February 24, 2025 • 13 mins
This episode explores the relationship between simply making an effort and the serendipitous successes that can occur and provides...
[5:45] 3 strategies that require minimal time for maximum impact
[6:21] Enhancing your Google Business Profile
[7:55] Optimizing calls to action with testing
[8:43] Revamping old blog posts
Have questions about SEO? Follow this link to send it to me!
https://seiq.meredithshusband.com/c/questions/
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Meredith's Husband
https://www.meredithshusband.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Meredith's Husband (00:00):
So there's this really interesting
phenomenon that I've seen overthe course of my two decades in
working at websites and SEO.
Meredith (00:09):
More people asking for the universe to help them.
Meredith's Husband (00:13):
How did you come up with that?
Meredith (00:15):
I don't know.
That just seems to be over thepast 20 years people have been
like just let the universe takecare of it, holy shit.
Meredith's Husband (00:21):
That's one of the things I'm going to talk
about today.
Meredith (00:23):
No, it's not.
Yes, it is no way.
Yes, it is no way.
Yes, it is.
No, it's not, yes, it is.
It's right in front of my faceon my notes.
No, show it to me.
Meredith's Husband (00:31):
I will Okay when I get home.
It's right here.
Don't believe it.
Intro phenomenon universe.
No, yeah, no hey let's get backto the episode.
So this interesting phenomenonis whenever you start or I don't
want to say whenever, I feellike it's happened hundreds of
times, probably not hundreds,it's probably dozens of times,
(00:53):
but it feels like perhaps morethan half the time.
When you start a new project,there's stuff you do in the very
beginning and then the clientcomes back, like within a month
or a few weeks, and says, oh, wecan see a change, it's already
working.
And sure enough, I go and Ilook at the metrics and yeah,
there's an increase in whateverthe traffic, the conversions.
It usually means they'regetting more leads or they're
(01:15):
making more sales, and I canverify that by looking at the
data.
The problem is, I know for afact that what we have done did
not result in that increase.
There is absolutely no way.
So it's just a fluke, that thetiming seems to coincide with.
We start some activity, somegood results happen, but there
is no cause and effect.
(01:35):
Really, I guarantee you Now, Iused to like not take credit,
but when people would say that,it'd be like yeah, I'm good, I'm
glad it's working, but nowadaysI say, you know, there's
nothing we've done that iscausing that yet that's a fluke.
Because what happens is whenthere is that fluke and there is
a spike, there's an increase inthe leads, then it's going to
(01:56):
come down.
You know it's not the new norm.
So then what happens?
If I take credit for it, then Ialso have to take credit for
the fact that it falls off.
So I'm very yeah, I try to bevery honest, just in all cases
anyway.
You do, but it's much better tomanage expectations than it is
to try to take credit for a winwhen you have it.
(02:17):
Anyway.
So here we go.
Yes, my husband One person hasdescribed this to me is oh, it's
the universe.
You just do something, you putsomething out there in the
universe and it comes back toyou and literally, that is in my
notes.
Meredith (02:32):
I can't.
You've never talked about this.
Meredith's Husband (02:35):
No, why would I?
Because I don't really.
I don't like that saying Iagree.
Meredith (02:40):
I feel like we, of all the things that the universe
has to deal with, me gettingthis client not important,
Really not on the list.
Meredith's Husband (02:51):
Well, I think about it a little
differently.
Of course, the way I thinkabout it makes sense.
What?
I'm not opposed to the conceptof that sort of thing, but it's
that phrasing.
Because that phrasing it's tome it seems like a lot of
pressure to the universe no tome, because it's I mean what?
(03:11):
what exactly is it to putsomething into the universe?
Is it thinking about something?
I, I think it is.
If you think about something,you have essentially put it into
the universe well, I think oncethere is such a thing like and
accountability.
Meredith (03:23):
Once I remember in college I would say to a friend
I'd like to travel to so-and-so,and they're like you should do
it, and I said I'm going to, andthen I actually do it.
Meredith's Husband (03:36):
That's actually a somewhat applicable
story, hey come on now.
I was ready to go completelyoff the rails.
And doesn't it make sense?
But back to my point aboutputting things out there, just
putting thoughts out there.
To me, if I'm thinkingsomething, I'm putting it into,
it's already in the universe.
(04:09):
If it's occurring to you, it'salready exactly, so that's very
well thought out.
I don't, I don't think about itin those terms, but what I do
think about and this is gonnathis goes back to my college,
maybe even high school physicscourses.
Newton's first law of motion.
Meredith (04:25):
Yes, yeah, yes, newton's first law of motion.
Meredith's Husband (04:30):
Do you want to remind all of?
Meredith (04:32):
us what Newton's.
No, you know what I'm going togift you.
All right, I'm going to put itout to the universe that you
should.
Meredith's Husband (04:38):
Newton's first law of motion says that an
object at rest tends to stay atrest unless it's acted upon by
an outside force and an objectin Okay.
So the way I think about thatin terms of or in place of
(04:58):
putting things into the universe, is you start to do something,
you put your website marketingin motion.
It has momentum.
So to me that is kind of likeyes, we are starting some
marketing work on our website.
And then, lo and behold, theystart getting more leads.
But it wasn't that ourmarketing work yet created those
leads.
It's the object in motion tendsto stay in motion.
(05:21):
That's how I look at it.
That's how I make sense of this, because I have no better
explanation for this phenomenonMakes no sense to me.
So what I thought is I wouldgive you a few things that you
can do that would be relativelyeasy to do and hopefully have
some impact, but just to get youin motion If you're in any sort
of stuck space or you're notsure what to do.
(05:42):
If you want to create some ofthat momentum, do a little
experiment.
See if Sir Isaac Newton's firstlaw of motion applies to website
marketing.
I thought that was funny, notfunny.
Okay, things you can do, numberone yes.
Your Google business profile.
Yes, these things we've talkedabout before here on the podcast
(06:05):
.
I talk about them in workshops.
Just spend up to an hour on anyof these.
It doesn't need to be an hour,it could take less.
Just work to do something toimprove your Google business
profile.
Your Google business profile.
I can tell by the look on yourface.
You don't know what I'm talkingabout.
Meredith (06:20):
No, I do.
It's the thing that has thereviews.
Meredith's Husband (06:24):
Yes, Come on now.
It is the knowledge panel.
It is the right-hand half ofthe page of Google.
If you do a search for yourbusiness name, you should
hopefully see some stuff overthere.
My advice when I say improvethat, because that's pretty
vague advice I was going to.
Just try to think of that like alittle mini website of its own
(06:47):
On that right-hand side.
That's a little mini site thatyou can control.
You can make sure all yourbusiness hours and address and
phone number are listed.
Make sure your products andyour services are listed.
Meredith (06:59):
And updated.
Meredith's Husband (07:00):
If they need to be updated.
Yeah, don't put old stuff onthere.
Add images.
Just think of it like you wouldthink of a website.
You want to make it look good,Right?
Okay, that's one thing.
Meredith (07:09):
Kind of dust it off.
Meredith's Husband (07:10):
Yeah, Dust off your resume, essentially
kind of Just put it into theuniverse.
Meredith (07:16):
That's one thing you can do.
Meredith's Husband (07:17):
that is just .
It's good for SEO, it's good,it's really good to do that and
try to improve this.
Also, it's not a difficult wayto just oh, I'm going to spend a
half an hour just devoting ityeah.
Just use common sense.
What looks better?
Yeah, something else you can do.
Yes, same thing with your CTA,your call to action, your
buttons, whatever you have onyour website.
(07:38):
Yes, test out some variants.
So if you, if on your call toaction button say you have, you
know book, now try schedule acall, or try let's chat, or, you
know, try whatever you feel isappropriate, yeah, test it out a
little bit and make sure it'sconsistent.
Don't do it just on one button.
(07:59):
Make sure those buttons areconsistent.
So try it out.
Professional marketers do thisall the time.
There are people whose entireprofession is optimizing your
call to action and doing thingslike this, running little tests.
So this is not an insignificantthing.
Right and again, pretty easy todo?
Yeah, I think so.
Number three yes, blogging.
(08:20):
If you're stuck with blogging,or you haven't blogged or you
want to, you know your bloggingneeds like a little kick in the
ass yeah.
Like maybe mine does sometimes.
What I find is a good way toget that initial momentum go
back and look at an old blog,pick an old blog that's
preferably doing well and samething, improve it.
Just make it better, expand onit.
(08:40):
Look at it as a user and justlook at it and say what would
make this more helpful to me ifI were reading this.
You know it could be somethinglike adding business hours for a
restaurant you recommended orgiving an address of a park you
talk about or anything.
Just make it more helpful.
The best way if you want to getthe most bang for your buck out
(09:03):
of this approach go to GoogleSearch Console and look to see
what blogs are already doingwell and pick one of those.
Pick a blog that is gettingmore impressions than the others
.
Meredith (09:16):
Here's an impression, yeah.
Meredith's Husband (09:19):
That means Google likes it, and if you make
it better, Google's going tolike it a little bit more.
You're going to get moredistance out of that than if you
try to redo a blog that Googledoesn't like.
Say that is not getting anyimpressions, Okay.
So those are the three things Ithink are all pretty easy, yeah
.
Meredith (09:35):
Would you agree?
Yes, I agree.
Meredith's Husband (09:38):
And I would say these are not things that
are going to take a week.
Meredith (09:42):
No.
Meredith's Husband (09:42):
I don't spend more than an hour on any
of these.
Meredith (09:44):
You end up to an hour?
Meredith's Husband (09:45):
not, but you could also spend 20, 30 minutes
.
Meredith (09:48):
Sure, you can Do one of those.
Meredith's Husband (09:50):
And just see what happens over the next
month, see if Sir Isaac Newtonwas right, these wonderful
desserts.
And if you want more guidanceor suggestions on deeper
suggestions on these or anyothers, follow the link below
and you can ask a question.
You can submit a question.
You'll need to create anaccount.
It's not just public on the web, but it's free.
Meredith (10:12):
Excellent.
Meredith's Husband (10:14):
I never know what you're talking about.
Like, if I'm talking and you'rewhispering under my voice I'm
always like what the fuck is shesaying?
I hope she's not telling peopleto do something stupid.
Meredith (10:25):
I would never say anything stupid.
Meredith's Husband (10:28):
I get to check it out when I edit these
episodes and I turn my.
I put my track on mute andMeredith is usually talking
about ice cream.
Meredith (10:39):
That's exactly what I'm thinking about right now.
Ice cream.
I just made a faux ice creamwith vegan yogurt and strawberry
.
Meredith's Husband (10:48):
Oh, that sounds delicious.
Is there any left?
Can you leave it out for me?
Meredith (10:52):
That was my healthy substitution for Van Leeuwen's
strawberry shortcake vegan.
Okay.
So there's this really interesting
phenomenon that I've seen overthe course of my two decades in
working at websites and SEO.
Meredith (00:09):
More people asking for the universe to help them.
Meredith's Husband (00:13):
How did you come up with that?
Meredith (00:15):
I don't know.
That just seems to be over thepast 20 years people have been
like just let the universe takecare of it, holy shit.
Meredith's Husband (00:21):
That's one of the things I'm going to talk
about today.
Meredith (00:23):
No, it's not.
Yes, it is no way.
Yes, it is no way.
Yes, it is.
No, it's not, yes, it is.
It's right in front of my faceon my notes.
No, show it to me.
Meredith's Husband (00:31):
I will Okay when I get home.
It's right here.
Don't believe it.
Intro phenomenon universe.
No, yeah, no hey let's get backto the episode.
So this interesting phenomenonis whenever you start or I don't
want to say whenever, I feellike it's happened hundreds of
times, probably not hundreds,it's probably dozens of times,
(00:53):
but it feels like perhaps morethan half the time.
When you start a new project,there's stuff you do in the very
beginning and then the clientcomes back, like within a month
or a few weeks, and says, oh, wecan see a change, it's already
working.
And sure enough, I go and Ilook at the metrics and yeah,
there's an increase in whateverthe traffic, the conversions.
It usually means they'regetting more leads or they're
(01:15):
making more sales, and I canverify that by looking at the
data.
The problem is, I know for afact that what we have done did
not result in that increase.
There is absolutely no way.
So it's just a fluke, that thetiming seems to coincide with.
We start some activity, somegood results happen, but there
is no cause and effect.
(01:35):
Really, I guarantee you Now, Iused to like not take credit,
but when people would say that,it'd be like yeah, I'm good, I'm
glad it's working, but nowadaysI say, you know, there's
nothing we've done that iscausing that yet that's a fluke.
Because what happens is whenthere is that fluke and there is
a spike, there's an increase inthe leads, then it's going to
(01:56):
come down.
You know it's not the new norm.
So then what happens?
If I take credit for it, then Ialso have to take credit for
the fact that it falls off.
So I'm very yeah, I try to bevery honest, just in all cases
anyway.
You do, but it's much better tomanage expectations than it is
to try to take credit for a winwhen you have it.
(02:17):
Anyway.
So here we go.
Yes, my husband One person hasdescribed this to me is oh, it's
the universe.
You just do something, you putsomething out there in the
universe and it comes back toyou and literally, that is in my
notes.
Meredith (02:32):
I can't.
You've never talked about this.
Meredith's Husband (02:35):
No, why would I?
Because I don't really.
I don't like that saying Iagree.
Meredith (02:40):
I feel like we, of all the things that the universe
has to deal with, me gettingthis client not important,
Really not on the list.
Meredith's Husband (02:51):
Well, I think about it a little
differently.
Of course, the way I thinkabout it makes sense.
What?
I'm not opposed to the conceptof that sort of thing, but it's
that phrasing.
Because that phrasing it's tome it seems like a lot of
pressure to the universe no tome, because it's I mean what?
(03:11):
what exactly is it to putsomething into the universe?
Is it thinking about something?
I, I think it is.
If you think about something,you have essentially put it into
the universe well, I think oncethere is such a thing like and
accountability.
Meredith (03:23):
Once I remember in college I would say to a friend
I'd like to travel to so-and-so,and they're like you should do
it, and I said I'm going to, andthen I actually do it.
Meredith's Husband (03:36):
That's actually a somewhat applicable
story, hey come on now.
I was ready to go completelyoff the rails.
And doesn't it make sense?
But back to my point aboutputting things out there, just
putting thoughts out there.
To me, if I'm thinkingsomething, I'm putting it into,
it's already in the universe.
(04:09):
If it's occurring to you, it'salready exactly, so that's very
well thought out.
I don't, I don't think about itin those terms, but what I do
think about and this is gonnathis goes back to my college,
maybe even high school physicscourses.
Newton's first law of motion.
Meredith (04:25):
Yes, yeah, yes, newton's first law of motion.
Meredith's Husband (04:30):
Do you want to remind all of?
Meredith (04:32):
us what Newton's.
No, you know what I'm going togift you.
All right, I'm going to put itout to the universe that you
should.
Meredith's Husband (04:38):
Newton's first law of motion says that an
object at rest tends to stay atrest unless it's acted upon by
an outside force and an objectin Okay.
So the way I think about thatin terms of or in place of
(04:58):
putting things into the universe, is you start to do something,
you put your website marketingin motion.
It has momentum.
So to me that is kind of likeyes, we are starting some
marketing work on our website.
And then, lo and behold, theystart getting more leads.
But it wasn't that ourmarketing work yet created those
leads.
It's the object in motion tendsto stay in motion.
(05:21):
That's how I look at it.
That's how I make sense of this, because I have no better
explanation for this phenomenonMakes no sense to me.
So what I thought is I wouldgive you a few things that you
can do that would be relativelyeasy to do and hopefully have
some impact, but just to get youin motion If you're in any sort
of stuck space or you're notsure what to do.
(05:42):
If you want to create some ofthat momentum, do a little
experiment.
See if Sir Isaac Newton's firstlaw of motion applies to website
marketing.
I thought that was funny, notfunny.
Okay, things you can do, numberone yes.
Your Google business profile.
Yes, these things we've talkedabout before here on the podcast
(06:05):
.
I talk about them in workshops.
Just spend up to an hour on anyof these.
It doesn't need to be an hour,it could take less.
Just work to do something toimprove your Google business
profile.
Your Google business profile.
I can tell by the look on yourface.
You don't know what I'm talkingabout.
Meredith (06:20):
No, I do.
It's the thing that has thereviews.
Meredith's Husband (06:24):
Yes, Come on now.
It is the knowledge panel.
It is the right-hand half ofthe page of Google.
If you do a search for yourbusiness name, you should
hopefully see some stuff overthere.
My advice when I say improvethat, because that's pretty
vague advice I was going to.
Just try to think of that like alittle mini website of its own
(06:47):
On that right-hand side.
That's a little mini site thatyou can control.
You can make sure all yourbusiness hours and address and
phone number are listed.
Make sure your products andyour services are listed.
Meredith (06:59):
And updated.
Meredith's Husband (07:00):
If they need to be updated.
Yeah, don't put old stuff onthere.
Add images.
Just think of it like you wouldthink of a website.
You want to make it look good,Right?
Okay, that's one thing.
Meredith (07:09):
Kind of dust it off.
Meredith's Husband (07:10):
Yeah, Dust off your resume, essentially
kind of Just put it into theuniverse.
Meredith (07:16):
That's one thing you can do.
Meredith's Husband (07:17):
that is just .
It's good for SEO, it's good,it's really good to do that and
try to improve this.
Also, it's not a difficult wayto just oh, I'm going to spend a
half an hour just devoting ityeah.
Just use common sense.
What looks better?
Yeah, something else you can do.
Yes, same thing with your CTA,your call to action, your
buttons, whatever you have onyour website.
(07:38):
Yes, test out some variants.
So if you, if on your call toaction button say you have, you
know book, now try schedule acall, or try let's chat, or, you
know, try whatever you feel isappropriate, yeah, test it out a
little bit and make sure it'sconsistent.
Don't do it just on one button.
(07:59):
Make sure those buttons areconsistent.
So try it out.
Professional marketers do thisall the time.
There are people whose entireprofession is optimizing your
call to action and doing thingslike this, running little tests.
So this is not an insignificantthing.
Right and again, pretty easy todo?
Yeah, I think so.
Number three yes, blogging.
(08:20):
If you're stuck with blogging,or you haven't blogged or you
want to, you know your bloggingneeds like a little kick in the
ass yeah.
Like maybe mine does sometimes.
What I find is a good way toget that initial momentum go
back and look at an old blog,pick an old blog that's
preferably doing well and samething, improve it.
Just make it better, expand onit.
(08:40):
Look at it as a user and justlook at it and say what would
make this more helpful to me ifI were reading this.
You know it could be somethinglike adding business hours for a
restaurant you recommended orgiving an address of a park you
talk about or anything.
Just make it more helpful.
The best way if you want to getthe most bang for your buck out
(09:03):
of this approach go to GoogleSearch Console and look to see
what blogs are already doingwell and pick one of those.
Pick a blog that is gettingmore impressions than the others
.
Meredith (09:16):
Here's an impression, yeah.
Meredith's Husband (09:19):
That means Google likes it, and if you make
it better, Google's going tolike it a little bit more.
You're going to get moredistance out of that than if you
try to redo a blog that Googledoesn't like.
Say that is not getting anyimpressions, Okay.
So those are the three things Ithink are all pretty easy, yeah
.
Meredith (09:35):
Would you agree?
Yes, I agree.
Meredith's Husband (09:38):
And I would say these are not things that
are going to take a week.
Meredith (09:42):
No.
Meredith's Husband (09:42):
I don't spend more than an hour on any
of these.
Meredith (09:44):
You end up to an hour?
Meredith's Husband (09:45):
not, but you could also spend 20, 30 minutes
.
Meredith (09:48):
Sure, you can Do one of those.
Meredith's Husband (09:50):
And just see what happens over the next
month, see if Sir Isaac Newtonwas right, these wonderful
desserts.
And if you want more guidanceor suggestions on deeper
suggestions on these or anyothers, follow the link below
and you can ask a question.
You can submit a question.
You'll need to create anaccount.
It's not just public on the web, but it's free.
Meredith (10:12):
Excellent.
Meredith's Husband (10:14):
I never know what you're talking about.
Like, if I'm talking and you'rewhispering under my voice I'm
always like what the fuck is shesaying?
I hope she's not telling peopleto do something stupid.
Meredith (10:25):
I would never say anything stupid.
Meredith's Husband (10:28):
I get to check it out when I edit these
episodes and I turn my.
I put my track on mute andMeredith is usually talking
about ice cream.
Meredith (10:39):
That's exactly what I'm thinking about right now.
Ice cream.
I just made a faux ice creamwith vegan yogurt and strawberry
.
Meredith's Husband (10:48):
Oh, that sounds delicious.
Is there any left?
Can you leave it out for me?
Meredith (10:52):
That was my healthy substitution for Van Leeuwen's
strawberry shortcake vegan.
Okay.
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