Top 5 Lies About Blogging & SEO: EXPOSED 🔎
“So many people feel they’re bad at blogging or they don't want to blog—but really it's just that they don't understand how the strategy works because they’re hearing all these lies online.”
Let’s get right to it because—we desperately need to talk about blogging.
Specifically SEO and blogging and how they can benefit your business (much more than social media marketing!).
Look—I know (and I continue to see it on Threads) that there are LOTS of questions/doubts/thoughts/concerns you have about the topic.
That’s totally fair. Despite the fact that it’s been around for years, there are still a lot of unknowns about the strategy because everyone has been so focused on social media.
So I want to address these 5 common lies about blogging head-on. I see them roaming around the internet pretty frequently—and that’s just not necessary OR helpful to you as a business owner!
→ Save a seat for this month’s 2-part blogging workshop ($37 with code PODCAST10)
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
Why people are switching to blogging for content marketing
A prediction about blogging in 2026
How long blog posts actually need to be
The most effective way to use AI for blogging
Why you cannot rely on AI for SEO
How to monetize blogs—without sponsorships or ads
How to know what to even write blogs about
Tools available to help you better blog with SEO in 2026!
Whew! I’m SO glad I could clear all of that up for you. 😅
But now that I have…
What are you supposed to DO with all of that???
The best thing you could do is 👉 Save a seat for this month’s 2-part blogging workshop ($37 with code PODCAST10)
You can join at any point in January—but—if you want to try to come to the calls live OR watch the replays in real time, sign up by January 23rd.
Might seem like a teeny tiny amount to pay for such a robust workshop, but—
I strive to make SEO accessible & that’s why you’ll find DIY, done-with-you, & DFY options at varying price points.
The really cool thing is that I’ve seen a number of people join something like the blogging workshop that’s $47 and then go on to join higher-ticket things like SEO & Grow 🌱.
Dr Cecily is a perfect example of this. She mentioned that in her case study interview—you can listen to that here!🎧
Mentioned Resources:
→ Save a seat for this month’s 2-part blogging workshop ($37 with code PODCAST10)
Business Owner’s Guide to Blogging
SEO & Grow 🌱 (3 bonuses avail. til 1/31/26)
Related Episodes:
Case Study Interview w/ Dr Cecily Moore
The Energetics & Intention Behind Your SEO Strategy
Entrepreneurship as a Healing Journey w/ Amy Babish
EFT Tapping for Entrepreneurs w/ Jacqui Acree
Somatics for Entrepreneurs w/ Alexandra Granato-Garcia
Hypnosis & Entrepreneurship w/ Leo Max
Authenticity in Marketing w/ Jera Bean
Business Energetics w/ Raechelle Embrey
Breathwork for Business Owners w/ Kathleen Booker
Marketing with Human Design w/ Rachael Weaver
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
Hello and welcome back to the Basic B Podcast. I'm Brittany, your host and favorite SEO coach. Today I'm coming to you hot off a two week break. There were lots of cookies, lots of Christmas tree lights, a ton of reading, and yes, even a little bit of business planning because I just can't help myself. But I'm back and we desperately need to talk about blogging. But I know, I know, and I was even seeing it on threads this morning. There are lots of questions and doubts and thoughts that you have about this topic. So I want to address these five lies about blogging head on because I keep seeing them roaming around the Internet pretty frequently and that is just not necessary or helpful.
So let's get into it, shall we? Number one, blogging is not dead. This has got to be the most miraculous marketing strategy ever. With the amount of times it's risen from the dead. In 2025, I saw more people stepping away entirely from social media and turning their effort, time, energy and even their money toward blogging with a focus on SEO. And you may wonder why. But think about it. We've seen the ROI of social media and we've seen the ROI of blogging and SEO, if not for ourselves, for other people.
And getting a paying client from a post you published seven years ago and feels a hell of a lot better than getting like 10 likes and 0 bookings from your latest reel. And I didn't make that up. It's based on a very, very true story from a very real human, a photographer client of mine who lives in Saudi Arabia. She's from the US and has lived abroad for years and she's actually coming back stateside in 2026. So we're going to be aligning her website and her blogs with a local SEO strategy that makes sense so she can move back and hopefully even have clients booking with her before the plane lands. My 2026 prediction is that this just keeps going up and up and up. And if you want to ride that wave, be sure to save a seat for my two part blogging workshop. It's happening in January and you can get in for $47.
But if you use this very special code that I have for those of you listening to the podcast, you can join for $37. So that code, it's going to be below and linked in all the things. But the code is PODCAST10 and you can get your ticket for $37. Okay, lie number two, you don't have to write 3,000 word blog posts each week. I have yet to find a truly accurate source for exactly how many words a blog post needs to be. But you know what remains true? That the blog needs to be as long as the blog needs to be. Google very specifically has and has even made modifications to their helpful content update for this very reason. It wants to connect searchers, AKA blog readers, with the most helpful piece of content that it can so the reader is satisfied and they feel like they got the answer they were looking for.
Think about it. The more that scenario plays out, the more people will keep coming back to Google. And here's the real deal. You keep Google happy and Google will reward you with visibility, which leads to traffic to your website, which leads to conversions, which leads to money in your pocket and people out there in the streets raving about working with you or learning from you. It's a win, win, win, win. And time and time again, my clients and I have found that 500 word blog posts are totally good enough to help you get found and increase traffic. I also find that people tend to write more than 500 words because that goal is such a doable goal to aim for. Then they go on for as long as they need to to make their point, to share the information and to actually help the reader with that blog post.
Now, could you write a blog that's two or even 3,000 words long? Absolutely. And there may be times you find you need or want to do that. For example, my case study blog posts average about 1700 words. And 1 of my clients consistently writes blog posts that are no fewer than 2,000 words. But I need you to hear me. It is also enough to write a 500 word long blog post. You really have to come back to capacity with blogging. How much time do you have? How much support do you have? How long have you been writing blogs? Do you have another piece of content like YouTube videos or podcast episodes that you can turn into blog posts? Are you working with a template from something like the Business Owner's Guide to Blogging? All of these things play a role in making blogging become that sustainable marketing strategy you've been searching for.
Lie number three, using AI to craft your blogs won't make it ineffective—as long as you do this. So my rule for all my clients and every single business owner I talk to who will listen, is that you have got to have at least one person read through and humanize the post. What we've seen more and more in 2025, which will become even more important in 2026, is people sharing stories. AI can do a ton. It can do so very much, but it cannot replace anyone's lived experience, unique approach, client wins, or even your wins. Only you can share all of that, and you should be sharing all of that. People want and need to know these things in order to trust you, in order to jump at the chance to work with you.
So at the very least, use AI to craft a blog post, but go in and weave in at least one testimonial or one short case study, meaning like the beginning, middle and end of the story, or share part of your story or why you approach X subject in this way. If I had a megaphone, I would probably just be chanting something like, share your stories, share your perspective, share your opinions. It would probably be something like that. And yes, that sounds very scary and very intimidating. And that was me, honestly, at the beginning of 2025. But I took that time throughout the year to figure out what my opinions were, to figure out what my social proof was, my unique approach, all of those things. I started sharing it and, and I think I've shared this before on the podcast, but I was shocked at how well received it was and that just fueled me to continue going. So if I was a betting person, I would probably put money on the fact that you're going to feel very similarly.
You just have to let yourself take that step and uncover those opinions, uncover those stories, uncover the social proof, and then share them. And that's the scariest part. And then you get to ride that wave of all the people being like, oh my gosh, that's so incredible. You also need to know that you definitely 100 billion percent cannot rely on AI to tell you best SEO practices. Because the thing is, AI is going out and searching the Internet and finding 10 different opinions, and then it's mashing them together and making a really weird SEO fruit salad that no one wants to eat at the cookout. And your content, your website traffic, your authority are all suffering because of it. If you haven't gone to a single individual to learn about SEO, you're going to be gathering all of these, like, different strategies, different opinions, different approaches, and that's what's going to make that weird fruit salad. So you really need to learn best SEO practices away from AI, from a person, and then bring that knowledge into the software so you can truly get an SEO strategy that will work to attract those ideal clients that you're looking for.
Again, not so subtle. Plug here for the blogging workshop in January or the SEO Basics course. Both of these give you what you need to know in order to create effective SEO strategies for your blog posts or your main website pages. I will have to share more about this in the future, but for now I'm going to share this wild story that played out recently in SEO and Grow. So we meet almost weekly for coaching calls, and on one of the calls there was a hot seat where I was reviewing the SEO strategy table and which has things like, you know, the SEO title and meta description. If you've been around me for a bit, you know that there is a specific character count you need to stay within for the SEO title and the meta description. So here's what happened. This business owner took their target or focus keywords for that page.
They shared it with an AI tool. Let's say it was ChatGPT, because I don't remember right now. And they asked for an SEO title and a meta description for the blog post she was writing. Well, it gave her what would have been a great SEO title and a great meta description had it stayed within the character count. But it gave her SEO titles that were 82 characters long and meta descriptions that were 184 characters long, both of which are way, way over the character count. But a simple addition to the instructions for the AI tool would have helped tremendously. You just need to ask it to create an SEO title that's between X and Y characters long and do the same for meta descriptions. You need to be able to give those directions to tools like ChatGPT in order to get those strong, strategic and usable SEO pieces for your blogs.
By the by, SEO titles should be 40 to 60 characters long and meta descriptions should be 140 to 155 characters long. All right, we are on to lie number four. Sponsorships are not the only way to monetize your blog, or even your podcast for that matter. I see this all the time. For some reason, people are under the illusion that the only way to make money with either is to have sponsorships. And sponsorships are basically someone paying you to run ads on your blog or on your podcast. But that is flat out not true. And I've got receipts.
I have three different ones actually. So one is that I booked a done for you client for a $2,500 project in under 36 hours because she heard part of a podcast episode, went to the blog that was linked in the episode description, found and filled out my inquiry form, asked me one question via email, and booked the service right there on the spot, paid in full. And guess what? My podcast was optimized for SEO. My blog post was optimized for SEO and my messaging was cohesive throughout. So she was able to find exactly what she needed, hear whatever it was that helped her trust me to do a good job for her. And she was in so incredibly fast. That was a way that I was able to monetize from my content.
Another story. I already mentioned this one, but one of my SEO foundation students booked a photography client from a blog that was 7 years old and not even like a little bit optimized for SEO. Typically when this happens, one, it feels like a fluke or an accident, but two, the blog is working because you were just so intentional with what you wrote in the actual blog post itself. You and you've heard me say that before, that intention counts big time. I feel like it's probably 80% of things. But think about this. It took her seven years to get a paying client from that blog post. If it had been optimized for SEO, she could have easily booked a lot more clients—YEARS earlier!
I digress. We're on to story number three. A done for you Podcast SEO client is filling her super niche membership directly from her podcast, which also includes podcast blog posts. Now that she has an SEO strategy and her team knows this because there's a specific code they're using at checkout. So what did we do? We got the podcast episodes optimized for SEO and she's being very clear about how to work with her. She really just has this one call to action for every single episode. It's pretty brilliant. She's in a unique situation where maybe you find yourself in too, where her podcast is actually hosted on her WordPress website.
So when I go to create a blog post, I'm really just creating the one blog post, slash episode description. Whereas when I do this for myself for this podcast, I'm creating an optimized episode description for Buzzsprout and an optimized blog post on my Squarespace site. So just know that if this is your situation too, or if you find yourself in this situation, it still works. And it works really well to optimize whatever you can, wherever you can. When you're thinking strategically about your marketing strategy, your blogs, your podcast, et cetera, all one big thing you focus on is where you're sending them next. It's the difference between zero information or links to click on for more. And this blog topic is perfect because I can direct people to that workshop I've got coming up. You more easily spot and create those opportunities to share what you're doing and invite people in.
THAT is how you monetize without sponsorships. And yes, there's a whole thing around inner work, visibility wound, all of that stuff. And if that's something that you're focusing on this year or I'll be sure to add links to the episodes below for you for all those different topics where I've had guests on. And also you should know that I'm bringing a lot of that stuff into my programs as well. Even coming up very soon, I have an EFT tapping session that we're doing at the beginning of one of my SEO programs, one of my calls with everyone. So this is definitely a big focus that I'm bringing into 2026 with all my different offers. Stay tuned. Okay, we've made it to our fifth and final lie. Sometimes your easiest blog post topics are staring you right in the face.
And this is one of my favorite things to share with entrepreneurs. Because so many of us feel like we're bad at blogging or we don't want to blog, when really it's just that we don't have the information and we don't understand how the strategy works because we're hearing all these different kinds of lies out on the Internet. Okay, make sure you're seated, friend, because this is going to be mind blowing and feel so super obvious. And you might possibly feel, dare I say, stupid or dumb for not thinking of this yourself. But I want to say this. cough Job security. I'm kidding! For real though...
None of us know all of the things. It's why blogs and podcasts even exist in the first place. Okay, here you go. You're going to want to take notes on these three things. 1. Questions People are asking you. The best blog topics are going to be those based on questions real people are asking you and and asking you. Often.
Repeatedly. I bet if you just sat here for the next 10 minutes writing out questions, you'd have enough blog topics for the next year. So maybe like, I don't know, pause me, put 10 minutes on the clock and I'll see you back here in a bit. All right, the next thing Recent media or podcast features and omg, please do as I say here and not as I do because I have fallen so very short on this myself. But—the best way to make the most of any media or podcast feature is to keep the conversation going with your own blog post about it. There are a number of things you can do, but the number one thing NOT to do is to repost the media feature post. In other words do not just copy and paste the exact blog post that they wrote about you and use that copy on your site as a blog post. It's going to compete for the dominant spot.
It's not the most helpful thing. Just period. It's not the most helpful thing. So pinky swear that you won't do that and I will know if you didn't. Just pinky swear. I'm like a mom with eyes in the back of my head. All right.
Third thing. Topics you come across while doing keyword research. Because it's inevitable you'll go research keywords for something and you will 1000% find topics you could write additional blogs about. So keep a running list of what those are. And then here's the kicker... Actually take action on those. Okay. Whew.
I am so glad I could clear all of that up for you. But now that I have, what are you supposed to do with all of that? The best thing you could do is to save a seat for that two part blogging workshop in January that I keep telling you about. Remember, it's $47 unless you use the code PODCAST10, which allows you to join for $37. And you can join whenever you're hearing this at any point in January. But if you want to try to come to the calls live or watch the replays in real time, make sure you sign up by January 23rd, Because what's included in your ticket are the following: You've got two live calls with me with lifetime replays. The calls are happening on January 23rd and January 30th at 1pm Eastern. Call number one is where we're going to map out your 12 blogs for the year.
And then call two is where you're going to actually get your first blog post ready to publish, or actually go ahead and publish it. And then you also get a workbook to help you bring all of your blogs to life with SEO. Am I crazy for making it this price point? A hundred percent. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. I really want to make SEO accessible and that's why you'll find do it yourself done with you and done for you options at varying price points. The really cool thing about that has been that I've seen a number of people join something like the blogging workshop for $47 and then go on to join higher ticket things like SEO and grow. And actually, Cecily is a perfect example of this. She mentioned that in her case study interview.
So I'll make sure that that's linked below as well. Okay, quick recap before I send you on your merry way, these are the five lies that you no longer need to believe about blogging. 1. Blogging is not dead. 2. You do not need to write posts that are 3000 words every single week for this strategy to work. 3. Using AI to create your blog posts will not make them ineffective if you add your stories and perspective to them and you bring SEO best practices to the AI tool.
- Sponsorships are not the only way to monetize blog posts or podcasts, and 5. it's not that you can't blog or don't know how to—sometimes the easiest blog post topics are just staring you right in the face and they're a little too obvious. All right, save this episode. Come back to it whenever you need it. Share it with friends or online peeps that you want to help better understand blogging with SEO. Sign up for the January Blogging Workshop. And remember, I'm always cheering you on on your SEO journey.
