[00:00:00] People talk about, "Oh, I want to do more on social media." 

[00:00:03] Content that people are posting on social media, I think we all know that's a highlight reel of everyone's life.

[00:00:07] Right? Google queries. Are honest. People are so honest with search engines in a way that they never are on social media. 

Welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO Show Podcast

[00:00:16] 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. 

[00:00:32] Thank you so much for being here.

[00:00:34] Let's jump into another great episode.

[00:00:36] Welcome back to the simple and smart SEO show podcast. 

Meet Sara Jensen: The Digital Marketing Guru

[00:00:39] I am here with Sara Jensen and Sara is a principal at her company. 

[00:00:46] And I'm just going to let her go ahead and introduce herself and tell you a little bit about what she does. And yeah, Sara, let me kick it on over to you.

[00:00:54] Perfect. Yeah. So I run Brighter Messaging. We are a digital marketing agency that works with small businesses. We're a seven woman team. We primarily serve as an outsource marketing team to our clients, but we have a wide range of services, everything from building websites, managing your online presence, social media, SEO, all that fun stuff.

[00:01:15] Awesome. So when you say outsource, does that mean that you serve as like a digital manager? Yeah. For their services. 

[00:01:22] Yeah. So we instead of them hiring a marketing department in house, they hire us and get all the skills that they need for, pretty much everything to do with managing their online presence and client communications at a fraction of the cost of having a bunch of full time employees.

[00:01:39] Awesome. Okay. 

A Unique Journey: From Student Athlete Tutor to Marketing Maven

[00:01:41] We crossed paths on LinkedIn, and so there was something that I saw on your LinkedIn profile that I wanted to ask you about. I thought it was super neat. So when you were at Duke, you were a student athlete tutor. Is that right? 

[00:01:54] That is accurate. Yes. 

[00:01:55] Can you tell me what that was like?

[00:01:57] I would, when I read that, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so crazy. I want to hear all about 

[00:02:01] it. Yeah interesting for me, a person who has really never been interested in sports to have gotten that job, but I worked with a freshman. 

[00:02:11] So they basically, they paired all of us one on one with a freshman on the football team. 

[00:02:16] To just help them, keep up with all of their assignments.

[00:02:19] So we would go through and talk about what's doing all your classes. Did you do all your homework? Do you need help with things. Working on papers, homework, all that kind of stuff. 

[00:02:28] So you're like their parent a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. It was a really interesting experience.

[00:02:34] Cause they get They would actually get five years to complete their bachelor's degree. 

[00:02:39] As long as they were continuing in the football program. And the guys who were super motivated were trying to do their B. A. in three. 

[00:02:46] And then get a master's for the second two and, have it all paid for.

[00:02:50] Yeah, just working with them on trying to keep up with class and all those kinds of things. 

[00:02:56] Wow. Yeah, that makes sense. And because you're at Duke, I could see how that is that much more of a motivating factor. To get an undergrad at Duke and a master's at Duke that is not cheap. 

[00:03:06] So that is really smart of them to do.

[00:03:09] And that's, it's crazy because you say you're not into sports. But my, Business is all about celebrating athletes. So that was why it really got my attention when I saw it, I was like, Oh my gosh, she was like working right there in the athletic department. So fun. 

[00:03:22] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 

The Evolution of Brighter Messaging: From Solopreneur to Team Success

[00:03:23] So you talked a little bit about, growing your business and 

[00:03:28] How it was, 

[00:03:30] like there were some challenges from going to just being a solopreneur to working with a team.

[00:03:35] And I thought maybe we could talk about that a little bit first before we jumped into some of those SEO topics. Sure. 

[00:03:42] Sure. I worked by myself for a long time and that's just always been my personality. 

[00:03:49] I'm very structured and like having things done my own way. And so for several years I had all these clients and I was doing different content marketing projects for them and hit that point that I think most people get to. 

[00:04:03] Where I realized I can't continue to grow this business by myself without getting some help.

[00:04:08] But. I really just feel like I need to do everything myself. So what am I going to do here? And that's been a really long journey getting over that hump, finding people that I trust. 

[00:04:22] Because, nobody cares about your business as much as you do. And, it's really my reputation and my name and my relationships with clients that are on the line.

[00:04:32] I was really fortunate. The first VA that I hired I hired her and was so I want you to help me, but I don't know how, and I don't know what to give you. And I don't really know how to work with you. Figure it out. And she did. 

[00:04:48] She was the person that introduced me to Asana and she started, coaching me really on here's stuff that you really shouldn't be doing that you could hand off to me.

[00:04:57] Once I got over that hump of. Just the amount of knowledge transfer involved. To hand your job off to somebody. 

[00:05:03] But then started to see the benefits of the amount of time that was being freed up and not even just time, but that mental space. With that mental load is huge that then I got hooked on.

[00:05:15] It was like, okay. I can see how this can work. 

[00:05:18] And, ended up building out the team from there over a few years. 

[00:05:22] Yeah, gosh, that is so cool. 

[00:05:25] I think that's probably going to resonate with a lot of people because you talk about knowledge transfer. 

[00:05:30] I've never heard anybody describe it like that, but you're exactly right.

[00:05:34] My partner that I started the podcast with, B, when we first started, she talked about that. 

[00:05:40] And we talked about creating SOPs and, just the challenges that come. With what you just called knowledge transfer. That is just such a great name for that. 

[00:05:49] Yeah. And what's so interesting about that too, is that when you have your own business, you have, you set up your own systems and processes.

[00:05:56] And then when you invite other people into it, it's a vulnerable place because you can tell them this is the way I want you to do this exact thing. And then sometimes they come back and say, Hey, I have an idea that could make this better or more efficient, or, just a way to do something differently.

[00:06:12] And so it's humbling in some ways, but it's also awesome because suddenly you have other people to collaborate with. 

[00:06:18] And the team that I have now. I could not do every one of their jobs. There are people with certain skill sets that I don't bring to the table, but I think we all make each other smarter and more creative and better.

[00:06:32] Because just collaborating with each other, having people to bounce ideas off of, having people that are in those client accounts with you every day working on things.

[00:06:41] I know it's made me a lot stronger in terms of what I offer to clients. 

[00:06:46] Yeah, gosh, that's amazing. 

[00:06:47] So I think for anybody who's listening right now, and you're a little bit nervous about expanding your team for the exact reasons that you just described, because for me, Sara, that, that fear of, Oh, people can't do it.

[00:06:58] Like I do it, I went through that at one point as well. And now I'm just like, I just got to find somebody to train. 

[00:07:05] Over that, because you get to a point where you're like, I can't do it all. It's a fun, but frustrating sometimes journey. And it's nice that you have navigated that already.

[00:07:15] Yeah. It's you really have to think about what are those things that are the best and highest use of your time? 

[00:07:20] And that's what you should be spending your time on. And, there's obvious things for a lot of especially people in creative. Services like bookkeeping is probably not the best and highest use of your time. Outsourcing, just yes, like that it's really you could do it, but it's not the thing that lights you up.

[00:07:37] It's not where you deliver the most value. That's where I would encourage people to start in thinking about what can I take off my plate? 

[00:07:44] You are so right. And I have a, like an actual practical example of this. 

[00:07:49] Because last year, Erin Ollila was on the podcast and we talked about a task list. 

[00:07:54] And We're going to do this and this on these certain dates or whatever.

[00:07:57] And on my task list on Fridays was to review QuickBooks and all of the expenses and that type of stuff. 

[00:08:03] And then I found an online bookkeeping company because every Friday when it came time to do that, I just. Just, it was not fun and I didn't want to do it. 

[00:08:13] And a lot of times I'd push it off. And so I was like this needs to be done.

[00:08:16] So maybe I can just find somebody to do it. And they quoted me a price. 

[00:08:20] And I was like I think that's a little high for me right now. 

[00:08:23] And so I went to my accountant and I said, do you know anybody who would do. XYZ, my bookkeeping and this and she was like, Oh, I'll do it. And I was like, what, how did I not know this?

[00:08:32] I'm like take my stuff, you're already in QuickBooks. 

[00:08:34] So that was so great. For just like a hundred bucks more a month, she took a lot off of my plate. 

[00:08:41] And, but it took being open to the idea first. 

[00:08:44] Like realizing, okay Now that I'm actually committing to doing this on a, consistent schedule, I realized I don't, the reason why I wasn't doing it was because I didn't have time.

[00:08:53] So yeah, great lesson. 

Empowering Moms in the Creative Industry

[00:08:55] And then I can think one of the last things I want to ask before we jump into the SEO and website stuff is you had mentioned that you worked with moms. 

[00:09:03] Supporting moms who want to support their creative careers without compromising the way they parent, like that is.

[00:09:11] That hits home so hard for me. So could you just tell us just a little bit about how that came about? 

[00:09:16] That's something that I am super, super passionate about. 

[00:09:20] It's how I got started on this whole journey. I left my full time job when I had my first baby. Almost 12 years ago now. 

[00:09:27] And, I wanted to Be there and be his mom full time. 

[00:09:33] But I wanted something else to do as well and to be able to be that other side of myself.

[00:09:39] And so I had to figure a lot of things out along the way, for 1 thing. 

[00:09:45] But I also, especially through those 1st, 5 years before your kids start kindergarten it's so demanding. On the moms. 

[00:09:55] And. A lot of people just think I just can't do it and I want to tell them like you can do it. 

[00:10:02] And it doesn't have to be like your full time job was. And it doesn't have to mean really anything. 

[00:10:09] What you have to do is get crystal clear about what you want and what you're willing to do. 

[00:10:13] And then create that. And create boundaries with your clients. Around, you know, when you work. What you're willing to do for them, when they can reach you. 

[00:10:22] And all those things. And then you can do it. 

[00:10:24] So it's not it doesn't have to be a matter of like i'm gonna work 20 hours a week and parent the other You Whatever hours. 

[00:10:32] It's a lot more kind of fluid than that. 

[00:10:35] i've got a sixth grader and a third grader now so my life is quite different than it was when they were really little. But several of the members of our team are moms of littles. 

[00:10:45] And I just think it's awesome like seeing them doing something similar to what I did. 

[00:10:50] And the way that Kind of accidentally happened, I think. 

[00:10:54] But the way that I set up the businesses, I really do the majority of the client interaction as far as being on calls and things.

[00:11:02] And so, they don't have to do that. And when they're on a call with me, if their toddler is climbing on their head, it's fine. 

[00:11:08] As long as you're getting your work done, it's fine. I don't care. 

[00:11:11] Because you're smart and you're creative and you're going to get your stuff done on time. That's really the thing that matters to me.

[00:11:17] Yeah, I just, I have, I'm super passionate about this area. I could probably talk about it all day, but that in a nutshell is where I am. 

[00:11:24] Yeah. That's why I started my business. Because I was a teacher and then, I realized I just didn't have the mental capacity.

[00:11:30] To teach and raise my son, not to mention we live in North Carolina. 

[00:11:34] At the time teachers were barely making anything. We barely make anything now. 

[00:11:39] But even at that point there, we'd been on a pay freeze for eight years. And so essentially what would have happened is I would have sent my son to daycare and used all of my paychecks.

[00:11:52] To pay for that daycare. 

[00:11:53] And so at that point, it's like, where is the benefit for anyone in this situation? 

[00:11:58] So it was a pretty easy choice to make. 

[00:12:00] But, I've talked about it too about this, the struggles of, trying to regain part of your personality or your identity, yet, still filling this.

[00:12:10] An obligation and a desire to care for your children. 

[00:12:13] So I love that you described it as fluid. I love that your people are recognized as important. And contributing whether they have a toddler crawling on their head or not. 

[00:12:23] Because like you said, that creative piece doesn't change, that intelligence doesn't change.

[00:12:28] It's just The life is a little different. 

[00:12:31] Yeah, and moms are such an untapped talent pool, I've found, too. 

[00:12:35] Because they don't necessarily want to pursue those full time in the office jobs. 

[00:12:42] But they have the qualifications for them. And if you're willing to work with them on what they need, you get access to a whole new pool of really creative and wonderful people.

[00:12:54] Yeah, and I wonder, did you ever feel like any judgment from others that it's oh, you went to Duke. 

[00:13:01] But now you want to stay at home with your kids? 

[00:13:04] I never really ran into that because I think because I have always had some kind of business going on. 

[00:13:13] As long as I've had kids I really haven't run into that.

[00:13:16] There's also the part that I just don't really care. Like I guess I got my master's degree at Duke. And then a few years later I left the full time workforce to have a baby. 

[00:13:26] Oh well, it's my life. 

[00:13:27] Yeah, and I think that's wonderful. I felt the opposite. I think it's because I'm like a people pleaser. 

[00:13:32] But I felt, and it may be postpartum too, but I felt like everybody was judging me for my choices, 

[00:13:38] And 

[00:13:39] even though I knew it was the right decision for our family and it was the right decision for me and for our son, all that type of stuff.

[00:13:44] I wonder How many other women feel like that? And just to encourage you, if that has ever been you on the other side of the headphones, know that you're not alone. Yeah. 

[00:13:54] Having little kids is such a teeny tiny slice of your life. You have so many years to work and use your degree. And pursue your professional life.

[00:14:04] But you only have a few years where your kids are at home and really need you.

[00:14:09] That's an interesting way to look at it for sure, because my son's 11 now. And I barely remember those years and I was here for all of them. 

[00:14:19] But they did go by so fast. And that's a really interesting.

[00:14:23] Way to look at it. It's just a small slice of your life. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Okay. 

Diving Deep into SEO and Website Strategy

[00:14:29] So let's talk a little bit about. Marketing and websites and SEO. 

[00:14:35] So when you build websites, do you build them with SEO in mind? 

[00:14:40] Or where does that fit into the strategy of the website? 

[00:14:43] We absolutely do. So when we take on a website client one of the first things we talk about is, what is your goal?

[00:14:51] Why do you want this new website? What are your goals for this website? 

[00:14:55] And, they tend to fall into two camps. One being, I just need to look credible when people look me up online. 

[00:15:03] And so in that case, they have a really well established business. They're getting tons of leads from referrals.

[00:15:09] Like they don't need more leads. They just need a nice looking site. 

[00:15:13] And then the other one is, I really want to grow my business and build a platform for generating organic leads. 

[00:15:21] In both of those cases, we're going to put all the SEO basic stuff into your site, everything that you need. 

[00:15:28] The backend is totally optimized.

[00:15:30] We're creating all your metadata for you. We are looking at keywords that you should be ranking for, even if that's not important to you. 

[00:15:38] If you are a Arizona based law firm that works with a certain type of client we're going to optimize your site for that anyway. But yeah, we definitely put all of that into the site. 

[00:15:50] Because for one thing, even if you're in that, I just want to look credible where you're going to look the most credible with a professional, well optimized site. 

[00:15:57] But the other thing is you might change your mind someday. And if you do decide that, no, I really want to invest in growing my business, that platform is there for you.

[00:16:08] That's one of the many reasons that we exclusively build on WordPress. 

[00:16:11] Because it really gives you for your investment in your site. The longest return as far as this site. You can really take it 

[00:16:20] anywhere. 

[00:16:21] Yeah. I think that's really great that you also differentiated between somebody who just wanted to have a professional presence. 

[00:16:28] Versus someone who actually wanted to grow and, generate leads and generate sales to their website. 

[00:16:35] Because just like SEO, I feel like there's overarching overarching, I'm not sure which word it is. 

[00:16:41] There's an umbrella of, SEO and SEO advice, but there's different types of websites. 

[00:16:48] There's affiliate sites, there's e commerce sites, there's blogs or, just, and like what you just said, people who just want to have a professional presence.

[00:16:56] And It's been nice. I think even just in the last conversation I had, we were talking about how certain advice applies to certain people. 

[00:17:04] And being able to understand which advice You should listen to because of what type of site you actually need. 

[00:17:12] Yeah, I think it is absolutely critical to identify that at the outset and really take some time.

[00:17:19] Especially a lot of people want to know what's the cheapest way I can get a website up? 

[00:17:24] And, they end up using something like Squarespace or Wix and they put something up there. And it's fine. There's nothing wrong with doing that. 

[00:17:31] But the thing that people tend to miss with that approach.

[00:17:35] Is that they aren't doing the long term planning. 

[00:17:37] Of, where do I see this business growing and is this platform going to serve my business over the years? 

[00:17:45] Or am I going to get to the point where I need other things? Or I need custom design? Or whatever that can't be done on this platform. 

[00:17:54] And I'm gonna have to move over to a WordPress site or another platform. 

[00:17:59] So I think that really that long term planning as much as you can. 

[00:18:03] Of course, you can't anticipate everything that's going to happen with your business but really thinking about What do you need?

[00:18:09] Before you ever decide or, make any design decisions. 

[00:18:13] Okay. I know you've mentioned a few things, but are there like three or four questions that someone should ask themselves about that long term planning and like the actual needs that they have for their website? 

[00:18:24] Oh, that's a good question.

[00:18:25] I think the first is like, where do I see this business going in the next three to five years? 

[00:18:31] How do I want to generate leads for my business? 

[00:18:35] And then, what role do I want my website to serve? 

[00:18:38] If you're in an e commerce business, that's your whole business is on your website because that's where people come.

[00:18:44] They see your products, they buy them from you. 

[00:18:46] So that's a little different than say, you are launching Like a solo practice law firm, for example. 

[00:18:53] Do you see yourself in the next 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 years, maybe adding partners? And adding different practice areas? It's really super dependent on the type of business that you're in. 

[00:19:04] But what is your long term vision for this business? And how does your website fit into that? I think is one of the most important ones. And then what features and functions do you need? 

[00:19:16] Again, like a lot of the templated sites can be fine to get you started, but are you going to be happy with the design options that are available to you over time?

[00:19:26] Or are you going to need or want to showcase things in a different way? 

[00:19:31] That's something that we end up running into a lot. And with a wordpress site, you can, you're not locked into this fixed template that you chose at the outset. 

[00:19:41] You can do different things with it. Yeah, it really just depends on what's going to happen with your business.

[00:19:47] And then what are those features and functions that you need on the site? 

[00:19:50] So my next question and just thinking about this from a business owner who's creating a website for the first time, it's like, where do you find even a list of options of features and functions? 

[00:20:00] Because I'm thinking if I just want to throw up a website because now I have this business and I need a website. 

[00:20:05] I don't even, I'm probably not even aware of what a website can do, or like what you go into it.

[00:20:12] It's I would say look to What your competitors or people you aspire to compete with are doing to give you that first clue. 

[00:20:21] That's going to show you especially the ones that are more mature in the market. 

[00:20:25] And maybe even if they are Bigger companies that you would not necessarily really compete with look at their websites for inspiration. 

[00:20:33] Because you might find something on there that gives you Oh, like I never really thought of this, but this is something that I might need in the future.

[00:20:41] Yeah. And I love how you guys, incorporate elements of SEO. 

[00:20:45] And it seems like, when you're creating a website and you're planning for it, a lot of things are done that people who throw their websites up and then 5 or 10 years later, go back and look at it and say, oh, this is not working.

Unlocking SEO Success: Simple Strategies and Missteps

[00:20:56] Because of the planning, you probably have, keywords incorporated into that, in terms of what job you want that page to do.

[00:21:03] Yes. 

The Power of Metadata in Boosting Your Site's SEO

[00:21:04] And people are often surprised at how much progress you can make just by adding keyword rich metadata to your website. 

[00:21:12] That's a piece of low hanging fruit that we run into a lot with clients that have an existing site. 

[00:21:17] And they're like, Oh, that's doing okay. It's not really ranking.

[00:21:19] Yeah. We're going to put a blogging strategy in place and things like that for you. 

[00:21:23] But if you don't even have the metadata filled out for your pages, like that's often a place to start. 

[00:21:29] Thinking about getting some of those keywords in there. And it doesn't require you to rewrite your copy. 

[00:21:34] Yeah.

[00:21:35] That's good to know. Very helpful. 

From GoDaddy to Shopify: A Journey Through E-commerce Platforms

[00:21:37] And I'm thinking again, just the fact that even when I started my website I started with a GoDaddy website, a GoDaddy e commerce site. And it was, wow. It was me just like Googling stuff and, Trying to fill things in and not even realizing, and even when I switched to Shopify, I can't remember the first time that I found out that there was actually a spot for a meta description and a meta title on Shopify. 

[00:22:01] And helping Shopify store owners, I see that they had the same problem because a lot of times what will happen is that people will just copy the page. So then it copies all the metadata from that original page. And it's like copy, copy, in the URL. Yeah. So it's just interesting what you don't know about how your website should be set up.

[00:22:21] Yeah. If You go on our website, BrighterMessaging.Com, to the resources tab, 

[00:22:27] We have a free download and it's basically, it's like an SEO kind of guide. 

[00:22:33] Of really five of those sort of low hanging fruit type things that people tend to miss. That you can largely do yourself without getting a website developer involved.

[00:22:43] If people want to go check that out, just go to brighter messaging dot com, click on the resources tab and look for our SEO ebook. 

[00:22:49] And it's got a lot of those kinds of tips and tricks and things that you can do yourself. 

[00:22:54] Awesome. 

Maximizing Your Website's Potential Post-Launch

[00:22:55] So what happens after the handoff? Once you have actually made the website for the client. 

[00:23:01] What is the next step for them in terms of maintaining it?

[00:23:05] Yeah, that's a really good question and something that a lot of people don't think about. 

[00:23:10] Sometimes they're just hiring us to be their outsource marketing team at that point and we're managing it for them. 

[00:23:15] But not always sometimes they just want to build the site and they're going to manage it themselves. 

[00:23:19] And so the biggest thing that I want everybody to know about launching a new website is: have a maintenance plan in place.

[00:23:29] The way that we do it, we combine hosting and maintenance. And so you get not just your hosting and your security. 

[00:23:36] We're going in there for you every month, like downloading plugin updates, making sure things are still working, testing forms, changing passwords, all that kind of stuff.

[00:23:46] Because if you don't do that. And this is one of the things that you really need to know about a WordPress site. 

[00:23:51] Your site can become obsolete in a fairly short amount of time. And it gets to the point where the theme that it was built on is outdated or discontinued. 

[00:24:01] And then people want to update their site and they can't because they haven't updated their site in so many years.

[00:24:07] So that's like the biggest thing that I try to educate people on is make sure you have a hosting and maintenance plan. 

[00:24:14] Ours also includes up to an hour per month of Content updates. For people who need that as well. 

[00:24:21] And then, we also train you on how to go in there and change your content and things like that.

[00:24:26] But then other than that, I would like to think of it as the mandatory thing. 

Content Strategy: The Key to Organic Traffic and Lead Generation

[00:24:30] It just depends again on what were your goals for that site if you are wanting to. Drive a lot of organic traffic. You're wanting to generate leads. And especially if it's a brand new URL with no history behind it. 

[00:24:44] You really need a regular content strategy where you are, this is.

[00:24:49] Generally blogging for most people where you're, you're consistently updating that site. 

[00:24:53] You're feeding in new content. And then the other piece that we try to educate people on if they're going to do it themselves. 

[00:25:00] Is to grow their email list. And so we'll build in kind of opt in opportunities around the site where people can join your list.

[00:25:08] If you're doing regular content. Guess what? Now you have stuff to email out without really a whole lot of extra work. 

[00:25:15] As you're starting to bring that traffic into your site, give them opportunities to opt in. So that you can be growing your list. 

[00:25:23] Wow. So as you're saying 

Leveraging Blogs and Email Lists for Enhanced Engagement

[00:25:24] this, I'm always thinking of optimization ideas because I'm the person that created a website and then, figured out like what I did wrong later. 

[00:25:32] Even if you've created a lot of blogs already, searching for email ideas. 

[00:25:38] You could go back and start sharing those blogs we've already created. 

[00:25:42] So I'm like the fact that never fully materialized as an option to me is almost crazy sounding. 

[00:25:49] But it does sound like a really smart, easy way to engage and optimize at the same time.

[00:25:55] Oh yeah. And especially blogs. 

[00:25:58] If you have older blogs and they're not getting a lot of traffic, look at how you can update them. 

[00:26:03] Are there new things about the subject that you want your readership to know? Or have you added a different product line? Or, anything that you can do to go in there, update it, add a little more content to it, make it fresh, publish it again.

[00:26:18] It's a really good way to repurpose your content. 

[00:26:21] And it keeps you from having a lot of pages that are getting no traffic on your site as well. 

[00:26:26] Yeah, 

Internal Linking: A Secret Weapon for SEO

[00:26:26] and then you mentioned Internal linking and like having an internal linking strategy. Like in our conversations. 

[00:26:33] Can you tell us a little bit more about that how that works or how you would implement it to support the overall goals of the website? 

[00:26:40] Yeah, so internal linking. For people who don't know is just a fancy way to say links on your website to other pages on your website. 

[00:26:49] And so what you want to do is look for opportunities to connect your content together, because that tells the search engines.

[00:26:58] These things are related. 

[00:26:59] They'll crawl all those links and look at the other content that you have on there. It's not something you can do a ton of when you build a brand new site. 

[00:27:08] But as you get a lot of content on your site. Go back to older pages and add links to newer pages, especially if those older pages are getting a lot of traffic. 

[00:27:19] Go hyperlink in the text like places that relate to newer blogs that you have.

[00:27:25] If you have say a new content download that people can access, go back to that older page, add a call to action where they can get to it. 

[00:27:32] So it's really thinking it's first of all, looking at what pages are getting traffic. And that's really where you want to focus your internal linking efforts. 

[00:27:39] But also just being aware of how all the content on your site is connected and helping search engines to see those connections.

[00:27:47] Yeah, so is there a way to manufacture this strategy, like just in general? 

[00:27:54] It's like creating a website that has a purpose. 

[00:27:58] That then has a, content creation that also has a purpose. That supports the original goal. 

[00:28:04] Is I'm seeing a triangle here, like I'm even if you're watching this video, you can see me thinking out loud. If I try, but is that kind of how the process goes or how would you 

[00:28:13] describe that?

[00:28:14] I would probably describe it a little bit differently. 

Crafting a Winning Strategy: Target Audience and Value Proposition

[00:28:18] But I think I'm going to talk about what you're talking about. 

[00:28:20] Part of what we do, whether we're building a website or taking a client on for content marketing, really whatever we're doing with them. 

[00:28:28] We want to make sure that they have clearly defined their target audience and what is the problem that they solve for them and their value proposition.

[00:28:39] So that's similar to a USP, but it's like what is it that your business brings to the table that you do better than anyone else in your industry for your target audience? 

[00:28:51] What is the problem that you solve best for your target audience? And how do you do that in a unique way? And so I'll give you an example.

[00:28:59] We did a website for a company that does residential fencing.

[00:29:03] A commoditized service. 

[00:29:06] In a way, you might think, " Oh, how do you really have a value prop for like my fencing company versus your fencing company?" 

[00:29:12] For them, as we dug into it and worked with them, it really had more to do with their service.

[00:29:17] Like they show up on time. All their installers are employees of their company. They're not contractors. 

[00:29:23] They are all uniformed. They're driving logo trucks. 

[00:29:25] They're going to be there when they say they will. They're going to get the work done when they say they will. 

[00:29:29] It's a huge problem in their industry.

[00:29:31] Compared to other companies. 

[00:29:32] So that's where what we built their value proposition around. It's really my problem is I need a fence. 

[00:29:38] And they're able to solve that in a unique way. Because they have people who will get the work done. Show up on time. All that kind of stuff. 

[00:29:49] So anyway, to come back to your question, the reason that we want to do that really in the beginning is because all of the content and all of the work that we do on the website comes back to fulfilling that value proposition. 

[00:30:01] And ensuring that we are speaking to that problem or problems that the company solves for their target audience.

[00:30:08] Once you have those things in place, it gives you structure. For everything else that you're going to do. 

[00:30:15] Especially with content. 

[00:30:17] Because now, to go back to the fencing company example. 

[00:30:20] If their value proposition is around the service, they provide now, you can start to think about queries that you might want to be ranking for.

[00:30:27] Yes, you want to be ranking for fence company in my town. 

[00:30:32] But. 

[00:30:32] You also want to think about Fence company where people will actually show up, for example, could be a query. 

[00:30:39] And so then, it starts to to fill in your content strategy for you. 

[00:30:43] Yeah, I can totally relate to that feeling that the people have.

[00:30:47] Because we recently had our roof replaced or within the last year or two, and then there was a huge storm that just came through last week.

[00:30:54] I don't know if you guys were affected by it in North Carolina, but some of our shingles flew off. And I was like, Oh, I don't think that's supposed to happen when you have a fairly new roof. 

[00:31:04] But I, the company that we used, I don't know their name exactly. And it's now I have to call the insurance company and all these different things.

[00:31:13] So it really does make a difference to work with a company that, is local and you know that you can maybe even walk into their brick and mortar. 

[00:31:20] Or, at least get somebody on the phone to say, Hey, you've been in business for 20 years. So I can trust that you're still going to be here in two years to come fix this roof. So those are big time home purchases.

[00:31:32] You really want that assurance that people are who they say they are and they're going to do what they said they're going to do. 

[00:31:38] Oh, yeah, I'll plug another resource. Actually, that we have on our website. We have another download of strategy questions that people can access, if you're not sure. 

[00:31:47] Most people think they know who their target audience is, but in a lot of cases, they're not specific enough with it.

[00:31:54] And. If you're not specific enough, it makes it really hard to create great content. 

[00:31:58] Because you're trying to speak to everybody instead of who you'd really serve the best. So there's that piece of it. 

[00:32:04] And then same with the value proposition. 

[00:32:05] Really getting into what makes your business unique compared to the other people on the market that you compete with.

[00:32:11] So you can go on our website, brightermessaging.Com, click on the resources tab. 

[00:32:16] And we've got some strategy questions that you can download and help you think through that. 

[00:32:20] Sometimes I wonder if as an e commerce brand, we should have just made one product. 

[00:32:26] I guess my first question is: when you have multiple collections. 

[00:32:31] Do you have multiple USPs? Or is it, can you use that same USP throughout those product offerings?

[00:32:38] Probably you have a USP for your business. But then you might have different audiences for different products. 

[00:32:49] And they might have different problems. 

[00:32:51] But, hopefully they all tie back together, in most cases. 

[00:32:54] I haven't really worked with a company where they didn't all come back to, this is really who we are and what we do.

[00:33:01] If you are struggling to tie them together, it might be the case where are you trying to do too much and be too much to too many different people. 

[00:33:10] And not really focusing. 

The Importance of Vision in Business and Marketing

[00:33:11] And so then like to even go a higher level, like what is your vision for your business? 

[00:33:17] Do you have a vision for your business? And for how, that long term what you're trying to accomplish.

[00:33:23] And so that's the next higher piece. That's really outside of the marketing. 

[00:33:29] But it's, it it ends up dictating so much about the marketing as well. If you have thought that through. 

[00:33:35] Yeah. And I love this conversation because I have a group, it's called the SEO squad. And we meet and we're talking through some of these things.

[00:33:42] So it's. You're in recovery mode, but trying to go back and put the steps in order is also, important. 

[00:33:49] I think these resources are going to be amazing. I'll definitely link to them in the show notes and send people your way. 

[00:33:54] Because that is the key. Once you have something you can follow, then you know where you're at. 

[00:34:00] Where you're going.

[00:34:01] And then you, if which we all get distracted or, Our best laid plans, we wanted to get all this done today and it doesn't happen. 

[00:34:08] We have to pick it up maybe even a month from now. If you have a road map, then you at least know what the next step is. 

[00:34:14] Where you stopped.

[00:34:15] And so I think that's another key because sometimes a website can just feel like a digital mess that you can't clean up. 

[00:34:22] Yeah, and I think, too, also coming back to what we were talking about in the beginning about, having motherhood harmonize with your business. 

[00:34:31] For me, my vision is so critically important to maintaining what I'm willing to do with my business. 

[00:34:40] And what I'm willing to do with my kids.

[00:34:42] And when I sat down and created my own vision, it was really for my business and for my life. 

[00:34:49] And I had to figure out how do those things fit together. And, put some rules in place. 

[00:34:55] For me personally, to make sure that I could continue to pursue my vision. 

[00:35:01] But there's so much freedom that comes once you have that vision set because now every time a decision comes your way It's not a matter of oh, I don't know.

[00:35:10] Should I do this? Should I not? 

[00:35:11] I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people who says yes a little too often. And. Then gets overloaded. And then I get stressed out. And I can't get anything done. 

[00:35:21] And you know putting that vision in place to say, okay. I've been asked to do this volunteer thing at my kid's school, for example. 

[00:35:28] How does that fit in with what I have already stated are my priorities and my vision for my life.

[00:35:32] And now I have guardrails to help me make those decisions. 

[00:35:36] And really figure out is this the right thing for me and for my family at this time? 

[00:35:41] Yeah, I love that you've just given us all permission to do that. 

[00:35:44] Because I also think sometimes when people think you have your own business. 

[00:35:47] It's oh you're so flexible and, and it's I still actually have to run the business. And do the things that make it a business. 

[00:35:54] Okay, since we're wrapping up on our time here. 

[00:35:57] What is one thing that somebody could do today that you feel is going to have the most positive impact for their SEO and or their website? 

[00:36:09] So if you already have your metadata in place, like we talked about earlier then I would say start working on your content strategy.

[00:36:17] And to do that, look at the people also asked queries on Google. 

[00:36:22] If you have a certain keyword or key phrase that you're wanting to go after and rank for. 

[00:36:28] Go ahead and Google it. And see what are those people also asked queries. Those are your blog topics. 

[00:36:34] Start making content around that. That will get, a lot of people are like, Oh, I want to do a blog, but I don't know that I really have enough ideas.

[00:36:43] There is an endless, I don't care what your business is. There's an endless amount of stuff you can write about. Because you have a specific area of expertise. 

[00:36:50] So, coming up with ideas, don't let that be a hurdle that stops you from doing it. Go to those people also ask questions. That's like free gold right there.

[00:37:00] Yeah. And the best thing about those is once you click on them. Then you get more and more. 

[00:37:05] So it's like Pandora's box slash Russian dolls, 

[00:37:09] Yeah, and it's real, and people talk about, " Oh, I want to do more on social media." 

[00:37:14] If you look at the content that people are looking at on social media and the content that people are posting on social media, I think we all know that's a highlight reel of everyone's life.

[00:37:24] Right? Google queries are honest. People are so honest with search engines in a way that they never are on social media. 

[00:37:33] And so you're going to find, this is the stuff that people are really looking for related to your product or service. 

[00:37:39] Specifically about that problem that you solve best for your customer.

[00:37:42] Wow. That is the soundbite right there. That's going to lead the podcast. That is amazing. That is so good. Yeah. The case for SEO. That's 

[00:37:50] right. You should be a 

[00:37:51] lawyer, or you could be an attorney. It's over. 

[00:37:54] Case is closed. Yeah. 

[00:37:56] So if people want to, touch base with you, I know we're going to drop the links to the resources you mentioned, but is there any other place that people can find your company or connect with 

[00:38:06] you?

[00:38:07] Yeah, definitely through our website, brighter messaging. com. And then I am on LinkedIn and we've got a LinkedIn page as well, where we post stuff pretty regularly. You can find me on there, you can follow brighter messaging and I would love to connect with you. 

[00:38:21] Awesome. Thank you so much for these strategy tips.

[00:38:23] They are the skeleton, and the foundation of a successful website. And so often it's just the piece that gets skipped because we're so quick to want to get 

[00:38:35] to the 

[00:38:36] selling and making money part. So this was so helpful and like great tips for optimization. 

[00:38:42] Awesome. This was so fun. Thank you, Crystal.

[00:38:45] I appreciate you having me. All right. Thank you.