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The Simple and Smart SEO Show
Build a Successful and Easy SEO Strategy w/Katlyn Paskorz
In this episode of the Simple and Smart SEO Show Podcast, I interview Katlyn Paskorz, the owner of KatydidPGH.
We discuss her journey from an unfulfilling career in banking to becoming a WordPress designer and SEO expert for small business owners.
Key points include Katlyn's transition to SEO, the importance of talking to customers for creating effective strategies, and leveraging tools like Google Business Profile and Google Ads for optimizing web presence.
Katlyn also shares practical tips like using Google Tag Manager with Google Analytics and creating local-customized content for better traffic conversion.
We finish by highlighting the importance of gradually implementing SEO principles into everyday business processes and making SEO accessible and straightforward for everyone.
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0:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:17 Katlyn's Pittsburgh Connection
01:27 Katlyn's Journey to Starting Her Agency
03:05 The Creative Side of SEO
04:10 Client Strategies and Packages
04:54 Importance of Customer Interaction
06:57 Leveraging Google Business Profile and Ads
14:45 Using Google Tools for SEO
17:51 Understanding Google Analytics for Small Businesses
18:18 Setting Up and Tracking Key Metrics
18:50 The Importance of Quality Traffic
20:27 Optimizing Blog Content for Conversions
22:22 Creating Conversion-Focused Content
23:42 Leveraging LinkedIn for SEO
24:51 SEO Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs
27:33 Conclusion and Resources
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[00:00:00] Katie Paskorz: Instead of just, talking to the business owner and coming up with a strategy.
[00:00:04] That's great, but they're not going to think the way their customers do.
[00:00:09] Just because they have all of this knowledge. And technical knowledge about the thing that they're trying to sell. And the product that they're making and stuff.
[00:00:16] They're not going to come from like a consumer standpoint.
[00:00:19] So I definitely think talking to actual customers about how they found them.
[00:00:23] What their questions are about the product and service.
[00:00:26] And why they need the product and service are like, that's gold. That's SEO gold.
[00:00:31] Crystal Waddell: Welcome to the third season of the Simple and Smart SEO Show, the podcast dedicated to empathy driven, brand building SEO. I'm your host, Crystal Waddell. I leverage my obsession with user experience to help business owners just like you optimize your website with confidence.
[00:00:46] Thank you so much for being here.
[00:00:48] Let's jump into another great episode.
Introduction and Guest Welcome
[00:00:50] Crystal Waddell: welcome back to the simple and smart SEO show podcast. I am here with a delightful guest today, guys. You guys are going to love her. Her name is Katlyn Paskorz.
[00:00:59] And she is the owner of KatydidPGH.
[00:01:04] Which PGH she just told me stands for Pittsburgh.
Katlyn's Pittsburgh Connection
[00:01:07] Crystal Waddell: My husband loves the Pittsburgh Steelers.
[00:01:09] So when I saw you in Pittsburgh, I was like, Oh my gosh, I got to talk to her about the Steelers.
[00:01:14] But anyway, Katlyn, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.
[00:01:17] Katie Paskorz: Of course. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited.
[00:01:20] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. So I didn't ask you before, but are you a Steelers fan? Or football, like in your wheelhouse?
[00:01:25] Katie Paskorz: So, yeah, I grew up a Steelers fan. My whole family that's what we did on Sunday. We watched the Steelers. Of course if you're from Pittsburgh. That's what's going to happen.
[00:01:34] But I am actually more of a hockey fan right now. Yeah. The Pittsburgh penguins didn't really do the greatest this year, but that's what we do.
[00:01:44] That's the sport we watch right now.
[00:01:46] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. That's the only hockey team that my husband watches.
[00:01:50] Like all of a sudden he'll just be like, Oh, the penguins are playing. And I'm like, you don't even watch hockey, but now we're watching hockey.
[00:01:56] So I was like, okay, that's cool. And then we just watched that movie miracle last night.
[00:02:00] I never seen it before. Yeah. So that's crazy. We're talking hockey.
[00:02:04] Yeah, but yeah, pretty neat stuff. So I married into it. I have my husband's old phone case for some reason.
[00:02:11] And so all the fanatics, when I pull it out, they're like, Oh my gosh, the Steelers! And I'm like, I married into it, I'm a fraud.
Katlyn's Journey to Starting Her Agency
[00:02:17] Crystal Waddell: But anyway, so you own your own agency. Katie did PGH. Can you tell us what you do there and how you got started doing that?
[00:02:25] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. I do WordPress design. And SEO for small business owners, sometimes solopreneurs the smaller, the better, the small business owners. And how I got started was I actually, so I spent eight years in banking after I graduated college.
[00:02:45] And I absolutely hated it. It was the worst. And my husband, he is a software engineer and he was like, you need to learn how to do front end development.
[00:02:55] Learn how to do websites. You could do it. And I like resisted for the longest time. I had so many, excuses.
[00:03:03] Like I wasn't smart enough. I didn't have enough time, blah, blah, blah.
[00:03:07] But I finally listened to him and I did it. And I started freelancing.
[00:03:11] And then my client started asking me about SEO and I was like, this is really working.
[00:03:16] So I started my own company. After it was going well for a little bit. Yeah.
[00:03:22] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. That's awesome.
[00:03:23] When you said you hated banking, like what did you hate about it?
[00:03:27] Katie Paskorz: I think it was just like the corporate world. I felt like I didn't, I wasn't really like in control of my future.
[00:03:35] It was just it was a lot of red tape and a lot of. I feel like I'm a very creative person and there was just no creativity happening. Whatsoever.
[00:03:45] Katie Paskorz: Like none. And I think that I found my creative self again, whenever I started doing website design and SEO and stuff. So that's what I hated about it.
[00:03:55] Crystal Waddell: Yeah.
The Creative Side of SEO
[00:03:55] Crystal Waddell: And I think that's so interesting. You're describing yourself as creative. But then saying, I found my creative self doing SEO. Which a lot of people would think, Ooh, search engine optimization.
[00:04:05] That sounds so technical. It sounds boring, whatever, but you're like, yes, this is like an opportunity to be creative. So can you explain why you describe it as, an opportunity for creativity to just bloom?
[00:04:18] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. I think that I find it creative because. There, there's no one way of doing SEO.
[00:04:25] You know what I mean? So you have to, find the keywords that you want to rank for. You have to find all of this technical information, but then you get to implement it in any way that you feel like is possible. And sometimes you feel like some of the traditional ways or things don't work. And then.
[00:04:46] You find creative ways to make those things work. So writing blog posts or content or making videos and stuff like that's all creative. And I feel like that's how I get to express myself that way.
Client Strategies and Packages
[00:05:01] Crystal Waddell: So when you work with clients, are you creating a strategy and then they're executing it?
[00:05:07] Or do you create this strategy and execute it? Or you do a combination of both?
[00:05:11] Katie Paskorz: I do a combination of both. So I have a couple of different packages.
[00:05:14] So one is me more teaching them and guiding them and coming up with a strategy and this is how you're going to continually implement it in your day to day, like business operations and continue it after me.
[00:05:27] And then I also have ones where I manage the whole thing for them. So I'm doing the strategy. I'm doing the blog posts.
[00:05:35] And the back linking and everything and just taking over. The whole thing. .
[00:05:39] Crystal Waddell: Okay. So what do you think is like the most important elements when you're creating a strategy for a company?
Importance of Customer Interaction
[00:05:45] Katie Paskorz: I think talking to actual customers.
[00:05:48] Crystal Waddell: Oh my gosh! Who know?
[00:05:50] Katie Paskorz: Instead of just, talking to the business owner and coming up with a strategy.
[00:05:55] That's great, but they're not going to think the way their customers do.
[00:05:59] Just because they have all of this knowledge and technical knowledge about the thing that they're trying to sell and the product that they're making and stuff.
[00:06:06] They're not going to come from like a consumer standpoint.
[00:06:09] So I definitely think talking to actual customers about how they found them.
[00:06:14] What their questions are about the product and service. And why they need the product and service are like, that's gold. That's SEO gold.
[00:06:22] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, for sure. I have a quick little anecdote about that because I interact with my customers a lot.
[00:06:27] Like I make giant wooden letters and numbers, and I also make photo collages for athletes, like when they graduate. I have a lot of back and forth emails with my customers. And I remember one time after, I was following up with someone. I said, Hey, how did it go?
[00:06:42] And she was like, girl, I got a mom win.
[00:06:45] And I was like, a mom win, huh? That's interesting. And so on every single page for the collage gifts where they have to upload their pictures. And buy the actual photo gift, I have it in, capital letters, get a mom win.
[00:07:02] And it's I love it. Every time I look at it, I think of her.
[00:07:05] And I just think of, the parents who are still trying to connect with their kids. And it was like, it wasn't something that I thought about.
[00:07:11] I thought, Oh, you're celebrating this night, but I never thought about it as, connecting again with teenagers or whatever.
[00:07:18] And so it was just such a, like such an insight, it was such a small thing, but when you like actually do communicate with your customers, you get those amazing little details that really make a difference.
[00:07:31] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. 100%. Agree.
[00:07:32] Crystal Waddell: So you've been doing this for seven years and then there's been like a lot of changes over the last year or so.
[00:07:38] What do you feel has been like the biggest change in SEO and like how you approach it?
[00:07:44] Katie Paskorz: That's a really good question.
[00:07:45] Crystal Waddell: And it doesn't have to be just one.
[00:07:47] So whatever. Yeah.
[00:07:48] Katie Paskorz: Yeah.
Google Business Profile and Ads
[00:07:48] Katie Paskorz: I think leveraging the Google business profile.
[00:07:52] I know it's not like technically SEO to use your Google business profile.
[00:07:57] But it's taking up space on that search results page. I think getting my clients to ask for reviews and communicating with the people that leave those reviews has been a really big win.
[00:08:10] Also leveraging some Google ads, if that's a possibility in their business. I have found that just makes the timeline for people to find your content a little bit shorter. If you have that capability.
[00:08:24] And yeah, I would say like those two things most recently have been what I've been focusing on.
[00:08:30] Crystal Waddell: Okay, so I love this about the Google business profile.
[00:08:32] We've been talking about that a lot in my small group, the SEO squad.
[00:08:36] Do you have a process for updating that Google profile on a regular basis?
[00:08:42] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. So usually I like to have my client to be always asking for reviews.
[00:08:49] So whether that's like email marketing or on, Instagram, any social media or anything like that.
[00:08:56] So ideally they're getting reviews in, a couple of times a month or weekly or whatever.
[00:09:02] And I think going in and responding to those reviews is something that they need to be doing, once a week.
[00:09:09] Or how what, whenever they come in and that kind of automatically adds a step to their processes.
[00:09:15] So as soon as they get a review, they're like, okay, I'm checking out my Google business profile. I'm responding to this review. Is this something that I can use as a testimonial on my website? Are they asking a question about my product or service that I can respond to and also add that to my website?
[00:09:32] Is there a different way of looking at my service based on this review?
[00:09:36] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, and what I also like about the Google business profiles that you can upload images. And, make little posts and stuff just like social media.
[00:09:45] Do you recommend doing any of those things? Or do you have a process for that as well?
[00:09:50] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, so like at the same time you're responding to the reviews, it's a good idea to Go in and say, do I have a new photo that I can upload for this?
[00:10:00] Product or service that I posted to my social media or whatever. Since you're already doing that as part of another process. Why not just like Quickly add that to your Google business profile.
[00:10:11] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, that's really smart. And then you mentioned Google ads and we don't really talk about ads and advertising very much on the podcast.
[00:10:18] But. It's definitely a part of my own strategy. I do retargeting mainly on Facebook.
[00:10:24] But can you retarget using Google ads? And are we talking about performance max here?
[00:10:29] Or what type of Google ads do you recommend alongside Google business profile?
[00:10:34] Katie Paskorz: So I recommend search ads. I think that a good strategy is even if you don't have the budget for google ads.
[00:10:45] Is to definitely go in And create an account. You don't have to get charged anything or start an ad or anything.
[00:10:52] But just go through their tools for the google ads. Especially like the keyword planner and stuff like that.
[00:10:58] I think those tools are really helpful at finding what people are actually searching for.
[00:11:04] I love using that.
[00:11:05] And then also Google is always giving business owners like credit. Once you set up a Google ads account, it's here's a 500 credit. And just play around with it. And the thing is you can use that credit to play around with the Google ads, see if it's going to really work for your business.
[00:11:25] And you can also, a lot of people don't know that within 30 days of setting up your ad, you can actually talk to someone at Google to help you.
[00:11:35] And give you insight on that and it automatically pops up and you just talk to them. And they're helping you optimize that ad for the best performance.
[00:11:43] And then after all of that is said and done, if you're like, I don't know if this really worked.
[00:11:47] You can still take all of that data that you collected from it and use it on, blog posts or any other content that you have.
[00:11:55] Crystal Waddell: Okay. So tell me about this data that you can take from it. What are you talking about specifically?
[00:12:00] And how can you take that and then use it in your blog?
[00:12:04] Katie Paskorz: So whenever you set up an ad. You set up a bank of keywords that you think that people are searching for. Or going to be searching for related to your ad. And then what happens is Google uses their machine learning. And they come up with suggestions that are Okay,
[00:12:21] kind of related.
[00:12:23] As your ad is going so like people are clicking On your ad for this particular set of keywords. Here's another set of keywords that people are most likely to click on based on their Machine learning.
[00:12:36] And then you can take those ones that they suggested and you can add that to your content if it works If you're getting clicks on that particular keyword.
[00:12:44] Crystal Waddell: So advertising, especially for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Like a really scary word and knowing how much to budget or spend. To do a good test, is there a budget recommendation that you have?
[00:13:01] Katie Paskorz: So if you can only use that $500 credit, that's fine. You're still gonna get good data from that. But the, for my new clients that are just starting, I asked them to start with a budget of $1, 200. And that's in a month. And you can set it so that's all that Google will spend in that one month.
[00:13:24] And I think for most of the clients that I work with their products and services, that's like what I think is a good starting point.
[00:13:31] You can always start less if you need to. But the majority of my business owners start with that amount and they're happy with that. And they actually, the amount of leads that they get from that amount. They usually continue the ad.
[00:13:44] You know after that for six months.
[00:13:46] And the other thing to think about is, You don't have to keep it running forever, you know.
[00:13:51] If you get enough leads You can stop the ad. You don't have to keep it going forever and ever.
[00:13:56] Crystal Waddell: Wow. Yeah, that's really exciting. I'm thinking, okay, I could probably do that for like my own seo agency.
[00:14:03] But it's also scary because i'm not sure how many people I actually want to work for.
[00:14:07] You know what I mean?
[00:14:07] Yeah, so that's really interesting.
[00:14:10] And then one thing about that google ad credit.
[00:14:14] We I think a couple of years ago I did it and the deal was you have to spend $500 to get $500. And I don't know if it's still like that, but I really like the idea of doing it though, because if you say $1, 200, it's wow, you could get $1, 200 of ad spend for $700, which is still, a great opportunity.
[00:14:35] So yeah, for that.
[00:14:37] Katie Paskorz: Yeah.
[00:14:37] Crystal Waddell: The other note I wanted to make on that is we were talking about this big Google leak that happened recently.
[00:14:43] And one of the things was that, Google advertisers. There might've been like some sort of boost, for those who advertise with Google.
[00:14:52] So I'm not, I don't have any like in depth Research on that.
[00:14:55] But it does go to show that, investing in the service that you use probably has some benefits for you organically too.
[00:15:03] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, exactly. And I think it also, I've also seen it help because more people are clicking on your website link.
[00:15:10] You know what I mean? So you're getting more traffic. So then Google is more likely to recommend that your website for that particular traffic, even after the ad is over.
[00:15:20] Crystal Waddell: Ah, that makes sense.
Leveraging Google Tools for SEO
[00:15:21] Crystal Waddell: So what about other tools like Google Search Console? Is that something that you use with clients?
[00:15:27] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, I use Google Search Console and Google Analytics on every single one of my clients.
[00:15:33] Google Search Console. It doesn't get as much, not a lot of people know about it.
[00:15:38] They're always asking me about Google Analytics. If you don't know anything about SEO, you're just, You already know about Google analytics.
[00:15:45] But
[00:15:45] Crystal Waddell: I think that's true.
[00:15:46] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, I think google search console is actually whenever you're just starting out, the more important tool. Just because it's the user interface is easy.
[00:15:55] It's easier for people to understand. And it shows actual keywords that people are clicking on, to get your content already. So.
[00:16:02] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. So that's amazing.
[00:16:04] I love Google Search Console for that very reason. GA4, I enjoy like, Insights and a lot of the events and different things that I'd set up back in Google Analytics came with it.
[00:16:15] I just got it updated to the different language. But I never really knew what I was doing.
[00:16:19] I just followed a tutorial once and then set it up. And then now I don't know what's going on.
[00:16:24] So if you were going to set up like Google Analytics and actually get some usable information from it.
[00:16:31] Is there like a top tip that you could give us that we could actually implement on our own?
[00:16:35] Katie Paskorz: So for Google Analytics, I think the most valuable information that you're going to get from it is.
[00:16:42] If you use Google tag manager in conjunction with it. So it might be, it sounds a little complicated.
[00:16:50] But I, I have faith in small business owners.
[00:16:53] If they could figure out how to run a business, they can figure out Google tag manager.
[00:16:57] But basically you add, a special, Name to a button or something. On your website.
[00:17:06] So if you have a call to action in your hero section, the first thing people see.
[00:17:11] You want to know how many people are actually clicking on that versus how many people are actually visiting your site.
[00:17:17] So you can tell if you need to customize that button in a different way. Maybe change the color, try things out.
[00:17:25] And how you do that is you set it up on Google tag manager. It just gives you this little Thing to add on your tag manager.
[00:17:32] Crystal Waddell: Okay, so you guys can't see me right now unless you're watching this on YouTube, but I'm like, so what now?
[00:17:36] Because this closes a loop of like CRO, like conversion rate optimization.
[00:17:42] I'm like, okay, I don't have time to watch heat maps all day. I, oh, if they clicked on something or not, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Okay, keep going. So sorry.
[00:17:49] Katie Paskorz: So you add this, little word to your button.
[00:17:53] And you're like in tag manager, you're like, when people click on this button that has this word. Whatever word, or whatever it's named.
[00:18:00] I want you to To count it in my Google analytics.
[00:18:04] So then you go to Google analytics and you add that as a key event. And you can see how many people are actually clicking on that button versus how many people are visiting your site as a whole.
[00:18:14] Crystal Waddell: Oh, I love it because now there's actually a way to measure your efforts.
[00:18:19] I knew there was, but it's like, how do you set this stuff up?
[00:18:21] So yeah, that is so awesome.
Understanding Google Analytics for Small Businesses
[00:18:23] Crystal Waddell: I have somebody coming on the show in a few weeks to talk about Google analytics and GA4 in particular, but these are those types of things that it's.
[00:18:32] Look, we know that it does a whole bunch of things. But as small business owners, we have a limited amount of time, especially if you're entrepreneuring it, a solopreneur, that type of thing.
[00:18:42] It's we got a limited amount of time. What can we do that will get us the information we need the fastest? And that is like gold.
[00:18:50] Yeah.
Setting Up and Tracking Key Metrics
[00:18:50] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, you can set it up for anything, a form. How many people are filling out this contact form. How many people are clicking on this link to this other page. How many people are downloading my freebie.
[00:19:01] Whatever, you can set it up. But you want to know exactly what those numbers are. That way you can know do I need to improve something, is this working?
[00:19:09] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, exactly. Because it's like the first step of SEO is traffic, right? And and the second step is like refining that traffic and trying to get like more relevant traffic, right?
[00:19:20] Yeah. And then conversions. Exactly. So one thing, when I first started learning about how to optimize a website, I was like, Oh, look at all these keywords I can rank for, and so I'm like, look at all this traffic. And I'm like, where's the money?
[00:19:32] And so I think this is such an important concept and step for people to understand. It's yes traffic is great. And I've even talked to some SEOs who are like, our job stops at traffic.
[00:19:44] like, uh,
[00:19:48] In a business, right?
[00:19:49] Yeah, on a business that depends on people coming to your website and actually making a purchase. I'm gonna take that with a grain of salt.
[00:19:54] But for me and my business. It matters, it matters that people not only come, but they buy. So that is just so helpful to help us, figure that out, how to measure it.
The Importance of Quality Traffic
[00:20:05] Katie Paskorz: For me, for as an SEO strategist and a small business owner.
[00:20:09] I feel like. It's the quality of traffic also. So like you're going to get different traffic depending on you might have this blog post that is just getting so much traffic.
[00:20:21] It's it's getting 3000 visitors a month, 4, 000 visitors a month, and it's about I don't know, Oh, what my favorite dog breeds are.
[00:20:29] Say you're a grooming site and you get this, you have, you've got this blog article. And it's what my favorite dog breeds are or whatever. And people are visiting it. That's great. You're getting that traffic from that.
[00:20:38] But is that actually relevant to like people that are going to schedule to get their dog groomed with you?
[00:20:44] Like you, you want the traffic, the things that people are searching for that actually want to take the step. Buy that product or service. You don't want traffic for traffic's sake. It doesn't make any sense. There's, why put all that energy into it if you're not going to get conversions?
[00:20:58] Crystal Waddell: Amen. Yeah, that's really good.
Optimizing Blog Content for Conversions
[00:21:00] Crystal Waddell: But let's say that you have a a blog like that, because I know somebody who does.
[00:21:04] Katie Paskorz: Yeah.
[00:21:05] Crystal Waddell: What are some things you can do to optimize it to get, to like, nudge somebody to the next step?
[00:21:10] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. It's dependent on what that blog post is about.
[00:21:14] Crystal Waddell: Let's even stick with your dog groomer example or whatever.
[00:21:17] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. So I would say, I would say adding, if you're a dog groomer, okay. Your clients are going to be local, right?
[00:21:26] You're not going to have you don't have virtual dog grooming appointment. So I would say, adding Some cities. Some keywords that are like city specific. Or like location specific keywords. And then adding a call to action right after that.
[00:21:42] So do you own a dog in Pittsburgh who needs a hair appointment or something. And this is just off the top of my head. Okay. This isn't my best stuff.
[00:21:49] But I'm just saying, Like inquire now or, what would really be good is to add a call to action that provides some kind of discount on your service. Or like a trial or a freebie or something.
[00:22:02] That's what you want to do is interspersed in that article.
[00:22:04] Add a couple, call to actions that are like, do you want to know how to keep your dog's fur clean or something like that, download my freebie. Or schedule an appointment with me.
[00:22:15] Or book a chat or whatever that's what I would do, but it's hard to, if it's, if the content is not going to create conversions it's harder to make it create conversions instead of starting out with content that people are actually going to purchase from you.
[00:22:34] Does that make sense?
[00:22:35] Crystal Waddell: It absolutely does. And I have a follow up to that too.
[00:22:37] And I'm my little squirrel brain was also going to a business idea where, you know what you pay me to watch you try to wash and cut your dog's hair. Yeah. Virtual dog grooming appointment. That's so funny to me.
[00:22:49] Katie Paskorz: Yeah.
[00:22:50] Crystal Waddell: But okay, so let's take it from the other side then.
Creating Conversion-Focused Content
[00:22:52] Crystal Waddell: What would be a better piece of content for that dog groomer? That starts with conversion in mind?
[00:22:58] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. Okay. Without doing any of my research and just coming up with something else in my head, let's see.
[00:23:04] Maybe start with something like a problem that someone would have, a dog owner would have.
[00:23:10] So I know dogs that have allergies. They have itchy skin a lot coming from a person who has a dog with allergies.
[00:23:17] I would say that, I would look for what's the best way to groom a dog with skin allergies.
[00:23:24] Or something like that, just because you're coming from a problem. And those people are looking for solutions.
[00:23:31] And then you could say, if you don't have enough time to do all of these things, then you can just book an appointment with me.
[00:23:37] Crystal Waddell: Yeah.
[00:23:38] Katie Paskorz: You know what I mean?
[00:23:39] Yeah, and I think about my dog. She's a doodle. She's Dezzy the disaster, the doodle.
[00:23:43] But she gets, she doesn't like for me to brush her.
[00:23:46] And so the question that I've asked my groomer and already forgot the answer to.
[00:23:50] Was like the best brush to, to use on a regular basis.
[00:23:54] And then also do you have to go to a special groomer for somebody to do a doodle?
[00:23:59] You know what I mean?
[00:24:00] So those are things that come off the top of my head.
[00:24:02] Yeah. Fantastic. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:24:04] Crystal Waddell: Man, we got to find ourselves some dog grooming clients. Because we are rocking and rolling.
[00:24:08] Okay. So we've had this amazing conversation.
Leveraging LinkedIn for SEO and Branding
[00:24:11] Crystal Waddell: I haven't even really asked you the main questions that I wanted to, and there's just a couple.
[00:24:16] And I also forgot to tell you I love your featured section on your LinkedIn.
[00:24:22] Katie Paskorz: Thank you. Thank you so much. I have someone that helps me with that, so I can't take all of the credit. But yeah. I just started leveraging my LinkedIn at the end of last year and it's been fantastic.
[00:24:34] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. I feel like LinkedIn is one of the most overlooked, like off page SEO opportunities. And I just when I look at somebody's LinkedIn profile like yours, and I'm definitely linking to it in the show notes, but it was just like, wow what a branding opportunity.
[00:24:51] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, 100%.
[00:24:53] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, I don't think I've seen anyone's LinkedIn profile that just really captures the branding opportunity like you did.
[00:25:00] And it's like helpful, but it's also beautiful. And I'm like, I didn't know LinkedIn could look like that.
[00:25:05] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, no. I have to shout out my girl. Her name is Felicia Underwood.
[00:25:09] She has been helping me with my LinkedIn for a while now.
[00:25:13] And she is amazing. She's amazing. 100%.
[00:25:16] Crystal Waddell: Right. Hi, felicia. That was awesome. So good job.
SEO Tips for Busy Small Business Owners
[00:25:19] Crystal Waddell: But one of the things that you also said that stuck out to me.
[00:25:22] Is that you've got to find a way to add a small step to your everyday processes that align with an SEO principle.
[00:25:29] And I'm like, okay we got to stop right there and talk about that because I'm all about implementation. And that's what I do is if I hear something, I'm like, I've got to, I've got to find a way to implement it right now before I lose it.
[00:25:41] Cause there's so many great ideas all the time.
[00:25:43] Yeah. So busy distracted. So how do you do that? How do you attach it to what you're already doing in your business?
[00:25:50] Katie Paskorz: I'll give two little hacks that I have here for small business owners that don't have a lot of time.
[00:25:56] One is keep a document open on your phone. Or like on your notes app or whatever, that has questions that people are asking you about your business or your service or whatever.
[00:26:08] Even if you don't think it will make good content, add it to that list. And just keep a running list. This can be ideas for blogs. It can be ideas for new taglines for your product or services. Email marketing, as any social media or anything. Like that's gold.
[00:26:26] And then I think the other thing too is I work with a lot of e commerce.
[00:26:31] People, and they are constantly loading new products. You know on Shopify or whatever platform they're using. And every time they load a product, They have to load an image of that product.
[00:26:43] So make sure that you're Describing what that picture is in the title. And the description. And the alt text tag. Make that a part of your process.
[00:26:54] So every time you upload, that happens automatically.
[00:26:57] And then whenever you're writing the description for that product or service, go back to your notes app. With the questions that people are asking.
[00:27:03] And make sure you answer all of those questions in the description.
[00:27:06] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, I love that tip for the phone.
[00:27:09] I joke with my group and even on this podcast, I've said it.
[00:27:13] That we have this never ending to do list, yes. So I'm like, even if you can't do it right now, don't let yourself get overwhelmed.
[00:27:20] Just put it on the never ending to do list. And, Oh, my gosh, my brain just goes crazy sometimes, but I'm thinking about my small group and I'm like, you know what?
[00:27:27] That's what we're going to do one day. I'm going to say, Hey, take out your never ending to do list. And we're just going to start at the top and we're going to do one thing off that list.
[00:27:35] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, that's gold.
[00:27:36] As long as you're making some progress on that to do list, it doesn't matter how long it is.
[00:27:40] You know what I mean? One thing at a time, one thing at a time.
[00:27:44] Crystal Waddell: Right. Absolutely. And that's the beautiful thing about optimization. Because it's a constant process, right? Yeah, it's it's never really fully going to end.
[00:27:53] So all of these ideas will probably be relevant at some point.
[00:27:57] Exactly.
[00:27:58] Exactly. Awesome. Okay.
Conclusion and Resources
[00:27:59] Crystal Waddell: So if somebody wants to connect with you, what are the best ways to do that?
[00:28:03] Katie Paskorz: So I'm active on LinkedIn like we talked about and you're gonna provide a link for that. I really appreciate that.
[00:28:09] But also instagram. I try to keep up with instagram.
[00:28:13] I love being on there and connecting with people on instagram and that's just katydidpgh that's where you can find me
[00:28:19] Crystal Waddell: Awesome, and we'll link to that as well.
[00:28:22] And then you mentioned before that you had a website guide, right?
[00:28:24] Is that something available for download that I can link to as well?
[00:28:28] Katie Paskorz: Yeah, exactly. I'll provide the link for you. And it's an easy website guide for people that are overworked and don't have a lot to think about. And it comes from an SEO standpoint. So I wrote all of the tips and tricks in there are from an SEO standpoint.
[00:28:42] Okay. And it, it has content ideas for each page of your website, what I said about how to write descriptions. It has templates. I know it's amazing, but I will give you the link to that too. And you can download that for free. Yeah.
[00:28:57] Crystal Waddell: Oh my gosh.
[00:28:57] That is amazing. Thank you so much. Katlyn. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to share this with my group.
[00:29:02] And this is a beautiful thing because I'm like getting choked up over it.
[00:29:06] Are you serious?
[00:29:07] The other day on Instagram, there was, it was either Instagram or Threads. Someone said. We have this amazing website thing that we're, selling and promoting or whatever, and it's taken a while to pull all the elements together.
[00:29:20] And I was like, that's really cool.
[00:29:22] I was like, Hey, if you guys need any like insight on SEO or whatever, I'd love to collaborate with you.
[00:29:28] And their response was SEO is a whole different beast. And I was just like this is your post. So I'm not coming over here to start a fight with you on your post.
[00:29:38] But I was so frustrated. Because I feel like that's one of the number one problems online.
[00:29:44] Is that people want to sell you a website. Without explaining that, yeah, you have the structure and the foundation right here.
[00:29:53] But like my friend Matt said, there are no roads to get people to your structure.
[00:29:58] And you haven't really decorated the rooms or built out the place or whatever.
[00:30:02] You know what I mean?
[00:30:02] Katie Paskorz: Yeah,
[00:30:03] Crystal Waddell: that's what optimization is.
[00:30:04] So I thank you for putting together a guide that ties all of that together, because it's so important.
[00:30:11] Katie Paskorz: Yeah. That's my whole thing. I just want to make SEO easy. People like to build it up. So it's this, monster or beast or whatever.
[00:30:21] But it's really not, it's just, doing little things here and there.
[00:30:25] Doing what you can.
[00:30:26] And anything is better than not doing anything at all.
[00:30:29] Yeah, I just want to make it easy for people.
[00:30:32] I know business owners don't have a lot of time and I just want to make it easy for them.
[00:30:36] Crystal Waddell: It was so nice to meet with you and like connect.
[00:30:39] And it's like fun being a woman in tech and like just the future seems so exciting right now.
[00:30:45] Thank you so much for coming on the show and thank you for just being so generous with all that you know.
[00:30:51] Katie Paskorz: Thank you for having me. This has been
[00:30:52] a blast.
[00:30:53] Crystal Waddell: All right, guys, go check out all that Katlyn has shared today.
[00:30:57] Like I said, I'll drop her information. Her links in the show notes.
[00:31:00] And, oh yeah, don't forget if you have any questions about this podcast.
[00:31:05] You can text me directly.
[00:31:06] There's a link right underneath here.
[00:31:08] And you can also search the podcast. I built a GPT for you.
[00:31:13] That link is also in the show notes. So all you have to do is give me your email address.
[00:31:17] You can then just immediately search for anything that we've talked about in this podcast. Or any of the other hundred plus episodes.
[00:31:24] So yes. Katlyn, thank you again.
[00:31:26] Katie Paskorz: Thank you. Appreciate you.
[00:31:29] Crystal Waddell: All right, guys.
[00:31:30] I'll see you next time. So have an awesome day and yeah. See you then.
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