The Commission Code for Success

The SEO Oreo: Building Your Online Presence

• The Commission Code For Success from Sims Training and Consulting, LLC • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Darcy Sullivan breaks down the complex world of SEO with her unique "Oreo cookie" analogy, explaining how on-page actions, off-page actions, and the "sweet stuff" in the middle combine to help businesses become findable online. She shares practical advice for creating effective websites that convert visitors into customers.

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is positioning your brand to be findable online when people search for your products or services
• The "Oreo cookie" approach to SEO includes on-page actions, off-page actions, and the strategic elements that connect them
• Even new businesses need a website, with four fundamental pages: home, about, contact, and services
• Clearly define your target audience and identify keywords they use when searching
• Maintain consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information across all online platforms
• Use free tools like Google Analytics or Clicky to understand your website's performance
• Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly on all devices
• Local businesses should optimize their Google Business Profile, Yelp, and other directory listings
• Collect feedback on your website by asking others if they understand what you offer
• AI tools can help improve titles, messaging, and content, but shouldn't replace human expertise

Visit propellyourcompany.com for free trainings and resources on improving your online presence.


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Speaker 1:

for your success. Darcy Sullivan is our guest today on the Commission Code for your Success, and I'm really excited about having Darcy with us because we haven't had anybody talk about this particular topic in well forever, so I'm really excited about Darcy being here with us. Darcy, thanks so much for being on the show today.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, I am so excited to be here.

Speaker 1:

So tell us a little bit about you and what you do, and that way I won't mess up your introduction.

Speaker 2:

Well, I appreciate that. My name is Darcy Sullivan. I am the owner of Propel Marketing and Design. We help local businesses improve their online performance through local SEO and general SEO search engine optimization, which we're going to talk about a lot today, along with website design and redesign.

Speaker 1:

Oh, super Sounds great. Let's just jump into it. Darcy, If I'm out there running my own business and I come to you and say, okay, I got to find a way to get more people involved in the process for my business, where do you begin with folks?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so for those that are new and don't necessarily understand SEO, that's really like a good place to start. And you know it used to be that SEO was just focusing online to get people to your website so that then they would take the action that you wanted them to take, and that used to be where it was at. But now we have these evolutions of AI and different ways that people search and all these different elements. So the way that I like to break down SEO is kind of simple, kind of dorky, but you might like it. I like to think of an Oreo cookie.

Speaker 1:

Uh-huh.

Speaker 2:

Okay, an Oreo cookie has two wafers and the stuff in the middle that holds it together.

Speaker 1:

Wait a minute, Darcy. I'm sorry. Are we talking about the golden Oreos or the chocolate Oreos?

Speaker 2:

You know, for this case, it's whichever you prefer.

Speaker 2:

They now even have them in additional flavors. So that's right, we have all different options. Anyways, one day I was eating an Oreo cookie and I'm like this is a really good way to explain to somebody SEO, because in SEO you have on page actions which you take on your website to improve the ability for somebody to find your website, ability for somebody to find your website. You have off-page SEO actions you take off of your website to make sure somebody can find out about your brand. And then you have the sweet stuff in the middle, which includes using the keywords that your target audience is searching for, knowing your place in the market and overall branding. That hold it all together. And sometimes people forget about that middle, that sweet stuff that holds it all together and it's the core of really any marketing campaign but is so important when it comes to SEO. So when somebody comes to us, we first make sure that they understand what actions need to be taken which involve those three core elements, and then we work with them on improving their online presence.

Speaker 1:

You know, Darcy, I may be off base here, but let's back up about 10 steps here. Define SEO for everybody.

Speaker 2:

Sure SEO. Search engine optimization is positioning yourself and your brand to be findable online, so when somebody searches for the service that you offer or the product that you offer, they're able to find you and not your competition.

Speaker 1:

Does that work for social media kind of stuff as well as for a website? I mean, if I'm just cranking up my business here and I'm posting on I don't know all those nice little social platforms, but I haven't had the money yet to really build a website, does this make any difference?

Speaker 2:

It does. I would say almost all small businesses really do need a website even if you're just getting started, a very budgeted one. While social media does fall along the same parameters of making sure that you're putting together content that reflects your brand and your offering, using those words that your target audience is searching for, and optimizing it, it's a bit of a different process to optimize those listings versus your website.

Speaker 1:

That makes sense. That makes good sense, but it's still SEO right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's still. In essence is SEO, and along with that, we have the listings that are outside of your website that you want to make sure are listed correctly for representation of your business.

Speaker 1:

Cool so. So where do we begin with those with those two layers and the stuff in the middle?

Speaker 2:

So, so, obviously the sweet stuff in the middle, identifying who your target audience is, because we all know if you market to everyone, you market to no one.

Speaker 1:

Chase five rabbits and you catch none right yeah.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. So, once you've clearly identified what your service offering is, who your target audience is, then you want to identify the targeted keywords, or keyword phrases that people would be searching for when it comes to your services. And then again, you want to make sure that you're using those keywords in your social media, on your online listings, in on your website. When you're just getting started, one key element is making sure that all of your listings online are congruent and that they match and we call this consistency your NAP, your name, your address and your phone number, along with so it's your business name. It could be your personal name, depending on what services you're offering and your positioning on the market, but we want to make sure that everything matches online, because this sends a signal to Google that you're a legitimate business. And again, we also want that information on your website, even if it's a small website, because you're just getting started.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, and oh golly, I want to go in so many different directions here. Let's take a moment to just talk about that website idea for just a minute, because you know, nowadays you can build a website all on your own. You don't really have to go hire somebody that can do whatever those those nice little things are, word, whatever it is to get in there and build this thing and pay them $10,000 and say, well, look, I have a website, and then here are crickets, so I can do that now on my own and I can build my own website. Give us a couple of things we ought to think about if we're going to go out there on our very own and decide that we can build a website Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

A couple of things we need to think about.

Speaker 2:

So you are completely correct. There are so many, and the foundation that you were thinking of was WordPress. I believe WordPress is yeah, that one's a little harder if you're on your own, but if you're just getting started, Squarespace and Wix both offer a good starter platform and they've already got these templates put together. So you're just changing out the information for the placeholder information with your information, and the key here is to start with those four fundamental pages, which would be your homepage that clearly defines your offering, showcases testimonials and really clearly defines what it is that you offer.

Speaker 2:

As soon as somebody gets to that site, you want to make sure that it's got a clear call to action. What is the action you want people to take? Do you want them to buy your product? Do you want them to book a consultation? Do you want them to schedule an appointment with you? We want that clear call to action, and then we want to really go into detail with specific pages, which would be your about page, your contact page, which everybody needs, your what we would call like a general services page that lists all the services that you offer, and then specific services or specific product pages, depending on what it is that you offer, and then specific services or specific product pages, depending on what it is that you offer on your website.

Speaker 1:

That makes sense. That makes good sense. How do you know what's going on? I mean again, nowadays it's overwhelming all the stuff that you can find online, that, oh, we can tell you where you rank and where you are and how many people do this, that and the other. Do I really need to spend a lot of money to figure out how much people are using my website, how fast it is, whether it's making any difference, I guess, is the real question.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So the bottom line is, you want your website to be your best salesperson, right? And so if you're not seeing the actions that you want people to take on your website, if you're not generating new leads, if you're not generating new revenue from your website, then it's a good idea to well, even if you are generating positive revenue from your website. You want to look at analytics, and Google has a free tool called Google Analytics, where it will go in and it will highlight this information for you. It does feel a bit like drinking water from a fire hose.

Speaker 2:

So, you know, sometimes we suggest to clients there's another free tool called Clicky and there's other tools out there that are free or that are just like simplified, so that you don't feel like you're looking at all these data points going well, what does that mean? And then, when we are looking at these data points, we want to look at and see, you know, is the website actually getting traffic? Is that the issue? Or is the website getting traffic but nobody's taking the action that we want to take and they're just leaving the website as soon as they get there? In that case, that means that we need to recalibrate the messaging, recalibrate the information that's on the website, so that when somebody lands on the website, they're taking the actions that we want them to take and we're sending a message that matches with what they think they would find if they're clicking through your link from Google.

Speaker 1:

Kind of the on-page actions.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha that makes good sense and in that clicky C-L-I-K-I-E.

Speaker 2:

C-L-I-C-K-Ycom. I'll give you the link to add to your show notes if you would like.

Speaker 1:

Super, that would be great, thank you. Thank you, that's just one I've never heard of and I thought, well then, that might be pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I, they have a paid option as well, as most, most tools do, and you know there are a million tools out there today which obviously, you know, we now have AI, which we didn't have years ago, and that's the truth, and you know, with that, we find that sometimes people are relying a little too heavily on AI without giving it the right directive and just assuming that it can go out there and write all your social media posts and your email blasts and your website content, which you can use it to help you, but you shouldn't rely directly on those sources.

Speaker 1:

And that makes pretty good sense. I just recently started chat GPT and I was amazed at what it came back with after a couple of general questions. It's like, well, I'm running this business, what do you think? And it says, well, tell us this business, what do you think. And it says, well, tell us more about you. Yeah, and your business, which I did. And it came back and all of a sudden man, it told me okay, here, here, people that probably are your ideal client, here's their problems that they have and here's the things that you solve. So thereaction here. And it just went on and on and on. So I can see where AI can be kind of like bourbon it tastes really, really good, but if you do too much of it, it might not be so hot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I could see that as well. It's funny, before we hit record, you had asked me where I'm living now, which is South Florida, but I'm originally from Kentucky, so I am a bourbon girl, so the fact that you said that hold it a little heartstrings there. Very relatable. But yes, and it's interesting because you did you mentioned a couple of those key elements. Like you fed it the information that it needed to give you a response. You weren't just like hey, write a blog post for me, right, because that's what some people do is they're like hey, here's a keyword that I think we want to rank for Write a blog post for me. And you're like well, that doesn't directly correlate with your target offering or any of those four elements that are really that foundation.

Speaker 1:

Darcy, you mentioned keywords again, and that's something I meant to ask you earlier. Pardon me. Can something like ChatGPT help me define what those keywords should be or are?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. That is one good resource. There's also tons of free and paid for resources online. We always recommend that you check out a couple different resources and don't just rely on one For topical information. If you do have like a defined keyword and you're doing some searches online, you'll see that section that says people also ask keyword and you're doing some searches online, you'll see that section that says people also ask which is Google basically saying this is what people are looking for related to this targeted word, which can really help you put together quality content that matches you know what people are actually searching for that's important.

Speaker 1:

I never noticed that before. I mean I see people also ask yeah, right, okay, and I'm right on, but that is a great idea. I mean that could tell you real quickly what people are asking to see and if you can match that up with your keywords yeah that helps your SEO right, or is that right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, am I going in the?

Speaker 1:

right direction. Is this the right direction? You sure are.

Speaker 2:

You are headed in the right direction.

Speaker 1:

All right, good, good, because I don't know where I'm going without you, darcy. That's just an obvious piece here, I'm sure, but it makes perfect sense. Then if I can increase the stuff on page, that really nice keyword sort of stuff, the stuff that I can do online, I have control over that and I can make some things happen and that always makes a difference. But the foundation having that real clearly defined product well, I help business owners. It probably needs to be a little more detailed than that, right?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and I do think that that's sometimes something that people can struggle with, and so it is a good use for AI to be like hey, ask me as many questions, help me iron this out, or even to give AI some samples of your writing style so that it doesn't just spit out generic content. We're using it to say hey, I have this webpage, can you review it for me and let me know what I can do to improve it? Now, keep in mind it's a bot, it's not a person. So it's not the same as going out and hiring a resource to help you grow your business, because they're a professional in that area and they know your business better than a bot does.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That makes perfect sense, boy. I like that one. I had never thought of that one. That would be a great use for AI if it'll come back with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, or you can have it. Look at your competition's websites and say, hey, what information are they including that I'm not including? And then again you have to ask yourself yeah, they might include certain pieces of content, but does that represent my business offering or is that just what makes them different?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. It really does, but I really love that idea. What a great, great way to go, that's for sure. What else about SEO should we be concerned with? Darcy? Because I'm assuming that for the most part, everybody everybody's listening to us is probably kind of like me. We know enough about technology to be dangerous and enough about all this stuff to be dangerous. But help us. Poor dangerous people know what to do next.

Speaker 2:

So I would say, once you have a website set up, you want to make sure that it's obviously mobile friendly, that it loads well on a mobile device, because so many people are using mobile devices today, that it loads quickly and also oftentimes we see that sometimes especially if somebody lays out a website on their own that maybe they didn't test it on mobile.

Speaker 2:

So if you are building your own website, please and even if you had somebody build it for you make sure you test it out on mobile to make sure that it makes sense and that the layout doesn't get adjusted in a wrong way or that things are hard to read or the text is too big.

Speaker 2:

We also something we didn't really talk about is local SEO. We work with a lot of local businesses or businesses that are trying to rank locally. So for them, making sure that they have their online listings, like their Google business profile listing, really optimized so that they're showing up on Google Maps, having their Yelp listing optimized, having their being places listing optimized, having the core business pages that you can have optimized is another way to help improve your online exposure and by doing that, we want to make sure, again, that the NAP, the name, the address and phone number, that those citations are congruent throughout and that your business description when somebody reads it just like you said that it's not I help businesses that it really you know in a sentence or two somebody actually can walk away with the understanding of what services you offer.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It's going to be easy to utilize and easy to see. How long do you have? I mean, somebody goes to your website. What's the metric? Now? People stay there, for you know a few seconds.

Speaker 2:

You've got to make sure that you catch them as soon as they get there, as soon as they get to your homepage.

Speaker 2:

They need to know what it is that you offer.

Speaker 2:

Also, you know, I think a lot of people are sick of seeing some of these stock photos, right, because every time we're seeing like the exact same photos. So if you can use real photos that represent your business, or make sure that your photos aren't exactly the same as what your competition is using, and that, again, like in the header section, when the hero section, when somebody lands on your homepage, that they clearly know what it is you offer. So, if you've never done that experiment where you've given your website over to three or five people and just said, hey, be completely honest, take a look at my website and let me know that you understand what it does and what could I do to make it more enticing for you to book an appointment or take the action that I want you to take. And also, again, you could ask one of these AI tools like ChatGPT to say hey, here's my website, this is what my offering truly is. How can I make this more clear or more relevant than the information that's currently on it?

Speaker 1:

Well, that makes perfect sense. It really does, Validating that thing and making it something worthwhile for me, and then looking at the traffic. I think that's that's. The other key that I picked up in our conversation is that we got to look at the analytics.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. You have to look at those data points to see what is happening. Are people coming to the website? What actions are they taking? It also gives you insight into which pages are the most popular or which pages are the most important. And it could be that you spent hours and hours on a blog post and nobody's going to it, so you want to then like say, okay, I need to change this up and look at it and say, decide what actions you need to take. It could be that you were targeting the wrong keyword or that your title just isn't interesting enough, which, again, is another great way to use some of these AI tools is to say hey, I wrote this blog post. This is my current title. It's not getting much traffic. Can you please give me 20 better titles for this blog post? Because if you just ask it for one, it's going to give you one, but if you ask it for 20, you're going to be like, oh well, I kind of like number three and number eight Number 18.

Speaker 2:

I like three, seven and 18. Can you give me more variations along those lines? And then you come up with something that's much more exciting and more enticing for the readers.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's great. That is super. That is super. Darcy, if somebody wanted to talk with you further and to get more into your insight and knowledge and background and all your expertise, how would we best get a hold of you?

Speaker 2:

Sure. So you can visit propellyourcompanycom and I'll give you that link for the show notes. Can visit propellyourcompanycom and I'll give you that link for the show notes, and on there you'll find free trainings, free resources, and we also have a podcast, the Clinic Marketing Podcast, where we break down individual elements of local SEO and online marketing.

Speaker 1:

Now I confess I did a little bit of homework. I actually went to your site and it's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to use that as an example of what I should do, but I noticed on there that you do market to and you do a lot of work with physicians and chiropractors and those kind of folks. I'm not a doctor. Would you still talk to me?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely yeah. We do have a targeted audience, but we do go outside of that targeted audience when it comes to taking on new clients.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha Very good, outstanding because I figured doctors need all the help they can get. Yeah, the more I go to them and I'm 68, so I go to them a lot the more I they need your help, darcy, because they don't know how to run a business. In a lot of cases it's like wait a minute, don't you remember? I'm the one that pays the bills, or at least I'm the one that says you can charge my insurance company. Anyway, that's my rant for the day. Darcy, thank you so much for being here on the Commission Code for Success the day.

Speaker 2:

Darcy, thank you so much for being here on the Commission Code for Success, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the Commission Code to success in your business. Remember, go to morrissimscom for more information and in the meantime, hey, have a great week, get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the commission code. Best wishes. I'm Morris Sims, thank you.