SEO and Website Design Are Sisters, NOT Frenemies
“That was a theme throughout—that SEO is easier than you think.”
After 7 years of running a referral-based business, Brand & Squarespace Website Designer Jena Thielges decided to explore SEO as a more sustainable marketing strategy.
Constantly showing up on social media was just NOT it.
Even though she had “low-key studied SEO for years,” it wasn’t until she implemented a clear strategy that everything started clicking.
And leading to keyword rankings & even new clients! 🎉
As you’ll hear in this latest case study interview…
It’s never too late to start SEO!
The right strategy will help the right clients find you—even if you don’t have a physical location or local business presence!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
How Jena built a referral-based business over 7 years… then tried SEO
How she was able to rank for a dream keyword within weeks
How quickly Jena got her first SEO lead from Google
Why SEO felt easier than social media as a business owner & mom
The biggest SEO myth most website designers believe
How SEO & website design can work together (not compete)
The simple strategy shift that made SEO finally click for Jena
Why filling in a meta description with something isn’t actually doing SEO
The “snowball effect” that happens once SEO starts working
How Jena’s turning blog posts & case studies into long-term marketing
Whether you’re starting a new branch of your business (like Jena was with DIY design templates) or just wanting to understand what it takes to implement AND maintain your website SEO—SEO & Grow 🌱 is here to support your journey!
If you have any questions as you’re listening—about SEO, the coaching program, or anything in between—I’d love to hear from you!
Say hi on Instagram or leave a comment below. 😉
Meet: Jena Thielges
Jena Thielges is a freelance Brand and Squarespace Website Designer who has supported women entrepreneurs in the health, wellness and personal development space since 2019. She helps turn messy ideas into aligned visuals and simple systems, making growing your business feel less overwhelming and much more doable. She is the founder of Sundai Studio, where she offers one-on-one design services and Website Template Kits created specifically for therapists and coaches.
Mentioned Resources:
🔗How to switch to Squarespace from Wordpress, Wix or another Website Builder (blog)
🔗SEO Data Dashboard (use code BRITT20 for 20% off)
The “sisters” scene from White Christmas mentioned in the episode 🤭
Related Episodes:
🎧Dalene | SEO + Keyword Research: The Ultimate Confidence Booster
🎧Liz | The SEO Shift Every Business Owner & Podcaster Needs
Connect w/ Jena:
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 your host and favorite SEO coach, Brittany Herzberg. And today I had so many students from this last round who were like, yeah, sure, I'd love to come talk with you. So I'm back with another student from the SEO and Grow Group Coaching Program. Today I have Jenna Thielges.
Jena Thielges: Hello. Oh my goodness. I'm so happy I am here.
Brittany Herzberg: I'm so happy you're here. And then I didn't butcher your last name.
Jena Thielges: I know, honestly, I would have just rolled with it. I've been like, yeah, that's close enough. We're good.
Brittany Herzberg: I mean, I've got Hersberg, and I've had people on before, and I know it's not the end of the world, but I'm like, how do I do this?
Jena Thielges: You nailed it.
Brittany Herzberg: So to get us started, tell us what you do and who you help and like what you're doing out there in the world.
Jena Thielges: Okay, so I am a brand and Squarespace website designer, and I work with therapists and coaches and women in the online space, basically. So I have one-to-one offers. That I do for clients, uh, custom. And I also have website templates in my shop. So for those that are more of a DIY girly, those options are available too.
Brittany Herzberg: I love this so very much. And I'm excited too. I was thinking about this before we even got on today. I was like, I'm probably going to have to have you come back because we're working together on lots of things for my business. Definitely rebranding. She needs a makeover.
Jena Thielges: Yes. And in fact, this is like spoiler, I'm going to join Maintain, but I was like, March is actually going to be where we're going to flip the role and I'm I'm going to be having to wear the hat of like, I'm serving Brittany and her needs. And then I literally thought about this. And then in April, I'm going to jump back in and be in the hot seat of like, now you help me. Your turn to help me.
Brittany Herzberg: It's your turn again.
Jena Thielges: Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg: This is so fun. I'm so excited. So let's go back to those templates because we were just talking before we hit record. And I know that was part of how you segued into SEO. So tell me about that and how that unfolded. Yes.
Jena Thielges: Okay. So I've been in business for 7 years, mostly been referral-based. Working one-on-one custom work with clients. And a couple years ago, I had the idea of creating website templates built on Squarespace for those that were reaching out to me that just couldn't afford to jump up to that custom work. Um, I also was seeing a ton of website templates out there that I really didn't like the look of, like I couldn't stand behind. I didn't like even the backend systems, like they weren't creating any kind of brand for them. It was just sort of like. Slapping together a template and trying to sell it.
Jena Thielges: And I just thought I could do it better and more aligned to like specifically therapists and coaches and what they need. So anyway, I built those products and last year I was experimenting with writing more on the blog. I basically felt like I was dabbling into SEO in 2025 for myself by like seeing if I could write more longer form content. I had these new products now to sell and to try to find, it's kind of like a different market, to be honest, therefore therapists and coaches, but they're more for that DIY person. So it's a little bit different of a target market. And so as I was blogging a little more and then I had these products to sell, I was thinking SEO would be a perfect marketing match for that kind of audience. So then you and I had been like working together on other things. Um, Brittany helps me with my clients and their SEO.
Jena Thielges: So I've obviously known of you and I was watching SEO and Grow grow basically all of 2025. And I was just like looking over at you like, oh, she's doing great. And all her people People seem to be loving it. And then at the end of last year when the next cohort was enrolling, I knew I wanted to do it.
Brittany Herzberg: Aw, I didn't know that.
Jena Thielges: Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg: You know, it's so funny cuz I think we all get in our little bubbles and our little silos and we think that everybody else is doing so amazing, or we think that whatever a story is happening in our head and we just like never realize what's going on on the other side with the other person. So that's cool. I love, that's one thing I love with these case study interviews. Yeah.
Jena Thielges: You get like a behind the scenes of like, how did you really find the right society? Yes.
Brittany Herzberg: What was going on?
Jena Thielges: What's going on?
Brittany Herzberg: Yep. Was that like the first dipping your toe in with SEO or had you done anything before?
Jena Thielges: Um, I will say like low-key studying SEO for those 7 years of running my own studio. I have a lot of clients that at the time were not interested in SEO, so it wasn't ever like a huge part of my own process, but I always thought that some of them could benefit from it. So I did some like other courses or like free things on YouTube just to try to learn a little bit about it. And then when I found you through like Instagram, I literally searched SEO. Was that how you found me? Yeah, that was how I originally found you. And I was looking for people to help my clients with their SEO, the ones that I did think would be a good fit for that. So yeah, I didn't do any other program of yours or like I didn't do any small workshop. I always thought.
Jena Thielges: The first engagement I would have with you was either to like do it for me, like a done-for-you SEO project, or maybe that group program.
Brittany Herzberg: Oh, that's so cool.
Jena Thielges: Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg: Are you seeing like an uptick in interest with people who are coming in for web design and specifically saying, I'm interested in SEO?
Jena Thielges: Yes, I am. That started to happen in early 2025. I was noticing it a lot. And to me, I feel like I really tried to bring in partners, like, for my clients that I can get behind. And there were, are a lot of SEO specialists that I either met with or that I could kind of get the gist and that I've worked with in the past that I just didn't align with, like, you know, either their process or like even their energy on a call. And that was something that clicked. It was so obvious to me that I love you. And I was like, my people are going to love you too.
Brittany Herzberg: I know. I remember that first call. I was like, I love her. I can't wait to work with her. And I think it was maybe just about a month later that, you You sent the first client my way and it ended up clicking and we, we actually just checked on her website before we started recording and she's doing really well.
Jena Thielges: She's doing great. Yes, she is.
Brittany Herzberg: Which I love seeing. Um, I do like knowing that that is something that you're seeing more and more of where people are specifically saying, hey, do you do SEO? Do you address this? Do you work with anyone? And there are a lot of copywriters in my world, whether they're coming to me for like done-for-you work or joining the program. Same thing with website designers, um, even social media managers. And I feel like it's so cool to be able to tell them like, yes, this is actually a thing that we're seeing more and more in the industry. Because I feel like for so long, website designers, it was just thought of that a lot of website designers like just do SEO.
Jena Thielges: Oh my gosh.
Brittany Herzberg: Because that's a conversation I have a lot with people.
Jena Thielges: Yeah. And it's really, I'd like to make a public apology on behalf of all website designers. A lot of them do not know SEO, and even if they do know a little bit of it, it's like SEO's its own offer, an animal really outside of design, you know? So they might do some foundational things or think they're putting things together, but I now know too, going through the program, that it really has a lot more to do with strategy. It doesn't just mean plug in a meta description, it means What is the point of that page? And if you don't have that strategy and that those couple of keywords for that page, and then the call to action on that page really clear, like, yes, the meta description is filled in, but it's not actually doing anything for you.
Brittany Herzberg: Thank you for saying that because I'm over here like silently like, yes, I know. I think you saw it. I just did this like report of findings where I did 25 SEO audits recently. And the number one issue that over half of the websites were having is that the meta description was plugged in, but it was way too long. It was like way beyond the character count. So more than likely something was just being pulled in because it was probably left blank. But regardless, you know this because you're in the backend of Squarespace. I'm in the backend of Squarespace, all other different website hosts as well.
Brittany Herzberg: And they give you all sorts of different character counters or different places to put things and they call it different things. And you have to either as the business owner or the service provider, come in with the understanding and the strategy around all of that. So, you know, what's going on, where to find it, what you're plugging in, the purpose that it has, like how this whole puzzle comes together. I'm making it sound so complicated and big, but it's easier once you have it all laid out in a Google Doc and you can see how all the pages are playing together and the content. And I mean, was that your experience?
Jena Thielges: 100%. Oh my gosh. That table made everything so simple, honestly. And It feels like everything just has so much more intention behind it. Every image you upload to a website has intention behind it. And at first, of course, like, you know, phase one of the program is a lot of that kind of erasing some mistakes you've made in the past, you know, but once you know better, you do better, right? So now every image I'm ever uploading to my site, I feel so great knowing like, well, this is at least like strategic when it comes to an SEO perspective. And it's easy. It then becomes quicker.
Jena Thielges: It's like. You have to get over that, you know, upfront hurdle, but then uploading images, writing new copy, making new pages, it just has so much more intention behind it. And doesn't that feel better anyway to have that intention?
Brittany Herzberg: Totally. It's been cool seeing you take this from doing it for your own self, your own website, into starting to do this because we're already collaborating with a couple of clients on their websites. And it's been really fun seeing how you're like You just clicked with the information. Did it feel like that to you?
Jena Thielges: Yes, it definitely did. And I think it's because I have a stake in the game with it. Like, it's like, yes, I want it to do a great job for myself, but I want to make my website package even stronger and even better. So if I can embed any SEO knowledge into my design philosophy and approach, like it only benefits the client. And then my dream world, like we're doing already with a handful of clients now, is like Yes, I can do that initial keyword research, make your job like a little bit easier, but then hand you over that document and you can write those meta descriptions, provide feedback for me. Like I've given you the title of like my own personal SEO mentor. I hope you don't mind, but like I just love having you and your eyes kind of on that work. But yes, it did click in for me because I feel really excited about it.
Jena Thielges: I feel I've seen it work for me and now I've seen it work for clients.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, exactly. I do want to come back to that, that win that you had toward the end of the program, which was just like a couple of weeks ago. But one thing I'm very curious about, because I have a lot of people coming in my world, specifically women. So they're coming in, they're either pregnant or they know that they want to grow their family or they have a young child and they're like, I want to do SEO, but time is a thing and capacity is a thing. So I know you have a young child. What was it like for you as a mom and a business owner? And also trying to take care of clients? Like, what was that like for you juggling it all?
Jena Thielges: Yeah, well, I do. I have a 4-year-old, but I remember too the days of that early postpartum experience and having a 1-year-old and everything. And you just have to find different types of pockets of time to work on your work. That's just the reality. You're juggling way more than you did prior to having children. And so that means whatever marketing channel you choose to do while you have a business as a mom, You're probably gonna be doing that at 9:00 PM at night or 4:00 AM in the morning or 2:00 AM in the morning. I mean, I'm serious, like depending on when they wake up or whatever. And so to me, I think some new moms or moms in general, like there's some resistance to showing up on social because it takes a lot more of kind of, I don't know, like you feel like you have to be pulled together and present in a certain way.
Jena Thielges: Yeah. Maybe I'll just speak for myself personally now because I don't wanna project this on any other woman going through this, but. For me, I wish I had SEO back then. I wish I could have been blogging and writing and freaking lit a candle and made a cup of tea and like blogged at 9:00 PM instead of like trying to film a reel where I'm like smiley when I'm like had a really hard day earlier, you know? So I actually feel like I wish I had it. And I think any new mom thinking about is SEO a good match, I think it would be a great match. I really do.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, that's my view on it too. Even like future pacing and knowing that that's the future I want. I want to be a mom. I want to have a little one, but I know that your time gets like infinitely smaller and you have those little pockets. And I have some friends that we've even been having these conversations offline and it's like, this could really help you. And that scenario, even of just like filming yourself, I barely feel like doing that now and I don't have kids.
Jena Thielges: Exactly. No, totally. And like my girl's 4 years old and like I feel like I'm in a rhythm of like, okay, when I'm at my desk, you know, I can do my little story that I'm showing my face. But, um, no, I have like a vivid memory of trying to record this something when my girl was a little baby and like the lighting was horrible. It was like 8 PM. I think I said something really great, but I didn't even end up posting it because it just didn't feel like the best presentation of what I really wanted, you know? So again, that's more personal, but it was definitely something that crossed my mind at the time of like, gosh, social media is not really a thing I wanna be doing right now.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. Oh gosh. Thank you for sharing that because it's a very, very real thing. Mm-hmm. And I know that so many people that come in my world, they're like, I'm worried about having the time to actually do this or to keep up with it. So even let's go there. So during the program, like you said, starting off, I love that visual of just like you have to kind of erase the chalkboard a little bit. Because there's things that were coming into SEO.
Brittany Herzberg: What I've noticed, and even some of the stuff that I applied for myself, is that we think social media marketing is the only way that you market. So we come in thinking it's got to be a hustle, it's got to be a grind every day, we've got to show up, we've got to be on, like our energy has to be there. But actually, SEO, the way I approach it and the way I bring it to people is it's very front loaded. So yeah, you're learning the terms, you're figuring out where stuff is on the backend, you're getting familiar with keywords and how to find them and what, where they go. And then once that's plugged in, it's much easier, much more sustainable on like a monthly basis moving forward. So I know that we've just wrapped the program. We're only like a couple weeks out, but what are you even noticing for yourself once you got stuff plugged in? How did it feel and what are you doing now with SEO?
Jena Thielges: Yeah, so I definitely had to do some erasing. Also part of that erasing, if I can like riff for a second on design, because I had this like idea during that initial, you know, when I was learning about SEO and I was trying to figure out what my keywords I was going to focus on and how they were going to be embedded on the site visually. I am a website designer. Website design is very important to me. Fonts matter. It freaked me out for a second because I'm like, okay, I don't want this one message to be like the biggest message. How can I creatively approach this problem from a design standpoint? And I just want to say. The way I was able to do it, and I don't think I'm like the first person to ever do this, but I wanted to just share here that in Squarespace, this is going to get a little techie for a second, but in Squarespace you have your H1, H2, H3, H4.
Jena Thielges: Innately it's set up that your H1 is the largest font, H2 is your second largest font, H3 is smaller, and H4 is the smallest. You can actually control that, and if you set your H1 and H2 at the same height, same size, then what you are able to do then on each page is decide what is the message you want to be a little bit larger and seen a little quicker. And for some of my clients, for example, who are wellness coaches or something, and they really want to say things like go with the flow or something like as their main message, but it's still very important their H1 says wellness coach in Colorado or whatever. You can set your H1 as that technical keyword-rich setting and then use that, um, expand tool and shrink the size. So if you go to my website, you can see this live in action on most of my pages where that smaller, almost like eyebrow copy is the H1 and then the H2, because I did fall in love with like a couple of my more fanciful emotional copy messages. I'm like, oh, I don't want to lose those. Yeah. So those are my H2s, you know, so that's just a little like trick that I think exemplifies how SEO and design can, you know, as I said before this call, be sisters and not frenemies.
Jena Thielges: You don't have to choose, you can do both. And if you work with a designer who understands that we are prioritizing SEO, you can still have some of that fanciful language. And then the other trick is you have to pick a font that can scale well so that font that you're using for your headline needs to be able to be shrunk down and seen, you know, large. So that was just some of the erasing I had to do in that first phase. So I didn't necessarily have to write all my copy over like some of the other people in our program. I didn't have to like move hosts, you know, I didn't move from something to Squarespace, but I did have to reconfigure my headings and I had to think about the copy a little bit. And then after I, you know, integrated all the SEO work on the backend of things, it got so much easier. Like that was the upfront work and then it just got easier and easier and easier.
Jena Thielges: And as I saw the momentum build, it was like a little snowball. I was just getting more excited, um, as it was going. And since then, now I just like launched my first blog post post the program and that felt like a huge accomplishment and it felt easier. I feel like I can see how. Even writing blog posts are just going to get easier and easier. So the maintenance phase feels really exciting to kind of be walking into.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, I'm pumped for you. And I do want to shine a light on some of the stuff that you had happen. So you noticed your website was ranking for a keyword. Was that like the first thing that happened? Did you notice anything else around then?
Jena Thielges: Or the keyword was like the first sign that I was like, oh my goodness, it's working. Like it's working quick, you know, and I know that's it's not a guarantee for every single person, but it worked within a couple weeks of like indexing the pages. Branding for female therapists, like exactly what I want to be known for, um, was my first keyword that I was ranking high for. And it felt like it was out of nowhere, even though it was very much intentional to be ranking for that. So that was the first win that I was like, okay, this is really cool that I can see it working. And then from there, you know, it probably a month then from that moment to now. And I got a query that came in that found me on Google, which was so cool. I had a call with her last week.
Jena Thielges: She's wonderful. She was literally a female therapist looking for a Squarespace website design, like exactly my target market. And you know, that someone even finding me on Google is a huge win. The fact that it was an aligned client is like a double win. I think she's going to sign. She's got the proposal now. It doesn't even matter. The fact that that is like who came in the door and who I spoke to was actually someone I would love to work with is just beyond.
Brittany Herzberg: Right?
Jena Thielges: Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg: I said this in Telegram too. This group in particular, I would say the chat was like very, very, very active.
Jena Thielges: Mm-hmm.
Brittany Herzberg: And there was definitely a lot of like, I mean, I feel like I'm an ultimate cheerleader, but like there were lots of ultimate cheerleaders in there, which is so fun to see. Yeah. Because that's the vibe that I want to have and it just made me so happy. So you shared that and you were like, oh my gosh, I got a Google inquiry.
Jena Thielges: Yes. And I was like, guys, it's It's working. Everything we're doing, it's working. And yeah, I'm sure that was like exciting for the whole group. It felt like it was like a group win, really. It is.
Brittany Herzberg: And that happens. I would say someone always has success pretty early on in all of the groups. That's one trend that I've noticed. And it does, it gives the rest of the group momentum to keep going. Maybe you feel like you got stuck like a few steps back or something like that. And seeing someone else have this win, it's like, oh, it's motivating. So it keeps you going. Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg: And it shows you that it really can work. And I think it gives the person who has the win a lot of confidence from what I've seen that it's like, oh, oh, okay. People do want to work with me. People do want to find me for this thing.
Jena Thielges: Absolutely. Tons of confidence and excitement and momentum and all that good stuff. And I agree that the accountability that you kind of feel from the other people in the group was super helpful and fun for me. Like I loved showing up to the calls. And just hearing everyone else's questions and cheering them all on. And it was really a great group.
Brittany Herzberg: It really was a good group.
Jena Thielges: I'll miss that.
Brittany Herzberg: Well, some people are going on to Maintain.
Jena Thielges: Yeah, I guess I'll see them at Maintain in April.
Brittany Herzberg: It's so funny. Several people have been like, oh yeah, I'll see them in there, which I think is really great.
Jena Thielges: All right.
Brittany Herzberg: So you've had these fun wins, which we're really excited about, and now we're all invested in hearing what happens with this client. So you have to tell us. But what are you looking forward to now?
Jena Thielges: Yeah, so I feel like I actually have like quite a nicely prioritized, organized to-do list for SEO for myself. Like I know every portfolio page is going to turn into a little bit longer of a case study page and I know which one I'm going to start with. I know the blog posts I'm going to write. I'm going to set that goal to have a new blog post every month and chip away at all of the kind of optimizations that can happen. I love data and that dashboard that Mariah created. I'm one of the people that you're like, please only check this once a month. Like, and I have definitely broken that rule, but I'm trying, I'm working on it because it's just so exciting. So anyway, um, it is, I plan to chill out a little bit around that and check in once a month and write more blog posts and optimize a few of those portfolio pages.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, and those were cool. It was very cool watching you navigate the Squarespace templates that you have, as well as the portfolio pages, because the templates specifically, when you were in there working on those, like all of the names for the templates are pretty similar in length, character count. And I think that showed everyone, definitely you, but everyone, how you can almost templatize the SEO titles and the meta descriptions, and it doesn't have to break your brain and you can actually have like a thing to work from.
Jena Thielges: Yes, that was a theme throughout that like It's easier than you think. It was easier than I thought. Like, I didn't know the way to do it, but once we learned that, the fact that some of that work can be templatized, like, was so cool. Yeah, mind-blowing. And I already have two templates coming out later this year and like, it's all written, ready to go.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, that was definitely something you were able to do is like think ahead of the things that you have coming out later this year, whether that was case studies or portfolio pieces or the templates as well too. That was so cool to watch.
Jena Thielges: Thank you.
Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, no, thank you. That was, it was really fun to watch. Okay, so do you want to share maybe a little bit, we've kind of like hinted at these collaborations, but do you want to maybe talk through how we break that down and who does what and what that looks like?
Jena Thielges: Yeah, absolutely. So, so far, um, how we are working together is basically someone typically at this point therapists are reaching out to me for that brand and website design project. I meet with them, find out if SEO is one of their top priorities. A lot of times it is, and therefore I share their name with you and connect them with you. But because I'm doing a lot of that, like, initial understanding of who their target market is, what pivots they're making, if any, the style, the tone, like, those are all questions. We have a lot of overlap in that, like, in those intake questions. So. Because I'm getting a lot of that, then I can actually do that keyword research.
Jena Thielges: You know, the SEO and Grow program taught me how to do that research for people. And I obviously at this point still like your eyes on it, you know, if I'm going to claim that, but I love this idea of me practicing that skill, building that muscle for them and doing a lot of that initial research. And then I hand over that document to you. You do your magic. You write a ton of the meta descriptions and the SEO titles and just are there as a sounding board, and you're there for them too. Like, they want to know the woman behind this, and they want to know, let's say if they reach out or want to reach out in 6 months from now, um, they have a face to the name, you know. I'm not trying to like hide you behind my business, you know what I mean? It's like they full well meet with you, know you, love you, and are invested in your business. So that feels really good.
Jena Thielges: It's working really well. And then we both are like Google Doc You know, maniac. So we just like go back and forth and it's working well.
Brittany Herzberg: All of the comments, all of the suggestions. I'm really enjoying it. And we're still pretty early on in our first projects, but we have worked together before, but it was less of the collaboration. It was more like Jenna did her thing and then I came in and did my thing and then the client got all of this stuff.
Jena Thielges: Yes.
Brittany Herzberg: So now it feels more like the sister vibe, like you were talking about. Now it really does feel like that with design and SEO. We're gonna have to break out in the— what is that? White Christmas where they're like sisters? I don't have to find that gift.
Jena Thielges: That is a really good gift for this moment, actually.
Brittany Herzberg: I'm breaking it out somewhere. Somewhere I will find it. No, but I'm so excited. So really anyone could come to me and then go to you or go to you and then come to me. So if you're listening to this and you're like, this is kind of intriguing. Yes, it is. And you can go to either one of us and we'll make sure that that collaboration happens cuz It's really fun. I'm very grateful that there are Squarespace website designers and just website designers in general that I know who do prioritize SEO and you happen to be one of them.
Brittany Herzberg: And it's been just really fun, like watching your story and watching that skill grow for you. Yeah.
Jena Thielges: Yeah. Thank you. I know it's, um, I think this program is so tailor fit for any website designer. Like I think they could all really benefit from going through it. Because even if you have a decent understanding of SEO, the actual implementation and then learning from you, I just feel like you're so good at making it feel easy. Like it just, you have the tools, the resources, you just make it actually feel doable. So then web designers can more confidently bring it into their scope, you know, because we're already doing a lot, brand and copy and like, it's a big project building a website. And so the fact that other web designers could go through this program and build up that skill is really exciting.
Brittany Herzberg: It is. It really is. And we need other people because like you're on Squarespace and we need other people. There are other website hosts, some of them which I kind of wish didn't exist, but they do.
Jena Thielges: And so like there's a few of them that we, we would accept.
Brittany Herzberg: We would, we would welcome them into the circle. No, I love hearing that and I'm very glad that the program did feel doable and, cause that's definitely a goal of mine. I really want people to, oh, I wonder if she has this and like scroll down the Google Doc and it's right there.
Jena Thielges: Yes. Yes.
Brittany Herzberg: That's definitely a goal. What would you say to previous Jenna or to anyone who is like, okay, SEO's kind of on my radar. I kind of think I wanna do it. I don't know. Then maybe they're having hesitations. Like what would you say to them?
Jena Thielges: I think I would just say, I'll start just by talking to my previous self and then we'll see if that also relates to anyone else. But I would just say that like, it's not too late, that you can jump in at any time. I've had a website for 7 years. Of course I have known about SEO. I've even known about you for a year, you know, but you find the time when you want to, you make the time when you want to, right? So to me, I just feel like you're not too late is what I would say and jump in. Test it out and like see, see that it can be possible. It can be possible for you. You're not too small.
Jena Thielges: I also had this funny story about like, I don't have a physical office and I don't have like a physical Google. I know I could set up a Google Business Profile with like a general location, but I never had that. And I didn't necessarily, I'm not calling in only Virginia residents. Right. And so I was like, oh, I don't think. SEO could work. Like I really did feel like, who's Googling branding for female therapists out there? And then come to find out 170 people are, right? Or whatever. And so I think there was a bit of a learning curve that has to happen too.
Jena Thielges: So I would also try to tell my past self that, that you don't know everything and go through the program and learn. There you go.
Brittany Herzberg: And there you are. So tell people where they can connect with you and what you've got going on. We definitely know that you have the templates and you do done-for-you work, but if there's anything specific you want to highlight, go for it.
Jena Thielges: Yeah, thank you so much. I would love to highlight the blog post that I recently wrote, especially for anybody that has been struggling with this idea. And I could see, because 2 or 3 people in our program, we switched over to Squarespace and I had had it on my kind of to-do list to basically put together a more robust step-by-step process for how to switch over to Squarespace and why you might want to and things like that. And so that blog post is now up on my site and you can go check it out if you've ever considered switching over to Squarespace or any future student in SEO and Grow that has that desire and wants to sort of poke around and see what their options are. I think that that could be really supportive for them.
Brittany Herzberg: Oh, that's going in the resources for sure.
Jena Thielges: Okay, great.
Brittany Herzberg: No, it was really wonderful to have you. I'm so grateful that you were in there. You brought such like a fun energy. And plus, I think there were several people in there who are very analytical. And I think I tend to lead with like the bubbly fun part of myself that like, my gosh, I live in my head. So it was fun to see you guys all doing that too.
Jena Thielges: 100%. Thank you for building such an amazing program.
Brittany Herzberg: Um, you're welcome.
Jena Thielges: Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg: Trying to make me cry. Oh my gosh. So if you are listening and you're interested in joining the SEO and Grow group coaching program, our next round kicks off March 4th. You can always check out the dates below. Things will be linked below. You know I'm a link happy human. If you're listening to this anywhere beyond that, reach out with any questions that you may have and I'll make sure all of the links for everything that was mentioned are below. And always know I'm cheering you on on your SEO journey.
