In this episode, we are diving into the basics of SEO for small businesses with special guest Karlie Plowman from Technobird.

If you’re a small business that’s guilty of sticking your head in the sand when it comes to all things SEO and putting it in the too hard basket, I feel ya. I used to be there myself.

It was, quite frankly, all a little bit overwhelming and so I stuck to posting on social and, when it came to digital marketing, leaving it at that.

Now?

It’s a different story.

Organic Google search is hands down my biggest traffic source, I derive a couple of leads a day from it, and that’s a number which is growing every single day. I LOVE SEO.

And all of this came about by making a conscious effort to put a little time into learning the rope. Now, I’m no guru – that’s Karlie – but I have strung enough knowledge together to get me some tangible results and now I just want to know more!

So, this podcast is kinda selfish. It’s for me, as well as for you.

And it’s a KILLER episode.

Shownotes

In this episode, we cover:

• What SEO is in more detail, and why it matters; 
• The fundamental ‘need to know’ elements of SEO;
• The WordPress v Squarespace debate;
• How to create SEO friendly content for your website;
• What link building is and why it is so important;
• Whether social media shares impact on your SEO;
• Whether small businesses can and should do their own SEO, or whether they should outsource;
• What to look for in a good SEO Manager;
• How SEO has changed in 2018 and new considerations to take into account;
• And much, much MORE!

Karlie has also put together a cool checklist with 10 ways small businesses can drive more traffic to their website using SEO, which you can grab right here!

Happy listening.

 

Links + Resources

Technobird: https://www.thetechnobird.com.au/

 

Did you enjoy this episode?

If so, I would be so grateful if you could take a minute to rate and review on iTunes or Google Podcasts.

 

Transcription

STEVIE: Hi, Guys, and Welcome to Episode 27 of the Stevie Says Social Podcast. This episode should probably be called Stevie says SEO because today I am talking to Karlie Plowman, from Techno Burn all about how to basically make the most of SEO in your business. And I’ll get into it in the episode. But I am recently very, super passionate about the impact and effect that SEO can have on a business because I have experienced it myself. I have one blog post on my website, which is driving at the moment or over, 000 hits to the website per day. 

And that really excites me right? So I’m really kind of came for you guys to stop shying away from SEO, stop thinking that it should be put in the too hard basket and really start to dedicate some time and energy to get yourself sorted. 

So in this episode, Karlie and I talk about pretty much everything to do with SEO from what it is and why it should matter why the focus is on keywords and why it should be on a lot more than that, what the main fundamentals are whether you need a WordPress website in order to be successful with SEO, how you create an SEO friendly blog post, how you go about link building and much, much more. 

Now Karlie has also been really generous and puts together an SEO cheat sheet. So if you want to drive traffic to your website using SEO, get more clients using SEO and you’re kind of keen on the content. In this episode, you’re going to want to get your hands on this cheat sheet. 

So to get that head over to steviesayssocial.com/27 and download it over there. And remember, do it now you will probably be out and about and you’ll forget to do it if you don’t do it now steviesayssocial.com/27. So, guys, I will stop talking. Let’s get into today’s episode with Karlie It is a good one. So Let’s go. 

Hi, Karlie. Welcome to the Podcast.

KARLIE: Hi Stevie Thanks for having me.

STEVIE: I’m so happy to have you on I am a new SEO convert. I literally had never really focused on it before and just recently literally changed to a WordPress site and started focusing on keywords and little things like that. And I’ve already seen spikes in my traffic so 

KARLIE: Awesome. 

STEVIE: See became everyone else to know a little bit more about SEO?

KARLIE: Yeah, well, I can talk about it all day long. So I’m ready to be excited.

STEVIE: Let’s start with a little bit about you and what you do?

KARLIE: Sure. So I’ve been in this business Techno Bird for about five years now. And it all started with the whole cliche, I was on maternity leave hated my job at the time. And I had sort of 12 months where I could decide if I wanted to go back to a job that I hated and wasn’t fulfilled in life and non-creative, that tied well. Or I could change my life, basically and do something for me. While I could raise my kids at the same time and did I know at the time that was going to be web design and digital marketing? Absolutely not, I had no idea.

STEVIE: I love that. 

KARLIE: And it all just sort of stemmed from putting my hand up for local I was on the local football nipple committee at the time, and they had a really bad website. And they wanted somebody to put the hand up to volunteer to, to turn it around and create it into this online hub for them. And nobody put the hand up. Everyone looked away as if I didn’t hear the question kind of thing. And I’m like, oh, stuff it. 

Like,  this could be This will be fun, something new,  always sort of been interested in learning it. So I said, Yeah, I’ll do it. And then I went and met with the guy that originally created the site. And I really didn’t lock what he had done. And I just thought I could do better than that. No idea why I thought that because I’d never done it before. So went away and learned basically, I taught myself how to design websites, a lot of research, a lot of practicing and fake websites, and just hobby websites for a family friend. 

And the more I learned, the more sort of natural it came to me like I just sort of stumbled upon this natural ability to design sites and put a website together that I didn’t know I had. And I just loved it, like, absolutely loved it. And so this is, this could be something everyone’s going to need a website and never going to go anywhere. It’s a sustainable business idea, give it a go, why not have a crack. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. 

So yeah, that’s where it all sort of started from. And in the last five years, it’s become more than just websites, I do a lot of SEO consulting and digital marketing coaching and other sorts of arms of digital marketing as well. It’s just sort of happened in the last five years. So yeah, that’s sort of where it all came from. And I’ve got two kids and I work from home and 

STEVIE: Amazing. 

KARLIE: Yeah, I love it. It’s just,it’s definitely a good life.

STEVIE: So good. And it’s so funny, because like, people always asked me, how did you learn about social media? And how did you learn about marketing? And I’m like, I literally just kind of got obsessed with it and started researching it. And it sounds like it’s the same fee. Exactly. Yep.

KARLIE: Same. Yeah.

STEVIE: Yeah, I think that’s really cool. And I think that’s like, I don’t know, with anything to do with digital marketing, I don’t think you need to agree is going to teach you the things that you need to know, I think that you learned by getting in there and doing it over and over and over again.

KARLIE: Absolutely. I considered doing like type goals or some kind, of course, that taught me everything I needed to know that the thought of going back to uni was not an exciting tool.

STEVIE:  Appealing.

KARLIE: So, just do my own research and do a few workshops online, courses and, and just practice, just create dummy websites. And, it doesn’t matter because they’re not going to be published. So yeah. And then I got a couple of really early on clients who I charged like zero dollars full.

STEVIE: Everyone’s done that. I did that.

KARLIE: I had to start somewhere, everyone’s already so You know, and I got really good feedback from them. And it just felt right at the time. So yeah, the more I practiced in the longer the more I researched, and all that kind of stuff, the better I got it, and I still like, look at websites I did a year ago, and go oh, my God, I could do a better thing. That’s part and parcel of digital marketing. It changes everybody week. 

STEVIE: So it’s going to change it off really? (inaudible)

KARLIE:  Totally.

STEVIE: Let’s talk about SEO. So that’s obviously a big part of what you’re doing now. And I always stalk your social media, and I love your website as well, in terms of the information the SEO. I’m in my current obsession with it. So I guess, tell us what it is and why it matters?

KARLIE: Sure. So I like to keep a short version because he can explain what SEO isn’t. It can take you an hour. But I like to keep things really simple. In everything that I do. So the way I best-explained SEO is that it’s basically the practice of being a fan or getting found on Google search engines in a nutshell. Yeah. So like one of there’s a really good sign that I like to use. And that is, having a website is like having a website with that SEO is like having a billboard in the desert, nobody is going to see it. It always makes people go 

STEVIE: Oh, right. 

KARLIE: You know that. I get it now, just from that one little court. But yeah, so SEO is basically the practice of getting your website or getting found on Google primarily on page one. In Google, there are lots of different arms of SEO that go into that. And, you know, that can include obviously, having a website that’s optimized for SEO, social media, link building, and email marketing, and all,  Google AdWords, there are lots of arms to it. 

STEVIE: Yeah,

KARLIE: Primarily, that’s what an SEO is. But why does it matter? Again, the hole in the desert billboard in the desert thing, if you have a really cool website, that’s pretty in functions well, and whatnot, but you don’t have any traffic coming to it, you don’t put any effort into building that traffic or getting a website found, then you likely do not have a very successful website. And not, rank well on Google specifically for your targeted keywords. So 

STEVIE: Yeah, 

KARLIE: Yeah, if you if it matters to you to be found on Google and build your business and bring in new products, bring in new servers or sell products, then SEO really should matter to you. 

STEVIE: There are so many businesses, I think that know that it matters, but it’s almost like it’s overwhelming. And it’s a new, and obviously, I think social media is important, I work in social media, but they kind of and I used to do this went down the track that, you post on social media as a way of driving traffic, and that can be great. But senior is kind of like,  it’s a longer-term play, obviously. And that’s potentially one of the things, but it can just deliver over and over and over again, kind of

KARLIE: Yeah it can and it’s funny, like when you say SEO kind of feels overwhelming. That is the general consensus. And that’s something I’m trying to sort of break down for people that it’s not as scary and overwhelming and difficult as it may originally saying. 

But it does require constant attention, you do have to babysit it a lot. It’s not a set and forget type of thing. And it can change really often. So you have to be sort of on top of what’s working in SEO at the moment. And then in a week’s time, that same thing may not be working, but 

STEVIE: Oh God. 

KARLIE: Yeah. I know right? But there are definitely fundamentals that will probably never go away with SEO, like having a completely optimized website, that will never change. But there are things. 

STEVIE: Let’s dive that so what are the fundamentals? Because I know like when I used to think of SEO, I think of like keywords and making sure that I was using the right keywords. And to be honest, that’s as far as my understanding when and I kind of know now that there’s more involved in it. But I guess what would be helpful as an overview of all of those kind of key fundamental 

KARLIE: Yeah,  so keywords are definitely a big player in SEO so 

STEVIE: Yeah. 

KARLIE: That means what kind of words? Do you think that people would type into Google to find your particular business and get value out of your business? Back in the day, it used to be singular words like people might just type in social media? Yeah. 

And if you imagine putting that into Google now, you’re not likely to get found on page one because it is far too vague, of a keyword. So if I was wanting to find a social media expert in Brisbane, I would literally type in keywords into the back end of my website, social media expert, tag me, Brisbane, that is actually an actual whole sentence. So they’re called long-tail keywords.

STEVIE: And so life What if you saw kind of get like if I went social media expert, Brisbane, but then what about if people are searching for? How do I update my Facebook business page? Like it’s kind of things like that as well?

KARLIE: Yeah, 

STEVIE: Potentially. 

KARLIE: Probably, that would come from blog posts, because blogging is quite a large part of SEO these days, as well. So you had done a blog post on that exact topic and those keywords where we actually within the body text or in the headline, then your overall SEO and help you to get found for those keywords. So yeah,

STEVIE:  That’s how I’m finding getting traffic at the moment, like with the small amount of SEO that I’ve done, like, I have a couple of blog posts, that people obviously just searching for those particular terms, and then they coming over to that blog post, and then they clicking around and like sending me inquiries, and I’m like, far out, that’s cool.

KARLIE: Well, as I said, blogging is a great way to get keywords out there, because you can put them not only in the body text but also in the tags of your blog, you can find me or in the page title. And that will be that usually gets picked up by Google as well. And also shareability.  

People love to ship different blogs, on different websites and through other social media accounts. So yeah, there is a great, there are lots of great reasons why blogging is good for keywords, and something probably actually should pay more attention to me, I do have a blog that Oh, my gosh, I will put my hand up, I didn’t meet that I’m not the best at updating and 

STEVIE: Keeping it updated

KARLIE: Kicking the button for that.

STEVIE: You do it now. I will get back to the other fundamentals. So but I’m just curious if people are sharing content on social media, does that have an impact on SEO?

KARLIE: It depends if that content is valuable to the right audience so that it really does come down to whether your content and what you’re putting out there is providing something of value to your target audience. If it’s not, then it’s not likely to get shared, it’s not likely to get same, not likely credit used. So it doesn’t

STEVIE: Get shares and likes and engagement being picked. 

KARLIE: Absolutely. Google notices all of that. So it definitely does help.

STEVIE: Yeah. So what about the other fundamentals besides keywords?

KARLIE: Yep, so when it comes to your website? Because like I said, there’s no point in having a non-optimized website because Google instantly go well, you haven’t made any effort with it. So that doesn’t really help us. But the main sort of things when it comes to technical SEO,  image optimization is a big one. Because that so

STEVIE: Is that how big your images are?

KARLIE: Yes, because of that and having titles and old titles, on your images. So that all sort of comes down to site speed as well. So that’s the biggest thing that I saying, with websites, you could have these gorgeous images on there. And your website looks amazing because of them. 

But if they are, if they are large file sizes, that will really increase the speed may decrease the speed of your site. Yeah. And Google wants to want a website to learn within three seconds that they submit, anything more than three seconds is too long. 

STEVIE: Right? 

KARLIE: So yeah, so image optimization refers to, good quality images, but also good file sizes. But that I also want to say, image old titles, so on each mirror image. Because Google can’t actually look at a photo and understand what it is. They have to read about what it is. 

STEVIE: Right. 

KARLIE: Yeah, it just helps as well. Again, with keywords. That’s also an important thing to remember to put your keywords into image old titles. So a lot of people also fall down on that as well, because quite often, they’ll just upload the photo, it might be good file size, but the file name is not even words. It’s symbols and numbers that don’t make sense. So Google doesn’t understand that either.

STEVIE: Right? And so do you recommend in terms of that having one keyword, and then you kind of use it in all types in the headline how does that work?

KARLIE: I would say the keyword that sits the image, I wouldn’t load all my keywords into the title, because the title still has to make sense. So you can put in, a short phrase, I suppose, or two or three or four words that include your keyword that also describes the image, then that’s best practice. 

STEVIE: Sure, 

KARLIE: Yeah. 

STEVIE: Got it. How do you get your image sizes smaller? Is there an easy way to do that? 

KARLIE: Well, there is but a lot of website platforms like I know Shopify have their own inbuilt image, resized. And they also have apps that you can use that automatically resize images. But if your website platform doesn’t have to be something like that, you could use programs like peak monkey, that’s quite a popular one.  

I think it’s free. It used to be free to use, it might be a subscription there. And I actually often use that when uploading my own images to my website and there are other one’s other free ones out there cold. I think it’s called webresizer.com. Yeah. Yeah, there’s plenty. 

STEVIE: So you just put them in there, get the file size small and then upload it into WordPress. So whenever you’re like, website is, 

KARLIE: Exactly, yep. 

STEVIE: Okay, cool. So we’ve got keywords, we’ve got image size, one of the fundamentals out there.

KARLIE: Okay. So when it comes to technical SEO,  there things like page shadows, so a page of your website needs to have an appropriate title that explains what that page is about? Yeah, the other thing is meta descriptions. So that is a technical SEO term, we actually describe watch not only what each page is about, but what your website is about. 

So when you go into a Google search, and you get some results come up, you will say usually, you’ll say the name of the business, or the name of the business, and then the page, and then the text under it is what is that a description is and that usually if that’s done well, because people always read that meta description in order to think if that website is actually going to help them with what they’re looking for. Right to, optimize that that is, and the more convincing that description, the meta description is, the more likely they are going to click on it if they think your site’s going to help you. So that’s super exciting as well.

STEVIE: So is that like, does that have a technical aspect? Or is that just like humans, when they’re like looking on Google will make a decision based on that text?

KARLIE: Definitely. So if it makes sense, it explains what the website is about, or what that particular page that came up in Google search results is about? 

STEVIE: Yeah. 

KARLIE: And if they feel like that is what they’re looking for, they’re more likely to click on it. So as long as humans can write it, the better. 

STEVIE: Yeah, cool. I like that.

KARLIE: The other things I guess, for technical SEO, heading tags, heading tags are kind of like headlines for each page. So basically just has to explain what age pages about. And then good quality 

STEVIE: Did you use keywords in your heading title? 

KARLIE: If it makes sense, or definitely, if only if it makes sense. That’s the thing like people can get a bit too caught up in putting keywords in all different areas of their site when they don’t really need to. As long as it makes sense to put them in there, then absolutely put them in there 

STEVIE: I think Google penalizes websites, such as kind of like put a million of the same keyword

KARLIE: Yeah, they do. Cold keyword stuffing and Ryan’s at ease ago used to work. Right, but it doesn’t know it more. And I think people understand that yet. I think they feel like  they are, the more they put the keywords into their site in all different areas, then Google, I gotta go on I must be  

STEVIE: Must be on point. Yeah. 

KARLIE: But no, that’s a really old practice now don’t recommend that anymore.

STEVIE: Right. And I’ve actually gone on. So since I’ve moved over to WordPress, I’ve got this plugin that I read somewhere that I should have. And it’s called YOAST to see for SEO, and basically what it does is like, which I love, you put the keyword for the particular blog post in and then you kind of pepper that keyword through the actual post. And then it comes up with a little green line. If you’ve used it the right amount of times without going overboard. I’m like, Oh, that is amazing. 

KARLIE: Yours is great. And I think 

STEVIE: Yeah, 

KARLIE: We use we do add yours to every WordPress site that we have as well because it’s probably the main, the main player for SEO apps within WordPress doing lot effect is really good. Hey, tell me what to do, how to do it, and you’ve done it right? And if not, then it gives you a red light, and you just go and fix it. Whatever they say to fix. So yeah, YOAST is really important for everyone who’s got a WordPress site to install?

STEVIE: And I guess I guess that’s kind of the big benefit of a WordPress site, isn’t it? Because I moved from Squarespace to WordPress a little while ago, and it wasn’t necessarily for SEO benefits. And I don’t know if it’s a coincidence. 

But since then, I have had, obviously, more SEO, it might just be that my site’s been around for longer, who knows. But what I recommend around that, do you recommend people have a WordPress site? What do you think about you know, Squarespace and other platforms? 

KARLIE: Oh, this is such a huge topic in SEO land and something that I have in the past used to get really argumentative about because the only reason is that other Google does not discriminate against what website platform that you use. 

Google will not look at the WordPress site and go, Oh, great, it’s WordPress, let’s bump them up in the Google ranks and put them on page one. Or if they look at your website and go, No, that’s weeks, we better not put that in the Google ranks because it’s not WordPress. They don’t do that. They don’t just grouping right at all. 

STEVIE: Yeah, 

KARLIE: In our out, there’s been a Google representative, go on the record decide that they don’t do that. Also. You know, the whole word for us is best. So SEO debate is

STEVIE: Yes. 

KARLIE: But my personal preference is we will build a website for a client depending on their own needs. So if you don’t need it if they need a website, that’s mostly informational. They don’t need any plugins that are not very technical, then I’ll suggest Squarespace or Wicks, especially if they also beginners and learning how to manage their own website. And that’s always a great start.

STEVIE: And that’s where I think started. I started with Squarespace. And it was great for that. And then I had more needs, and I moved to WordPress, 

KARLIE: Actually. And you can always change. I mean, it’s not, I don’t recommend changing platforms all the time, because there can be a lot of downfalls to that, especially when it comes to 301 redirects and making sure all your links work. 

STEVIE: I actually experienced Exactly that.Yeah

KARLIE: Well,  that part of SEO can be quite overwhelming and super technical. But if you know if you need to change platforms, because you knew, you know, more apps or specific features that your current one doesn’t provide, then you should definitely go down that path. But yes, so 

STEVIE: That makes sense. 

KARLIE: With WordPress, you know, they do have, especially with da had WordPress fans, who will tell you you know, all day long that that is the best platform, don’t ever use Squarespace. Don’t ever use WICKS SEO is such a lie. Because it comes down to your optimized website and whether you’ve gone to the effort of actually doing that and putting in the is all the things Google wants you to have in place. 

And each platform has its own have there own SEO plugins and apps and all that sort of thing. As long as you go to the effort of doing it, and then also making the effort with other arms of SEO like social media like your link building, then it doesn’t matter whether you’re with WordPress or Squarespace, it’s just about the effort that you put into it.

STEVIE: Yeah, I love that. That actually brings up a good point that you just mentioned link building, which I think is probably a good one to go into now I know that that can be really, really important. When it comes to SEO explain, I guess a little bit about how that works.

KARLIE: Yes, sir. Link Building is where you have links to your website that come from other reputable authority of locked websites.  Basically, if your website is linked on another person’s website, it’s them vouching for you and saying, This website is good, it will give you value. Here’s the link, go and check it out. 

Google put a lot of emphasis on really good authority top links, again, and old practice used to be just putting your website on every kind of dodgy website or Directory Online, whatever the more links the bed on Google girl? Well, look, there’s 1000 links going to this website, it must be good. 

And I didn’t really tight notice of the talk of Lincoln was all the website from whether it was a quality link or a dodgy link. They didn’t care then. But now they actually do look at your links. And whether it makes sense, you know, for link on one website going to yours, if that makes sense? Or if it’s going to help the target audience. 

STEVIE: Right. 

KARLIE: So it’s all about quality, now more than quantity.

STEVIE: So when you say quality, do you mean number one, whether it’s a good fit. So like, for example, if my website was on Social Media Examiner, it’s a good fit, because it’s a social media website. But then also, I guess, what’s the word for it? I guess the authority of the website? 

KARLIE: Yes. So Google. Yeah, twice authority on different domains and different websites. You can place your link on what they determined to be a higher authority website, the better it is field link building practices and the better that will care. 

STEVIE: Right. And so how do you go about doing that?

STEVIE: No, I can imagine, 

KARLIE: Like, it does require you to do some thinking about what type of websites you would want your own link to be on. So for you, for example, having the Social Media Examiner makes total sense. You get to have,  link on a website to yours, because it’s the same industry, but they’re awesome there are some sort of no brainer links that you could use. Also for so things like having a link on social media pages is a no brainer on all of them, making sure they’re all correct is another good one. 

STEVIE: Okay, 

KARLIE: And then there are other things like online directories like yellow pages are really good. local, those types of directories, because people still use them. 

STEVIE: Yeah, 

KARLIE: On their websites and the other ones. The other ones you could use, possibly like your local shire because out like our local shire here having a Business Directory Online, which a lot of people go to to find other businesses in our area. 

STEVIE: So yeah, cool. 

KARLIE: So that’s, that’s kind of an easy, subtle link to get as well.

STEVIE: So it’s going out and contacting those people. But then I guess the other side, like you said, guest blogging. Is it like asking if you can like content for different websites? 

KARLIE: Yes, blogging is probably the biggest one. Certainly, yeah. It’s such a popular practice these days to do guest blogging. But again, it has to make sense for you to guest blog, on somebody else’s blog that’s also related or has the same or similar target audience, it wouldn’t make any sense for you to do a guest blog on like a chef’s website or know what I mean, that’s probably not the best example, actually. But yeah, as long as it makes sense. And as long as your guest blog post talk is their audience and your audience, then the show, so it also does them a favor as well, because you’re probably going to link it on your own website or your socials to promote that guest blog post as well.

STEVIE: Yeah, yeah, totally. It’s good karma, isn’t it? Like it kind of works both ways? And sorry, hands like a strategy for people? Do you recommend kind of like having a focus on doing that? Like once a month? So like, once a fortnight? Or like, how long does it take to get traction? Oh with that.

KARLIE: How long is a piece of string.

STEVIE: Give me the answer.

KARLIE: I can’t. There is no way, fortunately, and that’s the, I guess that’s the beauty of SEO. Like, it’s not, you have to have patience. It’s not a quick fix thing. It’s not like, oh, I’ve got to optimize websites. So now. So tomorrow, or next week, I’ll be on page one. 

It’s not, there’s no guarantee that you actually get on page one, to be honest, and that table in the face here in that, but it’s the truth, I mean, you can, it does require patience, trial, and error, and changing things and adapting to change all the time. But I can’t guarantee it. But if you do put in that effort, usually you will see results eventually.

STEVIE: I guess it’s focusing on those like, rather than social media, for example, focusing on like, social media expert, Brisbane, or those less likely to be crazy big search chance.

KARLIE: Yeah exactly, it’s good to have a variety of them as well, I suppose if you think about what your audience might be typing into Google to find your type of service or your type of business, that better. But also ask people as well, there’s no harm in just asking your tribe on Facebook. Hey, what would you guys put into Google? If you were looking for a certain topic? 

STEVIE: Totally. That’s a great point. 

KARLIE: Awesome. And the easiest to figure at keywords is just to ask your audience what they would use.

STEVIE: I love that. I’m going to do that. And so I guess one thing that people might be asking, considering that it is sorry, like hidden me isn’t it’s a long term play. And it’s not what those things that are just like a quick win, like, I guess people are wary of, and rightly so there’s a lot of dodgy SEO people but wary of people that come in and say, we can get you to page one of Google so quick and easy.

KARLIE: My God.if someone says not to you Hang the phone up, run out the door, run away screaming like, nobody can guarantee that it is impossible, impossible to do that. You paid, you know, a million dollars to Google AdWords, they can’t guarantee that you’ll get on page one. It’s just impossible.  So you know, if somebody and usually it comes from people who and I know a lot of people have the same problem that they get spammed with just, emails from nobody, people, 

STEVIE: So many of those emails.

KARLIE: So-called SEO experts, saying that they can get you on to page one. It’s just not the case. I mean, it’s a lucky said it’s a long term thing. It’s not an overnight, and it may never happen. So if you ever come across someone that says I can get you on page one, even though they may have done it before, they may have had clients that they’ve got on to page one, but I guarantee you didn’t happen overnight, and it probably cost them a shitload to do that. So yeah, 

STEVIE: How do you think that a small business should approach it? Like? Do you think it’s something number one that they can do themselves? Or, and or number two, if they do want someone to help them because they don’t have the time and resources? What capacity? Can someone help them in? Do you know what I mean? I guess it’s a two-pronged question. 

KARLIE: Well, exactly. There’s, there’s two ways to go about it if you want to learn it yourself and save money, but that also requires you to put time and patience and effort into it. That is definitely something that you can do yourself. It does require learning. It does require research, it does require you may be putting together a strategy,  in the beginning, for sure. 

So, you have a sort of plan of attack. And there’s a lot of great resources out there to learn SEO, one of my favorites and  I hail here is the SEO queen. And that’s Kate Toon everybody, most people who Kate Toon’s these days, she has a great, a great course that you can do to learn SEO, even if you’ve never even heard of the word SEO, there’s all those and they’re not free, but they’re not super expensive either. 

But there are also other ways you can learn SEO. And that’s just by doing your own research get on Google, what is SEO and say, hey, go with that. Yes, lots of resources out there that you can do it yourself this checklist, this template, if you’re willing to put in the effort and the time to learn it, and continue to learn and continue to adapt to changes through SEO and digital marketing. totally do it yourself, it’ll probably save you money in the long run. But then, on the other side of that, if you just don’t have the time, and you want someone to invest their efforts and their time into getting your page or your site found on Google, there are lots of people out there that can help you. But

STEVIE: What should people be looking for someone to outsource? Like, what sort of things can they help with? Like, well, where do people start? 

KARLIE: It’s a good question, Where do you find an SEO manager? And I might go to Google for that one. So one of the things you should be, or some of the questions you should be asking an SEO manager, you know, one is their experience, ask them how long they’ve been doing it? What’s their track record?  can they provide you some case studies and things like that, so sort of proved it that they can do what they say that they can do? Yeah, he’s a good start. The other things, looking at reviews as well, people highly write reviews, even from strangers, different kinds of ways. 

Yeah, looking at people who have worked with that SEO manager before what they’ve had to say about it, don’t be afraid of actually, calling them or send them an email me like, Hey, I noticed you worked with so and so I was wondering what your experience was, I’m thinking of working with them, and get a real, a real sense of how that worked out for them. It’s also a good way to work out whether they’ll fit for you or not. 

Yeah, but I think also, you’ve got to go off your gut instinct as well. So if you really need to do and get along with your SEO manager. And I know for me personally, when I manage clients, especially in SEO or social media, I need to treat that business, their business as if it were my own, I asked to put my, my heart and my head into them. So that I  so I want the best results that I can get for them as if it was my own. And I know that a lot of I don’t know if I let people look at it that way. But I definitely do. 

STEVIE: I love that. Yeah, 

KARLIE: I don’t know, just to me, I’m all that, you know, human connection, and more. So then, money or whatever. So, go off the knowledge that track record and reviews and you go. You got your for sure.

STEVIE: Yeah.  there’s probably a lot of SEO people, the ones that end up in your inbox all the time, they’re probably still kind of following pretty shady, outdated SEO tactics as well. So what helpful then(inaudible)

KARLIE: They have to spam the crap out of people they don’t know, in order to get work, they’re not likely to be very good at what they do. Even though I still get emails from so-called SEO experts, or web designers and developers saying, Oh, we noticed that your pages and on Google is an unpaid one, and they try and make you go Oh, shit. Oh, is it? 

STEVIE: Yeah, I think I remember Caitlin talking about that as well. And like she is on page four.

KARLIE: I guarantee. There’s not even looked at your website there. Neither deletes, and they go block.

STEVIE:  Yeah. so just one more question. You said earlier, that sort of things are changing, obviously, a lot when it comes to SEO. And there are some fundamentals that don’t change. But is there anything like this current moment? That is, I guess, something that we need to be aware of what has changed in 2018?

KARLIE: Yeah, so you’re right, there are fundamentals that will never go away. And that’s like we talked about that just before, especially with it comes to SEO, your website optimization. That’ll never change, making sure you’ve got all your ducks in a row with your website. But the main thing that’s changed in 2018 would have to be mobile-first indexing. 

So Google now will index your and look at and scan your mobile site before they even look at a desktop site. Because this isn’t new, this everybody now knows or should know that website and mobile use and , websites, looking at websites on mobiles is high it has a higher rate of people looking at websites on a desktop or a tablet or whatnot. 

STEVIE: Yeah. 

KARLIE: So you have absolutely no excuse to not have a   website, especially if you want to be found on Google or if you want to improve your Google ranking. Look at Viber’s phone.

STEVIE:  Yeah, and pretty much like pretty much WordPress and Squarespace websites and things and mobile response is something.

KARLIE: Yeah, but it can be like, if you’ve got a theme that says it’s mobile responsive, and you don’t, but you don’t actually go and have a look at it. Sometimes things can slide out of place or not look totally great on a mobile website. So you may have to go into the mobile site and fix a few things up. Really good for that. 

You can eat it on a mobile website and a desktop website and literally pick things up and read it around when you want to you can hide certain things. Yeah, you can lay it layout the website differently on a mobile three weeks, I think it’s a really good feature with them. But that is the main sort of the main change in 2019. And basically, if you don’t have a mobile website, Google will put a big cross next to your name. And that’s really bad PR girl as you are.

STEVIE: Awesome. Thank you, love. That was absolutely amazing. And I think so many small businesses will get a lot from that.

KARLIE: Yeah anytime I love talking SEO so anytime.

STEVIE: Your right it’s one of your favorite things. So where can people find you if they want to find out more about you? And how can you help them out with SEO if they want more?

KARLIE: The usual social media and my websites and my website are the technobird.com.au .And there’s a bunch of info on there about my services, but related to SEO, the main ones, my website, and SEO audits. So that is basically me picking apart your website and doing an analysis on a bunch of different things, including, like the design and user experience, site speed, your technical SEO, and even your copywriting, your copy on your SEO and whether that’s optimized as well, though, and then I provide you report on how your website is performing, and then a task list of things you need do in order to completely optimize it. Yeah, it’s a really popular service. And more often than not, I usually have people asking for a more personalized session. 

So I also now do website and digital marketing coaching sessions, where you can ask me all the questions that you have regarding any area of digital marketing via social media via link building, or SEO or web slots, whatever. And then we have a chat on the phone or via video. And we go over all those questions and basically, break those questions down for you. And yeah, it’s a new service provider. I’m loving it so far.

STEVIE:   I love that asking me anything.

KARLIE: Asking anything that’s basically what it is.

STEVIE:  Thanks love. 

KARLIE: No worries. Thank you, Stevie.

STEVIE:   And they have it guys. I know that not everyone is as much of a digital marketing nerd as I am. But hopefully, he loved that SEO chat as much as I did. I’m just super passionate about the potential for small businesses because I am seeing it myself. And there is just so much opportunity. 

So if you would like a copy of the free checklist that we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, head over to steviesayssocial.com/27. And you could grab that it’s basically 10 ways that you can drive more traffic to your website using SEO. And if you liked this episode, please head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. I would be so grateful. And guys, that’s it for me. Until next time. I’ll see you then.