Unlock the secrets of being discovered online with Denise Millet, the "Findability Queen." Discover how Denise transitioned from a systems consultant to a trailblazing entrepreneur, dedicated to ensuring your business shines on the internet. Denise shares invaluable insights on search marketing essentials, making your content search engine-friendly, and the significance of well-crafted titles and descriptions. Plus, get a sneak peek into her transformative book "Be Findable" and the workshops she offers to help you elevate your online presence.
Ever wondered how to balance creating fresh content while optimizing it for search engines? Denise breaks it down, emphasizing the power of AI in boosting productivity without sidelining the human touch. Learn how consistency in content delivery, whether through blogs, podcasts, or videos, is key to engaging your audience. Denise stresses the importance of updating existing content for better SEO performance and creating content that not only showcases your expertise but also builds trust and resonates with potential clients.
Stay ahead of the game by mastering SEO strategies for business success. Denise walks us through the evolution of SEO, warning against outdated tactics like keyword stuffing and advocating for genuine value through high-quality content. Learn actionable steps to enhance findability, such as effective keyword usage, and discover practical advice from Denise’s fun, interactive scavenger hunt designed to improve your understanding of your audience's language. Don’t miss the resources available on her website to support your SEO journey, making this episode a must-listen for entrepreneurs at any stage.
ABOUT DENISE
Denise Millet is the Findability Queen. She is a Search Marketing Consultant, Tech Simplifier, Trainer, Author, and Roving Reporter for the weekly livestream Good Morning Entrepreneurs. She’s on a mission to make sure the content you create for your business is included in search results when your potential clients look for you online. Denise’s book, Be Findable. If they can’t find you, they can’t do business with you, her Simple Ways to Make Yourself Findable workshop, and her Virtual Scavenger Hunt event are some of the ways she is working toward her mission.
LINKS & RESOURCES
00:00 - The Importance of Findability in Business
13:39 - Balancing Content Creation and Optimization
18:31 - SEO Strategy for Business Success"
28:16 - Mastering Keywords and Findability
34:28 - Supporting Guest Contributions for Podcast
WEBVTT
00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:01.143
Hey, what is up?
00:00:01.143 --> 00:00:04.570
Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.
00:00:04.570 --> 00:00:12.182
As always, I'm your host, brian Lofermento, and I am so very excited about today's guest because this is someone, I will admit.
00:00:12.182 --> 00:00:39.845
We've been trying for quite some time to get her here on the air because she is so incredible at all the things that she does and she has so many different ways of providing value into the world to be of service to others, and I just so happen to think that what she does is probably the most important type of work that we all need to do as business owners, because the last thing that I want for any of you listeners is to be the best kept secret, and today's guest is all about making sure that you are not a secret.
00:00:39.845 --> 00:00:41.686
Her name is Denise Millay.
00:00:42.020 --> 00:00:44.348
Denise is the findability queen.
00:00:44.348 --> 00:00:46.127
I love that tagline for her.
00:00:46.127 --> 00:00:58.311
She's a search marketing consultant, tech simplifier, she's a trainer, she's an author I'm so excited to tell you the title of her book and she's a roving reporter for the weekly live stream called Good Morning Entrepreneurs.
00:00:58.311 --> 00:01:06.489
She's on a mission to make sure that the content we all create in our businesses is included in search results when our potential clients look for us online.
00:01:06.489 --> 00:01:07.021
Now.
00:01:07.021 --> 00:01:15.109
She's packed a lot of this knowledge into her book, which is called Be Findable If they can't find you, they can't do business with you.
00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:25.304
She's also got some incredible products and services online to deeply service a bunch of people around the world with all different businesses and business models and industries.
00:01:25.304 --> 00:01:29.132
She has her workshop called Simple Ways to Make Yourself Findable.
00:01:29.132 --> 00:01:31.825
She's got a virtual scavenger hunt event.
00:01:31.825 --> 00:01:34.632
Those are just some of the ways that she's working towards her mission.
00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:40.603
We're going to drop those links at the end of today's episode, but I'm personally very excited about this so I'm not going to say anything else.
00:01:40.603 --> 00:01:43.748
Let's dive straight into my interview with Denise Millay.
00:01:43.748 --> 00:01:54.731
All right, denise, I'm so excited and super grateful to have you on the air.
00:01:54.751 --> 00:01:55.614
First things first, welcome to the show.
00:01:55.614 --> 00:01:56.117
Thank you so much, Brian.
00:01:56.117 --> 00:01:56.778
It's such a pleasure to be here.
00:01:56.778 --> 00:01:57.141
I love that.
00:01:57.141 --> 00:01:58.644
Thank you so much for the introduction.
00:01:59.105 --> 00:01:59.787
Oh heck, yes.
00:01:59.787 --> 00:02:03.064
What listeners don't know is that you and I just found out before we hit record.
00:02:03.064 --> 00:02:07.275
We are essentially neighbors, so I'm super excited about getting coffee together in person.
00:02:07.275 --> 00:02:09.401
But take us beyond the bio.
00:02:09.401 --> 00:02:10.164
Who's Denise?
00:02:10.164 --> 00:02:14.080
How'd you start doing all these cool things and becoming the findability queen?
00:02:14.943 --> 00:02:17.288
Yeah, it's a long story, but we'll shorten it for you.
00:02:17.288 --> 00:02:20.341
I've been a systems consultant for a long time.
00:02:20.341 --> 00:02:43.703
For many, many years, I studied computer science, and so I've been training people how to use software, include it in their lives, make their work lives better, and all along the way, I've met all these brilliant people who hate tech, who don't know what they're doing, who are upset by it, and you know PhDs, doctors, nurses, all sorts of brilliant people and I've always been amazed at that.
00:02:43.703 --> 00:02:55.268
So when I decided to go out on my own in 2020, pandemic living it was really trying to find the thing that was going to help the most, and it's, you know, trying to make tech understandable for people.
00:02:55.268 --> 00:02:58.383
It should everybody should get the benefit of using technology.
00:02:58.685 --> 00:03:04.929
There's so many things out there now, as an entrepreneur, that we all need, and no one is beyond being able to do it.
00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:13.706
It's just they've never had the opportunity to have someone explain it to them, and the industry is so bad at explaining things, so that's part of it.
00:03:13.706 --> 00:03:24.008
And then the search marketing I've been fascinated by from the dawn of all of this, and it's really the simple pieces that I believe people are missing.
00:03:24.008 --> 00:03:31.121
They hear all the hype and all the agencies want to, you know, get to the top of the page and all these other stats and everything it's like.
00:03:31.121 --> 00:03:33.830
Well, you know you can't optimize what you don't have.
00:03:33.830 --> 00:03:45.313
So if you're not in there in the first place, if you're not findable, if you don't make your content be included, you can't get it to the top of the page and nobody's going to know it's there.
00:03:45.313 --> 00:04:00.432
So that's kind of how I've gotten along the way is from my corporate culture, career consulting, into what can I do for entrepreneurs and take my skills and something I'm passionate about and really speak a different way and make it easier on people.
00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:09.233
Yeah, I really love that overview, especially because it reminds me probably in my late teenage years, when I started getting into entrepreneurship.
00:04:09.233 --> 00:04:18.747
I looked at all these case studies of businesses that seemingly succeeded overnight, and I'll never forget the first case study that I found, denise, it was the Pet Rock which did.
00:04:18.747 --> 00:04:32.646
I think it was $7 million in revenue, and so in my head, that was the light bulb that made me realize it's not the best products that win, it's not those products that succeed, it's the ones that people hear about, the ones that people are able to find.
00:04:32.646 --> 00:04:34.048
Talk to us about.
00:04:34.048 --> 00:04:36.262
To me, that's what stands out in your work.
00:04:36.262 --> 00:04:39.050
Is it truly comes down to that findability?
00:04:39.050 --> 00:04:48.577
You don't talk about all that jargon like SEO, which we will inevitably talk about, search engine optimization here today, but it seems to me like you obsess about findability.
00:04:48.577 --> 00:04:49.800
Where's that come from?
00:04:50.382 --> 00:04:50.642
There's.
00:04:50.642 --> 00:04:57.502
The first step to all this is getting your content read by the search engine programs.
00:04:57.502 --> 00:05:07.822
Right, and the search engines are in business to sell advertising and, but they also get a lot of searches and they don't have advertising on all the words and all the things.
00:05:07.822 --> 00:05:12.944
So they go out on the internet and read all these pages and try to find entries for their catalog.
00:05:12.944 --> 00:05:15.190
That would be solutions for people that are searching.
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:28.822
And if your pages, your content, don't have the titles or the headings or the easy basic things describing them for these programs, then you don't get included in the search engines.
00:05:28.822 --> 00:05:36.326
And then so when someone does a search and there's room on the page to fill in with some results, you're not part of the catalog.
00:05:36.326 --> 00:05:43.350
So if you're not even there, then you know you're missing a grand opportunity, because everybody spends so much time on all this content.
00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:51.723
They hours and hours, and that's what we're all about as entrepreneurs.
00:05:51.723 --> 00:05:57.483
And sometimes I've gone to people and their websites aren't even in the biggest search engine out there, yeah, which is still crazy to me in 2024.
00:05:57.603 --> 00:06:02.077
And even just thinking about you use that word easy, denise, and it truly is.
00:06:02.077 --> 00:06:06.343
It's never been easier than it is today to make sure that we're getting found.
00:06:06.343 --> 00:06:10.922
Maybe that's a blessing and a curse, maybe it's convoluted and we don't even know where to turn.
00:06:10.922 --> 00:06:13.730
There's so many options for us, so break it down for us.
00:06:13.730 --> 00:06:23.264
A lot of people don't even realize how easy it is, or even at a super basic level, how search engines even find and index content so that it displays when we search.
00:06:24.406 --> 00:06:31.310
So there are these programs or bots, robots or spiders they call them, and they basically read all the public pages on the internet.
00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:33.668
So they start and they constantly run.
00:06:33.668 --> 00:06:37.029
They're autonomous and they're just constantly running.
00:06:37.029 --> 00:06:43.089
So they're reading a page and they look at the title, they look at the description, they look at the content itself and some of the headings you have there to try to determine what it's all about.
00:06:43.089 --> 00:06:47.567
They'll look at the description, they look at the content itself and some of the headings you have there to try to determine what it's all about.
00:06:48.089 --> 00:06:56.016
They'll look at the images, they'll look at any audio or video you have and try to put together a picture about what this page is about.
00:06:56.016 --> 00:07:09.617
And then they'll find the links that are on that page and say, okay, well, I'll go to that one next and that one next and that one next, and they keep all the links and they start to travel the links like a web, like a spider web, and just cataloging all these pages.
00:07:09.617 --> 00:07:29.810
So you know, there's a lot of things about the algorithms and search engines we will never be able to know, but the one thing we do know is the things that they show you in search results and what they show you in search results are a link, a title, a description and a good chunk of your content and how good it is or bad it is.
00:07:29.810 --> 00:07:31.531
That to answer a question, you know.
00:07:31.572 --> 00:07:45.545
So they're looking at quality of content and things like that to get included want to go a little deeper into there, because I know a lot of entrepreneurs.
00:07:45.545 --> 00:07:57.629
I experienced this when I started a search engine optimization agency up in Boston in my early 20s is we would go into a local pizza shop, for example Actually, our first ever client was a sandwich shop and the guy said to us the owner, he said, well, I'm already listed in Google.
00:07:57.629 --> 00:07:58.701
And we said for what?
00:07:58.701 --> 00:07:59.742
We couldn't find you anywhere.
00:07:59.742 --> 00:08:07.771
And he goes if you Google my exact company name and Denise, that's what a lot of people think is, if people can find me when they Google my company, I'm good.
00:08:07.771 --> 00:08:10.675
The reality is, of course, we want to be found by other people.
00:08:10.675 --> 00:08:16.911
Talk to us about those branded searches that we probably inevitably show up for, versus what we hope to show up for.
00:08:17.562 --> 00:08:19.560
Right, so there's this whole topic of keywords.
00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:40.133
There's this, and keywords are the language of your potential customer client, the things that they type in on their keyboard or in their voice search on their mobile, or however they are looking for things, and those exact words, the whole question one or two words, three or four words, whatever it is.
00:08:40.133 --> 00:08:44.948
Those are the connectors of your content to these searching people.
00:08:44.948 --> 00:08:56.000
If you have content that has supporting things for that topic and those words, you'll be a match and you'll be provided to the searching person.
00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:01.110
So that is what I look at as the connection.
00:09:01.110 --> 00:09:10.371
Now, as far as branding and all these other terminologies, it's really just making sure you pick the words that your folks are looking for when they're going to search.
00:09:10.371 --> 00:09:14.047
It's not simple, but it is simple.
00:09:14.508 --> 00:09:20.610
So yeah, let's go deeper there, then, because I feel like a lot of people, it's easy for us to get inside of our own heads.
00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:30.692
I personally, in the past, I've used this website I think it's answerthepubliccom where I can put in a topic and it will show me what real life people, using real life data, are searching for.
00:09:30.692 --> 00:09:39.070
What are some of those examples of how we can get inside the head, not only of us as business owners, which we're always in our own heads but to think like a searcher?
00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:56.931
Honestly, my biggest advice for a free tool is to use Google, to use auto complete as you start to type and have the results start to show and that shows you other people's things that they've typed in that might match that, expand on what you're thinking.
00:09:56.931 --> 00:10:12.855
If you do a search for a topic, they're going to show you other searches, other questions, images, videos that match that and give you other ideas of which direction you might go to expand on your topic.
00:10:12.855 --> 00:10:15.620
And then there's also answer.
00:10:15.620 --> 00:10:19.331
The public is no longer free, except for two searches, I think, a month.
00:10:19.331 --> 00:10:21.534
So they're great.
00:10:21.534 --> 00:10:29.600
But also Moz does a really great free option where you can do some in depth searching, like 10 per month.
00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:46.321
So if you really get your keywords down to something that you feel strongly that that fits for you and your audience, you can get some really good data behind that to get as far as how many competitors you have and that kind of how many other people are looking for those words and what might be better options for you.
00:10:47.110 --> 00:10:50.900
Yeah, I love the fact how generously and transparently you share these real life tools.
00:10:50.900 --> 00:10:55.259
Moz is incredible, honestly, even the free content that they put out.
00:10:55.259 --> 00:11:04.577
Aside from the tools that you can use for free, their blog has so much incredible information, which I guess even talking about their blog leads me to the next topic, which is content.
00:11:04.577 --> 00:11:06.953
We say in the world of marketing, content is king.
00:11:06.953 --> 00:11:15.677
But, denise, somewhere along the way, I feel like people stopped viewing content as content to be searched and indexed and they just started viewing.
00:11:15.677 --> 00:11:19.605
You know we all hear about Instagram posts and Facebook and TikTok these days.
00:11:19.605 --> 00:11:25.441
What sort of content should we, as business owners, be putting into the world because it's going to help us get found?
00:11:27.307 --> 00:11:35.679
Well, it is quite amazing that the larger search engine owns YouTube, and that is the rising star right now, as you know.
00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:41.796
So everything that you put on YouTube is indexable in search, so that can be a result.
00:11:41.796 --> 00:11:47.001
Each short, each clip, each video you put out there can be content.
00:11:47.001 --> 00:11:56.860
Also, your profiles on your social media accounts are included, so you want to make sure you fill those out well to describe your business.
00:11:56.860 --> 00:12:04.183
They're a little bit more of the yellow pages kind of info and then podcasts on your platforms.
00:12:04.183 --> 00:12:14.778
I always recommend people have a page for each episode on their website so they control the narrative on their podcast episodes so that that gets included at the detail level.
00:12:14.778 --> 00:12:24.259
Blogs everything that you can create, you should somehow have on your website so you can control what gets into the search engines.
00:12:25.289 --> 00:12:28.557
Yeah, I think that's a powerful thing that we just need to stay on top of it.
00:12:28.557 --> 00:12:30.157
We're doing all of these things.
00:12:30.157 --> 00:12:34.197
We need to make sure it's out there, which leads me to ask you about AI.
00:12:34.197 --> 00:12:45.099
Obviously, it's the elephant in the room in so many different conversations along the way, and I've seen way too many businesses just hop and chat GPT and generate 500 blog posts that are not great content.
00:12:45.099 --> 00:12:48.995
Denise, what's your take on AI, where it is now and where it should go?
00:12:49.155 --> 00:12:50.821
I don't know if you want to hear about this.
00:12:50.821 --> 00:12:53.594
Look, I think of AI.
00:12:53.594 --> 00:12:58.842
You know, being a programmer, being a computer scientist, AI is a program.
00:12:58.842 --> 00:13:00.404
Ai is a database.
00:13:00.404 --> 00:13:16.524
It's advanced technology that's taking advantage of speed in processing and the power that we have now that we didn't have before, and there are human people writing the programs to answer the chat GPT prompts, you know.
00:13:16.524 --> 00:13:31.990
So it's only as good as those people can create it and only as good as the information that go into the large language models, which, up until now, is limited and has not been as far reaching as people would think.
00:13:32.312 --> 00:13:34.716
You know, at one point it was stopping at what?
00:13:34.716 --> 00:13:35.578
2022.
00:13:35.578 --> 00:13:38.613
So you know we're missing a few years in there.
00:13:38.613 --> 00:13:42.346
So I think there is value in speeding up people's work.
00:13:42.346 --> 00:13:49.152
I think there's value in helping with some tasks, but it's in no way, shape or form, ready to be a replacement for anything.
00:13:49.152 --> 00:14:03.571
It's an advanced technology is where I view it, and I think we're going to see some interesting things come along the way that are going to make the heavy tasks lighter, but I don't see it as the solution to the world, honestly.
00:14:04.253 --> 00:14:05.775
Yeah, I'm so glad that you said that.
00:14:05.775 --> 00:14:09.493
Listeners, I'm going to piggyback off of Denise's points right there.
00:14:09.493 --> 00:14:12.543
How many amazing guests have you heard this from?
00:14:12.543 --> 00:14:15.072
A lot of people hoping AI is going to replace us.
00:14:15.072 --> 00:14:20.380
Denise said it right there it can speed up your work, but you cannot replace the work.
00:14:20.380 --> 00:14:32.802
It's such an important perspective, so I appreciate you sharing that, denise, but I think it does beg the question of it's a balance between, obviously, optimizing the content that we do have versus creating that additional content.
00:14:32.802 --> 00:14:35.898
That's obviously where people hope that AI can just replace it for them.
00:14:35.898 --> 00:14:41.491
What's that balance that you put for business owners, entrepreneurs, who are facing a million different tasks?
00:14:41.491 --> 00:14:44.219
Is it something we should commit to on a weekly basis?
00:14:44.219 --> 00:14:45.623
Is creating new content?
00:14:45.623 --> 00:14:46.955
What types of content?
00:14:46.955 --> 00:14:48.923
You've given us an overview of blog posts.
00:14:48.923 --> 00:14:51.351
For example, our homepage content is indexable.
00:14:51.351 --> 00:14:56.043
How much is it that we should focus on our existing content versus creating new stuff?
00:14:56.043 --> 00:14:56.904
How much?
00:14:56.924 --> 00:14:58.950
is it that we should focus on our existing content versus creating new stuff?
00:14:58.950 --> 00:15:00.010
Wow, that's a heavy topic, Brian.
00:15:00.010 --> 00:15:10.326
I would say whatever you choose to do that is relevant for your audience, that is going to reach the people that you are interested in helping.
00:15:10.326 --> 00:15:20.719
So you have to figure out where they are and which platform they're on and what style of media they like to consume whether it's a podcast, a video, a blog.
00:15:20.719 --> 00:15:21.481
Are they readers?
00:15:21.481 --> 00:15:22.667
Are they scrollers?
00:15:22.667 --> 00:15:25.594
You know you have to figure that out and then choose.
00:15:25.594 --> 00:15:30.144
Whatever you do, choose to create that's new and do it consistently.
00:15:31.110 --> 00:15:39.591
The one thing that we know that does not work very well is is having things go out for six months and then stop for six months.
00:15:39.591 --> 00:15:45.192
You know you're better off doing once a week than doing five days a week for three months, you know.
00:15:45.192 --> 00:15:54.235
So the consistency is the big thing in getting your reputation and getting the exponential growth you want to see in content use.
00:15:54.235 --> 00:16:07.163
As far going backwards, you get credit in the search engines for updating pages and entries, so they like new and fresh content.
00:16:07.163 --> 00:16:11.092
So it's always helpful to go back and tweak what you've done.
00:16:11.092 --> 00:16:21.979
Make it a little bit fresher, give it a new, give it a you know today, update on what you've written before or something, and I don't mean be facetious and just add things on.
00:16:22.070 --> 00:16:22.672
We don't do.
00:16:22.672 --> 00:16:25.019
We don't write for search engines.
00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:29.157
We write for our clients and customers potential clients and customers.
00:16:29.157 --> 00:16:30.754
So add value.
00:16:30.754 --> 00:16:34.716
Add more value when you can and do a couple at a time.
00:16:34.716 --> 00:16:41.375
You know that's relevant to what you have, and I think you'll succeed there.
00:16:41.375 --> 00:16:45.735
I wouldn't ever tell anybody to go back and change everything to bring it up to date.
00:16:45.735 --> 00:16:47.900
Just start slow.
00:16:48.889 --> 00:17:00.028
Yeah, denise, I'm going to ask you to go a little bit deeper there, because that is such an important point that I want you to hammer home for our listeners here, which is we don't do these things for the search engines, we do these things for the humans on the other side.
00:17:00.028 --> 00:17:09.683
Talk more about that, because that's the one place that I feel like SEO gurus and experts can deceive their audiences is they get so obsessed about the technical components.
00:17:09.683 --> 00:17:11.470
Talk to us about the human element.
00:17:12.730 --> 00:17:42.391
Yes, the human element about all of this and I've always said SEO is optimizing your search results, but search marketing and search engine use and real optimization of your content is providing content that shows your expertise, shows your authority, helps people trust you, helps people understand your perspective on what you're talking about, and none of that can be found by flashy things, videos and things like that.
00:17:42.431 --> 00:17:56.898
You really have to provide help and give it out there so that people can get to know you and like you and trust you, and that is what marketing has always been, and search engines are no different.
00:17:56.898 --> 00:17:59.153
So I think you have to dive deep.
00:17:59.153 --> 00:18:10.994
You have to really give the content and then, no matter what the search engines do in their algorithms which is their formula for what they show or don't show, what they include or don't include, it doesn't matter.
00:18:10.994 --> 00:18:27.317
If you do a good job at presenting what you're all about, you are going to find the people that resonate with you, and those people are going to then want to work with you because they're going to find out more about you, because they're going to see multiple links or get to your website and find out more.
00:18:27.317 --> 00:18:30.971
So that's what we're trying to do is make connections and provide service.
00:18:30.971 --> 00:18:33.295
So sorry, soapbox.
00:18:34.436 --> 00:18:41.477
No, I think it's an important soapbox, truth be told, because I mean, I'll think back when I started my first business in 2008,.
00:18:41.477 --> 00:18:46.356
Organic traffic was what drove it to three and a half million unique visitors every single month.
00:18:46.356 --> 00:18:50.077
So my soccer blog at that time grew into a flourishing business.
00:18:50.077 --> 00:18:51.724
That I didn't expect as a college kid.
00:18:51.724 --> 00:18:54.595
But, denise, full transparency in 2008,.
00:18:54.595 --> 00:19:06.578
You could could just keyword, stuff whatever words you wanted to rank for let's talk about keyword stuffing, okay so take it away for listeners who don't know like people used to literally repeat the same word.
00:19:07.059 --> 00:19:09.371
If they were selling cigars, it'd be cigar, cigar.
00:19:09.371 --> 00:19:19.718
Cigars are like 50 times in a row where they put it in different colors and put it larger and smaller, and they put it in white on a white background, and it was all to trick the programs.
00:19:19.718 --> 00:19:26.538
Well, I have to tell you, 20 plus years down the road since this all began, the programs are way more advanced.
00:19:26.538 --> 00:19:41.618
They know all those things that you do, and if you do any of them, or all those old things, if you employ any of those tactics, you can get banned, basically, and you will never be allowed to put anything into a search engine.
00:19:41.618 --> 00:19:43.623
So it's not worth it.
00:19:43.623 --> 00:19:45.356
You know it's provide value.
00:19:45.356 --> 00:19:54.403
You're not trying to trick the system, because the system changes all the time and so you really have to lean on those things that show your integrity.
00:19:55.151 --> 00:19:58.557
Yeah, I'm glad that you called that out because I do still see it to this day.
00:19:58.557 --> 00:20:00.597
It worked back in, like I said, 2008,.
00:20:00.597 --> 00:20:05.315
But we quickly realized you're always one algorithmic update away from it no longer working.
00:20:05.315 --> 00:20:08.957
But it's a shame If listeners are thinking who would be keyword stuffing.
00:20:08.957 --> 00:20:15.615
I see, for example, I'll call out you can, if you find a lawyer's website, let's pick on lawyers, because neither of us are lawyers.
00:20:15.615 --> 00:20:21.122
Denise, lawyers will write like real estate lawyer in Tampa Florida.
00:20:21.122 --> 00:20:28.782
We are the number one rated real estate lawyer in Tampa Florida and they keep saying it in different ways Search engines are clever, way more clever than all of us.
00:20:28.903 --> 00:20:35.576
So I love the fact that you called that out, but I do want to ask you this then, denise, while we're here on the air together where does it go wrong?
00:20:35.576 --> 00:20:55.056
Because all of this stuff is easier said than done, and part of what you do I'm going to publicly praise you here is that you don't just do this stuff and help others with it, but you have a real ability and gift of simplifying it for others, and I feel like where others get overwhelmed from the plethora of information that's out there, you boil it down to.
00:20:55.056 --> 00:20:56.499
This is what really matters.
00:20:56.499 --> 00:20:57.981
This is the only stuff to think about.
00:20:57.981 --> 00:21:03.414
So what are some of those examples of where it goes wrong for people who do have those good intentions?
00:21:05.058 --> 00:21:07.063
Well, the examples of where it goes wrong.
00:21:07.063 --> 00:21:23.351
And I am, don't get me wrong, I do it myself because I get overwhelmed in the tasky things I have to do in my business and all it takes is one illness or one upset schedule for a couple of days, and it's really hard to keep up if you're a solopreneur.
00:21:23.351 --> 00:21:25.736
So everybody has to understand that.
00:21:25.736 --> 00:21:27.058
That is a natural thing.
00:21:27.058 --> 00:21:47.175
But if you can get the five things that I talk about, which is, get your keywords, figure them out, get your titles and descriptions, do some formatting in your pages that makes reinforces your topic and write good content, that's really all you have to do.
00:21:47.175 --> 00:21:54.635
Get those things in there and get them out onto a platform that's read by a search engine and you're going to get some success.
00:21:54.635 --> 00:21:57.550
And it's a long game, it's not a short game.
00:21:57.550 --> 00:22:02.102
So you have to do it over time and incrementally build on it and you will see results.
00:22:02.892 --> 00:22:33.304
so, um, yeah, and I forget what you know, no no, you're, you're good because, you're making me realize, actually, how much I take for granted the back end of it, coming from the world of growing an organic search-based business, as my first business is that I lived in Google Analytics, denise, and it blows my mind, here in 2024, that we are 16 years later and still a lot of business owners, especially the solopreneurs among us, don't even have Google Analytics installed.
00:22:33.304 --> 00:22:37.295
Talk to us about that backend, because you talk about getting results and getting found.
00:22:37.295 --> 00:22:39.398
How do we start measuring this stuff?
00:22:40.221 --> 00:22:41.804
Right, so you know.
00:22:41.804 --> 00:22:44.236
The first thing you have to do is know what's out there.
00:22:44.236 --> 00:22:50.203
So there are some things you can do in the search engine itself to see what comes up under your name.
00:22:50.203 --> 00:22:54.174
Make sure you're there, make sure you know what's being said about you.
00:22:54.174 --> 00:23:01.292
If somebody were to meet you at a networking event but they forget the name of your business or what your website is, they're going to go for your name.
00:23:01.292 --> 00:23:07.903
So you better make sure your name shows what you want it to show and a picture, because there's so many people with your name, whether you believe it or not.
00:23:07.903 --> 00:23:09.570
So that's number one.
00:23:10.071 --> 00:23:18.086
And then I would say that you know, there, there's so much I I don't want to go here, you know.
00:23:18.086 --> 00:23:28.372
It's just like I'm saying there's so many things that that you can do to look at results, but you can make yourself crazy, honestly.
00:23:28.372 --> 00:23:57.453
So what I like to tell people to do is take the step and get your website into Search Console, install Google Analytics and get one report visitors or keywords or something that you understand and go to that and take a snapshot when you start and go back every couple weeks and take another snapshot and see if it's changing, see if there's something that's happening.
00:23:57.453 --> 00:24:06.829
If you can get more out of the keyword reports in Google Analytics, that's really the most helpful thing you can do, because that feeds your content and helps you tweak things.
00:24:06.829 --> 00:24:18.217
So I want to say that there are always analytics out there, but sometimes you want to go to that before they do the stuff that's necessary to get results.
00:24:18.217 --> 00:24:28.482
So there are so many tools out there and it confuses everyone, so I like to keep it clean and go to the basics.
00:24:31.105 --> 00:24:32.207
Visitors and keywords is where I would go.
00:24:32.207 --> 00:24:34.912
Yes, I do love and appreciate how simple you make it.
00:24:34.912 --> 00:24:43.977
And I will also say in 964 episodes of this show, you are the very first guest to ever bring up Search Console, and that is truly.
00:24:43.977 --> 00:24:53.229
There's a lot of confusing stuff in Google Analytics, but Search Console really is so useful for all of us business owners, Denise, since you're the first one to introduce it to listeners.
00:24:53.229 --> 00:24:55.275
What the heck is Google search console?
00:24:57.320 --> 00:24:57.582
Okay.
00:24:57.582 --> 00:25:12.678
So Google search console is a way for you to tell Google you own a website address For me, denisemallaycom and you have to turn off airplane mode my goodness, my phone's talking to me, sorry, um.
00:25:12.678 --> 00:25:21.323
So it tells google that you own this website and that you then want them to search it.
00:25:21.323 --> 00:25:29.179
You want them to read it and index your content so it identifies your website, your web address, to the search engine.
00:25:29.179 --> 00:25:32.553
As a result of that connection, you can can then go in.
00:25:32.553 --> 00:25:43.715
It'll report back traffic statistics and some other information about what they see happening with your website who's coming to visit it from search, who's coming to visit from other places.
00:25:43.715 --> 00:25:50.209
There's a bunch of things that you can find out and it just gives you stats on traffic, really more than anything else.
00:25:50.932 --> 00:25:52.195
Yeah, which is super useful.
00:25:52.195 --> 00:25:52.946
All of us.
00:25:52.946 --> 00:25:56.076
If you have a website, it's so simple and it's free.
00:25:56.076 --> 00:26:06.625
So much of what Denise is talking about today is free and accessible to you, so I think it's really important to take advantage of it, which, trust me, denise, has so many tools to help you even long after this episode.
00:26:06.625 --> 00:26:17.980
We're going to talk about those at the end of the episode, but, denise, I've got to ask you the question that every listener, we always hear this question, and it is about time, because we are an impatient society these days.
00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:25.377
We are the society and especially I'll call out my fellow millennials, but even younger I think they're worse than me, denise of instant gratification.
00:26:25.377 --> 00:26:27.111
How long does this stuff take?
00:26:27.111 --> 00:26:39.357
Because, for people who log into Search Console, we probably won't see the metrics that we dream of, but with consistent efforts you talked about, don't just do this for six months make it part of the way that you grow your business sustainably.
00:26:39.357 --> 00:26:42.009
How long does it start to take to become?
00:26:42.068 --> 00:26:42.971
findable.
00:26:42.971 --> 00:26:54.048
An example somebody that is in the community that my mastermind community that I'm in, and this lovely group of people we do the show every week entrepreneurs good morning entrepreneurs.
00:26:54.048 --> 00:27:04.798
So this person was migrating their website from a WordPress website into Kajabi and interviews with celebrities and other stuff.
00:27:04.798 --> 00:27:13.538
So he re-released all of his interviews hundreds of them, into this new platform over an 18 month period.
00:27:13.538 --> 00:27:17.955
At the end of 18 months he had a million visitors to his site.
00:27:17.955 --> 00:27:23.933
He started with zero on this new web address.
00:27:23.933 --> 00:27:38.590
So 18 months and I would say in three months, you should see increases, slow and steady, if you continue to tweak your keywords and you try to make the connections with your people the best you can.
00:27:39.384 --> 00:27:50.190
Yes, I love that real life example because it also addresses a lot of the concerns and false barriers that we put inside our own heads of oh, it's a brand new website and you just called it out.
00:27:50.190 --> 00:27:51.711
This is from scratch.
00:27:51.711 --> 00:27:54.211
So consistent efforts these things compound.
00:27:54.211 --> 00:27:55.594
I love your emphasis on these.
00:27:55.594 --> 00:28:00.433
Denise, I have to ask you because I have teased quite a few times throughout our conversation.
00:28:00.433 --> 00:28:07.509
Today You've got to talk to us about some of your solutions for entrepreneurs, because you obviously are passionate about this and you love simplifying it for people.
00:28:07.509 --> 00:28:10.756
I'm personally intrigued about the virtual scavenger hunt.
00:28:10.756 --> 00:28:13.587
So, Denise, tell us more about some of your solutions.
00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:16.775
Okay, so here's the thing Keywords.
00:28:16.775 --> 00:28:22.536
You and I talked about keywords and we understand what they are, but everybody else is kind of going what's a keyword?
00:28:22.536 --> 00:28:23.705
I hear it.
00:28:23.705 --> 00:28:25.750
It's scary, I don't know what it is.
00:28:25.750 --> 00:28:31.310
It sounds techie and it's really the connecting words that people use to search, right, right.
00:28:31.310 --> 00:28:34.769
Well, when you're trying to figure out what your keywords are, you don't know.
00:28:34.769 --> 00:28:37.797
You really don't know, like even for me.
00:28:37.797 --> 00:28:39.166
Am I a website designer?
00:28:39.166 --> 00:28:40.328
Am I a website builder?
00:28:40.328 --> 00:28:41.571
Was I, you know?
00:28:41.571 --> 00:28:42.994
Am I a consultant?
00:28:42.994 --> 00:28:44.657
Am I a strategist?
00:28:44.657 --> 00:28:44.959
What are?
00:28:45.526 --> 00:29:02.734
So the scavenger hunt was meant to, in a light way, get people around their keyboards into a browser looking at some of the features the browsers can show you and what you can do to look for alternative words that fit for your business.
00:29:02.734 --> 00:29:14.553
So, through examples where I just send people out and say, go find me a pair of purple and red sneakers here's the picture, you know, and they have to figure out how many words it takes to find that exact shoe, you know.
00:29:14.553 --> 00:29:17.446
Let's say it's an example, you know, and I have a spinny wheel.
00:29:17.446 --> 00:29:22.919
We give away some, you know, starbucks Dunkin, have fun, do some laughs.
00:29:22.919 --> 00:29:26.107
So I try, I was trying to do it every month.
00:29:26.107 --> 00:29:30.575
It got a little heavy, as I've had this year, and so now'm doing it quarterly.
00:29:30.996 --> 00:29:33.138
So yes, I love that.
00:29:33.138 --> 00:29:34.181
It is a fun way.
00:29:34.181 --> 00:29:36.617
What I really love about it is it's action oriented.
00:29:36.617 --> 00:29:41.420
It's not just you're going to educate people, they do the things, and I think that that's so powerful.
00:29:41.420 --> 00:29:46.454
Along those lines, talk to us about your ebook and your be findable your print book as well.
00:29:46.454 --> 00:29:49.789
I'd love for listeners to be familiar with all these great things you're putting into the world.
00:29:49.911 --> 00:30:05.969
So I've had this idea for an SEO kind of not SEO book for a long time and I really wanted to have people be able to take the do it yourself actions themselves if they wanted to go that path and if they were comfortable.
00:30:05.969 --> 00:30:08.313
Because it is simplified.
00:30:08.313 --> 00:30:16.207
If you follow it, it it's really not overly intense and I try to make it as as plain as possible.
00:30:16.207 --> 00:30:20.082
And only what you have to do so the name of the book is be findable.
00:30:20.082 --> 00:30:22.609
As you said, if they can't find you, they can't do business with you.
00:30:22.609 --> 00:30:24.476
It's only 120 pages.
00:30:25.179 --> 00:30:30.112
It comes with a spreadsheet that you can keep track of the work you do and some other goodies.
00:30:30.112 --> 00:30:37.666
It's available on Amazon and the electronic version is available on my website, if you just can't wait for the print version to come.
00:30:37.666 --> 00:30:55.377
And it really it's kind of like my workshop in the sense that I give you examples of people who have had difficulty stories and then you know here's how you actually do it, here's why you want to do it and here's the actual things you need to do as much as possible.
00:30:56.484 --> 00:31:04.752
Yeah, it's great, denise, I will say I knew long before you came on to the show that this episode would for sure one.
00:31:04.752 --> 00:31:09.430
It would inspire and motivate listeners to actually take these simple steps in their business, literally.
00:31:09.430 --> 00:31:14.894
It's very rare that I can make blanket statements on this show because everyone's in different businesses at different growth journeys.
00:31:14.894 --> 00:31:20.413
But the stuff we're talking about today and the work you put into the world every single business benefits from it.
00:31:20.413 --> 00:31:28.510
So I think it's really powerful and I knew that also, your episode would prompt a lot of homework for listeners, so super excited.
00:31:30.066 --> 00:31:30.809
It's not work.
00:31:30.809 --> 00:31:33.150
That's true Value activity.
00:31:33.170 --> 00:31:37.647
true value activity, I do value oh value activity, I'm gonna steal that one denise.
00:31:37.647 --> 00:31:38.730
I really like that term.
00:31:39.412 --> 00:31:44.951
I'm a consultant to the core, you know I love it workout heck yeah.
00:31:45.393 --> 00:32:02.988
so before we drop those links so that people can start going forth into doing those value activities, I always ask at the end of episodes what's your one piece of advice, whether as a subject matter expert or just as one of us, as a fellow entrepreneur, listeners at all stages, what's that one thing you want to leave them with today?
00:32:03.770 --> 00:32:12.269
I know the beginning of this journey, of this findability journey, and the thing that sticks with people the most is what is a keyword and how the heck do I figure them out?
00:32:12.269 --> 00:32:18.568
And my biggest advice for people is to really put the shoes of your potential client or customer on.
00:32:18.568 --> 00:32:20.854
Sit on the other side of the keyboard.
00:32:20.854 --> 00:32:30.108
What are the exact words they're thinking, and if that means you have to create, don't use any fancy avatar words or profiles.
00:32:30.108 --> 00:32:31.095
None of that.
00:32:31.095 --> 00:32:33.347
Just picture somebody in your head.
00:32:33.347 --> 00:32:41.034
Go find a picture on the internet of somebody that looks like the person that's your ideal, that you want to work with, and what's their life like?
00:32:41.034 --> 00:32:43.258
How are they referring to you?
00:32:43.258 --> 00:32:46.616
Are you a tax accountant or are you somebody that does my taxes?
00:32:46.616 --> 00:32:47.580
You know like?
00:32:47.580 --> 00:32:48.684
It's as simple as that.
00:32:48.684 --> 00:32:54.872
Try to get their language into your content and I think you'll make better connections that way.
00:32:55.653 --> 00:32:59.315
Yes, Denise, powerful, actionable and simple.
00:32:59.315 --> 00:33:02.714
You managed it from start to finish in today's episode.
00:33:02.714 --> 00:33:12.998
I'm so appreciative of the generosity of sharing all these things in this episode, but even more so, I'm so appreciative of the work that you're doing to lift up other entrepreneurs.
00:33:12.998 --> 00:33:14.890
So drop those links on us.
00:33:14.890 --> 00:33:17.913
Where should listeners go to find all these incredible things you offer?
00:33:18.705 --> 00:33:23.893
Everything is on my website at denismalaycom Nothing, no slashes, just go right there.
00:33:23.893 --> 00:33:25.170
It's all on the front page.
00:33:25.170 --> 00:33:28.755
Take a look around and reach out if you have any questions.
00:33:29.404 --> 00:33:31.267
Yes, listeners, you already know the drill.
00:33:31.267 --> 00:33:32.868
We're making it as easy as possible.
00:33:32.868 --> 00:33:34.289
Denise has made it easy.
00:33:34.289 --> 00:33:37.153
When you land on her website, you'll literally see it all laid out.
00:33:37.153 --> 00:33:39.516
You cannot miss what you're looking for.
00:33:39.516 --> 00:33:44.221
She is, for sure, the findability queen, so definitely go to her website, denismillaycom.
00:33:44.221 --> 00:33:47.404
You'll see.
00:33:47.404 --> 00:33:51.593
Her name is in the title of this episode, but also you can click right on through using the link in the show notes, wherever it is that you're tuning in.
00:33:51.593 --> 00:33:57.269
Otherwise, denise, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.
00:33:58.031 --> 00:34:00.257
Thank you so much, brian, it's been great fun.
00:34:00.825 --> 00:34:06.386
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.
00:34:06.386 --> 00:34:10.371
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.
00:34:10.371 --> 00:34:23.449
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.
00:34:23.449 --> 00:34:28.367
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.
00:34:28.447 --> 00:34:30.432
These are not sponsored episodes.
00:34:30.432 --> 00:34:32.016
These are not infomercials.
00:34:32.016 --> 00:34:35.512
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.
00:34:35.512 --> 00:34:46.474
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.
00:34:46.474 --> 00:34:54.972
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.
00:34:54.972 --> 00:34:56.315
We also have live chat.
00:34:56.315 --> 00:35:00.940
If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom.
00:35:00.940 --> 00:35:02.320
Initiate a live chat.
00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:11.768
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.