🎙 Listen to the episode on the top 2.5% globally ranked podcast,
The Motivated CEO: Business Strategy for Entrepreneurs,
available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all streaming platforms!
Demystifying SEO for Entrepreneurs: Practical Strategies to Boost Your Online Presence
Understanding the Basics: Why SEO Matters
SEO stands for search engine optimization, a mechanism by which Google and other search engines index and display your website's pages in search results. Lauren explains that effective SEO connects potential clients—those who may not yet know you—to your business, making a lasting impact on your reach and revenue. Think of it as your digital calling card, helping clients find solutions to their problems by landing on your page.
The Human Element: Writing for People, Not Just Bots
One of the most significant takeaways from the conversation was the importance of writing for humans, not just for search engines. Lauren emphasizes that while certain technical aspects like clean URL structures and appropriate metadata are crucial, the essence of effective SEO is clear and engaging writing that resonates with real people. Keep in mind that people seek solutions, and your content should always guide them toward taking the next step—whether that’s subscribing to your email list or making a purchase.
Getting Started: DIY SEO Strategies for Business Owners
Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer scope of SEO? Lauren assures that you don’t need to hire an expert from day one. Instead, focus on mastering a few fundamental strategies:
Conduct Keyword Research
To know what people are asking and how they are asking it is pivotal. Lauren recommends tools like Ahrefs for free keyword research to uncover the exact language your ideal clients are using. This data enables you to align your content with the questions and problems that your audience is actively searching for. Even a small change in wording, such as using "recurring revenue" instead of "recurring income," can substantially impact your search visibility.
Optimize Content for User Intent
Your website and content should be crafted to answer specific questions that your target audience is asking. From blog posts and podcasts to videos and image galleries, ensure that every piece of content serves a purpose and leads the user through a logical journey. Interlinking related content is also crucial to guide visitors to other helpful resources within your site.
Utilize Multimedia Rich Content
Incorporating a variety of content forms—like images, videos, and podcast episodes, complete with transcripts—enhances user engagement and can boost your SEO efforts. Diversity in content type can make your website more accessible and engaging, increasing the likelihood of visitors spending more time on your site.
Adapting to Change: The Role of AI and New Technologies in SEO
With the rise of AI and other emerging technologies, the digital marketing landscape is evolving rapidly. Though this adds layers of complexity, Lauren advises that sticking to timeless SEO principles—quality keyword research, clear content organization, and engaging writing—remains a robust strategy. Writing for humans ensures lasting relevance, even as algorithms and technologies shift.
The Mole Method: Stay Focused Amidst the Noise
Lauren introduced the concept of the "Mole Method," which involves periods of focused work followed by strategic reevaluation. Every few months, pop your head up, assess the changing landscape, and pivot as needed. This proactive approach ensures that you are not paralyzed by the continuous influx of new technologies and methods.
Knowing When to Outsource: A Balanced Approach
For entrepreneurs who find SEO daunting or time-consuming, outsourcing might be a viable option. Lauren underscores the importance of trusting your SEO consultant and understanding what they do. Whether through hiring a consultant or taking courses, gaining a basic understanding of SEO principles not only safeguards your investment but also empowers you to make informed decisions.
Conclusion: Taking Action and Looking Ahead
SEO isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Content creation and optimization are long-term strategies that require continuous effort but yield sustainable results. By implementing these basic principles and staying informed about evolving technologies, you’ll set the foundation for a solid digital presence.
For more resources, Lauren offers a free DIY website audit that can provide insights into your current SEO standing. An investment in improving your online visibility today can pave the way for reaching the clients who are already searching for solutions you offer.
Start taking those small steps now, and your business will thank you in the long run.
Episode Links
🎙️DID YOU LOVE THIS EPISODE?
Check out these episodes packed with even more strategies to help you shatter your sales plateau!
💻 FREE DIY Website audit from Lauren
❌ DON’T BUY MY BESTSELLING BOOK,
The CEO Method: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Success because I want to give you a FREE copy. Click here!
Transcript for Episode 362. Stop Chasing Followers: Use SEO to Attract Ready-to-Buy Clients with Lauren Gaggioli
Amy [00:00:02]:
As entrepreneurs, most of us have heard of the term SEO search engine optimization, but beyond that, it can be a little bit of a mystery. Not going to lie, I feel that way some days, too. We hear that we need to optimize our websites, our content, all of these things for SEO, but what does that actually mean? And in a world that's evolving so fast, it's enough to make your head spin. How do we keep up with these changes as entrepreneurs? And how are these going to impact us as AI continues to develop and emerge? Today's guest, Lauren Gaglioli. I almost butchered that. I'm sorry, Lauren.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:00:47]:
You got it. You got it.
Amy [00:00:48]:
She is amazing at what she does. She is an SEO and content strategy consultant and she helps entrepreneurs turn strangers on the Internet into happy clients with the help of Uncle Google. I love it. And Lauren is here today to help demystify this and give us practical strategies that we can implement in our business so that we're not having to spend hours upon hours on social media platforms that have so, such limited lifespans. So, Lauren, welcome into the podcast. I am so excited to have this conversation with you today.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:01:29]:
Same, Amy. I love this stuff. I know that's weird. I genuinely love it and I'm thrilled to be here to share it with.
Amy [00:01:37]:
You and your listeners love it. So for most of us, we have this general awareness of what SEO is. And we know we need to have our websites, different things, be SEO optimized. But why is this so crucial as business owners that we take the time to analyze? Okay, do I have appropriate SEO strategies in place for my business?
Lauren Gaglioli [00:02:03]:
So.
Amy [00:02:06]:
This sounds like a loaded question.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:02:08]:
It is a big question. It is a really big question. I think it really comes down to the answer is different for everybody. So for those who don't know, SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the mechanism by which Google indexes and delivers your website. And it's not just your website, it's your individual pages and posts into search results so that people who don't yet know you can connect with you. So I wonder if anybody listening has had this moment where they've been at a network event. And I used to teach act and sat, and that was how I actually learned SEO was I did it for myself with that website.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:02:58]:
I had asynchronous courses and I would go to these networking events when I was living in San Diego and be like, hey, I'm Lauren. I teach Sat and act and I'd find a parent who would go, oh my gosh, we just went through that I really wish I had met you sooner. I, and like, doesn't your heart just shrivel a little as an entrepreneur? You're like, oh, I could have helped you.
Amy [00:03:18]:
And it's been there.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:03:19]:
It's really.
Amy [00:03:20]:
Yeah.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:03:21]:
You're like, I have a solution, and I want the people who need the solution to be able to find me so I can provide them with answers and support and resources. That is, to me, like, forget the money side of it. That obviously is important. But like, I, that is why so many of us are in business for ourselves, is that we love that direct connection with our clients. That is what SEO helps you speed up, and that is what SEO helps you do that at scale. And so no longer are you geographically bound, no longer are you meeting the right person at the right time that you just happen to bump into. I think social media is a similar play, right? You're like, I hope that when I send this out, that nobody who asked for this finds this information and also happens to find it useful at the exact moment the algorithm maybe sends it up to them, and I hope it happens in this 24 hours period.
Amy [00:04:20]:
Right?
Lauren Gaglioli [00:04:20]:
That's the exchange on social. It's the same sort of like wish and hope and pray in networking events. And those things are important, right? You do want to have them as part of your ecosystem. But if someone searches, when should I take the satan? And I can be the one to provide the answer. I can then also say, hey, here's the answer. Would you like additional resources? Sign up for my email list. And now we're connected in a way that I control. And so it's not just about getting found in Google, it's about passing through into an ecosystem you control.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:04:56]:
And that's really the whole shoot and match with SEO.
Amy [00:05:00]:
I think that is the best description I have ever heard. It makes much sense the way you broke it down because this can seem like such a scary concept, and it's one of those tactics in business. Like, we hear about it. Like, I feel like there's, there's a pretty good awareness of it, but then it seems like really techie, really hard to figure out. So what advice can you give us for how do we even start? Like, do we need to hire this out day one? Or are there things we can do as business owners to assess? What is my SEO presence online? Am I getting discovered? What can we do and where do we start?
Lauren Gaglioli [00:05:45]:
Oh, man, there are so many things that you can do. And this is where I really have to encourage people to hear the full journey, hear everything you could do and then choose the pieces that work for you. You don't have to do everything to rank, so just to give you sort of a benchmark. With my test prep company, I had, like I said, asynchronous courses. I offered four different ones, and I was able to flow 16,000 new users per month through the door via free organic search. 16,000 prospective clients. Not just like, hey, I ran into you on social people who asked the question that I showed up for that I had targeted, and this ultimately led to four hour work weeks and five to $15,000 of passive income per month. And so I'm giving those numbers just to show, like, my conversions actually were really low, given those numbers.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:06:49]:
When I went back and calculated after I sold the company, I was like, oh, I really missed the boat on some of this because I learned it later. But I. I still had a business that was thriving, you know, especially when you think about the profit margins of online, online business. So I'm sharing that to say it's doable, and I did so much wrong, like, going back and reworking it, I'm like, the conversion wasn't high. There were ways I could have dialed stuff in. I definitely didn't publish as often as I should have, but I knew enough to be dangerous. And you have to think about the fact I was up against the Princeton reviews, the Kaplan's the revolution preps of the world. So when somebody tells you it's not possible as a solo, I say, absolutely not.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:07:33]:
And I think whether you hire it out or not really comes down to your budget. But there are a lot of bad actors in the SEO space, so you need to really know and trust. And if it sounds too good to be true, it is. So when I look at SEO, I like to look at the timeless principles, and those timeless principles are actually just good writing. So if you don't like developing copy, you're going to be a little bit hamstrung. When it comes to SEO, you do need to write words, and AI is changing some things. Multimedia rich posts are very important. You can absolutely have transcripts for your podcast or video of your podcast with closed captions that are embedded on a page on your site.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:08:20]:
But what I want you to think about for SEO to work is that all roads lead to your website. And once they do, what is the next right step? And that next right step needs to be something that triggers people to sign up for your email list. That is the flow. Getting people through the door comes down to one thing. That is so confusing for people. I'm going to make it real simple here. It's keyword research. You have to know what people are asking and how they are asking it.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:08:51]:
And that comes down to doing the research.
Amy [00:08:55]:
Are there any recommendations you can give us to find what are people asking and how are they saying it? I think that the how they're asking it is a very overlooked strategy that we can be using.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:09:15]:
There's so much insider speak because we know our domains. Right. If I start throwing out your eat and all the SEO, I can give you acronyms all day long and that doesn't actually help you, right? I have to build the bridge to you. I have to spell out what those acronyms say. I have to give you additional resources and I have to know what you're asking. So I know that people ask, is SEO important for small business? And I've written a post about that in that exact language because it's not as SEO important for entrepreneurs. Small business owners are entrepreneurs, but people who are asking about SEO are identifying as small business owners, not entrepreneurs. And so that's fascinating and something I learned by doing keyword research.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:10:04]:
So there are two tools. My very favorite resource, the one that I use, is called ahrefs. And so that's a hrefs.com. they have free SEO tools. I will tell you, they recently took out some of the granularity to their data, and their keyword generator is less useful at this moment in time. However, it is free and you can get a really good sense of the language people are using and as well as keyword difficulty and keyword volume. Now the volume is where they took out the granularity. It is now ranges.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:10:46]:
That's more in alignment with Google's keyword planner, but it'll give you the language. I had a client who was looking up keywords. He helps people and supports people as they create memberships and communities online. He was talking about recurring income. He said, this is why you want a community, because of recurring income. Recurring income, recurring income, just in his language. He did the keyword research. More people are looking for recurring revenue.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:11:17]:
So right there, he can be more in linguistic alignment with his ideal prospect because of the information he had. He said the volumes on recurring revenue was so much higher. But the thing you'll be able to find is the exact language that your ideal avatar is using. And not only will you see how hard it will be to rank for that on a scale of zero to 1000 being easiest and what you want to aim for, you will also, see how many people a month in a general range are searching. And I find that endlessly fascinating. If you ever feel stymied about, like, what to create next, go to your keyword research. Go see what people are searching for. You might be surprised.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:12:02]:
And also go pretend you know nothing. And then really make sure you're tapping into what that person would say. It will take some time for you to find that, like, uninitiated language, right, the language of the newbie. And it will be so helpful and informative, even if that's the only thing you do, it will blow your mind. And this data is available for free.
Amy [00:12:30]:
For free. Like it's a no brainer. Yes, it takes a little bit of time. It takes the commitment, it takes getting curious, like you said, shifting that perspective back into your ideal client's shoes, putting yourself in their position of, okay, if I were to search, what would I be searching for? And that right there is such gold. That is pure gold as an entrepreneur, because we get stuck on the inside looking out and we think that everything we're saying and doing makes sense to everyone else. But when you flip the perspective, things can change so rapidly and open up these new avenues for us. And like you said, it's totally free. Starting with something as simple as keyword research.
Amy [00:13:19]:
Yeah, just start getting curious and going down those rabbit holes. Block out a little bit of time on your calendar and try it out. Now, something else I want to touch upon too is that things are rapidly evolving. We're in an era where AI is rising, things are changing. You know, Google was recently in the spotlight. How does that impact the searchability, the whole SEO process? What do we need to know as business owners, as these things are continuously evolving?
Lauren Gaglioli [00:13:54]:
So here's the thing that I love about the SEO principles that I adhere to. You know, having quality keyword research, making sure your posts are organized, your title, your URL structure is clean. All of it is in alignment with the keyword you are targeting. You have internal linking, meaning related content is linked to on your website. Not just like at the bottom is related, but like inside websites. You have that hyperlinked text that's pointing to something else that lives on your website. You've got images, you've got video, potentially a podcast episode embedded. When you scroll through at the bottom, there's a way for people to stay connected to you.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:14:36]:
The final call to action always flows through to a resource that gets them on your email. List these things using headers appropriately. All of this organizing everything well, making sure it's clear all of this is just good writing for humans right now. Some of that does help the bots too. Clean URL structures, that sort of thing. Making sure your metadata is compelling. If you do happen to show up in search this post that you have spent time creating, you can share it on social, you can send it to your email list, it serves to many different channels. You can absolutely put it on Pinterest.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:15:14]:
Pinterest is a search engine. These things to get backlinks. This is all wonderful. Now here comes AI, here comes Google, here comes all these new technologies on the horizon. We're still human if we write for humans and have some of the technical components feed the bots as well, right? We are having it do kind of double duty. I can't say how that's going to change. What I do know is that if you wait and don't develop the content now, you won't be able to pivot that content later. It is always easier to pivot something that exists than it is to wait until you feel certain on the other side.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:15:59]:
And at the end of the day, people need help. People need information. My favorite thing that happened once I changed and had all this content living on higher scores, and it's starting to happen now. In my business where I'm helping people with SEO, I have enough content now that when I get questioned via email, I can send a link to a post I wrote and that is so much faster than typing the whole post out every single dang time. So I think, yes, things are changing. It's odd. I'm a digital entrepreneur who kind of hates technology. Like AI is such a resource hog.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:16:43]:
We're not talking about the ecological impact of the resources required. Maybe I have visibility to this because my husband works for AWS. I know what's going on with how many servers and how much energy it's draining and what it the actual physical task of training an AI model. It's equivalent. The carbon footprint is equivalent to like five round trip flights coast to coast. Like, it is not without actual physical cost and it is not without a burden and everybody's lauding it. I'm like, it can help in certain respects, but we need to be careful. There's balance that needs to happen here.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:17:26]:
And ultimately it takes for search four to five times the resources for Google to generate a generative AI response than just a regular straight up ten blue links search. So I think at the end of the day, I'm putting my head down. I'm doing what I know, I'm popping up. I call it the mole method. Use what you know, go underground, take action, do something with that information. And then, you know, a month later, three months later, whatever, pop your head up and go. Are the surroundings still okay? Do I need to pivot anything? Because I can always check, you know, go back and like, change a URL or, you know, do whatever I need to do to plus up something that already exists. And then I go, okay, here's where we are now.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:18:19]:
And now I go back underground. And three to six months later, you know, pop back up. I'm checking in more often now because there's so much to change happening, but three to six month cadences, you're going to move your business forward. Your website will be found more if there's more content on it, if it's fresh content, if you're updating old stuff, you know, pruning and getting rid of the junk, this is a good thing. At the end of the day, your website should be so crystal clear to somebody who comes in that they want to work with you. It's so you or so you that people know they don't want to work with you. Like, be clear in your communication, follow best practices, and then just ignore the noise.
Amy [00:19:04]:
Yeah, the mole method, that is such great advice because I see this all the time. You know, we're constantly consuming. We're in this era where there's so much information that our brains think that we're doing something by consuming, but we're forgetting the most important part is implementation of that knowledge. So yes, be a mole, start implementing and keep your head down. And I love to how you touched upon the fact that, like, at the end of the day, we're still people. There's all this AI stuff going on. But be a human right for humans because that is what's going to attract your people to you the more and more AI develops. It's really interesting to me that, you know, I can read now something go, oh, they just, just totally copied and pasted that from chat GPT because it's all starting to sound the same.
Amy [00:19:56]:
There's certain phrases that we don't use, like, I would never say, like, the transformative results leading you to unlock your greatness, whatever these things are. Like, who talks like that? And I think a lot of people are finally realizing, like, oh, that's not even a person writing that. So yeah, let's go back to being human, to serving humans. Stop worrying so much about it. And with SEO, you know, it is a little bit of a longer game. It's not that you make these changes in overnight, suddenly you're ranking number one on, on Google and that's okay. But I think when you realize that and you know that this is a long game, but this is sustainable, this isn't like social media that can just get hacked overnight. When we're pulling people onto a platform that we own and directing them to a list that we own, there's so many fail safes built within that that it's important that we're not just relying on social to be our whole entire content marketing strategy.
Amy [00:21:00]:
So yes, I agree so much with everything you're saying. One final question for you. When do we know as business owners that it's time to outsource? Because a lot of this, like you said, we can get started with some of this on our own. We can go down the research rabbit holes, we can play around, we can create amazing content. But when as business owners, do we know that it's time to outsource and hire someone like yourself?
Lauren Gaglioli [00:21:27]:
I think it depends. Do you enjoy it? Right? Like, I genuinely enjoy it. The reason I'm doing this now is that that was the most fun part. Once my courses were done, this was the most fun part for me. I was like, oh, this is my job. Bring people in, send them emails, bring people in, send them emails, bring people in. And that was the exchange. And I loved that.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:21:51]:
I really enjoy having a business that I have a hand in and control over. Now if you are building at scale, then you can hire someone like me as your fractional SEO person. You know, I don't, I tend to work on twelve month contracts, so it is a bit of a heavy lift. But if you have the budget and you don't love it, by all means hire out someone who can help you. And I think if you don't enjoy it and you don't love the game of it, then getting that off your plate as early as possible makes total sense. I personally would do it before I pay into social. And I'm saying that knowing that that might change in the AI era. I used to say, don't worry about social, show up when you show up, I don't care.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:22:39]:
But like, this thing is, this is an engine that if you crank it, it will go now with like the AI results and all that. And like they're, you know, cribbing content. And you pointed to the, what I call the beige ification of information. Like, I'm so sick of it. Like, I love writing, I love communication. We are losing connection. And I think that's a problem. You know, faster and easier isn't necessarily better.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:23:13]:
In fact, most of the time it's not. So I think if you, if you don't love it, you can outsource it if you want to learn how to do it. I do have a course about that. That's a lower price point than my obviously fractional SEO services. So the thing I will say, though, is that really the reason I'm positioned the way I am in operation market, as for entrepreneurs specifically, is because I think it's so important and I know a lot of people don't have the resources for it. And so it's something that I try to have a wide array of offerings, including like a free DIY website audit where if you want to dive in and just like, check the pulse and see where you are, I have, I have a free one and then I have service where I do it for you. It's only $350 for me to do it. So if you try to get that equivalent from a larger service, it's 500 plus.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:24:13]:
So I think find somebody who can teach you too, because if you go with one of these folks who are like, oh, yeah, we'll take it, and off we go. The problem is you won't understand what they did. And I have seen so many people pour money into a bottomless bucket and they get nothing for it. It's really sad. So I wanted to create a service that was more accessible. So if that's what you're looking for, I could definitely help.
Amy [00:24:44]:
I love that about small businesses and entrepreneurs, just how we have such a heart to serve one another. I mean, even your resource, the free DIY website audit, that's so valuable. So make sure you go into the show notes. We will link it up there and check it out just to get that awareness of where you are right now with your SEO presence online. This is something that can really help boost your visibility in such a noisy world and get you to the people that are searching for you. Because there is someone right now searching for you. You have the solution to their problem. It is your responsibility to get out there and share it.
Amy [00:25:30]:
So go to Lauren's website, download that website audit, and follow along with her because she is such a wealth of information. Lauren, thank you so much for sharing such valuable information with us today. You were amazing.
Lauren Gaglioli [00:25:47]:
Thank you, Amy, for having me. I can't wait to turn this mic around and have you on my show. It's going to be awesome. I love that we're getting to spend so much time together this summer?
Amy [00:25:56]:
Same. And until next time, cheers. To making the money you want so you can create the impact you desire.
Commentaires