Blogging with SEO for Visibility & Growth w/ Dolly DeLong
Blogging is an unsung hero of SEO—when done correctly!
Blogs done with SEO increase your visibility, help grow your business, and bring the right clients in the door—IF you do it strategically! Dolly DeLong knows all too well the intricacies of blogging and SEO. She joins me today to share her journey with SEO, blogging, & keyword research. Dolly has even been through my blogging email course—twice! Be sure to stick around as she shares her aha moments & favorite resources from the training! (You’re gonna want your notebook for this one, friend.)
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
Why Dolly decided to learn more about SEO
Dolly’s journey with SEO and blogging
What SEO marketing has done to grow Dolly’s businesses
The first steps Dolly took to implement SEO for her website
The mistake Dolly and Brittany both made with their H1 headlines
What Dolly sees as the importance of SEO for business owners
What Dolly had in place before implementing SEO
SEO trainings and courses Dolly has loved
What Dolly recommends for solopreneurs who don’t have the budget to hire out SEO
Dolly’s blogging workflow now that she’s a mom of 2
What photographers need to do to SEO-optimize their more visual blogs
How to write blogs that people are searching for—guaranteed
How to tie together the client journey & keyword research
Lightbulb moments Dolly had during the blogging email course
Dolly’s favorite resource from the How to Blog w/ SEO course
Dolly’s SEO-friendly blogging and podcast workflow
How to simplify keyword research
Meet: Dolly
After learning the ins and outs of running her own service-based business in 2020, Dolly pivoted into education and began to share her knowledge with other creative entrepreneurs as a Systems and Workflow Educator. She loves serving the small (female) business owner who is running the show on her own and who not only loves working, but loves God & her family as well! So, whether you’re here to learn more about organizing the backend of your small business—or you are in desperate need of an integrator, I’d like you to meet: Dolly!
Mentioned Resources:
SEO Private Podcast (disappears Aug 31st)
SEO Bundle (get it from Aug 19-24 for $97)
Connect w/ Dolly:
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
Welcome back to the Basic B podcast, I am here with my friend Dolly DeLong. And we're going to do kind of a case study interview because Dolly has gone through my how to blog with SEO email course. So I get to pick her brain as a student who has gone through that. And dolly and I have gone through a lot together, I feel like I want to say it was like 2021 that we met. And I'm sure it was through a mutual friend. But I don't even remember at this point. But we've been able to collaborate a ton. So Dolly has had bundles Dolly has a podcast I've been able to go on. And now finally I get to have Dolly on my show. So there has been so much fun overlap and collaboration. And I'm just so excited to be able to talk with her.
So before I bring her on, let me properly introduce you to Dolly. After learning the ins and outs of running her own service based business in 2020, Dolly pivoted into education and began to share her knowledge with other creative entrepreneurs, as a systems and workflow educator. She loves serving the small female business owner who is running the show on her own, and who not only loves working but loves God and her family as well. So whether you're here to learn more about organizing the back end of your small business, or you're in desperate need of an integrator, I would like you to meet Dolly. Hey, friend. ,
Dolly DeLong 2:16
Hey, Brittany, thanks for having me.
Brittany Herzberg 2:18
Of course, thanks for being here. I'm so excited that you actually get to be on this side of the podcast, you were just saying that you're an avid listener, which I so appreciate.
Dolly DeLong 2:26
I am it's true. I was sharing with Brittany earlier that whenever I have a chance to walk and it's in my queue, I will listen to your podcast because I love learning about SEO and case studies and you present it in a very real and relatable way. So thank you,
Brittany Herzberg 2:44
thank you for saying that. That makes my heart really happy. Because it's all I want to do in this role. It's just like, can I please make this thing easier for business owners?
Dolly DeLong 2:51
You do! You do!
Brittany Herzberg 2:53
Well, thank you. Well, on that note, I actually have a surprise question for you related to that i No. Surprise, it's an easy one. And there's no right answer. So the question is, what do you believe is the most important for sales, SEO storytelling or social proof?
Dolly DeLong 3:11
Oh, my goodness. Okay. I'm gonna say all of the above. But I will also definitely highlight and put a lot of emphasis on the testimonials side. I'm an avid podcast listener, like, this is how I learn. And I was listening to another podcast a couple of months ago, it was by what story brand, the marketing made simple podcast. And on that podcast, they were talking about how testimonials and client case studies are the bigger selling points for a lot of business owners, and they were encouraging their listeners to like really create a system for that for themselves. And so that really stuck to me. But then I also, I'm a firm believer also in being found organically and not depending upon ads. So that's why
Brittany Herzberg 4:08
Yes to all of the above. Yeah, I mean, obviously, we know I like that, um, there was even one episode where I shared that my answer is basically all of them. And that's why I do case studies, because they so beautifully wrap it up, and one cute little bundle. So that's really cool. What you just mentioned, touched on the systems or two you're really good at, and then the case studies, which is something that I love talking about, yes. Alright, let's get into it, shall we? So when did you first start learning about SEO? I don't think I've ever asked you that.
Dolly DeLong 4:37
So I have two sides to my business. So one side is I'm a family photographer. And another side is systems and workflow educator. And so years ago, when I started my photography, business, that's when I started, you know, like new business owners. I don't know if you've ever heard this phrase, but like when you start learning about things, you just feel like you're drinking out of a firehose. Like all of this information, and I was in the phase of learning as much as I can about growing my own photography business, and one of those things was learning about SEO. Of course, I had no idea what SEO is, I will say this was around 2018 2018. That's when I started learning about SEO.
And, of course, it scared me because it sounded so technical. And I thought, I'm not a computer person. I just like, say, to follow these, like excuses, like, I thought it had something to do with coding. And I feel really dumb for admitting that. But I was like, Oh, I don't do that stuff. My husband does that stuff. But when I started learning about SEO, I was like, oh, wait a minute, like, the people I was learning it from, they were making it very straightforward and chewable, which I appreciate.
And so yeah, I just started learning it because I wanted my photography business to be found organically, and I didn't want to lean on Facebook ads, or Instagram ads. So I just started applying SEO to my photography side of my business. And when I started doing that, I actually started building a lot of traction within six to eight months. And I was starting to be found organically.
Brittany Herzberg 6:22
That's amazing. And I don't think that's wild or crazy at all, for you to think that SEO involves coding because
Dolly DeLong 6:28
I was like coding, I don't want to do like this sounds way too techie.
Brittany Herzberg 6:32
I'm glad you brought that up, because so many people feel like that. And even I felt like that when I first heard the phrase, I was like, What is this? And why is everyone making it seem so complicated? And so costly to do? I don't believe that it has to be this way. And it doesn't. So I would love for you to tell us, you know, what first steps did you take, especially with a photography business, to actually implement SEO,
Dolly DeLong 6:55
I would say I focused on my websites, and making sure to optimize my website to be very SEO friendly. So I use I know that there are tons of different website platforms. So if somebody's listening to this, do your research, see what's the best fit for you. But first and foremost, one side of my business is photography. So it's very visual based. And so I wanted to work with a very visual based website hosting platform. And so I you show it, and so show it I knew there were several educators who educated specifically on SEO.
And so I decided to learn from them. I will give her a shout out. It's Sarah. Oh, my goodness. Like of course, I'm like totally blanking on her last name. But Sarah is their first name. She lives in New York. She used to be a dancer. And now she teaches show it to other people. And she does web design anyways, she's amazing. I loved her. Sarah, we love you. We love you so much. So she simplified SEO and show it so much for me. And I took her course, I think it was like SEO for showed or I'm butchering everything, but I'll be sure to send you all the correct links. So yeah, I took that course. And it's just simplified SEO for my website.
And it helped me optimize everything because I didn't realize like, you had to title every page and you had to put a description on every single page, like a meta description, and you had to correctly alt text, all the images, and you had to only have one header per page, like because I was the person who I loved certain scripts and fonts. So which happened to be the h1 header, and I didn't associate that.
So I put h1 headers for everything, because I was like, Oh, this is pretty This looks good. And then when I started learning about SEO and implementing it, I was like, You are an idiot. You're such an idiot. No wonder nobody's fighting your website. And then she also very succinctly described how to integrate my website with Google Analytics, like called GA-4 whatever, and Google Search Console, so she was able to help me understand, like the importance of utilizing Google Search Console, and I don't understand why other people don't utilize SEO, like, especially photographers, it just blows my mind. I'm like, you all are sitting on a goldmine with your work and you're not utilizing SEO it just blows my mind.
Brittany Herzberg 9:47
I can understand both I can understand where it's like, come on. You got to do this. It's I call it extra credit for business owners. Yeah. And because I've been in both seats, I understand the position of this sounds complicated and costly. and there's no way it's for me. Yeah. Like, what would you want to stress to photographers, especially about the importance of using SEO?
Dolly DeLong 10:08
I would say, okay, like several things come to mind, it does not have to be costly. Don't assume that you have to hire it out to be found, you can do it on your own, especially if you are bootstrapping a lot of your business in the beginning years, which I was. And I did not have the overhead to, like, hire out an SEO expert. Plus, I didn't really know my business, that Well, I didn't know who exactly it was serving, I was kind of like throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Again, this is my opinion, I think it's really wise to know your business really well over time, who you serve your services. And that way that hones in on those key terms that then you can use for your SEO and your content. Because if I hit the ground running early on with an SEO expert, on day one, I would have been like, yeah, just put all the terms down for me. And I would have been attracting the wrong type of persons. But now I am attracting my ideal client because I know my services I've honed in my business. That was a lot. I realized that was like a very long winded answer. No, it was perfect.
Another part is Don't overcomplicate it, because you can just take one step at a time and implement one thing at a time. And it all builds on top of each other. And I say that, to encourage any listeners who might be balancing, let's say, you're running your business. And then you're also married, and you are a mother, or a caregiver, you have limited time, I was in the thick of being like a new mom, I have two littles now, but it was my first time being a mom. And I had just decided I'm also going to conquer SEO. And so the fact that my brain was able to handle that, I'm like, if I can do it in the middle of like, postpartum, anybody can do SEO.
Brittany Herzberg 12:19
That is so true. I know. Because I've seen you listening to the show may know that my background is in massage therapy. I worked on a lot of moms before pregnancy during pregnancy after pregnancy. Mom Brain is real. So everyone listening, please give yourself some grace. Like, I can't believe you took that.
Dolly DeLong 12:36
I can't believe it either. I am Rebecca, like, what? How did I do things? Yeah, because now that I have two kids, I mean, my brain capacity is less. I'm like, the other day I put like a milk carton in the garbage can and it should have gone in the fridge. And I'm like, what, where's my brain? And it's just like, I can't believe I had the mental capacity to work on SEO.
And it was fine, because I had the guidance of a trusted experts in the form of a mini course. And so I just want to like highlight that and encourage other business owners like if you're worried, well, I can't afford an expert one on one. Why don't you look for an expert who has a course and that you can like take it slowly over time and implement it on your own terms.
Brittany Herzberg 13:25
Yeah, for sure. And I want to make the point to that you took that course with Sarah in New York City who are going to figure out who she is. Sure we have a link.
Dolly DeLong 13:35
It's just, it's the last name that's a blunder for me.
Brittany Herzberg 13:38
I know, we'll find it. You didn't just stop there that was in like 2018 2018 ish, right? And then you continued on really you're learning because eventually you ended up taking the blogging and SEO course with me. But were there any other steps between Sarah and the blogging with SEO?
Dolly DeLong 13:55
Honestly, no. Like I implemented everything. I focused heavily on optimizing my website, because I just wanted to be found organically. And then after that, I knew that the content I needed to create to bring in clients needed to be optimized as well. And so that's kind of where you came into.
Brittany Herzberg 14:20
I was happy to show up. So you've talked about the importance of SEO? Like how has that looked for you to actually put it into your workflows? Specifically, let's think through with blogs, has that been cumbersome? Or what's your experience been? Like?
Dolly DeLong 14:33
I will say it's more cumbersome now, because I have very limited time with kids. And I don't want to make that sound like negative like kids are awesome. I just am trying to find a new workflow for myself with blogging, but I will say I blogged at least one maybe two times a week very consistently from 2018 to 2020 2020. We have so much time more time on our hands. So I was blogging a lot.
So I am actually getting the fruits of my labor from my 2020 blogs now, but of course have to go back and optimises blogs because like, I was guessing my way through a lot of it. But I did lay a good foundation. And now that I'm seeing the fruits of my labor from over four years ago, I am just like, Okay, I least now need to create a system of once a month blogging, and that's what I do, because that it's just more realistic for me to blog once a month. And that has been very beneficial for me. Yeah,
Brittany Herzberg 15:38
that's a really good point, though, to have some kind of foundation. And this is something I like to talk with people about two points. One is that even if you're putting out content, and it's not optimized, you get to go back and optimize it if you choose to. Yeah, and as long as you're being really thoughtful about what you're talking about, and who you're speaking to, there's going to be naturally keywords seated in there anyway. But then also, like you were saying, with one blog a month seems doable for you. That's great do that. And something I talk to people about, in addition to that is if me telling you that a 500 word blog is enough, if that gives you the bricks leave your shoulders, and you can take a deep breath. Great do that, if that's gonna get you to put content out there. Yeah, I love that,
Dolly DeLong 16:23
especially for photographers who are maybe listening in, like, a lot of your blog is your visual contents. So that also took a lot of the pressure off of my chest. Because, again, I make those excuses for myself. Like with SEO, I was like, Well, I'm not like a computer person. And I and then I realized, well, this has nothing to do with like coding or anything. And then when I started getting into blogging, I would make excuses, well, I'm not a writer, I'm not a copywriter. I don't know how to write. And so that was kind of a pain point for me.
But I've had to like rewire a lot of my thought processes around blogging, because I loved how in your course, you did encourage us to write content that our client is looking for, like they're looking for a specific type of answer. So that kind of made it like easier for me to conceptualize, oh, okay, so I shouldn't be writing blogs that my future clients are searching for. So one of my best performing blogs for my photography side of my businesses, best places to take pictures in Nashville, like literally, every time Google Search Console sends me their like little report, they always tell me like, that's like the top searched blog, and I'm like, Okay, I need to be optimizing that or, like, maybe I need to make similar blog posts to that. But it just shows me people are looking for that. And they're not looking for me yet. But they're looking for that. And that leads them to me.
Brittany Herzberg 18:02
Yeah, that's such a good point. And it's really funny, because we all take what we feel like is our quote, unquote, zone of genius. And we take some things for granted. So even you saying that I'm like, oh, yeah, I need to remind people that you should be writing content. That is what your people are searching for.
That's why I say SEO is all about showing up as the answer to a Google question. So another thing too, is that with the Blog Topic Ideas, that could be a question you actually get from a lead, that could be a question you get from an existing client. Or that could be a question that you see in your keyword research as you start getting into that world. So where do you get most of your blog topic idea inspiration from?
Dolly DeLong 18:44
So I get a lot of my inspiration comes from, I'm trying to future forecast how my clients are searching. So right now, when we're recording, it's summer. So I know a lot of my clients who might be pregnant, like they're projected to deliver their babies in fall, they're most likely searching for a family photographer for fall like they're trying to like, just plan ahead or like start dreaming of what their family photos are going to look like. So I try to create content that is future seasonal, if that makes sense.
And so I paired the visual with Pinterest, because I know like I've noticed, maybe I could be wrong about this. I'm not a Pinterest expert, but I just feel like a lot of people are searching for what they want and desire on Pinterest and saving it for inspiration. And so instead of me creating the spring maternity session when it's already made, spring has already passed. I'm going to start creating either late summer or early fall inspirational blog posts so that I can start helping them visualize working with me.
And I know a lot of wedding photographers do that. They even like future, visualize forecasts, lakes, six 912 months in advance, because when a person gets engaged, let's say May, they're not getting married tomorrow. I mean, some people might, but they're planning their wedding 9 12 15 months from now. So nine months from now, I can't even do the math. Nine months from now, I don't even know, I don't know, January, February. So they're planning like a winter wedding. So if I was a wedding photographer, I'd be creating content about winter weddings. And so I'm always trying to like, future pace myself.
Brittany Herzberg 20:51
I love that. And that's really great, especially in an industry like yours, like photography, with online businesses with you know, service providers, you may do something similar, you may not maybe you know, you have your launches mapped out for a year, and you're able to pre launch things and write things that will benefit the launch, when it eventually rolls around.
A couple of the things that you mentioned that I definitely want to drive home are even thinking through not even just what people are going to be searching from a an annual perspective. But also where are they in that client journey? And like you were talking about with? How do you stand out in your industry? That's why I always ask these three questions. And I even did it with the email course. Who do you help? How do you help them? And what do you want to be known for?
Because if I can get you to be specific about that, then that's going to help the keyword research. And we can say, for example, let's take me with SEO. I don't want to necessarily work with the business owner who comes in and they're like, What does SEO stand for? They're more at the beginning of the journey. I'm working with people who are like, Okay, I've avoided SEO for like, 10 years, can you help me and not make me feel like an idiot about? Yeah, so those are important things to consider as well, during the course, what other light bulb moments did you have? Or what tools do you find were helpful for you?
Dolly DeLong 22:09
Okay, two things jumped out immediately. Your outline for the blog, I don't even know what it's called Brittany,
Brittany Herzberg 22:18
I think it was like the master template, something. And that was actually created because two students were like, I need this,
Dolly DeLong 22:24
it blew my mind. Blew my mind. So with my brain, I like everything to be organized. So I use Trello to organize everything. And so I created a Trello board just for your course. Because I know that you delivered it, like over a course of 10 days. And so I have it divided into the 10 days, then I like templatized everything within that board. So whenever I start blogging, I use that board and I go and I find that template and I'm like, okay, like, I'm going to use this. And it just like helps expedite the process even more for me, because I know, okay, like, this is what I need to hit on. So that was gold.
And then the second thing that was really helpful for me, I already knew this, but then I forgot about it was submitting your new blog via Google Search Console, like for Google to crawl your site, like I was like, I don't understand why I forgot that. But I haven't did and, and you explained it very well. And so I try to blog at least once a week for the education side of my business, because I have a podcast and then that podcast, I embed it in a blog. And so I do that every week for my podcast. And so I'm like I learned this from Britney. And so that was another golden nugget for me.
Brittany Herzberg 23:52
I love hearing that. And I'll make sure that it's linked to because one of the other resources that I've created because I write my own podcast, show notes and blogs. And then I also write for my friend Leah, who's a Podcast Producer, I created these SEO templates with a training that helps you take your podcast episode you're able to SEO if I that and easily turn it into a blog post because that's another thing I've seen slowing some people down that Oh, I don't have time for it. I don't understand it. So I'm just gonna like forget about it, but it really impacts your podcast growth too.
Dolly DeLong 24:26
It does. I mean, my podcast is so tiny, like tiny but mighty.
Brittany Herzberg 24:31
You have a great podcast.
Dolly DeLong 24:32
Oh, thank you. It's just me, little me but like I still want it to be as optimized as possible. So relearning that from you was so helpful for me.
Brittany Herzberg 24:45
I'm so happy to hear that because it's definitely like I wouldn't want anybody else who missed that opportunity. I missed that opportunity for a full like year and a half and I'm like, we are not doing this again. We are going to find a way to make this efficient and streamlined and just make everybody happy about it. Yes. This is always an awkward question to ask people but like, what makes it different to learn about SEO for me so many
Dolly DeLong 25:07
things. When they you are very approachable and you make SEO easy to digest, which I appreciate so much the way you delivered your course I really liked it. I thought it was genius. I was like, why don't other people do this? Like, I love that you broke down every lesson through email every day. And so that made it digestible for me.
And when you buy a course, and then you like login, and you look at all of the modules and the lessons, it can be overwhelming for some people. For some people, it might be exciting. But for me, I'm like, oh, no, like I have to do all of this. I feel like a failure already. For you, like, purposely, like drip it out. But then each lesson is not like two hours long. Each lesson is maybe upwards of 20 minutes max, and with examples and templates, and I appreciated that so much. So it was very approachable.
And I also liked that you made keyword research, not manageable, but understandable. Because I have always overcomplicated keyword research. Always like since the beginning of time. So dramatic, but I feel like I've made this excuse in my head like, oh, people are finding me because I'm not using the right keywords. Now, like I need like fancier keywords. But then you explain it so well. Like what are your clients typing into Google? It's not like they're using fancy words are my clients are literally typing in Nashville family photographer. That's it.
Brittany Herzberg 27:03
I know, we want it to be so much more than that. But even if you like think about your own search behavior, you're gonna type as few words as you possibly can unless the sentence is just like so complicated in your head. But there's going to be a few key things in there, you know?
Dolly DeLong 27:17
Exactly. So I was overcomplicating keyword research for so long for so long and you just uncomplicated that for me? Like Thank you. I love hearing that when you are also on my podcast recently, and we recorded an episode about keyword research. And again, it was just like another like light bulb moment for me during our interview. I was like, Yeah, I'm definitely going to really listen to this episode when it comes out.
Brittany Herzberg 27:45
That's always the best when you're like, Oh, I learned even more. I love having people on the podcast because I always learned stuff. Yeah. So on that note, we recorded that podcast. And this is also tying in with an opportunity for people to get in your world and also just gather some other SEO helpful tools. This email course that we've been talking about is going to be one of those tools. So I would love for you to tell us like why you're excited that this email course is in the bundle. And then tell us about the bundle.
Dolly DeLong 28:14
Yeah, I am really excited that you are contributing your course to this bundle. I'll name the bundle, okay. It's called the systems and workflow magic bundle, the SEO edition. And Brittany, you were so gracious to contribute your course. I don't know if you know this, but I've been through that course twice. Because like whenever you release it in the past, you've done like live cohorts kind of. And so I really enjoyed that.
But I really enjoyed again, how you dripped out every day, and you templatized everything. And you made things very bite sized and chewable, which made SEO more digestible for me when it came to content creation, which I appreciated. And so like merging into this bundle, again, listeners there are two sides to my business family photography. And I'm a systems a workflow educator for business owners who want to learn about systems workflows, SOPs to applied to the back into their business. And that's a mouthful, that's a lot. And so I tried to simplify that even more with opportunities throughout the year to learn about a specific system and workflow to apply to the back end of your business.
And so this is my fifth systems and workflow magic bundle I'm leading and every time I lead this specific bundle, it's a very specific topic. So one year it was about digital funnels. One year was about email marketing one year it was about wanting, and so this year is going to be about S E O systems and workflows of SEO because we need to stop overcome replicating it. And I tend to serve the business owner who is running the show on their own and who is wearing all the hats. They know they need to apply this to the backend of their business. But they're like, where do I begin? This is for you listener. And so I wanted to simplify SEO with a huge bundle of resources. And these are not free. These are all paid resources that you would have to individually buy from everybody shops. And these are actual SEO experts. And I'm just really excited about it.
Brittany Herzberg 30:36
I'm so excited to be a part of it. I think it was the funnel bundle the last time that I was a part of Yeah, it was done. So well. The resources are incredible. The people you pull together, it's just amazing. So even if you're listening, and you're like, I just want to go see what this is about. Definitely do,
I will make sure that there is whatever link i Whatever time so if it's just a waitlist, you'll see that link, if it's time to sign up, you'll see that link, and I'm sure I will push this episode again as we're getting closer to that actual launch window. So make sure you're clicking the buttons below. If you're curious, reach out to dolly or me if you have a question about anything. And then dolly outside of that bundle. Where can people connect with you? And hear from you and learn more about systems and workflows from you? Yeah, definitely.
Dolly DeLong 31:18
So if you like Instagram, I'm on Instagram at dolly DeLong education. And if you want to check out my website, you can check out systemsandworkflowmagic.com And if you're like, No, I'm just interested in photography side, then check out dollydelongphotography.com. Otherwise, I also have my podcast, the systems and workflow magic podcast. Britney has been on twice so you can peruse the episodes and check out her episodes. That's a little bit about where I am.
Brittany Herzberg 31:49
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of your successes with SEO and again for including me in that bundle. I'm really stoked about it.
Dolly DeLong 31:55
Oh, of course, I'm so excited and thrilled that you said yes to it. So thank you again.
Brittany Herzberg 32:01
Of course. All right, we will catch you next time!