How Clients Find You! SEO for Professional Organizers with Julia Renee Consulting
The #1 question I get as a coach for organizers is, "How can clients find me?" SEO is one answer to this question! I interviewed an expert for professional organizers, Julia of Julia Renee Consulting--and she is FULLLLL of gems for you!
Julia is an SEO and Pinterest Consultant for creative small businesses at Julia Renee Consulting and is the first SEO professor at Drexel University. Her goal is to make SEO and Pinterest strategies approachable and easy to implement for all small businesses so they can reach their ideal clients organically. She lives in Philadelphia with her Siberian Husky sidekick, her husband, and her baby daughter, and on the side, she runs a travel photography site and experiments with spicy recipes in the kitchen.
Julia offers both set and custom SEO packages to help home organizers rank higher on Google. She focuses on creating strong SEO foundations, and she does a variety of services, from keyword research and website copy optimization to fixing technical errors and creating data reports. Julia's goal is to help make SEO approachable for small businesses, so she's always happy to answer questions and give guidance throughout the process of working with her.
This interview originally aired as an episode of the Pro Organizer Studio Podcast. If you would like to listen, You can CLICK HERE or find us on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you love to listen to podcasts!
Melissa: So anybody who has listened to me for four seconds knows that I am very, very big on making sure that all of your digital properties are ready to go. And it's an absolutely amazing way—not social media. That is not how we get clients. It is mostly from the internet. I am super, super passionate about organizers, making sure that their website and all of their online properties are operating. And so I would like to introduce you to my new friend, Julia, who is here, who I think shares my same passion. Is that fair?
Julia Renee: Oh yeah, definitely.
Melissa: Perfect. But we are going to be talking about something that I have frequently said, like you could get a PhD and SEO, and it is a very, very complex subject, but I also believe deep in my heart that for professional organizers, SEO does not have to be this mystical, magical, scary thing.
So Julia, you are an SEO expert, right? Like you help people, normal people like me, with SEO. So can you tell us a little bit about what you do and how you got there and your journey?
Julia Renee: Yeah. So my journey has definitely been all over the place. But I've been doing this full time for a little over six years now.
I started off as just your basic freelancer. I didn't even have a website. I don't like to tell people that now! It's a dirty secret. So I didn't have a website probably for at least like eight months. But that's because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I was just taking on whatever freelance work that I could, I was doing like graphic design for an opera company. Like, all over the place. But a lot of what I was doing was content writing for small businesses. And I had a blog of my own, so not a business website, but I'd learned how to do SEO and other marketing. So I knew how to get blog posts to rank well on Google.
So when I was writing these blog posts for small businesses, they were ranking really well. And then I realized they had no idea what I was doing to help them rank higher. So that's when I started focusing more on SEO and I got my own website that does rank pretty well. So I've been doing this full time for about six years, helping businesses rank higher on Google.
The other side of my business is also doing Pinterest, which is a search engine in itself. So I really focus on search engines. Like you mentioned that I don't, I don't love social media. I do hang out on Instagram, mostly just sharing photos of like my dog and my baby on Instagram stories but just to kind of have that presence and actually it's kind of funny, I do get some clients from Instagram, but not because they follow me, it's because they like search on Instagram, and then they find my profile that way. So even Instagram SEO can be beneficial.
Melissa: There are so many things that I want to get to, but let's just talk about that one for a second before I forget it, because this is one thing that it's not necessarily what you post on social media, it is what you have in your profile, and you have a very short amount of characters that you can use, But what I see all the time are organizers that don't have their location in their Instagram, or they don't really have what they do, that's another place that you can do SEO that's like a sneakier place.
Julia Renee: Yeah. And I mean, exactly what you're saying is problems that I see on websites all the time, where they don't have their location, so they don't get to the point of what they do. I see a lot of times starting out with the fluffy language. Like, I can help you feel more confident about your life or, feel, less stress or something like that, but they don't actually say what they do.
So feeling less stressed, that could be a whole myriad of different services. That could be a yoga studio, so got to get to the point right away. You can add in the fluffy language afterwards and, really try to connect with someone on an emotional level, but you got to get straight to the point first.
Melissa: The phrase that I have a personal pet peeve about is people who talk about like, I'm going to curate a beautiful home experience for you. No, no, no, no, no, no. Like we are professional organizers, we declutter and organize people's homes. Like you have to be clear about what you say, but that's a point of SEO, right?
SEO loves very clear language about what you do and trying to fluff it up. We think sometimes that is what is going to make us look professional and stand out. But in reality, that plain language is really what connects with our clients. Is that fair?
Julia Renee: Oh, yeah, definitely. Especially if they're not, super clear on exactly how you can help them or what you do. Like, I mean, for me, for SEO, It's a mystery for a lot of people. So I get right to the point. I tell them, SEO consultant for small businesses. I help them rank higher on Google, right? And then they get the gist. And then I can go into details of exactly how I get there. But how the magic happens.
Melissa: Well, what are some things, some common things we've talked about a couple of them, but what are some common things that you see, particularly with professional organizers or other service businesses like, what we do that are mistakes that people make?
Julia Renee: So I see this for all local businesses. But, not having their location in near the top of the page. And also you do want to make sure you're incorporating it a couple of times throughout your website copy. So if you only have it in your footer, Google reads just like a human from top to bottom. So if they don't know where you're located and then your audience doesn't know where you're located until they get to the very bottom of the page they might have already left your website by then if they're not clear on.
If you're in their local area, so definitely making sure that you're including your location, exactly what you do, professional organizing— and then you can definitely add in the, the fluffy language later, but get right to the point. And then one other thing that I see a lot with organizers is.
Especially for ones who offer a couple different types of services. So I've seen some that do home organizing and interior design or home organizing and like corporate office organizing is they only have one page that has all of their services on there. Whereas if you of separate those out, especially if they're for different types of audiences.
So you know, a mom who wants her playroom organized is not the same audience as, a corporate office who wants their, like, workroom organized or something. Separating those out so you can speak to those different audiences, and then also be able to rank for both of those services separately. So if someone is searching specifically for corporate office organizing, but you have 10 different services listed on one page, it's going to be really hard for that one page to be able to rank for all these different types of services.
Melissa: Okay, this is interesting because I have never really thought about that because most of us, including myself, have all of our services kind of on one page because we go like, oh, well, we want everyone to be able to see all the things we do. So that's interesting. So is there a value in having one page that has all the services and then doing separate pages for each individual one or would you recommend doing them totally separate?
Julia Renee: I think it depends on how many services you have and how different they are, but I, I definitely see clients that I've worked with who have all of their services on one page, just have a little snippet of information for each service. And then they have a link that, goes to that separate page.
And you don't, if you have 10 different services, you don't have to have 10 different pages. You can definitely group ones together that are similar, but they, if they are very different, like one client I've worked with. She has a separate page for like architects. library organizing, which is super different from like closet home organizing.
So she needs a separate page for that, but if you, specialize in, home organizing, but you know, particular rooms or something like that you can definitely keep those rooms on one page under home organizing. You don't have to have a separate page for kitchen organizing and one for garage organizing or something like that.
Melissa: But we do have people, and one of the things that I will tell people is diversifying your services is a great idea. And especially if you have particular passions for things, but I'm just thinking now too, as we go into the holidays, there are a lot of services that organizers can offer that are, holiday specific or but they're not necessarily organizing. So that's a good tip to kind of separate those things out a little bit, not confuse. Not confuse the Google machine.
Julia Renee: Yeah. Yeah. If you're doing like holiday decor or something like that, that's, yeah, that's going to be a different keyword than your typical home organizing keywords. Right.
Melissa: Can we talk a little bit about keywords?
Because I think that's where and even like I'm thinking more of myself, like I'm decently comfortable with some of this, but when you start talking about keywords and finding keywords and how to rank for keywords, and you start to get like a little ookie, it starts to be like a little at it.
So can you just explain simply what are keywords, how do we find them?
Julia Renee: Yeah, so keywords, it's literally what you type into Google when you want to find something. The phrase keyword is a little misleading because it makes it sound like there's just one word, but it can be a whole phrase.
So professional organizer in Houston, that is it. That's a keyword. So there are lots of different keyword research tools where you can find these different keywords, they'll show you information on like what the monthly search volume is and how competitive these keywords are so that we can see kind of like the best keywords that you should be targeting or like even the best phrasing of some keywords.
So for example, like home organizer versus professional organizer, there is typically a difference I find in how many monthly searches there are for those keywords. And then also if you are serving like. Locations that are, kind of large. If you want to, if you're like, for example, in Washington, D.C.
That's a huge area. So if you, you can kind of compare like Washington, D. C. versus like Northern Virginia versus like small or, quote small towns in Northern Virginia. And things like that. I'm located in Philadelphia. So Philadelphia is huge. You can try to compare searches for like Philadelphia or there's an area called the main line.
So just trying to, figure out first of all, where you want to be working is if you, want to work in DC and you don't want to have to drive into Northern Virginia all the time then, make sure you're targeting Washington DC and not Northern Virginia, but just kind of comparing to see what is getting the most searches and also what is the least competitive keywords that you can target so that way you do have an opportunity to rank well for them.
Melissa: But just going back to the basics again, using that simple language about what it is we do, you can have some of those complex keywords, right? Like where you could rank for something that is very specific to a niche or something like that, but also not forgetting We've got to have some of the basics covered too, with professional organizer, professional home organizer, home organizer.
It's about what people search for.
Julia Renee: Yeah. And there is also the search intent that you kind of need to pay attention to, because there is actually a big difference between. Home organizer and home organizing. If someone is searching for home organizing, that could be, they're just looking for general information about it, or maybe like a blog post that goes into, what home organizing entails versus home organizer, they're looking for, a person or a service.
So even those like slight differences can make a big difference.
Melissa: Okay, this is interesting. That's another thing thatI have told people this before, but you're articulating it better than I have— is those are two totally different things and that's a great point as someone might be searching for tips and tricks of home organizing versus home organizer, or there might be someone who is just searching home organizing and pops up with you and they go, Oh, I didn't know someone could come into my home and do this. Like there are the difference between three letters can really make a huge difference in how your website searches.
Julia Renee: Yeah. And for those like more informational searches or like home organizing, that's why I recommend using blog posts to, help you rank for that.
Because I see a lot of times, not even just with home organizing, but lots of different industries where you find a blog post and you're like, Whoa, I didn't know someone could actually do that for me. And then, that's when you can either potentially hire the person whose website you found originally, or, go to find a service near you.
But that can be a really good opportunity to rank for these more informational searches where someone's getting some more information. They're not. quite ready to commit, but if you can show off your expertise, show them what you can do then that could be a good way to kind of get them into your funnel and hopefully hire you.
Melissa: Right. Let's talk about blogging and its importance for SEO because I'm sure that you see this all the time. I hear it all the time. People avoid doing blog posts. They are scared by they blogging is the B word. They, it's, but. Talk a little bit about how important they are, just so people know when I tell them this, that I'm not lying to them.
Julia Renee: Oh yeah. Blogging is important. This doesn't mean you need to be writing, a thousand word blog posts every week. ‘Cause nobody has time for that. You can, I mean, also with all these AI tools that are coming out, you can use them as I will recommend as a starting point. So if you're just looking at a blank screen and that freaks you out and makes you feel like you're in high school again, trying to write an essay use these AI tools as a starting point, kind of get the gears going, make sure you do edit it and, put your own personal, spin on it and everything like that because no one wants to read just like a robotic blog posts that, anyone could have on their site. And also it has been shown that, these more personal blog posts do rank higher on Google than ones that are just straight robot blog posts. So definitely make sure using it as a starting point, but they are important because they allow you to target a lot of different keywords.
So there's people who are kind of in the. Beginning stages of, being interested in home organizing but they don't know that they can hire someone to do it or they, aren't quite ready to commit to it, but kind of are just searching for information. That's a good way to reach those people so that we can kind of reach a variety of people rather than just people who are ready to commit today.
And then. It also allows you to show off your expertise both to Google and to potential clients. And when I say show off your expertise, make sure it's like all within the home organizing world. Don't start publishing your recipes on your blog posts. Because that's going to confuse Google about what the purpose of your website is. And the more often that you are publishing these quality blog posts, that means the more often Google is going to come back and crawl everything on your website. So if you launch your website, and then you don't touch it for a year, Google doesn't really know if you're still in business because there hasn't been any activity on it.
But if you are regularly publishing blog posts, and I recommend starting with about once a month, you can definitely add on more if you want to. But then that means Google's going to come back, see that you're still active on your website, see that you're targeting new keywords and things like that, and that's going to really help your rankings.
So, all that being said, you do need to make sure that you are optimizing your blog posts. Again, starting with the keyword research to see what people are searching for; making sure you're writing, long, quality blog posts, incorporating photos and headings, and then also make sure you're using your keyword throughout your blog posts so both for your website copy and for your blog posts, and using that keyword 1 to 5 percent of all of the text on that page or on that blog post. And then writing title tags and meta descriptions. These are all different ranking factors that are really going to help you rank higher for your blog posts. So that way you're not just writing blog posts just for the sake of writing blog posts and not getting anything from it.
I have worked with a client who was hiring a company to kind of create these blog posts for her. And she'd been doing it for like over a year and none of them are ranking. They're all very generic blog posts, not really, related to her specific audience or her specific location. So they weren't actually helping her and she had spent a lot of money on these blog posts. So make sure that blog posts are for your audience they're optimized well. So that way you will be able to rank well for them and actually get something from these blog posts.
Melissa: There was a lot of meat there. I want to go back to one but I want to go back to one thing specifically that you said, which is. Once a month, you are not telling people that you have to write a blog post every day or even every week if you could do it more. That's great. But one time a month I was talking to someone at the How To Summit and she said, I don't have time to blog and I go, you certainly have two hours, like she had just gotten done telling me like something else she had done for many hours. I go, you just told me that you spent two hours on blah. You have time to write one blog post a month! Okay. So, and I am, I don't mean that to sound judgey. We all are busy, guys, but like one blog post a month is all that we're asking to really, really help clients be able to find you.
And also that one thing that I see and I'm sure you see it all the time too. People get overwhelmed by something and so they want to outsource it, which is fine, but you're outsourcing to you might be paying a lot of money for someone to write a blog post that really doesn't know our industry doesn't know the phrasing that we use doesn't know the language that we use. That blog post isn't hitting. So spending the time on your own thing to help your website, I, I think is really important.
Julia Renee: And I do offer blog posts optimization services. So if you do wanna just like, write the content and then pass it off and have all the SEO magic worked, but yeah. 'cause I I would love to write blog posts for people, but I do not have the expertise that all of my different clients do.
Yeah. So it's important to have, their expertise and their brand voice, within the blog posts.
Melissa: That's an important point—you can outsource the thing that is confusing or hard for you to do. And that is the optimization. And that is the SEO magic you can outsource to Julia, but writing it yourself so that you make sure that it's a really quality post in the same way that I would not pretend that I would know how to write an SEO post.
I would not write an SEO blog post for you. You're welcome. You would want it to actually be good. The piece yourself, you can start with AI, you can add your voice, you can add your expertise, and then you can hire someone to do the heavy lifting on the back end for you. I love that. But using AI.
I like what you said, too, about it's a starting point. It's not that you just copy and paste it and spit it out. Something that I have heard a lot of organizers say is they feel guilty, essentially, about using AI to help them with some of this because then they feel like it's not really their work and that's why I say, it is just that starting point you add all of your own flavor.
It's just basically idea generation for you. Is that fair?
Julia Renee: Oh, yeah. And I mean, I see copywriters using AI tools for a starting point. So everyone can use these. I mean, there are so many different ways you can use these tools. But yeah, again, as a starting point, you can also use these AI tools for things like title tags and meta descriptions and like kind of those like smaller things where, you're not quite sure what to say or, how to phrase things.
I will say I have used ChatGPT specifically. They're not great with writing optimized blog posts. I've even told them like, what keyword to incorporate and things like that. And it just, it sounds super robotic. So I will say it's a good, again, good starting point, but make sure you're, editing it, adding your voice and then, optimizing it.
Melissa: Right. Can you talk a little bit about meta descriptions and just explain what that is and why it's important and all that?
Julia Renee: Yeah, so title tags and meta descriptions this is what you're gonna see when you, are searching for something in Google.
So title tag is like, the blue title of that particular web page and then the meta description is a little like two sentence text underneath the title tag is the ranking factor. The meta description actually is not a ranking factor, but it's still important. So with the title tag you have up to 60 characters including spaces. A lot of platforms like Squarespace specifically will let you write I think like 100 characters, but google's just going to cut it off after 60.
Melissa: Okay. This is, this is hot news. You guys 60 characters. That's, that's interesting. Okay.
Julia Renee: Squarespace also has the title tag and meta description listed as optional, which I disagree with. I don't know why every website platform is totally different. I don't know why they do it like this. The meta description, you get 160 characters, including spaces.
Again, I think Squarespace gives you like 400 characters.
Melissa: I was going to say, I think it's like 400.
Julia Renee: Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. Yeah. So. Google's just going to cut it off after 160, so don't even try to fill all 400. It doesn't make any sense. So the title tag is the ranking factor, so you definitely want to make sure you have your keyword incorporated somewhere within your title tag.
So don't just leave your, Your page titles as like about and services and things like that, make sure you have, you can get creative with how you incorporate the keyword. If you, so an about page could be like about Julia and then like a hyphen or the whatever that dash is.
Melissa: the straight up and down line. I forget what that's called. There is a name for it.
Julia Renee: SEO, consultant for small businesses or something like that. So you can add like little taglines at the end. What you don't want to do is just have a keyword as the page title and don't have any related text that's on the page.
So like for your about page, I want to make sure you have like about or meet us or somewhere in there. If you just have like professional organizer as like the title tag, Google might change it. Cause they're like, wait, the actual page title is about why don't they have that somewhere in there for your homepage?
I definitely recommend having the name of your business first. And then the keyword after I have seen this a lot of times where people will try to have the keyword first and the business name after. Google doesn't like that for some reason for at least from what I've seen and I've seen them change it where it's just the name of the business and then they drop the keyword.
Totally interesting. Okay. Yeah. So Google is very particular sometimes. So you want to make sure you're kind of following their rules. The meta description, again, is not a ranking factor, but when you incorporate keywords within the rank or within the meta description, they're going to be bold when someone is searching for that particular keyword.
So that way it kind of helps it stand out a little bit more, against. The competition when they're not using meta descriptions the meta description, you really want to make sure that you're speaking to your ideal audience for, either what they're going to see in the blog post or on the page or, give them some compelling reason to visit your, website.
Don't just say, we help families make their home pretty, like, something generic like that really want to make sure that you're speaking to your ideal audience so that when they read the meta description, they feel really compelled to visit your website. Now Google can change the meta description, depending on how someone searches for something, or, related to their past.
So just because you put something in a meta description, Google might change it sometimes, but if you don't put anything in the meta description at all, Google can kind of fill it with whatever they want. So I've seen them pull like the names of the photos on the web page and fill that in the meta description or even like yeah the social media icons, like I've literally seen meta descriptions that say Facebook icon Instagram icon.
Melissa: so it'll pull anything and then if you haven't done the work on your pictures if you haven't named your pictures or done all text or whatever it's just going to pull whatever was pulled from the internet or like whatever it knows what's going to be there is what you're doing.
Julia Renee: So they're, they're smart, but they're not the most smart sometimes.
So the meta description is at least giving them information for what you want to be included. If you don't put anything, they can fill it with nonsense. And then that can also look really spammy to someone who sees your website and they might not, click on it. Okay.
Melissa: This is, this is awesome. Let's talk about. Something that I am super passionate about. So obviously we talk about Google a lot. But there are other search engines in the universe other than Google and YouTube is one of them.
And Pinterest is one of them. So tell us a little bit about the work that you do with Pinterest as well, because I think this is something that we all use Pinterest, but we might not use it in a business sense. So. Tell us all the Pinterest things that we need to be knowing about.
Julia Renee: Yeah, so Pinterest is great for small businesses.
Especially if you are blogging regularly, put that content on Pinterest. But Pinterest is a search engine at its core. So even though you can kind of like follow people or like comment on pins, which I rarely see people commenting on pins. People go to Pinterest to search for something. So, inspiration or information they're typically not going to Pinterest to search for like home organizer.
They're looking more for information there. So you do want to make sure you're not just like pinning your homepage over and over again. You are pinning the content that you have. But there are like Pinterest keywords that you should be using on your pin title, pin description within your boards your profile, even on like the pin graphic itself because Pinterest has AI tools that are getting smarter at reading text that's on images to try to better understand what that pin is.
So there is a Pinterest keyword research tool called Pinterest trends. I think it's like trends.pinterest.com is the URL. They don't have all of the information that you would want, it's a fairly new tool. So they are always adding data to it. So even if you're searching for a topic in there and you don't have any information, that doesn't mean that no one on Pinterest is searching for it.
You can also use the Pinterest search bar to start typing things in, and it's going to auto populate with what other people have searched. When you search a topic I think specifically on desktop it will have these little bubbles kind of at the top with other related searches. So there are lots of different ways that you can find, what people are searching for to help, this can also help with.
Coming up with blog post topics. If you have no idea where to start doing this keyword research, both with keyword research tools and also with Pinterest and Google just to see what other people have searched. That can be a good starting point.
Melissa: That's a great idea because you could start seeing that people are searching for things and there isn't a lot of content. That fits what people are searching for. So I had never thought about it as using it as idea generation, but that's great.
What about so let's say someone is a local home organizer, like they're, they just want to get local in home clients. Tell us a little bit about how posting on Pinterest whether it's blog posts or whatever, like how does that help people get those local clients?
Cause one of the things that we talk about a lot in our group is what are your goals for your business? And then where do you post? Like, how do you know where to go so that you can support that, versus I want to be an influencer and I want people to follow me on Instagram.
Julia Renee: Yeah, so I will say one of the indirect benefits of using a platform like Pinterest tha drives a lot of traffic to your website is the more traffic you get to your website, the more it's going to help your rankings in Google because Google can obviously see with like Google Analytics, how many people are visiting your website, how long they're staying.
Different pages they're going to all that information. So the more people you get to your website, the more it's going to help your rankings. Cause it's going to show Google that people think your site is valuable. So it's just like an indirect benefit of Pinterest that, I like to mention, but specifically for local, clients that you're trying to reach that comes down to your blog post content. So your blog post content needs to be written for The your local audience. I have one client who serves, people in a particular town in north carolina So she has blog posts on you know where they can recycle You know their old clothes in that particular area or like where to take you know, electronics, things like that.
But then she uses those blog posts to like talk about her services too, like—if you want to know where to take this stuff, but then you're like, Oh crap, I don't want to have to do it myself. I do it for you. Yeah, exactly. And obviously they're interested in your location because that is what they have found when they're searching on Google or on Pinterest.
So really using your blog post content to speak to that local audience. If you're having trouble, coming up with lots of different topics specific to your like town even just thinking about your region. So, if you live in Florida, don't be talking about how to organize your winter snowplow or something like that. Write your content specific to that. Like, you can talk about how to organize your beach towels and things like that, something that is a lot more specific to your region than that's just general for anybody and everybody. So make sure you're writing your blog posts specific to your region and your town. And that's going to be what helps you on Pinterest reach those local clients.
Melissa: Okay. This is, that is really super, super thoughtful. And by the way, this is also just idea generation of pick things that are, as you said, snowplow. That is something that hits where I live in Minnesota, like organizing snow equipment is an actual blog post I had never really thought about that it's not just the content, but it's really focusing it on local, local or regional things.
That's super, super smart. What about reaching out to other people? So, the concept of backlinks and that type of thing. What are some of the key things there for people to know?
Julia Renee: About how to help with their website. Yeah. So I'll say backlinks can be a whole podcast episode in itself.
Melissa: Listen, guys, we're scratching the surface.
Julia Renee: So backlinks are to its core, basically just when one website links to your website. That is a backlink. So that, they used to be a lot, they used to carry a lot more weight for rankings for Google, like a few years ago, they don't carry quite as much weight. But basically when a website links to your website, it shows Google that people think your website is valuable enough to send, their audience.
To you, they're endorsing your website basically. And then there's this whole thing with domain authority that I won't go into, it’s a little too much. Yeah, that's, that's a lot, but basically a, super established website like the New York Times that carries a lot more weight than my website that is just smaller, doesn't get as much traffic, clearly, asTHe New York Times. So basically if the New York Times links to your website, that could help your rankings a lot more than if I link to your website. So there's this whole strategy with getting back links. People will try make it these emails of these companies trying to a hundred times a day content.
Melissa: I get inundated with these emails and they make me so angry. But anyway,
Julia Renee: Yeah. So they, they want to guest post on your website, and that's because they're trying to get back links to their website or their client's website or something like that.
Ignore those, delete them. Mark them as spam, whatever. They're not quality. And then there are these companies who will buy backlinks for you. Again, delete, don't do, never buy backlinks. It's super shady. And Google's really cracking down on that.
So, all that being said, when you get a link from another website, what I recommend doing is making sure that it's the website is aligned with the audience that you're trying to reach.
So not only will this backlink maybe help your rankings a little bit, but it's really more about reaching a different, different audience that you haven't reached yet that could be really interested in what you have to offer. So, if you're in home organizing, then maybe trying to collaborate with an interior designer or someone like that, whose audience will be aligned with yours who maybe they're moving and they don't want to have to deal with all the packing and you offer that service.
Then having their realtor have this content on the website about your services or a blog post that you've written for them, something like that can really be helpful or getting featured in your local newspaper or like a local website or something like that can also be helpful So I try to recommend, think of it more as like PR backlinks and not just trying to get all of the backlinks that you possibly can just because you think it might help your ranking some because that that's not worth the time.
Melissa: And we're going to do in the next few weeks, we are going to be doing a podcast about PR. And that was the first thing that I thought of was it's about getting a backlink from a local organization or something that is going to be really relevant to what you're doing versus, and this is something that I see a lot with organizers, is they will get some of these emails and they'll get excited because, someone wants to interview them or someone wants to collaborate with them.
And unfortunately, 90 plus percent of those are garbage. I'm going to be as nice as possible and say garbage. Like it's not something that is actually going to help you. And it's going to reduce the authority of your website by just constantly posting all this other stuff.
What are some of the biggest trends that you see coming up? Like, what are some things that we need to be paying attention to? Or do we just need to be paying attention to the basics and that's enough for what we do?
Julia Renee: I will say the like SEO foundations at their core have not really changed much throughout the past few years. And Google is really focusing a lot more these days on user experience and accessibility because they really want the top ranking websites for keywords to really serve the audience who comes to Google because if people are getting tired of Google showing results that they're not interested in, or it doesn't match what they're searching for, or like it's a super slow website, Google is going to start dropping those websites in the rankings, but you know, these people might go to other search engines. Google could lose out on like people, paying the money through Google ads and all those things. So at its core, make sure you're serving your audience.
Make sure your website is accessible. Easy to use everything like that. One thing I do recommend focusing on specifically for, if you're trying to serve local clients is using Google business profile used to be called Google, my business, Google is like rebranding all of their tools right now. It's annoying.
Melissa: Business profile is so much harder to say than Google my business. Like it was just so much easier to say. I get angry about it. It's so irrational that it annoys me.
Julia Renee: It's taken me a really long time to start getting used to saying that. I will say Google business profile, I think with like all of their changes that they make, cause they like change the dashboard completely and all this stuff, there have been glitches and like issues with, people not being able to get verified and things like that.
So be aware that is. something that's hopefully getting sorted out. But they are focusing a lot more on, using Google Business Profile and making sure that they are ranking the top websites for people searching those local areas. So making sure that you have all of your information up there, you can add monthly or I mean, even weekly if you want to post on Google Business Profile.
Acouple of years ago, they used to disappear after like a week or something…
Melissa: six months now.
Julia Renee: They've lengthened the time so you will be able to have a post that is on your profile for a lot longer than before. This can be especially helpful if you're running any sort of promotions or if you have a new service, especially like around the holidays, if you're doing holiday decor, that kind of thing. So that can be really helpful for reaching your local audience.
Also this isn't new, but making sure you're using Google Analytics and Google Search Console. It's not a new tool, but no one knows about it. But it's basically the information from Google Analytics boiled down to just information for people coming from Google specifically to your website.
So it's going to show you the exact keywords you're ranking for how you're ranking, how much traffic you're getting for these different keywords all kinds of different information. So if you're really focusing on, SEO for your website, you want to make sure you're using Google search console to track your progress.
That's probably my number one SEO tool. Also it's free, which is really nice.
Melissa: Google has so many things. And this is what I tell people all the time. I know I've said eight times. I tell people all the time, but it's true. Like, I'm just going to keep telling you until you listen. Google has so many free tools.
Like you can build everything in your business without paying Google more than the $6 a month you pay for workspace email, right? Like you can pay for Google ads if you want to or need to, but there are so many free tools that they offer. That are really super,
Julia Renee: super helpful. Yeah. They're, they may not be the easiest tools to use, but I do have blog posts and like other content that can help you if you're like super lost especially with the, the Google analytics update over the summer to GA4 for that, that has been a pain.
Melissa: Yes, it has. And I think that's where most people get. I think that's where it gets confusing or frustrating. And that's where people just go like, la la la, I can't do it. And that's why, there are people like you that exist that can help navigate the really complex parts. But also knowing that you do not have to be an expert in it, but to do some things the right way. So what we want people to do is do the basics. And you can do that and then get help for the higher level things that, are maybe out of our reach. So in the same way that a client would reach out to you to help with their house, please reach out to experts.
If you're like, no, I don't want to do it. And I can't, and I don't know how, and I don't want to learn. There are some things I think in SEO and Google business profiles, one of them, because we deal with people that are like, I can't get verified or I got suspended. I changed one thing. I'm a huge Google business profile evangelist. I changed one thing on my Google business profile a few months ago and they're like, you're suspended. And then I had to go through this whole process. You have to be patient on some of these things. And, and they are things that are really frustrating, but they are important for your business because ultimately, we want people to be able to find you. So powering through some of the frustrations is important.
What is the most exciting part of the work that you do? Like, what do you love about what you do?
Julia Renee: I think just seeing the progress with my clients. Like, and especially if sometimes it's just like making one small change, like making the change from targeting home organizing to home organizer, and then it just makes a huge difference.
Melissa: Well, the reason that I am interviewing you today is because I have heard such good things about you. I know people in our Inspired Organizer group that work with you and they have been just glowing about the help that you have given them. So that's why I wanted to have you here. But tell us a little bit about working with you. If people are listening to this and going, la, la, la, I don't want to do it. Like, please do it for me.
Julia Renee: So I do offer, a variety of different services. So if you kind of have your, website all set up and all the SEO foundations are taken care of, but you do need help with like the ongoing things. I do offer blog posts optimization, also just SEO support with a variety of different things that you might need. Like if any technical errors pop up, fixing those publishing posts on Google business profile every month, those kinds of things. Monthly data reports, if you have. Google analytics and Google search console set up, but you have no idea what any of that stuff means. I, we'll go through the data every month and then also tell you what it means in, normal words, In regular people words,
Not the, not the data jargon stuff. And then if you do need an SEO overhaul, I do offer services for, pretty much anything. Keyword research, optimizing website, copy image, alt text. A lot of user experience things if you need help with that. So yeah, a variety of different SEO things that I can help with.
Melissa: Well, and you just reminded me too that you obviously have a blog and you have your Instagram is very informational. And but also we're gonna link all of these things in our show notes, but go to your blog because if you just wanna learn a little bit more. And then start to think about like your own SEO or whether it's working together. You have a ton of information there too that people can help out with. Well, if people want to get in touch with you, where are all the places they can find you on the interwebs?
Julia Renee: Yeah. So my website where all the stuff is, is juliareneeconsulting.com. My email is julia@juliareneeconsulting.com and my Instagram handle is @juliareneeconsulting.
Melissa: Well, I am looking forward to people being able to really dive in a little bit on their SEO. If you are afraid. Please use this as your inspiration of like, it does not have to be scary, but if it is scary and continues to be scary for you, we have great people that we love to link you with.
Thank you for being here today. We appreciate it.
Julia Renee: Thanks for having me.