338: Strategically Grow Your Blog with SEO with Anne Zirkle & AnnMarie Christiano

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Building a successful blog takes more than just compelling writing and eye-catching photos. To truly expand your reach and attract consistent traffic, you need to harness the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In this episode, we're joined by Anne Zirkle and AnnMarie Christiano to explore actionable strategies to help you grow your blog with SEO, making it more visible, valuable, and sustainable.

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[00:00:00] Bree: Hey, Thrivers, you know, there are so many times where I am encouraging you guys to share your content again and again and again and again, because how many times do we create something and then only share it one time you put your heart and soul into that real or that YouTube video or that blog post or email for only to be seen by a fraction of your audience.

If that, and maybe only one time. So in the spirit of repurposing, I wanted to share an episode with you again, that is from the archives that I think is just so relevant right now. I think it is very easy for us to feel a little bit burnt out by social media. It can feel like a lot. I'm feeling a little burned out and.

I was going back through the archives to look at past content. And I was like, you know what? This is a really good one that I think we might all need a little bit of a reminder of if social media is draining us. So this is from the archives of episode 181. You don't have to be an influencer to grow your blog with.

Anne and Anne Marie, two bloggers who are friends and neighbors that are now successful business owners with their blog, simply two moms. And we talk about what it's like to run a blogging business with a friend, why they switched to focus on their blog and SEO rather than social media and just how successful they have made it as a result.

So if you're feeling a little tired of social media and want a push to try something else for a little while, Then this is a great episode for you. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to the Thrive Podcast, where we believe creators deserve more, more money, more freedom, and even more love for what they do. I'm Bree p, your coach for content creators. And I know the struggle, the long hours, the endless ideas, the feeling that success is just out of reach, but here's the truth.

You've got what it takes. And this podcast, it's your shortcut to getting there from strategies that actually work to behind the scenes insights. We're unlocking your potential one episode at a time. So if you're ready to turn your creative hustle into a thriving business.

Hey blogging babes today. I am so excited to be talking with Anne and Anne Marie, two friends and neighbors who are now successful business owners with their blog, simply two moms. We're going to be chatting about what it's like to run a blogging business with a partner, why they switched their focus to their blog and SEO rather than social media and how they've grown their income streams.

as a result of doing that. I am so excited to hear from them. So you guys grab your coffee. I've got my maple latte over here and let's get started. Hello ladies. Welcome to the show. Thanks for being here today. Hey there. Thanks so much for having

[00:03:06] Anne: us.

[00:03:06] Bree: Hey there. I am. So excited to dive in and ask you guys all the things about your business.

But before we get started, can you share where our blogging babes can follow you while they're listening?

[00:03:18] Anne: We, we keep it super simple. Everything that you, uh, would ever want to follow us on. It's all simply two moms. So, uh, it's the number two, not the spelled out. So simply two moms. com and then you can find us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Tik TOK, and lately YouTube.

We just just started our YouTube channel.

[00:03:38] Bree: Oh, fun. Awesome. Will you guys hop over to your favorite platform or platforms and give them a follow? Check out their blog. To get started, I would love for you guys to tell everybody about yourselves and your brand, and how did two friends come to have a blog together?

[00:03:55] AnnMarie: So we, um, I moved in across the street from Anne actually 14 years ago. Um, we both have been married for, what are we, 27 years to our spouses. We both have three kids. So we became fast friends when our children were little, and then it just evolved from there. We volunteered together at the schools. We both had side businesses.

Um, Anne had a photography business. I had a small Etsy craft business. And we were really looking for something to fill our time when our kids started getting older. Um, once they started driving, they were in high school, they need you less and less. But we still wanted to be there and be home, um, and flexible with our work schedules and Both had like little tiny blogs just to keep in touch with family, more like before Facebook was a big thing, you know, just to put those pictures out there and, and share with our families.

So we knew a little bit about blogging, loved following blogs, um, recipe blogs and home decor blogs. So we kind of figured we'd give it a shot. Oh my gosh.

[00:05:07] Bree: Yeah. That's kind of the history. That's so fun. So how long have you guys been doing it together then?

[00:05:11] Anne: We bought our URL in 2017 after, gosh, it took us months to just brainstorm going back and forth about ideas for what to call ourselves.

And we bought it in 2017. We didn't want to invest a whole lot of money because what if it didn't work? So we did everything ourselves. We built the site ourselves. We taught ourselves WordPress. And it took us about a year to get to the point, um, where we actually launched the blog. One of the things that was really important to us was that we had at least 10 blog posts.

Total so that when people would come to the blog, they could actually click around and be able to see things. 'cause like we've seen other people and they, Hey, I've got a blog. And you go, and your first article is, Hey, I've got a blog and that's it, , there's nothing else. Um, right. And then you wait for, for weeks and weeks and weeks, and maybe another post comes out.

And by that point people have forgotten about you. So yeah. So June, June, 2018, there's the long. The roundabout way of getting to the official launch date.

[00:06:17] Bree: So what made you two decide to do it together, rather than encouraging each other to revamp or revise your own blogs?

[00:06:24] Anne: I think accountability was a lot of it, at least, yeah.

We wanted something that we could do together, that would be fun to do together. We had looked into starting a local magazine. in our community. Uh, someone had approached us about doing that, and then we found out that it was going to be basically selling advertising for them, and that we really weren't writing much of anything.

And I think that was, Wouldn't you say, Annemarie, that was kind of when we were like, you know what, let's,

[00:06:57] AnnMarie: let's maybe shift. I think that was the, yeah, that was the jumping point for us. We, we weren't quite sure what we were going to do in this next phase of life. And when someone approached Us about this magazine, we thought it was so fun.

And Anne being a photographer, we thought, you know, she could do all the photography. We could both write, I could stage things. And then when we had the meeting with the, um, the company, they were like, yeah, no, you're actually going to be. And you'll hire out all that other work. And we both looked at each other and we're like, well, we're the creative ones.

We like to be creative. So we're like, how can we be creative together and do that? And we knew we worked well. I mean, we were good friends. We knew we worked well together because we, um, shared the presidential role at the PTA on, um, for our middle school when our kids were in middle school. So, um, we thought let's, let's try that.

Yeah, I think it was really somebody else who approached us about working together, you know, and then when that kind of fell through, we were like, well, what else could we do? So,

[00:08:03] Anne: yeah, at that point we were kind of invested in the concept and, you know, having somebody who's your partner is way different, I think, in terms of accountability than having A friend who's doing the same thing beside you, if that makes sense.

So I think if, if we had gone the avenue of us each doing a separate blog, I don't know that we would have necessarily been as successful as, as things have, have become by doing it together. We compliment each other really well. I agree.

[00:08:36] Bree: I love that. And just getting to have somebody to share the responsibility and the load with, right.

Yeah, that there's some, there's just somebody else there to, you know, that truly actually cares about the ideas and what's going on and isn't just a friend that's, you know, friends are great to have as a support system, but there's a little bit different when they're more committed. Right,

[00:08:58] Anne: right. You know, if, if we have a deadline and, and I'm falling short for it or, or vice versa, it's a very different thing because that my falling short is, isn't just affecting me and my blog, it's affecting us.

So

[00:09:14] Bree: I love that. I love that you guys have created this together. So I want to kind of dive into social media and you know how that works for you guys. Because while y'all post on social media, you mentioned while we were getting ready for this call that you used to focus on it a lot, a lot, a lot. And then something shifted for you guys.

So can you tell me about that? And You know, what caused you to kind of make that shift and why you're not stressing as much about your follower count?

[00:09:45] AnnMarie: Sure. I mean, we definitely started this business as a blog, um, and quickly learned that Instagram was really popular at the time when we were starting this.

Um, so we hopped on that and we spent a lot of time creating photos, captions, researching hashtags. And we definitely grew. However, the return on the investment and time just was not paying off for us. We were, we were growing just as well with our blog as we were with social media. Um, and that's not to say that there aren't people out there that do fabulous on social media and make lots of money there, but at the end of the day, it could go away.

And for us, we own our blog. So that was the most important thing to be putting our time and efforts into because it's. It's ours. We own that content. It will always be there. When we spend all that time on one social media post, it's buried within a couple days. If that. Right. Yeah. Hours. Yeah. A couple hours sometimes.

Right? Definitely. But with our blog posts, they're always there. They're always searchable. They're always coming up later on. And, um, we just, you know, we really honed in on our skills with SEO and, and growing our blog and, um, spent less time and started worrying less and less about the numbers because.

They truly are vanity numbers, and you start to feel bad about yourself when you look at that number and you see how many likes you got on it or on a particular post or a comment or didn't get, you know, then you're like, right, like, what did we do wrong with this one? Or why did this one do good? It wasn't even as pretty as this one or, you know, so we just, yeah, we just kind of focus more on the blog, um, and Pinterest, Pinterest is, that's our number one social media, uh, platform.

driving traffic to our blog. Because at the end of the day, we want to drive traffic to our blog. So whether that's coming from social media, or from organic search, or from Pinterest, that's where you should put your time and effort into.

[00:11:59] Bree: So how did you guys get to that mindset? Because especially if you were spending so much time on social media and trying, trying, trying to make it work, you know, what finally happened where you're like, you know what, we just can't keep up with us anymore.

[00:12:13] Anne: We kind of figured out Google analytics, I think is part of it. It took us a little while to get to that point because again, like we we've done it all on our own, just by researching and figuring things out. We sat down and I was just. Clicking around in Google Analytics and realized when you go into acquisition and then you can look at your channels and then you look at where's your traffic coming from.

And we realized that we had less than 1 percent of our traffic and by this point, I mean, we were, I think we had already qualified for Mediavine at this point. Uh, we got lucky with a post that had gone viral. We'd qualified for the Mediavine advertising. So we were getting. Ad revenue, which is, it's way more consistent than, than a sponsored post from Instagram or any other social media.

So. At any rate, we saw that we were getting 1%, actually less than 1 percent of our blog's traffic from Instagram. And we were spending easily three to six hours a day on a post, you know, trying to engage on it and checking in on it and how's it doing now? And oh my gosh, we got the kiss of death. You got the, you know, the message that this post is doing 80 percent better than your other posts.

And, you know, you get that message and you're like, uh,

[00:13:31] Bree: This one's a bomb. Yeah. It's amazing what happens whenever you look at. The data, right? And what's converting and what's, you know, I never will tell anybody to like, stop doing anything or to start doing anything until I'm like, let's evaluate the data first.

Let's look at, you know, what's making you money. Where's that traffic coming from? And for you guys, if you know, it wasn't consistent with brands, and it was consistent with other revenue sources, then The data speaks for itself there. And that's a lot of time. I mean, I imagine like when you guys finally made that decision, and you guys, it sounds like each got, you know, several hours back in your days.

That it was like, Oh, wow, we can, the sky's the limit now.

[00:14:13] Anne: We, we really got way more focused than on, on our content, content planning for the actual blog. And there's still things that we're working on with that. I mean, we're, we, we always talk about, okay, we could do this better. And there's a constant evaluation, uh, in terms of.

Wanting to then roll out the content that we're doing on the blog more consistently on social media. Like have an actual plan on the social media end of things. I think we do really well with planning our content for the blog itself.

[00:14:45] Bree: Yeah, it's always, you know, one thing that, you know, when coaching newer bloggers and everything, it's like starting with, you know, your blog content.

Like that is your main, that's the hub, that's your business and everything else outside of that is a marketing stream. And so having something like a blog or, uh, at least an email list, right. Or YouTube, if that's your thing, but that's the thing is like, we've, I'm sure you guys have too. We've all.

Experienced and seen, you know, friends and friends of friends whose accounts have just disappeared overnight or gotten hacked or something has happened. And I always get so nervous for these bloggers and gals that just invest all of their time into that without building up another platform. I think we're finally starting to get a little bit more savvy with that and realizing, ooh, that can be a little dangerous.

Cause you know, you look at it and you're like, Oh my gosh, if it disappeared on them, like they'd have to go get a job. Like that would be, they'd have to start all over. Exactly.

[00:15:47] Anne: And, and the, I mean, the hours that you invest, I mean, think about all of the time we had a friend, um, a really, uh, a friend, good friend from blogging who lives locally, who she had what, 128, 000 followers and was really, Instagram was her primary source of her income and back in January, she was hacked.

And, uh, it took her a good month. She did end up getting her, her account restored, but with social media, you, you're kind of at the mercy of the owners of the platforms, right? Whereas if something happens to your blog, you should have it backed up. Um, you know, uh, make sure that you are doing a, a consistent backup.

Uh, if you can't remember to do it yourself, make sure that your host has a backup process. And then you can go to your host and say, Oh my gosh, I was hacked and worst case scenario, you just reload. Yup.

[00:16:46] Bree: Reload your site. Reload your site. And you're back. Right? Yeah. I feel like it's similar to with like diversifying your income, right?

That's one conversation I keep having as well is people that go all in on one revenue stream. So whether it's brands or whether it's all in on affiliates. And it's like, That's awesome. Like make all the money you can while you can like go and get it. But if you don't have backups or if something changes, you know, like we all saw a huge downshift because the pandemic, right.

Brands stopped and cut off campaigns. All that has to happen, you know, affiliates, Amazon, all of those other ones, just like. said, no, we're not doing any percentage for commission anymore. and all it would change to is like to know it or any of these other ones being like, yeah, we're gonna bump that down a little bit and not pay you as much.

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Okay. So I want to dive over to and learn from you guys. You know, you talk a lot about, you know, optimizing your blog and SEO and you're able to get on Mediavine, which is like a huge goal for so many of our listeners. So I know that you've gone back in and like optimized blog posts and old blog posts.

So what does that mean? What did you guys do and why is that so important?

[00:19:32] Anne: So the reason why it's important is that you need to look at the word or the term SEO. Search engine optimization and optimization is not a one and done sort of thing. Um, I think so many of us get, uh, stuck in the mentality of you're writing for that green light.

If you're using Yoast as what, once you've gotten that green light, you're like, boom. My post is optimized, right? Done! Publish! And you move on to the next thing. But, things change, and maybe that post isn't getting a lot of traffic beyond, you know, the initial traffic from your email list or your social media marketing.

Got it. Uh, so, that's when optimization really becomes important. And that's when you go back and you start to fix things. And Anne Marie is amazing at fixing our old posts. So take it away.

[00:20:28] AnnMarie: So basically our process is to look at those old posts and, and sometimes we'll start with those top 10 posts. But you know, recently we heard that those top 10 posts are doing really well.

So go look at those old posts that aren't doing well. Look at, I mean, there are some posts you get better every year, every month, even as you write, as you, Take photos. Um, unless you hire that out, but we do pretty much everything on our own. So our photography in the beginning and was a portrait photographer.

So taking pictures of her recipes is very different than taking pictures of three year olds. So, you know, she has improved so much on just the backgrounds and, and how to stage food and the same with home decor and DIY projects, getting all those photos. So go back and If you possibly can, retake those photos, or even your editing of photos.

If you have those raw images, you can go back in and fix the editing, because maybe you didn't edit them as well as they could have been. Make sure all your photos have good titles, good alt text. Those are all little things that you can fix going back in. Google likes a lot of space. So if your font is really small or it's decorative, make sure your font is larger.

Um, it's very clear to read because most of us are reading blogs on our phones. So if you've got that really pretty cursive decorative font on your blog, it looks beautiful on a laptop, but not so much on a phone and people will get frustrated. They won't. Be able to see it. Check your headlines, you know, never change your URL, but are your headlines enticing to people and then go and make new pins, you know, for Pinterest and push that back out there for people to see.

Send it back out to your email. lists. Add, if you're doing like a yearly or a seasonal kind of post, we do a lot of college posts. Add the year in when you update it. You know, these are the new dorm hacks you need for 2023, you know, because people want to see the current information. If I still have a post out there from 2018, I'm not gonna click that one for my child's dorm needs.

You know, or any anything, right? If you're looking for fall decor ideas right now or Christmas ideas, you don't want to see what somebody decorated their home in 2020. You want to see what they're doing now. So, add the year in. I don't know. What else? What else do we do?

[00:23:15] Anne: Um, alt text. I mean, like that's That's, that's really big.

I know when we first got started, if you wanted your pin to have a Pinterest description, we were putting our Pinterest descriptions in alt text, uh, for, uh, field. Uh, that was, that was what people told you to do. That one thing by itself can cause Google to look at you poorly as far as SEO, because you are not being compliant with ADA.

Recommendations. So going back and just fixing the alt text, making sure that it's a clear description of the picture with those keywords, you know, now, um, and, and keywords, that's another thing is that we do. We, we look at the, the keyword that we used to optimize for, but then you also can use your Google search console to really dive into which keywords is Google serving that post based on, if that makes sense.

So if you're looking at a painting, a marble fireplace. What's, what are the terms that people typed in to get to your post? And make sure that you are using all of those terms or as many of them as you can in your post. So you just go back and you rewrite it a little bit. Were they asking a question that maybe you didn't really answer very well in your post?

Because then there's a whole new headline for you. Uh, not, not the whole post headline, but an H2 heading. Ask that question as, as an H2 heading and at, and then answer that question as a part of your post. So now you've got, you, you're helping Google who's already sending people to you.

[00:25:07] Bree: Yeah.

[00:25:08] Anne: And you're then hopefully climbing in the rankings.

[00:25:12] Bree: Yes, which these ladies, you guys know what they're talking about. I mean, you guys have over, what is it now, 80 posts on the first page of Google? It's actually

[00:25:22] Anne: increased to 114. I was just, I know. I was just checking, uh, in advance of the interview and I screenshot it and sent it to Anne Marie and it's showing 114, uh, first posts.

Page first impression, uh, posts out of 578. That is incredible.

[00:25:42] Bree: That is incredible. Congratulations. That's huge. So, okay, question for you on that is how many blog, new blog posts are you guys releasing and how, how often do you guys publish and then how often are you updating an old blog post?

[00:25:58] AnnMarie: Well, we are releasing.

About three to four a week. We would prefer to be doing four to five, but life happens and it's a crazy busy fall right now. And then we, but

[00:26:12] Anne: there's two of us. I mean, three to four a

[00:26:13] AnnMarie: week is massive. There is two of us. So good job. So yeah. Yeah. Still. And one of those is like our Roundup post and our Friday, we do a Friday favorite.

Where we share our favorites and then also let you know what we did during the week, but still yes and then we Update old blog posts. I don't know exactly how many I would say we probably update at least Six a month. Honestly, it's when we're linking back to old blog posts. So that's also really important to do, uh mm-hmm

Yeah. And you're like that what needs to be updated? So when we're writing a blog post, Hey, do you remember my fall porch from last year? And you link it back and I happen to look at it and go, oh, that doesn't look so good. And I, you know, then spend the next couple hours doing that because, you know, everything takes a lot of time.

But I think it's important, so especially if you're gonna link to it. You want your viewers to see the best possible and and it to be optimized so that it's. Being pushed out there again.

[00:27:16] Bree: So with having now, now over a hundred blog post on the first page of Google, what have been some other things? I mean these have all been amazing tips, but is there anything else that you found like we really have had to do this to make sure we can have over a hundred on Google.

[00:27:34] Anne: Um, number one, get out of the mentality or mindset that you are writing for one keyword.

[00:27:41] AnnMarie: That was huge for us. I mean, Anne does a lot of the behind the scenes research on it, and it was hard because I am definitely a look at that green light kind of gal, so You want to have a checklist. When that green light, yeah, I'm like, woohoo, I got it.

But it's not just that keyword, and you don't want to overstuff so that it doesn't sound natural. So if your keyword is, whatever it may be, fall porch, um, you don't want to keep saying fall porch 50 times within an article. So those keywords are going to come up, like Anne had said earlier, with the questions and things when you're looking, doing your keyword research and add those throughout as naturally as possible.

So, and, and we think of things differently. We did, we did a post recently about a backyard barbecue and I call it a barbecue and calls it a cookout. You may call it a pig roast. So you want to use all of those. because when I look something up, I'm going to look it up differently than 10 other

[00:28:49] Bree: people.

Okay. So Ann, will you let us in like just a little bit on like, what does it look like on the back end for you when you start to do research for a blog post and you know, how many, How are you deciding what those keywords are? How many are you? It sounds like maybe you give some of them over to Anne Marie and be like, here, use these ones.

How does that process work?

[00:29:10] Anne: Um, I mean, we, we do our own keyword research for the posts that we write. My big thing is that I think we get stuck in thinking. Let's see, a dessert pizza. So, uh, we, we might think that dessert pizza is the only thing, that's our keyword, that's what we're optimizing for. That post could be found for so many other things.

It might be found for being a fruit tart, it could be found for being a low carb dessert pizza, a low carb fruit tart, a, uh, summer dessert, an easy summer dessert, a keto summer dessert, a, do you see what I'm saying? So, as you're doing those. As you're doing your research, look, uh, this, the thesaurus is your friend.

Okay, um, look to see what are other terms. Ask a friend, hey, what would you, what would you search for? I'm, I want to write a post about fill in the blank. What would you search for if you were looking for that topic? Ask more than one person. Bounce, bounce those ideas off of people. And Google, just to kind of put it into perspective, Uh, we just looked recently, and when I say recently, I looked right before we chatted, on Ubersuggest because they do show your organic keywords that your site is ranking for.

And we have 578 blog posts, but we rank for 93, 799 keywords. Did we research all of those? No. No. But, when you write authentically and organically about a topic, other phrases are just going to come out. And that might be the phrase that someone ends up searching for. I wrote a post about blueberry lemon cheesecake overnight oats.

Guess what the number one thing is that sending people, the number one query for that, it's lemon cheesecake over night oats. They're not even looking at the blueberry. So it's just a matter of kind of getting yourself out of that mindset of I'm only optimizing for one keyword and try to think, think big.

[00:31:29] AnnMarie: And I also think by. I know you do this too and after I write a post, I read it out loud to myself. So I tend to write at night because no one is around then to hear me write out, read out loud, but I read it out loud. So if I If I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot, then I know, you know, because sometimes when you just edit and you're reading it to yourself, you don't hear it.

So if you read it out loud, you can hear yourself saying, you know, fruit pizza, over and over and over again. And you're like, now I gotta, I gotta think of another way to say that. Like nobody wants to hear me say fruit pizza 15 times. So, you just think, you just start to think. That's a good way just to, if you're looking at old posts and you want to optimize, just kind of read them out loud to yourself and, and think, you know, how would this sound to somebody else?

You know, how is it, are you getting across the message you want to get across? So.

[00:32:27] Anne: You can also like type that type in the title of your pizza or what you think your keyword is. And Google's going to give you those people also ask questions. Look at those people also asked questions because those can then really help you put together an outline for what you're going to write about or maybe, you know, maybe that's if you're rewriting or updating a post, throw a few of those people also asked kind of questions into your post.

[00:33:01] Bree: Yeah, that is one of my favorite ways to write blog posts. I did one on Tybee Island when we were traveling years ago, and that was how I wrote that post. I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna see what everybody wants to know about Tybee Island, and I just went in and I answered all the questions in my post and What do you know?

It worked.

[00:33:20] AnnMarie: It,

[00:33:21] Bree: right? Yeah. That was great. And it also helped me with my outline and helped me write this.

[00:33:28] Anne: Absolutely. And I think that's what we, at least for me, I geek out over that kind of stuff. And you can move the needle with these things. On Instagram, who the heck knows which hashtag is going to possibly hit.

It could be the music that you chose. It could be that you're cuter than the other person who did the same, right? I mean, uh, with this. There's actual things that you can do that are going to move the needle and make you get more traffic.

[00:33:58] Bree: And I love that. I, I mean, I love, it's, it's data, right? And it's like, well, if I test this, this is kind of what's proven to work and rather than it being a guessing game.

Well, okay, I can't believe I'm, like, watching the time, but I do have one more question that I want to ask you guys real quick because I know a lot of people, you know, are like, okay, well, if I'm not, you know, focusing on social media completely, you know, how do I make money just from a blog? So I would just love to quickly hear, you know, what income streams are you guys using?

What's working for you guys since you're focusing mainly on your website?

[00:34:32] AnnMarie: Ad revenue is huge for us, um, and when writing a blog post, you know, I, I think the average person gets a little frustrated by the number of ads in a, in a post, but you also have to realize that's how bloggers make money. Um, so we write authentically, we write like we're talking to someone and we.

Like we were talking about before, with the font size, we also space it out, because when you're reading on a small mobile device, you don't want it all crowded together. So we, we are forever putting spaces between every sentence because it is more appealing. Um, more space means more ads. So, you know, it's, it's good for us for money, too.

It's, it's good for our readers to be able to see everything that's on that little screen, but it's also pop, giving us more space for ads. Um, affiliates, affiliates are great with Amazon and, and RewardStyle. Pinterest, we're in the Pinterest creator program. That's been really helpful. Uh, brands for us, you know, we, It's hit or miss.

Um, we were not, we were just kind of getting into our groove of asking brands and you know, the recession hit and the pandemic and brands aren't spending as much as they used to. So yeah. Um, but we'll get back there. I'm sure we will, but definitely. And then we teach also, we, we do teach some blogging at some blogging conferences.

Um, we'd love to expand that. Someday. Um, but yeah, we just, we kind of make money everywhere. So like you said, diversifying. Yeah.

[00:36:21] Bree: Oh, awesome. No, that's amazing. Yes. I am all for diversifying, which it sounds like you two have just really, you know, discovered together that like, Hey, you know, like. We need to just really figure out what sources are going to use and not put all of our eggs in one basket, right?

We're

[00:36:38] Anne: working on e books, you know, writing e books, right? So we actually have one that's going to be, uh, launched, uh, October. Two weeks? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we're, we're trying to get that finished. So

[00:36:55] Bree: for, and for anybody listening, we're batching our podcast super far ahead, so they've got an ebook out. Yeah.

Okay. Exactly. Awesome. That's exciting. Oh my gosh. I love that. Well, this has been such an amazing conversation. I think I could talk to you guys about data and social media and all the things for hours, but I don't want to keep everybody too long. But can you guys just remind everybody where they can go and find you online?

[00:37:20] AnnMarie: Sure. You can find us at simply the number two moms and that's our handle for all of our social media and our blog. Email is simply2moms at gmail, so if you have any questions.

[00:37:33] Bree: Amazing. You guys go give them a follow. Thank you guys both so much for being here. It was so lovely to chat with you and I'm glad you got to do this.

Thank you. Thanks for having us. If this episode helped you, help us grow. Leave a review, share it with a friend, and tag us on social media. We can't wait to cheer you on.

1. Why SEO Matters for Blog Growth

Relying solely on social media for blog traffic is risky. Platforms and algorithms change frequently, and their reach is unpredictable. Your blog, however, is a digital asset you own. With a solid SEO strategy, your content remains searchable and accessible over time, driving consistent organic traffic long after publication.

Prioritizing SEO ensures your blog doesn’t rely on fleeting trends but instead becomes a lasting resource that continually attracts new visitors.

2. Getting Started: Keyword Research and Planning

Effective SEO begins with thorough keyword research. Rather than targeting a single term, expand your reach by identifying related keywords and phrases your audience might search for. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to discover relevant terms with strong search potential.

For example, if you’re writing about home organization, include variations like:

  • Home organization tips
  • Decluttering strategies
  • Easy storage solutions

By naturally weaving these keywords into your content, you increase the chances of ranking for multiple search queries.

✅ SEO Tools and Platforms:

  1. Google Keyword Planner – For discovering relevant keywords and search volume.
  2. Ahrefs – For keyword research, competitor analysis, and tracking SEO performance.
  3. Ubersuggest – For keyword ideas, search volume, and SEO insights.
  4. Google Analytics – To track blog traffic and performance.
  5. Google Search Console – For monitoring and optimizing your blog’s search visibility.

3. Refresh and Optimize Existing Content

SEO isn’t just for new posts—it’s equally important to revisit and update older content. Refreshing outdated articles improves their relevance and helps them rank higher in search results.

To optimize existing content:

  • Rewrite sections with updated information.
  • Add or improve alt text on images with relevant keywords.
  • Use clear, keyword-rich headers (H2, H3) to enhance readability and SEO.
  • Ensure internal and external links are still valid and valuable.

Regularly updating content signals to search engines that your blog is current and trustworthy.

4. Use Analytics to Refine Your SEO Strategy

Tracking performance through Google Analytics and Google Search Console helps you understand which keywords and posts drive the most traffic.

By analyzing this data, you can:

  • Identify high-performing content to replicate its success.
  • Spot low-traffic posts and update them with better keywords or structure.
  • Adjust your content strategy based on actual reader behavior.

Using data to refine your SEO efforts makes your blog more effective over time.

5. Write SEO-Friendly, Reader-Centric Content

Growing your blog with SEO doesn’t mean cramming it with keywords. Instead, focus on creating natural, valuable content that answers your audience’s questions.

Tips for SEO-friendly content:

  • Write conversational, easy-to-read blog posts.
  • Naturally incorporate primary and secondary keywords without forcing them.
  • Use descriptive meta titles and meta descriptions to boost click-through rates.
  • Format posts with short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings for readability.

Quality content that flows smoothly keeps readers engaged while ranking well in search results.

6. Drive Traffic Through External Platforms

While your blog is the core of your content strategy, leveraging external platforms helps amplify your reach.

  • Pinterest: Share blog posts with visually appealing pins to tap into its massive search-driven audience.
  • YouTube or TikTok: Create short-form videos that direct viewers to your blog.
  • Guest posts or collaborations: Write for other blogs or platforms to drive referral traffic back to your site.

Diversifying your traffic sources strengthens your blog’s visibility and growth.

7. Stay Current with SEO Trends

SEO is constantly evolving, so staying informed is key

  • Follow reputable SEO blogs like Moz, Neil Patel, or Search Engine Journal.
  • Attend blogging and SEO webinars or conferences to learn new strategies.
  • Regularly review Google’s algorithm updates to keep your tactics aligned with best practices.

By staying ahead of the curve, you’ll keep your blog optimized and competitive.

Grow Your Blog with SEO for Lasting Impact

Strategically using SEO is one of the most effective ways to grow your blog’s audience and influence. By prioritizing content ownership, conducting thorough keyword research, and continually optimizing and expanding your content, your blog will become a reliable source of organic traffic.

Remember, SEO is a long-term investment, but with consistency and adaptability, your blog can thrive and reach new heights.

Resources Mentioned

More about Anne and AnnMarie:

Anne Zirkle and AnnMarie Christiano work together to share simple and budget-friendly ideas for decorating, recipes, DIY projects, and tips for life with older teens (and beyond!).

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