How to Increase Your Website Traffic Without Social Media

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

What good is your website if nobody actually sees it? It's the number one struggle that entrepreneurs have when they come to me to help them with their marketing. 

What I see is that entrepreneurs will build their website, they're doing it themselves, they're hiring a graphic designer, they're hiring a team to do it, and then it sits there. And they're like, well, I spent all this time, I spent all this energy, I spent some money building this website, but no one's actually finding it except for maybe a handful of people that saw it the day that you announced that you had a new website. 

We've all been there.

I had a website for about two years before people started to find it because I didn’t know about the strategies I’m sharing with you today.

Now, more than 10,000 people land on my website every single month!

You're going to notice with these four tips, I’m sharing today, that I do not talk about social media. 

Listen, social media is an asset. I am not saying there's anything wrong with marketing your business on social media. But when we are talking about consistent quality leads, there are other avenues that you want to have in place for your business. 

Social media just isn't the top dog when it comes to marketing your business anymore. And many of my clients actually are overwhelmed with the process of using social media every single day. 

I use the analogy that it feels like you're shooting a paper airplane into a sea of people and hoping it hits the right person. The strategies I'm about to share with you are very different and they focus on client attraction.

But, before we get into all of my favorite ways to drive consistent traffic and quality leads to your website, let us first talk about the importance of your website. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR WEBSITE AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

Now, I know there's a lot of information floating around the internet on whether or not you need a website and how much energy and time should go into your website. 

But I truly believe that one of the greatest assets to entrepreneurs and small business owners is their website. We actually refer to it as your home base over here at Brandmerry because that is essentially what it is.

If you needed to create one spot with all of the information for your ideal customer, whether they are coming in at the beginning of the buying process, just knowing they have a problem and not sure how to solve it, all the way to ready to pull out their credit card and purchase your products and your services, you can create your website. 

Your website will serve as your home base. 
It is where you get to share your story. 
It's where you get to share strong language and connect with your audience. 
It's where you get to share powerful resources in the form of a blog, a podcast, or a YouTube channel. 
It is where you get to share full sales pages of your offers so people can get all of the information that they need.

It's truly one of my favorite things to support entrepreneurs in creating. But it also can take a really long time. It's one of the reasons that I created an entire training inside of my program, Brandmerry Academy and Roadmap to Freedom because I watched entrepreneurs spending months and months and months building a website. 

Now, I am not recommending that this is the route that you go. In fact, many of my clients do it in 30 days or less. 

You don't need to have some fancy, beautifully designed website if you don't have a) the budget or b) the time to take care of that. 

You just want a central location with your info. 
And in this video right here, I talk about the four-part framework for your homepage because your homepage is incredibly important and serves as a kind of launching off point or landing page for all the resources and things that you have on your website. 

Now that we understand why your website is important and how it shouldn't take you forever, let's talk about how to get your website seen. 

INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC TIP #1
OPTIMIZE FOR SEARCH ENGINES (SEO)

One of the first things that you want to do when you create your new website is making sure that it's optimized for search engines, specifically for Google. 

Now, there's a lot of different ways to handle this. I actually talk about SEO specifically in this video right here where I talk about the strategy for SEO, how to create site-wide SEO and some of my favorite ways to boost your overall rankings. 

But so many people will create their website and they forget about the technical, very strategic backend that comes into play for site-wide SEO.

We also tend to gravitate a little bit more towards thinking of SEO in terms of blogging, and that is powerful, but what I want you to focus on first and foremost is making sure that your pages, your headings, your site descriptions are optimized.

Here’s an additional blog with some tips on this >>

INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC TIP #2
PINTEREST

My second favorite way to drive traffic to my website and the website of my clients are using Pinterest. 

Oh my gosh, I swear this is my love language. I used to use Pinterest as a consumer all the time. Maybe you're like me and you use it to look up recipes and home decor and clothes that you're going to pack for your next vacation and you never really thought about using it for business. 

Well, back in 2017, I recognized that a lot of bloggers were using Pinterest and there had to be a way for us to use Pinterest to build our service-based business at the time. So I started exploring it.

I was already blogging, so I looked at ways that I could optimize that. I figured if my ideal customer was already there looking for lifestyle things, what are the odds that they would be there to look for business pieces as well?

We started to see that traffic was consistently coming to my blog. So rather than the one day a week when I shared my blog on social media or emailed my list, I was getting views every single day from Pinterest. That's when I fell in love with it and went all in. 

And to this day, we have over a million viewers on Pinterest every single month. And one of my favorite ways to use Pinterest, obviously, is in connection with a blog.

Blogging is a great way for you to have valuable resources, high-value content on your website to support your ideal customer through the buying journey so that if someone's coming in at the very first stage and we're wanting to move them through to the purchase stage, we have great information and resources there to show our authority and our expertise.

Blogging is also a fantastic way to improve your SEO rankings because Google, as we mentioned in number one, wants to know that you have high-quality content on your website and that you are backing up what you say that you're doing within your industry with content. 

So blogging tells Google, oh, this person is an expert in personal branding and they talk about it all the time on the blog. But then, in addition to that, we can use Pinterest to drive consistent traffic to our website so when we post a blog it doesn't just disappear or we cross our fingers and hope that it shows up in Google. We can make sure that it's showing up on Pinterest.

When you’re writing your blogs, it’s important to create content you know your audience is searching for so that you’re showing up in that way, while also providing value.

A blog can serve so many purposes.
Imagine someone who doesn’t know anything about your brand and finds your post on Pinterest, they now have brand awareness.
The same can happen on Google.

Now imagine someone follows you on Instagram or is on your email list and thinking about working with you. They can see the value you provide and your blog and it might be the turning point for moving your relationship to paying client.

Blogging is incredibly powerful and can also be used to repurpose your content on other platforms, just another way to drive traffic back to your website. Learn more about repurposing here >>

Now, Pinterest requires a lot of training, it’s something I teach my clients inside of my program Brandmerry Academy and is not something I can teach you in a blog, but here are some tips to get you started.

• Consistent pinning is important, meaning you don’t just post one pin a week. We recommend at least three times a week with 10-15 pins each of those days. To do this we recommend using Tailwind.

• You’ll want to create eye-catching images for the platform, and a few variations for each piece of content. To do this we recommend Canva and Tailwind Create.

• Just like Google, Pinterest is a search engine which means your titles and keywords matter. Take the time to research those!

Pinterest advertising can be an amazing underrated asset and you can sometimes get started for just $2 a day. Check out this blog post for all the details >>

INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC TIP #3
YOUTUBE

Speaking of search engines, we cannot miss an opportunity to talk about YouTube. 

YouTube just like the other two that I've mentioned before, is a powerful platform because it again is a search engine, meaning that your ideal customer is coming to this platform to search for very specific topics. 

Since it’s a search engine it brings in quality leads because people are searching for your resources. In addition, video is a great way to build a connection because your audience is able to see and hear you. It’s one of the reasons I post weekly videos on Youtube!

YouTube is also a great way to build that know, like, and trust factor, to expand brand awareness, brand attraction, and to again get people off of the platform. 

If you watch any of my Youtube videos then you’ll notice that reference additional videos and blogs, as well as free resources to get viewers on my email list.

So there's a lot of creative ways that you can think about using YouTube. While I prefer camera face-to-face video, you could also explore repurposing your podcast onto the platform. 

You could explore creating trainings (think slideshows) if you don't want your face on camera and putting those onto the platform. 

Just as with all of these strategies, make sure that you're paying attention to search engine optimization, that you're paying attention to what you're naming your video, the tags, the description because that's going to play a role in how your videos are viewed.

INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC TIP #4
PUBLIC RELATIONS

And finally, number four, this is a tip and a tool that is so dear to my heart because it's actually my background. I have my degree in public relations. It was actually the world that I lived in before I moved over to non-profit and ultimately became an entrepreneur. And I've carried so much of that knowledge into the business that I run today.

One of my favorite ways to drive traffic to my website, to build that know, like, and trust factor with my ideal customer, and ultimately expand the awareness of my brand is through features. 

Now, by features I mean podcasts, interviews, guest speaking opportunities, featured in a publication. It is absolutely amazing what happens when you get in front of a new audience through one of these trusted platforms. 

What I mean by that is if I pitch a podcast, something I teach in my programs, and I'm invited on as a guest, I'm getting invited in front of a new audience and I'm getting invited by someone who that audience already knows, likes, and trust, so immediately my trust meter, even though this are people who've never heard of me before, is already high because the host trusts me enough to bring me onto the platform.

So we always see that after I am on a podcast interview that gets released or part of an interview series or featured in an article, website traffic explodes. 

In fact, just last year I was featured on CNBC for an article all about my digital nomad life and how I've built my business to six figures while living in an RV with my family for two years. 

The amount of traffic that I got to my website was amazing. And I made sure that my website was optimized. We sold many of my branding programs, lots of inquiries because I was really, really deliberate with saying this is who this website is for. 

So of course, we got a lot of traffic and some of those people weren't the right fit. They just wanted to see what my business is about. But a lot of that traffic did convert.

Even though, and I'm not recommending that you drive a bunch of non-relevant traffic to your website, but even though a lot of those individuals didn't convert, CNBC is such a strong platform, they have really high domain authority, that the link to my website provides a really strong backlink. 

Now, I'm nerding out a little bit about SEO. I know, I know. I talk about it again in that bonus video. You can check that out below. And of course, I teach all of these strategies inside of my programs.

CONCLUSION

Those are four of my favorite ways and truly underrated ways to drive traffic to your website. 

It's not enough to rely on social media. It just isn't going to work in your favor for consistent traffic, not to mention you've got to consistently be posting. 

With the platforms that I shared with you, one piece of content can live for a really long time or one strategy that you implement can drive traffic to your website for years and years to come.

I recommend you check out my free class where I teach you additional ways to market your business without relying on social media. 

I'm sharing with you my top favorite ways, some of which you heard about today. I'm also sharing with you the four pieces that you absolutely have to have in your marketing strategy and three mistakes that I see entrepreneurs making. 

You can go to brandmerry.com/marketing. The link is also in the description below to sign up for that free training.

All right. Go forth, drive traffic to your website. I can't wait to see what these strategies do for your business.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Brandmerry podcast? I release new episodes every Thursday on topics around branding and marketing! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at brandmerry.com/podcast

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

How to Write An About Me Page

How to Write An About Me Page

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

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Today, on The Brandmerry Podcast (yep, this is the full transcript, choose to listen above or continue reading) we're talking about your 'About Me' page. My goal is that you have everything you need to craft an ‘About Me’ page that is going to work FOR your brand, not against it!

One of the key beliefs we have over here at Brandmerry is that your website is important and should work FOR you. It's not enough to just get views. You want your website to actually convert into revenue.

There are a few things that we know about websites. 

Number one, we know that the homepage is typically the most visited page, especially if you're utilizing SEO strategies, search engine optimization, which is one of our trainings inside of Brandmerry Academy.

Number two, the second most visited page is your 'About Me' page. That tells us a lot of juicy information about your 'About Me' page, including that people care about the story and the person behind the brand.

If you've ever asked yourself, "Well, I don't think people care. Do people care? Do people care why I created this? Or do people care what has led me to this moment in my life and why I launched my business?" 

The answer is, "Absolutely they do.” 

It also tells us what we should include on our 'About Me' page. 

A lot of other branding and marketing experts will tell you that your 'About Me' page should be 100% about your ideal customer. I do not believe that is true. I have not believed that from the beginning. And I stand by that five years later.

So, today we’re diving into your ‘About Me’ page so you feel confident crafting yours. This is a continuation of episodes and blogs where we’re giving you fundamental pieces for building your brand.

We have talked about your brand’s mission.

We have outlined the difference between branding and marketing and where you should start. 

We have talked about your brand values. 

We've talked about jumping ship in your marketing and today we're going to talk about your 'About Me' page because it is incredibly important.

YOUR ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE IS ABOUT YOU

Let’s just set the record straight that your 'About Me' page should be about you! 

It should be about the person behind the brand or the people behind the brand. 

If I'm a consumer and I'm on a website and it says, 'About Me' at the top and I click on that, and then the whole entire page tells me nothing about the person behind the brand, why they started their business, why they choose their products, anything like that, I’m incredibly turned off. 

I didn't click through to learn more about myself. 
I clicked through to learn more about you. 
It's helping me in my decision-making process. 

Over on the Brandmerry blog, we have a blog post on the consumer buying process and the different stages customers go through before making a purchase decision. 

When someone is at the evaluation stage, where they are looking at the different solutions to their problem, that's when we find that people love to visit the 'About Me' page of a brand because they want to know who the person is, the mission, and the values behind a brand. That information can help them with their decision-making process.

So your 'About Me' page is incredibly important. It is often what I recommend to be the second page that you create on your website, as it's the second most viewed.

YOUR ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE FOR CONSUMERS

You also want to think about writing your ‘About Me’ page for a consumer. 

Think about if you're buying a skincare product and you're at a place where you're looking at two or three different brands and you go to an 'About Me' page, what do you want to see? 

What do you want to read? 

Last year, we were buying a new mattress. I was going between a few different companies. I had narrowed it down and I was looking at the story behind each one and that's how I ended up choosing the bed that we went with because I loved their story and I love their mission and I love the way that they shared that. That pulled me in and it made my decision for me.

The decision was because of their story and I even went with the most expensive option!

3 TIPS FOR WRITING AN 'ABOUT ME' PAGE

TELL A STORY

As we talked about in the brand storytelling episode, don't miss the opportunity to tell a story. 

Storytelling is incredibly powerful and incredibly important. It's going to build that connection, that trust with your audience. 

I've signed clients because of my 'About Me' page. 

I have had people reach out to me and submit an application for 1:1 consulting. We’ll have a conversation via email and I’ll answer questions to support them in their decision. Then I'll get an email from them 24 hours later that says, "All right, I'm ready to go. I just read your 'About Me' page, sign me up." 

Your ‘About Me’ page can be one of your most powerful assets. And you're going to get the most out of those pages if you are actually telling a story. 

Keep reading for my top tips for writing yours.

INCLUDE PERSONAL PHOTOS

I love brand photography. It's one of my favorite ways to enhance the branding experience and I encourage my clients to have a professional photo shoot for their brand because photos are incredibly powerful and we know this. 

Photos are also linked to improving brand affinity which is a deeper level of connection, typically through mission, values, and trust that a consumer has for a brand. 

Photos are a great way to build that brand affinity because through photography, you can share different moments and experiences in your life that allow your audience to say, "Oh my gosh, I know them." Instagram's a great example of this in action.

Utilizing photos to showcase whatever story you're telling.

So showcasing these different photos is a great way to build that connection. 

For your 'About Me' page I recommend not loading it with a bunch of professional photos, but putting in more lifestyle-type photos. Showcase photos of you at different places, in different outfits with different facial expressions, maybe you with your children, with your dog, on a trip or with a glass of wine. 

We follow people and we're like, "Oh, I know them," or "They did this," or "This is so-and-so's favorite wine," or "Did you know, so-and-so's dog?" and we feel like we know them!

Focus on showcasing what you're saying on the page, through your storytelling in the photos; not just typing out your story, but showing your story visually through photography. 

HAVE A CALL TO ACTION

When it comes to brand storytelling to move someone through to purchasing a product, we can't just tell stories to tell stories. We have to have a call to action. 

On an 'About Me' page, I love to have two CTA’s.

The first CTA is a click-through to your product or your service. If your ideal customer has read all the way to the bottom, they're probably pretty committed. And if they're further along in the buying process, say stage three or four, they're ready to make a purchase decision and having that button there can be incredibly powerful.

In addition to that, and below that, I love to share a lead magnet. The second CTA should be your free gift/ lead magnet to capture their attention.

Again, if someone has read your full ‘About Me’ page they're committed, but maybe they're not at a place where they're ready to invest. So having a way for them to opt in to your email list through a lead magnet can be incredibly powerful for capturing their information and being able to stay in contact with them.

So those are three must-haves for your 'About Me' page. 

Your story, having photos that show different moments in time, not just professional photos, and a call to action. Typically, a link to go purchase your product, your service, or your product suite page, and your lead magnet opt-in.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR 'ABOUT ME’ PAGE

Now I'm going to share with you my insider, super complicated, never-before-released method for writing your 'About Me' page! 

Brace yourself because it's easy. We overthink things all of the time when it comes to writing our copy, and one of the reasons that I encourage my clients to write their 'About Me' page, in the beginning, is because it's great practice in writing your story and pulling in pieces, like your mission and your values.

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY 3 TRANSITIONS

To begin, think about three transitions that have happened in your life. These can be three moments that are close together in your timeline or they can be spread out over the years. The timing does not matter, but I want you to think about these three transitions as a launching-off point.

Identifying these moments can include:

• A moment where something changed in your life. 

• Something happened to you and you had to change course or direction. 

• You made a decision and you changed course. 

• You learned a valuable lesson and you decided to do something different.

Think about these pivots or transitions. No more than three for our purposes here.

Write each of these out!

STEP TWO: PIECE IT TOGETHER

From there I want you to write out each of those different things and then piece them together and you have an 'About Me' page!  

There's one last part of the process, but I want to share my three with you first as an example of steps one and two. 

My first transition was when I decided not to go to college right after high school. I was the Salutatorian of my class. I had gotten an incredible scholarship to Loyola University, and I decided that I didn't want to do that. I had a long history with perfectionism and was just at a place in my life where I was not happy and was ready to take bold action and do something that felt good for me. It was the first time in my life that I had made a decision that went against what everyone around me wanted for me. And it was a big deal.

In this first transition, I'm setting the tone. I'm saying, "Oh, this is who I was and then this happened in 2005." The more dates that you can use, the better. Those are incredibly helpful for markers and a great way to keep your audience engaged. 

Next, I talk about how I wanted to be in musical theater. To be a star on Broadway, and was going to school for that in 2008 when my brother was diagnosed with cancer. I go on to talk about going through that experience. I don't go into every detail about that event. It's not necessary. It's sacred to me. I don't need to share it with everyone, but that was an important part of my life and did impact the business that I have today. So I share that piece of the puzzle.

Then I talk about after losing my brother, marrying my husband and finally present the third transition which was the birth of my son. This transition is where I focus the majority of my energy because that is what ultimately led to my business. 

The birth of my son got me thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, what I wanted to create, how I wanted to be home with him and that ultimately led to the creation of Brandmerry. 

You can head here to read my full ‘About Me’ page, in fact, I encourage you to do that! 

It's a great case study. 

What I want you to focus on is that I've led the reader through three transitions. I've also recognized how my audience can connect with those pieces and highlight those elements throughout.

Some of those elements are:

• Perfectionism. So many people in my audience and my ideal customers are recovering perfectionists or perfectionists, or they are starting their business or doing something that's different from what they originally were doing. So by sharing that first transition, there's that connection piece. 

• Grief and Loss. We've all experienced grief and loss. Maybe it wasn't your sibling, it was someone else or something, but we can all relate to that feeling. And that is something that connects us and many of my clients and my customers who have had these moments that have triggered the mission that they have, or has triggered them to do the work that they do in the world. 

• Starting My Business. My community is also made up of people who want to start businesses or have businesses. So we all have that moment where we're like, "I'm going to do this dang thing," and that's why I share mine. 

Choose your moments very strategically based on the connection for your audience. 

And then finally, what you want to do is lead to where it is now. 

We always talk about a beginning, middle and end to storytelling. But with an 'About Me' page, it's like a beginning, middle, and here we are now, continuing into the future. 

STEP THREE: SET UP THE BUSINESS

Don’t think about an end to your ‘About Me’ page, but rather the next steps!

This is where you want to share your mission statement, talk about the work that you do, and lead to that work-with-me page. 

It’s also where I recommend including your Hook, i.e. who you are, who you serve, their struggle and their desires.

If you sell a product, you can talk about when you recognized there was a need for your product. Maybe you went through a period where you talked about where you tested a bunch of stuff and it didn't work and you felt defeated and then you finally got the prototype that worked and you put it out into the world. And here's where you are now.

If you have a t-shirt clothing line that uses organic cotton, why did you decide to do that?

There are so many different things that you can do. Don't limit yourself because of the product and service that you sell. Focus on telling that story about the person or the people behind the brand because that's what the 'About Me' page is ultimately intended for.

Inside of my program, Brandmerry Academy, we take a deeper dive into what we call the heroine's journey, which goes into more detail on crafting your story, showcasing multiple peaks and dips in your story and how to craft it! 

However, for years and years, the three transitions were all I taught and used and still to this day it’s the structure I use for my Brandmerry ‘About Me’ page.  

LENGTH OF YOUR ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE

Here's the last thing that I'll share with you before you go forth and write your 'About Me' pages. 

Don't stress about how long it is when you're writing it. 

Just write it. 

Either write it in a Google Doc or record it and transcribe it if you find that you filter yourself. Whichever strategy works for you, write it and then clean it up. Don’t filter yourself to start or you’ll miss out on crucial elements of your story!

We limit ourselves in our storytelling abilities by trying to create the finished product when we first write it. And it never works that way. 

People don't write their finished book when they first write their book. It goes through tons and tons of rounds of edits. And I'm not saying you're writing a book and we don't need to spend months and months on your 'About Me' page, but just write it, tell the story, focus on the connection then go out and make sure you've touched on these pieces I shared in this post. 

CONCLUSION

I hope that you now understand how important your website is and how powerful your ‘About Me’ page truly is. And that your 'About Me' page is meant to tell the story behind the brand, not to say, "Oh, and I'll help you do X, Y, and Z," and that's the only thing on that page. Please don't do that. 

Utilize the steps outlined in this blog post today and share your new ‘About Me’ page with me on Instagram @michelleknightco so I can celebrate with you.

If you want to take a deeper dive into building your brand make sure you sign up to watch the Build A Better Brand Method. It's a free on-demand training and you can go to betterbrandmethod.com to get signed up.

Inside of that training, I talk about identifying your story and the importance of your story inside of the branding process, as well as giving you my six-part framework for building a better brand.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

---

- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

---

MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

The Truth About SEO - Does it Really Matter?

The Truth About SEO - Does it Really Matter?

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

I stumbled into SEO, Search Engine Optimization, when I first started blogging. I was implementing tiny bits of information I would find online and crossed my fingers that it might work.

Honestly, I knew nothing at the time but did know that small changes could yield big results. Within months I discovered I was on page one of Google - that’s when I knew it was working. 

I continued to put more emphasis on my strategy heading into 2019, learn as much as I could about SEO and over time I discovered that the majority of my leads were coming from Google and Pinterest.

Today, thanks to effective SEO strategies I experience thousands of website visitors every month.

Here’s a sneak peek at what happened from 2019 to 2020.

VS.

But, let’s not just talk about SEO, let's strip away all the mystery that we see in online marketing and have a real conversation about why every single business, no matter what you sell, should have a solid SEO strategy inside of your marketing.

What SEO Means

Let's first just break down into everyday terms what SEO is. 

It's essentially search engine optimization, which you probably already know, but what is that exactly? 

It means that when you are on search engine platforms like Google or even platforms that you might not think about, like Pinterest and YouTube, you can go to those platforms, type in questions, keywords, or a single word, and the algorithm will pull all of the resources that match those terms. 

As a marketer, if you want to show up for people who are searching for those things, you want to make sure that you're paying attention to the SEO in your content.

This tool is giving the algorithm the information that you are sharing on your page so that you show up in your ideal client’s search results. 

And yes, ranking on page one is kind of a big deal, most people don't scroll past page two or three, but even showing up on those early pages, page one, two or three can be super beneficial for your business. 

Obviously, we're all shooting for page one and we're going to talk about how you can do just that for your industry.

The Consumer Buying Process and SEO

A few blogs ago, I introduced the consumer buying process and I presented the different phases that a customer goes through before they purchase.

Stage One: Problem or Need Recognition
Stage Two: Information Search
Stage Three: Evaluation of Alternatives
Stage Four: Purchase Decision
Stage Five: Post-Purchase Evaluation

We also broke it down as it relates to content creation. So, make sure you go back and watch that video. That's going to specifically tell you about each of those individual pieces so you have a better understanding of the client buying journey.

What I want you to focus on when we're talking about these five phases is that people are finding your content at different points in their journey. 

Not everyone is going to be coming to you and discovering your brand with a credit card in hand, and not everyone is going to be coming to your brand wondering, "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?" 

There are a wide variety of different stages that a consumer might be sitting in at any given time and that's why SEO can be incredibly powerful. 

It allows you to create multiple resources, as well as the SEO on your site as a whole, to make sure that you are showing up for people at multiple stages of the buying process.

SEO MARKETING: 3 SEO ACTION STEPS

SEO TIP #1: SITE-WIDE SEO

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you have your site-wide SEO set up. 

As I mentioned before in the consumer buying process there will be people looking for your services and industry specifically at stage four or five. Now, this is where your website homepage comes into play because when you set your site-wide SEO, and you rank on Google for specific keywords, the traffic is going to go to your homepage. 

So, you want to make sure that your homepage is set up and ready to rock and roll. Last week I shared my 4-part framework for increasing conversions on your homepage, you can check that out here.

A lot of people miss this piece of the puzzle, they start to rank, and then they realize, "Oh, crap, everyone's just landing on my homepage which isn't optimized to collect leads or direct people to my offers, or send them to resources like my blog." We don’t want that so make sure you have an optimized homepage to start.

Ok, back to site-wide SEO.

I use Squarespace in my business so there's an actual section in Squarespace for site-wide SEO. Kajabi is another tool that I use and they have a section for site-wide SEO as well. No matter what platform you're using, there is going to be a section to set up the SEO for your website as a whole, typically found in the settings section.

Now when you’re choosing what to include in this section, I want you to think about those final stages of the buying process. The stage where someone already understands their problem, already understands their solution, they've looked around, and now they want to purchase. 

That's what I want you to focus on when it comes to choosing keywords for site-wide SEO - think about your industry or product. For instance, “chemical-free skincare” or “business coach” or “wedding photographer Australia”.

In my case, if someone is looking for a branding coach and they're ready to invest in a branding coach, they might Google “branding coach,” and my website is going to pop up. 

If someone is looking for a personal branding consultant, they might type in “personal branding consultant” and my website will pop up. 

It's much easier to convert those individuals because they are ready to invest and by having this SEO in place you can create a consistent stream of clients.

You’ll use these keywords to format your Site Title and Site Description, which is another place to include some of those keywords but typically is written more conversationally and enticingly.

In addition, you can give it another boost but also include those keywords on your home page individually as well. 

I'm not going to go into that entire strategy today. That's something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, but if you’re choosing to do it yourself then you want to keep in mind that research is everything.

It's a mistake that many entrepreneurs make. They might say, "Okay, fantastic, this is my title. I'm a unicorn princess coach," and that's what they put for their site title.

No one's Googling that, right? And this is where I often say that your titles shouldn't be fluffy, they should be rooted in data and research. So, using some of the tools that I mentioned in a previous post on my favorite marketing tools, Ubersuggest or Keywords Everywhere are great tools that you can use to see how much traffic a particular keyword gets.

Now ranking for an industry doesn't mean that you need to have like 10,000 or 30,000 searches every single month, it could be as simple as 150 to 500 because those people are further along in the buying process so they are looking for a very, very specific solution to their problem.

TO RECAP:

• Do your research to discover what people are researching at stage four of the buying process

• Implement a Site-Wide Title and Description

• Add those keywords to your homepage in your copy

• Optimize your homepage for conversions

SEO TIP #2: BLOGGING AND PINTEREST

Number two is supporting what you're saying you're known for, i.e. Site-Wide SEO, with additional resources on your website through blogging.

Blogging does a few different, incredible things for ranking your website. 

Number one, blogging is an awesome resource. So, if someone wants to get to know you, you want to support them in moving through the buying process, blogging is a great way to showcase your expertise. 

In addition to that, many people who are at stage one of the buying process are just looking to understand their problem, looking for solutions to their problem, or just trying to get some information about what they are experiencing.

That's where blogging could be incredibly helpful. And if you use SEO on your blog strategically, then your blogs will show up in Google Search. For instance, my ideal customer at Stage One might be searching for content creation strategies and one of my blogs will show up. 

It is, I would say, much easier to rank for your site as a whole, which is why that's number one than it is to rank individual blog posts. But the more that you get into SEO and the more that you practice utilizing keywords in your headers and optimizing your title, then it is more likely that your blogs will rank on Google. 

In addition to supporting your ideal customer on their journey, Google also loves content that supports what you ultimately say you are doing. So, if I say I'm a branding coach and I have a lot of blogs on branding, Google likes that a lot, and they're going to use that to help me show up on their search engine. 

It also helps with other search engine platforms as well.

Think about Pinterest! Remember, Pinterest is an SEO platform and a great place to feature your blog content to get in front of your ideal customer.

Putting your blog content on your website, sharing it on Pinterest and making sure it's optimized there as well can help drive consistent traffic to your platform. 

Many of those individuals on Pinterest are at the beginning stages of the buying process where they're just looking for solutions, and your blog can show up for them. So, making sure that you're creating supporting content within your niche, within your industry on your blog, and that's a consistent part of your marketing strategy.

SEO TIP #3: SEO RESEARCH

It's one thing to blog, it's another thing to do your dang research. 

So, one of the best pieces of advice that I could give to you when it comes to content as a whole is to do your research and make sure that you're optimizing your content on Pinterest, on your blog, and YouTube for SEO. 

What does that mean? That means that you might have a fantastic idea in your head of something that you want to share and I want you to research that topic to make sure that you're choosing the best title and the best keywords so people find it.

On the flip side of that, you might not know what you want to talk about at all and you can use these tools like Ubersuggest and Keywords Everywhere to search for specific topics that you know are relevant for your ideal customer and get a plethora of topic ideas and content that you can share that you already know is going to do well on search engines.

When planning your content give yourself some extra time to do your SEO research.

There are so many resources out there that will give you the answers, you don't have to just wonder, "How many people are searching for this?" 

The data is there. 

If you take an extra step when you're mapping out your content for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, like I like to do over here at Brandmerry, you're making sure that the titles, the URL that you're creating, and the keywords on your content are going to show up for people.

CONCLUSION

Remember, so many people create their website and then it just sits there because they're not getting traffic. 

SEO is the answer to getting consistent traffic, leads and conversions. And utilizing search engine platforms like Pinterest, Youtube and Google will allow you to continue to scale your business with ease.

I hope that this was helpful for you in understanding what SEO is and why it's important. Make sure you go back and read those previous posts specifically on the client buying journey and optimizing your homepage. 

And if you’re ready to learn how to market your business with ease, without relying on social media and implement the strategies we talked about today with SEO, Pinterest, blogging, video marketing and more, then check out Brandmerry Academy and how the membership can support you in scaling your business.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

How to Layout a Website Homepage in 4 Easy Steps

How to Layout a Website Homepage in 4 Easy Steps

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

You’ll typically find yourself in one of two boats when it comes to having a website as an entrepreneur.

In one boat, you spend a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of energy on creating your website. Whether you've done it yourself, or you hired a team, bought a course, bought a template, or bought add-ons, you’ve spent the time, money and energy to have a website for your brand.

With boat number two, you are waiting to create your website, and it just keeps getting put on the back burner because it's incredibly overwhelming. 

And no judgment, I spent, eight months creating my website, only to scrap the entire thing and start over because I didn't know what I was doing. Turns out your brand plays a really big role in your website, something I didn’t realize 5 years ago. It’s one of the reasons I teach the importance of having a solid brand foundation BEFORE you build your website.

If you need a little more love in the branding department, make sure you watch my free on-demand class where I’ll teach you my signature Build a Better Brand Method. Watch it here.

For our purposes right now, let's just assume that you've done the branding work because it is necessary. Don't think that you can jump in with this 4-part framework I'm about to give you, without knowing your brand and your message and your mission and your ideal customer, because it's just not going to work. 

That's my disclaimer. It's out of the way.
Now let's talk about the 4-part framework.

WEBSITE HOMEPAGE TEMPLATE: 4-PART FRAMEWORK

Now, one of the things that I learned when I started implementing more SEO, search engine optimization, into my business is that my homepage was getting a lot of traffic.

One of the things that I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy is getting your homepage to rank in search engines for your industry because the quality leads you get are just perfection!

Things like site-wide SEO, your site title, your site description and more all help you rank on Google and all of that traffic is going to lead to your homepage. Sometimes we think about SEO only working for blogs, but one of the easiest things that you can do when you're starting your business is focus on the SEO traffic for your industry and ranking for your industry.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, people who are in the fifth stage of the buying process are ready to buy and they're coming to your homepage where they will decide if you’re the right brand for them.

So that homepage better be working for you.

I realized pretty quickly my homepage was not working for me and I needed to switch it up a bit. I implemented what I now call my 4-part HOME framework, you see what I did there?  HOME is the acronym that we're going to dissect for the homepage.

I discovered this by accident and fine-tuned it. And I've been teaching it ever since. So let's dissect the HOME 4-part framework for your homepage.

Homepage Framework Step 1: HOOK

H is for hook. 

Listen, if someone's coming to your website, they are probably going to peace out in like eight seconds if you don't hook them. That's why this is one of the most important things that you can add to your website. 

This is typically right at the top before anyone has to scroll down or take any action. And it tells the person who is viewing your page, exactly who you are, who you serve, and why you are going to support them in solving their problem, or how you support them in solving their problem.

Remember, as marketers and business owners, we're solving problems. That's what we do. 

That's why people invest in our products and our services.
They have a problem
They're aware of the problem.
They're seeking a solution and ta-da, they're finding you as a solution, or your product, or your service to their problem. 

Your goal with your brand is to attract or repel. You want to make sure that your hook is hooking in the right people and sending away anybody that isn't the right fit for you. 

So, to recap your Hook should outlines:

• Who you are

• Who you serve

• How you help them go from struggle to desire (the goal they ultimately want)

This is something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy. One of the first bonuses you get is all about writing your signature Brand Bios and one of those is your Hook.

Homepage Framework Step 2: OPPORTUNITY

Then we move down the page a little bit to O. 
O is for opportunity. 

You want to give anyone that has now been hooked an opportunity to learn more and to join your email list.

This is where I love to include your freebie opt-in. 

Now inside of my program Brandmerry Academy, one of the first things that we focus on is creating some sort of freebie, or lead magnet, so that as you increase traffic to your website, people are taking advantage of your lead magnet and joining your email list. 

Your email list is gold. This is how you stay in contact with your brand. This is how you share important promos and updates. 

People who land on your website, then disappear, are hard to stay in contact with if they aren't on your email list. 

The best thing to do is include a button to a landing page or a form embedded so they can sign up for your free gift and join your email list.

Homepage Framework Step 3: MEMORABLE

Then that moves us down the page a little bit more to M.
And M is for memorable.

Listen, I teach storytelling and how we can apply it to our branding and marketing. It's kind of my thing. And one of the things that I love about storytelling is the fact that integrating story into your content, into your copy, makes it 22 times more memorable than if you didn't have any.

So, this is the point at which you become memorable to your ideal customer. 

To do this, you also share a small ‘about me’ section and your mission. I call this the Bio Blurb and it’s something we teach inside Brandmerry Academy.

The goal here is to give your ideal customer more insight into who you are, your mission, the work that you do, and allow them to read more on your full ‘About Me’ page.

This is a great opportunity where you can connect through empathy and build authority, which leads us to the final stage.

Homepage Framework Step 4: EXPERTISE

That leads us to the fourth part of the homepage, which is E for expertise. This is where you want to continue to elevate your authority. 

Remember, people are seeking us out to solve problems through our products, through our services, and they want to know that we can guide them and we can support them. 

So after you've hooked them, you've given them an opportunity to get a valuable free resource, you’ve shared your story, let’s just amplify that expertise, shall we? 

This is where you can share really popular blog posts that provide education for your audience, and can ultimately help them make small little micro-changes with their problem. 

You can show your expertise by highlighting features that you've been on. If you've been featured in Forbes, or you've been featured in Business Insider, or relevant podcasts for your industry those logos can be beneficial. But, it doesn't have to be those big players that we always think about. Sometimes those niche-down outlets, media outlets, podcasts, things like that, can mean even more to our ideal customer.

If you have a podcast, you can share podcast episodes so they can explore additional resources from you.

You can also share testimonials. If you've had clients who have seen tremendous results, you can feature those on your homepage.

E is all about elevating your expertise and authority!

CONCLUSION

This is it. 

These are the four things that I want you to have on your homepage. No more. 

Don't overwhelm people with a million different options. Keep it simple. 

Ultimately, when people land on your homepage, we either want to attract them or repel them. 

Once we've attracted the right people, the ideal customer, because nobody else matters, then we want to give them an opportunity to join our email list, to learn more, or to buy almost instantly. 

And creating a homepage like this is going to support you, in sending people in the different directions that you ultimately want them to go, while keeping it simple and not overwhelming.

Overwhelming your audience from the first thing that they see is a surefire way to lose them. 

If you are ready to dive in to increase those website views and ultimately those conversions, this is exactly what we teach inside of Brandmerry Academy. Learn more at Brandmerry.com/academy.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

---

MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

3 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

3 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

So you have a website, but little to no traffic. The struggle is real, and something so many entrepreneurs, including myself have experienced.

It took me monthly to build my website and an additional year before I realized that my website meant nothing if I wasn’t getting people to actually view it. Now, just a few years later, I’m getting thousands of organic website visitors every month using the strategies I’m sharing today.

So if you have a website, one you probably spent a lot of time and maybe even money on, and no one seems to see it, today’s blog on 3 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website is for you.

WHY YOU NEED A WEBSITE

There are a lot of online educators and course creators saying that you don’t need a website and I disagree. If you’re running an online business you NEED a website, for one main reason...people are searching for your services online and if you don’t have a website, well they won’t find you.

In addition to showing up in search results, websites serve as a valuable resource for your business.

CENTRAL LOCATION: People want to find what they need and having a central location with the information for your business and services is a great way to do that. Someone doesn’t want to search through your Instagram profile or your Facebook page to learn more about you, they want a one-stop-shop, this is where your website comes into play.

FIND WHAT THEY WANT RIGHT NOW: In addition to having your information in one central location, people also want what they want right away. So if someone is looking for a particular service or resource you want to give it to them, that’s where your website and a collection of resources come in.

A PLACE TO REFER PEOPLE: I don’t know about you, but I love having a place to send people that I know is going to support them at the highest level. This is my website. My website is a resource for anyone interested in learning more about my brand, business and services. Having the information available and in one space makes it easier for me in growing my business.

METHOD #1

HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE FOR FREE

One of the most effective and simple ways to drive traffic to your website for free is by using our friend Google.

Think about it, when you have a question or a problem you turn to Google. So every single day your ideal customer is doing the same, looking for your product or service and a solution to their problem that you solve.

If you’re not taking the time to set up Site-Wide SEO (not specifically talking about blogs here) you’re missing out on free traffic.

Today, we’re getting hundreds of organic traffic from Google thanks to landing on page one for multiple keywords.

The best part about Site-Wide SEO is it’s something you can set up for your business on the backend, or hire someone to do it for you, and you don’t need to touch it every single week like you do content.

Today, I blog every week which helps rank for multiple keywords, but in the beginning, I only had optimized my main page SEO and still landed on page one.

If you want to learn more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) check out this blog.

METHOD #2

MY FAVORITE WAY TO DRIVE CONSISTENT TRAFFIC TO MY WEBSITE

I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it. If you’re not already aware of how Pinterest can improve your online marketing, you’re in for a treat!

Pinterest is how I’m consistently driving traffic to the content on my website. 

While the main purpose of my Site-Wide SEO was to rank my home page for specific keywords my audience is searching for, think Personal Branding Consultant, Branding Coach, etc...I’m using Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog.

Pinterest, like Google, is a search engine, so while many people think Pinterest is a social media platform like Facebook and Instagram they are wrong. Pinterest was designed to get people off the platform, not to stick around and socialize.

Because of this, it’s great for every online business, as it’s experienced experimental growth over the past few years.

The key to Pinterest is content, which I create in the form of my blog posts. Every blog post gets pushed out to Pinterest and using our Pinterest Strategy from inside Brandmerry Academy (http://brandmerryacademy.com) we’re consistently driving traffic to my website (even blogs from 2017 still get consistent traffic today).

So you can see why Pinterest is such a valuable tool in driving traffic to your website and the best part, it’s free (although there is an option to promote pins on Pinterest as well).

**Did I mention Pinterest also helps you rank on Google? Well, it does! When Google sees that you’re getting traffic to your content they love it and it tells them it’s valuable so they’re more likely to move it up.

METHOD #3

HOW TO DRIVE TARGETED TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE

You’ve probably already guessed I’m going to talk about blogging, but we’re going to get a little bit more specific here. It’s not enough to just blog random topics and to just post content without doing a little research.

In fact, taking just a few minutes to map out your blog content ahead of time and think strategically about what content you want your ideal customer to have their hands on will help with website traffic drastically.

So Method #3 is Do The Research. One of the best ways to improve traffic to your website is to create quality content your audience is searching for. This is why I love Ubersuggest and use it in my own business.

Ubersuggest allows you to do thorough keyword research, as well as see what people in your industry are creating content around.

Taking this time before you start writing your content will help. I suggest mapping out 90-days worth of blog topics with keyword research and repeat every 90 days.

SEO, Pinterest and blogging doesn’t have to be overwhelming, we show you how to do it step-by-step inside Brandmerry Academy.

CONCLUSION

Driving traffic to your website should be a top priority. Let’s face it relying on social media to build your business is inconsistent and unreliable, but optimizing your website and using tools like Pinterest can not only bring in the consistent traffic, but also save you time as well.

Inside Brandmerry Academy, we teach marketing strategies that don’t rely on social media. It gives you VIP access to monthly marketing courses on Email Marketing, SEO, Pinterest, Blogging, Video, Podcasting and more.

Learn more about Brandmerry Academy at brandmerryacademy.com.

P.S. I’ve got some other cool blogs and videos for you, that I’m linking below. I mean you’re already here you might as well keep reading.

HOW TO BUILD AN EMAIL LIST

3 MARKETING MISTAKES TO AVOID AS AN ONLINE ENTREPRENEUR

WATCH THE TIPS AND MORE HERE.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

---

- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

---

MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.