Introduction to the Podcast

[00:00:00] Crystal Waddell: Welcome to the third season of the Simple and Smart SEO show, the podcast dedicated to empathy driven brand building SEO. I'm your host, Crystal Waddell. I leverage my obsession with user experience to help business owners just like you optimize your website with confidence. Thank you so much for being here.

[00:00:17] Let's jump into another great episode. 

[00:00:19] Wow. Welcome to follow through Fridays. Oh my gosh. I don't know about you, but I am so tired. I am actually recording this on a Friday. So in case we haven't met, I'm Crystal. 

[00:00:30] This is the simple and smart SEO show podcast. 

[00:00:33] And follow through Fridays is the day and the podcast where I share how I'm actually implementing SEO. 

[00:00:41] So that you can see that SEO is not just this thing up in the clouds. But they're actual tangible strategies that you can use for your business. Okay. So welcome back to another episode of follow through Fridays.

[00:00:53] I hope you've had a fantastic week. It's been quite a week over here, full of exciting news and a whole lot of SEO goodness.

[00:01:01] And because I'm a maker, a whole lot of work! 

[00:01:04] But that's a good thing, right? 

Exciting News About My Shopify Store

[00:01:06] Crystal Waddell: So first I just want to share some great news about my Shopify store, collagewood. com, where I make senior night gifts for athletes. We are in January right now. 

[00:01:16] And so that means winter sports senior nights. And what's really exciting is that our January sales are up by a whopping 80 percent.

[00:01:26] And this is really significant. Because last year we saw a big dip in sales in January. Like the end of 2022 sucked. I hate to say that, but it really did. 

[00:01:38] And so I remember, I over leveraged spending in 2022 because it started off so strong and I was like, Oh, we're going to do this and this.

[00:01:46] And then the end of 2022, it's just like things started to go down. 

[00:01:50] So it's really exciting to see that sales are back up. 

[00:01:55] It seems like we're back on track. So that's the point of that.

[00:01:59] It's a different story this year. We've been working hard on SEO and all of these SEO strategies, and it seems like it's really paying off. So awesome. 

The SEO Squad and Its Impact

[00:02:07] Crystal Waddell: Now, speaking of SEO! We had our third Founders meeting for the SEO squad this week. And let me tell you, it has been amazing. If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, this is a group of entrepreneurs who are committed to mastering SEO for their business.

[00:02:27] And using it to grow their online presence and their digital footprint. 

[00:02:31] So every week I'm walking business owners through different SEO tasks and strategies. 

[00:02:37] So that they can determine what's the best fit for their business. And what's going to have the most impact for what they're trying to accomplish. So it's just been amazing. 

[00:02:46] We're officially launching next month. 

[00:02:49] With our three day challenge. If you want to be a part of it, you can register at threedaychallenge.com/seo. 

[00:02:55] I would love to see you in there. We're going to have a pop up Facebook group so it should be really fun. And if you'd like to still join the founders group and lock in the 20 a month rate that we have right now, I'll drop the link in the show notes. And sorry if you're listening to this later because the price will definitely increase. 

Analyzing Traffic and Sales Performance

[00:03:15] Crystal Waddell: So let's talk about traffic. Traffic on our website. According to the Shopify statistics has been booming from my favorite platform. 

[00:03:27] Which is Pinterest. 

[00:03:28] Pinterest has been a rock star and they brought in over 3000 visitors this month. 

[00:03:34] Can you even imagine? Do you get any traffic from Pinterest? 

[00:03:37] If you don't, I'm telling you, Pinterest is the bomb. And then the next closest referral is Facebook. 

[00:03:44] And, I've been running this ad that's like a dollar a day. 

[00:03:48] Sometimes, it doesn't even spend all the time. 

[00:03:50] But once senior night searches start, that ad starts heating up and right now I've got almost a thousand engagements on that particular ad. 

[00:03:59] And so that's super exciting.

[00:04:00] And that campaign's brought in about 70 people. And then after that Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn have, brought in their stragglers. 

[00:04:08] But you know what? I love it that everybody's coming in from different places. 

[00:04:12] The really awesome part of this, though, is that our blog traffic is kicking everybody else's tail. 

[00:04:18] And so organic search sent us over 8000 visitors. Almost 9000 visitors this month. 

[00:04:25] We have 8800 visitors so far in January. 

[00:04:29] And let's see that's up from five and a half thousand from last year.

[00:04:34] And then our direct traffic was also up. 

[00:04:37] And this is a huge percentage, but it's 241%. 

[00:04:41] Direct traffic was up to 5,600 visitors. 

[00:04:45] And social referrals, which includes Pinterest were up by 68% to 3,300. So 3,300. 

[00:04:57] It's awesome to see all of this growth in our audience. And it's exciting to see these numbers continue to climb.

[00:05:04] These are SEO strategies in combination. In how they're working and how it's impacting our sales. 

[00:05:11] And, speaking of sales. This week we had a $1,000 sales day in the Shopify store, which is awesome. 

[00:05:19] I always love to screenshot that. And share it on Instagram.

[00:05:23] And our total sales for this month on Shopify alone are just about $5,000. 

[00:05:29] So that's super exciting because that is my website. It's not Etsy and it's not Amazon. 

[00:05:34] It doesn't include those Etsy and Amazon sales. So we are super close to hitting that $10,000 mark for January. Which is insane.

[00:05:43] It was not even close last year. 

[00:05:44] And you know what else is also exciting? 

[00:05:47] Through the SEO squad, we realized, oh my gosh, we have a couple of different levels of service offerings that need to be available. To meet people where they're at. 

[00:05:58] The first two we are accommodating through the SEO squad membership. But the third is the dun dun dun, drum roll, please. 

Launching the Simple and Smart SEO Agency

[00:06:08] Is the simple and smart SEO agency. 

[00:06:11] So I have partnered with my friend, Rachel Spiewak. 

[00:06:15] Of the Rock Your Tribe agency.

[00:06:18] And we are working together to bring you a strategy first, brand driven SEO agency.

[00:06:24] That launched this week as well. So it has been a busy week. 

[00:06:29] But awesome. 

[00:06:30] Crystal Waddell: So before I wrap up, I do also want to remind you about the episode on Wednesday that I did with Kris Daria, where we were talking about the email changes that are happening on February 1st. 

[00:06:42] She was sharing with us that we always need to use a branded domain if possible.

[00:06:47] So I use a gmail account with honey book. 

[00:06:50] For Communication with my clients for things that I design. And then also for the SEO squad. 

[00:06:56] And I reached out to Honeybook and their customer service did advise me to use a branded domain. Like, collage and wood dot com or crystal waddell dot com or simple and smart SEO just something at one of those branded domains.

[00:07:11] instead of a Gmail account. So I wanted to share that with you. 

[00:07:15] So, that's my week. It was full of ups and downs and plenty of learning like usual. 

[00:07:22] I did just want to say thank you for tuning in to follow through Fridays.

[00:07:26] Here's to another week of growing, learning, and thriving in our businesses. 

[00:07:31] Don't forget to share and subscribe! Wherever you listen to podcasts. And I'll see you next week. Keep moving forward and keep following through. 

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