If you're new to SEO or you've tried it but you're not sure you're doing it right, this week's episode will help. Learn what to do first if you're overwhelmed by the thought of doing SEO on your website. I'll walk you through how to get started and what to do first so you can start to rank higher on Google, get more traffic to your website, and maybe even increase your visibility on ChatGPT with SEO.
Register now for the free live SEO class and find out the secrets to being found, generating leads, and making money from Google and in AI Search like ChatGPT.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class
My free resources, including the Beginner's step-by-step SEO Guide and my free class, are available here.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies
Learn more about 1:1 Elite Marketing Coaching, where we work together for 3 months on your business. I'll help you make more money.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-coaching
Join me in Simple SEO Content, my complete SEO and Content Marketing course that teaches you what to do step-by-step. It walks you through the entire process. (complete course)
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes
Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program.
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My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links)
Podcast recording and editing - Descript
Episode Transcript
Hi, and welcome back to thepodcast.
I'm so glad to have you herewith me today.
So today I want to address aquestion that I got recently
from a new student, and it wassomebody who said, I was so
scared.
I was so overwhelmed at thethought of SEO because.
I bought into the hype.
(00:20):
I believed what people told methat it was this super technical
thing.
It was complicated.
It was gonna be hard to figureout.
I didn't know that you weregonna teach it in a way that was
so easy to understand.
I wish I would've startedsooner.
And I thought, well, let's talkabout that.
So if you, my friend, arefeeling like I'm a little
scared, I'm a littleoverwhelmed, really, I'm not
(00:42):
sure what to do or how to getstarted.
I want you to start with yourhomepage.
Let's just make this as easy andsimple and straightforward as
possible for you.
If you've never done SEO beforeor you've tried to do it, but
you're not really sure if it'sworking, let's focus just on
that one page.
Let's get you started there, andwe'll go from there.
(01:03):
We can always build thatmomentum once you've got the
homepage done.
So SEO Search EngineOptimization, as you know, it is
a really powerful, effectivemarketing tool.
It is a marketing strategy youcan use.
It really truly is aboutbuilding the visibility for your
website or your business online.
It's about showing up on Google,in Google ai, and now in our AI
(01:28):
search tools like Chat, GPT, andPerplexity with.
Out it.
You are not going to be visible.
You are not going to be found bynew people.
You'll be found by the peoplewho know who you are already.
But if you really want yourbusiness to grow and scale, you
need to be found by people whodon't know who you are today.
If you have a podcast, you cando a podcast.
(01:48):
SEO.
In order to help you be found bynew people in the podcast app as
well.
I mean, the reality of thesituation is if you want your
business to grow, you need to befound by new people.
This is what we do to be foundby new people.
So simple, straightforward, easyto understand.
You don't need to do everythingto your website to start seeing
(02:10):
results.
I actually have a student whohas had an enormous.
Gain in revenue for her businessjust tied to her homepage.
Now, she has done additionalSEO.
Her whole site is optimized atthis point, but her homepage
alone is responsible for a 52%increase in her.
(02:32):
Coaching revenue because sheoptimized her homepage.
Using the right keywords is nowranking.
Position number one is gettinglots of traffic, lots of
visibility, lots of leads, andultimately lots of new paying
customers because of heroptimization, she's done just on
the homepage.
(02:52):
Like I said, she's got lots ofpages that are working, but that
homepage alone is tied to thatsignificant increase in revenue
in the last year.
This is what is very possiblefor you if you do what I teach.
So you're going to think about.
Your a homepage.
Now, sometimes we're in asituation where our niche is
incredibly competitive, so it'svery hard to find a keyword.
(03:15):
That's what we would callnon-brand, meaning a keyword
that does not have our businessname or our name in it where we
can rank.
Sometimes that is the case.
So if you're in a case like thatand you really can't find
something, you're a realtor in.
You know, a major metropolitanarea, you're a Phoenix realtor,
you're probably not gonna rankfor Phoenix realtor.
You're probably not gonna rankfor homes for sale because it's
(03:36):
very competitive.
You are somebody like me who'sin SEO.
It's very hard to rank for SEOterms because everybody who is
writing about SEO.
Is an SEO and most of the toolplatforms have very large, very
active blogs with lots ofvisibility.
(03:56):
So if I went after the wordS-E-O-S-E-O coach, SEO expert, I
probably wouldn't rank.
So I have to go after otherwords that are adjacent that are
helpful.
Things like marketing Coach, Ican rank for that, but I can't
necessarily rank for SEO Expert,and that's okay.
What I want you to look for is,is there a niche related word
(04:16):
that you can rank for that isnon brand?
If there is perfect use that.
If not, let's just go ahead andfocus on your business.
Name, your name, whatever youwant to be known as, and use
that as your keyword.
If we can find that non-brandone, it will help us with some
additional visibility, but wecan't always find that.
(04:38):
Now you're going to choose thatkeyword and you're gonna
optimize your homepage.
I want you to go through yourcopy on your homepage and make
sure you've used your keyword,whether it's your business name,
your brand, your name, or anon-brand keyword.
I want you to make sure thatyou're using that keyword in
your copy and in your headers onyour homepage.
And I know this may sound reallysimple and straightforward, but
(05:01):
I'm including it because I'vehad clients in the past who
thought they were doing whatthey were supposed to.
Who had not actually ever usedthe keyword they wanted to rank
for in the copy on the page.
So I'm just gonna let you knowto save you from potentially
making that mistake.
Use the keyword on your page.
Then you're going to want tomake sure you update your image
(05:22):
file names on the page, soyou're going to want to make
sure you use your keyword inyour image file names.
If you have alt text as anoption, go ahead and use that as
well.
You can put in the a DAdescriptor information.
You can also put in the keyword.
I was trained to use your alttext just for SEO though today
we are in a more inclusivesociety, so now we're using it.
(05:46):
What it was originally intendedfor, which is like screen
readers.
So do that.
But if you can incorporate yourkeyword in there, great.
Then what I also want you tothink about.
Is if you are a local business,you service people in a specific
area, then I want you to goahead and use your local
(06:10):
information, your local area.
So for example, if I werefocusing on my local market, I
would potentially be optimizingfor marketing coach.
Tucson, Arizona.
Now, the reality is I don'toptimize for Tucson, Arizona
because I work with people allover the country, actually all
(06:31):
over the world.
But when I first started mybusiness many, many, many years
ago, I did go after and targetcontent marketing agency
Phoenix, because my very firstiteration of etched marketing
nine years ago.
Was as a content marketingagency, working with small
business owners, creating theircontent and their strategy and
(06:52):
all of that.
And I did rank on page one inthe top two or three positions,
sometimes position one forcontent marketing agency,
Phoenix.
And it did work.
I got leads, I got clients, Iworked with local clients.
Today, that's not what I'mdoing, but if you are, let's
say.
You own a brick and mortar shop.
(07:13):
You are a therapist in an area.
You are a life coach who workswith people online and in your
local area.
Make sure that you areoptimizing for those local terms
because what we're seeing,especially with the addition of
chat, GPT search.
We're seeing a lot of peoplelike starting to figure out and
they're going to chat GPT andthey're kind of having the
conversation of, Hey, what do Ineed?
(07:36):
I need to look for help in thisarea.
I had a, uh, Lisa, one of mystudents had this happen
recently with a new client ofhers.
She's a therapist, and they hadgone to chat GPT because they
needed to find a specific typeof therapy.
But they weren't really surewhat to search for.
So once chat, GPT told them whatto search for, then that person
went to Google and they searchedfor that type therapy in their
(07:59):
local area.
Then because Lisa has listenedto the podcast for a long time
and took Simple SEO content andworked with me in the program,
that will become theaccelerator, she is really good
at what she does.
She has done everything, and sowhen that person went and
searched.
For that type of therapy officein their area.
(08:21):
You better believe her websiteshowed up.
She got the lead, and becauseshe's really good, she closed
the lead and she then had thesale.
That is why it's important ifyou service a local area to
include that local information.
In your optimization as well,having it on your page, and then
(08:42):
make sure it's in your titletag, in your meta description,
because those are gonna show upin the search results.
And those are what is going tohelp someone decide whether or
not they're going to clickthrough and go to your page to
even learn about you.
So that's a really good spot.
If you are overwhelmed, you'renot sure what to do, you're
trying to figure it out, juststart with your homepage.
(09:04):
Even if you've optimized yourhomepage in the past, I want you
to go take a look at it and see,am I doing the things that
Rachel's talking about in thistraining?
Am I optimized for my localarea?
Did I look for a non-brandkeyword?
Do I have my brand name or mybusiness name?
Did I update my image filenames?
Do I have a good title tag?
(09:25):
Do I have a good metadescription?
Do those.
Follow Google Best practices,meaning that title tag is under
60 characters.
That meta description is under160.
I'm willing to bet there's areally good chance that yours
don't follow those guidelinesbecause so many of them do not.
So double check yours to makesure you're good to go.
And then just take a look.
(09:45):
Go to Google.
Use an incognito browser windowand type in that non-brand
keyword or type in your name oryour business image.
Just see where you show up.
That will help you start to see,oh, okay, I am visible.
Go to chat GPT.
Ask it to search.
With no knowledge of you.
Don't know.
You.
Do not know who I am.
Pretend I'm someone else.
(10:06):
And ask them for ask chat GPTfor some information and see if
it.
Recommends you or talks aboutyou as an option.
In the future, we'll have betterAI visibility reporting.
Some of the reporting tools areworking on it right now, but for
today, we don't have it.
So we have to kind of manuallygo look at it and do it.
(10:26):
Also, make sure if you're usingyour SEO tools, you have a
keyword ranking report.
Program.
Go ahead and add that non brandkeyword.
If you found one, go ahead andadd that to your rank.
Reporting your reporting tool sothat you can see how you are
doing.
You wanna watch it like once amonth.
You don't need to look at itevery day.
You will drive yourself crazy'cause it moves up and down all
(10:48):
the time.
It can, but look at it once amonth and just kinda see how
it's going.
Is it getting better?
Are you ranking higher?
'cause if you're ranking higher.
You probably are more visibleboth on Google and Chat GPT.
Alright, hopefully you foundthis really helpful.
Get you started.
If you're ready to work with me,you can always reach out and
find out if there is a spot openin the elite CL coaching clients
(11:14):
list.
I do have a few spots that Iwork.
I cannot tell you right now ifthere's an opening one or not,
um, on the podcast because fulltransparency, I am batching this
and I'm recording it ahead oftime.
So I don't know, like as oftoday, yeah, there is, but there
may not be when you hear thisone.
So send me an email, reply backto my weekly email and ask or DM
(11:35):
me on Instagram at EtchedMarketing Academy.
If you're hoping to take simpleSEO content, mark your calendar.
It will reopen for enrollment inJanuary.
It is.
Running as an eight week cohort,so you cannot just join it at
any point in time because what Ifound was the students who had
(11:55):
more structure were the ones whohad better results, and I want
you to have the best resultspossible.
So I changed that to benefit youin the long run.
Alright, that's it for today.
I will see you back here nextweek.
Bye for now.
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