Imperfect Marketing
Imperfect Marketing
291: Why Does SEO Take So Long to Work? | Expert Reveals Timeline Secrets
In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, host Kendra Corman welcomes SEO strategist and content marketing expert Barb Davids to talk about the not-so-secret truths of SEO, demystifying the process for small business owners and marketers alike.
Barb shares her journey from corporate marketing to entrepreneur life and what it really takes to build SEO credibility in a noisy digital world. From quirky SEO myths (like white text on white backgrounds!) to practical strategies that actually work, this episode is packed with wisdom and laughter.
We explore:
The Reality of SEO in 2025
- Why SEO is not a “set it and forget it” strategy—but also not as overwhelming as it seems
- The role of content marketing as the true heart of long-term SEO success
- Why SEO should be viewed more as audience trust-building than keyword trickery
What Google Actually Wants
- The power of E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust
- Why authenticity and transparency build credibility (and rankings!)
- How hidden tactics like keyword stuffing or invisible text backfire in the long run
Using AI Without Losing Your Voice
- How Barb uses both AI and human copywriters to scale content while keeping quality high
- Tips to avoid robotic, low-value content with AI—think anecdotes, real photos, and smart edits
- Google's evolving ability to read images, metadata, and credibility signals
Getting Your Content Strategy Right
- Simple keyword tools Barb recommends: Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked.com, and Reddit
- Why asking your audience directly is still the best content research tool
- How forums, newsletters, and Facebook groups reveal search intent gold
Barb’s No-Nonsense SEO Advice for Business Owners
- Blog consistently and intentionally—don’t just create for creation’s sake
- Track your ROI with analytics (don’t guess if SEO is working)
- Focus on building trust: real contact info, privacy policies, testimonials, and value-rich content matter more than hacks
Key Takeaways for Marketers
- SEO is a long game, not a magic trick
- Don't believe everything you read—test, tweak, and track
- AI is a tool, not a replacement for your brand’s voice
- Real content that solves real problems will always win
Whether you're a solo entrepreneur juggling marketing hats or a marketer ready to clean up your SEO strategy, this episode gives you practical tools and a refreshing perspective. Barb’s honesty and humor will help you ditch the gimmicks and focus on what truly moves the needle.
🎧 Ready to finally understand SEO without the jargon?
Tune in to learn how to make SEO part of your marketing—not a mystery!
💬 Connect with Barb Davids and learn more about her SEO work.
Website: https://compassdigitalstrategies.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UC_2klgxETQWbSg
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Hi, I'm Kendra Korman. If you're a coach, consultant or marketer, you know marketing is far from a perfect science, and that's why this show is called Imperfect Marketing. Join me and my guests as we explore how to grow your business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned along the way. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. I'm your host, Kendra Korman, and today I am excited to be talking about SEO with Barb Davids. Welcome, barb. Thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. I'm very excited to talk about this. I will talk to you all day long about SEO and content marketing.
Speaker 1:Shockingly enough, I will talk to you the same amount Now. Don't be scared if you're watching or listening. We're going to try and keep it under a half an hour, but I can definitely geek out about this for hours.
Speaker 2:So how did you get into SEO? Something kind of out of the blue. Quite frankly, I never thought I would get into SEO. When I was a kid I wanted to be a businesswoman walking down the skyway with a briefcase and high heels that's all I knew at the time. But then I got the briefcase and the high heels. I was like F that I don't want it anymore. I was pretty done with it. I didn't want the beeper anymore, I didn't want the anything.
Speaker 2:And so I worked in corporate for a long time, mostly in furniture, but it was still in digital marketing, so what I'm doing today but it was for like companies, so I would manage the department and hire out people like myself. And then one day I thought, oh, you know, I would really like to be able to work anytime anywhere, and this was probably, I want to say like six to eight years ago, because I've been in business for about five now and I thought, okay, somehow I'll make it work, figure it out, and I won't go into the super long story. But I ended up doing some side projects for some photographer friends of mine, because I was doing professional fitness photography and when I was trying to find some information about how to specifically get my website found. For the photography side. I was like, wow, this is way harder than I thought. Like, why is it so difficult to find information in this? Like Google, you Google all day long.
Speaker 2:And then so I ended up taking that over with some of my friends and doing some projects and then that kind of grew into something else and then I ended up just jumping over to doing more than just photographers and really just trying to help small business owners get clarity, like you are, with the information about what's out there and what's real, what's true. Make it simple, like it's not rocket science, and so people don't have to go sleuthing all over Google for what's true. Make it simple Like it's not rocket science, and so people don't have to go sleuthing all over Google for what's happening.
Speaker 1:So Very cool, I love the story. Okay, so since you've been in business, you said a little over five years now what surprised you the most about going out on your own.
Speaker 2:How much I would have to look at myself. That really sucks. So when I first started marketing, I didn't want to do it at all. I just thought, well, I'll just put my stuff out there and people will come. And they didn't. And then I had to start actually marketing.
Speaker 2:It's like oh crap, and that really it really opened my eyes to how much was in the back of my head about doing things and I was trying to make everything so perfect and it was taking me so long to get my marketing done and I would do it. I'd be like no, that's not right, I got to do it this way and it really over the past couple years has become so much more apparent and I've been able to kind of quiet that side of it. But and it's gotten quite a bit less so it's a lot easier now. But it's amazing to me about how much as a small business owner, if you're running your own business and you have to be the face of it basically in various ways it doesn't have to be video, podcasting or whatever, but you have to put yourself out there, even if you're doing a social post and I did not see that one coming at all- it's interesting and there's always something that surprises all of us, I think, when we, when we go and start out on our own.
Speaker 2:So what was it for you?
Speaker 1:I'm just curious, I think for me. So I had talked to a lot of friends, so I knew how long it was going to take me to ramp up and get everything going. But for me I think it was and this has been something that I sort of created on my own was just the lack of flexibility you can create for yourself in your business. So I've since since 11 years now right, I've, I've since created more flexibility for myself, but I didn't have a lot in the beginning. And well, I shouldn't say that way. In the beginning I had a ton because I had nothing to do. So I had like one week that was solid meetings, and I was in so many meetings I didn't schedule any for the next week. So then I had basically a week of vacation, so it was sort of like an every other week type of thing.
Speaker 1:But no, in the real world of things, yeah, you can fill up your schedule really quick and you can, when you're growing, take on things that you shouldn't or don't want to and fill your schedule with stuff that just just time sucks. So, but I've fixed a lot of that not all of it, because some of it is just like me repeating it, but that's just it. You know, you think you're oh, I'm gonna work for myself, so I don't have to deal with anybody. And and then it's like no, now I've got 17 bosses because I've got 17 clients. Yes, exactly yeah, and they don't care about the other ones. So Right.
Speaker 2:Plus, you got to do all the things in the business and eventually you start farming it out. But, like at the beginning, you don't realize it and you start having to do all the things.
Speaker 1:When you're working with clients that are looking to improve their SEO, what do you tell them?
Speaker 2:I first explain the expectations about the length of time it can take. It's not necessarily that it will take that long, but setting the expectations that it is definitely not an overnight thing. I think a lot of people think that when they're trying something new, it's the answer that they were looking for, and that isn't necessarily the case for SEO. It can, however, be faster sometimes. Just depends on the business, depends on the circumstance.
Speaker 2:There's so many different things. You know, some blog posts take off right away and you get a bunch of organic traffic and some of them they don't even get seen for like a year. It's so weird to me how that is, but that's probably the biggest one. And then also we I think a lot of people don't understand that you can actually track SEO and how much it's working or not working, and so a lot of the times we end up setting stuff up on the websites or changing things around that weren't maybe necessarily set up to track effectively so that we can make sure that there's like an ROI or return on investment that you're spending, spending and seeing that okay, if you spend so many dollars, so many hours on these blog posts or these tactics or whatever, that you get this coming in for leads or downloads or course sales, so that you can track your efforts and either you know, change your marketing plan or do more of the same.
Speaker 1:So when you're talking about time, yeah, SEO is not a quick game. So I just had a client ask if I could put some words in white text on a white background to help them rank. What are your thoughts on that? What'd you tell them? I said if you try to game Google, they will punish you. Don't play the game. That's what I told them. Absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I feel like people don't get that. That is, I mean, as us in that industry. You can see it, you're hiding behind the curtain, kind of thing, but people really don't get that when you're doing that, how it doesn't feel like manipulation. It's very interesting to me the perspective of that. But yeah, that's like and it might not be apparent at first and there's a lot of people that get away with it, but the problem is is that if Google penalizes your website and they take away any of the traffic that you have, it's really hard to get it back. So that's the only thing. It's. You're sacrificing short term gain for, you know, the long term call.
Speaker 1:Basically, Well, and it's about trust, Right. I mean that's lying, yeah, and it's not. I mean they're not lying because the content is real and things like that. But I'm like, if you're not willing to put it in black text on a white background, then why are we bothering with it?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people, and maybe this might not be for your client specifically, but in my experience, when people want to do that, it's trying to put more of the same words on the page, and putting more of the same words on the page doesn't tell Google to rank you higher, like it doesn't care how many times you put the same word on the page.
Speaker 1:Generally speaking, I will say it used to back in the olden days, you know, and again, the white text on on a white background was like one of those things we did back in the olden days of SEO. Right, not me, but other people that were in charge of SEO. Let's say that's before my time, it's really not, but we'll pretend so. But yeah, I mean it's, you're building trust. I had a guest that talked about SEO several years ago and he said you have to view people that visit your website. They're Google's customers. They're going to Google for something that they're sending, which I thought was just really, really cool from that different perspective. So like, if you're creating something, google wants them to stay there, right, for at least a period of time and maybe click around, but if it's misleading in any way, they're going to bounce off of that page and not going to be happy. And Google doesn't like it when they're when their customers are not happy, right? I don't know. I just thought that was a really cool way of thinking about search.
Speaker 2:Google can sort of see that as well. There's a lot of stuff that came out not that long ago but they can see if you're happy with what you got on the page or if you're going to find something else. And it does put a factor in there, like are you credible, are you trustworthy? All of that kind of stuff Google can. There's certain indicators for that, and that is one of them the bouncing off right away.
Speaker 1:Again SEO, don't game. Google, Don't try. They're better at this than we are or than you are right, and it's going to take time. So, when you talk about time, how long are you talking? I?
Speaker 2:recommend at least six months minimum, but it's probably closer to a year. It's going to depend on how aggressive you want to get with the strategy. So the more content that you can push out, that's humanly possible. I have to put a big splat over my head because things change. But, like in the world of AI now there's that whole thing but humanly possible. Like if you put 500 blog posts out, that might not necessarily be a sustainable method for Google to rank you. It's going to see that you put 500 out and be like oh, that's not even humanly possible or whatever. But if you do it like once a month or once a week, that's a little bit more doable. But if you do it like once a month or once a week, that's a little bit more doable. Sometimes once a day. Again, it's so varied between different businesses and different industries but generally speaking, if you do once a month, it's probably going to take you longer than if you were doing once a week.
Speaker 1:You hinted at AI. I know Google has said it wants unique content. I know Google has said it wants unique content. It's not necessarily penalizing AI-generated content or I should say AI-assisted content, which is my preferred option, not AI-generated right but it's looking for unique content and AI-generated content usually is not unique. We, as the prompters or the writers or the editors, or however you want to look at it add that little special piece of experience or an expertise in there as we go, when we're editing what AI creates. What is your?
Speaker 2:thought on leveraging AI for content. Yes Again, business by business. I use it myself. I also have a professional copywriter, so I use it for different case scenarios, even inside my own business, and I do the same with my clients as well. For the most part, blog posts. I do hire copywriters for professional copywriter because I don't want to spend the time on it, to have to go through and start to edit and do all the things, Whereas my copywriter does it. She knows me, she gets all the things and she knows how to spend the time on it. So for me that's really really worth it.
Speaker 2:But I think if you're doing it yourself which a lot of people are I think the ways to edit it afterwards is probably the big key. We sometimes think I feel like that it's spitting out something unique and something wonderful because we haven't heard it before, but in fact it's just scraping existing websites. So it's synthesizing everything altogether and creating a blog post that we haven't heard ourselves. But is somebody else's thing, just kind of all mumbled together, edit it. It's better to do it that way, Because if it doesn't look like it is specific to our business or it doesn't look trustworthy or credible from Google's perspective, they're not going to rank it as high as someone's whose is, so it's not like you're going to get penalized or whatnot, but you don't have the same playing level as somebody who is trying to make it as unique as possible. So adding things like quotes from people in your industry or specific case scenarios is a really good one too. Any personal anecdotes, if you have like sometimes I'll start talking about my dog or running or something like that. Even adding photos, that's a really good one too, because if you're using stock photos or AI photos, Google can see that. They can see. If it's like a photo, like from a photo shoot that's specific to you, they can read, like visually, the photos. It's getting better every day. I still think phone photos, if possible, are really good to use, because that metadata behind the photos is completely different than what AI is generating or even cameras are generating. I can't prove that one yet, but that's just my feeling, because there's so much meta behind the stuff and Google can see all of that stuff. So I think that's another one.
Speaker 2:And then what was the other one? I had some oh, like engagement things. So sometimes what I'll do is AI is so smart, you can have it create things for you, it can create code. So sometimes what I'll do is I'll have like a dropdown created. So if I have, like, I have this one post for photographers and in the post it has the different types of photographers and then under each one it says five blog ideas, but at the top there's a dropdown instead of the normal click through. That sometimes you can do at the top as a table of contents and I do a dropdown that says pick your, uh, your niche, and so then they can pick the niche and then just drop down and click into it. So it kind of and it's not faking it out necessarily, but it gives them something to do when they land on the page. And that was all created with AI.
Speaker 1:Oh, very cool. Well, I'm just. I'm always so amazed with how much AI can do, so it saves me, on average, 30 to 40 hours a week, which is just insane. I don't work any less because there's other things to do, right, but yeah, it's pretty amazing and I love using it for code. I was like, hey, this link isn't working, here's the code, why not? And it'll tell me no, it's missing the Ahref. And it's like, oh, that's the thing that tells it it's a link. So always, always very good. You've been talking a lot about credibility. What is that for Google? I think was. Isn't there the EAT, like the expertise, authority and trust or something? What is that? Credibility?
Speaker 2:And what are you referring to when you're talking about that with Google? It is EAT, e-a-t, and they added another E, not that long ago, called experience. So it's EAT, I don't know. Anyways, yeah, so it's experience, expertise, authority and trust, and there's just different signals for Google to understand. If you're like a credible business, if you are authoritative in your niche, do you have the experience? And it kind of set. Basically, what it does is it sets you apart from some of the spam sites, some of the aggregator sites, things like that, and it's a way to.
Speaker 2:There's different signals. So, for example, if you have a contact page that looks credible, if you have a phone number sometimes we don't want to put our phone number, but that is a signal If you can demonstrate experience, maybe with case studies and things of that nature, putting testimonials throughout, having a privacy policy disclaimer, those types of things, anything that can signal that people can trust you, that you are credible, that you know what you're talking about. And so any one thing isn't going to say hey, obviously, anything that we're talking about today, right, it doesn't just push us up to the first page. What it's not magic. Yeah, right, just wave a wand, there you go, add this to your page and blah blah. But yeah, it doesn't like push you straight up, but with all those considered, and if you think about how many people are not doing that type of stuff, then you get a leg up and then it likes your website better. Okay.
Speaker 1:So I mean a lot of that sounds like just a regular checklist for a website that you would want to have. Is there anything extra that you think people are missing when they're doing that piece on a regular basis?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I mean, if they're just doing the blogs and they set it up so that it's trustworthy, I think that's really the key to it. Seo, I feel like, has gotten a kind of a bad rap over the years and everybody's like oh, you have to do SEO all the time. Oh, you have to do it all the time. It's just a long game and it's time consuming and blah, blah, blah. But I don't feel like it's like that.
Speaker 2:I do think that we do SEO once and we do something to our website, we check it, make sure it's working, make sure there's no weird errors in the back end, so that Google can see it. But then what it moves to is content marketing, essentially, like you're just doing blogs and that's what actually is taking the time. That's what you have to do on a consistent basis. And then you come back and you take a look at your website once a year just to make sure that there's no issues, like sometimes you get broken links, just inherently. You know businesses move around doing things, but it's not as hard, I think, as some people make it out to be. I mean, it really is. There's all kinds of things you can go into, but as a general business owner, when we're doing it ourselves, it's really just about blogging.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about blogging right and creating content. How do I know what people are searching for? To create that content right, because it's not going to be found if I'm writing about something nobody's looking for.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's very true. There's quite a few different ways. The easiest way is to go to Google itself and start typing in like a word at the top, and then it will auto suggest some things. There's also you can scroll down. There's.
Speaker 1:the people also ask I love the people also ask section.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the easiest way. There's also the couple tools answerthepubliccom Also askcom is really good. They look at different facets of Google and just basically put it in a fun interface. There's obviously the SEO tools. My favorite is Keywords Explorer and that one is pretty nominal. It just basically does keyword research. It's not one of those ones that does like 20 million different things. And then, of course, now I will say people are starting to ask about AI, so, like perplexity and Claude and ChatGPT and how they can show up there, what are people typing in my favorite three tools? Okay, yes, they haven't released, or at least as of today. I have to say this with a splat over my head again like disclaimer but so far they haven't shared with how people are searching. But it's also so very different, right? People are typing in like whole sentences, whole paragraphs, versus a single word or maybe 10 to 12 words.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So it's hard to know what they're searching on those tools so far, but the ones I mentioned are probably the easiest to get into and find out what and then just ask them too. I mean, most of us know as business owners what our people are asking, so I think just going to like our comment section on our social or simply asking people in our newsletter those kinds of things can help too.
Speaker 1:I have to like, pause and repeat that. Ask people, right, write down what they're asking you, because I think and I'm guilty of this too like somebody will ask me a question and I forget to write it down and then a day later I forgot what they asked me, right? It's like, oh, that was such a good question, but I didn't write it down, so I don't know what it is anymore, and I think that it's so important to ask people how did you find me? Or what is it that you're looking for? You know, understand the words that they're using, because that's what they're searching, and if you're using different words than they are, you're not going to be found as easily. Luckily, there's like perplexity again, that's searching for versions of what you're searching for. I think is usually what it does. That helps them get find you if you're using some technical terms, but you really want to use the words that they're doing, and so, yeah, the autocomplete and Google search bar, people also ask. Answer the public. And then what was the other one that you had mentioned?
Speaker 2:the public. And then what was the other one that you had mentioned Also, askcom and then there's keywords everywhere. I would also say Reddit has been a good one because people are using that more. I won't go into that whole long story, but there's a lot of like people typing things into there, so forums like Reddit and Quora are really good. I've also done it too, like if, if you're wondering about your industry specific, you can go to Facebook groups that are for your industry of quote competitors. You know, it's not I don't think of everybody as competitors anymore but if you go to their groups and see what people are typing in and what questions they're asking, that's usually a really good one too, of some of the people that have really big followings.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I think that those are really good ways to find out what people are searching for. So we've talked about SEO is a long game. It's not a constant game outside of the content that you're creating, and you wanna be creating content that people are searching for, and you do that by finding out what they're searching for using those tools and there's a lot of tools out there. And if the content you're creating isn't blogs and it's YouTube videos, there are tools for those and everything else in between. So I think that that's really important that people be aware of what that is.
Speaker 1:And SEO, it's not magic and it's not happening tomorrow. So if you haven't been creating content and updating your website on a regular basis, it's gonna take you a little bit longer than it will. Somebody that has been blogging for six to eight months right, Even if they haven't focused on the SEO part they'll be able to find that. And again, make sure that you're building a credible site, because that's hugely important that has all of the right things. And then, of course, my little tip don't mess with Google, because they'll mess back and they have more power. So I think that that's really important. This has been fantastic. I can't believe again. We could talk for hours and hours and hours about all of this, which is fantastic, but nobody really wants to listen to all that. Not for that long.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, but I'm like it's so interesting, I've got like 75 more questions to ask you. No, this has been fantastic, but before I let you go, I do have to ask you one more question, that is, the show is called Imperfect Marketing, because marketing is anything but a perfect science. What's been your biggest marketing lesson learned?
Speaker 2:Definitely not to assume that anything I read is the answer to my problem. And I did used to think that when I first started and I thought, oh, this is the answer, this is what I need to do for my website. Oh nope, this is what I need to do for my website. Oh nope, this is what I need to do for my website. And I learned to test, because everything is so variable it depends on the time of day, it depends on consumer behavior, it depends on my services at the moment, it depends sometimes on my mood, and it just all varies so much. One thing that could work today might not work tomorrow. So definitely not to assume anything and to try things out and just keep track of it too. It doesn't have to be anything crazy to keep track of, but when you test something today, if it doesn't work, try changing like one little thing and then try it again tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Marketing is not perfect science, right? This is why this show is called Imperfect Marketing. It's because it's about experimenting and trying, and what works for one person doesn't necessarily automatically work for another. I mean, you've mentioned several times Barb. Well, it depends on your industry and on what's going on as to how long it's going to take and how much content you have to create. There's just a lot that depends, and that's just the way marketing is. It depends on who your target is and everything that goes along with it, and so experimentation is always helpful. I wish we could read articles and it would be the answer to everything, because that would be so nice, wouldn't it?
Speaker 2:So much easier just to get the answer so much easier.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thank you again. So much for joining me today. For those of you listening and watching, if you learned something, it would really help me out if you'd rate and subscribe wherever you're listening or watching. If you wanna connect with Barb, be sure to check out her information in the show notes. And until next time, have a great rest of your day.
