146: SEO Strategy for Service Providers Featuring Laurel Vines

Dolly DeLong: Welcome back to another Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast episode. I am your Systems and Workflow BFF and guide, Dolly DeLong. Today, I’m excited to introduce another contributor to the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle, the SEO Edition. I have Laurel Vines on the podcast today, and I’m excited to connect with Laurel finally. This is how it has been for me forever: I meet people on Instagram, and it’s so exciting to chat and meet with Laurel finally. She is a brand and Showit web designer for creative service providers focusing on organic traffic from SEO and Pinterest. So, Laurel, welcome.

Laurel Vines: Hi, Dolly. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast today. I’m excited to be a part of it.

Dolly DeLong: I’m excited to have you on, and I’m excited you are a contributor. Just like that, we will chat about another facet of SEO because I’m sure listeners fall into one of two categories: either sick of listening to SEO or excited. I’m excited about learning about another facet of SEO. So, for listeners like, “When will she stop talking about SEO?” probably never! I’ll always talk about it in other episodes, but I want to stress the importance of SEO in your business. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated to do in your industry. It is a foundational key component. Even as established business owners, we should be focusing on it. I’m going into year six and year seven of my business, and I still want to focus on SEO because I want people to find me organically. I don’t want to be on the hamster wheel of always promoting myself on social media or finding another trending platform to get more clients. I want to explore SEO, and you, the listener, should do the same. Dig into this episode because Laurel will discuss planning your SEO strategy as a service provider. Many of our listeners are service providers, so I want you to take many notes. So, Laurel, take it away.

Laurel Vines: Yeah, of course. I love that you’re doing this and focusing on SEO, Dolly, because, like you said, especially as service providers, we don’t have all the time in the world to constantly be putting out new content, so being able to have content that works hard for us and attracts our ideal audience is so important. So yeah, I wanted to talk a little bit about SEO today. What exactly should we focus on as service providers, and what makes up that SEO strategy? There are a lot of different things that go into an SEO strategy. I know you’ve interviewed other people on various kinds of SEO because you can optimize SEO for any platform you’re on, whether that’s your podcast, Pinterest, or Instagram page. Still, we’re specifically talking about Google and your website here. Your website is a service provider. So, what makes up that SEO strategy is your content—things like your blog posts. It’s the actual words on your website, like your page content, what’s on your About page, what’s on your Services page, and things like that. Your website’s actual structure, how it’s built, the things that go into the backend, the code, the technical stuff that maybe a lot of us don’t want to think about, but that is how Google reads our website. So, it is an integral part of it. Then, the keywords tie into the content, but it’s about using the right words that people are searching for your services. User experience is another one. So when people land on your website, can they find what they need? Are they able to easily navigate it? Can they read it easily? Is the text too small, or is the contrast low? Is it like, “I can’t read this white text on a light pink background,” or “Is this link broken, and I ended up on a 404 page?” Google can see all kinds of things, and they’re not going to prioritize your content or rank you as well if people are having a bad user experience. Page speed is another one. That ties in with user experience. Especially in today’s age, nobody wants to wait even more than a couple of seconds for a website to load. So, the faster your website can load, the better. When ranking you, Google also considers page speed, so we want to ensure our pages load quickly.

 One of the last pieces is off-page SEO, which many people ask, “What does that mean?” But essentially, it’s about other websites referring to your website. So, like Dolly, I’m on your podcast, and hopefully, you will link me to my website in the show notes. That’s what’s called a backlink. It’s essentially you saying that you are recommending me to other people. The more reputable websites that advise you and link back to your website, the more Google sees that you are a reputable site. You must have excellent content because many people are talking about and referring to you.

Dolly DeLong: I love that. I love that you brought up off-page SEO because when people think of SEO, they often think about what you initially said—they think about keywords, they think about blog posts—but they don’t think about off-page SEO, and I’m so glad you brought that up. Listeners, we will address that in the upcoming bundle, with the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle, the SEO Edition. We made sure to cover all facets of SEO. Laurel, I’m throwing a curveball at you with this question. I realized I forgot to ask you this initially, but what got you interested in becoming more of an expert in SEO in your field?

Laurel Vines: Yeah, I think what started it is that I love Pinterest and am a Pinterest strategist. I knew that Pinterest was all about SEO, and I’d done keyword research for Pinterest. So naturally, when I started getting traffic for my clients, and as I was setting up my website, I knew I wanted to lay that foundation with my website and start showing up in search results. Okay, how can I optimize that for SEO? That started my journey. I had that foundation of knowing that keywords are essential, so I began to delve into everything involved in website optimization, which is much more than is involved with Pinterest. But I love it. It just tied in with my message for business owners: They should have ways of marketing their content that don’t feel stressful, that don’t feel like they have to be on 24/7. They can create it and then work hard for them in the background. We all love waking up to inquiries for which we didn’t feel we had to track people down. And just having that organic growth that builds over time—it’s not maybe a super sexy way sometimes to show up or to market; it’s not going to happen overnight. But you’ll be so much happier that you did it later when you build that foundation.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, and that is my hope for this whole series, like the Summer of SEO. I hope that listeners like you are slowly implementing all of these strategies that we’re trying to share with you and teach you and that you will see some fruits of your labor. Hopefully, that is my hope by this winter, next spring, or even next summer. So, going back to your point about what makes a good SEO strategy, you shared many good points: content, website structure, keywords, user experience, page speed, and off-page SEO. I know you also want to share more about local SEO. Is that correct?

Laurel Vines: Yes. Yeah. So if you’re, especially if you’re a service provider with a local business of some kind, even if you’re not local, SEO can help you get more traction with the people in your area. So, setting up a Google Business Profile is essential. Even if you provide a primarily online service, people will often search for that service locally. So, if you are a website designer like me, sometimes people want to connect with someone local. It just gives them that trust factor. So they might search for “web designers near me.” And that’s where your Google Business Profile comes into play. It shows them your area, and they can connect that way. So, include your location as a part of your keyword strategy, especially if you’re offering local services. So, say you’re a photographer—including those in your blogging strategy, whatever kind of l you shoot at. The venues you like to shoot at and things like that will also be super important.

Dolly DeLong: Okay, based on your experience with Pinterest, how do you choose—I’m leading into the next point because I know, I see everyone, I see Laurel’s notes, so go with me on this, okay? How do you start choosing strategic keywords for Pinterest? This summer, we’ve discussed choosing keywords for blogging, podcasting, etc. But what about Pinterest? I know that there is power. I’ve experienced the power of SEO with Pinterest. Still, one of my best clients has come from Pinterest, and they come to me every year now to do their family photos. But how do you determine good strategic keywords for Pinterest?

Laurel Vines: Yeah. So, I love Pinterest for keyword research because it is an excellent place to research the platform. So, uh, when you put in a search, I always tell people to start by just kind of content dumping. What are your content pillars? Do you know what I’m blogging about? What kind of clients am I looking to attract? Then, get into their minds what they are searching for. Then, start searching for things on Pinterest. Suggested searches will appear when you search, giving you those little colored bubbles at the top. And those are long-tailed keywords. I want to say you’ll have a root keyword, maybe. So, if you’re a wedding photographer, you know, “wedding photography,” you’ll have different long-tail keywords. So whether it’s documentary-style wedding photography or intimate wedding photos or things like that, leaning into those more long-tail keywords that are a little bit more specific and complementing the more prominent keywords, like just broad, root keywords with those more specific keywords that are authentic to you, to your style, and that your ideal client would be searching for. That’s kind of where the keyword magic happens.

Dolly DeLong: Gotcha. Do you recommend—now, this is just me asking because I was thinking—doing an incognito Pinterest search, or can you honestly do it on your desktop without—like, will your past searches impact the keywords you’re searching for? Does that make sense?

Laurel Vines: Yeah, no, it does. Um, and for Pinterest, it does affect your feed, like what will come up on your feed and your past searches, but it won’t affect the actual suggested search like it would with Google. Um, so that’s what makes using that great. Incognito searches can be suitable for finding, say, interests or looks; there’s something you can do called searching in key interest boards. Another thing, but you’re fine using your profile to see what comes up.

Dolly DeLong: Okay, I was just curious about that. I knew. Okay, again, Laurel, so sorry. I throw curveballs at people. They’re like, “What? I wasn’t prepared for this question.” Okay, I’ll let you continue. What else can you do to plan your SEO as a service provider?

Laurel Vines: Yeah. One thing that I love to do when planning your website before you even start blogging is to think about your homepage, your About page, your Services page, and things like that. I like everyone to make a website map, so plan out those core pages, such as your Home page, About, Services, and any digital product pages. Choose a focus keyword for each page for sales pages and things like that. So for me, I have a Pinterest page for my Pinterest services. My focus keyword is “Pinterest management services” for that page. And whatever page you choose that keyword for, make sure you’re only using it for that page as your focus keyword. If you have two pages focused on that keyword, they can compete with each other, and that’s called keyword cannibalization. And so we don’t want to do that with our website. This means that two of our pages compete to rank for that keyword. So, it isn’t apparent to Google, and we don’t want to compete with ourselves. We want to clarify: “This page is about this topic, and that’s what I want it to rank for.”

Dolly DeLong: Gotcha. I just thought of this, and you might say, “I don’t know, Dolly.” What if you have a homepage, and on that homepage, you describe who you are and who you serve? That’s like your keywords and your H1, which comes up in search. But then, what if you have another page on your website dedicated to that specific service? Does that make sense? Does that mean that the homepage and the service page are cannibal— is it cannibalizing? Is that the word? I don’t know. Oh my goodness,

Laurel Vines: each other.

Dolly DeLong: Like, are they negating each other?

Laurel Vines: They can. If that’s the case, try rephrasing whatever it is slightly differently. So it could be, say, I say I do Pinterest management, I am a Pinterest manager on my homepage, but then my services page is Pinterest management services. So, it’s a different exact keyword. You don’t want to go precisely for that keyword in both places. And it doesn’t mean you can’t use that word on both pages. It just means that you have a couple of places: your SEO title, your meta description, and your H1, which is that first line on the page. It’s tagged H1 in your backend settings. That’s where those keywords—you want those main keywords you’re trying to rank that page for—to be. And then you can use other keywords throughout the rest, but that’s the core place.

Dolly DeLong: Gotcha. Okay, thank you for letting me ask that. You’re like, “That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard.” But I was like, I thought of that, and I thought I might—I don’t think I’m doing that, but I think I’ve put—I’m like, you’re like, “Wow, Dolly, like where are we going with this?” But I was thinking out loud that something like that is happening on my website, so I’ll have to double-check just in case because I don’t want to use what we use to cannibalize the pages. That sounds intense. I’m learning alongside you guys, so this is good. Okay, so plan what it will look like and choose a focus keyword for every page. You’re not the first contributor or guest speaker to discuss this, and I’m glad you’re bringing it up again because it’s a good reminder for us as listeners.

Laurel Vines: Yes. Yeah. And you can include that focus keyword in your URL, so the actual URL slug. So if it’s forward slash Pinterest management services, as long as it makes sense, you want the keyword to make sense for the page. So, like I said, many people get confused about what to choose. A page like my Services page versus a blog post, and I always say to think of it differently like your Pages; it should be obvious and describe your service or whatever the page is about. I don’t want people to get super caught up in picking the perfect keyword for their Contact page or About page because that will probably not be what someone is searching for. That will be like after they find you, they want to learn more about you. But they may search for your Services page if they wish to service. But then, when it comes to a blog post, you want to answer their question. So, consider blog posts as answers to questions and what questions people seek. So, I love a tool. It’s called Answer the Public. That’s a great way to just type in a topic, and then they’ll come up with all kinds of questions people are asking about that specific topic. Then, what kind of search volume is around those? This can be a great way to answer. It can also be a great way to come up with ideas to answer those questions about a specific topic you know much about as a service provider.

Dolly DeLong: I heard about Answer the Public. Is it a free tool, or is it paid?

Laurel Vines: It is free. They have a paid plan with more features, but you can do five daily searches for free.

Dolly DeLong: Oh!

Laurel Vines: So try it out that way.

Dolly DeLong: That’s an excellent idea. Ubersuggest has been suggested a lot in this series—no pun intended. So I always like it when somebody else brings up another content search, like a user search engine. So, Answer the Public. Okay, that’s good to know. I’ll be sure to link that in the corresponding blog post. As you, I know you’re a service provider. I know you work one-on-one with clients. Okay, again, I’m throwing a curveball at you, but do they come in learning a lot about the importance of SEO? Are you having to educate them? And then they have lightbulb moments. Do your clients have any knowledge of SEO? How are you educating them? What does your process look like with them? Have you seen a transition from a situation where they didn’t understand to one where they’re reaping the rewards and applying what you’ve been teaching them? That was a lot of questions, Laurel. I’m so sorry.

Laurel Vines: No, that’s a great question. Um, I think it’s a mix of people who like being in different places in their journey. Many people, I think, now know that SEO is something they need, but they don’t know what it means or what it entails. So is it something you do on the backend, and then it works, and I don’t have to do anything? And I always tell people it’s a partnership. Your website designer can’t just do your SEO for you if that makes sense. I do need your feedback about your services and what you do. A copywriter will also be helpful if you aren’t into writing your entire website. You have to prioritize it as well. The more content you create in the future and the more you use it, the better it will be. I love educating people about it and the core areas I talked about. For example, this is what I did on your website. I always give people a checklist

 I like people to be able to take the site and feel comfortable like they can do things with it without messing anything up. So when you’re making a new page, whether it’s a sales page next month, here’s a list of everything you need to do to ensure the page is good for SEO. The same goes for a blog post. Here are a few guidelines for your blogs to ensure they are SEO optimized. Um, but yeah, and then sometimes I have people come to me who want to switch platforms, so I do Showit. Many people come from other platforms and already have an SEO presence, so they know about SEO but don’t know how it works for Showit. So, I help them transfer that over without doing too much collateral damage to their rankings.

Dolly DeLong: Gotcha. Thank you for letting me ask that random question, but I thought it was essential, like listeners. I guess I’m pulling on this thread so much because there is a temptation when you want to design your website. The thread I’m pulling on is that Laurel is also a Showit website designer. She does this in addition to focusing on SEO and Pinterest, and I love that she merges those two because I’ve seen many of them. I’ve heard horror stories of business owners being promised, like, “Oh yeah, buy this template; it’s SEO-focused.” Still, it’s not; it’s just a beautiful template. But I like that, Laurel, you’re combining your expertise of, “Okay, here’s an attractive template, but here’s also how to put some SEO juice in it.” And here, I will guide you through how to do that. So, listeners, if you are in the process of redesigning your website, make sure you do your due diligence and make sure that the designer brings both facets. They’re going to bring beauty to it, but then they’re also going to design it to speak to your ideal client, and then they’ll help you and guide you with SEO. So make sure you find the two in one. Laurel is, if you’re interested in Showit, then I highly recommend checking out Laurel’s stuff. So anyways, I am so excited, Laurel, that you gave us some excellent strategies to plan out your SEO as a service provider, like things to think about and user experience. The big thing for me was being reminded about off-page SEO because I neglect that. I don’t—I’m not as… I’m always thinking about, “Okay, what blog should I be writing? How can I optimize my podcast? Or what about YouTube?” But I always forget, “Oh yeah, I also need to work on my backlinks.” Before we sign off, is there anything else you want to share about SEO strategies we might have overlooked as a service provider?

Laurel Vines: I had a thought when you were talking about backlinks. There are just a few ways to start building those. Um, it will happen naturally as you collaborate with more people. So, guest podcasting is my favorite way to make it, but guest blog posting is another great way. So maybe incorporate that into your blogging strategy by doing a guest blog post once a month or so with other sites aligned with you. We have a similar audience. Also, that’s great for your overall visibility, but then that’s it. Backlinks for you, finding directories. So if any of them are like online business or local business directories, sometimes, you know, your local might have a regional publication, or your city might have something like local business directories. Those can be great places to get on, or even just like searching for blog posts that are ranking well already on Google, that have—maybe if it’s a service provider or anything like that—writing to those people who have the post and just saying, “Hey, would you be interested in adding me to my list?” Here’s who I am. Pitching those can feel weird and scary, but people always do it. You’d be surprised. Just saying, “Hey, I have this site, or I have this great content that you might want to add to the list or link back to, ” is also a great way to build those.

Dolly DeLong: These are all excellent points. Again, listeners, I encourage you to re-listen this episode and take many notes. Again, thank you for coming to the podcast and sharing your experience and expertise. Do you mind telling us what you will contribute to the SEO bundle?

Laurel Vines: Yes! So, I am contributing to “SEO Planning for Service Providers,” a combination workshop and Notion template. The Notion template I love is what I use with all my SEO clients to plan out their SEO strategy. And it has a place for you to create that website map—so mapping out your website, there’s a tutorial walking you through how to do that and places to save your keywords, track your keywords, access your analytics, and all that stuff. So it’s like an SEO hub to organize all your content and plan everything out. Also, that workshop focuses on how to find the right keywords and where to put them.

Dolly DeLong: Laurel, thank you so much. Would you mind sharing with everyone how they can find, connect, and work with you?

Laurel Vines: I’m on Instagram at Vineyardcreative. Co or Vineyardcreativeco.com, and I offer brand and Showit web design and SEO services. So yeah, I would love to work for you and with you. I also send a weekly newsletter with many SEO, Pinterest, and web design tips.

Dolly DeLong: I want to say, Laurel, I hope this doesn’t embarrass you. I think you’re the sweetest person, sweeter than apple pie. You have a charming personality. So, everyone, please get to know Laurel. It’s been so much fun getting to know you online, and now it’s fun collaborating with you and serving other business owners with you. Again, thank you so much for being my Instagram friend.

Laurel Vines: Thank you. That means so much coming from you because you’re the sweetest person ever.

Dolly DeLong: Oh, thank you. I can have my moments. I always tell people I have my moments. My son knows I have my moments.

Laurel Vines: Sweet and spicy, right?

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, sweet and spicy. Thank you again for coming on. As always, listeners, check out the show notes for all the links mentioned. I know this will be the last episode of the Summer SEO Series. So, I hope it’s been a wonderful summer of implementing SEO strategies in the backend of your business. I hope you found some system and workflow to get you started or motivate you to enjoy SEO more in your industry. And if you’re listening to this in the future, I hope you binge-listen to these SEO-related podcast episodes. Don’t forget to check out the Systems and Workflow Magic Bundle, the SEO Edition. I know it’s here for a minimal time, and you have a limited time to take action and get these resources for a low price. So I hope you will consider checking that out, but until then, stay streamlined and magical, you amazing muggle. Next week, I will show you a brand-new system and workflow-related podcast episode. And until then, bye.