Priority Pursuit
A podcast dedicated to helping small business owners define, maintain, and pursue both their business and personal priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.
Priority Pursuit
3 Types of Content to Boost Your SEO
If you're not showing up on Google, you're missing out on serious business opportunities.
In this episode, I break down three specific types of content—educational blog posts, showcases of your work, and niche location-specific content—that can significantly enhance your online visibility. These content strategies will help not only in attracting your target audience but also in proving to Google that you're an expert in your field.
If you want to dive deeper into these tactics and learn how to make them work for your business, listen to the full episode now!
Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:
- The importance of high-quality educational content for SEO
- How blogging your work can establish your expertise and drive traffic
- Why creating niche and location-specific content is crucial for local SEO
Other Mentioned Links & Resources
Episode 066: What to Write About When Blogging Your Work as a Creative Entrepreneur
https://treefrogmarketing.com/what-write-about-when-blogging-work-creative-entrepreneur
Get a Free PDF Guide: How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO
https://treefrogmarketing.com/how-use-keywords-improve-small-business-seo
Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com
Receive 50% Off Your First Year of HoneyBook:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/honeybook-coupon-code
Book a Strategic Marketing Coaching:
https://treefrogmarketing.com/marketing-consulting-small-businesses
Join the Priority Pursuit Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426
Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefroggers
Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefrogkelly
Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:00]:
If your website doesn't appear on the first page of Google, you're missing out on business. Not because you aren't great at what you do, not because you don't serve your customers well, but simply because your ideal customers can't find you. However, when your site ranks among the top Google search results, people who are actively looking for what you have to offer can easily find you. And as a result, you can stop spending so much of your time chasing leads and allow some of your most qualified leads to find you where they're already looking for your products or services. At the top of Google search results hey there. You're listening to Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. I'm your host, Victoria Rayburn, and small business owner to small business owner, can I share some cold, hard truth with you? If your website doesn't rank well on Google, you're missing out on business. Not because you aren't great at what you do, not because you don't serve your customers well, but simply because your ideal customers cannot find you where they're looking for your products or services.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:06]:
In fact, 97% of people use Google when they're in need of a product or service. As a result, if you can get your website and business to rank among the top Google search results, you can get your information in front of prospects who are actively searching for and likely ready to purchase exactly what you have to offer. Basically, when your website ranks well on Google, you don't have to spend so much of your time going after new leads. Instead, many of your strongest leads will start coming to you through Google. Now, there are a lot of moving parts to a successful SEO strategy, and we've discussed many of these tactics in past episodes of priority pursuit. But today, I want to discuss three kinds of content you can create to boost your SEO. Now, before we dive into tactics, let's define what we mean by content. Because in a world that is now full of reels, TikTok, email marketing, and so much more, there are literally more kinds of content than ever before.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:04]:
But for the sake of this conversation, we are specifically discussing content that lives on your website, because that's what's going to help improve your SEO the most. Now, content that lives on your website can include videos or blog posts. But because one, if you include a video on your website, you should arguably include a coinciding blog post. And because two blog posts are the simplest form of content for most small businesses to create while still being highly effective today, we are going to focus on blogs specifically. Now, with so many forms of content now available, you might be thinking like blog post really, isn't blogging dead? And the answer is no. Absolutely nothing, especially not for small businesses. According to HubSpot, blogs continue to be extremely valuable for lead generation, brand awareness and SEO, and they're still popular among consumers. In fact, a 2023 HubSpot study found that 60% of people read a blog post at least once a week.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:02]:
So, no, blogging is not dead. And blogging continues to be one of the most effective and easiest ways to improve your SEO. Now, it's important to understand that Google's goal is to serve its users well by helping them find content related to their queries as quickly as possible. As a result, when your website regularly features new, helpful blog posts, Google is more likely to rank both your website and your blog posts well because you're helping Google achieve its goal of better serving its users by providing valuable content and assuming your website has a clear message and serves your ideal client well. Having your website and content appear on the first page of Google search results can dramatically increase conversions and sales for your small business. Okay, so if you want to improve your SEO and serve your prospects well, the first kind of content you want to create is high quality educational content that will be a value to your ideal customer. For example, if you're a wedding planner, you could write blog posts about how to create the perfect wedding day timeline, wedding trends, how to choose the white wedding vendors, or anything else that is going to help your ideal client feel more informed about their wedding, especially in relation to your services. If you're a landscaper, you could write blog posts about seasonal landscaping tips, plant care, sustainable landscaping practices, common landscaping problems and solutions, and so, so much more.
Victoria Rayburn [00:04:23]:
I'm not a landscaper, so I'm probably definitely missing something important in there. But the primary benefit of writing these kinds of educational blog posts is that they're an excellent way to serve both your prospects and your current customers. They can help you establish that know, like and trust factor, and help show your ideal customers that you are an expert at what you do. Now, in addition to showing that you're showing your ideal customers that you're an expert, these kinds of blog posts also show Google that you're a professional and that you know what you're doing. And this is important because Google ranks websites and content based on what it calls eat, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Essentially, Google strives to provide its users with the most helpful, accurate and credible search results that it can. So in order for your website and content to rank well, you more or less need to prove to Google that you are a credible source. And a great way to do this is to regularly publish high quality educational blog posts on your website.
Victoria Rayburn [00:05:25]:
Because again, when you do, you prove to Google that you are an expert, which is going to make your website much more likely likely to rank well. Now, the more often your website is updated with quality content, the better from an SEO perspective. But in case you're wondering how often you should be releasing educational content, I want to encourage you to do one of two things. So first of all, go to Google, type in whatever it is that you want to be known for and appear in Google search results for, such as Indianapolis wedding photographer or hair salons in the Chicago loop, and look to see how often the businesses that appear at the top of search results are releasing educational blog posts. Then determine how you can create even more. That said, if your competitors aren't blogging regularly, or if you just can't keep up with them because they're blogging a lot, I would recommend releasing a high quality educational piece of content at least once a month. At the very least. At the absolute very least, this is going to show Google that your site is active and help improve your eat.
Victoria Rayburn [00:06:25]:
Plus, you can absolutely put systems in place to crank out one blog post per month or even pay to outsource this content. Like that is 100% feasible. That said, and I cannot emphasize this enough, quality matters so much more than quantity of content. I mean, your prospects don't want to waste their time reading unhelpful, poor quality blog posts. On top of that, Google's goal, like we discussed, is to provide the most helpful, relevant content to its users. So if your website is full of haphazard blog posts, your SEO is going to be harmed, not helped, as it won't help Google serve its users well.
Natalie Franke [00:06:58]:
What would you do with an extra 45 minutes every workday that would save you hours a month or roughly eight days a year. And over the course of your career, we're talking about over one year of your life. Saved all that time back? Well, many independent business owners spend far more than 45 minutes a day on administrative tasks, and with honeybook, you can get that time back. And then some. Honeybook lets you easily manage projects, contracts, invoices, scheduling and client communication, saving you time and allowing you to better serve your clients for a discount on your first year of Honeybook visit honeybook.com and subscribe with the code priority pursuit. 45 minutes a day adds up quickly. Use it to focus on what matters most.
Kelly Rice [00:07:43]:
Many small businesses don't have an effective marketing strategy, and because of this they try one tactic after another without seeing results. This not only prevents consistent business growth, it makes managing marketing efforts more difficult than it should be. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we understand how frustrating it can be when hard work doesn't deliver the results that you want. Because of this, Treefrog has developed a proven four step marketing system that will help any small business grow. On our website. You can also schedule a 30 minutes discovery call to discuss working with Treefrog to build a marketing strategy that will allow your small business to finally see the growth you've been working so hard to achieve.
Victoria Rayburn [00:08:21]:
Now, another type of content that you can create to boost your SEO is simply blogging your work. This is going to look a little different from small business to small business, but essentially you can use your blog to showcase your products or services. For example, as a wedding photographer, I used to blog all of my weddings and shoots. Now, blogging your work comes with several benefits. I mean, not only is this a simple way to more or less build a portfolio and an easy way to show prospective clients what they can expect when they work with you, but it also comes with several SEO benefits. First of all, logging your work is a really, really great way to show Google that you're an expert in your field, which is only going to improve your eeat. Basically, by blogging your work, you can show Google that you know what you're doing and are actively taking clients. Additionally, blogging your work is a great way to drive traffic to your website.
Victoria Rayburn [00:09:07]:
From an SEO perspective, this is important because when Google sees that people are regularly visiting your website, the search engine takes that as an indicator that people want to see your content, that they want to read, they want to check it out. And this is only going to make Google more likely to rank both your site and your content. Well, now to drive traffic to these blog posts, you can and should share these posts on social media and with your email list, you might even consider running ads to them. Again, blogging your work and sharing this content is going to look different for everyone. But in case this is helpful to you, I do want to quickly tell you how I went about sharing my work as a wedding photographer. Because every time I blogged a wedding, it brought hundreds, sometimes even thousands of people to my website. So to drive as much traffic to my site as possible when blogging my work, I made sure that I always blog weddings and sessions before delivering final galleries. Essentially, I shoot a wedding on a Saturday, blog about it, and include the best images on the following Thursday, and then deliver final galleries a couple weeks later.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:08]:
This drove a lot of traffic to my website simply because my couples, their loved ones and the couple's other vendors even were excited to see photos, which made them want to check out my blog posts and even share these posts on social media via text or however else they wanted to share their blog posts with friends and family. Now, had I waited to blog weddings and sessions until after final galleries had been delivered, these blog posts wouldn't attract nearly as much traffic simply because people had already seen the photos and the excitement about both the wedding and the photos would have died down. Again, how you blog your work is going to look very different depending on what your small business does, but if you can create a sense of excitement about these blog posts, you can drive more traffic to your website, which again, is only going to help your SEO. Now, in addition to helping Google see you as an expert in driving traffic to your site, if you have a location based business, meaning you have a brick and mortar location or a primary service area, blogging your work can help Google further associate you with a specific area, which is going to be beneficial in search results considering your prospects are likely searching for your products or services according to your location. So just as an example, when I was a wedding photographer, I wanted to rank well for Indianapolis wedding photographers. So every time I blogged Indianapolis area wedding, this helped Google further associate me with the Indianapolis area and helped improve my ranking for Indianapolis wedding photographers and other similar Google searches. Now to give you another example, if you're an interior designer, you could blog your projects. And while it might not be appropriate, like if you work with residential clients to share their exact addresses on the Internet, you could certainly mention the city or neighborhood of your projects to help go further associate you with a specific area.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:51]:
Again, every business is different, but if you have a location based business, chances are blogging your work can help improve your SEO. And if you have questions about how you could potentially do this for your business, please don't hesitate to shoot me a DM on Instagram. You can find me at Victorialrayburn and I would be happy to help you brainstorm some ideas. I know this can be a little bit tricky, but it does have big benefits. Now, before we move on to the next kind of content we recommend creating, I do want to note that while blogging your work can have big benefits for your SEO writer's blog is real. However, when you have a template to work from, blogging, your work is much easier. If you'd like help creating a template for this kind of content, I want to encourage you to go back and listen to episode 66 what to write about when blogging your work. We'll be sure to include a link to that episode in the show notes, and you can also find it wherever you listen to podcasts if you want to scroll back, but you do not have to blog all of your work.
Victoria Rayburn [00:12:48]:
I did as a wedding photographer because it made sense in my marketing and SEO strategy and was a great form of customer service. I mean, couples love this. They expected to see their blog posts a few days after their wedding and I mean, I even had people actually book weddings because of the blog post specifically. So worked out really well on a couple levels for me. But if your customers aren't expecting you to blog about their project or job, I want to encourage you to be selective with what you blog about. Don't waste your time blogging unless you'd like to showcase the project and attract other similar work. Now, photographers. You are in a particularly interesting spot because you have the ability to curate, and I mean, a lot of other businesses do too, but you can absolutely curate projects to show the best parts of them.
Victoria Rayburn [00:13:31]:
So I just want to, you know, add the disclaimer, you do not have to blog everything, but you can curate. You can probably blog more than you think. Okay, speaking of local businesses and local SEO, if you have a location based business, creating niche, location specific content is a really great way to boost your SEO. You see, outside of trying to find products or services like yours in your area, your ideal clients are likely googling other questions related to or adjacent to your products, services, and location. As a result, if you create content like blog posts that answer your potential clients questions, your ideal clients will likely find your content when they google their questions, which will then encourage them to check out the rest of your website. And your website as a whole will likely rank better because your location specific content will help Google further associate you with the area you're targeting and see that you are an industry expert in your area. For example, if we stick with our Indianapolis wedding photography, for example, you could write blogs like best places to take engagement photos in Indianapolis elegant wedding venues in downtown Indianapolis where to take your wedding photos in Indianapolis bridal shows in Indianapolis best wedding planners in Indianapolis again, this kind of content will both help you serve potential clients well and help Google see that you're a local expert at whatever it is that you do. Now, if you aren't sure what kind of content you should be creating, please again, feel free to shoot me a DM.
Victoria Rayburn [00:14:53]:
I'm more than happy to help you brainstorm ideas. This is going to look very different for everybody. That said, chat GPT can also be a really great resource for coming up with location specific topics like this. For example, you can ask chat GPT something like, can you give me blog posts for a landscaping company that is wanting to improve SEO in the Indianapolis area? And chat GPT will generate ideas. Are all of these suggestions going to be winners? Nope, probably not. Chances are some of them are going to seem a little odd or really forced or just oddly, oddly specific. So oddly specific that nobody would ever Google or ask that question. So use common sense, but look at the suggestions given and create content around the ideas that your ideal customers would actually find value in and be likely to Google.
Victoria Rayburn [00:15:41]:
Okay, as a quick recap, if you want to boost your SEO, you can find success by creating high quality educational blog posts, blog posts about your work and niche location specific blog posts. Now, it isn't enough to create content. If you want to get the most out of your blog posts, you need to be sure to optimize them for keywords. Keywords are essential because they help search engines better understand what your content is about and the relevance of your content to Google user searches. So by incorporating keywords that your target audience is searching for you drastically increase the likelihood of your content appearing in search results when potential customers are looking for information related to your products, services or content. This in turn, drives more organic traffic to your site, makes your ideal customers more likely to find you, and ultimately leads to more inquiries and conversions. Basically, if you're going to take the time to create content or pay a copywriter to blog for you, you are doing yourself a huge disservice if you don't optimize your content with keywords. Now, we aren't going to get into how to use keywords in this episode, but if you'd like to learn more about how to choose keywords and where to put them on your website, check out our guide how to use keywords to improve your small businesses SEO.
Victoria Rayburn [00:16:53]:
This guide walks you through exactly how to choose and use keywords according to your business goals, and you can find it at the link in the show notes or by going to treefrogmarketing.com/keywords. All right, once again, there are a lot of moving parts to a successful SEO strategy, but the fact of the matter is that when people are looking for a product or service, they go to Google. As a result, if your website doesn't appear on the first page of Google, you're missing out on business. Not because you aren't great at what you do, not because you don't serve your customers well, but simply because your ideal customers can't find you. However, when your site ranks among the top Google search results, people who are actively looking for what you have to offer can easily find you. And as a result, you can stop spending so much of your time chasing leads and allow some of your most qualified leads to find you where they're already looking for your products or services at the top of Google search results. And on that note, thank you for tuning into another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.