Well hello there! Catherine Langman here with you on the Productpreneur Success Podcast! Welcome to the show if you’re a new listener, and welcome back if you’re a long-time listener!
A couple of weeks ago, we shared the first in a two-episode series on SEO – search engine optimisation, and I was joined by Karen who is one of the experts from my team.
In that episode, we talked through the initial foundational steps we should be taking when it comes to optimising our websites for Google.
And all of those tweaks and changes to your website can be very effective to start increasing the volume of free organic search traffic you receive.
But, there is more that you can do on an ongoing basis. And in fact, to get the best long-term results for your business, you do want to have an ongoing strategy for SEO.
Google loves to see old content refreshed as well as new content published. But we want to approach this in a strategic way so that (A) you can manage your time and not feel overwhelmed by the task, and (B), get the best return on effort.
So on today’s episode, Karen joins me again for part 2 on SEO for eCommerce and today we’re going to focus on what business owners need to be looking at when creating their SEO strategy this year and planning your SEO content for 2022.
Now, before we dive further into this episode, I’d like to ask you a quick favour: if you love this episode, would you share it with one or two of your business besties? Especially if you know they’re looking to generate more traffic and sales on their eCommerce website this year. It’s super easy to share – just click on the icon next to the podcast on whichever platform you listen to it, copy the share link and then send it in a message to your friends.
Alrighty then – let’s get started and welcome Karen onto the show!
Catherine Langman:
Okey-dokes. We’ve got Karen here, back on the show again, to have a follow on conversation about SEO. So welcome back to the show, Karen. It’s great to have you here.
Karen Mapperson:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Catherine Langman:
So good. And you know the first episode, conversation, that we had about SEO was one of our most popular episodes; so that’s really, really cool. And so what we decided to do is to make this a two part series, and today we’re going to be looking at what business owners need to be looking at when creating their SEO strategy this year. In particular, planning your content.
Catherine Langman:
So obviously, keyword, research is one part of things, and all the things we spoke about last week, but then what do you do next? So do you want to kick us off here about the 12 month content plan concept and how we tie this in with our keywords that we’ve researched?
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah. So in the previous podcast, we really delved into how to do keyword research, and then analyzing those keywords. And once you’ve done keyword research, you’ll have a better idea of actually what the plan is going to be. So you’ll want to focus on high-ranking keywords or high searched keywords, but that will be easy to rank for.
Karen Mapperson:
And depending on your SEO journey, if you have a website that is quite established, and you have a healthy Authority Score, and Google ranks you quite well for certain keywords, then you can go quite aggressive and go after the 25,000 searches per month keywords.
Karen Mapperson:
Whereas, if you’re quite new to SEO and Google doesn’t quite know about you yet, it would be better to go for lower ranking keywords because once you start ranking for any keywords, it’s easier for Google to find you. And then it will also start building your Authority Score.
Karen Mapperson:
So my suggestion would be, again, to go back to your keyword research, have a look through your keywords, have a look at how much organic traffic you’re already getting. And if it’s quite a substantial amount, then maybe go after those aggressive keywords. Look also at keyword intent.
Karen Mapperson:
So here’s an example: if you’re selling kids backpacks and kids backpacks have a search volume of 30,000 searches per month, but you actually are quite niche and you have these very cute animal backpacks. You have a koala backpack, or a kangaroo backpack. If you do keyword research on those keywords, they might be a lot lower, so your conversion rate on that keyword will be a lot higher because you’re showing the user exactly what they’re seeing when they’re searching for it.
Karen Mapperson:
So somebody who is searching for, “kids backpack,” they might not be looking for animal backpacks, but if they’re searching for, “a koala kids backpack,” and they find your project placement, they’re more likely to convert. So keep that in mind as well. Don’t just try and rank for keyword with high search volume, look at the intent, and make sure that it’s very relevant to what they will see if they land on that page.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
Then there’s a rule in SEO where you only want to assign one keyword per page; so if you sell kids backpacks, you’re can’t assign that keyword to every single page on your website because that would just confuse Google. Google sees everything.
Catherine Langman:
How many times do you see that?
Karen Mapperson:
So often.
Catherine Langman:
Is that a common mistake that people make? Right.
Karen Mapperson:
So often.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
They find one keyword they think is the unicorn and they just put it everywhere on their website. And their position would change week by week because one week they’ll rank for the homepage, which would have a high Authority Score because it gets visited a lot. And then something happens and then they’re ranking 86 or page nine for it because it’s on a different page that doesn’t have such a high Authority Score.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So for your 12 month content plan it’s really important to pick your keywords, and then assign them to certain pages.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
And obviously, you’re going to start with the one that is going to bring you the most revenue, and it’s not based just on search volume. Again, you have to look at intent. So if you’re going to get 1,000 free visits a month because you sell koala backpacks, people are more likely to convert off that keyword, than kids backpacks. So make sure you keep that in mind.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
Then you’ll have to, for the 12 month plan, assign each keyword to each month.
Karen Mapperson:
So once you break it down to, “I’m only going to try and rank the 12 keywords this year,” it also becomes a little bit easier of a task rather than looking at all these keywords you have at your disposal, and trying to rank them all at the same time.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, because that feels overwhelming really, doesn’t it?
Karen Mapperson:
It’s very overwhelming and you don’t always know where to start. In the 12 month content plan, I’d also recommend looking at any seasonal keywords and plan well in advance for those.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
From my own experience, I’ve really noticed, especially Christmas and Easter, there’s a bigger search volume around gifting in that period. Therefore, people are actually searching for keywords, “Easter gifts for kids,” or, “Christmas dresses for kids,” or “Christmas gifts for Mom.”
Karen Mapperson:
So if you have any products in that niche, to make sure that you do keywords regarding that season. And make sure that you start planning for it and stetting up pages around those keywords, and work that into your keyword planning.
Catherine Langman:
And when you do something like that where it’s seasonal, I mean, I guess in a year, you are getting a fairly short-term use out of that. But is that something that has longevity and you can reuse that page, maybe update it year on year?
Karen Mapperson:
Yes, absolutely. Not only can you reuse it every year because it’s only valid and will only bring a short amount of traffic to your website for a short amount of time, lots of businesses don’t go after those keywords, because they see it as a lot of work and it won’t have a long-term value. But because no one goes after those keywords, it’s a lot easier to rank for.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
And again, once you start ranking for keywords, Google will automatically rank your website higher.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So for example: if you’re going to go for, “Easter headbands for girls,” go after that keyword, you will automatically rank higher for headbands for girls as well, because you’ve ranked for that keyword. And you showed Google that people have actually landed on your website and made a purchasing decision.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, and Google is all-seeing with these things. So if it sees somebody is converting off that content, they will reward you for that, for sure.
Karen Mapperson:
That’s right. And then to go back to your question about repurposing that content is that Google also really rewards you if you repurpose old content. Google wants to know that you keep all content on your website valid. So a lot of people write a lot of blogs and these blogs are very outdated, often I see lots of broken images and broken links on those blogs, they can actually penalize because that information is so outdated. It becomes invaluable to you.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
But if you were to set up an Easter collection or an Easter blog, and optimize it for, maybe got after the keyword, “Easter gifts for kids 2022,” after the Easter promotion, you remove that collection from your navigation, but you don’t hide the page from Google. So throughout the year, it still picks up SEOs used, it still gets the odd visit.
Karen Mapperson:
And then in 12 months time, you repurpose that blog. You change a few of the copies, change a bit of imagery, and you resubmit that page to Google Search Console. That page is already ranking, therefore, you will rank a lot easier next year when it’s Easter time and you have gifts on offer again. So even if you don’t see results or you still don’t rank for those keywords this year, you’re much more likely to rank for the next year because you are reusing an old page rather than setting up a new page.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I so love that. The return on effort long-term becomes much more pleasant to look at and positive.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
That’s a lot less work.
Catherine Langman:
Exactly, exactly. And we all want to have a bigger return on effort. I mean, who doesn’t, right, with everything that we do? Just one clarifying question for our listeners. So we’re talking about a 12 month content plan here, what kinds of content are we talking about? I know some people think content in terms of blogs, but if you would like to just clarify what you’re referring to there.
Karen Mapperson:
Well, ideally it’s any commerce. You’re selling products, so you want to rank for pages that contain products that people can buy. You don’t want to rank for blog pages. You want to rank your collection pages or product pages. It is quite difficult to rank for a product page, if that product is a product that doesn’t have a long lifespan, for example: clothing that changes with each season.
Karen Mapperson:
But, certain products, evergreen products, you can actually brand for that product page as well. So ideally, if you can rank at the product page level that is what you want to go for because people are going to search for something, you’re going to show them the product page, they’re going to add to cart, and they’re going to check out and make their purchase.
Karen Mapperson:
Your next step would be to try and rank with the collection pages, which are slightly easier since it’s easier to add internal links to a collection page. And if you think of a collection page setup, it contains a lot of imagery. It contains a lot of product titles, which would normally contain the keywords.
Karen Mapperson:
What I would recommend, if you go after the collection page, is to add on-page copy with the keyword in there on page copy. And make sure that you optimize the meta title and the meta description. And then if you’re seen, or your word allows it, to also add an image with a keyword in the file name and the old cap. So it’s as easy as that. Your month one main keyword could be to optimize your main collection or your main product page. It doesn’t have to be a full on blog with 3,000 words in it.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
That comes down the track. You want to make sure that you get the important pages right first.
Karen Mapperson:
Another type of content is information pages. So one we often recommend adding to your website is an FAQ page because there’s also huge potential to add all your product keywords on that page. Also, if your FAQ page is in the correct format, Google will actually rank that page for a rich pickup result.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So when you search on Google and it gives you those questions with the little arrow drop downs, that’s a rich result. So if your product would be, for example, kids backpacks again, it would say, “What is the best features,” or, “What does the kid need in a kids’ backpack,”?
Karen Mapperson:
If somebody were to ask that question and you have an FAQ…
Karen Mapperson:
Or, “How to clean a kids’ backpack?”
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
There’s lots of moms who would be searching for that question.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
If you have an FAQ on how to clean… Or, you have an FAQ page and one of the questions and answers are how to clean that backpack, you’re likely to rank for that rich result.
Karen Mapperson:
Also, other pages like making sure your shipping page is up to date, Google looks at all your information pages. Or even if you offer free returns, don’t just have a shipping and returns page, have a page that says, “Free returns,” at the bottom. And really add few keywords.
Karen Mapperson:
Like say, “If you buy a kids’ backpack, you can get a free return. We offer free returns if you buy a kids’ backpack.”
Karen Mapperson:
So make sure you add those keywords in all your information pages where it doesn’t come across as keyword stuffing. It still needs to be natural writing and informative, and easy to read.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, but it’s all related to each other.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
So, I guess, what you’re saying then is that the 12 month content plan, we’re looking at any content on the website, that should be on the website, which could be blogs but it can definitely, and should be also, all of the products and collections and information pages. And that the point is you’ve got to prioritize the order in which you tackle all of this, so that you get the fastest returns, which is fantastic.
Karen Mapperson:
I even notice a lot of the clients we do SEO work for, they don’t even optimize their homepage. So we touched on making sure the logo file name, the alt tag, the navigation, contains keywords, the meta title, meta description. But, most e-commerce websites, especially on Shopify, all have very customizable themes where you can add a lot of imagery and text to your homepage.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So make sure you assign one keyword to your homepage, and then use that keyword and a variation of those keywords in renaming all your homepage imagery and adding alt tags to all those photos.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
It just really shows Google what that homepage is all about and what keyword you want to rank.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, love it. So, I guess, leading on from that then, how do we actually find out what is currently working on a website? So what content might be actually bringing in some of the audience? How do you actually go about reviewing and analyzing that?
Karen Mapperson:
My first place I always look at is Google Search Console, which everyone will know is a free Google tool. Again, it’s like the Facebook Ads Manager. Google Search Console is your search engine ad manager, that’s where you need to go have a look if you want to see how Google sees your website.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So you can search by any period of time. I like to look at a 12 month period and then really see which keywords Google brands you for already. So you can toggle it to see which keyword you rank for, how many clicks you’ve had, how many impressions that keyword had, what was your average click through rate, and what was your position. Now obviously, if your position is low but you still got an impression for that keyword, your click through rate is going to be lower because less people saw your website. So keep all that in mind.
Karen Mapperson:
But without any fancy tools, if you only have Google Search Console, you can still make quite a good effort at trying to guess, or trying to do a bit of keyword research. Because if the keyword Google’s ranking you for, for example kids’ backpacks, you got 200 clicks in the last 12 months, but there was 20,000 impressions, then look at the keywords that get searched a lot.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So then you can move over to, and again, you have to infer a bit in Google Search Console, it’s not as accurate as Google Analytics, or even SEMrush, or Ubersuggest, but you can see which landing pages were visited mostly. So you can infer that if a keyword was searched a lot and the landing page was visited a lot, that’s probably the keyword Google’s assigned it for.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So then your next step would be to go into an Incognito window and type in the keyword, and see which page Google is ranking, that Google has assigned, which keyword Google has assigned to that page. So then I would put it in a spreadsheet and make sure that when you optimize that page, you optimize it for that keyword.
Karen Mapperson:
So make sure when you do your 12 month plan, you don’t go and say, “Okay, I want to rank for these 12 keywords, I’m going to assign them to these 12 pages.”
Karen Mapperson:
Make sure you have a look at what Google’s already assigned to those pages, otherwise again, you will confuse Google.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, really, really good points there. And it’s cool that you can do quite a lot with the free tool there before you might need to invest in something like Uber suggest or SEMrush.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, and so…
Karen Mapperson:
I…
Catherine Langman:
Oh, sorry. What were you going to say?
Karen Mapperson:
I would say if you’re very serious about your keyword research, position tracking, and SEO work, it might be worth paying for one of those softwares. In the big scheme of things it will still be a lot cheaper than paying for ads.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
But if you’re happy to do the legwork, you can get by without any fancy SEO tools.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, or at least get started that way.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, fantastic. So something you mentioned a little earlier was that Google really loves to see old content, refreshed. So give us an example, you’re really great with examples and case studies. How can you update old content to make it fresh and to make Google fall in love with it a little bit more?
Karen Mapperson:
So again, the way I do it is I go to Google Search Console, I see which keyword Google ranks the client for. Then I go type in that keyword and see which page Google has assigned that keyword for. And then you go through that page and see any opportunities where you can add that keyword to.
Karen Mapperson:
So most often, those opportunities or missed opportunities would be images. So images are not only great at breaking up content, keeping the user engaged, evoking emotion, there’s a lot of opportunity on an image where you can add your keyword to, and it’s off-page so it doesn’t count as keyword stuffing.
Karen Mapperson:
And you’re basically telling Google, “This page is about this keyword.”
Karen Mapperson:
So it’s as simple as re-saving that image with the keyword in the file name. So often, I see images names as, let’s say it’s the kids’ backpacks, it would be either a number with-
Catherine Langman:
IMG1234.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah, or it would be the photographer’s name.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Karen Mapperson:
It’s very random.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So, rename that. Rename that image as kids’ backpacks and use a dash between them, so kids-backpacks, and then something descriptive. So if it’s pink, say, “It’s pink.”
Karen Mapperson:
Often, you can use words like, “online”, “Australia”, or, “pay with Afterpay”. It’s quite keyword stuffy, so make sure you don’t use that all the time, but make sure that you use different file names for each and every image.
Karen Mapperson:
So for example: on a product page, if you have six images on that product page, you don’t want to assign the same file name and alt tags to that product. On blog pages, it’s the same. So you want a different file name, then you can add an alt tag. Again, you want that keyword in the alt tag or a variation of the keyword.
Karen Mapperson:
So if it was “kids-backpacks-pink”, you probably want to make the alt tag, “backpacks for girls”, or, “backpacks for kids”, or, “backpacks for children”.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
And then again, try and be a bit in the former. You want to keep them quite short and concise. Then after you’ve renamed the file name and added the alt tags, you also want to add a link to either the product page or the collection page, because Google loves links.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
And then when you link to that page, you also have the opportunity to add in a linked title, where again you can put your keyword in. So you have one image and you’ve used your keyword three times without it being on page or counting as keyword stuffing.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So even if you just go and do that, if you just go through all, not all your blog, again, that would be too much work. Go through your pages, see which blogs ranked really well, see which pages ranked really well. And then try and link those high-ranking blogs to those high-ranking product pages in an organic way by adding images, or adding just a link on the copy of that page.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). What about also some shop buttons or a view collection button, or something like that as well from the blog?
Karen Mapperson:
So Google not only wants to show its search queries what they’re searching for, but they also look at intent. So if you have a blog page with shop now buttons on it and you have somebody searching the internet who is showing intent that they want to make a purchase, Google is more likely to show that blog post to someone who shows intent to purchase. Which is what you want, because you want people to come to your website ready to buy.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
Also, someone might actually just read the blog and you’ve intrigued them about the product, so without them having to try and find the product via your navigation they can just click on the shop now button, which takes them to the product page.
Karen Mapperson:
And again, if you look at the button code of the shop now button, you have two opportunities in the URL, so that the product page URL contains a keyword. And also again, you can add a little alt tag for that button where you have another off page opportunity to add the keyword twice.
Catherine Langman:
So good.
Karen Mapperson:
Other ways is… Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
There’s all these little things that I guess most people wouldn’t even really think of.
Karen Mapperson:
People think it’s technical SEO but it’s not really.
Karen Mapperson:
You’re basically just telling Google, “This is what this button is about. This is what this image is about. This is what this page is about.”
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
Without stuffing the content with repeating your keyword over and over and over again, because no one wants to read that blog.
Catherine Langman:
No, no. I love it.
Karen Mapperson:
Another great thing to add to any blog is a YouTube video because Google owns YouTube.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Karen Mapperson:
So it acts as a back link, you get rewarded because you are adding content to YouTube. And it doesn’t have to be any elaborate video, it can be an animated video you create in Canva. I often see with like children’s fashion or women’s fashion just having a Canva video of the new collection. Make sure you name that video properly before you upload it to YouTube, and also name it properly in YouTube. And then it’s as easy as just adding the icon to the blog and resubmitting that blog to Google Search Console, and your ranking should improve, just by adding the video.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), that’s amazing, but it makes sense given that the same company owns both Google and YouTube.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
What’s the final step though in making sure that Google recognizes the fact that you’ve refreshed this content? Because it’s not just about going onto your website and making the changes on the page, and then hitting save, is it?
Karen Mapperson:
No, and this is the step a lot of people skip.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Karen Mapperson:
And then they say, “Oh, SEO is too hard. It takes too long. It can take up to three months for Google to crawl my page. It takes up to three months to see an improvement in my ranking,” that is a myth.
Karen Mapperson:
You copy your URL, you go to your Google Search Console, you look at the URL in Section Tools, you paste it, and you, “Inspect”, and Google will tell you if there’s any errors with this page, whether that page has been crawled or not, whether it’s been indexed or not.
Karen Mapperson:
Obviously, if it’s a new page, it wouldn’t have been indexed, so then you’ll click on the little button saying, “Test”, if it’s able to be indexed.
Karen Mapperson:
And then if it’s an old page, it will say, “Yes, this page is on Google. Why are you telling me about this?”
Karen Mapperson:
Make sure you click on the little button that says, “Refresh Re-indexing”, because if you change a page, you’ve got to say, “Hey Google, go have a look at this page. I’ve made some adjustments,” and then it will jump the queue, and Google will prioritize those pages.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
The beauty about often re-indexing pages or indexing new pages is that if you constantly prompt Google, and say, “Well, Google, I’m constantly putting up new content or refreshing old content,” Google will automatically crawl your website more often.
Karen Mapperson:
So it will not become obsolete, but even if you forget that step on occasion, Google will automatically crawl your website because you are constantly adding new content to it.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, you’ve taught the system, basically.
Karen Mapperson:
Yes.
Catherine Langman:
I love it. So once we have gone through all of those steps, we’ve done all of the keyword research, we’ve worked out what pages are going to be worked on over the 12 months, and then we’ve resubmitted these pages or submitted new pages to Google for indexing, then what do we do next? How do we, I guess, make sure that our efforts are not in vain?
Karen Mapperson:
Well, we have to look at the metrics.
Catherine Langman:
Yay.
Karen Mapperson:
I’m very fond of metrics because how do you know if you’ve improved, if you don’t know where you’re at?
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So for SEO, there’s quite a number of metrics we look at. Number one would be position tracking. So on your document, you’re going to plan out your 12 month content, you want to look at where you’re ranking for the keyword today. So before you make any changes to your website, make sure you assign that keyword to a page, and then see where that page ranks.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So then once you’ve made changes to it and you’ve submitted it to Google Search Console, the first few times you make changes to those pages, you might have to wait a day or so. So go back to Google Search Console and check that it’s being re-indexed. You can also see that information under the URL Inspection Tool.
Karen Mapperson:
If it’s been re-indexed and you haven’t moved up in ranking, it means that what you’ve done wasn’t as effective as you thought it was going to be. Then, you’ll have to look at other things, like maybe try and get more internal links to that page.
Karen Mapperson:
Another method is, and this is where all the channels again work together, is if you’ve revamped the blog, if you’ve written a new blog, to boost your organic ranking is to maybe view content Facebook ads, just to get those first few viewers over the line.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So obviously, every time that page gets visited Google will rank it higher as well. So then check your position ranking. If it hasn’t gone up or gone down, especially if it hasn’t gone down, maybe wait a week or so and then go back and see if it’s improved. If it has not, then it’s back to the drawing board.
Karen Mapperson:
Then you can maybe write a blog with a long-tailed keyword. So it wouldn’t be “kids-backpacks”, it would be, “kids-backpacks-for-kinder,” or, “kids-backpacks-for-sport”. So you’ll go for a longer-tailed keyword and try and rank with that keyword on the blog post.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
And then make sure that blog post links to the collection or to the product page. So then you get all that SEO juice behind that keyword. So yeah, look at your position tracking.
Karen Mapperson:
Then, other metrics, and this you will all find in Google Search Console and Google Analytics, is to look at your organic visitors. Have they gone up since you started working on SEO? The first month is might be a bit slow, the second month. From month three, especially once you’ve optimized for three keywords already, you should see a significant jump. So you want to look at your organic visits. You want to look at the percentage of organic versus other channels. So you want to make sure your organic visitors, the percentage of the overall visitors, improve because they’re free.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, exactly.
Karen Mapperson:
And because it normally converts higher than any of the other channels. You want to look at your organic sales. Obviously, compare those to last year, plus the month before, because some products or businesses are quite seasonal.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
So if you’re going to sell Easter products and you have a great month in Easter, you can’t really compare that with the month before. Look at your organic conversion rates and take note how much higher that normally is than your other channels conversion rates. And all those, you will find in Google Analytics.
Karen Mapperson:
You can delve down in Google Analytics to see how much revenue a certain page has gathered for you. You can’t always tell though whether that was from organic visits or paid visits, but you can certainly have a look at your pages and see which pages are converting really well, or bringing in a lot of sales. And then making sure that those pages are optimized first.
Karen Mapperson:
And then in Google Search Console, you would look at the total clicks, the average click through rate. I also like to look at how many clicks you receive for your business name. It shows how your brand’s name is growing and how well known you’re getting.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
If you run any paid advertising, your business name might have a bit of a jump because people often see-
Catherine Langman:
It usually does, doesn’t it?
Karen Mapperson:
… you ads, yeah, in Facebook. And then they go search for your name.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
And then also your top 10 searched terms in Google Search Console, even if you’re not trying to rank for those keywords, it is good to know which keywords Google is ranking you for.
Karen Mapperson:
So for example: if you sell kids’ backpacks, but Google is ranking you for key chains and you don’t even sell that product, you just mentioned it somewhere that you can attach a key chain to a kid’s backpack, you want to make sure that that page gets reassigned to a different keyword. Because obviously, Google is misreading the content on that page.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, that makes total sense. And just whilst we are talking about how to measure the results and to use that information to help improve over time, Karen’s actually got a little gift for our listeners, so you’re going to be able to share a spreadsheet tool that helps with undertaking all of these steps.
Catherine Langman:
So there’s going to be a link on the podcast show notes page, where you can go and sign up to receive that for free. So we will make sure to share that over on CatherineLangman.com. Just head to the podcast section and you’ll find it on the episode there.
Catherine Langman:
Now, we’re going to do a little bit of a rapid fire, last few questions for you here, and I think this is fantastic. So we’re recording this episode fairly early-ish in 2022, so let’s talk about some of the SEO changes and challenges for 2022 seeing as that is the year we are living in now.
Catherine Langman:
Do you want to take it from here?
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah, I’ll try and summarize.
Karen Mapperson:
Number one, most important, is content. If you get everything else wrong, if you get good quality content, accurate content that’s relevant that you write for the customer and not for Google, right, Google will reward you. Often, blogs, they get thousands of visitors a month, it has not been optimized at all, that was written without a keyword in mind but it’s a good piece of content that people are interested to read, and it’s ranking.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
A lot of people say, “SEO is too hard. It is too technical. I don’t know where to start.”
Karen Mapperson:
You know your business the best out of everybody, you live it, you breathe it, you do it every day; you should be able to write about it.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
There are more content available online than there are people searching for it.
Catherine Langman:
That’s scary.
Karen Mapperson:
Each searched term has thousands and thousands of pages even though there are not that many people searching for that searched term.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So how can you make your content different? Write it in your perspective, put your expertise in it, put it in your voice. I mean, look at reality TV, how popular it is, because it’s real. People want the real thing. Even if you make a mistake while you write, write it in your perspective, your expertise. What can you say that is different from someone else? Don’t just go and do research and copy what everybody else has done, write your own piece of content.
Karen Mapperson:
Then after you’ve written your content, obviously you want to write it with one keyword in mind, then only will you have a look at, how can I optimize this piece? So make sure you don’t have a keyword with a list of variations and you’re just trying to write a piece of content where the keyword is in the first paragraph, the variation’s in the second. And you’ve got all these headings, photos, and everything with the correct file name, but the content isn’t there.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), it’s just boring.
Karen Mapperson:
So make sure the words count. Yes.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So, I guess, the point there is as long as you’re creating content that you would actually want to consume yourself, you’re probably on track.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah, and that it’s relevant. I see so many businesses that, for example, they sell cutlery, or plates, or cups, and they have all these recipes on their blogs. It might be helpful for your customer, but your customer will probably read three blogs, or follow Donna Hay to get recipes.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
They’re there to shop. Just go with relevant information, how and why your product is so great.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, and that kind of content is probably better suited for maybe social media or email, and you can use it to try and entice people to use the products, or buy more, but not so much for the SEO work.
Karen Mapperson:
No.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, totally makes sense. And again, none of us have excess time usually, I’m yet to meet somebody that has heaps of free time to do more. We need to think about the return on effort here as well.
Karen Mapperson:
That would be an excellent blog topic: how to get extra free time? That is definitely something I would want to read.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, maybe don’t have kids.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah, but focus your [inaudible 00:39:38], Catherine.
Catherine Langman:
All right. Number two.
Karen Mapperson:
Focus on the keywords, it’s going to make you money. Don’t write all these fluffy blogs and hope that it will entice people to buy. If you’re going to spend the time, make sure it counts.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, absolutely, I love that. All right, next one.
Karen Mapperson:
So the other key changes for Google is, and this is quite an interesting one, is that Google bases it’s current search results on all the search queries on the web. So example: if people are looking for exercise clothes, they’re going to see Adidas because, I mean, most people would be looking for Adidas, but they’re changing it so that it’ll be based on the individual searcher’s history.
Karen Mapperson:
So this is a great opportunity for new brands and new businesses because you can’t go up against Adidas, but if the user who is searching often buys from the cheap stores, sportswear stores, or like to support businesses close to them, Google will take that into account. So you are likely to rank slightly higher for those keywords.
Catherine Langman:
That’s so cool. So that’s a new change this year, is it?
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
Catherine Langman:
That is very cool.
Karen Mapperson:
I think Google is giving the little man a foot in the door with this one.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, definitely, that certainly evens the playing field out a little bit, which is pretty cool.
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah. Another change this year is that Google will actually penalize you if you keyword stuff. So again, make sure your on page copy is written for the user. Back in the day, 10 years ago, if you wanted to optimize for a page, say for instance kids’ backpacks, you would make your meta title: kids’ backpacks, kids’ backpacks, kids’ backpacks. And your meta description: kids’ backpacks, kids’ backpacks, kids’ backpacks, kids’ backpacks.
Catherine Langman:
Oh, yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
Google is way…
Catherine Langman:
This is probably what I was doing back in 2008, right? But, I thought this one had been banned for a while, are they really just clamping down now, this year? Is that what’s happening?
Karen Mapperson:
It has been banned for a while but people were still able to get away with it within on page copy. So if you have 3,000 words and you only repeat that keyword 15 times, it doesn’t quite count as bad. Whereas, if you think about it, if you’re going to write good quality content, if you’re going to repeat that same exact keyword 15 times, you’ve written that content for that keyword.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
And Google is getting a lot smarter in finding synonyms and variations of that keyword in the copy.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So you don’t actually need to tell Google anymore, “This is my keyword on my on page copy. I’m going to repeat it 15 times just so that you know this piece is about this.”
Karen Mapperson:
Google prefers if you just write the content and then once you’ve written it, go back and see if you can change a few words to put in any variations of that keyword. And then focus on your off page optimization for adding that exact keyword on your image file names and your alt tags, and your ring titles, instead of stuffing it all on your homepage.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, love it, that’s good because that’s only going to make the quality of the customer experience better, which I guess is Google’s whole point with that.
Karen Mapperson:
Yes.
Catherine Langman:
Fantastic.
Karen Mapperson:
They want to show people what they search for.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
The last two changes I’ve kind of touched on, images and videos, but again, Google does rank pages with lots of images and with video content higher than pages that don’t have it. Go back, have a look at your blogs, look at your high-ranking pages, see if you can add an image. It’s as easy as that.
Catherine Langman:
Wow, that is an easy one. That shouldn’t take anyone too much effort, hopefully.
Karen Mapperson:
No. And even just renaming the image, or adding a fresh image.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Karen Mapperson:
That counts as fresh content, so yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, fantastic.
Karen Mapperson:
It shouldn’t take long. And then the last tip is for anyone who owns a storefront and an online store, or that has a local click and collect. The more people not working in the city, they’re all working from home, Google’s putting a lot of emphasis on local SEO.
Karen Mapperson:
So if you were to look for chocolate, you’re searching: “dark chocolate online”, or, “dark chocolate”, and Google thinks you have intent, that you want to buy, it’s probably likely to show you the search results for the closest chocolate store to you. And then the tip here is if you don’t already have Google My Business Account, you should set one up. Again, it counts as a back link. It’s a Google directory, Google owns it, you get a lot of SEO juice.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
So it’s not as easy to set up if you only have an online store because it does send you out a code you need to add to complete your registration.
Catherine Langman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Karen Mapperson:
And then once you’ve set up a Google My Business, make sure you keep your details up to date and accurate. Again, Facebook and Instagram, add images to it. People like to see behind the scenes imagery and you do get quite a lot of clicks just from having a My Google Business page as well.
Catherine Langman:
So even if you’re just doing a click and collect type thing, but you don’t have an actual storefront, can you do that?
Karen Mapperson:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. As long as you have that physical address and you can update your My Google Business page to say click and collect only.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Karen Mapperson:
Especially during COVID, there was a lot of stores that offered click and collect.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Karen Mapperson:
Google’s really moved to accommodate and try and help businesses in that way.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, which is great, because that’s helped so many of us survive as both business owners and consumers as well, not being able to get into shops. So good.
Catherine Langman:
So I think that brings us to the end of our little mini two part series here on SEO, but I just want to say again it’s been absolutely fantastic having you on the show again, Karen, and going through this. It’s definitely a topic that has resonated with our audience.
Catherine Langman:
So for all of you listeners, hopefully what you can take away from all of these conversations that we’re having is that it doesn’t have to be that hard or time consuming. If you can approach it in a bit of a systematic way and not let any preconceived notions of SEO being technical and difficult and obscure, because it really isn’t. It’s just about having that consistency and understanding, I guess, that Google’s just trying to help. We’re just trying to help Google understand pretty much what we want our customers to understand as well. So you’re only going to end up giving your customers a better experience as well by going through all of these steps.
Catherine Langman:
So don’t forget to head back to the podcast show notes and grab your copy of Karen’s tool that she’s going to be generously sharing with all of you, and hopefully you can find that helpful as well.
Catherine Langman:
And as always, if you feel like you need a little bit of help with any of this kind of stuff, just give us a shout. You can head to productpreneurmarketing.com, you can book in for a strategy call there, or you can also jump into our Rockstar Productpreneur Facebook group. To join that it’s catherinelangman.com/rockstar.
Catherine Langman:
So thanks again for joining us on the show and we will be with you again next week. Bye, for now.