In today’s episode, we are joined by Kim Fischer. Kim is the CEO/Founder of 13 Emeralds Marketing. 13 Emeralds Marketing helps businesses gain new leads in their sleep by optimizing their website and content for SEO. SEO is so much more than coding and keywords, so the team at 13 Emeralds Marketing works to help you build quality traffic, authority, and a resource bank for your audience.
Tune in as we dive into all things SEO including the difference between SEO and content marketing, how to get started with SEO, and so much more.
In this episode, we discuss:
- [3:08] How Kim got started working in SEO
- [5:36] Kim’s experience working in a male dominated industry
- [7:43] How Kim helps her clients build a community through SEO
- [9:11] The difference between SEO and content marketing
- [10:36] Kim’s opinion on if SEO or social media marketing should be prioritized first
- [12:00] What you need to have in place to get started with SEO
- [13:37] How to actually get started with SEO
- [19:25] How to make data driven decisions with your SEO efforts
- [21:12] How often Kim analyzes data for her clients and her suggestions on how often to to do it
- [22:00] The best tools for analyzing your SEO
- [26:37] How SEO and lead generation fit together
- [31:53] One thing Kim wishes everyone knew more about when it comes to SEO
How Kim got started working in SEO
Kim got both her Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees abroad in the UK. After graduation, she started the job hunt and applied for over 900 jobs. Since Kim was an immigrant to the UK, it made the job hunting process more challenging as she was only getting a few interviews here and there but no job offers.
In January 2020, Kim decided to start her company, 13 Emeralds Marketing, three months before the pandemic hit. She was so excited to start her own business, but the pandemic made for a slow start. When Kim first started her business, she went into it with a focus on digital marketing as a whole but quickly narrowed it down to just focusing on SEO.
After working in the industry for a while, she realized that there weren’t many women that worked in SEO and that the industry was dominated by tech bro culture. That experience made her seek out a community of women in SEO and now Kim strives to hire women in the tech industry to work for her as her agency continues to grow.
Kim’s experience working in a male-dominated industry
When Kim first started working in SEO, she was pretty intimidated. She had joined a ton of Facebook groups and when she would ask questions, some of the men in the group would get on her case about why she didn’t know the answer instead of helping her out. These experiences made her shift her focus to Instagram instead. Kim has been able to find a supportive community on Instagram to branch out beyond the tech bro SEO culture.
How Kim helps her clients build a community through SEO
Although Kim’s work with SEO hasn’t helped her clients build a community directly, creating SEO-rich content that her clients can repurpose on social media and their email list, which has helped them better connect with their audience and start turning those leads into paying customers.
The difference between SEO and content marketing
Social media is a lot more fast-paced than SEO. You can see results on social media pretty quickly if you put in the effort. With search engine optimization, it takes a minimum of three months to really start seeing traction and typically closer to six months.
One major similarity between SEO and content marketing is that they are both ways of speaking to your audience directly and enticing them to take some sort of action. For both SEO and content marketing, you need to know your exact target audience so that you can provide them with the content they are craving from you.
Kim’s opinion on if SEO or social media marketing should be prioritized first
The answer to almost anything in marketing is that it depends. It depends on your budget, who you can hire, your overall desire for long term growth, and more.
For most small businesses, Kim recommends that you start with social media first. If you don’t have an existing audience or a decent budget, then social media is the best place to start.
What you need to have in place to get started with SEO
To get started with SEO, you need to have a website. It is also helpful to have a social media presence and an email list so that you can push your blog content to that website to get more bang for your buck, but it isn’t necessary.
How to actually get started with SEO
First, you need to clearly understand your target audience. Kim shares an in-depth questionnaire with her clients to help her get a better understanding of their audience so that she can optimize their content properly. We interact differently on social media than we do when we are typing things in the search bar on Google so it is important to really dissect your audience and get back to the basics.
Some questions that Kim asks her clients are:
- What are your audience’s biggest goals and values? What are they trying to achieve by hiring you?
- What are some of their objections?
- What have they tried that hasn’t worked?
- What have they tried that has worked? If it has worked, why would they switch to using your product/services?
To find the best keywords to use, you don’t need to use a paid SEO platform. You can simply search keywords within Google and then related keywords will pop up at the bottom of the page. You can also utilize the keywords in the dropdown when you first type in your keyword phrase.
In addition to using Google to find keywords, you can also use the website Answer the Public. You can put in any keyword and find what questions people are asking about that certain word.
How to make data driven decisions with your SEO efforts
A lot of the time we just assume we know what is and isn’t working especially if we are repurposing content. A post may have been a big hit on Instagram, but if your audience isn’t going over to your website to check out the blog post, then your strategy isn’t converting how you expected it to. It is important to make sure that your SEO and social media efforts are working together.
How often Kim analyzes data for her clients and how often we should be looking at our data
Kim sends her clients reports monthly. Since SEO is a long game, you don’t always see much of a difference month over month. Comparing growth over a quarter or to last year’s performance helps you see the bigger picture.
The best tools for analyzing your SEO
Google has some of the best tools for analyzing SEO. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two must-have tools for analyzing your website and SEO performance. Kim also uses SEM Rush but doesn’t think the average business owner needs to use it.
How SEO and lead generation fit together
If you are sharing your blog posts on Instagram or another social media channel, it can actually convert better than someone who originally stumbled upon your blog post through Google because they are more familiar with you and what you do.
While it used to take a minimum of seven touchpoints to convert someone to a purchase, it is now around twenty one times. SEO is just another part of your funnel so it works together with the rest of your marketing efforts to convert leads to paying customers.
One thing Kim wishes everyone knew more about when it comes to SEO
Kim wishes everyone knew that SEO is not as complicated as you think it is. It might seem intimidating at first but when you find the right SEO consultant who is willing to walk you through the process, it makes the experience much better. Don’t hire the person who guarantees that you will rank at #1 for $20 a month – because that is a quick way to waste money. These people usually don’t follow best practices for SEO either, so you may suffer some repercussions from hiring them.
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