Podcast Episode 22: SEO Tips for Pro Organizers with Caitlin Strempel
Welcome to Episode 22: SEO Tips for Pro Organizers with Caitlin Strempel
In today’s episode, I’m excited to introduce Caitlin Strempel of CRS Digital Marketing. Caitlin is a digital marketing strategist and SEO expert who is part of our network of preferred service providers for Pro Organizer Studio. I invited Caitlin onto the podcast today to share some helpful tips for tweaking your website SEO to get you more traffic as a professional organizer. This episode is packed with great information. I learned a lot myself! You’ll definitely want to have pen and paper handy for this one.
What We Talk About:
(00:00) – Introduction to the episode
(01:05) – Introducing Caitlin
(3:40) – What is the goal of SEO and why is it important?
(5:42) – Why SEO should be a higher priority than social media engagement
(7:10) – What keywords should professional organizers use?
(8:57) – Caitlin shares tips specific to the organizing industry
(13:07) – How to use competitor research for SEO
(15:42) – One thing you can do to enhance your SEO rankings today
(16:43) – What to expect when you decide to hire an SEO expert
(18:07) – Blogging tips for SEO
(21:10) – How GoogleMyBusiness will help with SEO
(24:50) – Caitlin’s Top 3 suggestions to do NOW to enhace your SEO(26:56) – Where to find more of Caitlin’s free SEO tips
(27:36) – How to work with Caitlin
(28:33) – Episode Wrap-up
Resources mentioned:
UberSuggest
SEOQuake
GoogleMyBusiness
Caitlin Strempel
Caitlin Strempel is an SEO expert & digital marketing strategist who works with ambitious business owners to get their services found online by the people who need them the most. Working with brands such as Under Armour, Lexus, and Olay, her work has been featured in Forbes, Advertising Age, and more. Advocating for the success of others, Caitlin firmly believes that if you are alive it's your duty to change the world with your talents, and to do that your message needs to be seen and heard by as many people as possible.
Website
Instagram
Related Links:
SEO (Part 1) - SEO Tips for Pro Organizers
SEO (Part 2) - How to write a blog for SEO
SEO (Part 3) - How to use Google My Business for SEO
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Full Transcript
Jen Obermeier:
Thank you so much to our guest today, Caitlin Strempel. She is an SEO expert and I'm particularly excited to welcome her onto the podcast today. Hi Caitlin.
Caitlin S.:
Hello Jen. How are you?
Jen Obermeier:
I'm so good. I'm so good. And the thing that is really special about Caitlin is that she is a part of our network of service providers, that Pro Organizer Studio sort of maintains a group of women that we're working with at any particular time. So that professional organizers, who have a need for their business such as website design, finding a virtual assistant, social media management, SEO services can come to us and we can put you in touch with someone who we've already established a relationship with, and who already understands what a professional organizer even is, right? Because there's nothing worse when you are, especially when you're brand new in business, and you're still trying to really get used to explaining yourself and your services to then be sitting down with, for example, an SEO service person or a website designer.
Jen Obermeier:
And they're like, "Okay, so what are we trying to do here?" And you're like, "Ah." Okay, so that's the value of coming to us when you have a need like that. And so Caitlin right now is our SEO gal and she has been working with professional organizers so she already kind of gets it like, what is it that a local service provider such as a professional organizer needs in order for her website to get found. All right, so now that was a long introduction. Caitlin, I would love for you to introduce yourself and then I'll have a ton of questions for you after that. So take it away.
Caitlin S.:
Yes, so I am Caitlin, I started in this business about 12 years ago now and have experience with pay-per-click and SEOs, which is what I help your listeners out with and I've been loving it. I've been in the ad industry world for a while and slowly I've navigated towards digital because I love digital marketing. It's awesome because you can actually see results, you can see the analytics, you can tweak it and optimize it. And when do we come up with a campaign that's going to be awesome and live on for months and months and bring you leads and get you found online.
Jen Obermeier:
The math nerd inside me loves that.
Caitlin S.:
Oh yeah.
Jen Obermeier:
Maybe that should be my second or third career.
Caitlin S.:
Such a math nerd. I know, I'm just looking at analytics and seeing how you can improve and just seeing the numbers go up is, oh, gets me.
Jen Obermeier:
That's awesome. So Caitlin, tell us what is the goal for a professional organizer out there of doing search engine optimization for her website? Explain it like we're five years old. Let's just establish what is the end goal for even thinking about this as a project.
Caitlin S.:
So search engine optimization, first of all, is getting your website to Google. When you go on and you yourself are searching for something, you're going to go to Google and type in a question which we call query. And then these websites pop up. So SEO is getting your website to the top of those search engines. And it's going to get you found by anyone who is searching and needs your business. Search engine optimization is great because these people are searching most of the time for a service that they actually need and they're ready to purchase and ready to buy. So if you're not showing up, then they're going to go to your competitors.
Jen Obermeier:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So this is interesting and I know that I've talked to a lot of my students about this because it is something that they can do on their own, but it is not an overnight success project. It's more of a long term sort of slow and steady deal. Is that right?
Caitlin S.:
Oh yeah. It's like going to the gym. You can't expect a six-pack if you go once, or like go even for a full month and then never go for six months. So it's something that you can do it slowly and it's actually better to do it slowly and just, you could do one thing a day for six months and be totally fine. But just as long as you're consistent and you're doing small steps along the way, for sure. And even for brand new websites, Google, they'll take a look at them and they might not even start ranking the website until three months in. Just to make sure that they're a legit website, that they're a company that people want to go search for and they're looking for. And it's just it's a quality website. Because the end goal of Google is to make sure that their users are getting the best experience.
Jen Obermeier:
Oh absolutely. And to that point, wouldn't you kind of argue, and of course, I know you're biased. When you argue that spending a little bit of time every day on search engine optimization, SEO stuff is a little more of a longterm, bigger leverage play then going and playing on Instagram a little bit every day just to build up your social media account. And the reason why I ask that is because of what you said. This is how you get in front of people who are searching, ready to buy, versus out there browsing around and accidentally stumble upon you and say, "Oh that's cool." But it might be, especially with our industry six months, three years until somebody comes back around and says, "Oh yeah, I'm really ready to buy your services."
Caitlin S.:
Absolutely. In the social media world, you're targeting people ... The types of people there, the demographics, what they like, things like that. On Google, you're searching for the people who are ready to buy and are searching your keyword, your business into Google ready to get you. And on top of that too, once you stop posting on Instagram, you're kind of gone. After a few months, after ... If you do SEO for six months, a little bit every day, you can sit back a little bit, once you're at the top. Maybe not go away completely, but it's a lot more passive and you're getting those passive visitors to your website.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay, I really love that. So question now, what are the keywords really that professional organizers want to focus on?
Caitlin S.:
It most likely will change, depending on your location. So you want to do your keyword research and that is my first step that I always tell people when starting SEO is to go do your keyword research. If you have a Google AdWords account, you can go on, they have a tool there or you can go to a website, it's called ubersuggest.com. And actually, there are tons of websites out there. I just like this one the best. And you can go and just start searching keywords. And by keywords, I mean phrases that describe your business. So it could be home organizer, professional organizer, or maybe it's professional kitchen organizer, whatever it is. And you want to go and search those keywords and you want to look for a few things. You want to look for if there's traffic. You know what, people actually searching for that, which Ubersuggest and all those other tools will tell you that.
Jen Obermeier:
Will it automatically say it specific to your area, how many people are searching for it? Or do you have to sort of input your location with it?
Caitlin S.:
On Ubersuggest you have to input your location with it.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay.
Caitlin S.:
But if you have Google AdWords and you can even do this, you can set up a Google AdWords account for free, and it's ads.google.com. You can go in there and they have a tool. It's where you actually run pay-per-click ads. But people use this tool a lot for SEO. You go in there and you can type in just your keyword, no location, and there's a setting where you can change location. So it gets a lot more intricate in regards to location and geographic areas where you're servicing.
Jen Obermeier:
How do you, give me a quick overview because I know there's so much that goes on with this behind the scenes. When you're working with a client, what is your process like?
Caitlin S.:
First and foremost I always do a website audit. So it's just I ... Yeah, I get a sense of the website health, what's going on. If you have broken links, if you've done any SEO in the past, things on those, just so we can get a basis because every SEO campaign is going to look a little bit different depending on where your website starting from.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay. Let me take it a little bit further. Caitlin, so you've worked with a couple of professional organizers now. What are some things that you have noticed that are specific about our industry? If there are any that you think are insightful little tips that you could share today?
Caitlin S.:
I think it goes along with picking a really great keyword. So you will put in, if you type in "home organizer" or "closet organizer", you'll see that there are actual physical products that pop up.
Jen Obermeier:
Yes.
Caitlin S.:
Even make sure that you are bidding or optimizing for keywords that have search intent. So that's another little trick about finding a good keyword is you always want to type it into Google because Google knows best. And if you type in closet organizer and a bunch of closet physical organizers pop up, people know that that's what their searchers are searching for. So maybe it's closet organizing services that-
Jen Obermeier:
Yeah, okay.
Caitlin S.:
... if I can be more specific and actually go in and do the manual labor yourself, which manual labor meaning it takes two seconds to do. Type it into Google yourself and see what pops up. And if it's physical items then start moving towards the services keywords. And again that could potentially change based on your location.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay. Okay. So that's really interesting too is that this stuff is not going to be the exact same everywhere. I'm curious too, this is just my own thoughts. What have you noticed about what Google believes the search intent is when it comes to the words "professional organizer"? I have to tell you why I'm asking is because sometimes when you search those words in a certain city, professional organization, like a professional organization, it can be like what like your chamber of commerce or whatever. I think that Google is still confused in a lot of areas about what that is. Have you noticed that?
Caitlin S.:
I actually haven't noticed that on my end.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay.
Caitlin S.:
Honest. So maybe it's getting a little bit smarter and maybe it's-
Jen Obermeier:
I hope so.
Caitlin S.:
It's like a trend that's just suddenly coming and everyone's searching for this now. So Google does kind of morph with the trends. I haven't run into that issue yet. But that's definitely something you want to check out for sure. By again putting in your own search in Google.
Jen Obermeier:
That's really interesting. And this kind of goes hand in hand with what I feel is happening in people's brains. When you talk about professional organizer, I feel like sometimes I have to, if I'm going to be saying it in conversation, I usually say something like a home organizing business versus calling myself a professional organizer to someone who may or may not be familiar with that term yet. So I'll say something like, "I have a home organizing business. And they'll be like, "Oh." And I'll say, "Have you ever heard of that?" And they'll say either yes or no. And I'm like, "Yeah, it's called a professional organizer." So that's like people ask all the time about an elevator speech. And I feel almost maybe in your search terms you need a little ... A few different variations on what you're calling yourself. Just in case people are typing in decluttering service for my home. That's a huge variant. But it is possible that that's the only thing in their brain that they can associate with what we do.
Caitlin S.:
Absolutely. And so what I especially for a business like you guys, where there are a few different keywords, but technically it's really all the same. You want to hone in on one keyword per page. So know your homepage is home organizing services. Another page would be professional organizing services. So again, it's close, but it's different enough where you can put that keyword on a different page and really hone in on that specific keyword per page. So you're hitting all those keywords that people might be searching for.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay. Really good. So let's talk about, again, let's think about the person out there who has, they're bearing with us, they're trying to track with all the good information we're giving them. And they're like, "Whoa, I have so much to do now." Because they're like, "Okay, I got to do keyword research. I got to do all this." Okay. Would you recommend, let's go back to something you kind of mentioned at the beginning about competitor research. If they're a little bit confused about where to even start, tell us how could they use some of those competitor research strategies. Just to even find out what keywords, say that there was a handful of other organizing companies in their area. How could they find out what keywords those competitors are ranking for so that they already kind of have a leg up on, here are the things that people must be searching for in my area in order to find my competitors. Hopefully all that makes sense. Take it slow, guys. I promise Caitlin is here to explain it.
Caitlin S.:
Honestly, just go into Google and do it yourself. Go in and type in a bunch of keywords that maybe you've done your research, or you just you know off the top of your head the keywords. Since it is your business, you can go in and type in Google and see who's popping up. And you can take a look, you can see the little blue ... The blue headlines that pop up in Google. Those are called title tags. Look at that, see what they're saying in those title tags. And then also the description underneath too. So you can kind of get a sense for what they're saying-
Jen Obermeier:
Do you mean the titles on each one of your competitor's individual pages?
Caitlin S.:
No, sorry. If you actually go in and you type a search query into Google and you got all the websites that pop up, there's a little headline. It's the headline that you click to go out to their website. So just by even looking at that, you don't even have to click out to the website. It's just you're looking at the headlines that pop up in Google. For example, I'll give an example for my company. I can put SEO expert, and then I'll say my name and my company name. So if you type SEO experts Phoenix into Google, you can see that. That title will pop up and you can just see the title and you can kind of just take a guess that I'm going to be going after SEO Experts because that's in my actual title.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay, that makes sense. Okay. If they do that and then they kind of see what are the top companies that are popping up in their area, and then use the tool that you said before-
Caitlin S.:
SEOquake.
Jen Obermeier:
... SEOquake to visit their competitors and see what their competitors are doing as far as titling their pages, that kind of thing.
Caitlin S.:
Yes.
Jen Obermeier:
And then even if they like, we're not going to say copy, but just modeled their own SEO practices after that, then that would at least kind of get them on the right track. Is that right?
Caitlin S.:
Correct, yes. And nowadays there's always somebody out there. I mean, SEO is so intricate and there are so many things that you can do and a lot of people aren't doing it properly. So if you go in there and just find one thing that you can do better, focus on that.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay. Give me an example of one thing that you can do better.
Caitlin S.:
A lot of things that I see is that people will put their business name first and then the keyword they're trying to rank for. So if you're trying to rank for the same keyword, put the keyword first and then your business name. It's both going to pop up in the search engine. But Google will see the first words of your title, and they automatically think those are the most important words.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay. That is a really good tip I have never heard before. So, ladies who already have their titles and stuff set up, you can just easily go in and switch those around and that could potentially move you up in the rankings, right?
Caitlin S.:
Oh yeah.
Jen Obermeier:
Love it. Oh, that's such good stuff, Caitlin. Okay, so let's rewind a little bit. I know some people are going to listen to this and kind of go out and try some things on their own. If anyone's listening to this and is like, "Oh wow, maybe I should put on my goals list." To work with an SEO expert like you, how do they go about ... What is the process for getting started? What do they need to know in advance about working with someone in order to get their rankings up and then maintain it themselves?
Caitlin S.:
I think in that regard, it's just reaching out to somebody and don't be afraid to ask questions if you're looking to hire someone. What are your past results? And not just what are the results right now? It's where was your client before you started and where are they now? So it's looking at, how did you actually help them in those few months, or those few years, however long they worked with them. Don't be afraid to ask those questions. And then honestly, any person who is giving you a free consultation should be able to give you something where you can take away that day and go and do it yourself. And again, I mean there are lots of blogs out there and a lot of great resources to start doing this yourself.
Jen Obermeier:
That is awesome. Okay, so here's my next question. Speaking of blogs, I think one thing that a lot of people know about SEO is that blogging is good for SEO. However, I know firsthand that a lot of professional organizers, they would love to have the time to do a blog, but they feel sort of guilty slash a little scared. Like is it going to be bad for search if I never do a blog? Can you give us sort of a balanced look at how important that is and if that is something that you end up recommending to all of your clients?
Caitlin S.:
I recommend it 90% of the time, for sure. Content is big and Google just came back with an update the past month. Even stating themselves that content is going to be a lot better for SEO and bigger for SEO ranking purposes. And it's not something that you have to do every day, all day. I would say if you're really nervous about starting it or you just really don't feel like you have the time, do one post a week. And one post a week is better than doing four posts in one week and then not going back ever again. And-
Jen Obermeier:
That's good to know.
Caitlin S.:
Yes, and quality is way better than quantity in regards to how many times you post. So it's better to post even every other week. Sit down and come up with a list of things you want to discuss, maybe do some keyword research about that and figure out what your title should be. And then we try to keep the blog post over a thousand words.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay.
Caitlin S.:
So and just, make sure you have your headlines in there, make sure it looks nice, it's readable and it actually gives value. And even if you are on Instagram, shout it out to your Instagram and try to get people following to your blog and if you're giving great content, people are going to come back and look for that and start linking to that as well. You can also take a graphic and post it on Pinterest and drive traffic to your blog that way. But Google really likes to see that you're providing value over anything, over pretty much any onsite optimization you can make. It's really important for them and you're doing it consistently.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay. Interesting. So I have a question. How quickly do you think, let's say someone out there is newer in her business and she wants to move up the Google search rankings and potentially get ahead of some of her competitors who have been in business longer but who are not blogging at all. Would you say she could do that realistically within three months, six months or it would take a whole year? Is that something that you would recommend as sort of a quicker competitive strategy? Or more still of a longterm?
Caitlin S.:
That's still going to be a little bit more longterm as well depending on the area you're servicing, depending on what the competition is like and things like that. It all depends really. But I do have a tip that I think would be really helpful. Google My Business, that is a business listing. Go and sign up for that because that helps you get on the maps, on the Google maps, you know when you search something into Google and then even before their organic listings, businesses pop up with their location. Getting on Google My Business will help you pop up in those maps. And it is one of the most underutilized tools. So if you go in there and you fill out your profile completely, put in your images, put in a video, and there's actually also space in there where you can have ... Where you can actually post. So it'd be like a little mini-blog and you can actually do your mini-blogs in there and Google loves that.
Jen Obermeier:
Oh my gosh, I did not know that.
Caitlin S.:
Yeah. And you want to be careful because you want to make sure that you're not posting the same content there as you are on your website.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay.
Caitlin S.:
Posting, it may be a variation. So maybe on your website, you talk about the five biggest mistakes in home organizing and then you can go to your Google My Business and maybe put in that my top three tips of home organizing. So you maybe talk about that. So it's a little ... It's not the same, but it's easily twistable, or you can sit down in one sitting and get those both out. I'll Google My Business you're talking about the top three tips and you're like, "Hey, for more information on the top five things, the top five mistakes that I see that you shouldn't do, click on over to my website."
Caitlin S.:
So you're still getting that juice link to your website, but you're organizing, or sorry, you're optimizing for Google My Business, the Google Maps and also the Google organic search engines. I hope that makes sense.
Jen Obermeier:
No, it totally does. And that was like eye-opening because I did not know there was a way to do a mini blog in there. Now just having that mini-blog on the Google My Business, does that in itself help your other site rank higher or is it the fact that you're linking?
Caitlin S.:
Google My Business is on Google Maps, so it's a little bit of a different search engine than actual Google organic listings.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay.
Caitlin S.:
Though it's within the same search, they use different criteria. So you're-
Jen Obermeier:
Oh, interesting.
Caitlin S.:
So on Google My Business, you're looking to get ranked on those maps, but you're linking out to your website that will help your website get ranked as well. So you all want it to link together and all raise up together.
Jen Obermeier:
So that's really interesting because on Google Maps results I always assumed it was in the order of distance from you.
Caitlin S.:
Yes, so that is one criteria.
Jen Obermeier:
But only one of the criteria.
Caitlin S.:
Yeah, exactly. So there's a bunch, there's a bunch of different ranking factors and if you're in the area but you don't have an optimized Google My Business account, you're not going to pop up, or [inaudible 00:24:05] is going to pop up above you.
Jen Obermeier:
So optimizing your Google My Business account, is that a quicker prospect then than really working on your site titles and your header tags and all that stuff that I know is so overwhelming for someone right now.
Caitlin S.:
Yes. You want to do both at the same time for sure. And the reason I say Google My Business is quicker is just because it's so underutilized.
Jen Obermeier:
That's really gold nugget right there guys. That is so, so good. Caitlin, I know that to a lot of people, it's a little bit like drinking from a fire hose. It's a lot to even think about and try to process. I know there'll be some ladies out there who were like, "This is how my brain works. I'm going to take this and run on my own." But can you give us ... Okay, if you could just summarize three tips that someone could sit down for a few hours this afternoon and implement right away that would make a difference. What would those three things be?
Caitlin S.:
Right. My top three things would be number one, set up for Google My Business and fill out that account completely. Number two, do your keyword research. So you should have a ... At the end of your keyword research, you should have a list, a good list of a few keywords that you can start to optimize for. And then number three is just to update your title tags on your website. Go into your page and give it a title with your keyword. And just make sure that each title tag on each page is different. From the keywords that you already did, you already researched, take those and just assign a keyword to a page and do your title tags.
Jen Obermeier:
That's awesome. And really you're just talking about slight variations on similar keywords really, right? Like we were saying, some people call it a professional organizer, some people call it home organizing business, that kind of thing?
Caitlin S.:
Exactly. And even your homepage could be you're a professional organizer and then your business name and then the services page could be professional home organizing services.
Jen Obermeier:
Yeah. Okay got that. That's so good. Well, that's easy enough especially if you have a website already guys. And you know Squarespace for example, I tend to recommend a lot because it's just so user-friendly for newbies out there. Go back in, because when you set up your website, you probably skipped over some of this stuff because you're like, "I don't know what the page title should be." Go back into your page titles. That's probably a one hour task to open all of those up. If you've got like maybe six or eight pages on your site and put in a title and like Caitlin says, "It should be slightly different on every page." I didn't know that either, so this was wow. Such good learning Caitlin, thank you so much for coming on to talk about this because I know it's an overwhelming but extremely valuable topic.
Caitlin S.:
It is. Thank you so much for having me, and seriously, just little bits and pieces every day will do wonders for your website.
Jen Obermeier:
That is awesome. So Caitlin, if people want to get to know a little bit more about you, because like I said, you have a whole separate business. You give away a lot of free good tips and information. How can they find you?
Caitlin S.:
I like to live on Instagram at CRS Digital Marketing. That's where I give away my best tips and then where you can hang out with me pretty much on a daily basis.
Jen Obermeier:
That is awesome. And I know your mailing list too, you give little tutorials. Don't you have a YouTube channel as well?
Caitlin S.:
I link to a private YouTube channel from my [crosstalk 00:27:34].
Jen Obermeier:
Love it. Oh, girls, get on the email list because she knows what she's talking about. Okay. And if you guys, if you've listened to all this and you're like, "Ooh, this is on my to-do list big time to actually work with Caitlin, get my site all set up, pimped out," and then be able to maintain it yourself possibly or you could just continue to have Caitlin take care of it for you.
Jen Obermeier:
Go to proorganizerstudio.com/services or just visit our contact page directly. You can request to be put in touch with her, or and or any other person from our service network currently that you might be interested in. So definitely want to promote that and check it out because like I said, what we try to do is make it easier for you guys by working with people who we have already educated and helped them understand what it is you guys are trying to do so that when Caitlin gets your inquiry, you guys can hit the ground running. And I know that is a good feeling.
Jen Obermeier:
Caitlin, I hope that you like our other service network providers also report that professional organizers are a joy to work with because they're just so dang organized, right?
Caitlin S.:
They really are. I know, I love that.
Jen Obermeier:
I like being the matchmaker. I love that. I love that. Thank you guys so much. This was so, so good. If you enjoyed this episode and want to be in the know about future content that is coming up, please join our free Facebook group just for the podcast. Search for Pro Organizer Studio podcast on Facebook. It's free. You can request future guests. We would love to hear your ideas and of course that link is in our show notes as well, so we'll see you guys next time. Thanks Caitlin.