Candice (00:00.236)

Today we are breaking down the most misunderstood marketing strategy in the wedding. It's something that I guarantee you're sleeping on. It's something that I know is going to give you a ton of results. It's not easy, but it's actually not hard. I'm wondering if you can guess what the topic of today's episode is. I'm joined by my special guest, Erin O'Lilla.

who's a copywriter and a strategist. And we're talking about SEO baby, but in a way that you have not heard before. So let's get in to today's episode. You're here to grow a business, but not just any kind of business. You want to grow a profitable business with purpose, a business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own life.

I'm Candace Coppola, published author, business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week as we explore how to build and grow your business with purpose. Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business. This is the power in purpose.

Candice (01:28.024)

Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice, and I have a great episode in store for you today. I have a great guest joining me to talk about one of my favorite topics, SEO. I love SEO. I think it's one of those holy grails in marketing. And my hope is that you will listen to our conversation today and feel more empowered to make SEO a part of your off season.

marketing plan and really lay a nice groundwork for local SEO for your business as we enter into engagement season. And I personally think that SEO is one of the most misunderstood marketing strategies in the wedding industry. And my guest today, Erin O'Lilla, agrees she's a conversion copywriter, a copy coach, wing woman, a word slinger.

And no matter what you call her, Erin believes in the power of words and how a message can inform and even transform the intended audience. And when she's not working with big brands and small businesses like yours to marry strategy, storytelling, and SEO, you can find her hosting the talk copy to me, which by the way, I love that podcast name.

Erin, you can listen to her on the Talk Coffee to Me podcast for exploring Southeastern Massachusetts with her family and friends. Erin, welcome to the show. It's so fun to have you. Thank you so much for having me. It's also so fun to hear those things like about yourself. I'm so used to being the interviewer that I'm like, wow.

That sounds cool. I sound cool right now. The power of good copywriting, right? Yes. Please tell my copywriter, which is myself. Yeah. Well, Erin, we could pick your brain about so much. When you reached out to me to be on the show, you actually asked to talk about localized SEO as part of our conversation. And I think one thing I really appreciate about you as a copywriter is you understand the power that copy has, not just to the person reading it, but

Candice (03:43.033)

how powerful it is for search engine ranking and optimization. Well, I remember when I had first found your podcast specifically, I was listening to an episode that you had done with Andrea Shaw about websites. And that was actually something that you guys had had a big part of that conversation on. It was the idea of like, you're not actually speaking about yourself on your website or your business, let's say. You're speaking about how you're the solution to

someone's wants, needs, or desires. In the wedding industry, the one thing I really like to kind of set the stage on first, whether we're talking about copy, SEO, or strategy in general, is that we need to take that step back for a second from the pain point, right? Because what's the pain point? Maybe just finances? They're coming to you because they have desires. They're excited. This is one of the most happiest parts of their life.

and what they're looking for is a partner who can really accentuate that happiness. So I think people get that more on a copywriting level. And I remember after listening to that episode, I was like, this is so good. And I went back and listened to a bunch. I heard another awesome SEO episode that you had done. And I just started thinking about there's like this one key element that specifically wedding pros in general, but other types of businesses, especially ones that has a local market.

They're missing out on so much local SEO potential. I mean, you mentioned it when you introduced me. I'm from Massachusetts. Great. I've only worked with one client from Massachusetts in the nine years that I've been in business. So I'm not so much of a local business. And can I use local SEO to get clients? Absolutely. But if you are in the wedding industry, let's say you're doing florals.

You do have a local business, right? You can tap into the SEO opportunities that people like me can't. And I think that SEO is so misunderstood because what a lot of SEO professionals do is that they come at creatives and business owners and try to explain theory and explain how things work versus showing them the potential. So.

Candice (05:58.681)

all of a sudden you have a creative like, you know, an event planner or a day of coordinator and they're trying to run their business and their marketing at the same time. And now they have to learn all of this technical jargon and like strategy behind attracting clients. It's extremely overwhelming. they tune it out. Whereas I think it's like, if you can lightly invite them in, which I hope we're going to do today, if you can invite them in versus like treating it like a college level class.

It's easy for them to see how they can do small changes and make a huge impact. yeah. I completely agree. I am jealous of localized businesses that get to capitalize on localized SEO because you really get to increase that qualified traffic. And we're going to talk about SEO and qualified traffic a little bit later, especially as it relates to the luxury market because I feel like there's somewhat of a misconception behind SEO there.

I feel like SEO is one of the most misunderstood ways to market your wedding business. And for good reason, like you mentioned, it can be complicated. And sometimes if the topic is presented in a way that's very technical, people tune out. They're like, that's not for me. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it differently. And so I also think that so many wedding pros feel like they can't do SEO or

they just put it on the back burner because it is complicated. And this is so silly to me because it's so important. We were just talking before we hit record and I was saying this very thing and I said to Erin, I'm like, everybody's busting their ass on Instagram and like doing all this stuff. When you could literally spend just a fraction of time on your SEO and see way more results and be way less fatigue. So I was wondering if we could start off.

talking about why you, Erin, as a copywriter who understands SEO and infuses it into the work you do, if you could talk about why you think it's so hard to prioritize this and also to counterbalance that, it matters so much. Sure. So one thing that I've heard from my clients, specifically wedding photographers, is that they've said things like, I already have enough

Candice (08:12.721)

clients. So this is just something else I need to think about. And the way that I've always kind of come back to them to kind of have them reframe the idea of doing SEO or investing, whether it's your own time or your finances to hire someone else to do it, is that are the clients that you have the clients that you want, right? And they could be, but it goes on so many different levels of running a business. Do you want to charge higher prices? Do you want to adjust your packages so that way

The timing that you're offering is matching your personal needs or your availability. All of these things really revolve around the type of clients that we get and who we attract. Now, if you already have a great referral-based process happening, you might think that this is just not something you have to do. But one, referrals do end. You know, like I am a little older than the average, like marrying group.

I don't have that many friends marrying. In fact, I had someone that's in my family who's like a decade younger than me. just went to their wedding. So, you know, like we have to think about the idea that I'm not going to be giving the best referrals to the people that I've worked with anymore because I just don't spend time within that age group or that type of life that they're living. So we cannot rely on referrals. We also want to think about the quality of clients. You you talk about luxury clients. Like are they...

Are they looking into Google? Things like that. If you want the luxury clients, you need to give them the luxury experience. And that all goes down to things like the tech setup on your website, which affects SEO, the types of phrasing that you're using, whether you're going to get a luxury client or a client that's going to be incredibly demanding on your time and energy because they're not respecting your boundaries. So the words that we use and how we set up our websites

both on-site website as well as the off-site things like social media are very reliant on how we're found on search. And I think it's one of my sticking points too when I hear people talk about how exasperated they are with their social media efforts and how hard they're working. And not that I want to suggest that social search optimization isn't important, it can be, or that it's more important, let's say, than SEO, especially local SEO.

Candice (10:34.149)

because that's the real bread and butter. That's where you're gonna get the best clients. But I also find it absolutely mystifying why they're putting so much time into filming these reels, trying to stay up with trends, but they're not using SEO best practices on social, which is a search platform, everyone. If there is a search bar, follow SEO best practices. Stop like re-recording and recording and recording and recording yourself to get a 20 second reel.

And instead think, like take a step back and let's just look at strategy for where you show up anywhere, be it off platform on things like social, YouTube, Pinterest, anything like that, or on your own platform, like a website, because the best practices are the same through all of those areas. And if you really do just take that tiny step back to say like, what do I want from this?

What are my goals and how can I use SEO to reach those goals? You're going to get way farther than you were 10 steps before. Yeah, these are you just gave us so much that we can talk about. I love and I appreciate that you shared that referrals do dry up. They do nothing is stopping a venue from taking you off their preferred vendor list or making it pay to play.

Nothing is stopping a florist or another planner or somebody taking you off their preferred vendor list, switching things up. Nobody owes you a referral. So if referrals are your primary source, that's great actually. I mean, I think that's, you've built a really great brand, but I think you also need a bit of a safety net in case a referral source dries up and SEO is one of those safety nets.

Yeah, because it's working for you. Like while you're doing those things, this is not the marketing efforts that you have to like keep creating new lead magnets or adding more and more emails to an evergreen sequence. While those are very smart marketing approaches, if you're setting up the systems of SEO, they are that slow burn long-term strategy that does the work quote unquote while you're sleeping. You know, like it literally is always working if it's set up correctly.

Candice (12:52.387)

Yeah, that literally is probably one of the most and only evergreen marketing strategies. SEO and email marketing, automated email marketing are the two evergreen marketing strategies that wedding pros can use to have an evergreen marketing funnel in your business. I also appreciate the conversation around people using Google and if luxury clients are going to Google.

One thing that I think people misunderstand is trust building marketing. And they don't put a lot of emphasis on how you find different touch points to build trust with a lead who's come into contact with your brand. It's not necessarily about if somebody is going to find you using Google, which by the way, they're going to find you using Google.

But if somebody were to hear about you, go to your website and then try to Google you or use search terms and you don't show up in them. That actually like that de-emphasizes trust. think that you start to lose trust with that lead. It obviously raises a red flag. They think, well, they said she was the best. Like I can't even find her website on Google. That's a little fishy. It's a little suspicious.

So I feel like wedding pros also need to understand that some of the strategies may not provide you with direct results. I SEO does, but it also helps to build trust. Yeah, and I think, you know, a lot of when I talk about stepping back to look at the strategy, a lot of it is looking at things like psychographics, which we talk about. Let's just use the luxury example and then the psychology of search and the psychology of buying. So you described it perfectly.

you know, if they can't find you, they're not going to be that impressed. But what generally happens with the more higher end market when it comes to things like buying psychology is referrals are where things start. Or the referral could very well be that they went to a wedding and had a great experience and they wanted to learn more about the people within the vendors because they're in the same experience and they want to get married or they're planning. So there's a type of a referral event that happens. And then

Candice (15:01.231)

The next step is that person does research. So sure, they may feel like more motivated to buy because they've seen your work or that their very best friend who they trust more than anyone in the world has recommended you, but they're still looking into you because having the money to spend does not mean that they're financially irresponsible with their money. They want to make the best investments so that they get the best results. But what generally happens

I wish I had, I remembered where I found this search study that was done. But what generally happens with higher price searches is instead of clicking into someone's website, they put their name in a search bar because what they're doing is that referral event, again, they say, go work with Erin O'Lilla. They're not clicking Erinolilla.com. They're putting my name in and what's happening there is they're getting multiple pieces of information.

which we talk about the building trust, that's what's happening. One, they'll find my website and have that very quick information that I have written if I'm doing SEO, but by writing good titles and meta descriptions and things. But they're also seeing things like your LinkedIn profile, like other places that you're showing up, Pinterest, Reddit, all of the, maybe different wedding sites, like vendor sites where they can rate and review you on sites. So they're getting immediate proof.

that you may have taken part in creating or may not have, then they make that choice of what they're going to go in to search to find. So there's multiple steps that are happening in this process. Some you have control over and some you don't. But I think that the ones that you do have control over, you need to make the maximum impact in that very moment before they even consider researching anything more about you or learning about you.

And then your point is perfect following that. It's once they land on your website. If you don't have a high quality branded website, they're going to say, well, why aren't they investing the money that they're getting into their marketing, into their business? If why is their words not compelling? mean, are they going to be as communicative with me while we're working together? Maybe the user experience of clicking around is confusing. They're going to think like, do they have their processes in order? So

Candice (17:23.001)

Yes, that's a lot of information I know I'm throwing at people, but it's really how important all these little things work together. It's not like I need to take a master's level class in search and technology. It's really, have you looked at your business, your brand, your marketing, and made sure that you're being represented in the way that you like? And now what search is doing is search is kind of acting, I always make this silly example of like,

Pretend you're walking down Main Street in a touristy town. You open the door to a cute little shop that has little crinkets in the window and the salesperson, the first thing that they do in this tiny little store is likely to say like, welcome, can I help you find anything? That is the role of SEO, period. They are that salesperson that is there just supporting you and introducing potential clients to your business.

Because if you've done these steps, if you've chosen the right keywords, made sure the technology that you're using on your site is working correctly and not too heavy or anything like that, they're just introducing people into your world. And all of that other work that you've done is really convincing them that you are that right person for their business.

Love that analogy. SEO is like the Walmart greeter. Hi, how can I help you? Way more luxury than the Walmart greeter. Come on, let's think of like, know, Nantucket, like little store on Nantucket instead. No, I love that analogy. That's really smart. I'm excited about where this conversation is going because it's going broader than just on website SEO. It's how you show up in all the different marketing channels of your business.

And I think it is a good reminder that if you're going to put your business on a platform, like a social media platform, or you're going to put it on LinkedIn or TikTok, you need to make sure that those channels accurately show your work. And you need to maintain consistency and currency there because people are Googling you and they're looking now at the full breadth of your business, including your website, but they're also looking at your social media.

Candice (19:35.773)

And if things are not as they should seem, or if there's anything that just isn't sitting right, it's not consistent, the messaging is off, it looks cheap, it doesn't work, it doesn't function, that immediately raises a red flag. And sometimes once we get that ick, we're out and we don't come back. You know, once we get the ick factor shows up on a first date, it's kind of hard to come back from the ick. So we want to limit the icks.

Yeah, I agree. And I mean, this goes back to like why branding is so important, right? Like you don't have to create something new for each of these areas that you're showing up. So if you've done the work to find out like the keywords that you'd like to rank for, you know, talking specifically about local SEO here, you know, an excellent opportunity could be like just using mass as an example, like Boston wedding photographer, you know, Cambridge, if you want to get more specific wedding photographer.

And I know that's a very easy example, but if you've done that, if you've chosen these really quality keywords because you've done the research to see what people are actually searching within your local area, use that everywhere. Like you don't have to then change it to like wedding photographer of Cambridge for LinkedIn. And then like Cambridge's best wedding photographer for like Instagram. No, use the keyword everywhere because you've done that foundational step. Once it's done, it's done and you.

Yes, I would absolutely recommend spot checking to make sure that you're still using the right keywords. But in truth, once you've done it, just leave it and test it and let it sit for a while and don't recreate everywhere that you are. Keep it consistent. And that's just like it. That's an easy cheat. If we're talking about doing local SEO, if you do the research and just let it settle, you don't have to do anything else for a little while.

Yeah, no, it's a great point. it also just brings up a little side note. If you are going to use Cambridge wedding photographer as your ultimate keyword, please make sure that when I go on your website, I see Cambridge weddings. Please make sure that what you're advertising, I can visually identify the location of where you're photographing weddings or where you're planning weddings. This is really important.

Candice (21:46.929)

Because if somebody goes to your website and they don't see anything regarding Cambridge or doesn't even look New England-y or they can't identify the location visually or in words, that again is going to trigger a sense of mistrust. Now, I would love to talk about localized SEO. One of the biggest questions I get asked all the time, and I really would love your opinion on this, is what do you recommend for wedding pros who want to target multiple locations for localized SEO?

or talking about maybe a destination wedding planner, or you're from New England, so you know like CT, New York, New Jersey, Mass, Rhode Island, like it's all there. We're just trying to work It only takes like a 45 minute drive to get to like multiple states. It's true. Depending on traffic, right? And depending on I-95, it will depend on how quickly you can move around. But what are some of your suggestions for people who might be targeting multiple locations, either close to one another or even far in distance?

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Candice (24:07.153)

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Check it out and see what's possible. And thanks to Flowdesk for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Now let's get back to the episode. Yeah, and I think that that's extremely common. So if you're listening and you're hearing this and thinking like, that's me, like, yeah, that's a lot of you, you know, in some ways it's extremely helpful to niche to a one local area. But in other ways, like you may be a New England photographer, but love destination weddings. So what do you do in that instance?

My favorite, I'm going to throw some air quotes on this, cheat is actually to use the footer of the website to do this work for you. The reason I choose the footer is because it's on almost every single page that you have on your website. So an example could be like a New England wedding planner proudly serving Massachusetts, Rhode Island, you know, continue that as well as destinations like the Caribbean and Europe.

I know that's a lot, that's a mouthful, but you have to remember that the footer is both prime real estate and, I don't know, neglected real estate as well. It is neglected. your website viewer is not going so far as to check that grammar. mean, the grammar was correct there, but meaning like they're not really judging you very deeply on the words in your footer.

they're going to look at them and they might do a little check mark to themselves to be like, I am in Rhode Island. This is great. She serves me. Or like, yes, love that they do destination weddings. This is exactly what I'm looking for. So the footer is a very easy cheat, but my absolute 100 % favorite thing to do on people's websites are what I call hidden pages. They're not actually hidden from search engines. The reason I call them that is because I am not.

Candice (26:25.551)

like announcing them or advertising them on that main site navigation, know, the home about everything you see on the top of the page. They just live on your website. Maybe they are linked to in the footer or they may be linked on other places. Like, let's say you have an about page and one of the sections does talk about the fact that you're a traveling day of coordinator. And it says like, here are some of my favorite places. And maybe it is more hyper local, like the Boston Public Library.

or Boston Seaport Marina, things like that, you could potentially have a hyperlink that leads out to a hidden page. But the hidden page is where you're going to target a very specific local keyword, like Caribbean wedding DJ. I've neglected DJs this whole time. You've got to include them somehow. But something like that where you have this page and it says, this is the job that you're doing that they want to hire you for, and this is the location you do it in.

And it does not have to be extremely long, but it should never be generic. And I don't mean like, you know, use an AI tool to like add the keyword in as many times as you possibly can. I mean, really just think of like a maybe like a three row website page where the top introduces the idea. Hi, I'm this sounds so silly. Now I keep saying this, like I'm a wedding DJ from the that works with Caribbean weddings. And then underneath you talk about the idea that

You know, if you're trying to plan your destination wedding and you're not in the location that you're in and you're worried about hiring someone who doesn't understand your vibe and what you're looking for for the sounds of your event, they've landed in the right spot because you specialize in these, you know, St. Lucia weddings and you would love to help them plan their wedding and make sure that the sounds that they have at their wedding are something that people remember. And that's it. That's all you're really doing. Right. So like you're just

introducing yourself as an option, but most importantly, I know this is a combo of SEO and keywords, excuse me, SEO and copywriting. Most importantly, you're really again explaining how you can help them. And then the keywords are natural here. You're talking about how you work in a specific location. Cool, awesome. So I don't recommend someone have 700 different locations. One thing we do have to remember, location hidden pages.

Candice (28:50.477)

One thing we do want to remember is that Google is looking for connections when it makes its SEO recommendations for ranking. So if your website, let's say you are a wedding photographer again and you travel to different locations. If you can keep that theme of photography on each pages, you're reminding Google, yes, this is a photography website. This is a photography website. This is a photography website. But then if you have 300 different location pages,

and they're all over the world, Google is like, especially because they do prioritize local search results. People put like photographer near me and things like that. Google's like, I don't know where to send people. You work way too many spots. I'm ignoring you for that. So try to think about where the main places are that you want to show up. And then create a few hidden pages on your site that really talk to those pages, talk to those interests.

Like you mentioned, if you're a Cambridge photographer but you're not showcasing different images from Cambridge, Massachusetts or Cambridge, England at this point, wherever, if you're not showcasing those local images, people don't trust you. So on the hidden pages, you really need photos of the area. You really need natural descriptors, maybe some different venues in the area that you work with if that helps with the localized search to

really key in both the audience that you're drawing to your site as well as the search engines to make sure that they know, please direct people to these pages. Yeah, hidden landing pages are so key to this strategy. I've mentored a few women who've moved their business several times, military wives, and they use this strategy to move their business to a new location and maintain a presence in the previous. And they've had a really great success.

doing this. mean, great success for pretty big keywords. I don't want to give away their keywords because I don't want anybody to try to compete, I don't want to show all the tea or have anybody steal their secret sauce, but they've really had some great results with this. And if you feel like you struggle with trying to identify how you can bring in all the different locations you serve, especially if they vary a little bit aesthetically,

Candice (31:08.889)

This is a great solution. You can have your homepage rang for your most ideal location that you serve. And then you can create some landing pages that show your work, maybe link to some blog posts, link to some venues, link to some of your favorite vendors. I you can have a lot of fun with those landing pages. And speaking of vendors, I'm curious, how can wedding pros collaborate?

with vendors to improve their local SEO? Do you have any tips or any thoughts? Yes, I do. And I am so glad you asked this question, because it is the most underutilized but highest performing SEO opportunity. Here's the thing. If you are working locally with a bunch of different vendors, you are all competing for local keywords. Great. I don't mean competition in a way that you're competing against each other. I'm just saying that's your effort that you're putting in right now.

So when Google sees that like-minded businesses are in the same local area, what it's doing is really just making it so easy for Google. It's like, OK, we talk about being a wingman here. It's like, you know this person? You know that person? Great. Thank you so much for making my job easier. Now you both move up to the top 10 search results page. So if I talked a little too quick there because I got excited, what I'm basically saying is that if you were

with other people in your local area to support each other by doing things like on-site, for example, blog posts that talk about related things within your area, or even social media collaborations where you're doing lives together and things like that. What you're doing is reinforcing that you both belong within that local area. But the reason I love it so much is because your

audience is desperate for information for all of these things. You know, I remember looking for like planning my own website. I actually worked in the wedding industry prior to getting married. I was a florist and I did event planning through the floral place that I worked. So of course, like all wedding industry professionals, I thought I could do everything myself. Right. tsk, tsk. But I remember doing my research. I had been out of the industry and living slightly different area.

Candice (33:27.985)

So I had a lot of research to do. And I just remember Googling and Googling and it would be like, okay, here's my list of potential day of coordinators. Here's my list of potential DJs. I don't know any of these DJs, because I've never in my life hired a DJ before. I have a wish list of wedding photographers because I knew so many, but it's huge. So the amount of information I had was such an overload and that is exactly

what your clients still feel. Like that's a timeless feeling of overwhelm. Whether they have a smaller budget that they're trying to make work and fit people into, whether they have again wishless people they'd love to work with, or they have a ginormous budget but they just want what they want, it's a lot. So if you work with a vendor, let's say again, you're a photographer and you are writing blog posts about your favorite venues that you've worked with, work.

in New England, let's say. Maybe you do a whole blog post about Boston wedding venues and you ask the venue, do you have images that I can use on this blog post? I will give you credit to these images. I will link back to your website, but I really want to highlight you. They're going to be like, of course. Obviously. when you do this, when you start having these conversations, that's what gets you on the preferred vendors list. That's what builds closer relationships because

You're not just benefiting yourself with that SEO. What people don't understand when we talk about things like SEO tech is things like backlinks. So you give a link to that wedding website, the venue that you're linking to, you're giving them a backlink. And if you've prioritized SEO, you have high standing in Google. So you're using your own high standing to say, this business also deserves high standing.

And that works in opposite ways, such as if you have a really good wedding venue or a really good business that you want to kind of borrow some of their SEO because this is a new project for you, contact them and say, I would love to write a guest blog for your website. I know you're busy. You probably have so much like, you know, work with your clients. Would you like me to write a couple of blog posts that talk about like

Candice (35:52.261)

For example, if you're the photographer and you're contacting an event planner, would you like me to write about how to hire a photographer or things to ask your photographer? And then you're on their website. They're linking back to yours. So it's really, really, really smart for the long-term strategy of both content and SEO. It also gives you just something to blog about. So if you feel like, don't know what to blog, I don't know what to write, you can literally kick off your blog by featuring.

some of the wedding vendors that you love working with. And I think it can be even so simple. mean, I love this strategy here. And I think it could be even so simple as reaching out to some of your business besties and being like, listen, want to like SEO, I'm making it my bitch this engagement season. I am really investing some time in this. Why don't we collaborate together and do each other a solid and find ways that we can link and connect to each other. And then is there anybody else who also is trying to do this that we can bring into the mix?

And before you know it, might have like a nice little SEO crew of people who are linking to you. You're linking to them. And before you know it, you know, it just helps to improve, improve your search engine ranking. I have a question I'd love for you to answer. We're talking about blogging. Do you think it's possible to rank these days without a blog? Because I'm actually shook at how many wedding pros don't have blogs.

And you guys have a blog and it's either Hey There World, which is like the first WordPress blog post that gets published, or, and I'm just calling you out on your BS, or you blogged something so like, hi everyone, you blogged once four years ago. Let tell you the backstory of my business. You never, yeah. Which is cute. Like I love that you did that and I want you to do that. It's a good thing to do. It's great.

But there's so many more strategies you can implement. So quick, Erin, do you think it's possible to rank on Google without a blog? So I don't know if this is the answer you want me to say, but I do think you can rank on Google without a blog, especially, actually, I would say maybe only if you are doing hyper local SEO. Like if you have nailed your SEO presence and you've done that research to actually see, like, are people searching this keyword with a local slant? You can rank.

Candice (38:13.777)

But the way that the analogy I like to use is if you imagine that each page or post, they're depending on what type of like with your WordPress or whatever they may be called different, but each page or post that you have is like a door into your business. That door at that little street in Maine in Nantucket. If you imagine that each door is an opportunity to come in and work with you.

If you have no blog, you probably have 10 or 12 pages if you have done that hidden page for SEO. Maybe less if you haven't four or five. But if you blog once a week, then you have 52 additional doors in just one year. And like take the pressure off. If you blog once a month, which

is reasonable, everyone. Please don't tell me it's not reasonable. You're filming reels that took you like seven hours for those 20 seconds. Okay? Just a side note, I had to actually take a day off of work to film a reel for my website launch. I literally took an entire day to film this reel. So, I mean, this shit takes time. Okay? Yeah. I had to literally clear my schedule to film this effing reel.

So I don't understand how long it takes. It takes a lot less time to write a book, especially with a little help from tools on the internet that can help you do that. And if you think again about like we're talking about luxury clients, like what do people think when they see your business? If you're filming your reels, and I mean no disrespect for this because I'm not hiring out a video production company, but if you're filming your reels on your iPhone, you're really kind of half-assing it, it looks like you've half-assed it.

Right? Like if you spend the entire work day filming a reel because you're like, this is the production of the day, it looks like an actual quality production, you know? So it's like, it's not that tense. Everyone thinks like, this is just 10 minutes of effort that I'll have to put, but it's not just 10 minutes. And if it is, it looks like it only took you 10 minutes. So honestly, yes, you can rank without a blog, but I highly recommend you have a blog. And one of my favorite

Candice (40:25.505)

industries truly to pick on is the wedding industry because there's to me absolutely no excuse works. Like you have gorgeous photos of your work. Even if you're not a photographer, I have being someone who's worked in the industry, I know very well photographers have said, Hey, Erin, I got this beautiful photo of the centerpieces that you had. Let me just send it to you so you can use it. And then obviously I would credit them.

for their photography, like that's the interplay and interchange of the wedding industry. So you don't have to be a photographer to have beautiful photos. If you have those photos, you have things to blog about. Like talk about like how you determined which flowers to put in a centerpiece and like why you wouldn't choose like an ultra bushy flower if you had like a statement flower that was tiny and delicate. Like talk about how to determine what size of centerpiece that you want.

if it's a ballroom and it's really huge and you have a lot of space to fill. There are so many easy opportunities in the wedding industry and I know it feels like a heavy lift, but you have everything you need to actually make it be a simple lift. A thousand percent. I believe in blogging so much that I give members of the Planner's Playbook, which is my community for planners, I give them a marketing plan every month and I include four suggested blog topics. All

localized SEO, by the way. All topics are localized. Nothing is ever abstract, like five centerpieces for just five centerpieces. It's always like five centerpieces for your Cambridge wedding. It's always very localized. And I appreciate, Erin, your answer that it is possible to rank without a blog, but is it easy?

Probably not. And it might even be much more difficult when trying to rank for a very popular keyword like LA wedding planner. Good luck. That is a really difficult keyword to rank for on the first or second page of Google. There's tons of competition. So blogging, just like you mentioned, it just helps to give you like extra support. So if you have this goal, wouldn't you want to utilize the extra support of blogging or

Candice (42:42.083)

other SEO techniques like landing pages to get you farther. You talked about the collaborative part, right? So if you think about someone searching up wedding photographers in a specific area or like what to ask a wedding photographer and they find your website, but you are actually that event planner and they read what you've created and maybe you've shared options of other people that you work with you really like and they think to themselves, wow, this person's really organized.

Wow, this is a great article that they wrote. They weren't looking for you, but they're going to look at your website. So you suddenly become a potential hire for them when they weren't even searching for your industry, which is why really kind of spending the time to look at all of the related people who work in your industry and highlight them and their work or just the process of working with those type of people on your site does the double duty.

Yeah, for sure. So for someone who has no idea where they actually stand with their SEO current ranking, and just in the Google algorithm in general, they've listened to us today. They're like, all right, ladies, I get it. I see it. I hear you. But I want to kind of figure out, OK, what have I actually managed to accomplish, if anything? How can they figure out their current standing with SEO, especially local SEO?

Yeah, well, I highly recommend using free tools like Google's search console. If you don't have that set up already on your website, I would set it up because what it's doing is it's providing you information about people who have already looked at your website or found you through search. Meaning a lot of people make assumptions. I think this is probably the biggest mistake people make with SEO is instead of doing research first, they use their own

mind and intelligence to make assumptions on what people are searching. But what Google Search Console tells you is what they have actually used in order to find you in your website at that point. So I think it kind of clears that ground between the assumption and the actual search. And you don't have to use the terms that they are using, but maybe there's a middle ground there that's actually a better search term for you. Talking about Los Angeles wedding planner.

Candice (45:07.223)

maybe they're actually using more like quote unquote neighborhood like terms. Now I don't know LA at all, I would be making up any like different like segments of the LA area. But like if they are using like a segmented neighborhood area, that's what you want to target. Sure, you can have LA wedding planner in your footer or elsewhere, maybe on a page that's not as highly prioritized like a contact page, because you still really want to make sure that it's there in front and center.

but you use those more neighborhood terms on your home page, your about page. So a free tool like Google Search Console tells you a lot about your own website. But then there are so many other tools that you can use that are free or low price in order to do a light SEO audit on your own site. Key Search is one that is pretty popular for people now. Uber Suggest is another tool that's easy to use. There are some that cost a little more money but are better, like SEM Rush and things like that.

So those are places you can start. I really have always been someone in my business that I want to put more power into small businesses' hands and tell them, you can do this on your own. But I think that SEO in some industries, like a creative industry for wedding professionals, I would recommend, if you are not very new to business, that this actually is a place where you invest your money. You don't need to do this on your own. You don't even need to write those blog posts on your own.

You could get on a quick call with your content writer and talk about what are some of the most popular venues you did this summer? What are some of the highlights of them? There's a venue post for you. What do you recommend for planning the songs of your wedding? There's another post, and you're just verbally processing that with your writer. They don't have to be photographer. They don't have to be an event planner, but they can write it based on the information you share with them.

I say if you're brand new, use one of those tools, do a little research on your local area, your competitors, your own website. But if you are someone who is more established, I highly recommend spending the money here because again, this is one of the very few marketing assets and efforts that if you invest at one point, it serves you.

Candice (47:30.415)

for years to come. And you get a return on your investment. I think this is something that we have to also just acknowledge is that sometimes we think about the upfront cost of spending money on a certain marketing effort. But if that marketing effort doubles or triples your sales, then the money you spend on it is like it's nothing in comparison to the amount of sales that it delivered. And so you have to take a look at the cost

And yes, that is a risk. could not work. But if you work with an established SEO copywriting professional who understands how to get you to rank and has references and clients and case studies that they can also show you to make you feel comfortable, then really it is just about, it's just a matter of time for you to start ranking for ideal keywords. And the truth is, like, I believe everybody should know how SEO works because that's a skill that will, you'll take for life.

But if you can actually invest a little bit of your profit into an expert, they're going to get you there quicker. They're going to get you there smarter. And there's a lot you can learn by working with an expert that you can also implement alongside them or in conjunction with their work. And if the project ends and you want to take over, you can also do that as well. I mean, we have to acknowledge that the investment is meant to have a reward and the reward is to pay for it and then also

make more money, which it's supposed Well, and I think that in so many marketing efforts, it's really hard to actually determine the ROI. So many of my clients come to me for website copywriting, and we talk about things like testimonials. But as the copywriter, it's very difficult for me to get quantitative testimonials. Like, what am I measuring? However, as the SEO specialist, I can quote unquote guarantee not

the return, but the data that will help them understand where their money is being used. If the search is working, if we need to make adjustments, like there's no guessing. The strategy takes a lot of brain space and development, but the implementation of and then measuring of the work is easy. You have those results to say, okay, it's been nine months since we started this project and I have booked 10 % more clients.

Candice (49:54.551)

because of this or at this much of a higher rate because of this. it's I think as someone who runs their own business, I can be a little nervous sometimes to do investing in certain things. But when you actually have the quantifiable information to share and determine whether the project has ROI, it's like a no brainer for investment. Yeah. And Erin and I would not steer you wrong. I don't want you spending your money on dumb shit and I don't want you spending it on things that don't work. I know how hard you work for your money.

I want you to be wise about where you invest it. And there's a lot of stuff that I don't think is worth the investment. SEO is always worth the investment. It's either worth the investment of hiring somebody, it's worth the investment of learning it if you feel like that's a route you want to take, and it's worth the investment of time to do it. I hear success stories every single day from my students who prioritize SEO, and I don't even teach SEO.

I have no skin in the game of SEO. I just believe in it because it works for me and it works for the women I coach. Erin, thank you so much for such a great conversation. I have so many takeaways from you, so many things to think about. I would love it if you would share with those listening how they can connect with you outside of this podcast and yeah, where they can find you on the internet, on Google.

Well, if you just Google me, one of my corny jokes that I always say all the time is my last name has a lot of L's and L's in it. Everyone's like, how many L's? Where do we put these letters? Google knows who I am very well now. We have a long-term relationship. So you put Erin O'Lilla in that search bar. Regardless of how you spell it, Google is going to send you my way because we're good friends now. So find me just by searching my name. But you're listening in a podcast player right now.

When you're done, if you want to consume a couple more episodes of The Power and Purpose, come on over to my show. It's talk, copy to me. And we have conversations like this all of the time about these different types of marketing things that are really affecting how you're showing up in your business for your clients. my God. So good. And you have an SEO checklist that we can download too, right? Yeah. And I will share that link with you so you can share it with your audience. What it does is it's truly a checklist in

Candice (52:14.399)

as clear as day, you people say, this is a checklist, but it's like a course. It is a list where you can look at the pages of your sites and say, do I have a title like that's here? Am I using the alt text for the images that I have?

So if you are doing updates to your website, which I just listened to your episode that went live and you updated your website, it's gorgeous. Thank you. my gosh, I'm obsessed with it. But when you're, you should be. It's everyone, you haven't checked it out yet, like click over there first to see all of the effort that she put into her new site. But when you're doing those updates, check that off to make sure you did it. And then don't look at it again, cause it's done. And same thing for the blog post. If you're doing on a DIY approach or hiring someone.

of monitor what the efforts they're putting in. It shows you like, did I do this step? Yes, great. Okay, it's done. Now I can like, you know, like take that sweat off my forehead and say like, I did this work. It is over. I love a good checklist and I also appreciate a best practices checklist because you can easily kind of feel discombobulated. I mean, you write the blog post, but then there's a formula for making it rank. And so this checklist is going to help you make sure that you do that.

Erin, thank you so much. will link all of this into the show notes, guys, so you can connect with Erin. You can download the checklist and also check out her podcast, Talk Copy to Me. I want to remind you guys, there's so much power in your purpose, and I'll see you guys next week. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power and Purpose podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

and consider leaving a review. Head over to powerinpurposepodcast.com to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's powerinpurposepodcast.com. I'll see you next time.