140: SEO for blogs and why blogging is important for your small business featuring Bai-Leigh Chapman

Dolly Delong: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am your systems and workflow BFF and guide, Dolly DeLong. Today, I have another fantastic contributor to the systems and workflow magic bundle, the SEO edition of the podcast. I had Bai-Leigh Chapman. So, a little bit about Bai-Leigh. She is a systems and process specialist with over six years of experience working with entrepreneurs of different niches and businesses. I love that she aims to help small businesses run more efficiently, save money, and regain their time. So Bai-Leigh, welcome to the podcast.

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited.

Dolly Delong: I’m excited you’re here and so happy to chat about SEO for blog posts. But, before we dive into that, as you, the listener, if you’re listening in, if you’re an OG listener, uh, you may know we are doing a summer series to help you dip your toes and get more confident in setting up systems and processes for the backend of your business when it comes to SEO. So this is the summer of SEO because, as small business owners, I know we all want to be the Google answer to our ideal clients’ inquiries online, and blogging and SEO have a lot to do with being found organically. So you don’t have to depend on meta ads or pay for Instagram ads. And I’d like Mark. I just. Mark Zuckerberg. I almost said, Marky Mark. I don’t know why I told Marky Mark. We’re keeping that, people. We’re keeping that so you all could laugh at me. But I am so excited to have Bai-Leigh as part of the series. Bai-Leigh, did I leave anything out in your introduction? Again, I’m glad to have you on. I’ve been having much fun getting to know you on Instagram. That’s where I feel like many of us get to know each other nowadays, but you. It is another system, gal, which I love. So, did I leave anything out?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: I don’t think so. You’re pretty concise in there, and I appreciate that. No, I’ve been doing this for over six years. It is something that I have honed in on and love doing. And, yeah, you said it all. I help small business owners save time and money. One of those things is blogging and SEO for blogs because that is a great way to get traffic to your website and get your name out there. So I’m sure we’ll dive deeper into how excellent that piece is, but no, you were very concise. I love it.

Dolly Delong: Awesome. Okay. I have another question to ask you before we dive into the heart of this topic. How did you get started as a systems gal? Because I know most of us in the online space didn’t start and didn’t like it. Get a degree to do what we all do now. And so I’m curious about what brought you to your own business.

Bai-Leigh Chapman: I’ll try to make this story as short as possible because I habitually go off on little tangents. But essentially, I started my business because I was working in corporate, and they were doing layoffs, and of course, I got laid off. This was actually in 2017. So before everything happened with COVID, I realized then that I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I didn’t want to depend on someone else for my income. It was a month before Christmas. It was not a great time, but in hindsight, it was the best decision ever. So, I started my business as a VA. My background in the corporate world was as an office manager and executive assistant. I was very organized, so I would, you know, do all of those things. I just naturally had that talent. So, I started as a VA. I quickly realized that I got bored of that and was, you know, made for more. So, I ended up coming in as co-director of operations. Then it started with a client a couple of years ago. It was a VA client.

Who was the biggest nightmare I have ever had in my life? Um, like everything, she disrespected me, disrespected the scope of work, and expected us to make sales for her when, you know, all we were doing was admin stuff. And it just made me realize I want to work with higher-caliber clients. I wanted to do the things I love because I was miserable. So, I leaped. Initially, I had a VA agency as well, and I didn’t want to have to depend on myself because that’s very scary, but I realized, you know, I am very confident in my skills. I love what I’m doing. And so I shut down the entire VA side of things. I went into the processes and systems, and it felt right and good. Everyone was telling me you’re so much brighter. You’re doing exactly what you love. Like, you know, whenever people say like zone of genius and staying in your zone of genius and how important that is, you can feel it too. It was an extraordinary kind of full-circle moment for ng, from getting laid off to diving into what I did. No, it is now like my passion and purpose, and I’m enjoying it.

Dolly Delong: Well, thank you for letting me ask that question. I was curious off the cuff, and I’m excited and happy for you.

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Yeah. It was, you know, the best, worst thing that happened to me at the time turned into the best thing, which is usually how those things go.

Dolly Delong: Yes, exactly. Exactly. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. And I guess, like leading into the, let’s talk about SEO for blog posts. Like in your, I’m trying to do the math. Of course, I can’t do the math in my head, but since starting your own business and going from VA to OBM to now, like your systems and workflows, When did you realize SEO is essential for your business and the companies you were working for? And then, how did you pair that with blogging?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Yeah. Once I transitioned a little bit out of the VA space and got into the higher level, I realized that I needed more leads and more traffic to get, you know, the clients that I wanted. And so it all started for me. I wanted to do Pinterest. And I realized that I didn’t have any content for Pinterest. One of the things that I watched was a course, and they said to start a blog. So I started a blog, of course, when I started, it had no idea what SEO was, no idea how to leverage it. So I started the Blog and was like, this isn’t working because Blogourse I didn’t have any SEO. So I had someone come in and do all of the SEO on my blogs and Pinterest, and everything just shot up. My traffic—I think it was 120 times the traffic I was getting—I was only getting maybe 50 to a hundred, but then I was getting thousands. It has thousands of views, so it just showcased to me. And then, of course, I am the type of person that, yes, other people might be able to do better, but I need to know how to do it. So, of course, I then started teaching myself How to do SEO, what the essential tricks and tools and tips and everything were for SEO, And just dove into that because I realized like it was just so important, and I like, you know, Recommended it to all of my clients I helped them out with it as well because it’s just so important and they’ve all seen that same Jump to a certain extent that I have so

Dolly Delong: I love that so much. As far as blogging goes, I know you see its importance. I know the importance of blogging, but I have a little off-the-cuff question for you when working with new clients. It’s like, do you ever have to sell them? Maybe you should start a blog or incorporate some blogging system because it’s perfect for SEO. Is it a hard sell for you? Or is it usually pretty easy for you to convince? Hey, this is a good idea.

Bai-Leigh Chapman: I think it all depends on the client. I find, for the most part, that it depends mainly on their goal and what they want to do. I give them the roadmap on how to do that. And I also provide real-life examples. I am one. I also have many clients with the same kind of real world. Here are the results and how we got X traffic. Once you show them irrefutable proof, they can’t say no or understand. And some of them, too, like, they’ve always heard, okay, you know, SEO is so important, but it’s just a time factor. It’s not so much that they know it’s important; they don’t know how to create the time to do it. So,

Dolly Delong: Gotcha. I guess I hinted at that or not hinted at that. I was like my sly way of saying, okay, listeners, like I’m trying to sell, we are trying to sell to you the importance of blogging. Like it’s important, I believe it’s one of the easiest ways. I’m going to build out your expertise, especially if you don’t want to start a YouTube channel because that’s more intense and time intensive, or if you don’t want to start a podcast, that’s a little bit more labor intensive as well, but this is like the easiest way to get your foot in the door and, Establish content, establish your authority, and then establish that SEO presence. And so, Bai-Leigh, I know you have several things you want to share about SEO. When it comes to blogging,

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Yeah, for sure. I have probably three or four of my top tips for blogging for SEO and just putting it all together. My first one is that before you start a blog, you should begin to do all of the SEO research on popular topics. I do that in a couple of different ways, so the first thing I will always do is go to Google and research the niche that I am in on Google. It’s beneficial to do that because, of course, the top ones that pop up will be the ones that are ranked high in SEO on Google. So those are the ones that you want to look at, see what’s performing well, and also see how they’re writing things, going through that, and getting some ideas. I also love Pinterest, so I research to see what pins are popular and even things you’re drawn to. So, if you go on Pinterest and look at your niche, let’s say you’re a photographer, and you go in. You’re either a photographer-to-photographer business or a photographer-to-client business; going and seeing, what are they doing? Are they top tips for something, how to style a photo shoot, etc., and just seeing what’s been popular? What’s performing well? The last thing you can do is ask chat GPT and say, Hey, I’m a photographer. What are the top 20 blog posts you would recommend for clients? Of course, I would also like to get a very niche down there. You don’t have to take all of their blog posts. Of course, you can go through and again Google it to see what is top-performing. What are the different things that you can do? However, when doing something like Google or Pinterest, please do not plagiarize anything. You can take it as inspiration. But I see this way too often, where people take the post and plagiarize it. That is not the way to go. Google does not like that SEO does not like that, and I mean, it’s not legal, So maybe don’t do that, But yeah, those.

Dolly Delong: said you’re like, please don’t do that. I did get an email about chat, GBT, and AI plagiarism. Like I got, I’m sure you got this email, too. I’m on; I get lots of tips. Neil Patel and I sent an email this morning, and somebody else posted about this to Google, which is cracking down on them, noticing they’re crawling more websites. I don’t know if they have AI-like, plagiarized posts or copy-pasted from AI. So yeah, they are cracking down on that listener. So please don’t assume, Oh, I’m just like a small business owner. Nobody will notice Google; Google will notice

Bai-Leigh Chapman: I recommend using Chat GBT as a starting point, even for writing blog posts. But do not use Chat GBT and copy and paste; it won’t be first off in your language or any writing style. And two, you don’t know how many other blog posts have the exact Blog on there. So, just another little tip: Blog is excellent as a starting point for gBlogg. Your ideas are great but should not be used as a final blog. I also know some standard hooks on the popular Topics research piece. There are regular hooks that I find work pretty well, and it’s if you’re a photographer, you know How to style yourself for a shoot like a how-to thing, or you know, my top three Tips or my top five tips like those are some excellent. Normal headlines. They have a lot of SEO Keywords in them, and they’re just performing well right now. So, I can’t guarantee that they will always be performing well, but right now, they are performing very well. So, um, I would say that’s like the wrap-up on the research piece, And then just sliding right along is using keywords. That’s all that SEO essentially means: many different keywords. So, I recommend using a tool like SEMrush. That is the one that I use. It is just beneficial to go in. Again, if you are a photographer going in and typing in one or two keywords, Seeing, with SEMrush, if you’re not familiar with it, it allows you to see the usage of those keywords. So if they’re popular, if they’re not, you want something in the middle. You don’t want something that’s not very popular, but you also don’t like something that has a ton of competition because then you’re likely not going to be able to be ranked as high. So that’s important. It also allows you to see analytics. You know where and how many things are used and the audience cap on their popularity. So again, that ties into how much you can use it. You will want to tie those keywords into the blog posts themselves. You would also like to add them to the title and the meta description you have in your blog post. So those are just a couple of things. The other thing that you’re going to want to do is long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are phrases of about three to five letters or three to five words rather than letters. And that will help you with ranking high. In Google, do that all with your blog posts.

Dolly Delong: Can I take us back to SEM Rush? I have a question about that. Is there a free version, or is it a paid tool?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: There is a free one. I think you can get up to two different keyword searches. And then, of course, it is paid.

Dolly Delong: Gotcha. Gotcha. Are there any other tools that you would recommend besides SEMrush, or is SEMrush your go-to?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: It is my go-to. I’ve just found that it’s much better than some of the free and paid tools. It’s just always been the first one that comes to my mind. I have never had any issues with it. It’s been great.

Dolly Delong: Awesome. I haven’t dug into SEM rush now. So that’s why I’m curious. Oh, I need to check that out. Awesome. Okay. So what about, okay? The long tail keywords. Can you give me more examples of what you mean by long tail keywords?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Oh goodness. They are putting me on the spot with examples.

Dolly Delong: I’m sorry.

Bai-Leigh Chapman: yeah. So essentially, the best way that I can describe it is taking, I’m going to, I’m going to try to use not a photographer example, cause I feel like I’ve used that a lot. So let’s go back to my roots of virtual assistant example. Suppose you are a virtual assistant trying to communicate With other virtual assistants. One of the keywords you’ll probably type in is virtual assistant. Then, essentially, the tool will give you virtual assistant jobs, virtual assistant media, and top tips for virtual assistants. It will provide you with long-tail keywords. So again, one of those examples could be top tips for virtual assistants or the most asked questions for virtual assistants. And that’s where you want to add that long-tail keyword phrase if you’re doing a blog post with that phrase in it. Essentially, or something similar.

Dolly Delong: Okay, gotcha. And are these long-tail keywords? Are they the, how do I describe it, the URL after the blog post? Or is that the slug? Am I getting those two mixed up?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Yeah, so that is the slug. You are, so the slug is essentially what you want it to be, which is the blog post’s title. And that will have keywords sprinkled into it, but it might not just be what you would call a long tail keyword. Long tail keywords should be put into the blog post themselves. So, if you can fit that into the first or second paragraph and then a couple of other paragraphs inside, that’s where you want to have the keywords. The title should have, I would say, two to three keywords in it. But again, it might say the words that aren’t essentially going to be, and that’s okay. And then I highly recommend that the slug be the same as the title because it makes it more accessible. I don’t have statistics, but most people do it this way. It’s just something that you automatically go to, so if you’re looking for a specific blog post, you can technically type it in if you want to.

Dolly Delong: Awesome. Awesome. Good to know. I know I’m throwing you a lot of curveballs right here. I’m sorry, Bai-Leigh. Okay. So I know, do you use any plugins in addition to? I know SEMrush isn’t necessarily a plugin, but are there any plugins you use for blogging that you recommend people check out?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Yes, a hundred percent. I will say Yoast SEO is my go-to. There is a free version. I only use the free version, but there is a paid version as well, and if you are on WordPress, that is the way to go. So, um, Yoast essentially puts all of your title, description, and content into the Blog, and it will give you a red, yellow, Blogeblogging rating. Red is wrong, yellow is okay with the color, and green is good. So you always want to be in the green. However, the best part about Yoast SEO is that it will tell you what is wrong and how to fix it. So, I will say there are a couple of everyday things I see people do when doing SEO. Some of them are things like hyperlinking. If you’re hyperlinking to another blog post you have, it would be nice if you added links so you can backlink to different places. Try to do one or two other blog posts or a related article and another place you have, like a social media site or something like that. I find that Yoast will make quite a few suggestions. Then, of course, I like a shorter or longer headline, depending on how long or short it is. And, of course, I like adding keywords or not. And it used more than just keywords in the post. Those are the three top issues I find when people aren’t green immediately. Of course, there are other things, but US SEO will tell you and then tell you how to fix it. That is the beautiful thing about that. And it’s pretty easy, I would say, to get a green rating. Of course, I believe green is anywhere between 80 and 100 percent. Everyone should strive for a hundred percent, but sometimes, it’s impossible. And I would say, as long as you’re green, your SEO will be the best. That’s where Google will like you. So, try to stick with the green. Don’t strive for perfection.

Dolly Delong: That’s good. Did you hear that everyone is okay? Done is better than perfect. And Yoast SEO? I also use Yoast SEO. I love it. And I do love their lighting system. It just. I don’t know. It just makes me feel excellent about myself. I’m like, yay. Like I, I turned a different color. So, that means I’m on the better SEO path. I do like that. They give you little snippets on improving this area; listeners like this will know it takes time to get used to it. Don’t just expect to write a blog post; everything will be green. You will have to adapt your writing style, and you also need to get used to it. It’s like working out or eating healthier; it just doesn’t happen overnight. You have to develop that habit. Is there anything else you want to share, like creating an SEO system for your blogging?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: So I think, who would I be if I didn’t talk about having a system or process for this? I know I’ve given a lot of instruction on how to do it, but it is quite a lengthy process, especially if you’re starting to get into it. It can feel very, very overwhelming. Yeah. So, one of my biggest tips is memorizing and having for it. There will also be times when you might have a team member doing some of it, a copywriter helping, or you might be the copywriter and have someone adding everything in, like a VA. So there are many different steps there, especially if it’s not just a one-woman show that you will want to keep things up with. So, I highly recommend having a process and following it for every single blog post you’re writing, keeping everything in a project management tool, and just going through it all. I could spend a long time deep-diving into precisely what that process is, but I have a little something for everyone.

Dolly Delong: That’s exciting. Okay. So I know, Bai-Leigh, you gave us an excellent mini-strategy session on the importance of blogging, why we should all do this as small business owners, and staying organized. You gave some excellent tips. Check out SEMrush. I know I’ll be checking out SEMrush and Yoast for WordPress. Another rapid question I have for you: again, I’m throwing these curveballs at you. If a person is starting with vlogging, how should their cadence look? One time a month? Twice? Three? Four times a month? Every day? Like, what, what do you recommend a cadence be?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: That is a great question. I think it depends on how much time you have. If you only have five hours a month to dedicate, focus on one blog post a month. If you have 25 hours to devote, then I would do it once a week. But it’s really like just meeting yourself where you are right now. And I will also say things will get easier as you do it. You’ll get quicker, you’ll get more efficient. And potentially, with all of the SEO, you can hire someone to help you out with that if you don’t already have a team member, so there are a lot of benefits to that, but I would say start small; don’t try to, like to eat the whole pie at once Um, you know, just like I would do one blog post a month is great—excellent more about the consistency than it is about the frequency. You can also learn a lot about how these blog posts perform, how to change anything that isn’t performing well, and more about SEO along the way. So,

Dolly Delong: That is very true. And I will put in my two cents, listeners, and say, especially if you are a service-based business owner who tends to like. You might be booking out two, three, or four months in advance or getting clients who will work with you in advance. Then I would also recommend creating blog posts or keeping the seasonal blog posts in mind if your business is. It’s more seasonal, meaning we keep using photography as an example, but let’s say you’re a wedding photographer, and it is the fall. I would start for SSpringor in the future summer iSpring because when sSpringrents is an audience, your clients are hopefully getting engaged right now. You need to help them imagine what it would be like to work with you in the spring or summer. It’s like spring is springing; they already have their wedding spring instead planned out if they will get married. Like we’re in the season you’re in right now. So, keep that in mind, and you can create content that serves your audience well and answers any future questions. Maybe you can balance creating content that answers immediate questions and then answering more evergreen questions.

Bai-Leigh Chapman: That is an excellent build on to my point. I love it.

Dolly Delong: Oh yeah. I wanted to remind listeners to try to plan. And I, you all know, I love planning. You don’t have to get too crazy. I wouldn’t say I like to do it two or three years in advance. Maybe do a quarter or six months in advance and look at your ideal client. What do they need right now? And then what do they need to plan for three or six months in advance? So anyway, Bai-Leighey, do you mind giving everyone a hint about what you will be contributing to the systems and workflow magic bundle, the SEO edition, and why they should consider purchasing this specific SEO-related bundle?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: Yeah, like I said a little while ago, I do have something for everyone, and that is a blog post planner. It ties in all the SEO stuff we discussed with a process that can be modified to use other project management tools. Still, it will essentially guide you step by step from start to finish on how to create a blog post, how to do all the SEO, and how to do the publishing. I have a ton of notes, tips, and lots of stuff here, as well as a lot more.

Again, it just keeps you very organized. Especially when you’re starting, there’s already so much overwhelm, and having that organization and that stepping stone or roadmap is super helpful. I use it in my business for all my blog posts, even though I’ve been doing it for years. It just still makes my life so much easier, and I just highly recommend it to everyone, so

Dolly Delong: Bai-Leigh, I’m so excited. You shared that, and I know that many people Will benefit from having a roadmap, especially an organized roadmap from somebody who has gone before them. As you shared earlier, you’ve done this for years, and this is a tried-and-true system for you. So, I’m also excited about people developing a blogging system for themselves. All right, Bai-Leigh, how can people find, work, and connect with you right now?

Bai-Leigh Chapman: so I hang out a lot on Instagram. My handle is at Valley Virtual Operations. And, um, so you can connect with me there. I would also love it if anyone who purchases the bundle andes out the blog post planner, please, you know, send me back thoughts. I always love hearing. From people and just like how it changes their entire process, So feel accessible. Send that as feedback, or connect with me if you have any questions. I’m always happy to answer those questions, connect, hang out on Instagram, and go through. I also have my website, Valley Virtual Operations, which showcases how you can work with me.

Dolly Delong: Awesome. Again, thank you so much, Bai-Leigh, for taking the time today to give us a little one-on-one blogging SEO strategy session. I’m excited about sharing and showcasing this. And, for those of you listening to this SEO series live this summer, the systems of workflow magic bundle, the SEO edition, will be live in August of this year. 2024. And if you are again listening live, you can get on the waitlist this summer. Um, but if it’s past, I still want to encourage you to follow all those notable contributors because they have SEO-related items in their shop. I want you to be connected with them. Fantastic business owners, I’ve just been blown away that I only have some tremendous SEO SEO-related contributors on the podcast. Still, the part of the bundle, and SEO, is essential to help your business grow, especially foundationally and organically. So. Go and give them a follow. Awesome. So, I will talk to you all next week with a whole new podcast episode about systems and workflow magic centered around SEO for our summer of SEO series. Until then, stay streamlined and magical. You are terrific, Michael; you and I will talk to you all next week. Bye.