How can you use SEO to boost your brand? In today’s episode, I’m continuing my series all about branding, and chatting with SEO specialist Sara Dunn. Sara is sharing her tips for optimizing your website, ranking on top search engines, and maximizing the impact of your next branding session in your SEO strategy. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

Make sure you’ve hit that follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast player to get notified each week as we air new episodes!

Subscribe on Your Favorite Podcast Player

Apple Podcast App | Spotify | Amazon

Connect with Quianna

Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Pinterest

Today’s episode is brought to you by The Green House, my resource garden for photographers! Let me help you AMPLIFY your heart online and in real life to turn bridesmaids into future brides through templates, workshops, and freebies!

Review The Show Notes:

What SEO Means For Your Business (4:27)

Getting Started With SEO (9:01)

Where To Put Your Keywords (11:49)

Tricks For Your SEO Settings (14:33)

Photo SEO (16:33)

SEO Beyond Your Website (21:43)

The Content That Google Loves (25:15)

Advice For Your Blog (27:28)

Common SEO Mistakes (32:20)

Hashtag Advice (33:57)

Making The Most Of Your Fresh Brand Session (35:04)

Sourcing Keywords (36:37)

Key Tip From Sara (39:52)

Connect With Sara:

SEO Bootcamp: https://quianna_marie–saradoesseo.thrivecart.com/wedding-seo-bootcamp/

Rank for Revenue: https://quianna_marie–saradoesseo.thrivecart.com/rank-for-revenue/

SEO Fix: https://quianna_marie–saradoesseo.thrivecart.com/seo-fix/

Instagram: instagram.com/saradoesseo

Website: saradoesseo.com

Mentioned In This Episode:

Episode 25 Amplify Your Weddings By Creating Magnetic Experiences

Review the Transcript:

Quianna: Are you tired of keeping up with trends on social media? Wish you could open your inbox to handfuls of inquiries every single week. Not just the looky loo potential clients that pop in your inbox or in your DMs, but dream clients that are asking for your availability no matter what your prices are.

They’re ready to take action and have already decided to work with you, but just need the booking details and logistics. If that sounds like a breath of fresh air or the spark of energy your business needs right now, this episode was designed for you.

As we continue this branding series, I know we couldn’t rock our next photoshoot, style it perfectly, and create an impactful upgrade for our brand without the tech and the behind the scenes strategy to help our branding upgrade shine online.

Today, I have the honor of introducing you to the SEO bestie that every business needs in their marketing strategy. Sara Dunn is the wedding SEO specialist for wedding planners, photographers, venues, and other wedding professionals who want their websites to rank higher on Google and to connect your business with aligned clients.

With a knack for making SEO easy to understand, she has created a unique wedding SEO framework that simplifies what it takes to help your business become searchable and easy to find online. Your dream clients are searching for you and what you offer. Among many speaking opportunities, Sarah was named a Wedding Pro Educator for 2023 and has presented to audiences, including Wedding Pro, WIPA, Wedding MBA, and Two Bright Lights.

Yes, Sara’s expertise truly ignites for the wedding industry, but you know I also do. Always share on the podcast that business is business, the actionable tips, mindset shifts, and SEO strategies Sarah will be sharing today can easily be applied to any industry. In the last year, her framework has helped over 1 million searchers Find the wedding pros and advice they’re looking for.

If you’re ready to reach rockstar status on Google, Sarah’s ready to be your geeky best friend that shows you how it’s done. In this episode, we’re going to break down exactly what SEO stands for and what it means for our business. We’ll share how to get started with ranking on Google and top search engines online without feeling frustrated with trends or algorithms.

Sara’s going to share more about optimizing our websites and the type of content that builds authority for your industry. She’ll even share a streamlined game plan to maximize your next branding session to help your photos and offers reach those searchers that are praying to find you and what you’re selling.

It’s truly my passion to take overwhelming business strategies and break them down to easy checklists and action items so they actually get done and help move the needle in our businesses. Thankfully, Sara also pours her heart into educating us in a plain English, not so techie approach to search engine optimization.

This next season is all about showing up for ourselves, proving our authority online, and stepping into the wealthiest, most intentional chapter of our businesses and our lives. Let’s hop into this conversation to learn how SEO can help us get there and plant some seeds for generations of business. Grab your notebook and something to sip on, babe.

This one’s going to be packed with education. Please welcome SEO expert, Sara Dunn. Welcome to Quianna Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins, big or small, by dancing in the kitchen, photographers who are excited to serve their friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams.

You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at QuiannaMarie.com/podcast

Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins. through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s go.

Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the party, Sara! I am so incredibly grateful you can be here today. How are you doing?

Sara: I’m doing great. And I love a party, especially an SEO party. Thanks for inviting me to bring that to the podcast today.

What SEO Means For Your Business?

Quianna: Yes, absolutely. Well, we need to start there. What the heck is SEO? What does it stand for?

And what exactly does it mean?

Sara: Of course! I’m so glad you asked because I know that SEO is like this acronym that people in business like to throw around, but almost nobody likes to actually use it. Define. And so if someone listening is like, I clicked on this, but I don’t know what SEO is about.

Let’s all get on the same page. So SEO stands for search engine optimization. And basically it’s the things that we can do for our websites for free to influence Google, to rank you higher. That’s what I talk about, which is organic search engine optimization, specifically around Google and getting found when people are searching for.

Exactly what you do or the expertise that you have or the services you offer. And so SEO and the people who do SEO for a living, like me, it’s our job to study what all of these online systems are looking for that makes some websites and some businesses show up at the top of search results. And what are those things that people are missing?

If they’re showing up on like page nine of Google and never getting found. I am a researcher and an experimenter and I’m always trying to figure out how do we get websites more clicks, more visibility, and more visits.

Getting Started With SEO

Quianna: Amazing. I’m so happy you broke that down because you’re right, you hear SEO and it kind of sounds like CEO. It gets kind of confusing. You’re like, wait a second, what exactly is this? So I’m so happy you started there with that definition. I would love to dig a little bit deeper and understand why is it important for entrepreneurs and small businesses to prioritize our SEO?

Sara: Well, I have to admit that I have a lot more enthusiasm about SEO than most people.

For most people, I know that you hear someone talk about search engines and optimization, and you’re like, that sounds techie and I don’t want to do it. But there’s a couple of reasons that SEO is super powerful and actually super fun when you learn a little bit about it. And so for me, one of the reasons SEO is important for business owners is because it’s a source of free traffic for your business.

So when you get SEO, right, you figure out that magic formula of what are people searching for and how can I deliver it to them? You can bring in free clicks to your website from people that were looking for exactly what you do or what you have to offer. So when we talk about SEO, we’re not talking about paying Google for advertising.

We’re talking about Just influencing Google to show us for free, which is so powerful. We all want super relevant traffic that also comes to us for free. Now there’s a second reason that I think SEO is really special. I know there’s other ways you can also get free visibility. We talk a lot about social media.

Most of us are on it as business owners. That’s free traffic too. And that’s awesome. But one of the reasons that I think SEO is a great thing to add is that it can be a lot more long term. So when we post something on Instagram or we post a video somewhere, we hope that it’s going to get. Immediate traffic and get that engagement that makes it go viral.

Even if that happens, it usually only lasts for a few days. You might get a lot of visibility and then it really, really tapers off. Whereas SEO is kind of the opposite. It takes time. It’s slow, but when you ramp up your traffic with SEO. Google and search engines can keep you near the top for a really long time.

I’m talking months to years. I have a wedding planner client who I guided on a certain blog post topic way back in 2021 and she wrote that post and it continues to get traffic now. It’s not something she’s still putting effort into. It is not something that continues to take time, but we’re talking hundreds to thousands of visitors every year to her website from something that she created three, four years ago.

So it’s really great to have SEO as part of your marketing mix to fill in that free long term traffic bucket.

Utilizing Keywords

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. I love this so much. And you are such an expert already. I’m like, ah, I have a million questions for you. And I love how you mentioned the searchable part about it, right? Where you are getting clients that are intentionally putting into that search box, I need your service.

And like, instead of social media where things are just kind of rolling, but you’re posting educational content, you’re posting entertainment content, just hoping it sticks. So how do we get started with all this SEO stuff? Like, where do you suggest we begin?

Sara: So SEO really starts with keywords. Basically, that means what are people searching for?

And it’s funny when you try to dig straight into SEO and you skip the keyword step, sometimes you as a business owner can think that people are searching for words they’re actually not searching for. We all have that curse of knowledge, right? Where it’s like, okay, this is how I would describe my business, but it may not be how your ideal client would actually describe your business.

So it all starts with that first step of what are people searching for? Are they searching for brand photography? Are they searching for headshots? What’s the type of person who’s searching for each of those things? And who do you want to reach? So I really like to start with like a really quick search on a tool called ubersuggest.

It’s ubersuggest. com. And you get one free search a day, so use it wisely, but you don’t even need to create an account. You can go to ubersuggest. com and type in a keyword you think people are searching for. And the tool will actually tell you how many times a month that thing is actually searched on Google.

So you can confirm. Is that number zero? Well, then it’s probably not a great keyword. Is it a lot? Well, then maybe it’s a great keyword. At least get a little bit of information about keywords if you want to get started with SEO and confirm that people are searching for what you think they are. Does that make sense?

Quianna: Yes, absolutely. Well, and I love that you brought this to our attention because you’re right. I think we can be so in our business. We can be so close to it, right? And I’m even just thinking for myself, for example, I mean, I have this, it’s called the crush your content and brand session, and nobody is typing in crush your content, right?

To search. They’re not, they’re looking for branding. They’re looking for headshots. They’re looking for an Arizona photographer, for example, and this applies to your business too. That’s listening, right? I mean. What is it that exactly that you do? What are the services that you provide? Not the fancy names, not the creative twists that you have.

Those are beautiful, but they’re not searchable. Like this is a huge light bulb moment, Sarah.

Sara: Yes, absolutely. And sometimes we try to craft really beautiful language to describe our services. I work with wedding industry professionals, so everyone loves really beautiful flowery language. But when people come to me and they’re like, Sarah, I want to rank for fine art wedding planner.

I’m like, I love that phrase for you. I get where you’re going, but the average buyer of your services does not know what that means. And that’s not something they’re searching for. So it’s important to discover that what words are they actually using and make sure to use those words on your website if you want to get found.

Quianna: I love that. So when you mention websites, I love to kind of segue into this. Where are we splashing these keywords on our website? Is this something that we’re using in our copy, in our, in our headlines and in like the words on our website? Or do you have some secret hidden, like hidden back backstage text keywords that we should be including as well?

I’d love to kind of dive into that.

Sara: Yes. So we’ve got keywords. Where do we use them? I love that question. The thing about SEO is that it does really need to be visible on your website. So if you’ve got a competitor who is saying they’re an Arizona photographer and you’re not really clearly stating that on the homepage of your website, it’s more likely that Google is going to rank them higher than it ranks you because they’re using the exact key phrase and you’re not.

So it is really important. What I like to do as our first step in SEO is to find that one most important keyword that kind of describes your business overall. Maybe it’s your location and then kind of a descriptor of who you are. So, um, you know, maybe it’s. Michigan wedding planner, or if you’re not location specific, maybe it’s something else you can think of business coach for fitness trainers, something like that.

What is a phrase that describes your business overall? And once you’ve confirmed with a tool that people are actually searching for that, then I want you to go and use that keyword visibly on the homepage. And ideally you would do that in a heading near the top of the page. And then also within a sentence of the text on the page.

This is really easy to do if your homepage has one of those like about me sections. So you can say, I’m Sarah, I’m a wedding SEO specialist and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So really easy to work a keyword into a sentence like that. And Google loves to pull that information and go, yes, we totally understand where you are, what you do because of the language that you use to describe yourselves.

So that’s the easiest way to do like first step with SEO, using that most important keyword on the homepage of your site.

Quianna: Yes. And I love that you mentioned that too, where sometimes I think we have to almost set our ego aside, right? We almost have to say, Hey, I don’t know. I know what I’m providing and those may be, like you said, I love the phrase cursive writing, right?

Like we are a little bit fluffy and a little bit flowery about the way we describe a lot of things we do, but we need those key words. We need those hard hitting Google findable words and keywords, and then we can add our little flowers. Splash of our love and our personality and our passions, right? I just love that so much.

So please tell us more if there’s any like secret language stuff, like what kind of stuff can we do on the back end to really do this? Because I look at my meta descriptions and I’m like, wait a second, what do I put here? Do you just use splash sentences? Do you clash words? Like tell us more about that.

Sara: Yeah. So if you are looking inside the SEO settings of a page or a blog post on your website platform, you probably do see two boxes. One of them says SEO or meta title. The other says SEO or meta description. And basically that is the information that Google’s looking for to pull into the search results.

It usually gets used for that blue link that you click on in the search results. Thanks. And so what you want to do there, you’ve already decided on your homepage is most important keyword. So I would love to see that keyword in the SEO title as well. You know, Arizona photographer, then a dash, then your business name, for example, or whatever that most important keyword was a dash and then your business name.

And I know that sounds a little tricky when I’m just describing it with words on this podcast interview. But if you just look up SEO titles and some advice on them and see what it usually looks like, it’s really easy to figure out what you need to type in that box. And then the meta description, which is usually underneath the title, that is usually a one to two sentence description of the content on the page or your business in general.

So for the homepage of your site, it is great to say, you know, business name is keyword. So, you know, whatever the business name is, is an Arizona photographer specializing in blah, blah, and blah. So that kind of actual sentence that you would want people to read to understand your business, maybe kind of how you’d introduce yourself if you were meeting someone new.

So we want to use keywords in the SEO title, but full sentences in an SEO description. Does that

Quianna: help? Perfect. Yes. Yes. You answered a lot of questions. Thank you for that. And tell me more about photos. What should we be naming our photos? And is that another kind of like hidden gem for keywords as well?

Sara: Yeah. So photo SEO is one of the things that I see done wrong most often. And what a lot of people want to do is they find that one most important keyword and they want to rename every image on their website with the name of that keyword. What I would rather see and what Google tells us it’s looking for is an actual descriptive file name that talks about what is shown in the image.

Now sometimes you can make that work with the keyword that you’re optimizing for. So if it’s a brand photo of you, that’s a really easy one to rename with the keyword you’re optimizing for. Photo of you, you’re an Arizona photographer, you can call it that, that totally makes sense. But if it’s a picture of a desk, you probably should be a little more descriptive with that file name that it’s, you know, a desk with a lamp and pencils, something like that.

So we’re trying in image file names and alternative texts. to help a search engine better understand the content or what’s shown in an image. And that’s going to help it show up more often in things like Google image search and to get pulled into different places. If you are customizing your image file names for the images and not just naming them all the same thing.

Here’s your guideline for both image file names and alt text. How would you describe an image to someone who couldn’t see it? That can really help you to better use the right keywords to describe that image and not just repeat the same thing over and over again.

Quianna: I love that so much, Sarah. I’ve never been explained or taught that properly or within that that description.

I love it so much because I think especially as a photographer, right? So a lot of us are photographers listening and we know when we’re exporting our images through Lightroom, we can easily, we can be in full control over what we are naming those files. And I just think it’s a extra layer of legitimacy and honesty that you’re sharing with Google, having an understanding that, hey, I’m not just forcing these keywords in here and cluttering them on these images.

I’m being honest with what’s in this photo based on what someone would see if they were blind or they couldn’t access the photo. Right. I love that so much. And that’s something I’ve never really been taught. So thank you for sharing that. Of

Sara: course, yeah. I always try to teach SEO best practices because when we kind of pick up on a tip or a trick that maybe might be a little bit of over optimization for a keyword, it might work for a little while, but then Google goes, We’re actually looking for sites that really have genuine content about a topic, not just the sites that use the same keyword the most.

So that’s why I like to lean more descriptive in an image file names. It also gives you more opportunities to get found and for your work to get found. So if every single image on your website is called Arizona photographer, but you know, it would be really awesome. If your images were found as like headshot examples for realtors.

Or something like that, you’re not going to have that opportunity if you’ve named all your images the same thing. So how can you be more descriptive? It takes a little bit longer, but it brings you more opportunities to your site.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay. So I feel super confident now that we’ve covered a lot of website details, right?

Going over the keywords and the copy, the headings. The meta descriptions, all the kind of like backstage, I say, like all the little details for that. And our photos. This is feeling so good. I feel like you’ve already given all of us like a lot of homework to do, which is a beautiful thing. I’m sorry. No, this is so good.

I love that. And that’s my favorite thing to say. It’s like people all the time tell me, I need more business. How do I book more clients? And then when we Give them action steps. Oh, I guess I have to do that. Yes. Yes. This is, I promise. And like Sarah, like you mentioned before, put the work in now, and this lasts so much longer.

I love that.

Sara: Yes. Well, and the other thing that I want to share too, because it does sound really overwhelming. If you’re a really visual website, photographers come to mind right away. You’re like, Sarah, I have to do custom image file names for the 500 images I have on my website. Let, let me give you some realistic real business owner advice.

I recommend doing this for five key images on the major pages of your website. Home about services most of the time. You don’t have to go back to your blog post from 2018 and rename all the images, but you want to take that little extra effort on the major pages of your site that really tell Google what you do and are like the key traffic drivers to your website.

Quianna: That was just a breath of fresh air. So thank you for anybody that’s feeling a little bit overwhelmed, especially with these photography, heavy websites. We all know this can be a slippery slope and very time consuming. So thank you for sharing that this is baby steps can actually make a huge impact. I love that, Sarah.

So. I would love to shift the conversation a little bit in to content generation. And besides our websites, which platforms work best for SEO? Like does SEO really just work best for Google? Like what other social media platforms are, or I should say, what other social media platforms Is Google sourcing?

This episode is brought to you by the wedding SEO bootcamp with Sarah Dunn. If your local network is drying up with leads and you’re ready to be discovered on Google, this bootcamp is for you. With only a basic understanding of how to edit and update your website with some blogging experience. This SEO bootcamp is the perfect Kickstarter with prompts and guidance for what to share online to help your business grow through every season.

Grab instant access to the Wedding SEO Bootcamp today to get started ASAP. Stop waiting for your dream clients to knock on your door or to drop in your DMs. It’s time to start popping up on Google with educational and authority driven content to help book clients all year round. Sarah also offers an upgraded coaching experience in addition to the SEO Bootcamp for a done with you program.

She has an entire vault of free and affordable courses, guides, and resources to help you rank and to show up on multiple platform searches. Make sure to check out the link in the show notes or mention that Keanu sent you over to get started today. Your dream clients are searching for you. Even if you’re not a wedding photographer or a wedding pro, wouldn’t you love your business to rank on Google and a pop up when clients are searching for your services or offers?

Yes. Yes, we all do. Check out the wedding SEO bootcamp with Sarah Dunn.

Sara: Yeah. So I’m so glad that you’re, you know, asking beyond websites or beyond Google. I’m a traditional search engine gal. Like I love traffic that comes straight from search engines, but I want to bring up that people don’t just search on Google or traditional search engines. There’s a lot of search that’s also done on YouTube, for example.

So if you’re someone who’s really good at tutorials and how to, that is content that searched a lot on YouTube because people want to find a video that walks them through how to do something. So YouTube is a great search platform as well. If your content is more visual or you’re great with video. And then Tik Tok is also a search platform where people go to get advice, read about products, read about things to do.

Anything that can get answered fairly quickly with a visual is a great place that people do, you know, it’s the kind of topic people search for on TikTok. So don’t forget about that. Like, again, if you really like TikTok, take a little bit of time to learn about search because TikTok is actually not a search.

only about going viral. There is a lot of search that takes place on that platform. And if you have content that answers common questions, you can gain some long term traffic and visibility for your TikTok content.

Quianna: Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. Well, and I even noticed too, because I am a little bit old school in this arena too.

I love Google. I feel like I, I just feel it’s so trusted, right? Sometimes I’m searching on TikTok, sometimes I’m searching Instagram, but I, I notice though, when I am Googling things. I’m putting a search into the search box. There’s videos that pop up, right? Like the social media platforms do pop up. So I guess my question is, what type of content do you suggest we create so it does just funnel into Google?

Like what type of content does Google love?

Sara: So my number one piece of advice here is to start by doing a search for the keyword you want to get found for because Google has all of these different things that they’ll do depending on what they think the searcher wants. So again, for how to’s and tutorials, Google will bring in this mixed bag of different types of answers.

So you’ll get some blog posts, but then you’ll get some YouTube videos as well. If someone is searching for something that’s locally focused, they will likely get Organic listings and the map results. So it’s important for you to actually visually search for what you want to get found for and see what’s showing up in the search results.

Is it short form video? Is it long form video? Is it a map? And then that can help to guide your strategy because there’s just some things that Google’s like, people don’t want videos for this. Like. Trying to think of an example, uh, best burger restaurant. Like, they probably, the searcher’s intent is like, I probably want a burger right now, I want one near me.

They’re going to show you a map, not a video of the best burger restaurants in the world, because that’s not what the user tends to click on. So you’ve got to make sure that you get a little bit familiar with those keywords you want to get found for and what Google’s presenting. And then you can actually take a look at those things and see what’s coming up.

So if it’s like a super long YouTube tutorial on a certain topic, That can really guide you like, okay, I need to create something like this if I want to show up here. And then you can kind of watch it and go, how do I create something that’s better and more helpful and more interesting? Because Google wants to promote, YouTube wants to promote, TikTok wants to promote the best, most interesting content.

So be inspired by what’s showing up there and, and have it encourage you to kind of push the envelope and create something really good. That’s really going to help your audience. That’s the best advice I have about exactly what to create. See what’s being promoted right now and then how can you improve upon it.

Quianna: So good. Oh my gosh, I love this. And I know you’ve mentioned blogs a couple times here in this conversation. And for someone that has maybe not started a blog yet, what advice do you have for them? And is this something that we should continue doing to boost these SEO results and, and to simply show up when our services are being searched for?

Sara: Absolutely. I love blog content. And when we do SEO for our clients, and when I teach SEO to students, one of the things that I always like to remind everyone is that there is so much opportunity for you to get found by people who want what you have to offer. But those people aren’t always going straight to a search engine and just searching for a service.

They might not realize your service exists, or they might think they can DIY it themselves, or they might not be ready to hire for your service, but they’re searching for some information first. So, when you blog, you create all these new opportunities for you to get found. To make a more concrete example, based on my wedding industry experience, I love when photographers, planners, and florists create blog posts about their favorite venues.

And the reason for that is, when you’re targeting a specific venue, you can kind of pick the ones that have the right clients for you. They have the right vibe. You know, it’s this outdoor and adventure y kind of place. You know, if someone’s searching for photos at that venue, they’re probably your vibe and your ideal client.

You can get in front of them, give them your advice on that venue, show them your work there and say, we are experts at working at this venue. If you’re looking for a planner, photographer, florist, we would love for you to contact us about our services. So you’ve been able to capture traffic from someone you know is interested in something very close to you and possibly can convert them into some sort of client or at least an inquiry.

So logging brings you more opportunities from people that didn’t even know about you, didn’t know about your service. It’s still bringing traffic to your site. That’s like reason number one to blog. Reason number two is that Google just tends to prefer websites that are better resources for their client, for their searchers.

So if you have a website that’s three pages, you know, a homepage about and contact us. That’s not a very big website. It’s not a very good resource and it’s going to tend to rank lower overall. So using a blog to get more helpful information on your website can also help the whole site to rank better for all of your keywords.

Quianna: So helpful. And I was just thinking, this is the power of blogging is really boosting those collaboration posts, right? So, so we may have a, like a client page that may be a secret page. Um, that is. You know, a list of all of our favorite vendors. So, for example, if you are a wedding photographer and you list out your favorites, that’s something that you may deliver in a, like a PDF, right?

Or something you would deliver as a plus page on your website. But, Having a blog post with unlimited opportunities to share your favorite vendors, to share your past wedding, um, guest, um, outfit ideas, right? Like all these incredible ways to cross promote is just like, the possibilities are endless. And my ideas just start flooding, like all these different things to do.

But what my point is, is when you are sharing those collaborations, you don’t necessarily want all of those on your website. But having a blog, that’s where those things could just keep pumping out and being great resources for your current, your past, and your future clients. I love tapping into all those resources.

Sara: Absolutely. So if someone wants to start blogging, my number one piece of advice is to do a brainstorming session and think about what are those questions that people have before they hire me. This is, of course, especially important in weddings and why I teach it a lot because most engaged couples are a one time offer.

And if they’ve already booked a photographer, it’s too late. So we want to make sure with anything that we sell, we’re getting in front of people before they’ve made a decision to hire for your service. So what are they curious about? What decisions do they need to make first? You know, maybe if it’s a brand photographer, maybe Do I need a new website?

What maybe it’s examples and inspiration because they might be looking for that trying to figure out what they even want their brand photos to look like. So really sit down and brainstorm. What are those decisions that my ideal client needs to make before they decide to hire me? And those are your best blog post topics to actually drive inquiries for your business.

Quianna: So helpful. Oh my gosh, I love this so much. So what would you say are some mistakes that a lot of business owners make when it comes to SEO? I feel like you’ve given us a ton of really good tangible things that we can start adding to our to do list, but are there any mistakes or any like outdated practices that we need to be caught up on now?

Sara: Yeah. We’ve kind of touched on my biggest pet peeve already. And that is just this idea that only one keyword matters. A lot of small business owners get in their head and they’re like, this is the phrase that describes my business. And they’re like, you know, they’re, it’s Nashville wedding planner. And they’re just searching Nashville wedding planner every week going, am I there?

Am I there? Am I there? And they’re forgetting about all the other opportunities that are out there. This can also lead to the outdated practice that I don’t like to see, which is over optimizing your entire website for the same keyword. We want to be really careful not to look like we’re trying to spam keywords all over everywhere to Google.

And so I don’t want. every single page of your website to just say Nashville Wedding Planner, Nashville Wedding Planner, Nashville Wedding Planner, every single place possible. We want to use variations. We want to describe your services in different ways. Um, maybe that Nashville Wedding Planner has a page about their Day of Coordination service where we could optimize it for Nashville Day of Coordinator instead.

So, thinking about more keywords, not just endlessly repeating the same one, that’s an outdated practice and something that I definitely don’t recommend.

Quianna: Oh, good. And what advice would you give for hashtags? I feel like such a millennial asking about hashtags, but I am curious, right? I mean, can we infuse our keywords into our hashtags?

Should we be a little bit more, just more proactive, like you mentioned, in terms of Describing exactly what’s in the photo versus kind of plugging in those keywords. Where does that play into content these days?

Sara: So I tend to believe that if people search for something on one search engine, that’s the phrase they know.

That’s the type of thing that they’re looking for on each of the places that they search. So if you go to UberSuggest and you confirm that people are searching for that keyword idea that you have, I’d highly recommend using that in your hashtags and in your marketing strategy in different places.

Hashtags on Instagram, using it within Pinterest pin descriptions, things like that. because they’re likely being searched in multiple platforms. And so take advantage of that and definitely use that in different places.

Quianna: Amazing. Thank you so much. All this stuff is so good. So I would love to know too, Sara.

So after a brand session, right? Like we’ve put our heart and soul into this whole new look or strategizing content. And after we’ve received our gallery, how can we make the most out of SEO and brand awareness online with these new photos. How do we get started with that?

Sara: Yes. So what great time to infuse SEO into your website when you have all new images and you’re so excited to upload them to your website.

Uh, optimizing image file names is surprisingly hard if the image has already been uploaded to your website. Pretty much the only one you can do it on is Squarespace. That lets you change the file name. But on all the other platforms, you actually have to download your image, rename it, and re upload it.

So when you get your brand photos, this is a great time to spend that little extra time and do some renaming of the image file name before you go and you do that big refresh and you change all of the images on the main pages of your site. So confirm that most important keyword. Definitely find a way to work it into an image file name that describes the image.

And if you have time as well, after you’ve uploaded the new images, take a little bit of time and write a description of the image in the alt text or description box as well. That is the best way to use your new images to improve the SEO of your whole website.

Quianna: Amazing. Oh my gosh. So I have another question.

I have a couple more. So when we are searching for keywords, I think we can be so like we can put so much faith into Google and into technology, right? We can chat GPT things. We can shove things into the Google space bar and we can search things on Pinterest. But in your opinion, what are some other ways that we could source keywords, whether we are tapping into past clients, asking our friends, asking our moms, like to describe what we do, like what type of advice would you have for searching for keywords, describing your business maybe without using Google?

Sara: Yeah. So I, I love this idea and what I would recommend if you’re doing it human based only no tools is think about your ideal client. So I love the idea of asking your mom, but if she’s not your ideal client, maybe her words aren’t the right words to use. But if you’ve got a couple favorite clients, if you could ask them, Hey, if you were searching for my services online, where would you go?

And what would you type in? That’s really helpful information because it might not be what you expect, and that’s definitely worth considering and including in your language of your website, that ideal client language. The other place, if, you know, your clients are too busy and won’t answer that question, you can also go source your own reviews.

So take a look at what past clients have said. Did they say something like, Oh, we were searching for a wedding planner who handled all the details and we’re so glad we hired Suzanne, you know? So what language are they using to describe you and the service that you offer? You can sometimes source that from reviews for sure.

You could even if you’re an AI fanatic, I was listening to a podcast myself and the person who was guiding the podcast actually showed an example of taking recent reviews and then asking for themes from those reviews. Are there common words that people are using to describe us? What seems to be our differentiators based on this review copy?

So that can be really helpful too. I probably wouldn’t go to an AI tool and say like, what are some good keyword ideas? ’cause I’ve seen those tools come up with bad ideas. But to, to use it to actually analyze an input that you put in is definitely a great way to source some new ideas for keywords and copy.

Quianna: Incredible. I love that. And I love, I just have to make a little, a little side note and almost like an asterisk to share it. This is the power of the humanness of your business, right? These AI tools and these technologies are so powerful. However, if you’re not out there actually doing the work to develop these reviews, to develop these client experiences, AI is not going to have anything to pull through.

Right? So I love that you brought that to light, that we. We have to continue celebrating the humanness behind our business like all these keywords and all these SEO strategies are vital to being searchable and absolutely impact our business and there’s also a piece of that humanness that just right like that’s what’s going to help make those connections.

So I’m so happy that you mentioned that. So one question I love to ask every guest, Sarah, what key tip would you like to share with entrepreneurs and dreamers? Is there anything that you wish you knew sooner?

Sara: I love this question. And the answer that I thought of right away is that you learn the most from taking action, even if it ends up being a failure or not going the way that you thought it would.

We can become so paralyzed by taking in information, taking in tips, taking in coaching, taking in courses, and we don’t go and do anything with it. I really want to encourage everyone to, you know, get out there and take some action and some things won’t work, but that’s really good information for you. I did a workshop for my audience a few months ago and it was not as successful.

There were not as many signups as I thought there was going to be. And I was like, Oh, the audience actually doesn’t care about this as much as I do, which is great information. And if I hadn’t just put the workshop out there and promoted it. That would not be something that I knew I would be continuing to go on the path of educating myself on that thing because I thought everyone would want me to teach them.

Turns out they don’t. So I can take in that information even though it didn’t go great. It’s still something powerful that I learned so I can pivot in the future and spend my time in better ways. So get out there and try things and make it messy and don’t feel bad when you have a failure. Just kind of do your debrief.

Write out what, what didn’t work, how you think that was, so that you can reference it later.

Quianna: Yes. Incredible. I love that key tip, and I am a huge, huge supporter of taking action, right? I feel like we can listen to these podcasts, we can invest in these mentors and coaches and online courses, and you’re right, it’s like, after a certain point, it’s like, You have to do the work, so we are encouraging you, and I feel like that was a perfect example, Sara, too, of you launching that workshop, and maybe it was the words that you used, right?

So, so that’s the part that I love to dig deeper in where it’s, I always think it’s like, you know, As business owners, we think we know best, right? We’re like, yes, like I know they need this, right? Like I have this tool. I have this framework. I have this strategy that I know they need, but sometimes they don’t realize that yet.

So what are some other ways that we can, I don’t want to say bamboozle or Jedi mind trick anybody, but what are some ways that we can educate them, get them in the door, right? So then we can share what they need. And so I just. I love that you mentioned that and none of these things and none of this would come to light until you take action.

So I love that. So how can we connect with you, Sara? I’m so excited to learn more. Oh my gosh, how can we be your BFF?

Sara: Well, I would love to be everyone’s SEO gal. We do done for you services really specifically for the wedding industry. So if you can hear my voice and you sell to engaged couples, we would love to work with you.

And I have an amazing team of 19 members who all do SEO for our clients. Our wedding industry service is called the SEO fixed. Definitely check that out. If you just want to learn more about SEO or you’re not in the wedding industry, I would definitely welcome you to my SEO lunch and learn. This is a free 30 minute training that I offer every single month.

I usually teach on a different topic every month for about 25 minutes. And then I have open time for SEO Q& A. So if there’s something you’ve been wondering and you’re like, I don’t really want to just ask in a Facebook group, the answer to this question, you can bring it to SEO lunch and learn and I’d be happy to put it on the list to answer.

Quianna: Amazing. Thank you so much. And I do have to highlight, I’m sorry, I like picked up that little thing. I loved that your last name is Dunn! So Sara Dunn and one of your services is done for you. SEO. I just think that is brilliant. Brilliant. That’s so good. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for your time today, Sara!

And I look forward to connecting with you again. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and all your knowledge. And I’m just so excited for you. Thank you for sharing today. Of course. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, wow. I am so impressed with these tips and mindset shifts to help us all be seen and to rank higher on Google.

I’m already flooding with blogging ideas and how I can jump into the back end of my show at website to update the meta data and all of the hidden helpful hacks for SEO. Like this stuff, I feel like can be so overwhelming, but Sarah just broke it down where I’m actually excited to start making these updates.

Sara has a ton of resources to grab to help you get started today. Make sure to check out the show notes for this episode by scrolling down on your podcast player or heading to the blog at kianamarie. com and searching the blog for Sara Dunn for all the links and resources mentioned. Also please do your bestie a favor and follow along with Sara as well at SaraDoesSEO

t’s just Sarah without an H and if you’re just dropping in for this episode, I am so thankful you’re here. You dropped right into an entire branding series helping to prepare you for your next branding session. I also have an entire series for wedding pros called amplify your weddings that has dozens of episodes to help your wedding photography business bloom.

Amplify your wedding series on the podcast kicks off on episode number 25. So you’re going to have to take a scroll way back to those. If you’re anxious for your next wedding season, don’t you worry. I am here to help as your business bestie, small business cheerleader, and Big sister. Keep it realer.

That’s not even a word, but you know what I mean? I’m literally your biggest fan. Please drop into my DMS or grab a screenshot and share a takeaway from this episode by tagging both Sarah and I, we made it our career to help your business thrive in person and online. Can’t wait to continue this branding series with industry leaders, mentors, and my business besties.

Looking forward to connecting with you next week. Hope you have a fabulous day, my love and a super productive week. Keep on dancing, baby. Okay. Love you. Bye. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at QuiannaMariecom/podcast

I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app until next time, keep on dancing.

LEARN MORE FROM SARA DUNN

If you loved this podcast, you’ll LOVE these:

Web Design and Branding with Alex Collier

Six Figure Launch with Felicia Romero

Building Authority With Your Branding Photoshoot