What Your CPA Wants You to Know
A podcast for entrepreneurs! We are a husband and wife team running our CPA firm together. We know just how difficult it can be to take your business dream to a reality. Our mission for this podcast is to guide, empower, and educate entrepreneurs in an easy-to-understand way! We want business owners to have the information that they need when they need it, AND without the hefty accounting invoices from a CPA! Follow along for practical advice, tips, and tricks from a CPA who knows what it is like to run a business, and strategies to keep your business thriving from an MBA! We will also show you how to run a business while keeping your family and sanity intact along the way!
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What Your CPA Wants You to Know
79. The Power of Smart SEO Strategies with Maggie Schneider of Hilltop Help
Ever wondered what increasing your website traffic could do for your business? Meet Maggie Schneider, a Squarespace web designer and SEO consultant that specializes in increasing online visibility for her clients in the health and wellness space. She started her business, Hilltop Help in 2021 looking for a creative outlet and a way to work from home while raising her two young children. She eventually left her career as a registered nurse to pursue her business full-time and has helped businesses grow their brand awareness online and get more leads and sales through strategic content marketing and thoughtful search-engine optimized web design. Maggie also recently launched her SEO course RANK Method- which is the A-Z blueprint to simplify SEO and marketing strategies for the busy business owner. She is most active on Instagram @hilltophelp
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One thing that's very trendy the last year or two is this chat GPT phenomenon that people think that chat GPT is going to solve all their problems for content creation, and it definitely is a time saver. I definitely use it. But what a big mistake is is to take the content that chat GPT puts out for you and to just copy and paste it into your website. Gpt puts out for you and to just copy and paste it into your website.
Speaker 2:Welcome to what your CPA Wants you To Know.
Speaker 3:Tax and accounting help can be expensive, so we've created this podcast to help guide you through it all and make you feel like you have a. Cpa in your back pocket. I'm Carson Sands and I'm Taryn Sands.
Speaker 2:I'm a CPA with over 10 years of experience helping people start and grow their businesses.
Speaker 3:And I'm an MBA with a specialization in marketing and entrepreneurship. Taxes suck and we want to make sure you don't pay more than your fair share.
Speaker 2:We're here to share everything your CPA wants you to know.
Speaker 3:In a fun and easy to understand way.
Speaker 2:Let's get started.
Speaker 3:Let's do it Today. On the podcast, I have Maggie Schneider. She is a website designer, SEO consultant and owner of Hilltop Help. Maggie is going to teach us how SEO can help drive customers to your business. And don't worry, if you don't know what SEO is, she's definitely going to explain it to us in this episode. So thank you so much for joining me today. Maggie, Can you please start by telling us a little bit about yourself and about your business? Yeah, Hi.
Speaker 1:Taryn, so excited to be on the podcast. I've been a longtime listener. You guys have taught me so much through this podcast and half of it goes over my head, but it's an awesome resource for us fellow business owners. Yeah, so, as you said, my name's Maggie. I live in Maryland with my three kids and my husband.
Speaker 1:I started my business, hilltop Help about two and a half years ago now. I started as a virtual assistant. Really, I was just like many moms that listen to this podcast, just kind of craving something different. My background is actually as a registered nurse, but COVID and everything else that happened around 2020, I was just looking for something outside of healthcare. This virtual assistant thing fell into my lap and so I started doing virtual assistant work and then really got into blogging and with that, started to learn the importance of SEO. So that's kind of my journey into this side of business, and my goal as a SEO consultant and web designer is to not just make you a pretty website, but to make you a website that converts into sales and gets you found on Google by new people, because, as many people are these days burnt out by social media, you have to have a longer term strategy. That's going to be a little bit more sustainable. So that's kind of my spiel there.
Speaker 3:I love that and I love that you said you're not just focusing on making it look pretty, because I think a lot of times when business owners are hiring someone to do a website, that's all they're thinking about.
Speaker 1:I mean me included. That's all I was thinking about.
Speaker 3:You want it to look attractive when you get on there, but it's so important that actually does more than that. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Let's start with what is SEO? So can you explain what it actually is, what it stands for and why you should focus on it?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think people have this really negative connotation about SEO. You hear these like bro marketers on Instagram or in ads that it's this really techie, complicated process. But the foundation of SEO is very simple. So SEO stands for search engine optimization, which basically means you are creating content that gets found on Google. So there is a tech side of it there's, you know, keyword research and all of that stuff, but the main thing is that you're creating valuable content that your target audience wants to see and finds valuable.
Speaker 1:And with SEO it's an organic strategy, meaning you're not paying for ads or paying for any leads or anything. It's all a free strategy and is a good long-term strategy compared to social media, especially because this content is evergreen. It can be found for months and years down the road, which is exactly why business owners should focus on it Because, like I said, with social media, your content kind of lives and dies within 24, 48 hours. It's a grind, as you know. It can take an hour to make one reel that maybe you get 10 likes on and it's frustrating. But with SEO, you're able to drive traffic to your website or even your social channels as well, but that traffic is kind of a slow, build over time, but it's a sustainable marketing strategy that will hopefully last you, like I said, months or years down the road.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was definitely that person. That was just like I don't know. It just seems like something I can never tackle Because I don't know. You see, maybe big businesses doing it to get their name listed on Google first. But when we joined the Chamber of Commerce here, they had a lady that just kind of helped businesses and she was like I just noticed you had never set up your Google profile. And here's the link just do it really quickly and it's not even gonna make a difference. And I did that like one simple thing. And that one tax season I could see how much more traffic was on our website and how many calls got directed to our website and that was just like basically the tip of the iceberg, the easiest thing you could possibly do. We hadn't done so I was definitely that same person. That was just like I don't know if it's something that I can spend time doing or I don't know should do myself.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I can feel really daunting but, like you said, it's like something that maybe takes you like 10 minutes to learn and figure out and implement is going to pay off so much in the long run. And if you think about like your own habits, as just like a customer, like a person that uses Google, like if you're looking for a Mexican restaurant near you, you're not going to be scrolling down the pages you know, to find the one you're looking for. You're going to look on the map, see like which one's rated the best, or look, you know, in the top five search results and click one of those. That's the goal in the top five search results and click one of those. That's the goal?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We actually had a orthodontic influencer on a couple episodes ago and she was saying we all do this, even for orthodontists or accountants. You're going to go pull up the page and look for them. So I was like that's true. So, like you said, thinking of how you actually use things is really beneficial and, yes, I think, definitely answers the questions like why we should be using it and focusing on it. But what are some common misconceptions about it and is there anything else like that? You hear all the time, like I said, that it's maybe too hard or anything like that from business owners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's definitely the number one thing that I hear is like it's so overwhelming I don't know where to start. It's confusing. There is a lot of that technical jargon that people throw out there and a lot of that is important. So Google actually uses like 200 different data points to rank your website. So there's a lot of factors to consider. But what I tell my clients and what I even do for myself and my own business is that if I'm just focused on the customer and what they want to see and learn from me, then that is kind of the best strategy. And of course, there's, you know, putting keywords in the right places on your website. There's optimizing images, making sure your site is loading correctly and really making sure that your site is easy to navigate, because that's what keeps people on your site longer. So the longer that you can keep people engaged on your website is telling Google that, hey, this is actually something that people find value in, so we're going to rank it a little bit higher. And so all of that of course takes time to build, but when you think about it, it's just making that content. And when I say content, I'm talking about either just like a homepage, making that really valuable and full of information. A service page for you, like this podcast, is like the perfect thing for SEO because you're creating weekly content. Google likes like new, fresh content with different perspectives that people find valuable. Like I said, that then you're repurposing this podcast and then putting it onto your website in the form of, like a blog post and that is, you know, telling Google that you're an active participant on the web, like you are creating new content every week to provide value to your audience and that's what they want to see.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the biggest misconception is that it's overwhelming and hard, but when you break it down into you're just trying to provide the best value for your potential audience, then it's really quite simple. So that's the biggest thing. And then, of course, there's like the misconception that it's super expensive. Like, yes, you can hire an SEO strategist or a consultant, or like even you know an ads person, but if you don't have the foundations of who you're you know, knowing who your target sorry, knowing who your target audience is and knowing the kind of content that they want from you, then it's really kind of all for naught. So, really, if you can just break it down to knowing who you're trying to serve and what they want from you, then you can do it yourself. Really, there's a lot of free information on the internet. Follow me on Instagram. I'm always giving quick tips that you can use. It's really something that you can do yourself, especially as a business owner that's just starting out, or one that maybe doesn't have a huge marketing budget to spend on SEO right away.
Speaker 3:Okay. So where should someone start? Do you think they should start by taking a course themselves or hiring someone if they have the budget? Where do you think is just a good, simple start to get into SEO a little bit?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, of course I'm going to plug my free content because I think it's a great foundation. I do have a free challenge. That's all about learning how to do keyword research to find keywords to use for your content and your website. So, if you go to hilltophelpcom slash SEO dash challenge, that's a free five-day email challenge. That kind of walks you through my process for that using free tools, so it's very quick and easy to implement.
Speaker 1:Of course you can go on YouTube. There's tons of SEO content out there. But, like I said before, it really starts with the foundation of knowing your audience, doing some market research, looking at your competitors, seeing what's working well for them. So that's one place to start. You can definitely take a course. My course is launching again in the next couple of weeks, as we're recording this, but it'll probably be the week before. Again in the next couple of weeks as we're recording this, but it'll probably be the week before, which is a great, a great place to learn. But yeah, basically there's tons of free blogs, podcasts, youtube videos. That's really how I learned. I took a few different web design classes that talked about SEO, but it was really me piecing it together with, like I said, youtube videos, blog posts, all the things, which is why I created my course, so that it would be a one-stop shop where business owners could quickly. You know it's a pretty thorough course about SEO, but it's everything you need to know all in one spot, versus trying to piece it together yourself.
Speaker 3:I love that. So you have the freebie where you can kind of start learning yourself and implementing it, if you know that that's in your budget, just to start doing a little bit yourself. And then you have your course that you can take. That should be launching very soon. We'll put all of her information in the show notes. And then do you still do website design and like, basically do it for you if you are a business owner, that's in that kind of I don't have time to do any of it myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I did your beautiful website, yeah, so if you work with, if you decide to hire out your web design, I would definitely that's one of the top questions I would ask in an interview with a web designer is do you know SEO? Is this a service that I can add onto my project? Because if you're building, like I said, a pretty website, that's all well and good, but it's not going to get you in front of new eyes, which most businesses want to grow and get found by new people. So that is definitely something I would prioritize when you're looking to outsource your web design. A lot of businesses, and myself included, will do like a website audit for you and that way you know if you maybe can't afford to hire out a whole SEO revamp or web design revamp. This is a good place to start With my audit, I do like a one hour call with you that kind of goes through the checklist and walks you through everything, so you have a really good understanding of what you need to fix on your website before you get started.
Speaker 3:Yes, and I can vouch for all of those services because Maggie did help us with our very old website. We just did it by ourselves in the beginning and then, seven years later, we really needed to update it and thankfully, I just knew you would do a good job making it pretty, but I wasn't really thinking that much about SEO. So I was so grateful that that is your specialty, because not only does our website look great, but also you took a lot of time to really research what we needed to put in each specific page for the SEO and all of that. And that's not something that I was thinking of when I was, like, had my business owner hat. I just wanted something that was much prettier and more functional than our last one.
Speaker 3:But it looks amazing now and we definitely get much more traffic to the site.
Speaker 1:Good, I'm so glad to hear that. Yeah, and that's a good reminder for people that, like you, can't just like put your website out there and then seven years later like not ever update it. You know that's not pleasing the Google gods there. So definitely update your website more than every seven years.
Speaker 3:Good to know. Good to know. That's a great takeaway. Are you ready to start your new business, but you're just not sure what is needed to get your business started legally. Like all of the paperwork, your EIN, your LLC, all of that. You may have a brilliant business idea, but there is so much more to starting and running a new business that no one tells you about but every single person has to do, no matter what type of business they're starting. To make this very frustrating process simple, we created a step-by-step checklist to help you get started so you know what you need to do legally to start your business your EIN, your LLC, your bookkeeping, saving for taxes.
Speaker 3:If you want to make sure that you're doing everything correctly and you're moving forward, knowing all about those important due dates and filings and all of the tax things that you really should know before you just jump into entrepreneurship, this new business starter kit is exactly what you need. We designed this to help simplify the complicated process of the paperwork and the filings at the very beginning, and most entrepreneurs don't have extra hours to research all of these steps. Our new business starter kit helps you file the necessary paperwork and set up the required processes to start a new business. Starter kit helps you file the necessary paperwork and set up the required processes to start a new business, step by step. If you want to grab a copy of this today, just check out the link in the show notes. Now back to the show. So a very important question, I'm sure that comes up. So, once you do all of this SEO work, how long does it really take for you to start seeing those results generally?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So in general, you'll hear people say like six months to start seeing results, start to work, and that's definitely what I have found for most cases. But it's all a matter of quality over quantity. So you can just post, you know, one quality blog post a month, even, you know, and still get that blog post found on Google. Yeah, so that really is giving Google enough time to analyze the content of your website and make sure that it's pairing it with the right people.
Speaker 1:So one thing that I like to compare Google search to is a library. So if you think about a library, there's all the different sections of books, there's the fiction, the nonfiction, and then within there there's even like subcategories about like I don't know marine life or like I don't know whatever. So you get the idea. So that's kind of how Google is ranking your website, and it does take time for Google to figure out what your website is about. And that's why it's important to keep putting out regular content is because the more information you can give to Google to tell them what your website or what your business is about, that's just helping them again get your site in front of the right people.
Speaker 1:That is another misconception that I maybe should have mentioned before is that people think like Google's kind of out to get them. But really Google wants to get your website in front of the right people so that people find that the answers that they are looking for. That's the whole purpose of Google. They're not trying to trick you. They're not trying to punish you for, you know, having an ugly website or anything like that. They have your best interests in mind and they want the right people coming to your website.
Speaker 3:Okay, I love that and I do want to. I wasn't going to talk about this, but you keep saying like to have a blog up there and I think a lot of times people think that you know people used to do blogs and now blogs are just irrelevant. So correct me if I wrong, but having a blog up is just basically giving it more topics, more keywords, all of that driving and just making sure that you're updating it at some point, so adding more information. So maybe, even if you don't have a ton of people reading your blogs, it's still helping out a ton, Is that?
Speaker 1:right, absolutely yeah. It's giving Google, like you said, more information. Each page on your website should target a different keyword. So, for your content, for example, like this podcast, this episode is going to be about SEO for business owners, but you have other content, that's, you know, more tax related or more marketing related. So it's all this, all these little pieces of information and pieces of content that are, you know, telling Google this is what this business is about and this is answering a question that their target audience might be looking for.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, I think a lot of people probably are thinking that like I don't need to blog anymore. But it really is the easiest way to add something new to your website, because you do something like here's 5 tips for whatever your industry is in, and it's pretty easy to write something like that up Now. Maybe a lot of people might not see it at first or subscribe to your blog like it was in 2000s, but if it's driving people to your website and adding more information to Google, then it's definitely still a good idea to keep those blogs going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it doesn't have to be a blog, like you said. It could be a podcast, it could be. You have a YouTube channel. Youtube is actually considered a search engine similar to Google. A lot of people don't know that it's not a social platform like Instagram is. But yeah, if you can drive that traffic to your website. So if you do make this podcast, for example, make sure you're putting it on your website so that all the traffic is going to your website. If you make a YouTube video, again, put it in a blog post on your website. That's the ultimate goal is getting people to your website so that they can learn more about you, maybe get on your email list, maybe book you for a service. That's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 3:Perfect, and we are doing that because you told us to, so yes, yes, all right. So what are some common mistakes that you see people make in SEO and how can we avoid those?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, one thing that's very trendy the last year or two is this chat GPT phenomenon that people think that chat GPT is going to solve all their problems for content creation. And you know it does. It definitely is a time saver. I definitely use it. But what a big mistake is is to take the content that chat GPT puts out for you and to just copy and paste it into your website. Google knows that that's not your content. It's very.
Speaker 1:You know, if you've ever tried to use chat GPT to like write a blog post, it's very your content. It's very. You know, if you've ever tried to use ChatGPT to like write a blog post, it's very cookie cutter. It sounds like a robot made it. Because it is so. Ai is a wonderful tool, but you have to really create the content, offer a new perspective, tell a story that is, you know, related to the topic that you're trying to talk about. Really, just make it your own, because that's what Google values and that's what your audience is going to value too. Your audience is going to know right away if ChatGPT wrote your blog post or wrote the script for your podcast or whatever. So, definitely making it your own. It sounds like it would take a little bit more time. But if you can just maybe use ChatGPT to outline your content and then you kind of fill in your own knowledge and expertise about it, that's going to pay off in the long run.
Speaker 3:Okay, that was what I was wondering is like using it to either help you get your brain going and then editing it or, like you said, doing like an outline. I do that all the time for podcasts. If I'm like thinking of what question someone might ask about a topic, I'll use chat, gpt and then we'll base the episode off of some of those key points. But as long as we're not just using it verbatim, then we're good. Yes, exactly, okay, perfect. So do you have any success stories of businesses that have had really good results from upping their SEO efforts and implementing all of that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So one of my clients she actually just had a baby, so we're not working together anymore, but we worked together for probably nine months where I was just creating that weekly blog content and then also repurposing it. We repurposed it for her Instagram, we repurposed it for her email list and then we also put it on Pinterest, which Pinterest is another awesome tool for SEO. Again, it's a search engine. People think it's a social platform, but it's actually a search engine and if you can kind of repurpose your content for Pinterest, that's just another set of eyes. You know people that are using Pinterest and not maybe on Instagram or not browsing Google. That's another way to drive traffic to your site and get you know worldwide eyes on your website, way to drive traffic to your site and get you know worldwide eyes on your website. So, yeah, anyway, we were doing.
Speaker 1:I was doing the monthly content for her. It took every bit of six months, but her content is super, super niche and specific the services that she provides for parents. So it's not just general parent coaching that she provides, it's very specific coaching. So the traffic that she got was very a little bit slow, but after six months or so really started to pick up. And now it's. You know she's getting hundreds, maybe thousands, of clicks to her website every month, which is awesome, and it's exactly the people that are looking for what she's talking about.
Speaker 1:Because the types of content, the type of content that we were writing, was very, very specific. So, just as an example, I did one post that was kind of general, about like ADHD tips, and we saw that that article was performing super well early on. So then I made two or three other blog posts about ADHD, but even more niche and specific that then, once we realized that that first ADHD blog post was performing well, then those other blog posts that we created after that started to perform well right away. So anyway, that was just one success story.
Speaker 1:The biggest success for her is that, you know, she's a busy mom. She just had her third baby, so this taking the weight off of having to show up every day on Instagram was probably the biggest success for her. She now feels like, you know, she has her funnel set up for what she's trying to sell and she doesn't feel like the need to show up on social media if she doesn't want to. Especially with now, the political climate that we're in right now, it's hard to be on social media for a lot of people. It's very draining mentally, and so this is a great just a great message and a great way to show up for your business without having to show up on social media when you're maybe not mentally ready for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that and I love that Really, all of this SEO stuff does allow you to drive people to your website and build your email list and all of your freebies, and that so that you don't necessarily have to be on social all the time, which really I think is everyone's goal is to slowly build that so that they're not relying on just being on social all the time, or at least that is part of my goal, yeah, yeah, and it's, I mean, for me too, too, even I'm on there like every day.
Speaker 1:I don't like hate Instagram. I still kind of enjoy it, and I think it's a good tool to like use for your market research and whatnot and like building community of course. But it's yeah, it's definitely draining and it's when you think about how much time you spend either just scrolling the app or making content for it, that time could really most likely be better spent focusing on these longer form marketing strategies that are going to last a little bit longer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Pay off for way more time than you know. A post yeah, Basically one day or two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and like you know, you get that like adrenaline rush of oh, I got 10 likes or whatever it's that you know. So you don't get that instant gratification with SEO like you do with social media, but once I mean I'm checking Google Analytics like once a week because it's so addicting to me the way that Instagram is. I'm like, oh, look at my traffic today, so you can get that gratification. It just takes a little bit longer.
Speaker 3:I do love when Google sends you updates like hey, you're up.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, those monthly emails are like ooh, look at how many clicks I got today. I did nothing different. Right, exactly Doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 3:Exactly Okay. So, to wrap up the episode, what are some tips that someone can implement today after listening to this episode? They're all fired up about their SEO. If they want to jump into this and improve their SEO, like right now, yeah, I hope everyone's fired up about SEO the way I am. I think they are yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah. So the number one thing that I tell people is you have to connect your website to Google Analytics, even if you have no idea what you're looking at. You have no intention of looking at that information for another six months because you're focusing on something else. You have to connect it today so that it can start gathering the data Once you connect your Google Analytics account. It doesn't just automatically pull up all the data from the beginning of your website, so connect it today.
Speaker 1:I'm actually making a reel about this this week, so if you scroll back into my Instagram feed, you'll find the steps how to connect it to your Google Analytics and, like I said, even if you don't touch it for six months, it's there collecting data. If you ever go out to hire someone to do a website audit or a web design redo for you, then you'll have that information to give them. And that information that you can get from Google Analytics is gold, because it tells you exactly what pages people are engaging with the most. It'll tell you what keywords people are typing into Google to get to your website, so that might kind of give you some ideas for what content to create. So, yeah, it's really something that I see a lot of business owners don't do when they launch their website, but it is the number one thing you absolutely should do. And then, of course, start learning about it, start creating that long form content. That's just the biggest thing you can do to start working on your SEO.
Speaker 3:Awesome, I love that. That is a really good takeaway from today's episode. Yeah, like you said, you have no past information if you haven't put that in there Exactly. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast teaching us all about SEO today. Can you let everybody know where they can find you, where they can find all your good free information, like you said, your reel that's coming up, and where they can connect with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm most active on Instagram, that is, at Hilltop Help, so H-I-L-L-T-O-P. Help. I post my motherhood content over there too, but mostly a lot of SEO and web design tips for small business owners who are kind of DIYing their marketing. And then, of course, my website, which is hilltophelpcom. I have a blog that I'm pretty active on there and then, like you said, I am launching my SEO course again, which will be open from August 6th to August 12th, and I'm going to give your audience a discount code if they're interested, so CPA100 will give them $100 off. The course launched it since I think end of January was the last time I launched it. We had 10 students go through it. They're slowly starting to see their traffic pick up, so I'm really excited to launch it again and give more business owners the opportunity to start DIYing their SEO.
Speaker 3:Awesome. I love that. I do think that probably most of the people listening are, like you said, diying their marketing, their advertising, so these would be an easy way for them to implement that before they get into that position where they may want someone to help them with it, and I wish I would have done that a long time ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know my course wasn't around then and that is another thing to mention too is that if you do plan on hiring like a social media manager or just like a general virtual assistant to help you, seo is a really great thing to outsource. You just have to know what to do. So if you learn it take this course or learn it yourself then you can then delegate that to someone to outsource your marketing to.
Speaker 3:Your marketing is actually working. So that's the main point. Right, exactly, perfect. Well, thank you so much. I will put all of Maggie's info in the show notes, along with that code that you can use if you want to get her SEO course. And until next time, thank you so much for listening to what your CPA Wants you To Know. Podcast.
Speaker 2:This podcast is intended to provide accounting and tax information for educational purposes only. All tax situations are unique and should be handled with the assistance of a tax professional.