Real life business owners explain their Digital Marketing secrets.
In my Reality SEO series I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS for who’ve transformed their businesses with simple digital marketing and SEO techniques.
With practical doable tips and advice you can implement today.
About Paula
Paula Glynn is an SEO and Digital Marketing strategist, who found that by really understanding how her customers talk, and reflecting that language back to them, she was able to rank higher, drive more traffic and convert more customers.
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Transcript
Kate Toon: Hello, and welcome to the Recipe for SEO Success. My name is Kate Toon. And I’m the head chef here at the Recipe for SEO Success online learning hub. Where you can learn everything you need to learn about SEO and getting to grips with the Google beast. And this is the fourth episode in our reality SEO series where I talk to real-life humans who’ve taken on the task of DIYing their SEO, come out the other side with some great results. The idea being that we can pass on those ideas and tactics to you, the listener. And today, I’m talking to Paula Glynn. Hello, Paula. How are you?
Paula Glynn: Hello, Kate. I’m well, thank you.
Kate Toon: Now, Paula’s working in a very trendy co-working space with a giant tram behind her, so if you can hear a bit of background kerfuffle, it’s just hipsters easing themselves into beanbags and people making cappuccinos. Is that right?
Paula Glynn: That’s absolutely correct, yes.
Kate Toon: Paula, tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.
Paula Glynn: I’m Paula Glynn. I am a search specialist and digital strategist for PixelStorm. And I’m also co-owner for PixelStorm. I work with small and medium-sized companies to help their businesses grow, and create the right digital strategy to do that.
Kate Toon: Fantastic. I would, therefore, say that if I were to take you back a couple of years ago, two years ago, and I would say to you, “How did you feel about digital marketing? How did you feel about SEO?” You’d probably be saying, “I felt pretty confident. I kinda got it. I understood it.” Is that right?
Paula Glynn: I don’t think I understood or really got SEO. It’s more the concept of SEO, obviously, was there. I think there’s been a really big shift in the importance of SEO in the last two years. I started out my experiences with AdWords and what I’ve seen is AdWords has become, especially to the small and medium service-based and professional-based businesses, it’s become very expensive. So a lot of people now are shifting to focus equal parts, if not more, on SEO and that’s then made my requirement for knowledge to shift as well.
Kate Toon: Yeah. That’s really interesting. I, for one, have never really done any AdWords for any of my businesses, but my husband does. And it is expensive. Obviously, you pay your money, you get your click. But there is that concept, as well, a little bit, that there’s a little bit of ad blindness for AdWords that 80% of the clicks do go to the organic results, so if you can be winning there, fantastic. Obviously, you are a graduate of the Recipe for SEO Success course. And also an honoured member of my digital master chef’s group, which is great. And you’ve done a lot. You’re a doer on the course. And people who get theo most out of any course are the people that actually implement it. For you, what has been your biggest learning in the last year or so. What changes have you made that you think have made the most difference to your ranking, your conversion, your traffic?
Paula Glynn: [inaudible 00:03:01] conversion and ranking, and it would definitely be the messaging and the language that we’ve used throughout our products and our website in general. Through doing the course, we reoptimized and pretty much rewrote all of our copy, including our statement around our main products and who we do it for and why we do it and things like that. Definitely getting the right language going so that it connects with the right audience is really important. And that’s then, converted so people contact us and say, “I really feel like you’re the right people for us because of that.” And then in doing that, aligning the products well has meant that our SEO rankings have improved. Because we’re making sure that not only are we speaking to the right people, were using the right keywords to do that. And keywords that- We do quite an extensive amount of keyword research to find them.
Kate Toon: The rabbit hole. Did you fall down the keyword rabbit hole? Yes!
Paula Glynn: Oh, yes. Yep. And I’ve done it ever since. I absolutely love it. I think it’s such an important part of the process. And it’s been really exciting to go through that journey with other people, as well.
Kate Toon: I think there’s a lot of myths around keywords and its relatively easy to rank for a particular keyword if it has no traffic and no competition. And no one is typing into Google, and I think that, really understanding how your customers speak. What we were just saying before. You can rank number one for digital integrated marketing strategists, blah, blah, blah. And it sounds great and you go, “Well done. Look at us. We’ve managed to get to number one.” But nobody’s typing that in because they can’t spell half of it. So, yeah. I think that connection between customer entry into Google and conversational copy, because your copy on your site is friendly and it’s warm and it’s not overly techie as well. So you obviously worked to make it readable and friendly as well.
Paula Glynn: Yeah. And I think that what you just said is perfect for what we did in that we did shift it to write for the customer. And make sure that in an industry that we get people are quite confused about the jargon and the terminologies of what they’re looking for. So spending their time doing the keyword research. This is what we think it is, but actually this is what people are searching for. And this is what they want. Really helped us to shift our language more to what their expectation was. Say that that’s what I believe really helped the conversion as well.
Kate Toon: I do because I think, as we always say, It’s all very well and good getting a high ranking on Google, but ultimately they do have to click through, engage with your copy, go through your conversion process. But I think, again, lots of people believe that writing SEO copywriting- Sorry, doing SEO copywriting means that you’re just giving into the “Google Gods.” And that you’re gonna come out with this horrible, staccato, weirdly sounding copy. So how did you overcome that? Was it the “Human first, Google second” approach? Is that the approach you took?
Paula Glynn: We wrote for our customers, so we took what was taught to us in the course, with both the keyword research and the messaging side of it. And we wrote for our customers. Who our customers were and what they wanted and how that related to our product. Definitely human and customer first, but also we focused on people look for digital marketing services, for example, because they’re looking for a solution to a problem, so we really focused on “OK. Why would people not feel like they could do this themselves? What would be the one thing people would be looking for?” And how can we [inaudible 00:06:45] that problem within our copy. And I think that that’s what’s really worked for us.
Kate Toon: It’s that simple copywriting formula that I love: PAS – Problem – Agitate – Solution – where you actually understand your customers so well that you present the problem back to them, tell them what their problem is, then tell them what the consequence of that problem’s gonna be, and then offer yourself up as the solution. It’s a simple copywriting formula, but God damn it works every single time.
Paula Glynn: It really, really does.
Kate Toon: It really does. So, look, these episodes are short and sweet. And they’re meant to provide actionable ideas that real humans can take on and take the next step. So, imagine that someone’s listening to this show. Maybe they’re looking at their copy now, going “Oh, gosh. I’m not really sure it’s focused on the right topic. I’m not really-” What tips would you give them? What would you say is their first step?
Paula Glynn: Firstly, don’t get overwhelmed with what you’re learning and don’t get overwhelmed with SEO in general. It’s all mostly practical, common sense things when you get down to it. It’s just about breaking it down in to the little sections. Having little wins along the way. And then don’t feel like you have to do everything at once. Just take your time, focus, and get through what you can. And you will see the results. SEO takes time. So, just go with the flow and go with what works for you.
Kate Toon: I so agree. It’s like, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Maybe pick one page in your site, a product-based service page, and really try and make that one work. And then just commit to maybe a page a week. You don’t have to change everything overnight. In fact, if you do change everything overnight, you’ll never know what it was that worked.
Paula Glynn: Exactly.
Kate Toon: You have to- bite sized chunks. Nice and digestible. That’s what we like. Well, look. Thank you so much, Paula, for taking the time to chat with me today. Where can we find out more about you?
Paula Glynn: You can find more about me at pixelstorm.com.au
Kate Toon: Fantastic. Well, we’ll be checking you out. And if you’ve enjoyed this show and you want to learn more about Paula, then head to www.therecipeforSEOsuccess.com and you can leave a comment on the show notes for this show. Also, if you enjoy the show a heck of a lot, please take the time to subscribe and leave a rating and review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you heard the show. And if you’d like to learn more tips about SEO then feel free to join my group on Facebook, the I Love SEO Facebook group or take my course, the SEO Nibbles course. Just Google it. You will find it.
Kate Toon: So, thanks again, Paula. And thanks to you-
Paula Glynn: Thanks Kate.
Kate Toon: For listening. Thanks. Happy SEO-ing
