Episode 32
From Coffee to Content: Mastering Blogging and SEO in 2024
Transform your content marketing game with insights from SEO and blogging expert Allison Ver Halen. Discover why maintaining a blog is essential for SEO success, particularly in 2024, and how it should take precedence over platforms like LinkedIn or Medium. Allison shares her top strategies for creating engaging content that resonates with your audience and positions you as a thought leader in your industry. Plus, explore how AI tools can help overcome writer's block and generate fresh ideas to elevate your writing. Don't miss out on these expert tips that can revolutionize your content marketing approach!
Takeaways:
- Content marketing remains vital as it helps businesses get found online and avoid job insecurity.
- Blogging continues to be relevant for SEO, providing a foundational text for search engines.
- Utilizing AI tools can aid in generating ideas and overcoming writer's block effectively.
- High-quality backlinks are essential for SEO, enhancing your site's authority and visibility.
- Consistent content creation is crucial; aim for at least two quality posts per month.
- Blogs should prioritize original content on your website over posting on platforms like LinkedIn.
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Transcript
That's good.
Brett Dicer:Welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Marketing Brew, and I'm your host, Brett Dicer.
Brett Dicer:And this week we're talking about content marketing because that is really important nowadays, because if you don't have any content, no one can find you, and then your boss gets mad at you and then it's just a whole mess.
Brett Dicer:We don't want to get too fired because it's hard to find a job as it is.
Brett Dicer:We're going to stick to that.
Brett Dicer:And I have a content marketing expert, Allison, with me, and she is, as I said, a content marketing expert and SEO expert who has brought in revenue for many clients creating strategic content for their websites.
Brett Dicer:Welcome to the show, Allison.
Allison:Thank you so much for having me.
Brett Dicer:You're welcome.
Brett Dicer:The first question I ask all my guests is, are you a coffee or tea drinker?
Allison:Both, actually.
Allison:I tend to do coffee in the mornings and tea in the afternoons.
Allison:But I actually worked in a tea shop in high school, so I know way more about tea than anyone has a right to.
Brett Dicer:I have a little experience because I actually was a barista, not for Starbucks, but a barista for a local coffee shop that's no longer around.
Brett Dicer:So do you have any specific teas?
Brett Dicer:Do you like, like green tea, jasmine pearls, oolong teas?
Brett Dicer:What do you prefer?
Allison:There's a Chinese green tea called Lung Ching Dragons that is my absolute favorite.
Brett Dicer:Nice.
Brett Dicer:Never heard of that.
Brett Dicer:That sounds pretty good.
Allison:It's a.
Allison:Yeah, it's a nice, light green tea.
Allison:It's not one of those teas that's going to punch you in the face.
Brett Dicer:Gotcha.
Brett Dicer:I gave a brief summary of your expertise.
Brett Dicer:Can you give our listeners a little bit more about what you do?
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:So I always like to go back to how I got into this because it is a long story, but it does cover all of the things that I do.
Allison:So I, back in college, majored in English and psychology, which turned out to be the perfect degree for what I'm doing.
Allison:Had no clue this was an option.
Allison:Thought I wanted to work in publishing.
Allison: Graduated in: Allison:So I worked some odd jobs for a while, ended up answering phones.
Allison:It was fine.
Allison:It was a job that mostly paid the bills.
Allison:Found myself between jobs at one point, and my roommate at the time, her dad, who was an attorney, was awesome and offered to give me stuff to do around his office until I got back on my feet.
Allison:And one of the things he needed was Someone to write blog posts for his law firm.
Allison:And he offered me the gig.
Allison:He knew I had a strong writing background and I was like, what?
Allison:I can get paid to write?
Allison:Seriously?
Allison:Yeah, sign me up.
Allison:So I jumped at that chance and started writing for him and then for an associate of his and then for some friends of mine.
Allison:Did eventually get another day job which again was just answering phones.
Allison:And I it was a job, not a career, so I kept writing on the side.
Allison:And it was one of those where anytime anyone asked what I did for a living, I'd be like, why do I answer phones?
Allison:But I'm really a writer.
Allison:And I would put much more emphasis on the writing I was doing than on the day job I didn't want to do anymore.
Allison:So I eventually grew it to a point where I could leave the day job and do this full time.
Allison:And then it was one of those where the more I did blogging and content marketing professionally, the more I realized you really can't do blogging without SEO and vice versa.
Allison:Versa.
Allison:You really need both of them so that they can work together to a get you found online by the people who are looking for you and de educate your clients and set you up as a thought leader so that when people are ready to reach out to you, they know why they're reaching out to you over the competition.
Allison:That's me in a nutshell.
Brett Dicer:Gotcha.
Brett Dicer:So what is it with blogging?
Brett Dicer:Because blogging has been around.
Brett Dicer:It's the din.
Brett Dicer:One of the things I call it's the dinosaurs of content.
Brett Dicer:Because when the Internet first came on, blogging was really the only thing you could do.
Brett Dicer:There was no video, there was no picture, there was barely any picture.
Brett Dicer:Editing software, Adobe was around, but it wasn't primarily for digital stuff.
Brett Dicer:It was still for print.
Brett Dicer: So I mean, is in: Allison:So first of all, again, SEO, which by the way, for those of you who don't know, is search engine optimization, otherwise known as making Google your friend.
Allison:Like I said, when people are looking for you, you are the one who shows up.
Allison:Google is getting better at reading images and audio content.
Allison:It's still not great.
Allison:It still relies on text to figure out what your website is all about.
Allison:So yes, you need that text on your website to again tell Google who you are, what you do, what you're all about.
Allison:Position yourself as a thought leader so that it will rank you when people are looking for answers to the questions that you are answering for them, looking for solutions to the problems that you solve for them.
Allison:So yes, it is absolutely still viable, at least for SEO, if no other reason.
Allison:I do always, yes, video is huge.
Allison:Yes, podcasts are huge.
Allison:I'm not anti those things by any means, but I do think there's a way to repurpose your content so you can use all of them, so you can make a video.
Allison:Oh, excuse me, I had a sneeze that I'm trying to hold back.
Allison:So you can make a video, rip the audio from the video post the video post, just the audio by itself as a podcast, and then you can get a transcription of the audio and put that up as a blog post.
Allison:So there is no reason for you to be like, oh, I'm doing video, so I'm not doing blog posts, or I'm doing podcasts, so I'm not doing these other things.
Allison:You can do all of the things without spending all of your time creating content.
Allison:And that way you can get in front of people who want to watch videos.
Allison:You can get in front of people who would rather listen to a podcast on their way to work.
Allison:You can get in front of people who are like me, who are readers, who would rather read the content.
Allison:So yes.
Allison:And if someone finds your website and they're just exploring and trying to know more about you and what you're all about, a lot of people are going to go straight to that blog to make sure that you really know what you're talking about.
Allison:Specifically those of us in the B2B industry.
Allison:On average, people are going to go through five to seven pieces of content before making a buying decision, and they're going to go straight to the blog for those pieces of content.
Allison:So, yes, absolutely.
Allison:Still important.
Brett Dicer:And is it important also to do blogging, let's say, like LinkedIn, or should you just do it on your own website?
Brett Dicer:Because you do have options.
Brett Dicer:You have Medium, you have LinkedIn, you have your own website, obviously.
Brett Dicer:But maybe you're not really getting a lot of traction from your website.
Brett Dicer:Is it good to use those and then try to funnel them back into your website?
Allison:Always try to funnel back to your website.
Allison:So yes, I do recommend focusing on creating content that lives on your website a for those SEO reasons.
Allison:Because if you put it on Medium or LinkedIn, you are helping their SEO with your content that they're not bothering to create.
Allison:And then they own your content so they can delete it for any reason.
Allison:You can end up in LinkedIn jail for any reason or no reason, you can end up being shoved down the algorithm and not understand why.
Allison:Always focus on prioritizing, putting content on your own website and then absolutely use those other channels to distribute your content and let people know, hey, I have a blog post.
Allison:Hey, I have this content over here.
Allison:And then use it to lead people back to your website.
Brett Dicer:Got you.
Brett Dicer:So with backlinks, are they still necessary?
Brett Dicer:Because blogging does give you that type of backlinks to it as well.
Brett Dicer:That's part of the process.
Brett Dicer:So is it a good backlink way of creating blog posts?
Brett Dicer:You can get backlinks, good backlinks.
Brett Dicer:We don't want to promote bad backlinks, but good backlinks to your website.
Brett Dicer:Is that another good way of boosting your authority for your website?
Allison:Absolutely, yeah.
Allison:Backlinks are huge for SEO.
Allison:For those of you who don't know, a backlink is when someone on another website links back to your website.
Allison:That's an external backlink you can also link to within your blog post.
Allison:You can link to another blog post that you wrote on your website.
Allison:That's an internal backlink.
Allison:Not as valuable.
Allison:Still some value there.
Allison:But you really want to get, like he said, those high quality backlinks because Google assumes that hangs out with.
Allison:So if someone is linking to your website, they're in a related industry, they're a high quality website with good content, Google already likes them.
Allison:If they're linking to you, that will boost your SEO.
Allison:If it's a low quality website with thin or spammy content, and Google does not rank them for anything that can actually hurt your rankings.
Allison:So you do want to try to focus on getting those high quality backlinks.
Allison:And first and foremost, you have to have linkable content.
Allison:Linkable assets some people call them.
Allison:Why should someone give you a backlink?
Allison:What should they link to?
Allison:What's in it for them?
Allison:What's in it for their audience?
Allison:So you have to start with that really high quality content that again answers people's questions, explains how you solve a problem for them so that they have a reason to link back to it.
Allison:And then, yeah, there are various outreach strategies you can use to ask people.
Allison:A, let them know you exist and B, say, hey, would you mind, mind providing a backlink to this article I just wrote?
Allison:Appreciate it, thanks.
Brett Dicer:Gotcha.
Brett Dicer:So how do you create that good blog post to have good backlinks?
Brett Dicer:Because we can all talk about you need great backlinks, but the problem is that you gotta create that content to make it to do the good backlinks.
Brett Dicer:How do you start that process?
Brett Dicer:Cause I'm pretty sure a lot of people like.
Brett Dicer:I like blogging, per se.
Allison:Yeah, yeah.
Allison:So it all starts with your target audience.
Allison:Who are they?
Allison:What interests them?
Allison:What problem do they have that you're solving for them?
Allison:And then what search terms are they using to look for a solution to that problem?
Allison:And what language are they using?
Allison:I, for example, work with a lot of lawyers who like to use lots of jargon and Latin terms that most people, we glaze over and go, huh?
Allison:What?
Allison:Use the language that your audience is using.
Allison:I know that's a struggle for all of us.
Allison:When you're in your industry and you use this language all day, every day, it can take a minute to go, oh, not everyone knows what that means.
Allison:I should back up a bit so you can absolutely explain to them what it means.
Allison:But don't rely too heavily on that jargon, on those, those big words.
Allison:And just don't use big words in general.
Allison:Anything over two or three syllables is, it's just, it's not too big.
Allison:It's not that you can't use those words, but don't overuse them.
Allison:Use them only when there really is no other alternative writing.
Allison:Those short, clear sentences, short sentences, short paragraphs make it really easy for people to skim your content.
Allison:When there's lots of white space, they can read a lot of content without realizing they're reading a lot of content and they can get through it really quickly.
Allison:Whereas if they just see a giant block of text, even someone like me, who's a big reader, even, I'll look at that and be like, I don't know, do I really have time for all this?
Allison:I have a million other things on my to do list.
Allison:I could just click away and get what I need somewhere else.
Allison:But if you give it in short, snappy bites, super, super helpful and readable.
Allison:So, yeah, answer the questions they're asking.
Allison:Google prioritizes long form content.
Allison: So: Allison: t mean every post needs to be: Allison:It means that's the average.
Allison:They can absolutely be shorter.
Allison:I do always recommend that it's an ultimate guide style post, meaning that you cover everything there is to cover in that topic.
Allison:If that's only a thousand words, great, write a thousand words.
Allison:It should at least be 500 words for SEO purposes.
Allison: ,: Allison:But do make sure that you are covering everything there is to cover on that topic.
Allison:Breaking it up with images and video infographics are awesome for this, as well as using subheadings to break it up.
Allison:So subheadings are also great for SEO.
Allison: not everyone's going to read: Allison:But if they know there's a section that they really want to get into, they will go straight to that section and they will read that in depth.
Allison:Write content that allows people to do that easily.
Allison:Because again, if you just overwhelm them with a ton of content, they're more likely to just click away and get what they need somewhere else.
Allison:Or alternatively, if you have a super short post that doesn't cover everything there is to cover on a topic, and it's just a quick overview, you might get a lot of people who are like, yeah, I knew this already.
Allison:What I really want is like a specific answer to this specific question.
Allison:And again, if you don't provide it, they're going to go somewhere else.
Allison:So give them that specific answer to that question and tell it in a story.
Allison:Because we can all talk about the facts and statistics all day long.
Allison:Most of us that's going to go in one ear and out the other, and we're going to forget all about it.
Allison:But if you tell us a good story, a, we're more likely to keep reading and B, we're more likely to remember what we read.
Allison:And then that will make you memorable so that when they are ready to buy, they'll come back to you.
Brett Dicer:It seems like blogging is about layout plus writing.
Brett Dicer:Because you have the layout, you have to lay it out being like, okay, this block of text here, this block of text here, and then put pictures, subheadings, videos, whatever you can.
Brett Dicer:But let's say you're writing it and it does happen to be 500 words or less than 500 words.
Brett Dicer:Should they just transfer that over to social post instead and be like, here's this.
Brett Dicer:Because at least you're using it.
Brett Dicer:It may not help your website at all, but at least you're using it.
Brett Dicer:Maybe put it on a LinkedIn post instead and there you go, people will read it that way.
Allison:Yeah, absolutely.
Allison:I do think that's a great use of it.
Allison:Yeah, don't ever write more just for the sake of writing more, just to reach some arbitrary word.
Allison:Count.
Allison:Like I said, I majored in English.
Allison:I know how to do that.
Allison:I spent four years doing that.
Allison:But I don't recommend doing that in your blog.
Brett Dicer:Got you.
Brett Dicer:And then let's say you do write something in it and they're like, duh, this is an overview.
Brett Dicer:I already know.
Brett Dicer:Would it be advisable to redo the blog post and be like, okay, maybe I should add more to this and then start to add more to it and then people.
Brett Dicer:Because blogging is long form content, so you could add to it and then still people will find it.
Brett Dicer:So is that a good way of correcting yourself?
Brett Dicer:And like, oh, I did everything.
Brett Dicer:And someone's I really wanted to know this.
Brett Dicer:You're like, oh, that's a good idea.
Brett Dicer:And then going back and then just correcting that and then adding more.
Brett Dicer:And you could say, I've updated this.
Brett Dicer:So you're being ethical about it.
Allison:Yeah, absolutely.
Allison:I do always recommend researching your topic either before you start writing or at least before you finish writing your blog post, just to make sure you are covering everything there is to cover on that topic.
Allison:But yeah, if something comes up later on down the road.
Allison:I actually had this happen with my book that I wrote.
Allison:So I, I wrote a book almost two years ago now and tried to make it as evergreen as I could.
Allison:And six months after I published it, ChatGPT came out.
Allison:And so I was like, now I have to talk about AI writing tools in my content marketing book.
Allison:So yeah, I went back and published my second edition a few months ago.
Allison:So that's always an option.
Allison:Same with blogging.
Allison:Yeah, you can go back and edit a post, you can add to a post, you can delete stuff if it's no longer relevant and then republish it.
Allison:I do recommend republishing it if you're going to do that, because that gets the most out of that post.
Allison:That means you unpublish it, you take it down, you republish it with a new publication date.
Allison:Google treats it like brand new content.
Allison:That new date actually really boosts your SEO.
Allison:And if you're, if it's a piece of content that is already getting traffic even a while after you published it, by republishing it, you're giving it kind of new life and inviting even more traffic to it.
Allison:So yes, repurposing content includes older blog posts either because you have something new to say or you want to delete some stuff from there and then republish it.
Allison:Or if you just got super busy and didn't have Time to write a blog post this week.
Allison:You can use an older blog post instead.
Allison:That is a great way to make the most of that content.
Brett Dicer:And you reference AI.
Brett Dicer:So I'm going to have to do the elephant in the room because everybody's talking about AI.
Brett Dicer:I use AI.
Brett Dicer:So is it preferable to use it maybe to give ideas or maybe to even start to write the blog post?
Brett Dicer:Maybe you're just complete writer's block.
Brett Dicer:You're like, I don't know what I'm writing.
Brett Dicer:I've been sitting at this computer screen or a piece of paper for two hours and I have this is this.
Brett Dicer:And that's all.
Brett Dicer:Is it good to do?
Brett Dicer:Is it good to help you foster those ideas?
Brett Dicer:Because we all get writer's block where we're like, I don't know what I'm writing.
Brett Dicer:I don't know where to go.
Brett Dicer:I'm completely lost.
Allison:100%.
Allison:Yes.
Allison:That is my favorite way of using ChatGPT or any other AI writing tool is.
Allison:Yeah, just idea generation.
Allison:Just to give you a starting point, there's actually an AI writing tool I came across once that just writes like the first few lines for you.
Allison:It's not going to write you a whole blog post, but it'll give you a few lines and sometimes that's all you need just to get started, just so you have something on the screen to work with.
Allison:Because, yes, we all run into writer's block.
Allison:We all have those moments where you're like, yeah, I know what I need to talk about.
Allison:I just don't know how to say it.
Allison:I came across someone a while back who talked about it perfectly.
Allison:I think as far as AI is great for writing the boring parts again, just the facts and statistics.
Allison:It's not great at stories, it's really bad at calls to action.
Allison:So don't rely on it for those.
Allison:But you can have it organize the information for you.
Allison:And then you as the human, a fact check it.
Allison:It gives wrong information about half of the time.
Allison:So fact check it first and foremost to make sure it's accurate.
Allison:But then add in that story element, make sure it's relevant, make sure it's in line with your brand and uses your brand voice, resonates with your target audience, has that story element, has a really good, powerful call to action.
Brett Dicer:And it also could be just the AI you're using.
Brett Dicer:So ChatGPT may not be good for those stats, but perplexity may be actually better for the actual stat gathering because they all have their different quirks and they all do something better than the other ones.
Brett Dicer:Even though I think Jet GPT4 is better at doing the writing, I'm not saying it's the best, but it's better at it than it was previously.
Brett Dicer:But I found that, like, for us, we just need to figure out which one we want to use and then stick with it.
Brett Dicer:So there's ChatGPT, there's Gronk for X, there's Perplexity, there's Bard, which I think is going to be turning into Gemini or whatever.
Brett Dicer:Google's going to be using it.
Brett Dicer:There's Copilot on your Windows computer.
Brett Dicer:Now, if you're using Windows 11, is it just like sticking to that one thing and then using it?
Brett Dicer:Because I may use it for, like, scripts or help me write some, like, basic questions for podcasts.
Brett Dicer:If I have nothing, if I don't know any other questions, I'll maybe use it for a backup, because it's a general question that could help me launch it.
Brett Dicer:So is it good for that stuff?
Brett Dicer:Just in case you may need to foster conversations or foster writing for that?
Brett Dicer:Is it good for that?
Allison:Yeah, I don't know if you really want.
Allison:If there's value in sticking to one tool over another, unless you're paying for them, in which case, yeah, you want to make sure you're paying for what you use and not paying for the same thing multiple times.
Allison:It might actually be more beneficial to stick to one if you're like, I have a bunch of clients that I need to make sure I'm writing in all of their different voices, so I have that unique perspective.
Allison:But if you're just creating content for your business and you want to make sure it's all in your brand, it can make sense to have one AI tool that you use and you train really well in your brand voice and how you.
Allison:The kinds of content you want to use, the words you want to use, the words you want to avoid.
Allison:Because the more you do that, the better it will get.
Allison:So if you're jumping around from tool to tool, you're going to lose that momentum.
Allison:Whereas if you stick with one tool, it's going to learn your voice really well.
Brett Dicer:Yeah, I heard ChatGPT, you can actually train it to understand how you write.
Brett Dicer:And so it may be better for writers to use that one because you can.
Brett Dicer:I don't know if Bard can do that.
Brett Dicer:I certainly don't think Gronk could because it reads your tweets.
Brett Dicer:So if you tweet a lot, it could probably figure out how to write for You.
Brett Dicer:So yeah, I think so.
Brett Dicer:Basically either use ChatGPT but the paid version.
Brett Dicer:Because the paid version allows you to do all that stuff.
Brett Dicer:So would that be the best use of money if let's say you're new to AI and you're like, I don't know which one to use and I just chat GPT because it's been in the news everywhere.
Allison:Yeah, definitely.
Allison:Play around with the free version first.
Allison:There is a free version that you can use.
Allison:I know it's not as good as ChatGPT4, which you have to pay for, but at least then you have an idea of what you're getting into.
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:Play around with the free versions and see what works with for you.
Allison:And then when you get to the point of investing, then you know what to invest.
Allison:And even a lot of the ones that you invest and will give you like a free seven day trial or whatever.
Brett Dicer:Yeah, and we talked or you referenced like podcasts to blogging.
Brett Dicer:So is blogging becoming more ancillary to the other ones?
Brett Dicer:Let's say you, you're doing a podcast and maybe you don't know that you could turn your podcast into a blog.
Brett Dicer:So is it becoming more ancillary or are we still seeing just blogs?
Brett Dicer:Just because it's a little bit more easy to set up a blog than a podcast.
Brett Dicer:Podcasts are easy to set up, but they're still pretty hard to maintain.
Brett Dicer:As much as blog.
Brett Dicer:Blogging is still a lot easier.
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:There's a lot more tools you need.
Allison:You really can start blogging on your phone.
Allison:Really.
Allison:And you really don't need anything more than that.
Allison:Whereas if you're going to be investing in a high quality podcast.
Allison:Yeah, you need the good microphone, you need the audio editing software, you need all that stuff.
Allison:So it's.
Allison:Yeah, it's more.
Allison:I don't know if it's more work.
Allison:It's certainly different work.
Allison:Yeah, I think the blog can be either or.
Allison:I can certainly see a blog living on its own and just doing its thing to drive traffic to your website.
Allison:But it can also be ancillary to your podcast.
Allison:Again, you want to get the people who are listening and you want to get the people who want to read the content.
Allison:And obviously we all want to get Google's attention.
Allison:So the blog is great for that as well.
Brett Dicer:Gotcha.
Brett Dicer:And where do you see like blogging going in the next five years?
Brett Dicer:Because we've seen like the rise of email marketing.
Brett Dicer:Are you seeing more people going to be using email marketing for it?
Brett Dicer:Because email marketing is another avenue to advertise your blogging?
Brett Dicer:Are we going to see more integration within videos and videos convert into written material?
Brett Dicer:Are we going to see a VR blogging with the Apple Vision Pro released?
Brett Dicer:Are we going to see more of that, More of the immersive blogging?
Brett Dicer:I'm just making it up, but are we going to see more of that in the future?
Brett Dicer:Where is this all going for blogging?
Brett Dicer:Because it's old, but it's still useful.
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:So what I've seen.
Allison: riting blog posts for back in: Allison:I think it was where blogging was a very different thing.
Allison:And really all I needed to do was research some cases that, you know, famous cases in the news that dealt with the same kind of law that my client dealt in and repurpose it for a blog post and slap a call to action at the end.
Allison:And that was it.
Allison:I was done.
Allison:Super easy.
Allison:It has gotten so much more competitive since then, which is how I started learning about SEO and keyword research and all these other things.
Allison:Because it got harder and harder to get traction with that simple, easy blog post that I was writing.
Allison:I really needed to up my game as an SEO strategist and as a thought leader and to position my clients as thought leaders in their industry.
Allison:So I think that's going to continue as especially with ChatGPT and a lot of people using it who don't know how to use it effectively, they just want to create content.
Allison:They want to put content up on their website for the sake of creating content without really thinking about how it works in their lead generation strategy.
Allison:So we're going to get a.
Allison:We are getting and are going to continue to get lots of crappy content out there.
Allison:So I think it's going to be more and more important to create content that resonates with people on a human level and sets you apart as a thought leader.
Allison:So don't just say the same thing everyone else is saying.
Allison:Ideally you shouldn't do that anyway, but have your own thoughts and opinions on how this works, why this works, why this is important, why this is crap, why you should never ever do this, or why you should always do such and such.
Allison:And the why is super important.
Allison:Why do you think this?
Allison:What are you seeing?
Allison:What are your professional experiences here?
Allison:That's what's going to help you stand out from the crowd.
Brett Dicer:Gotcha.
Brett Dicer:Yeah, it seems like blogging is here to stay for at least for a while.
Brett Dicer:I don't see it ever going away because for now the Written word is the written word.
Brett Dicer:And even if people don't read as much, they still read blogs.
Brett Dicer:So do you think because podcasting and blogging is the most evergreen you can get, I think on SEO, for SEO purposes, do you think that we're going to have a more marriage or mutual benefit between both of those more than video?
Brett Dicer:Because video is a lot more work than both of them.
Brett Dicer:Because as YouTubers and everything, you have to have higher and higher productions.
Brett Dicer:Like, no one likes low production stuff.
Brett Dicer:So you're going to see a better marriage between those two of podcasting and blogging, Possibly.
Allison:I do think there's always going to be the people who just podcast and the people who just blog, and there's going to be the people who do both and there's going to be people who blog and podcast about completely different things.
Allison:They're not always going to marry them.
Allison:Like I said, I think you should, as long as you're on different platforms, make the most of it and get your message across all of the platforms.
Allison:So, yeah, I definitely think there's a lot of value in, like I said, in making those work together.
Brett Dicer:And what are like if someone is trying to start a blog, like, how should they go about starting it?
Brett Dicer:Because maybe someone's, man, I really want to do this.
Brett Dicer:This sounds like a great idea.
Brett Dicer:How do I start?
Brett Dicer:That's always the hardest part, is to start it.
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:Know your ideal client.
Allison:It always comes back to knowing your ideal client and the language they use, the problem you're solving for them, the questions they're asking around that problem.
Allison:Which again, for a blog, it's not always going to be who can I hire?
Allison:What can I buy to solve this problem?
Allison:It might be, what is this problem?
Allison:What is this industry?
Allison:Who does such and such.
Allison:What does this mean?
Allison:What do I need to know about this?
Allison:A lot of those how to and what are blogs are really good.
Allison:Those topics are really good for blog posts.
Allison:So focus on those.
Allison:Find out what questions people are asking.
Allison:Looking on social media, using your keyword research tool, the easiest way is just to talk to people and see what their what questions they ask.
Allison:If you are networking and having conversations with people and like we're talking about AI, right?
Allison:So of course I've written a bunch of content on AI because it's something that comes up over and over again.
Allison:So people are asking me this in person and on podcasts, they're probably asking it online too.
Allison:So that is something that I invested in creating content there.
Allison:Always make sure you are providing value Have a schedule.
Allison:So many business owners get started and they get excited and they write two or three blog posts and then they get busy and they forget about it, and it's at the bottom of their to do list and they never come back to it.
Allison:And when people see that, they might look at that blog post that was last published three years ago and be like, is anyone even still behind this website anymore?
Allison:Come up with a schedule no less than once a month, preferably twice a month, to write a good, long, in depth, high quality blog post.
Allison:Make sure it's a schedule that is realistic for you and something that you can stick with so that you are creating content on a consistent basis.
Allison:Otherwise it'll fall by the wayside and you'll never get back to it.
Brett Dicer:Kind of sounds like blogging.
Brett Dicer:I mean, podcasting, because podcasting people love it, start it, and then they never follow through with the schedule.
Brett Dicer:And then there's actually a term of podcasting called pod.
Brett Dicer:Fame is where you start it, but you go through three episodes and then you stop.
Brett Dicer:There's a lot of similarities between podcasting and blogging, because I feel like it's the two easiest to start, but the two hardest to maintain and to really get traction with.
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:So that's the other thing about blogging is know that you're not going to get results after the first three blog posts.
Allison:It's going to take a few months at least before you start really getting results from it.
Allison:Yeah.
Allison:And then have a distribution strategy.
Allison:Know that you're going to distribute it in your newsletter on social media so that you can drive traffic back to your website.
Brett Dicer:Gotcha.
Brett Dicer:So people are like, going, man, you've got a lot of knowledge on blogging.
Brett Dicer:Where can I find you online to learn more about SEO and blogging?
Allison:Yeah, my website is AV, as in my initials, Allison Verhalen.
Allison:So that is AVWritingervices.com so you can go there.
Allison:I'm also on LinkedIn quite a bit as Alison Verhalen, so you can connect with me there as well.
Brett Dicer:All right, thank you, Allison, for joining.
Brett Dicer:Oh, I need final thoughts.
Allison:Actually, I don't think so.
Allison:I think we did a pretty good job of covering it.
Allison:I don't want to overwhelm people.
Allison:I know I can talk about this all day.
Brett Dicer:All right.
Brett Dicer:Thank you, Allison, for joining Digital Coffee, Marketing, Brewing and sharing your knowledge on SEO and blogging.
Allison:Thank you so much for having me.
Brett Dicer:And thank you for joining.
Brett Dicer:As always, please subscribe to this podcast on all your favorite podcasting tabs.
Brett Dicer:Five star review really does help and join us next week as we talk to you, a great fellow.
Brett Dicer:All right guys, stay safe, get to understanding or starting your blog and understanding the SEO within your blog and see you next week later.
