[00:00:00] Crystal Waddell: surfer will also give backlink recommendations based on what my competitors have. 

[00:00:04] And I've noticed a lot of the backlinks that they have, I don't want.

[00:00:08] I thought to myself, I was like a quality back link? 

[00:00:11] Do you want that really great newspaper or do you want it on toilet paper? 

[00:00:14] Yeah, that's a great comparison. 

[00:00:16] Sophia Vega: Yeah. I would rather have. One or two quality backlinks, then 10 crappy ones for sure.

[00:00:21] Yeah. No pun intended. 

[00:00:24] 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.

[00:00:42] Let's jump into another great episode.​

Introduction and Welcoming Sophia Vega

[00:00:49] Crystal Waddell: Welcome back to the Simple and Smart SEO show podcast. 

[00:00:51] Today, we have a special guest with us to talk about SEO, mental health, and a few other little tidbits that you're just going to love.

[00:01:00] I know. So Sophia Vega, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being 

[00:01:03] Sophia Vega: here. Oh, thanks for having me. Crystal. I'm really looking forward to just having the chance to chat with you. Yeah, SEO and all the things. 

[00:01:10] Crystal Waddell: So we have interacted on LinkedIn quite a bit, which is neat. 

[00:01:14] And you've made the comment that we kind of share a similar path or vision of SEO into the future. 

Guest's Background and Journey into SEO

[00:01:19] Crystal Waddell: Could you tell everybody a little bit about you and your background and how you came into SEO? 

[00:01:24] Sophia Vega: Sure. So I was a teacher for 15 years. Long story short, my undergrad was in communication studies. And I did PR for a few years in the corporate world. 

[00:01:32] And then found myself thinking, Oh, is this what I want to do?

[00:01:36] I love kids. So I went back and got my master's and my teaching degree. And I Like I said, I taught for 15 years. 

[00:01:42] And I have struggled with mental health my whole life, just anxiety and depression, and COVID happened. 

[00:01:50] And I think that exacerbated everybody's anxieties. 

[00:01:54] And just put us in a space that we had never been in, and teaching, as you can imagine, became very stressful.

[00:01:59] And, I actually saw a quote on Facebook one day, and it said, basically, the gist of it was that, to your family, your everything, like your job is always going to be there. 

[00:02:10] It'll be okay without you. You're not the only one who can do that, but to your family, you're the only one. And I had been feeling so stressed. So that really resonated. Yes. 

[00:02:19] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. So that's crazy. I saw that exact quote card today 

[00:02:23] Sophia Vega: on Facebook. Oh, wow. 

[00:02:25] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. Something that was the exact same sentiment, almost the exact same wording.

[00:02:29] That is so crazy. So I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but I thought that 

[00:02:32] Sophia Vega: coincidence. 

[00:02:33] It really is. And it was just a moment of reckoning for me. I started really thinking about all the time that I was spending. That was should have been family time. Working on teacher things. I was taking my grading to soccer games and in the evenings I was on my computer lesson planning. 

[00:02:47] And it just, I had told Then my administration that like this pace is unsustainable.

[00:02:52] I was teaching virtual and in person at the same time. And I was actually teaching a Spanish immersion program. So I was teaching in Spanish to English speakers. 

[00:03:01] So imagine, that with virtual 

[00:03:03] Crystal Waddell: and how the kids. 

[00:03:05] Sophia Vega: So this was second grade. So first grade was their first time in the immersion program and remember their first grade year had been cut off early because of COVID.

[00:03:13] So now they're in the second year. Completely in Spanish. And they're, when you're virtual, you just miss out on all those. 

[00:03:19] The mannerisms that really help get the understanding around. So it was just a really tough time. Both of my parents got sick. My dad passed away.

[00:03:27] And yeah, that just led to unfortunately me having a panic attack at school. 

[00:03:32] And I thought about taking FMLA, but it just didn't work out. I decided to just. 

Transition from Teaching to Digital Marketing

[00:03:36] Sophia Vega: Walk away for my family and for myself. 

[00:03:39] And my good friend who is in the digital marketing space Said hey, why don't you start a business of a virtual assistant?

[00:03:46] She's all of the things that make you a great teacher would make you a great virtual assistant. 

[00:03:50] I had no idea about the online space and just what a huge a huge world it is, I Remember secretaries. I remember, executive assistants. 

[00:03:59] But this whole idea of a virtual assistant.

[00:04:01] I really hadn't thought about it. So I am a doer. So she said that she pointed me in the direction of a course. I took it. 

[00:04:08] By two weeks later. I was taking clients and had my stuff set up. Yeah, it was. It happened fast. 

[00:04:14] And I'm glad it did because it didn't give me time to dwell on the fact that I was leaving a career and who I had been for 15 years.

[00:04:21] I had this new thing. I was excited about it. And the more I got into this digital space, the more clients I had. The more I saw that they really didn't necessarily need a virtual assistant. They needed somebody who knew marketing, strategy and doing. 

Understanding the Importance of SEO

[00:04:34] Sophia Vega: So I took a university course in digital marketing science learned about SEO for the first time.

[00:04:39] I love data. And so I totally geeked out on everything. SEO. I was like, this is amazing. Being strategic, planning your content. So powerful. 

[00:04:48] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. I think it's so funny because as teachers, I think from the educator background, it's okay, I don't know everything that I need to know, or I don't feel as confident as I need to feel about this.

[00:04:59] So I'm going to go get more education. And I just love that because I totally resonate with it. It's okay, I want to learn everything I can about this so I can be as effective as possible. 

The Role of Strategy in Digital Marketing

[00:05:07] Crystal Waddell: And another comment that you made, I also saw a post about this on Instagram just yesterday, where someone was saying, Hey, look, when you hire a social media manager, you're not hiring a strategist for your business.

[00:05:20] And I think that's where a lot of people get it confused. 

[00:05:22] It's okay, I'm going to hire an assistant or I'm going to hire some help. And then they're like, here's my business, do some social media for it. 

[00:05:29] But really what we should be doing, and correct me if I'm wrong, but what we should be doing is sharing our strategy and handing that off, right?

[00:05:36] Or do you have any thoughts on that? 

[00:05:39] Sophia Vega: No, I agree with you a hundred percent. And I'm sure you've experienced the same thing. Like coming up with the strategy for your own business is hard. It's very personal and honestly, you are in the weeds. 

[00:05:51] Like doing the client work. You know, If you're not conscious and really taking time out to plan a strategy long term. 

[00:05:59] You're just, okay, I know I need to be on social media, so I'm going to do these things on social media. 

[00:06:03] I'm going to have a blog. So you're creating all this content but It doesn't have like goals. 

[00:06:09] Specific, time bound goals that you're moving towards. You may not be tracking the KPIs.

[00:06:15] So I feel like that strategy is that missing piece. Like you're saying, you can hire doers, but they don't always know the 

[00:06:21] Crystal Waddell: strategy. 

[00:06:22] Yes. So very true. And then you said that you took your course in 2020, right? At the university. Yes. Okay. Texas. Okay. So what was that like? 

The Importance of Backlinks and SEO Strategy

[00:06:30] Crystal Waddell: In terms of what they taught you about search engine optimization and what it was like actually putting it into practice for clients?

[00:06:38] Sophia Vega: So the great thing is that I had found SEMrush prior to taking the course. So when I got in the course It was like they were confirming everything I was seeing in SEMrush. And they even recommended SEMrush as a resource. 

[00:06:50] And so really they helped me think about long tail keywords versus just, putting in one word like marketing.

[00:06:58] If marketing is going to be such a high volume and a very competitive word, like a hundred percent. But if you say small business digital marketing consultant. 

[00:07:06] That doesn't have as much volume to it. And so just strategizing in a way to find different keywords so that you're, you don't have to pay advertising to compete with those keywords. 

[00:07:19] And yeah, being able to I think there's a lot of information out there about enterprise SEO, some big companies and that gets very technical.

[00:07:28] But for smaller businesses, it really is something takes a little bit more finesse, right? Because you're competing with the big guys.

[00:07:34] You want to be found on the internet, obviously. But it, sEO needs to be part of your foundation, so that you carry that through. 

[00:07:42] Crystal Waddell: I love that you said that it takes a little bit more finesse and also that there's a differentiating SEO. 

[00:07:48] From enterprise to small business to even blogging, affiliate marketing.

[00:07:53] And so being able to decipher the different, the different advice that comes from.

[00:07:57] for how to do SEO. I, and I, that phrase, it depends. I know that's the phrase of SEO. 

[00:08:03] But understanding the different applications, of SEO is so important. And so I'm glad that you pointed that out. 

[00:08:08] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. 

Incorporating PR Strategies into Digital Businesses

[00:08:11] Crystal Waddell: So you also mentioned that one of your first jobs out of college was public relations PR.

[00:08:17] Correct? Yes. Okay.

[00:08:19] So talk to us about how can we incorporate PR strategies into our businesses now? 

[00:08:26] Advice for not just people who work online, but just who have a digital presence of any kind online.

[00:08:32] Sophia Vega: Sure. If you think of PR and I know it's not really talked about anymore. 

[00:08:38] Public relations because digital media has been so much the focus. 

[00:08:43] The things that you did in PR was, pitching yourself to journalists. 

[00:08:48] Pitching yourself to radio shows. 

[00:08:50] Pitching yourself to different community organizations.

[00:08:53] Opportunities to showcase your brand at conferences and trade shows and those kind of things. 

[00:08:59] So it was really about positioning yourself as an authority. And so we just take that online, right? 

[00:09:06] We do things online, creating content to show our authority. And with the PR online, we pitch ourselves to podcasts, right?

[00:09:14] You can write articles. Have those published on LinkedIn. Have a newsletter. 

[00:09:18] All of those things are PR because they're, they are exposing you to a wider audience and showing them your expertise. 

[00:09:26] And getting them to hopefully dig a little deeper. Remember who you are when they have a problem that they think you can solve.

[00:09:33] Another thing that you can do is. It used to be HARO, but now it's called Connectively. 

[00:09:39] And basically you sign up with them, you give them some information about your expertise, and journalists will post articles that they need written. 

[00:09:48] Case studies, something. 

[00:09:49] And you look through that and see if there's any, anything that you can give. Can you write an article, can you provide a quote, those are your opportunities.

[00:09:57] To have that P. R. and get wider seen. 

[00:09:59] Crystal Waddell: This idea of pitching myself to a podcast as a small business owner. 

[00:10:04] Now that I have a podcast, I can understand that concept so much more clearly. 

[00:10:08] Have I done it? No, but I, I get the idea now. 

[00:10:11] But how could someone, look inside themselves to figure out, like, how could I find a podcast to be on? 

[00:10:17] And how could I make sure that it's a good fit and that it would align with my business goals?

[00:10:21] Yeah. 

Networking and Making Genuine Connections on LinkedIn

[00:10:22] Sophia Vega: I think there's a lot of resources out there. First of all on Facebook, I know there's some groups that you can join that are specifically like, find a guest, be a guest groups where the podcast owners will pitch that they are looking for someone in this area. 

[00:10:36] So I think the first thing is just really having a clear idea of what you have authority in and what you can show expertise in.

[00:10:42] And Think of your services. And the people that need your services. Where is that audience at? Listen to some podcasts, see if they resonate with you. 

[00:10:51] And you think you have something to add to that. Podcasters content and then LinkedIn. I'm its biggest fan, make connections with people. 

[00:10:59] Like network and through that networking.

[00:11:02] You're going to create relationships. And those relationships will make space for partnerships and collaborations. 

[00:11:09] And so I think it is pitching yourself to podcasts. Or really any PR is about showcasing your brand. 

[00:11:15] And I think networking is great. 

[00:11:17] Crystal Waddell: For that. Yeah, and that's so true, and I think the other benefit that some business owners with websites may not understand is that there's also that digital benefit possibly. If you're on a podcast, you get a backlink.

[00:11:30] And so do you want to describe how that benefits websites? 

[00:11:33] Sophia Vega: Yes. I love that you brought that up because I was thinking to myself when you do digital PR, that benefit is the backlinks, right? 

Understanding the Value of Quality Backlinks

[00:11:40] Sophia Vega: You need backlinks because that shows Google that you're trustworthy, you have authority. 

[00:11:46] And all of that works in your favor in the algorithm to get shown on searches.

[00:11:49] So backlinks are one of those things that I think Intimidate a lot of business owners, and they think, Oh, how am I going to get these backlinks? 

[00:11:56] And they've been given a bad name because there have been people who just sell you backlinks. 

[00:12:03] But you don't know the quality of those websites that you're getting back links for.

[00:12:06] And so this gives you a lot of control. When you Go on podcasts. That's right. 

[00:12:11] You're going to get the backlink. If you write articles, you're going to get the backlink. 

[00:12:14] If you network with people and do collaborations, summits, those kinds of things, you get backlinks from them. 

[00:12:19] So keeping that backlink strategy, if you will, in the back of your mind. As you go out and do, 

[00:12:26] Your LinkedIn content and whatnot, because that's a backlink as well.

[00:12:30] When people go to your LinkedIn profile and they go to your website. 

[00:12:34] That helps the algorithm as well. 

[00:12:36] The internal backlinks on your own website. And just how that is, not to forget about that you have control over your website. And Those opportunities to create a customer journey. And think about that so that people go from one page of your website to another page. 

[00:12:51] And it shows that they're like consuming this content because it's relevant and useful to them.

[00:12:55] Those are important backlinks as well. Wow. 

[00:12:57] Crystal Waddell: So much that I want to follow up on there. Oh gosh, where do I start? Okay. So let's do some more practical application of this. 

[00:13:04] So I know on LinkedIn, there's a lot of outreach, a lot of cold outreach. 

[00:13:08] I think Salina Yeung, who was on the podcast, calls it pitch slap.

[00:13:11] I thought that was very clever and cute. 

[00:13:12] But it's as a small business owner, how do you distinguish between, someone who is selling you something that's actually good for your business versus.

[00:13:20] Like you said, you don't know the quality of the links that, people say, go get linked and you don't, if you're not aware of this particular conversation, you may not be aware that not all the links are created equal.

[00:13:31] So how would you advise a business owner to navigate that? 

[00:13:34] Sophia Vega: Sure. I love Salina, by the way, I love her content. She is just great. And has such a. Just fun personality. 

[00:13:40] I have not had the experience of getting very many total cold messages.

[00:13:45] And to me, when I get a total cold message.

[00:13:48] I look at it and honestly I feel like I go in with a pretty skeptical mind to cold messages. I'm just like, look at what they have to offer. And if there's an opportunity to Be nice. 

[00:13:58] Then I'll just respond kindly and just say, not at this time.

[00:14:01] I've only really had one experience where someone was extremely persistent with me about getting on a phone call. 

[00:14:07] And I had to give it to the guy though. Like seriously, he was a follow up boss. 

[00:14:12] He was getting. Get this sale. And so I told him, Hey, I appreciate your tenacity, but right now this is not part of my business plan.

[00:14:19] So I think that you have to just, take it with a little bit of humor. These people are just trying to do their job. But the great thing I think about LinkedIn is that you can filter that out pretty easily. And like I said, in my experience, it has not happened to me very much.

[00:14:33] And so it hasn't been like something that I'm super frustrated with. 

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

[00:14:36] Sophia Vega: I I'm very strategic when I make connections. Because I try to connect with people who I either want to see their content. I feel like it's valuable to me and I appreciate their point of view. Or, people that I think could benefit from my content.

[00:14:50] And that's naturally led to conversations in the DMs. Either when I reach out, I always put a note and then people will write back or if someone connects with me, I always send them a note that says Hey thanks for the connect. I'm curious what it was about my profile that piqued your interest.

[00:15:05] And that leads to conversations. So I think it's. Yes, sometimes you get that pitch slap. 

[00:15:10] But I think you just handle it with some humor and grace and then look for those genuine connections. 

[00:15:16] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. That is such great advice. And I love LinkedIn for its networking, because I really feel like you can get to know people.

[00:15:22] And like you said, like if they're putting content out there, you can read it and see if it resonates. And when you see people who are in a similar business, whether it's the exact same business or something, it's adjacent.

[00:15:32] It's just so nice to get insights like you would if you were in a conference room with these people, so I've loved that.

[00:15:38] I love that there's just this online conversation that you can jump in and out of all the time, like whenever, you have time. And then you can always just walk away with something that you can either apply to your business or that at least it might spark another idea for you. 

[00:15:51] Sophia Vega: Yes. It's like a gold mine.

[00:15:53] You know what I mean? Oh, for sure. I respond to that think tank kind of thing. It feels like that in a lot of ways. 

[00:16:01] Where you're inspiring ideas for people. They're inspiring ideas for you. And it just is a cool space that way. 

[00:16:08] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, that is a great way to describe it, as a think tank. 

[00:16:10] You were talking about making genuine connections, which is awesome.

[00:16:14] What about, delineating between the genuine link services? 

[00:16:20] And what you should look for when you are working with a company to create links? 

[00:16:24] Sophia Vega: Yes, so I think you need to really pay attention to volume. Like if someone is promising you hundreds of backlinks, that would be a huge red flag for me.

[00:16:34] Because those don't seem like genuine backlinks to me. 

[00:16:38] And, a lot of times, even with, softwares that you use, A Refs or SEMrush, they'll give you ideas for backlinks. And I would go to those sites.

[00:16:48] Thank you. Go to the actual sites and see. 

[00:16:50] Hey, does this seem like something aligns with my values as a business? 

[00:16:54] And, it's really due diligence. 

[00:16:56] Just making sure that those sites are legit. Because that's really what's going to be a beneficial backlink. 

[00:17:02] If you just have a ton of backlinks, but they're not doing anything for you as far as backing up your authority. 

[00:17:08] And putting you in front of people that can use your services or your products, then you might be wasting time and money.

[00:17:14] Crystal Waddell: And we've talked about domain authority before here on the show, and it's still applicable, I think, even in 2024. 

[00:17:21] And it's a great metric to just see, okay, is this backlink of any value. 

[00:17:25] And on the most minimum level, I would say, I don't want a backlink that is from someone who has a domain authority, less than mine. 

[00:17:33] It's been like my general standard, 

[00:17:35] Some of the biggest websites in the world, their domain authority is 60, 70, 80 plus.

[00:17:41] And those are the quality backlinks that you want to get. 

[00:17:43] I've noticed even with the recommendations, like I use surfer for content creation. 

[00:17:49] And surfer will also give backlink recommendations based on what my competitors have. 

[00:17:53] And I've noticed a lot of the backlinks that they have, I don't want.

[00:17:57] Once you are aware of how the system works, it's almost like a relief. 

[00:18:01] Because it's look, if they have a bunch of backlinks that are really of no value. 

[00:18:06] That makes me feel a little bit better about not having as many as they do. 

[00:18:09] Yes, backlinks are important to your website, but how you get them is also important and can impact the health and what your website can do in the future if you 

[00:18:18] Sophia Vega: don't do it correctly.

[00:18:19] Yeah, I think a good way to think about it is that backlinks are PR. 

[00:18:24] Do you want to be seen in a quality newspaper or do you want to be seen in, just something that's a flyer, in the mailbox that people just throw away or don't even see. 

[00:18:36] So thinking about where would. Be beneficial for you to be seen.

[00:18:39] For sure. 

[00:18:40] Crystal Waddell: I thought to myself, I was like a quality back link? 

[00:18:42] Do you want it on that really great newspaper or do you want it on toilet paper? 

[00:18:45] Yeah, that's a great comparison. Yeah. I would rather have. 

Understanding the Importance of Quality Backlinks

[00:18:48] Sophia Vega: One or two quality backlinks, then 10 crappy ones for sure.

[00:18:51] Yeah. No pun intended.

Introduction to Long Tail Keywords and Search Intent

[00:18:55] Crystal Waddell: When you were taking your course and just like continuing education about SEO, you mentioned that they taught you about long tail keywords. 

[00:19:03] And so we throw around terms like that are related, I believe like long tail keywords, bottom of the funnel. Search intent. 

[00:19:10] And so I thought maybe since you do talk about those things in your content, you might be able to sew those up for us.

[00:19:16] Sophia Vega: Yes, absolutely. 

[00:19:17] And I love this because you don't really hear a lot of conversations about search intent. With people who just have a general idea of SEO. 

[00:19:26] And it's so important when you're searching for keywords and doing that research, to look and see what that search intent is. 

Decoding the Acronyms of SEO

[00:19:33] Sophia Vega: So I was going to share just some acronyms that are out there.

[00:19:38] So the common, yeah, let's go 

[00:19:40] Crystal Waddell: dictionary.

[00:19:43] Sophia Vega: So when you are looking at keywords. Especially through a program, you can't just go on the internet and see search intent just by Googling. 

[00:19:51] But you can look for actually certain words if you wanted to. 

[00:19:54] But the first one is N. So if you see a search intent of N, that means that people are using this keyword when they're looking to navigate.

[00:20:03] They just want to go to a specific page or a specific site, right? They pretty much know what they're looking for. 

[00:20:09] And then the next level is the I. So I is information. 

[00:20:15] These are people who are looking for a specific answer to a question. Then you have the C. 

[00:20:21] C is commercial. And this is when a user is trying to investigate brands.

[00:20:28] So they might be doing some comparison research. 

[00:20:30] They might be, for example, if you're searching for jeans, they could be comparing, one pair of jeans to pair of jeans from another business. 

Understanding the Buyer Funnel

[00:20:39] Sophia Vega: And then the last one, which I think is the one that we need to make sure that we have content for is a tee.

[00:20:45] So T is transactional. That is like bottom of the funnel. They are ready to make a purchase. 

[00:20:51] They want to complete an action. 

[00:20:53] So I think you can think of those words or those acronyms. I'm sorry. Navigation. They're looking for something specific. So if they type in your address you probably have somebody who is already a purchaser, right?

[00:21:06] I is that top of the funnel, right? They're looking for information. They're looking for the answer to a question. 

Creating Content for Different Stages of the Funnel

[00:21:12] Sophia Vega: When you're creating content for your website this is a good place to think of your blog content. 

[00:21:16] And Blocks of text on your website that could help give information about your product or the buyer's problem.

[00:21:24] Then the commercial side is the middle of the funnel. 

[00:21:28] They know they have a problem, and now they're looking for solutions. 

[00:21:31] And that, that's where they could be looking at competitors. 

[00:21:33] They could be using words like best. Best digital marketing. Or best content creation.

[00:21:39] So think of those type of words. When you are sharing creating content for middle of the funnel. 

[00:21:45] And then you get to the transactional. That's the bottom of the funnel. They know they are ready to buy. 

Keyword Strategies for Transactional Searches

[00:21:50] Sophia Vega: And I have some specific advice for that. You want to look look for keywords like solutions, cheap, Best.

[00:21:58] So I don't want to say you want to put cheap necessarily. But think of words of how people might be looking for something like premium, exclusive.

[00:22:07] Then you want to put modifiers on your keywords, right? You could do marketing plus seo plus content creation And see the search intent for that. 

[00:22:18] For example, you could think of what you do. The service or the product that you provide. And then you could put the modifiers of software platform solutions. 

[00:22:26] So You know in our field it could be marketing solutions or content solution plus solutions. 

[00:22:32] And then You could also use your competitors names, right?

Leveraging Competitor Names in SEO

[00:22:35] Sophia Vega: So you could use your competitors names plus alternate, plus competitor, plus versus. So you're changing up your search by adding those plus modifiers so that you can see what people are searching for and make sure that you include that in your content, right? 

[00:22:50] Another thing is SEO, for example, you could put SEO plus tool, SEO plus consultant, SEO plus software.

[00:22:56] Those are those bottom of the funnel keywords that can help a buyer. They're ready to do something. 

[00:23:03] Crystal Waddell: Wow. You just made my head explode with that. 

The Power of Alternative Keywords

[00:23:05] Crystal Waddell: The transactional piece. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. 

[00:23:08] I was thinking of, I rank for Hobby Lobby 24 inch letters. 

[00:23:12] Something I specifically targeted, but I never thought about putting alternative because I don't, I think it was Eli Schwartz's book product led SEO, or I think that's what it's called.

[00:23:22] But he mentioned in there that when you show up in search results, your competitors are the people who show up on the page of the search results. 

[00:23:29] And so a lot of times I've looked at that and I've thought, Oh that's Pinterest or that's Etsy or that's Amazon. 

[00:23:34] And, I have a presence on some of those platforms already, so I wasn't really that worried about it.

[00:23:39] But as you were speaking, I was like, Oh my gosh. 

[00:23:41] I can put Etsy alternative as, one of my keywords for these wooden letters. 

[00:23:46] I can put Hobby Lobby alternative or Michael's alternative or whatever. So those are amazing options for keywords. People are looking for a very specific thing.

[00:23:55] Like they're looking for a giant wooden letter to, put in their house on the wall. 

[00:23:59] Or on their front door. Those are some really actionable words and ideas that you just gave so we can all get found right when people are ready to buy. 

[00:24:07] Sophia Vega: Absolutely. Yeah. Thinking about that just helps you, it's one more level of Getting you in front of the buyer at the right time. 

[00:24:15] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. And another thing that made me think of is a lot of times when people buy from marketplaces, whether they buy from, let's say, Amazon or Etsy, or even see a product on Pinterest. 

[00:24:25] They purchase the product and when someone asks them, where did you find this?

[00:24:30] They say. The website. 

[00:24:32] So, even now considering Pinterest as a competitor from the SERPs. 

[00:24:38] People don't necessarily know that Pinterest isn't selling them that thing. If they click through to a website that then they can buy it from. 

[00:24:44] Just like on Etsy, people aren't usually saying, Oh, I got it from this specific shop.

[00:24:48] I got it from Etsy. So this is just one of those paradigm shifts that I'm having in my mind about search and search results pages. 

[00:24:54] Thank you. I just had to get that out of my head. 

[00:24:56] Sophia Vega: No, I love it. 

[00:24:57] Crystal Waddell: Good. I'll remember it later, I just love that. 

Measuring SEO Success: Tips and Tricks

[00:24:59] Crystal Waddell: So I guess before we wrap up here a little bit, like as you're doing these things, what are some tips for measuring it?

[00:25:06] Because I feel like that's one of the trickiest things to do as well. 

[00:25:09] Is just organizing all of this information and then tracking it to see what's working. So how do you 

[00:25:15] Sophia Vega: manage that? 

[00:25:16] Yes. I think that I know that without the data without looking at the data, you're just throwing spaghetti at the wall.

[00:25:22] And so things that I specifically track, like if I know that my the majority of my content creation is my blog, then I'm looking for engagement on the blog. 

[00:25:31] You can Get as granular as you want. From how much time they spend scrolling on the page. To, just number of people that go to the blog.

[00:25:40] If you see people, again, going to those internal backlinks, if you have a blog and it internally links to either another blog or, opt in resource or whatnot. Seeing if people are using those backlinks. 

[00:25:50] So not just looking to see, oh yeah, 50 people went to my blog. Then you also want to see, how long they're staying on there.

[00:25:57] If people are just staying for a few seconds, then you know that they didn't find what they were looking for. 

[00:26:01] And so you may want to make adjustments if you see a large percentage of the people that are landing only spending a few seconds. 

[00:26:08] So definitely time spent on the page. Obviously, you want to see that people are finding the page.

[00:26:13] I always pay attention to that bounce rate on any of the pages, right? 

[00:26:17] Because you want to make sure that when people are looking with a buyer intent, or even with the informational intent that they are finding what they need on your website. 

[00:26:26] Because that actually does play into the algorithm as well.

[00:26:28] So with email, for example. I look at you know how many people opened it. And then how many people clicked on it the different things in there. 

[00:26:36] Opening, you just want to make sure, like you would look at if people aren't opening it, then my subject line, like what's going on with my subject line?

[00:26:43] Or is it being delivered to the right mailbox? Is it going to spam? Are they even getting it? So each one of those metrics tells you something. 

[00:26:50] Clicks in your email? 

[00:26:51] Do they understand what you want them to do? Sometimes we may have several clicks that you want to click on in an email. And the buyers confused.

[00:26:59] They don't know what to do, so they don't do anything. So you really want to have the buyer in mind when you're looking at those metrics. And decide ahead of time, you know what metrics you're going to track. 

[00:27:09] Knowing that. These are the things that indicate that your marketing is working in different areas.

[00:27:14] So like for LinkedIn, for example it's great to see impressions. That's always exciting when you feel like your post has the potential to be seen by a lot of people. 

[00:27:24] But the real move the needle metric is our people interacting. With your posts. So LinkedIn wants to see engagement. They want to see conversations.

[00:27:33] And so if you're not getting those conversations, but you might be getting a lot of impressions, then, can you change your headline? 

[00:27:38] Can you have a different CTA? Like, how are you engaging people in your content? Yeah, I think Key. 

[00:27:43] Identify those metrics that you want to watch that you know will be indicators that what you're doing is working ahead of time.

[00:27:50] So at the time that you set your goals, you're going to pick those out. 

[00:27:54] And then decide in the cadence of when you're going to look at them. So LinkedIn it may be hard to tell from one week to another what's resonating. 

[00:28:02] But if you look at it. 30 days, then you get a better idea. 

[00:28:05] And it can tell you the posts that perform the best.

[00:28:08] And you're doing video, if you're doing just text posts, if you're doing carousels. 

[00:28:12] Then you can really get an idea. Okay. My audience really likes when I do videos. So you do more videos. Give the people what they want! If you have a blog and you see a ton of people like your listicles or they like to be able to be given like a how to do something, then you do more of that.

[00:28:27] So it's really just yeah, looking at what people like and giving them more of it. 

[00:28:31] If they don't like it, then you don't keep giving it to them. 

[00:28:35] Crystal Waddell: That's so funny. It's so true. And one of the things that I've done recently is start this series called follow through Fridays. Because we get so much great advice from, experts such as yourself to go and optimize our websites.

[00:28:48] And I think, when I first started, I was really throwing spaghetti at the wall. That was like the initial thing. 

[00:28:54] And some of that spaghetti hit the right spot and stuck. And I was like. 

[00:28:57] But I never thought about it initially when I was creating it from number one, that perspective of a buyer's journey. 

[00:29:04] How I wanted them to navigate the site itself.

[00:29:07] And I also never thought about it in terms of jobs to be done. 

[00:29:10] Like what each page was supposed to do. So I love combining like jobs to be done and SEO strategy and content strategy. Just like mixing them all up in a bowl and I'm throwing that at the wall instead, 

[00:29:21] Sophia Vega: yes. No. So true. And so powerful when you look at that buyer journey, because you may actually look at your stuff and realize, Oh, wow, I don't have anything, for the consideration stage.

[00:29:32] Like I have all this awareness stuff. I have all this decision stuff, but this. For people who are just considering different options, do I have some content like, how to video or an ebook or a case study for those people to consume to help them along that buyer journey? 

[00:29:46] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, and it gives you so many ideas for internal linking.

[00:29:49] And I think that the task I'm going to give myself is just to pick a product or maybe a collections category. And work backwards. 

[00:29:56] Because when I first started, I started from the top from informational and, just trying to get that top of funnel traffic. 

[00:30:04] And that was easier, and in many ways. But really getting and focusing on those buyer intent keywords.

[00:30:10] Number one, I think it's changed because of the search generative experience or whatever. It's SGE. 

[00:30:16] A lot of those informational ones are going to be eaten up by Google anyway. But this is a great time to just go back and optimize for those, buyer intent keywords. And so I'm really excited to just, track that and go backwards and see 

[00:30:28] Sophia Vega: what I find.

[00:30:29] Yes, we SEOs love our data, right? 

[00:30:31] Crystal Waddell: So if someone is looking for a data driven digital marketer, such as yourself. 

[00:30:36] How can they 

[00:30:37] Sophia Vega: connect with you? Sure.

[00:30:38] So please go to my website, Sophia Vega, digital marketing. 

[00:30:42] Book a call. I. Love chatting with businesses, business owners, just talking about their business, learning about it and seeing if there's an opportunity, for us to partner. 

[00:30:51] Crystal Waddell: Awesome. Sophia, it was so great to meet you, in person or at least face to face.

[00:30:56] Sophia Vega: It's 

[00:30:56] Crystal Waddell: not in person, but it's nice to meet you face to face and have this conversation. I hope that we can do this again in the future because. There are so many changes coming up in 2024. I'd love to hear, how you and your clients are navigating those changes. 

[00:31:09] And I'm sure there's going to be plenty of new updates in SEO to talk about in the future.

[00:31:14] Sophia Vega: Oh, yeah. SEO. There's a lot of information that's showing that SEO is just going to keep growing. And the need for SEO is just going to keep growing. 

[00:31:22] Crystal Waddell: And I forgot the my number one question that I wanted to ask you or the question that I really wanted to ask you was what is your number one tip for someone listening right now that they can implement today that would improve 

[00:31:33] their website?

The Importance of Google Search Console

[00:31:34] Sophia Vega: So my number one tip and I really, my goal is to make SEO understandable to everybody so that they don't feel like this is some scary thing that they can't really get information for themselves on. 

[00:31:47] So I always tell people Google Search Console. It is a free resource from Google. 

[00:31:52] They give you very specific instructions that are easy to follow on how to, get it set up. Because it does have to be connected with your website.

[00:31:58] And then just go there. You can find out what keywords you're ranking for. And people are so surprised sometimes at what they rank for because that's not really even sometimes related to what they do. 

[00:32:08] And then you want to see that your own name is ranking, right? 

[00:32:10] You want and like a name like Sophia Vega.

[00:32:13] It's funny because there are a lot of Sophia Vegas out there. Okay. And I want to come up when someone types Sophia Vega. 

[00:32:19] And so that is the keyword that I want to rank for. So finding out what you're ranking for looking for gaps in, the Google Search Console is also going to tell you about traffic, what people are searching that's getting you shown.

[00:32:32] So you have just a ton of information right there at your fingertips that you can use to set some goals. 

[00:32:37] About, yeah, like how you want people to find you and what kind of content you want to provide to move them through the journey. That would be my tip. Definitely know your stuff. Check it out.

[00:32:46] Get your 

[00:32:46] Crystal Waddell: information. 

[00:32:47] That is awesome. Thank you, Sophia, 

[00:32:49] for being here today. I appreciate it so much. And I know everybody's going to get so much value. So thank you. 

[00:32:54] Sophia Vega: Oh, thank you, Crystal. I look forward to being back.