When my client and friend asked me to come onto his podcast, I was eager to accept. Not just because Pete’s a great person, but because I’ve always been very open about my life and I’m happy to share it with others. Life is messy and life is hard. For some of us, that messiness can present some significant hurdles. But hurdles and life’s complexities don’t have to stand in the way of success. I found that out early in my career and I always welcome a chance to remind others of this as ... Read More
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When it Comes to Writing Website Content, Don’t be a Sheldon
Back in 2014, I originally published this post. I had been already working in website design and SEO for ten years and I was painfully aware of the need for digestible content. In the last six months, my husband Jason has been digging into the genetics of alpacas (we're alpaca farmers) and his world has been filled with terminology that includes words like alleles, genotype, phenotype, and DNA sequencing. As he learns more, he wants to share this knowledge with the alpaca community. He ... Read More
The Trials and Tribulations of Hiring a Website Developer
I originally posted this article back in 2016 and I pulled it to dust it off today because I am currently working with two SEO clients who have hot messes of websites. These companies have tried multiple website developers and SEO agencies, only to be left with hacked up websites with no website traffic, conversions, or ROI. It's buyer beware and sometimes I feel like digital marketing is the wild west of technology. Your website is an important part of your business. If 2020 taught us ... Read More
Align SEO Efforts with Your Target Market and Today’s Search
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking at WordCamp US in St. Louis. WordCamp US is the largest WordPress event in the United States, so it was quite an honor for me to be asked to present an extended workshop on SEO. As soon as I was invited to speak, I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to walk attendees through the identification of website personas, I wanted to help them ask the right questions about their target market and offering, and I also wanted to teach ... Read More
Are You Getting What You Need Out of Your SEO Retainer?
Time and time again I talk to companies who pay for a monthly SEO retainer, but can’t actually tell me what their digital agency is doing for their money. Let me start by saying this is wrong. Actually, let me scream it from the top of a building – this is really really wrong. If you are paying a freelancer, consultant, or agency for SEO work, you should know exactly how they are spending their time and your money. Sadly, this is rarely the case and it gives the entire SEO industry a bad ... Read More
The Yin and Yang of SEO and PPC
I am pretty opinionated about SEO and PPC. I've been a longtime advocate of SEO and I've traditionally steered well away from PPC. But I'm not older and wiser and I see the writing on the wall. Search is shifting, Google is becoming a lot more greedy, and most companies cannot exist with SEO alone. Up until this last year, I would have told you PPC is "cocaine for marketers" because money is spent in hopes of a quick high and zero long-term value is derived. I view SEO as just the opposite. ... Read More
Mapping Keywords to Website Personas
Website persons can be an intimidating subject for most people. Bring keywords into the mix and the conversation can become utterly scary for some. I like to take the scariness out of website design and SEO, so I recently performed a training webinar that used Winnie the Pooh and his friends to talk through the process of mapping website personas to keywords. If you'd like to watch the full sixty-minute webinar, it is available below. If you don't have time for that much education, feel free ... Read More
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Today’s SEO
The landscape of SEO is constantly changing. Excelling at search engine optimization means understanding what modern SEO is and what needs to be done to remain competitive in search. Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to stay vigilant and adapt to this ever-changing SEO environment. If they fail to do so, they will be left behind in search and they'll fail to truly capture all the web has to offer. This week I held a free training webinar for the iThemes community. In this ... Read More
Getting Maximum Exposure with Video SEO on YouTube
I'll admit it - I avoided YouTube and video SEO for about as long as I could. This year it became overly apparent that I could no longer do so and I have to acknowledge YouTube and video for what it is - an SEO superpower. Once I moved past my avoidance, I dug into video SEO and learned as much as I could about it. You know what I discovered? It's a lot like regular SEO. Keyword research, quality content, usability, and engagement all matter and they matter a lot. Before we dig into what ... Read More
Embracing the Google Knowledge Graph
The Google Knowledge Graph was first introduced in 2012. Since then it has diversified in the types of data presented and it has greatly expanded in usage. It now dominates search results and many people don't even know what it is. The Knowledge Graph can sound really intimidating, but it really isn't that scary. It's a huge database of the people, places, and things that are popular in the world around us. But that isn't the cool part. The cool part is Google understands how those ... Read More
The Founders Origin Stories of ZenFounder
I recently had the honor of joining Sherry Walling on the ZenFounder podcast. Sherry and her husband, Rob Walling, have been running a seven part series on entrepreneurs and the stories behind their products and services. What I find so special about these stories is that people - even very public people - are so much more than you would ever realize. The online world and in particular, social media, has given us humans this fake premiss of separation. From nasty tweets to completely ... Read More
Writing Website Content: Addressing the Elephant in the Room
Whether you’ve just spent thousands of dollars on a custom website build or you’re using an off-the-shelf stock website theme, you’ll ultimately have to address the elephant in the room. Your elephant, my friend, is writing website content. It's the one thing, and monumental task, that stands in the way of your pretty new website going live. For many of our clients writing content becomes the project bottleneck, the roadblock, and the ultimate showstopper. For those of you who think I am ... Read More
The Best SEO is Human-Based SEO
This last weekend I the pleasure of speaking at WordCamp Miami. While I was fortunate enough to participate on two business panels, my main presentation was a solo one focused on search engine optimization. If you'd like to review my presentation, you can download the presentation on Sideshare, as well as view the livestream video below. Everyone From Young to Old Wants to Learn SEO The topic of SEO is always a hot one. People may say SEO is dead, but this is farthest from the ... Read More
SEO Competitive Research Is Vital to Your Marketing Efforts
SEO competitor research is a process that reviews existing and future competitors. This is something that has been done in traditional marketing for a very long time. When you weave SEO into the competitive research mix, you will expand your existing traditional competitors with additional online competitors. You might be asking why you would have both traditional and online. That is a great question. Many times the people/websites you compete with in real life are not the same ... Read More
A Week of SEO Blunders
SEO blunders can happen to even the most well intentioned companies. This last week I encountered two cases of multiple SEO mistakes that happened to companies I know well. Seeing it happen to people I like is hard. Having a Come to Jesus SEO moment with people I'm professionally and emotionally invested in is even harder for me. It isn't something I enjoy, but it is a necessary part of my job. I'd like to turn this last week into a learning lesson for the readers of our blog. Don't think ... Read More
The SEO Power of a 301 Redirect
I’m a huge fan of protecting a page’s SEO value with 301 redirects. For a long time I knew a 301 redirect would not only redirect traffic, it would also pass SEO value. I just didn’t quite have precise data to prove the massive value of a 301 redirect. If you are unfamiliar with this SEO tool, you can learn more about their usage in a post I recently wrote titled Upgrading Your Website? Don’t Forget 301 Redirects or You’ll Be Sorry. They are powerful, so you'll want to educate yourself on ... Read More
The Value of Content Before Website Design
I’m a strong believer in preparing website content before initiating graphic design and this applies to both websites and blogs. Some will argue with me, but I’ll fight this battle and dig in because I know content before website design is the right approach. I believe: Strong website design extends past colors, fonts, and layout boxes. Strong design focuses on the user. Website design should be crafted around the user, their needs, and the desired outcome of a website visit. It should be ... Read More
Google Adwords Keyword Planner Alternatives
If you've talked to me about SEO, you know keyword research is at the heart of my SEO process. I've long believed it is a core part of search engine optimization and I focus an entire lesson on it in my online SEO course. For years I've lived by the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. I knew the data was skewed towards pay per click advertisers, but honestly, I didn't care. I could put in my own suggestions, import a keyword seed list, or even a URL and receive back hundreds of ideas with monthly ... Read More
Upgrading Your Website? Don’t Forget 301 Redirects or You’ll Be Sorry
301 redirects help protect your website during an upgrade, redesign, or move. While they are really easy to implement, many website owners and developers forget about them and in the process, this derails SEO efforts and can completely wipe away ranking in search. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think much about 301 redirects until recently. Creating and managing 301 redirects have been a core part of our website design and development projects and we have to do items listed for these within each ... Read More
Getting Rid of SEO Lies and Other BS You’ve Heard
On my way home tonight my Twitter notifications started to chime. Apparently there was some chatter about SEO being similar to “nasty oil salesman, slimy tactics” and I was being brought into the conversation. For the last year I have been a very loud advocate for SEO within the WordPress community and I've really tried my best to remove the remove SEO lies and other BS discussions from SEO conversations, blog posts, and webinars. Today's Chatter on SEO Lies and BS Here is how the Twitter ... Read More
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