SAT prep is that,
(02:36):
you know, I would try to be inthe social sphere, I would try
to do like lives, like myfriends would do, and you know,
the problem was I was sellingbroccoli, like nobody wanted a
community around test prep, andso I was like well, now I have
to figure out something elseentirely.
And that's where I reallytapped in early to learning SEO.
And as a solopreneur, it was medoing pretty much everything.
(03:02):
My mom and dad helped me.
My dad did my books and my momdid my shipping, but everything
else was on my shoulders.
And as a solopreneur contentcreator, course creator, podcast
producer, all the thing I wasable to drive 16,000 new leads
per month to my website, usingSEO and developing quality
(03:26):
content to attract the rightleads, and that led me to
ultimately the four hour workweek.
You know, making really goodmoney, while my work basically
full-time momming, which I loved, and it was thanks to Google
and SEO.
So when I say you can do it, Imean it because I've done it and
now that's what I do.
I sold that company in 2021 andnow I'm helping other
(03:49):
solopreneurs do just the same.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
That's so awesome and I'm so glad that you're here,
because what you're describingis exactly what I want to do,
what I am doing and what I knowthat the listeners are trying to
do.
Right, we want to be moms,first and foremost, and then we
want to, you know, be able tohelp our families and have
something for ourselves.
Right, yeah, but mostly it's,you know, like you, like you we
(04:13):
mentioned, you mentioned earlierbefore we started, like you,
homeschool your kids.
I want to do that, and I know alot of the people that are
watching this or listening tothis.
They are either are doing thisor listening to this.
They are either are doing it orthey want to, and they just
don't know how to get traffic.
Like I said, you can have thebest thing on the internet and
if nobody knows you're there, itdoesn't matter.
(04:33):
So how do we get there?
Like, what is someone whodoesn't know anything about what
SEO is right?
Where do you tell them to start?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
So that's a fantastic question, because it is about
building a life you love and theease you love, and
unfortunately, I think, a lot ofus.
Our inclination is I'll go onsocial, but the problem with
social is that you don't ownthat platform.
You don't control whenalgorithms change.
You set up a workflow for allyour text and carousel driven
(05:05):
stuff and then reels come in andgive you a sucker punch and now
you have to change everythingabout how you are playing, not
because it's best for you, notbecause it's best for your
client, but because it's bestfor the algorithm, and I hate
that.
And so what I encourage peopleto do first is to back up and
(05:28):
remember this phrase all roadslead to my website.
Your website is your mostimportant calling card because
it is where you can actuallydeliver your products and
services sometimes, but it'swhere Google can send traffic,
and if your website is clean andclear as an inbound kind of
(05:54):
portal, then you can think ofsocial and YouTube and anything
else you want to do as outboundmarketing.
Right, but inbound, it is aplace where you can stand in one
place.
You can refine it, you can makeit what you want it to be, and
it doesn't matter what anybodyelse says is right or good.
(06:15):
You can still stand out so longas you use some SEO best
practices.
And I say that intentionally,because when you start to dig
deep on SEO, you go wow, there'sa lot here and I will tell you.
With my first business, I did somuch wrong, but I did some
right and that got me on the map.
And so it's about taking a fewsteps understanding the what,
(06:39):
the why, the how, and thenstarting to do the things that
actually work.
How and then starting to do thethings that actually work for
you and doing enough of theright things that you start to
tip the scales in your favor.
I also really love thinkingabout our websites as central
hubs, because it's how we getpeople on our email lists, which
, in the day and age ofalgorithms, people find you once
(07:00):
.
That's lovely, even SEO right,especially now with AI coming in
and those AI summaries, youknow that's great.
However, if you don't havetheir email, you can't get in
touch with them again unlessyou're paying for ads, and then
that becomes a whole other likehuge spend.
And so if you want organicmarketing, you want free
(07:23):
marketing where people can findyou and stay connected and flow
through to your email listseamlessly.
It all works together and that,inherently, is what SEO gets
you.
But SEO is a long play, right?
So that's the other thing.
A lot of people are like I'mgoing to do SEO and they do it
for like a day and they don'tsee any change.
No, no, no.
You got to look at it Twomonths later.
(07:45):
Are you now elevated Six monthslater?
How's it going?
How are those posts posted along while ago doing?
And so it's a slightlydifferent play.
But if you're in it just to bea fly by night, then you're in
it, in my opinion, for the wrongreasons.
So if you're here to build abusiness, then SEO is your
(08:08):
friend, and it's going to rampup as you build out the systems
to support greater traffic andgreater inbound leads.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Okay, awesome, that's wonderful.
So I loved what you said Allleads lead to your website,
right?
That's the goal.
And then I'll even more so, getthem on your email list.
Once they get there, yeah,cause you can sell like.
I had a business coach thatsaid you don't own, you own
nothing but your website andyour email list.
You don't own your social media.
You don't own anything, itdoesn't matter.
(08:37):
Get them on your list, get themto your website.
I love it.
And so how do we get them toour site?
What does that look like?
You said Google, and you'reright.
Seo can be like this monsterthing, but without overwhelming
anyone or freaking them out likewhere do we go?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
So let me give you the number one thing that most
people don't do.
The last time I checked, therewas a report run, I think, in,
or a study done in I think itwas 2021.
And it was something like 98.6%of web pages are not indexed by
Google, and so that means thelion's share of websites out
(09:14):
there aren't showing up insearch.
And so the number one tool if I, if you take nothing else away
from this you need to get yourwebsite domain verified by
Google Search Console.
There are like super simplesteps to do this Right.
(09:34):
And then the next step thatties in with this is every time
you publish new content on yourwebsite, on your website this
doesn't work for social.
New content on your website, onyour website this doesn't work
for social you submit that URLinto Google Search Console to
raise your hand and say Google,I just created some new, epic
content.
Come on over, take a look.
(09:55):
And you're raising your handsand telling Google I have a
website that is fresh andfindable and I would like you to
crawl it.
And so Google Search Console isthe number one thing.
I see that entrepreneurs whohave been in the game for a
really long time have a ton ofcontent on their site.
They've just never done it.
(10:17):
They've never set it up inGoogle Search Console.
Once you do that, you can alsogo in to Bing and just port that
verification from Google.
Google is right now the leaderin search and so it could change
Perplexity, I know, is likekind of gunning at it.
Chat GPT.
(10:38):
You know I have some concernsabout like AI.
I don't actually use AI in mybusiness because I have concerns
about ownership and that sortof thing.
However, it doesn't mean thatthey're not indexing my stuff
and so I assume, if it's inGoogle, that the other search
engines and AI are going to bepicking it up.
So you want to make sure thatyou go into Bing as well and
(11:02):
port over your verification inGoogle, that you go into Bing as
well and port over yourverification in Google and I
know that sounds scary, right?
You're like, oh dear, like Ihave to get into the backend of
my website, I have to go to myhost and I have to like update
my, my uh C name and all thesethings.
I know it sounds really scary,but don't worry about it.
(11:23):
Like you can't mess it up toobad.
Um, there's step-by-stepinstructions and I think the
instructions are literally likefive steps.
It's not that hard, so you cando it.
Um, and you should do it to getyour website in Google.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, absolutely, that is great advice.
I have never heard this.
I'm going to do it myself.
Yes, I don't know about this.
Thank you, and so, yeah, that'sa very practical.
So let me ask you right, we'reall like everyone.
It feels like everyone on theInternet is trying to tell you
to do all this social media.
How would I would someone me,someone else, doesn't matter
(12:04):
switch from all of that effortover there to what would we?
What would the parallel be foryour website instead?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So what I like to say is just stop doing social for a
minute, like, take, take a stepback and look at the content
you're creating for social andthen see how things hang
together.
Right, because social to me ismicro content.
Right, you're doing all theselittle bitty baby pieces of
content.
How can you group stuff you'vealready done into a single
(12:40):
robust blog post and then createa blog post out of that?
You can even embed your socialstuff into your blog post if you
want.
I personally don't, because Idon't want people if I get them
to my website.
Please don't leave my website.
Please stay there, becausethat's another thing.
Google's watching behaviormetrics.
Right, they want people.
They correlate.
(13:02):
If somebody finds your websitestays on your website, goes to
multiple pages.
Your website must be good andso you want to keep people on
your site once they come to you.
So you'll see.
If you sign up on my websitefor any email, you go to a thank
you page.
In that first email there arelinks back to my site and I'm
creating this loop that Google'swatching behavior of people on
(13:23):
the internet.
And if somebody visits my siteand it's multiple pages in the
first five minutes of knowing me, that's a good indication that
my content is quality.
Somebody's genuinely interestedin staying connected, and so
what we have to do is thinkabout what we're doing on social
.
I actually I'm not great onsocial.
(13:44):
I completely own that.
I'm hiring somebody to do itfor me because I hate you have
to show up every single day anddo the thing to make the
algorithm work.
I don't have time for that.
So instead what I do is Icreate a robust blog post or I
create a podcast episode, andthen I parse up pieces of that
(14:06):
and hand it to my social person,and then she takes that and
puts it out in bitty baby chunksand then we say, hey, do you
like this?
This is part of a more robustthing over on the website,
comment here and we'll send youthe link, and it gets people
from social over to your website.
Right, you can send them thatlink in DMs.
You can get them over to yoursite.
(14:26):
So all roads lead to yourwebsite at the end of the day,
because if they're not on youremail list, you are paying.
To get in touch with them.
Again is sort of my assumption.
And so I invert the way Icreate the content.
I do the big chunk first andthen burst that up and go to
social.
But you can back solve that,you can go the other direction.
(14:47):
So, whatever you like to talkabout, tell a story, teach
something valuable.
I will say in the AI day andage information is cheap, but
easy buttons are expensive.
So when you're creatingproducts, when you're creating
courses you have to think aboutor services, you have to think
about how you are making iteasier for people, right?
(15:10):
Is it a shortcut?
Is it that you're doing it forthem?
Right?
I have consulting clients, I dostuff for them.
Or is it a robust program thatis a little bit of training but
also some implementation time sothat people can ask questions
on the fly.
So you have to remember thatnow this is sort of a new
paradigm.
Before, information was what wewere selling.
(15:30):
That's not necessarily asvaluable as it once was.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
We are definitely switching.
Really, I love what you'resaying about like creating the
big content and then parsing itout on the into the social world
.
That is what I do, because Ialso really hate media.
I have never sent someone backto my website, which I will
start doing.
Actually, it's not on mywebsite, it's on my YouTube.
I'm going to change all kindsof stuff after this talk.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Please report back.
I love data on how it's working.
Ok, I will let you know.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I will let you know for sure, and so do you.
Would you say that, um, doingsome sort of podcast or doing
blogging, which one would drivebetter traffic?
Or does it matter?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay.
So I will tell you I lovepodcasts.
I love podcasts.
Podcasts are not a good leadgen path because on now, this
again, this can change.
Now with AI I can index so muchand all these things.
It has ears.
It's a great nurture channel.
(16:38):
So you need words to make apodcast rank and so it's great
from distribution, becauseyou've got Apple and Spotify and
Amazon and all these things.
So I think of it akin to a pushout rather than a pull in.
(16:59):
So I love once people are on mylist to send them my podcast
because that keeps them inconnection with me in a very
scalable way.
I'm creating content for themand that's wonderful.
So it's great from a nurturestandpoint.
However, robust blog posts andthen having it a really
compelling opt-in that iscompletely in alignment with
(17:21):
what it is you are addressingopt-in that is completely in
alignment with what it is youare addressing.
So, for example, if you come tomy website and you look at any
of my SEO posts, the next stepis a DIY website audit.
It is my most highly convertingopt-in on my site and I have a
few, but every single SEO postpoints to that opt-in and I
(17:44):
control that through categoriesin WordPress, if you go to a
post about purpose, you're goingto get my list for 111 core
values to choose from.
So the opt-in offer is dependenton what kind of content you
came to my site to look at, andso thinking about the buckets of
(18:04):
content that you address andcreating a singular endpoint
within that bucket that everypost then sort of pivots to,
that is going to be your numberone way to up your conversion to
your email list.
And the thing that informs allof this and it's kind of
interesting we're talking aboutSEO.
(18:24):
We haven't even mentioned ityet, but keyword research is the
number one thing that is goingto help you make sure you are
laser focused and hitting themark every single time.
You need to know exactly whatpeople are searching, and there
are ways to see not only whatwords they're searching for, but
how many people a month aresearching for it and how hard
(18:47):
it's going to be for you to rankfor that term.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Okay.
Do you have any tools that youwould suggest for someone to
look at?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yes, so my favorite is Ahrefs, but it is very
expensive, um, and they used tohave a really good free tool
that I would just send everybodyto, and now they've kind of
gutted it.
It's not you.
It's still there but it's notas granular.
(19:27):
You can sign up.
I forget if you have to givepayment to sign up, but mark it
in your calendar, cancel it out,get in and do a huge hit of
keyword research in one go andsee if the language you're using
is lining up with what peopleare asking.
I had a client once who istalking on and on and on about
recurring income, recurringincome, recurring income.
(19:50):
He's a membership guy.
His name is Vincent Puglisi.
You guys should totally checkhim out.
He's awesome, but he talksabout building out your
membership, that sort of thing,but he talks about recurring
income as being the play formembership.
And then he did a keywordresearch, kind of you know, glow
up and went oh, nobody'ssearching for recurring income,
(20:11):
they're searching for recurringrevenue.
That's the term they're lookingfor and that he's probably
never going to rank for eitherof those terms.
They are far too competitive.
Too many people are going forit.
But that's quality informationto know what your lead is using,
because when you use languagethat mirrors theirs, it's kind
(20:32):
of like the psychological thingof like body language mirroring,
where you inherently lean intothe know, like and trust factor,
because you're building abridge to them, you're using the
language they use and then youcan show them how you help them
do that thing.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Ok, that's super useful.
For sure we will take a look atthat.
Ok, so we've talked a lot aboutAI, right, but what do you
think is the appropriate way touse AI in your marketing?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
content.
Um, I am very, uh, gun shy whenit comes to adopting technology
, um, which is just hilariousfor a gal who loves data and
teaches seo on the internet.
Um, but I love what theinternet can get us, but I think
(21:25):
we have to be careful about howwe're leveraging it.
Um, so I love writing writingmy thing, like I'm writing
fiction.
I love writing blog posts.
That's my primary medium.
Um, I understand that that'snot everybody's, so for me, part
of the creative process it'sthat, like, uh, joan Didion
(21:46):
quote, I don't know what I thinkuntil I write it.
Um, that's, that's my process,and so I'm not going to give
that up because I can do itfaster.
Faster isn't always better.
However, for someone who has,say, writing is not their thing.
They're more of like a YouTuber.
They love to do the kind ofspoken word or video.
(22:08):
Great, you can have AI, look atvideos you've created and
generate a blog post out of thecontent you've already shared,
and then you can embed thatvideo within it and plus it up
that way.
What I would say is, if you aredoing that, I would feed it
original content and have itsummarize original content,
(22:29):
rather than regurgitatingeverything else out on the
internet.
I call it the beige-ificationof information.
That is what is happening.
Everything's running.
It summarize original contentrather than regurgitating
everything else out on theinternet.
I call it the beige-ificationof information.
That is what is happeningEverything's running to the
middle, and that's going to bereally boring, right?
So let your colors show andthen take what it gives you and
plus it up.
Give it the once over with yourown special magic, right?
(22:52):
Give it the pixie dust sprinkle, because if you don't, google's
going to go.
This was written by a bot andalso, I think, all of us are
going to go.
This was written by a bot.
It's pretty obvious, I think,right now.
So you do need to put your ownstamp on it.
I also think it's really greatfor people with maybe learning
differences or executivefunction challenges, folks who
(23:16):
maybe can't articulate theirpoint really, really clearly and
succinctly.
Fabulous.
Use ChatGPT.
Write out your first pass, feedit into ChatGPT and have it
plus it up for you and then doanother once over.
So I think how we use it has tobe a tool.
You, and then do another onceover.
(23:36):
So I think how we use it has tobe a tool, and how you use the
tool is.
You know how effective the toolis, so wield it with caution
and care.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yes, absolutely.
I agree 100% with you.
You can definitely tell ifsomething has been written by
chat GPT if you haven't editedit.
I use chat GP all the time andI use it for clients and I use
it for all kinds of stuff.
But I put a lot of informationin there about what their voice
is, what my voice, where we'regoing like, and then you rewrite
it after it writes it.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So the prompting is the first step.
Right, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I'm a big fan of it.
It makes things much faster.
But you're absolutely right, itis beige.
It's so boring and I have heardcoaches like prominent people
that I will not name.
They like just throw it inthere and then put it on the
internet.
I'm like what is?
What is this?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I can't listen to you anymore and I think it comes
from like I have a real aversionto like hoodie bro marketers.
Like more is not more, likesometimes it's less.
And just because those and yousee it in the SEO space a lot
like publish a brand new website, put 20,000 pages on it, have
(24:44):
it all generated by AI, submitit in this order and then you'll
rank for four seconds and lookat you, you got the numbers and
it's like how long before thatdoesn't work again.
Like I would rather build on asolid foundation.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yes, absolutely.
That's what we're going for.
That's definitely.
We're going for the long haulhere, right?
Yeah, someone said my businesscoach the other day he's like
you know, we need the fruitright now, right?
What did he say?
Watermelon and the oak tree,which I'd never heard before.
You want to do it now, but youreally also need to be growing
an oak tree and it takes time.
Yeah, so you have to put thateffort into it, which is what
(25:22):
we're doing, because we want toraise our families and run a
business, and not die all threeof those things are very true.
Yes, they are.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
We might be disappointed on one of them, but
that's okay.
Well, yeah, okay, not thatright now, not right now?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, not because of either one, at least.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Well, Lauren, this was so great.
If you had any other piece ofadvice to tell a mom with young
kids trying to run a business,what would you tell them?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You've had nine healthy days in 2025.
Oh my gosh, I'm right there inthe trenches with you.
I totally get it that some days, business doesn't come first
and hustle culture is a liar, ittells you.
Then you'll never make it.
And I'm here to tell you, like,give yourself grace, you know,
(26:16):
live up to the responsibilitiesyou have for your clients, of
course, but also extend yourselfgrace in the in the challenging
seasons, because we're growingoak trees, not watermelons.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's perfect, okay, well, thank you so much, lauren
.
Where can we find you?
Where can everybody find?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
you.
Laurengaggiolicom is the bestplace to find me.
Everything I do lives there.
But if you're curious aboutmaybe like coming in and doing a
mastermind session,laurengaggiolicom, forward slash
mastermind I have these likeone-off.
It's $25 for your first session.
If you want to just come andchat and like it's called the
(26:54):
phone a friend mastermind for areason, like if you just need a
lifeline, I got you, so that's agreat place to go.
If you have any any questionsabout SEO, marketing, mindset,
the whole nine, we cover it all.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That's so great, okay , awesome, well, thank you so
much and sorry about not knowinghow to pronounce your last name
.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Totally fine, nobody does Some days I get it wrong.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Wonderful Well, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
This was great.
Thank you so much.
It was lovely to spend timewith you today, absolutely.
Welcome to the Peaceful Mompreneur.
I'm super excited Today we aregoing to be talking to Lauren
Gaglioli.
That, no, not it.
Close, close.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
There's an extra L in that one, that's okay.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, she will introduce herself in a second
and she will say it correctlyand so okay.
So, but anywho, I'm excited tointroduce you to Lauren, and she
is gonna talk about SEO, whichcan be such a scary thought
whenever you're thinking about,like how do you get traffic?
What does SEO mean?
Like we know what the acronymstands for, but like how do you
actually do it?
(00:33):
And it feels like a big scarything.
But we're going to talk abouthow it isn't and what we really
can do practically with Lauren.
So, lauren, tell us about whoyou are, who you serve and why
we don't have to be scared ofSEO.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So it's Lauren Gaggioli, which is like Ravioli
You've got to use your hands tosay it.
It's weird and hard and so noworries.
But I am an online entrepreneurprimarily.
I say primarily because I'vedefinitely done stuff in the
real world as well.
You know craft fairs and thingslike that in the past, but my
(01:11):
first foray into online businesswas building out an ACT and SAT
prep company online that ranentirely through asynchronous
online courses, and I had thisexperience.
When I built it.
I was so excited and I'm sureyou know about this, right, you
have this like business babythat you launch out into the
world and you're like everyone'sgoing to love it, it's going to
(01:32):
go great.
And then crickets and you gowait a minute, what?
And so you have to back it upand go oh right, I love it
because it's mine.
Oh right, I love it becauseit's mine.
But how do I not only conveyits value in the marketplace,
but how do I then bring peoplethere when I don't have a
(01:54):
storefront on Main Street, acraft fair booth that people are
milling by and seeing and beingintrigued by?
And this is where I think theonline space is really tricky
for a lot of us, that themindset quickly shifts from
super excited to uh-oh.
I've made a huge mistake, andthat's because the inherent play
(02:14):
here is you are front-loadingthe effort, especially if you're
building out asynchronousofferings.
If you have courses or anythingthat's a product right, you
have to develop that first, andif you do that and you don't yet
have an audience, then therecan be a mismatch.
And then, for me, what I foundwith ACT and SAT prep is that,
(02:36):
you know, I would try to be inthe social sphere, I would try
to do like lives, like myfriends would do, and you know,
the problem was I was sellingbroccoli, like nobody wanted a
community around test prep, andso I was like well, now I have
to figure out something elseentirely.
And that's where I reallytapped in early to learning SEO.
And as a solopreneur, it was medoing pretty much everything.
(03:02):
My mom and dad helped me.
My dad did my books and my momdid my shipping, but everything
else was on my shoulders.
And as a solopreneur contentcreator, course creator, podcast
producer, all the thing I wasable to drive 16,000 new leads
per month to my website, usingSEO and developing quality
(03:26):
content to attract the rightleads, and that led me to
ultimately the four hour workweek.
You know, making really goodmoney, while my work basically
full-time momming, which I loved, and it was thanks to Google
and SEO.
So when I say you can do it, Imean it because I've done it and
now that's what I do.
I sold that company in 2021 andnow I'm helping other
(03:49):
solopreneurs do just the same.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
That's so awesome and I'm so glad that you're here,
because what you're describingis exactly what I want to do,
what I am doing and what I knowthat the listeners are trying to
do.
Right, we want to be moms,first and foremost, and then we
want to, you know, be able tohelp our families and have
something for ourselves.
Right, yeah, but mostly it's,you know, like you, like you we
(04:13):
mentioned, you mentioned earlierbefore we started, like you,
homeschool your kids.
I want to do that, and I know alot of the people that are
watching this or listening tothis.
They are either are doing thisor listening to this.
They are either are doing it orthey want to, and they just
don't know how to get traffic.
Like I said, you can have thebest thing on the internet and
if nobody knows you're there, itdoesn't matter.
(04:33):
So how do we get there?
Like, what is someone whodoesn't know anything about what
SEO is right?
Where do you tell them to start?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
So that's a fantastic question, because it is about
building a life you love and theease you love, and
unfortunately, I think, a lot ofus.
Our inclination is I'll go onsocial, but the problem with
social is that you don't ownthat platform.
You don't control whenalgorithms change.
You set up a workflow for allyour text and carousel driven
(05:05):
stuff and then reels come in andgive you a sucker punch and now
you have to change everythingabout how you are playing, not
because it's best for you, notbecause it's best for your
client, but because it's bestfor the algorithm, and I hate
that.
And so what I encourage peopleto do first is to back up and
(05:28):
remember this phrase all roadslead to my website.
Your website is your mostimportant calling card because
it is where you can actuallydeliver your products and
services sometimes, but it'swhere Google can send traffic,
and if your website is clean andclear as an inbound kind of
(05:54):
portal, then you can think ofsocial and YouTube and anything
else you want to do as outboundmarketing.
Right, but inbound, it is aplace where you can stand in one
place.
You can refine it, you can makeit what you want it to be, and
it doesn't matter what anybodyelse says is right or good.
(06:15):
You can still stand out so longas you use some SEO best
practices.
And I say that intentionally,because when you start to dig
deep on SEO, you go wow, there'sa lot here and I will tell you.
With my first business, I did somuch wrong, but I did some
right and that got me on the map.
And so it's about taking a fewsteps understanding the what,
(06:39):
the why, the how, and thenstarting to do the things that
actually work.
How and then starting to do thethings that actually work for
you and doing enough of theright things that you start to
tip the scales in your favor.
I also really love thinkingabout our websites as central
hubs, because it's how we getpeople on our email lists, which
, in the day and age ofalgorithms, people find you once
(07:00):
.
That's lovely, even SEO right,especially now with AI coming in
and those AI summaries, youknow that's great.
However, if you don't havetheir email, you can't get in
touch with them again unlessyou're paying for ads, and then
that becomes a whole other likehuge spend.
And so if you want organicmarketing, you want free
(07:23):
marketing where people can findyou and stay connected and flow
through to your email listseamlessly.
It all works together and that,inherently, is what SEO gets
you.
But SEO is a long play, right?
So that's the other thing.
A lot of people are like I'mgoing to do SEO and they do it
for like a day and they don'tsee any change.
No, no, no.
You got to look at it Twomonths later.
(07:45):
Are you now elevated Six monthslater?
How's it going?
How are those posts posted along while ago doing?
And so it's a slightlydifferent play.
But if you're in it just to bea fly by night, then you're in
it, in my opinion, for the wrongreasons.
So if you're here to build abusiness, then SEO is your
(08:08):
friend, and it's going to rampup as you build out the systems
to support greater traffic andgreater inbound leads.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Okay, awesome, that's wonderful.
So I loved what you said Allleads lead to your website,
right?
That's the goal.
And then I'll even more so, getthem on your email list.
Once they get there, yeah,cause you can sell like.
I had a business coach thatsaid you don't own, you own
nothing but your website andyour email list.
You don't own your social media.
You don't own anything, itdoesn't matter.
(08:37):
Get them on your list, get themto your website.
I love it.
And so how do we get them toour site?
What does that look like?
You said Google, and you'reright.
Seo can be like this monsterthing, but without overwhelming
anyone or freaking them out likewhere do we go?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
So let me give you the number one thing that most
people don't do.
The last time I checked, therewas a report run, I think, in,
or a study done in I think itwas 2021.
And it was something like 98.6%of web pages are not indexed by
Google, and so that means thelion's share of websites out
(09:14):
there aren't showing up insearch.
And so the number one tool if I, if you take nothing else away
from this you need to get yourwebsite domain verified by
Google Search Console.
There are like super simplesteps to do this Right.
(09:34):
And then the next step thatties in with this is every time
you publish new content on yourwebsite, on your website this
doesn't work for social.
New content on your website, onyour website this doesn't work
for social you submit that URLinto Google Search Console to
raise your hand and say Google,I just created some new, epic
content.
Come on over, take a look.
(09:55):
And you're raising your handsand telling Google I have a
website that is fresh andfindable and I would like you to
crawl it.
And so Google Search Console isthe number one thing.
I see that entrepreneurs whohave been in the game for a
really long time have a ton ofcontent on their site.
They've just never done it.
(10:17):
They've never set it up inGoogle Search Console.
Once you do that, you can alsogo in to Bing and just port that
verification from Google.
Google is right now the leaderin search and so it could change
Perplexity, I know, is likekind of gunning at it.
Chat GPT.
(10:38):
You know I have some concernsabout like AI.
I don't actually use AI in mybusiness because I have concerns
about ownership and that sortof thing.
However, it doesn't mean thatthey're not indexing my stuff
and so I assume, if it's inGoogle, that the other search
engines and AI are going to bepicking it up.
So you want to make sure thatyou go into Bing as well and
(11:02):
port over your verification inGoogle, that you go into Bing as
well and port over yourverification in Google and I
know that sounds scary, right?
You're like, oh dear, like Ihave to get into the backend of
my website, I have to go to myhost and I have to like update
my, my uh C name and all thesethings.
I know it sounds really scary,but don't worry about it.
(11:23):
Like you can't mess it up toobad.
Um, there's step-by-stepinstructions and I think the
instructions are literally likefive steps.
It's not that hard, so you cando it.
Um, and you should do it to getyour website in Google.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, absolutely, that is great advice.
I have never heard this.
I'm going to do it myself.
Yes, I don't know about this.
Thank you, and so, yeah, that'sa very practical.
So let me ask you right, we'reall like everyone.
It feels like everyone on theInternet is trying to tell you
to do all this social media.
How would I would someone me,someone else, doesn't matter
(12:04):
switch from all of that effortover there to what would we?
What would the parallel be foryour website instead?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So what I like to say is just stop doing social for a
minute, like, take, take a stepback and look at the content
you're creating for social andthen see how things hang
together.
Right, because social to me ismicro content.
Right, you're doing all theselittle bitty baby pieces of
content.
How can you group stuff you'vealready done into a single
(12:40):
robust blog post and then createa blog post out of that?
You can even embed your socialstuff into your blog post if you
want.
I personally don't, because Idon't want people if I get them
to my website.
Please don't leave my website.
Please stay there, becausethat's another thing.
Google's watching behaviormetrics.
Right, they want people.
They correlate.
(13:02):
If somebody finds your websitestays on your website, goes to
multiple pages.
Your website must be good andso you want to keep people on
your site once they come to you.
So you'll see.
If you sign up on my websitefor any email, you go to a thank
you page.
In that first email there arelinks back to my site and I'm
creating this loop that Google'swatching behavior of people on
(13:23):
the internet.
And if somebody visits my siteand it's multiple pages in the
first five minutes of knowing me, that's a good indication that
my content is quality.
Somebody's genuinely interestedin staying connected, and so
what we have to do is thinkabout what we're doing on social
.
I actually I'm not great onsocial.
(13:44):
I completely own that.
I'm hiring somebody to do itfor me because I hate you have
to show up every single day anddo the thing to make the
algorithm work.
I don't have time for that.
So instead what I do is Icreate a robust blog post or I
create a podcast episode, andthen I parse up pieces of that
(14:06):
and hand it to my social person,and then she takes that and
puts it out in bitty baby chunksand then we say, hey, do you
like this?
This is part of a more robustthing over on the website,
comment here and we'll send youthe link, and it gets people
from social over to your website.
Right, you can send them thatlink in DMs.
You can get them over to yoursite.
(14:26):
So all roads lead to yourwebsite at the end of the day,
because if they're not on youremail list, you are paying.
To get in touch with them.
Again is sort of my assumption.
And so I invert the way Icreate the content.
I do the big chunk first andthen burst that up and go to
social.
But you can back solve that,you can go the other direction.
(14:47):
So, whatever you like to talkabout, tell a story, teach
something valuable.
I will say in the AI day andage information is cheap, but
easy buttons are expensive.
So when you're creatingproducts, when you're creating
courses you have to think aboutor services, you have to think
about how you are making iteasier for people, right?
(15:10):
Is it a shortcut?
Is it that you're doing it forthem?
Right?
I have consulting clients, I dostuff for them.
Or is it a robust program thatis a little bit of training but
also some implementation time sothat people can ask questions
on the fly.
So you have to remember thatnow this is sort of a new
paradigm.
Before, information was what wewere selling.
(15:30):
That's not necessarily asvaluable as it once was.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
We are definitely switching.
Really, I love what you'resaying about like creating the
big content and then parsing itout on the into the social world
.
That is what I do, because Ialso really hate media.
I have never sent someone backto my website, which I will
start doing.
Actually, it's not on mywebsite, it's on my YouTube.
I'm going to change all kindsof stuff after this talk.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Please report back.
I love data on how it's working.
Ok, I will let you know.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I will let you know for sure, and so do you.
Would you say that, um, doingsome sort of podcast or doing
blogging, which one would drivebetter traffic?
Or does it matter?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay.
So I will tell you I lovepodcasts.
I love podcasts.
Podcasts are not a good leadgen path because on now, this
again, this can change.
Now with AI I can index so muchand all these things.
It has ears.
It's a great nurture channel.
(16:38):
So you need words to make apodcast rank and so it's great
from distribution, becauseyou've got Apple and Spotify and
Amazon and all these things.
So I think of it akin to a pushout rather than a pull in.
(16:59):
So I love once people are on mylist to send them my podcast
because that keeps them inconnection with me in a very
scalable way.
I'm creating content for themand that's wonderful.
So it's great from a nurturestandpoint.
However, robust blog posts andthen having it a really
compelling opt-in that iscompletely in alignment with
(17:21):
what it is you are addressingopt-in that is completely in
alignment with what it is youare addressing.
So, for example, if you come tomy website and you look at any
of my SEO posts, the next stepis a DIY website audit.
It is my most highly convertingopt-in on my site and I have a
few, but every single SEO postpoints to that opt-in and I
(17:44):
control that through categoriesin WordPress, if you go to a
post about purpose, you're goingto get my list for 111 core
values to choose from.
So the opt-in offer is dependenton what kind of content you
came to my site to look at, andso thinking about the buckets of
(18:04):
content that you address andcreating a singular endpoint
within that bucket that everypost then sort of pivots to,
that is going to be your numberone way to up your conversion to
your email list.
And the thing that informs allof this and it's kind of
interesting we're talking aboutSEO.
(18:24):
We haven't even mentioned ityet, but keyword research is the
number one thing that is goingto help you make sure you are
laser focused and hitting themark every single time.
You need to know exactly whatpeople are searching, and there
are ways to see not only whatwords they're searching for, but
how many people a month aresearching for it and how hard
(18:47):
it's going to be for you to rankfor that term.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Okay.
Do you have any tools that youwould suggest for someone to
look at?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yes, so my favorite is Ahrefs, but it is very
expensive, um, and they used tohave a really good free tool
that I would just send everybodyto, and now they've kind of
gutted it.
It's not you.
It's still there but it's notas granular.
(19:27):
You can sign up.
I forget if you have to givepayment to sign up, but mark it
in your calendar, cancel it out,get in and do a huge hit of
keyword research in one go andsee if the language you're using
is lining up with what peopleare asking.
I had a client once who istalking on and on and on about
recurring income, recurringincome, recurring income.
(19:50):
He's a membership guy.
His name is Vincent Puglisi.
You guys should totally checkhim out.
He's awesome, but he talksabout building out your
membership, that sort of thing,but he talks about recurring
income as being the play formembership.
And then he did a keywordresearch, kind of you know, glow
up and went oh, nobody'ssearching for recurring income,
(20:11):
they're searching for recurringrevenue.
That's the term they're lookingfor and that he's probably
never going to rank for eitherof those terms.
They are far too competitive.
Too many people are going forit.
But that's quality informationto know what your lead is using,
because when you use languagethat mirrors theirs, it's kind
(20:32):
of like the psychological thingof like body language mirroring,
where you inherently lean intothe know, like and trust factor,
because you're building abridge to them, you're using the
language they use and then youcan show them how you help them
do that thing.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Ok, that's super useful.
For sure we will take a look atthat.
Ok, so we've talked a lot aboutAI, right, but what do you
think is the appropriate way touse AI in your marketing?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
content.
Um, I am very, uh, gun shy whenit comes to adopting technology
, um, which is just hilariousfor a gal who loves data and
teaches seo on the internet.
Um, but I love what theinternet can get us, but I think
(21:25):
we have to be careful about howwe're leveraging it.
Um, so I love writing writingmy thing, like I'm writing
fiction.
I love writing blog posts.
That's my primary medium.
Um, I understand that that'snot everybody's, so for me, part
of the creative process it'sthat, like, uh, joan Didion
(21:46):
quote, I don't know what I thinkuntil I write it.
Um, that's, that's my process,and so I'm not going to give
that up because I can do itfaster.
Faster isn't always better.
However, for someone who has,say, writing is not their thing.
They're more of like a YouTuber.
They love to do the kind ofspoken word or video.
(22:08):
Great, you can have AI, look atvideos you've created and
generate a blog post out of thecontent you've already shared,
and then you can embed thatvideo within it and plus it up
that way.
What I would say is, if you aredoing that, I would feed it
original content and have itsummarize original content,
(22:29):
rather than regurgitatingeverything else out on the
internet.
I call it the beige-ificationof information.
That is what is happening.
Everything's running.
It summarize original contentrather than regurgitating
everything else out on theinternet.
I call it the beige-ificationof information.
That is what is happeningEverything's running to the
middle, and that's going to bereally boring, right?
So let your colors show andthen take what it gives you and
plus it up.
Give it the once over with yourown special magic, right?
(22:52):
Give it the pixie dust sprinkle, because if you don't, google's
going to go.
This was written by a bot andalso, I think, all of us are
going to go.
This was written by a bot.
It's pretty obvious, I think,right now.
So you do need to put your ownstamp on it.
I also think it's really greatfor people with maybe learning
differences or executivefunction challenges, folks who
(23:16):
maybe can't articulate theirpoint really, really clearly and
succinctly.
Fabulous.
Use ChatGPT.
Write out your first pass, feedit into ChatGPT and have it
plus it up for you and then doanother once over.
So I think how we use it has tobe a tool.
You, and then do another onceover.
(23:36):
So I think how we use it has tobe a tool, and how you use the
tool is.
You know how effective the toolis, so wield it with caution
and care.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yes, absolutely.
I agree 100% with you.
You can definitely tell ifsomething has been written by
chat GPT if you haven't editedit.
I use chat GP all the time andI use it for clients and I use
it for all kinds of stuff.
But I put a lot of informationin there about what their voice
is, what my voice, where we'regoing like, and then you rewrite
it after it writes it.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So the prompting is the first step.
Right, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I'm a big fan of it.
It makes things much faster.
But you're absolutely right, itis beige.
It's so boring and I have heardcoaches like prominent people
that I will not name.
They like just throw it inthere and then put it on the
internet.
I'm like what is?
What is this?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I can't listen to you anymore and I think it comes
from like I have a real aversionto like hoodie bro marketers.
Like more is not more, likesometimes it's less.
And just because those and yousee it in the SEO space a lot
like publish a brand new website, put 20,000 pages on it, have
(24:44):
it all generated by AI, submitit in this order and then you'll
rank for four seconds and lookat you, you got the numbers and
it's like how long before thatdoesn't work again.
Like I would rather build on asolid foundation.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yes, absolutely.
That's what we're going for.
That's definitely.
We're going for the long haulhere, right?
Yeah, someone said my businesscoach the other day he's like
you know, we need the fruitright now, right?
What did he say?
Watermelon and the oak tree,which I'd never heard before.
You want to do it now, but youreally also need to be growing
an oak tree and it takes time.
Yeah, so you have to put thateffort into it, which is what
(25:22):
we're doing, because we want toraise our families and run a
business, and not die all threeof those things are very true.
Yes, they are.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
We might be disappointed on one of them, but
that's okay.
Well, yeah, okay, not thatright now, not right now?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, not because of either one, at least.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Well, Lauren, this was so great.
If you had any other piece ofadvice to tell a mom with young
kids trying to run a business,what would you tell them?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You've had nine healthy days in 2025.
Oh my gosh, I'm right there inthe trenches with you.
I totally get it that some days, business doesn't come first
and hustle culture is a liar, ittells you.
Then you'll never make it.
And I'm here to tell you, like,give yourself grace, you know,
(26:16):
live up to the responsibilitiesyou have for your clients, of
course, but also extend yourselfgrace in the in the challenging
seasons, because we're growingoak trees, not watermelons.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's perfect, okay, well, thank you so much, lauren
.
Where can we find you?
Where can everybody find?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
you.
Laurengaggiolicom is the bestplace to find me.
Everything I do lives there.
But if you're curious aboutmaybe like coming in and doing a
mastermind session,laurengaggiolicom, forward slash
mastermind I have these likeone-off.
It's $25 for your first session.
If you want to just come andchat and like it's called the
(26:54):
phone a friend mastermind for areason, like if you just need a
lifeline, I got you, so that's agreat place to go.
If you have any any questionsabout SEO, marketing, mindset,
the whole nine, we cover it all.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That's so great, okay , awesome, well, thank you so
much and sorry about not knowinghow to pronounce your last name
.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Totally fine, nobody does Some days I get it wrong.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Wonderful Well, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
This was great.
Thank you so much.
It was lovely to spend timewith you today, absolutely.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.