SEO Client Success Story: Leadership Coach, Michelle Pollack
“I haven’t had a whole lot of people randomly find me on the internet up to this point. But now, this is really a possibility.”
Entering the world of SEO can be a shock to the system—especially if your journey begins by realizing your website is ranking for… what?! 👀
You met Michelle in the recent case study mashup episode, but there was so much more to share with you! So today, you’re getting the FULL conversation with Executive Leadership Coach, Michelle Pollack.
And I’ve even added in a very special mini masterclass you’re not going to want to miss!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
What was so shocking Michelle bumped SEO up on the priority list
How Michelle’s blog posts were actually hurting her business
What’s been the most surprising to Michelle about SEO
A mini lesson about image SEO optimization
Insight for anyone who’s a beginner with SEO
“I’m motivated, curious, & super excited to continue SEO with Brittany!”
Maybe SEO hasn’t felt like a priority or even a must-have…
But if we learned nothing else today—it’s that it absolutely should be bumped up on the to do list!
Mentioned Resources:
5-min Mini Website Audit (Tutorial 📹)
SEO Data Dashboard (use code BRITT20 for 20% off)
SEO & Grow 🌱 (group coaching program)
Image Optimization Workshop (on 12/11 @ 2pm ET)
Related Episodes:
Group Case Study Mashup Episode
Connect w/ Michelle:
Connect w/ Brittany:
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Brittany Herzberg:
Hello and welcome to the Basic Bee Podcast. I'm your host and favorite SEO coach, Brittany Herzberg, and I have returned with yet another full case study interview from that mashup episode that went live recently. You also will have hopefully heard Cecily's full interview and if you didn't, I will link that below. Today we have Michelle. She is a blast. And the story of how she ended up saying yes to SEO and Grow is ridiculous. Just utterly ridiculous. It goes to show just how important your SEO is. You'll learn what shocking discovery led Michelle to join SEO and Grow, how her experience in the program and with me compares to another SEO experience she's had. What it's like to have even more support from her VA on this SEO journey and what she's up to next. There's like a lot in here, even a surprise bonus lesson, because I just can't help myself. Alright, so take us with you. Wherever you're going. The grocery store, to the kitchen, to cook dinner, out on a walk. We're down for whatever. And let us know what moments stood out to you in this conversation. So let's start with your name and who you help and how you help people.
Michelle Pollock:
My name is Michelle Pollock. I am an executive leadership coach and I work both inside organizations with leaders and up and coming leaders, and also with teams in leadership training. And then I also work one on one with high achieving women to help them really create a life and career that feels as good as it looks on paper.
Brittany Herzberg:
Yeah, I loved learning about your business and I especially loved seeing the copy that you wrote for your website because it just had so much spunk and personality behind it. It was really cool to see that. Just like really hear your voice coming out.
Michelle Pollock:
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Brittany Herzberg:
Yeah, you're welcome. Okay, so I'm very curious. What made you go, okay, now is the time that I need to focus on se. And I'm laughing because we both know the story.
Michelle Pollock:
So you and I had connected quite some time ago and then you DM'd me on Instagram and you were checking in and I was like, yeah, SEO's on my radar, but it doesn't feel like it's something that's like urgent. There's a lot of other things on the list that come before SEO and you're like, cool, cool. Then you started sending emails that were just your regular emails for SEO and Grow and brilliantly sent me a personal email telling me how I was showing up for you when you googled my name and there was something about tennis. And there was something about obituaries, and nothing about coaching or leadership or women or confidence or any of the things that I actually talk to my clients about anywhere. And it is because I have a blog about life lessons from the tennis court. And I also have something about legacy that connects to your obituary. But, like, what? Those are the things that people are finding when they search for me. This is no bueno. So I then responded to your email and said, okay, fine, I'll get on a call. Because I was like, this is clearly not good. So we got on a call, and I don't even remember what you said, but I pretty much was in because I was like, obituary and tennis are a problem.
Brittany Herzberg:
I totally understand with the blog and everything, but like you said, it's not really getting the right people in the door at all.
Michelle Pollock:
No. And even, like, clearly the way I'm titling my blogs is not effective. And so nothing I'm doing online in my online presence is attracting the right people or having the right people find me. And so it just became very clear to me that this actually needed to go to the top of the list.
Brittany Herzberg:
Yeah, definitely, you responding like that. I was like, oh, wow, this really is powerful. So that actually has helped me to even be more clear with other people that I've talked with. And it's interesting what people show up for, I'm sure, to say the least. So once we got in the program, what were some of the ahas or breakthroughs or just things that you were proud of or struck by once you were in there?
Michelle Pollock:
Well, I think one of the things I've known that I needed to do some major copy updates on my website for a long time. I loved the copy I had. But it's so bizarre how it was maybe four years old. That doesn't seem that long, but my business has grown up in four years, you know, and so it wasn't wrong. It just wasn't exactly going to attract the exact kind of client that I was looking for. So knowing that I was doing that with your guidance of keywords and SEO and, I mean, rewind, I learned so much. The whole picture thing, I mean, to understand how important it is and all the different places that your photo goes online and how it can either help you and really support you in having people find you in so many different ways or not. Like, there were just so many small little things that it's like, oh, these small tweaks individually make a difference and then add up to really make a really big difference.
Brittany Herzberg:
This is where I want to dig in a little bit more to this whole image optimization thing. What we're actually talking about is having your images, your headshots, lifestyle images that you get at a branding, shooting, product images, even graphics that you make in Canva, using SEO to give these images a job, a job where they go market your business for you. I do not see as many SEO pros talking about this as I would like to, which might be why people are always asking me to share more about this topic. Hence your teeny tiny mini masterclass. Because yes, even you can have images help make you more findable. It doesn't matter the industry, whether you're brick and mortar or online or if you're a service provider versus a product based business. And I have two perfect examples. One, One of the very first things I did with my website was to retitle images throughout my site. And this isn't just, oh, I'll rename the file on my website. No, there's a whole specific order you need to do this in. And that's part of why it can feel like a big overwhelming task for people to do. I digress. I retitled images, headshots, canva graphics, all the things I mentioned earlier. And within just a few weeks I was dominating the image search tab for one keyword phrase. @ the time I was offering copywriting services to healthcare providers. So the keyword was something like health and wellness copywriter, let's say. When I say dominating, I mean my photos were taking over the top two to three rows of the images on that image's search results tab. And yes, people do go to that tab. The last time I checked out statistics on it, it was the number two most visited tab. So people will go to that main search results page. They've got blogs, websites, all the things there, but the place they go after that is the images tab. So that's one story. But just last week I had a product based or E commerce business owner reach out to me with her own success story. Goja took time to painstakingly retitle her images and now again, just a few weeks later, she's showing up in the top row. She has a podcast, physical products. She makes tarot card decks which are gorgeous and I think I'm probably missing something, but she sent me the screenshot and the message reads seriously, thank you for this tip with the pictures. I would never have thought about it. And again, we're talking about taking images that you've had taken that you've purchased, even from something like styled stock society or or graphics that you've made in Canva, opening them on your computer, renaming them from something like ING9348 to something that robots can actually make sense of, like Britney dash Herzberg/SEO- Strategist. This can be hugely beneficial, as you can see, not just for the obvious businesses like photographers or homemade soap sellers, but even for service providers like copywriters, massage therapists, coaches, website designers, astrologers, herbalists, doulas. You get the idea. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It takes time to optimize images properly following the three step process. But the payoff is everything. You're showing up right when and where someone is searching for you. You're taking advantage of yet another opportunity where you can land a client or sell a product or fill a program. You'll hear Michelle talk about this a bit later, but the part where we get stuck is where we stop. Especially with SEO and. And I refuse to let that happen to you. You've been the Internet's best kept secret. Enough already. So in December, I'll be hosting a live workshop where we'll be taking action on optimizing your images. There will be a little bit of a lesson if you will, and then we'll go through some examples of the process using your images. For anyone who's live on the call, you will get a replay if you can't make it live. I've been asked to host a workshop like this for years and this is the first time I'm actually doing anything about it. And honestly, I have no clue if or when I'll ever do this again. So if you're even a little bit interested, I would get in here. Especially since your ticket is only $37 and if you've already grabbed like the podcast SEO resource, I will be sending out a message where you will get a special deal to join us. I'll have the link below with all of the info, the date and time for the workshop, when this offer expires, all of that. And if you have any questions, DM me on Instagram or send a message through my website or. Now let's get back to the conversation.
Michelle Pollock:
With Michelle we've just started tracking, so I don't exactly know what that difference has made yet. And I'm also not done with everything I need to do. But.
Brittany Herzberg:
But she's also not behind.
Michelle Pollock:
I'm also not behind because Brittany always tells me I'm not behind. I mean, first of all, it was easier than I thought. It was gonna be. It was way less like I imagined it to be so overwhelming. And I think that something about you, which is that like, you speak in normal people speak, not in tech speak. I have been in an SEO workshop before and my eyes glazed over.
Brittany Herzberg:
That's the worst.
Michelle Pollock:
Like, I was like, oh my God, I feel like my head's going to spin off. And I never felt that way with you. Or if I did, I knew that I could reach out and like, I didn't have to stay in that overwhelmed space because you would simplify it or clarify it or make it easier for me. And so now, truthfully, it is a lot of information. And I feel like now that I've implemented in many ways, not all of them. Once I'm fully implemented, I kind of want to go back to the beginning to watch again. Because you only absorb 25% of the information when you first learn something. Did you know that little fact? So I just feel like if I can go back and now look at it through the lens of having done it once and look at what I've done, I'm just excited about what's possible. From all of it, from the photos to the headlines, even, like the things on my website, there's just so many little tricks that even if your website isn't fully SEO ified, can still make a big difference. Like you can choose to go all in or you can choose like, I'm going to take this one thing at a time and I'm just going to start with this and all of it will make a difference.
Brittany Herzberg:
Yeah.
Michelle Pollock:
And I think that was the biggest thing to realize. All these places that I had missed opportunities to attract my right and ready client.
Brittany Herzberg:
And that's all it is. You didn't do anything wrong. The other website providers didn't do anything wrong because I'm sure they weren't even talking about SEO. And if they were, then, yes, they were doing something wrong with advertising. But it's just all these tiny little tweaks. Just like what you're saying and I love hearing because the calls that we had were pretty jam packed between the Q and A. Yeah, they were. And the hot seats. So to hear that your eyes didn't glaze over and that it sounds like you felt I'm putting words in your mouth. Motivated, inspired.
Michelle Pollock:
I did, I would say actually motivated and curious. Like, I'm super curious and excited to continue with you. To see it's the whole. I have a business coach who always says data over drama. And this to me really allows for that. Because I remember when I first had my website up and running and like connected Google Analytics, but I didn't really know what I was doing. And I was looking at the bounce rate with somebody who was in marketing and she was like, yeah, that's not a great bounce rate. But I didn't know what to do to fix it or to help. And it's probably because people were looking for tennis and obituaries, not leadership coaching when they came to my freaking site.
Brittany Herzberg:
You know, tiny little detail, right?
Michelle Pollock:
But now I feel like, okay, now I understand what that means. My bounce rate is down significantly. So I can say that that's the only thing I really understand yet. But as I now like, we've set up a tracking dashboard and now I will be able to actually look at the information and then we get to tweak along the way so that my website is actually doing what it's meant to do, not just so that people I know can like look at my website and go, oh, that's so pretty great. That does me a lot of good. I want other people. You know, I haven't had a whole lot of people randomly find me on the Internet up to this point, a couple here and there. But now I'm like, this is really a possibility. And I know because my branding is good and because, you know, my voice is in there, the person that's right for me will be more inclined because they'll be looking for me and you'll.
Brittany Herzberg:
Be there for them.
Michelle Pollock:
Exactly.
Brittany Herzberg:
You will actually be showing up there instead of in some random tennis and obituary searches.
Michelle Pollock:
It will never get old. That will never get old. I'm sorry to everybody listening, but it's just the funniest thing. And it truly was so eye opening for me. And then along the way, all the little pieces that you gave us were just another eye opening moment. The motivated part that I think is really interesting is one around the copy. Like, I got motivated to update my website copy. I also feel motivated to blog now and I'm just starting that portion, but I feel motivated to do that because I understand why it's important and what it will do for me as opposed to just, oh, I have a website and I'm a coach, so I should have a blog. And it was like, meh, you know, now it's like, oh, there's a strategy here and there's a reason behind it and we get to track the strategy and, and see what works. And so it makes me feel like I'm running my business from a Much smarter strategic place than from just like, this is why you put a website up and you write a blog, you know?
Brittany Herzberg:
Yeah, I love hearing that you're bringing up some points that others have brought up too, which is really good to hear. But you also mentioned something that people haven't talked about yet, which is you have support. You have an assistant. So what was it like for you and Jane?
Michelle Pollock:
Jane is my amazing assistant.
Brittany Herzberg:
We love Jane. I adore her. So what was it like to have that support and to actually have, like a team member who was there with you and kind of absorbing it and doing some of the doing?
Michelle Pollock:
It's awesome. Well, first of all, this is kind of Jane's sweet spot. Like, she's into tech. I mean, she's amazing at so many things, but I think it was exciting for her also. She was excited for the opportunity to learn more about this. And there are rabbit holes with SEO that I could have gone down and spent hours on things. But because I delegated specifically keyword research. But because I delegated to Jane, she sent me her first list. And it was great because some of the things on the first list, I was like, these are too coach speaky. Like, these are things that we talk about once people are in my program, but they're not gonna be searching for that. So she went back and revamped, and then we sent to you and you helped us revamp. And like, that part, which I think to me was like the most in my mind was so stressful, partially because of the SEO workshop I had done once before was so easy breezy. I mean, I watched it, so I knew what was going on. I wanted to have the information. It was amazing. She's watched all of the calls, so that also, if I'm like, oh, I'm not sure if this is working in the right way, or can you look on this? She knows exactly what's going on. So. And really, like, we're setting this up, this is going to be like, I'm not going to track my SEO data by myself. I'm not going to. She's going to look at it and interpret it, and then we'll get on a call. Because again, that's the kind of thing that would overwhelm me. The data stuff makes my head want to explode. It's just not how my brain works. So to have somebody who's supporting me who actually enjoys digging into it, and then to have you to say, okay, here's what's working well, and here's where we might need to Pivot or tweak a little bit. It makes me excited for 2026. I feel like this was a great thing to do in the latter half of this year, because I feel like now we're digging into it and I'll really get to reap the rewards in 2026.
Brittany Herzberg:
Yeah. Everything you're saying is exactly what I want business owners to be able to experience. You're bringing SEO in house. You have support. Yes. I'm still on for training wheels, but, like, you will be able to ride this bike solo coming up pretty soon. Like, I'm so pumped for you, and I'm excited to hear that you're excited, because who talks about SEO like that? I know.
Michelle Pollock:
It's so weird, but, like, the thing for me, that worked really well about your program because I know myself and I think, honestly, as a coach, people need life support to implement, whether it's a tech training or an inner critic training. Like, it's. Whatever it is. You can listen to all the things, but what happens to all of us is then when we get stuck, we get stopped. And if it's something that overwhelms you and then you give up. And so your ability, first off, to break it down, you just have a delightful way about you. You just have, like. You're just.
Brittany Herzberg:
You. You do.
Michelle Pollock:
There's just, like, a levity and a joy that you bring to the whole process that is delightful to be around.
Brittany Herzberg:
A, thank you.
Michelle Pollock:
B, also to know, like, whatever I run up against, Brit's got my back. You know, Brittany is gonna, like, if I feel like my head's gonna pop off, she is gonna tell me to take a deep breath, and she's gonna look into it. I mean. Cause that's actually what happens.
Brittany Herzberg:
That's.
Michelle Pollock:
I knew that the level of support I was getting was actually true support to get me where I wanted to go. I never questioned that along the way. I never was concerned. Once we got into it, I didn't really know you, but once we got into it, it was so obvious that you were invested in us getting the results that we wanted to get by being a part of your program. I'm saying this, it sounds obvious because that's the kind of person you are. But. But that's not how it always works with people.
Brittany Herzberg:
No, it's not.
Michelle Pollock:
And I have paid a lot more money for other things and not gotten anywhere close to that kind of support. So it's hard because we're in an age where there's so many people and it's easy to get burned. You know, you give your money to somebody and it's easy for them to claim they're gonna do all these things, and then they don't follow through. But you truly. You walk your talk, or talk your walk, you walk your talk.
Brittany Herzberg:
I do the things at the same time. I don't know. It doesn't happen very often, but as far as, like, the two tasks happening, But I really appreciate that. And it does suck, and it breaks my heart. And I've said this on even the group calls where you hire a copywriter, website designer, an SEO person, and you're being told this, that, and the other thing is gonna happen, and it doesn't, and it sucks, and it does. It just really hurts. And it makes you almost, like, doubt yourself, right?
Michelle Pollock:
Because you question your instincts about, like, your choice. Now, that's a whole other conversation.
Brittany Herzberg:
It's a whole other.
Michelle Pollock:
Because, I mean, I can tell you some of the times I have purchased out of a place that is not an empowering place. Like, it speaks to the fear in you, and I am so susceptible of that. Not anymore. I've been. But, like, just so you know, I am very, very, very intentional about how I buy now.
Brittany Herzberg:
Oh, yeah. I could tell even when we were on the quick call. Like, I don't want someone to be in just because they want to be in. I want them to be in because they want to do this stuff and because they feel good about it. I don't ever want to be the fear salesy person where it's like, come on, it's the last chance. Oh, my God, everything's gonna go.
Michelle Pollock:
Yeah. So I feel like it was worth every penny. I'm so glad that I did it. Like, it would have been worth every penny, to be honest with you, if I just got my website copy rewritten because I was able to do it myself, to take some of what I had from before and work with it and bring it into my current voice. I built an entirely new page and also to do that with your support. And you are a secret copywriter as well. So to know that if, like, I just knew that if you didn't think the copy was working, you would maybe slip me a little note to say, hey, you know, you might want to look at this again. But that, honestly, like, was worth the price of admission alone to get that done and have your expert eyes on it for both SEO and effectiveness.
Brittany Herzberg:
Oh, I'm so excited for you. Well, you're going to have to keep me updated. I mean, you'll be in my world and we'll be around and I'm sure I'll be in your DMs being like, hey Michelle, how's it going? Good. I can't wait. I can't either. Thank you so much.
Michelle Pollock:
My pleasure.
Brittany Herzberg:
Highly recommend checking to see what keywords your website is ranking for, especially after that conversation. I'll link the tutorial for you below and it only takes about like five minutes or so. If you notice you've got some crazy keywords that you're showing up for, like obituary or tennis or how to win your husband back after a separation or crackers with chicken salad. When you're actually offering coaching services, that's an obvious indicator that it's time to get SEO on your side so you can start generating leads and sales in your sleep. Your first step could look like grabbing the SEO Basics course or booking your done for you SEO service, or joining SEO and Grow or even coming to the Image Optimization Workshop in December. You've got options and if you're not sure which is the best starting point for you, find me and I will point you in the right direction. Thank you so much again for joining us for this conversation. Thank you. And as always, I'm over here cheering you on on your SEO journey.
