Results You Can Expect With Good SEO (and How Fast)
"If your page isn't clear, the bots aren't clear—and you cannot be recommended as a helpful option."
"SEO takes 6 months." That answer has been floating around forever—and for a long time, I repeated it too. But it's not my answer anymore. Because it's not what I've actually seen play out with my clients.
When you start with a solid foundation (instead of technical stuff built on a fuzzy strategy), results come faster than you think.
In this episode, I'm walking you through what real SEO results look like, what's missing when there's no SEO in place, & I’m sharing 2 client stories with actual timelines.
This one pairs perfectly with last week's episode on how to get started with SEO—so if you haven't listened to that one yet, go back & tune in there first!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
What SEO "results" actually look like
How a services page with no SEO is hurting your biz
Myth busted: your SEO titles & meta descriptions are NOT optional
Why one H1 headline matters more than you think
Why "SEO takes 6 months" isn't the whole story
How starting with vision vs. technical stuff changes everything
Elli's story: SEO results in Google just 5 weeks after implementation
Andrea's story: coaching clients & digital product sales from Google leads
How to get started if you're ready to see results like these
Your website CAN work for you & these results are just as available to you as they were for Elli & Andrea. 😉
Still not sure where to start? Just ask!
I basically live in my Instagram DMs & am always happy to help you find the right fit!
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 to the Basic Bee Podcast. I'm your host and favorite SEO coach, Brittany Herzberg. Last time that we met, I shared how to get started with SEO. So today I'm going to take a look at what results you can expect with SEO. Well, with SEO done well, let's start with what results you can get with SEO. When I say results, I'm not talking about some vague uptick in a metric you have to squint to see. I'm talking about real tangible things like increased traffic to your website, zero touch digital product sales program or membership signups, more time spent on your pages, especially when you start blogging, and increased in aligned inquiries, AKA the right people reaching out. And of course, things like ranking for better keywords, ranking for more keywords, showing up higher in search results, showing up in AI search results, and and getting found even in social media searches. All of these make you more findable, more discoverable, and help grow your business organically and in a way that's super sustainable to you as a human and business owner and whatever other hats you're wearing. And all of this happens when there's a solid SEO foundation in place. When there's no SEO in place, this is what's missing. Let's use a services page as an example. There's no clarity for one thing about what support is available. Not to mention is it a program, a strategy call, a done for you offer one to one coaching? There are just lots of questions. And when there are lots of questions, your page cannot reliably be shown as an answer to a search. Whether it's in a Google search or in an AI search, your page isn't clear, so the bots aren't clear, so you cannot be given as a helpful option for that person. Another thing is there's missing SEO information like the SEO title and meta description, and there's so many other like titles for those things. But just bear with me, these things may seem unimportant. Heck, you're even told on the back end of a website host like Squarespace that it's quote unquote optional bs. It is not. Not if you're wanting to take advantage of SEO. These two pieces of copy help robots and humans understand what you do and who you do it for. It helps to intrigue them, which leads them to your website, which ideally leads to some kind of conversion. But that can only happen if it gets plugged in and it's following best practices and you're being crystal clear about your audience and offers. Period. Another thing is that things aren't formatted properly. For example, the H1 headline. Notice how I said headline singular? That's because there needs to be one H1 headline. But so many of us, copywriters, website designers, business owners, we don't know what we don't know. So we just use the font because it's bold and eye catching and like amazing. Problem is that if there's more than one, or if there's not a single H1, the bots can't make sense of your site quickly. There's a whole other accessibility issue with there not being one clear H1, but that's a deeper conversation for another day. However, when you're clear and the bots are clear, then it's easy for your page to be recommended. As a result, this is how your website can work for you or your content can work for you. And it's how you Start to see results with SEO. Now when we get into the question of how long does it take to see results with SEO? The SEO takes six months. Answer has been floating around since forever. But it's not my answer any longer because it's not what I've seen play out with my clients and because I start in a very different place compared to where most SEO approaches start. SEO tends to start with more technical stuff, competitor research, broken links, schema, etc. Don't get me wrong, the technical stuff matters, but if you build all of that on top of a fuzzy, unclear foundation, it takes forever to gain traction and continues to put out a poorly built bat signal. My approach starts somewhere completely different with your vision. I shared all about that in my last podcast episode. I'll make sure it's linked below, so check that out for sure. For now, it is story time because I have two clients who saw results with SEO way faster than they expected. First up, Elli, who is a virtual bookkeeper for female and creative entrepreneurs. Elli joined my SEO program on the very last day enrollment was open. She came in with two big concerns. One she wasn't a blogger and two she was worried about how long all of this was going to take to actually get implemented in her website. Within about a month she had a solid SEO strategy created and fully implemented on her website. And just about five weeks after plugging in her SEO strategy, she started seeing SEO results in Google, specifically in Google Search Console. And then she started blogging after claiming that she wasn't a blogger. And not only did she start blogging, she now makes sales from her digital products which she highlights in her blog posts, so see how all of this is tied together now. Next up, I've got Andrea. She's an IFS practitioner and spiritual coach. Andrea joined me for a one month SEO sprint. She showed up to every single call live, asked all of her questions, and even shared her work in progress with me so I could review it before she plugged anything into her site. By the end of our time together, her entire website SEO strategy had been reworked and implemented. One of the most exciting moments was uncovering this one key phrase that completely rocked her world. Self trust. Her ideal clients are the ones who know they've lost self trust and want to rebuild it, which is exactly what she helped them do once we named that clearly in her SEO strategy, everything aligned and just a few weeks after implementation, she messaged me to share that she'd gotten a coaching client and had sold digital products, all from leads who found her on Google. These aren't results that are exclusive to certain business owners or business types. They're here for you too. And if you're like, okay, what do I have to do to get started with SEO? You can certainly listen to last week's episode, but the best thing you can do is save your seat for the SEO sprint. You know SEO is a powerful marketing strategy, but you're not sure exactly how to do this and doubts will creep in and oh, wouldn't it be so lovely to have someone guiding you through the whole dang thing who could lay it out step by step by step and check your work along the way? That's what I do inside the Sprint. So save your seat, send me any questions you have, and buckle up baby, because you're about to experience the most sustainable marketing strategy that will flip your whole world upside down in the best way. You totally got this. And I'll be over here cheering you on on your SEO journey.
