Ep 285 // 4 Ways to Tell If You Need Better SEO, Better Copy, or Both

Speaker A: All right, pals, so today we're getting into the nitty gritty about how to tell if you need better SEO, better copy, or both? Both of them. Both. Because so many times I see entrepreneurs, small business owners who are like, well, I just need more traffic. I just need, you know, more leads. I just need whatever. And that might be true, but it's not always the case. Yes, more leads are awesome, but if you're leaking leads like a sieve because your copy stinks, then let's evaluate and see where the fixin needs fixin. Okay, so we're going to jump in and I'm going to give you three ways to tell if you need better SEO, better copy, or both. Let's go. Hey there fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to simple SEO and marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging and copywriting to get leads from your website and not just any leads. How to hi. Converting lead. Hey, I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter, SEO strategist, and barrel racer. And for the last eight years, I've been figuring out what works and what doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic. And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting and content marketing. How does 300%, 500% or even 12,000% more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take note. I'm about to drop simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips, all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts. So I thought about coming up with a really cool gardening example to like help this point get across where it's like, you know if you're not growing enough fruit, you need to look at your soil or do. But the fact of the matter is I am not your gardening bestie. Like I try ish. My mom is where I send my indoor plants to rehab. She comes to My house. And she's like, oh, Faith, let me take that plant home for you and bring it back to life. And I'm like, okay. And my sister in law, like, makes is. Is like the sister in, uh, encanto who like, everything turns green and flowery and all of the things grow. That's my sister in law for gardening. My mom salvages my indoor plants. Like, so I'm not your gardening bestie. Okay. And I was going to try to come up with an example for you about, like, your soil and your website copy. And then I was like, faith, you were pulling stuff out of thin air because you don't know. You. You don't know. But what I can tell you is about a bucket. So I want you to picture this old metal bucket that you're like, I just need more water in here. I need more water in here to meet my goals and be able to satisfy my thirst and provide for my family. But there are holes all around that bucket. And so the more water you pour in, the more water pours, spills out. And I, uh, think a lot of times as entrepreneurs, small business owners, coaches, like, whatever your business is, we can get so focused on, I need more leads. I need more leads. I need more leads that we forget to check and see if maybe we aren't leaking leads somewhere, if maybe we don't have some holes in our bucket. And so today, I'm going to walk you through three ways to tell if you need better SEO to get more leads, better copy to keep those leads and turn them into paying clients, or both. Okay? Also, please know that when I say both, every time I say both. Today I'm going to be thinking of the scene from the movie Radio when the waitress asks. When the waitress asks radio, what kind of cobbler he wants or what kind of pie he wants. And he says, bofe. So if I say bofe, just know that's where it's coming from. Okay? Okay. So, truth be told, because there's so much to running a business, a lot of business owners, they just don't know whether they have an SEO problem or a copy problem or both. Right? Um, um. And truly, the. The answer depends on where the buyer journey is breaking. And if your website isn't bringing in leads, it's really tempting to just say, I need more traffic. And sometimes you do need more traffic, but not yet. Sometimes you need better copy, sometimes you need stronger positioning. And yes, sometimes you really do need both more copy and stronger positioning. The trick is to figuring out where the breakdown is Actually happening. So checkpoint number one, if you have low traffic and low inquiries, you probably have an SEO visibility problem. Translation, that means you're not showing up for the right keywords, okay? People are typing something in, and you ain't at the top, baby. Or they're typing something in. You are at the top, but that's for the wrong thing, okay? If very few people are finding your website for the thing that they need to be finding it for, your website is probably not optimized around your ideal keywords, okay? And this can. This can happen so many different ways. It can happen when your page titles are weak, keyword research is wrong. You have keywords, but they're the wrong keywords. The search intent is off, or you don't have the SEO street cred to go for that. Or even if your service pages aren't optimized, sometimes people get so focused on their blogs that they forget about the pages that actually sell the things. Okay, this can happen when your blogs aren't actually targeting useful search terms that aren't being just answered by AI. This can also happen when your site structure is like weak and thin and chicken skin. And it's not. It's not built out to show up to Google as something that's valuable. Okay? This happens when Google doesn't have enough clear signals about what you do. If Google cannot easily, easily tell what you do and who you serve, then they. Then Google cannot show you to the right people. Uh, this does not mean that your copy doesn't matter. It means that the first problem to fix might be visibility. So I want you to start with keyword research. Okay? If you don't already have my program, Keyword research kickstart. Get it? It's a steal of a deal. And I walk you through the the basics of doing keyword research the right way. Like what you need to know and nothing you don't need to know so that you can get in, figure out your keywords, and quit fiddle farting around with it. Okay? AI cannot do your keyword research for you. I'm sorry about you. ChatGPT does not actually have a real brain around keyword research. It cannot access behind the paywall stuff of keyword research. K so. So my. My program, Keyword Research kickstart, is built for you to get in, learn how to do keyword research on ubersuggest for yourself, do it the right way, and start making traction with those keywords, okay? You can get through the entire program in less than an hour. Okay, so practical. That's your Practical fix step number one. Practical fix step number two is you need to optimize your core pages first. Everybody wants to focus on the blog. Yes, the blog is important. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't focus on the blog, but let's also really hone in your homepage and your services page, your sales pages, the pages that are like driving dollars directly. Okay? I want you make sure that your homepage and your services page target those right keywords with your right buyers and the right stages of their buyer journey. Okay? And then, then the next practical, fixed step is to start building content around real search behavior, not just what you feel like writing about. Now, I'm the queen of loving to write about whatever I want to write about. I get that. But there's having a place for that, and your blog is not the primary place for that. If you are a business owner, if you're blogging just a blog, and you want to tell the whole world about your life and hope that you get brand deals from it, have at it. Go nuts. This isn't the podcast for you. Okay? But if you are a business owner wanting to market your business using sustainable marketing practices that last four years, then this is how you need to do it. You need to build content around what is actually searched by real humans. All right, number two, Number two, way to verify if you have a traffic problem or a copy problem. Okay? If you have traffic but low inquiries, you probably have a copy or conversion problem. So if you're like, well, what do I need? What do I need to be for a good number for inquiries? Well, I can't tell you that because I don't know your direct industry. Okay? You need to do some research and see what an industry average is for inquiries. Um, because then you'll have, you know, kind of a baseline for comparison. But if you have traffic but low inquiries, this is where people are finding you. But they're not taking action. They might land on a page, look around and leave. One indicator of this is a high bounce rate. Okay? Now, this might mean that your headline is poop. You're above the fold is poop. I say that with all the love in the world. It may mean that your offer is confusing. It may mean that your CTA, your call to action is weak. McWeek pants. Okay? It may mean that your page doesn't build trust. And it may mean that your proof is thin. You need more proof. The days of because I said so on, um, in online business don't work anymore, okay? And it may also Mean that the wrong traffic is landing on your page. Like people are not actually finding you for the right thing. Sometimes that means we go for lower search terms in order to be the ideal fit for that search term. And that is okay. Now this could also mean that your page, whatever the page is, it's not converting, gives information, but it doesn't help lead to a decision. Okay? So here, here are your practical fixes for this. I want you to audit your highest traffic pages. I want you to look at what people see first from an objective standpoint. Now, I know you have probably put in hours and hours and hours of work into your copy, maybe even paid somebody to write your copy for you. But if you're coming at coming to this page as first time Freddy, looking for what you offer your ideal client, does your page actually answer his most pressing question, which is, how can you help me? Now, uh, this is not to get your feelers hurt. This is not to get anybody's panties in a wad. This is to objectively look at the page and say, does this actually answer the question? If the answer is no, let's fix it, let's fix it. It's not written in stone. Fred Flintstone having to chisel everything in stone. We can fix our websites in two seconds flat. Okay? And I want you to then ask whether this page clearly answers, who is this for? What problem does this solve? Why should I trust you? And what in the Sam Hill should I do next? Okay? And then we're going to strengthen that paid that page's message with a stronger cta, some proof, and a clear buyer journey. Okay? And checkpoint number three is this. If you are getting inquiries, but they are a bad, but they're bad fit leads, you probably have a positioning problem. I'm gonna say that again. If you're getting inquiries, but they're a bad fit, they're not a good fit lead, you probably have a positioning problem. Ah. And here's, here's why. Bad fit inquiries are often a messaging issue. Your copy, your overall messaging, your overall position in the market is off Your website, for example, may be attracting beginners, but you want more established buyers, or vice versa. Maybe you want beginner buyers and you keep attracting more established buyers. And they're like, no, I want you to do it for me, okay? Like maybe, uh, I'm going to give two examples on this. Maybe you're attracting, maybe you want advanced buyers, okay? But you are attracting people who want a 10 template. Or maybe you want the 10 template people and you keep attracting you Know the advanced buyers who are like, no, I would rather pay you $10,000 to do it for me. Neither positions in the market are wrong, but you need to make sure that your position in the M market matches your actual business and what you want instead of just throwing spaghetti at the wall and being like, I hope I get the right people. The other issue we may have here is your content may be speaking to people who want free education instead of paid employee paid implementation. Now we are in the information overload stage, right? People can type something into Chatty G and get answers where the real distinction is and where I think the real success and the real change is going to come in online marketing and online businesses is the implementation. The I will take this and do this for you or this is the step by step by step proven method. Not something made up by AI, but something that is from a human to a human that actually works. Okay? Another reason you may be getting inquiries that are bad fit is your site may be too vague for who your offer is built for. Now, y' all know I love some good voice, rich copy. You know, I love websites that speak to the ideal client and sound like your brand, but that is hard to do. That takes a lot of skill, that takes a lot of finesse to write that kind of copy and to write it from a highly conversion centric, um, strategy. And so, you know, your website may have been fine to get you where you're at, but really your messaging and your copy may be the thing that needs truly fixed to get you to the next level. And uh, a lot of times business owners get here and they blame their audience or they blame the market, but it's really because their website is sending mixed signals or unclear signals or the wrong signals entirely. Okay? So what I want you to do is I want you to just like go through this, this practical fix list. Okay? Um, and I want you to add in some best fit language. It's a really simple fix in your copy, but it helps clarify your messaging so much. I want you to add in some things that indicate whether somebody's ready to make that investment or not. Now, whether you put your prices on your website is up to you. I don't care. I put my prices on my website because I literally don't have time for 5,000 inquiries. But it also means that when I do get inquiries, they're a really good fit. So do what you want to with that. Um, um, I also want you to go through your website copy and ask, are you speaking to the level of problem that your best clients actually have. Okay, then I want you to stop writing all of your content for the lowest awareness person in the room. And that's, that's hard to do because we want to help everybody. And I'm not saying that your content shouldn't be helpful, but you cannot be speaking to the lowest level of awareness in the room all the time. If you want to be attracting the more advanced buyers and vice versa, if you want to be attracting the lower, um, not lower level, but like, um, lower tier, I guess, buyers, you can't always be speaking to the more advanced buyers. Okay? I want to, I want you to make it easy for the wrong people to self select out and the right people to lean in. Okay? Okay. Now checkpoint number four. If your website is getting traffic, but no one understands what you do, then you need both SEO and copy fixed. Because SEO is going to get your people to the site. Copy is going to help them understand trust, take action, actually convert. You don't want one without the other. If you get a bunch of leads from SEO or Instagram or LinkedIn or Substack or YouTube or your podcast, doesn't really matter where your leads are coming from. If your website doesn't convert, your strong SEO with. If you have strong SEO with weak copy, you're just pouring water, pouring money, pouring time into a bucket that leaks. Your strong copy with no SEO creates a beautiful message, but very people, very few people are going to find that. Okay, so then you're like you have two drops of water in the bottom of the bucket. Okay? So here's your practical fix. I don't want you to over optimize weak copy. Do not optimize weak copy and expect it to convert. Okay? Don't try to like finagle keywords into weak copy and expect it to create dollars. Okay? I also don't want you to spend all your time writing pretty copy and not taking, not taking into consideration any SEO and keywords. Right? It is a beautiful, artistic, scientific dance of both SEO and copy. And I, uh, want you to build your SEO strategy and your messaging strategy together. You, you just absolutely cannot separate the two in my book. And I need you to make sure that your page can be found and can actually help the right person decide. Okay? So your homework is to look at your website and put yourself in one of these categories. This is a self diagnosis, y'. All. Do you have low traffic and low inquiries? Do I traffic but poor inquiries, inquiries but bad fit leads or just unclear across the board? And then I want you to decide if you're ready to take action, if you're ready to start seeing the needle move in your business. And if you don't take action, where are you going to be a year from now? Are you still going to be pouring water into that bucket that leaks like a sieve? Or you can only have one to two drops of water in that bucket that's maybe short up tight. But if you are not getting the leads and the inquiries, the right leads and inquiries from your website, somebody else is. And this isn't to scare you, but it's to say it is possible to get good quality leads from your website from a kick butt SEO and copy strategy and content that keeps working when you're not. And this is exactly, exactly why our done for you. Website copy projects include SEO strategy and messaging together with your copy, because you can't separate both. I've had people ask, well can you just do my SEO or can you just do my copy? And I'm like, well no, because I don't want to just poke holes and I don't want to just like patch holes in the bucket without getting more water into it, okay? Because most websites do not need one random fix. It's not just one tiny little thing. It's an overarch, an overarching strategy that needs fixed. They need the whole buyer journey cleaned up from how people find you to what they read, to whether they trust you enough to take the next step. So if that is you and you're like, I need this, I need to plug the holes in my bucket and get a bunch more water into my bucket, then I want you to head on over to faith hannon.com um and click the link in the show notes and apply to to work with us. We are taking a limited number of website copywriting clients because I am hands on all in in your business, helping you with your copy, writing it for you, creating, crafting your SEO strategy for you. And I can only do so many of those a month. So we are booking out for the rest of 2026. So get your spot now so you don't miss out and so you're not wasting another year or two year or three year or ten years in your business without optimized SEO, optimized copy and copy that converts all in one. All right y', all, we'll chat with you next week. Bye. Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favor? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then uh, just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs start their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the Kingdom of God. And guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website, faith hannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to you soon.