Hi, and welcome back to the Simple SEO podcast. I am Rachel Lindteigen, and I'm so glad that you're here with me today. And I want to talk about something really fun, exciting and juicy, that I don't think entrepreneurs necessarily realize that SEO search engine optimization can do for them. So we're going to vary today's lesson a little bit compared to what we normally talk about, because I want to make sure that you're aware. of one best benefits of having SEO on your website, your blog, your podcast, et cetera, because. When you have an SEO funnel. You can have a business, that works without you being there and being every single moment. Does that sound good to anyone? Cause it sure does sound good to me. So when we have an SEO funnel, meaning we're creating content, that's optimized for our audience. We have worked with Google so that our website is SEO friendly. People are going to be searching for products, services, help information related to our business. 24 7. They do it around the clock, but it doesn't mean, that we have to be there at our desks or at our computers. 24 7 to help them. It means that our websites are able to do it for us. And by having great information on our website that is optimized for Google, then Google is more likely to show it to people when they're interested in the information. And then we hope. They do. My favorite thing to hear from someone is I fell into your website and I went straight down the rabbit hole and oh my gosh, everything I needed to know was there. That's what we really want. And that's what can happen because having that great website that's optimized, it's easy to find on Google. You've got content that people are looking for. That's going to help you get found on Google. And it's going to drive traffic to your website. Whether your sitting there at your computer or not. And the best part is if you have your conversion and everything set up and you've got products or services, they can book a call. You can actually get leads and sales while you're doing other things. And one of my favorite parts of SEO is it can really help. Reduce your dependence on social media. I haven't been very honest with you guys. I have a love, hate relationship with social media. I am not the most active on it. I'm actually contemplating just going to like the nine grid on Instagram, where here's some of my best tips. Here's what you need to know. And I don't do it on a regular basis because. To me, it feels like a massive time. Suck. Anyone else feel like social media is just an absolute massive time suck and you don't really get as much of a return from it as you do from. SEO. I get a lot more out of. The time I spend on my podcast, my blog, my email, my website. Than I ever have out of Instagram or Facebook. So. I like not having to be as dependent on social, not having to feel like, oh my gosh, I've got to make sure I post because it's just draining. And I'll be honest. I don't want to spend six hours creating one real, like. No. That's not going to happen. I am never going to be the champion of the most amazing reels. You're going to get a talking head because that's what I have time for. So if anybody else feels that way, You know, I'm with you. It is not my favorite thing. But I want to kind of give you a real life example of how this can all work. So I know it's still summer for a lot of us. But it's August here and in Arizona. It's the first week of school. You guys, I love my kid more than anything, but school started yesterday. And he's back in session, new class, lots of friends, super happy. He loves school. I love that. He's a curious inquisitive, smart kiddo. And so he's excited to go to school. But I'm more excited. Because now I can kind of get back to my regular schedule. So this summer was an interesting test and it was very much a test of my personal SEO sales funnel. And my personal SEO sales funnel did a really good job for me over the summer. And it allowed me to have the time freedom to spend most of my summer with him. And to really set our schedule up in a way that worked amazingly well for us. So last year he just is starting fourth grade now. The summer between second and third grade. Was our most difficult summer I've ever experienced. So I've always been a working mom, like when he was first born, I went back to work. 12 weeks later, I was still at the agency. My mom and my in-laws kept him for the first six to eight weeks. And then we had a full-time nanny. Um, he started Montessori preschool when he was about a year and a half old. Like I've always had childcare. I don't know how, you know, you mamas who have kids by your side all the day, all day. My goodness. I don't know how you do it with your businesses and everything else. My hat is off to you cause I've always, always had childcare. And so we always do summer camps and we have fun and we take breaks. Like we have a nice break for a couple of weeks. In the, the beginning of summer, we take a nice break at the end of summer and I take. All the school, holidays and breaks and stuff off with him. I probably, when we first moved to Tucson, um, the way the Montessori preschool here was we, I took six weeks a year off with him and I'll be honest. I've gotten really used to taking those six weeks a year off. They were awesome. And then we went into our summer program. The year between second and third grade, and we were all signed up for camps and we had our same normal, like six weeks off and we had it all figured out. And so we were going to take two weeks off in may and two weeks off in August, and we were going to go all summer. And I think we were going to take 4th of July week off because we tend to, I mean, Arizona, just somewhere in July, the weather turns disgusting and we just want to escape, like in reality, I'm recording this July 13th. Um, super early because my house is quiet and I can get this done. And I want to make sure that I have the blog, the podcast for you when it's time. And when I'm celebrating that school has started. So. We just came out of the worst week of excessive heat warnings. Like we've been under excessive heat warnings for an entire week. It's been anywhere from 110 to 115, 18. Like it's just been disgusting. And so at some point every July that happens and we just try to escape and go to the mountains or do something. So anyway, last summer. He revolted, like we were signed up with, it was all these camps who was so excited to go to them. And then we got to him and he's like, I don't like this one this year. I don't want to be at this one. This one's boring. Mom, can you pick me up at lunch? Mom? Do I really have to go? And he fought him. Every day and it was so incredibly stressful. And it was so frustrating because the year before between first and second grade, he'd loved the camps and they were alive. Same camps. And I remember like tearing my hair out last summer because I planned on. Working over the summer. And I was going to launch the class live and I was going to do all these things. And all of a sudden my childcare system, like my Telecare had basically fallen through not as bad as the pandemic, like garbage. Remember what that was like, where we went for spring break and never came and didn't go back for months. But my childcare fell through last summer and it was very stressful. So going into this summer, I knew I needed to have a different plan. So I started really, really laying the foundation. A few months in advance to make sure that my business could sustain. With me on a very different schedule. So here are the kids get 10 weeks of summer break. So we had crazy Mae, which is what I call it. Just because life is absolutely insane for us in may. You'll probably never see me do a live class in the month of may, just because there's so much going on with end of school year. My son's birthday, my husband's birthday mother's day, all three of those fall, the same week. Then we have all the end of the school year stuff. Then my kid is in drama. So we have the plays. This year, our big kid, my, uh, my bonus daughter graduated from college that same week. Like it was nuts. Everything calmed down. And then I left town to go to an amazing conference for female business owners, female entrepreneurs. And I was in Nashville for like five days. And came back and was ready to go and so excited and like so energized. I had my plan ready for what I was doing next. And by the time I got home, My kid was out of school for the summer. Okay. So. Sorry, fighting a summer cold. It was nuts. Anyway. He's out. He's home. I knew this going in. So I had two weeks off with him and then I had him signed up for two weeks of camp with friends that I knew he was going to love. Cause. One of them was the only camp that he really truly loved last summer. Then he had two weeks off. Then we did two weeks of camp, another week. Another theme of that one, he truly loved. And then one through his drama class. Two weeks off. So I knew. Coming into summer. I had four weeks of childcare and I had six weeks of camp mom, which meant I could not work as much as normal. But thankfully, because of having an SEO and content based business and organic based business. I was able to continue. To work. Very few hours. On those weeks that he was home with me. I worked two hours a day at most. Because we're in Arizona, it's brutally hot in the afternoons. We went out and did all our stuff in the mornings. We came home at lunchtime. We had lunch together. And then he got his favorite time of the day, which was roadblocks or YouTube time. While mom worked and I worked each day for about two hours. So 10 hours a week. For the majority of the summer. And my business kept chugging along. Because of all the work I did leading up to it. So over the course of the summer. More than 60% of my website, traffic came in from S E L. It came in from the blog posts that I've written. It came in. From. People getting to know my name, getting to know the business, searching for it. All of that more than 60% of the traffic and looking at the sales because. I'm working at business the same as you are. You still need to make sales. 40%. No. 50% of the sales were passive sales. I did do a launch launch. I'm sure you saw the invitations. I did do a live launch. In June, it happened to be the week that I knew everything would be okay. He was going to be in his favorite camp. It was at our school. It was five minutes from the house. That was why it was that week. Probably not the best week. June is tough for everybody, but it was the one week I knew for sure things would be okay. So I did do that live launch, but over the course of the summer, The majority of my website, traffic and revenue. Came from S E O. And it came in passively. It came in from an evergreen sales funnel. And that's what I want for you. I want you to understand that if you learn from me, if you let me teach you how to set this up for yourself, you can have the same thing. I have. Had sales come in. I've had students enroll in my course, which makes me smile. It makes me so happy. Like you see the memes that say, when you buy from a small business, they do a dance. It's true. Like you do still get that little. Oh, my gosh, somebody enrolled. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to get to know them and help them and learn about their business. I've had it happen when I was on vacation with my family. I've had it happened when I was chaperoning field trips at the school. I've had it happened when I was sitting at my desk working as well, but it's so exciting when it comes in unexpectedly. And it's because somebody listened to your podcast or they read your blog or they were Googling and they found your website and you were helpful. And they went down the rabbit hole with your content. That's what I want for you. So. What I did over the course of the summer, like I said, six out of the 10 weeks on summer break. I worked. 10 hours a week. And then the other weeks I did work more, but I'll be honest. I did not work 40 hours a week. Mostly because kids summer camps run like eight to two. So I worked about 20 hours a week. I'm going into a really fun experiment. If you want to follow along and kind of ask questions or DM me on Instagram, you're welcome to, but I'm going to experiment over the fall now until we get to like holiday break. I'm going to test out 15 hours a week. I really am only focusing on my core content. I'm going to step back on social. Cause like I said, it doesn't really do much for me and it's just, it's exhausting in a time. Suck. I am going to go a little more into Pinterest. I'm going to test that. I've been really digging into Pinterest SEO and how it works. And so. I am going to test that. If you've listened to the podcast for awhile, you know, that last fall. My test was on podcast SEO and that worked exceptionally well. And I do have the podcast SEO course coming out for you very soon. We're going to start teaching that because if you have a podcast now, and you're not getting a lot of downloads, you're not making. You're not getting leads and traffic and things from it. We're going to talk about how we get it found and how we get more downloads. Because my podcast is one of my favorite marketing channels, but it also is one of my best marketing channels. So. I love that you're here you listen. Let me know what you think. But if. Would you like to learn how to put something like this together so that you're not tied to your desk? And feeling like you've got to work all these hours. Like I don't want to hustle. I don't want to do hustle culture. I don't want to work two or three jobs. I want to build a business that is sustainable. That fits into my life and having had this summer beat so much better than last summer, because I had my plan. I laid it out. I knew in advance what I was doing. And it worked and I want to help you do the same thing. So I'm going to be teaching a live class next month. I'll be honest. I'm not a hundred percent sure what I'm calling it yet. I. I'm working on all of that, because naming is not always my strength. And so I have a couple. Um, entrepreneurial friends who are much more creative than I am, who are trying to help me figure out what we're going to call it right now, but I'm going to do an, a live class with you next month. Where we will probably meet for three to five days. We'll have a little less than each day. Um, right now, I'm thinking it's to me the week of September 23rd, just looking at the schedule because. You know, like I'm a working mom and looking at the schedule the week before that. Well, let's see. My kid has half days. Thursday and Friday for conferences, because while your kids may just be starting back to school in September, We're already at the end of the quarter. So I won't be doing it. I for sure will not be doing it in stressing myself out the week of the 16th. And I feel like the week of the ninth is just too soon for anyone else whose kids just went back to school. So very likely it'll be the week of the 23rd. Stay tuned. If you're on the email list, you will get an invite to that. I want to make sure you join because that is going to really help us lay the foundation to be able to do this in your business as well. If you're looking. For a way to make more money and work fewer hours. This is the absolute key I've been doing this for years and I don't work. Full-time I've never worked full-time hours since I've been. On my own because I've had other responsibilities and I wanted more. Freedom more time, freedom and more flexibility in my life. I worked. Easily 40 to 60 hours a week, every week in the corporate world for many years. And I don't want that grind anymore. So. Like I said, my goal for the fall. My test schedule is 15 hours a week and see where I land. Um, And if you want tips on how to be more productive during your shortened schedule, all of that, I'm happy to share as well. I'm really good at that. My entrepreneurial friends generally say, You get more work done in fewer hours than we ever do. And we don't understand what you're doing different. So I'm happy to share. I've got some tips on things like that. Um, on my blog as well. All right. That's it for today. I just want to make sure you understand the power, the impact. That an SEO funnel can give you. And make sure that you're ready for that class when it comes up in September. If you want to get started right away. You're like, oh my gosh, Rachel, this is exactly what I need. I will never go through another summer. Like I just did, or that sounds amazing. I want to work 15 hours a week. Just do yourself a favor, join simple SEO content. Right now, let's get your SEO sales funnel going so that you can take the holiday break off. Or you can look at the kids' schedule as it's coming out and be like, I am going to enjoy the whole summer or better than that. I'm going to take a week off while I got some childcare and I'm going to relax because I'm going to be real honest. That's my plan. So, like I said, I'm recording this July 13th. My kiddo is in his last week at camp. This coming week and my husband has to travel for work. I'm going to have the house to myself. He's it's day camp. He'll still be home with me, but. I am. There's a reason I'm recording this on Saturday morning because my house is really quiet and I want to be able to take a few days off this coming week. And do nothing. And just relax. Before I go back into camp mode for the last couple of weeks before school starts. And my friend, you can have that freedom and flexibility. When you have an SEO sales funnel. That is. Just sending traffic and leads and sales into your business. Whether you're sitting there at your computer or not. So let's get that going for you as well. So if you're super ready, you're excited. Just joined simple SEO content. Now. Um, go to edge to marketing.com. If you haven't taken the free class, you can see that on the homepage right there at the top of the page. Get started today. If you're not quite sure you want to make sure you take this live class with me, where we're going to talk about creating that sales funnel and like how your SEO funnel can help. Pencil it in, it's going to be the week of the 23rd of September. Not sure what the name is yet. I'll let you know, as soon as I have all that squared away. Um, if you're not on my email list yet, make sure you get the beginners SEO guide or sign up for SEO 1 0 1. If you have either of those, you will be the first to know in the first to be able to enroll in that live class in September. And that first one is free because I want you to see the opportunity I want you to. Can we get a little more feel of my teaching style and all of that. So you can make the decision. If you're ready to join simple SEO content. I know it'll work for you. Because it works. I know it will, but I want you to feel confident in your decision. All right. Thanks so much for being here. I will see you back here next week. You have a great day.