Update: My 2026 SEO Glow Up to Get Found on Google + AI
“This version is much more reflective of where I am AND where I’m going in my business.”
I talk about SEO all day long for my clients. But my own? It was on the back burner. And the burner wasn't even on.
In this episode, I’m sharing an update! What I’ve been doing to improve my SEO in 2026, what's working, what’s not, & what's up next!
A BIG theme throughout is just how impactful those ‘tiny’ steps are.
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
Why I put my own SEO on the back burner for so long
Why I started with my own North Star before even as an SEO pro
The copy & keyword updates I made to nearly every core website page
Why I decided to re-write so much of my website copy
The website updates that are landing better with new leads
How my 2026 blogging plan is going
The off-site updates I made & why
What results I’m seeing shortly after updating my SEO
Projects I’m working on in Q3 of 2026
It's never too late (or too early) to get started with your own SEO. Even the tiny actions add up way more than you think possible!
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!
→ DM me "SEO SNEAK PEEK" to get a free SEO audit
Mentioned Resources:
→ Join the Summer SEO-ification Challenge (starts July 28!)
→ Join the next SEO Sprint (next live round starts Aug 10th)
→ SEO Data Dashboard (20% off w/ code BRITT20)
→ Check out MemberVault
→ Keysearch (20% off w/ code KSDISC)
→ Follow Hannah Becker on Threads!
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 when I was sitting down to look at Q3 podcast topics, what are some things I want to talk about? What do I have coming up? Where have I been this year? I was realizing that I never came back to give you any updates on my SEO glow-up this year. So I was like, we're gonna do that now. If you have zero idea what I'm talking about, there's an episode on April 24th.
It's called the three-step process I'm following to get found on Google. And my friend Kohli James interviewed me for that. It's definitely worth a listen. Kind of also related to Coley, human design came up this week. And I was actually in a human design challenge run by Hannah Becker. It was amazing. If you're not following her on threads, go follow her. But the challenge itself was really making me realize just how much storytelling is, should be, and needs to be part of.
what's happening not only on the podcast, but in emails and posts that I'm making. It's part of my magic sauce. And I think I got away from that for a little bit. And especially the whole like, this hasn't quite worked out the way I wanted it to, or the just the messiness of it. It's not my favorite thing to share and to talk about. I want things to be buttoned up and look cute and easy to understand. And I kind of hate when they're not. And when they're not, I tend to not talk about it and hide it and just
For no other reason than it's just not cute, which is dumb. So I'm really grateful for that human design challenge. I'm really grateful for all of my human design girlies, especially, who've helped me understand all that there is to be there in my design and just like things that I don't need to feel bad for and instead should be leaning into because again, it's just part of who I am and it's what makes me magnetic, just like certain things about you make you magnetic to the right people. So that is my
TED Talk for the day as we get into this episode. All right, let's get into SEO things. So this is really where have I been? What did I do? What is it looking like now about my SEO in 2026? Because one of my big projects was to pay attention to my own SEO, at least a little bit more, if not in a really big way, in almost as big of a way as I do for clients, because I had been so focused on their
Brittany Herzberg (02:24.072) SEO, their work, their projects, their businesses. And I was kind of putting mine on the back burner. Not kind of. I was putting mine like way, way back on the back burner. Like the burner wasn't even on. It was that bad. So this year, one of my big projects, and something I really have dug into in the last few months, couple months especially, was really my website, my SEO. And it wasn't just my website. I'm gonna share details shortly once I stop rambling, but it was.
Largely my website. SEO is largely my SEO on off site things, my content, including the podcast. So yeah. All right, let me get into what I actually did. I started with my new SEO strategy for my website. We started there. It's the same thing I tell clients to do. It happened to be the very first place that I started with mine as well. And this is the very, very, very first place that I started in the very beginning of my SEO journey back in like tail end of 2020, getting into 2021.
I looked at my SEO titles and my meta descriptions for my core website pages. So home, about services, that kind of thing. And what I didn't do the very first time that I created my SEO strategy back in 2020, 2021. But what I did do this time is I started with my own North Star. The three questions that I ask all the time. Who do you help? How do you help them? And why you? Those are your North Star when it comes to SEO for a reason. It's really
needs to be top of mind, not just for SEO stuff, but even just like business things and marketing and messaging in general. Like we want to make sure we're speaking to the right people, saying the right thing, that things are aligned. And that is a great place to start. So I revisited my own North Star, changed a little bit, I am speaking much more now than I ever have into lead generation and specifically how SEO can be and should be a huge part of your lead generation strategy because it can work for you in the background 247. Like why would you not want to do that? So
Revisited my own North Star, use those answers to get really clear on some potential new keywords that I could use. Use those new keywords to create new SEO titles, new meta descriptions, new H1s for nearly every web page. I think everybody got an update. Maybe the podcast page didn't, but let's say 90 to 95% of my core website pages got updates on those three things. Then I was also like, well, let's rewrite this website copy because it doesn't feel like meaning more. It doesn't sound like meaning more.
Brittany Herzberg (04:49.324) I had a lot of stuff on there that was still speaking to what I used to do like over a year and a half ago, which was storytelling, social proof, SEO. And I've stopped copywriting. I have stopped the social proof and the storytelling type of stuff. Not that I like don't do it at all, but it was getting confusing. Even right now, I'm tripping over this stuff because it was getting confusing. So I moved away from that and got honed in on just SEO.
And that is what I really needed and wanted to make very clear on my website with my copy. So updated my website, copy, had some people check it out. The main person I had to check it out, of course, is Meg. Shout out to Meg Eulaney, being the rock star business coach that she is. And it was kind of cool because she's like, there's not a whole lot that I would change. So like I'm going through and I'm still making some edits for things that she recommended for like sales pages, some of the core website pages, that kind of thing. But I'm feeling really good about it. Not only.
did Meg help with the copy actually, but she also facilitated this beautiful retreat that happened for our mastermind in April. And as part of said mastermind, we got updated headshots. And if you go to my website now, you will see that all of that has been updated. In addition to that, I also updated my website design and had Jenna of Sunday Studio come through and everything looks better, sounds better. It's much more reflective of where I am and where I'm going.
And it's landing really well with clients and and leads. So I'm really thrilled. So yeah, I'll definitely have links for both of those amazing humans below. I've been also sharing more regular non podcast related blogs on my website. So getting into content a little bit. Not as many as I'd like, honestly, which is part of the inspiration for this like summer SEO-ification challenge that I'm running. the link is below. You can check out the details, but
what's really happening at the core of that is we're auditing our digital footprint to spot gaps and opportunities for SEO to be a better bat signal for those aligned leads. And of course, blogs are one of those things. So I wanted to have more of these like quote unquote regular blog posts. I'm getting more regular with regular blog posts, but I still am not quite where I want to be. I would love to have like an additional blog post a week. That's my goal. But I've kind of been hovering around like one or two additional blog posts. We're getting there.
Brittany Herzberg (07:07.83) It's happening. I'm thrilled in the same vein of like content though. I also updated my Instagram and my threads name and bio section. Also put the new headshot over there too, which of course has an SEO optimized title. So all of that is rocking and rolling. I updated my LinkedIn bio. Plus, I have two other like company pages that I created for my podcast and my business. So I updated those as well. So see, I started on my website.
Then I got into like some content stuff with blogs, with podcasts, with even like Instagram content, threads content, the bios, the profiles for threads in Instagram and LinkedIn. And then I also updated my podcast on Buzzsprout. So I still followed like the stuff that I'm talking about and how I share with other people that they need to be updating their business stuff. But it was a little easier for me. I was able to move through it a little bit faster once I actually did it.
The biggest thing that kept me stuck was just me and just making this project so much bigger in my head because I don't love doing like the tiny little baby steps. I want to go in and just take a wrecking ball to it and just like refresh it in the most major of ways. But all of those tiny changes add up. And I was, I mean, I'm listing out all of these things and it sounds really big. They did not all happen at once. And some of them didn't happen as fast as I wanted them to. And some of them still aren't completely where I want them to be.
So I share that because if you are like me and you have any of those thoughts rolling around your head, there you go. You can still make the tiny little tweaks and it'll be great. But I would still advise people to do what I did, which is start on your website, then go into things like content. Again, blog content ideally, but really any content, there's a way that you can optimize it and anything that's off site, like those social media profiles. So definitely like
Think about that and really try to approach your SEO like that. Because if you can take the time and be really thoughtful and strategic and intentional with what's on your website, it just makes the content piece and any of like the off-site profile pieces so much easier to navigate because you have this stuff built at that point. And then it's just like, I can take this and I can duplicate that and use it over here. And it creates this beautiful, cohesive, clear.
Brittany Herzberg (09:20.148) message of what you do, who you help, why you, all that stuff, which, you know, takes you back to the North Star. I mean, there's a reason that I put that at the beginning. Okay, I digress. Some of the bigger changes for my website really that happened was my homepage and then my services page setup because my offer suite changed dramatically. I'm recording this in July and even from January to like April, things shifted in a big way. And then April to June things shifted in another big way. So it's been this slightly uncomfortable evolution.
But going back to what I said about my human design, it's part of how I'm meant to move in this world. And so instead of me fighting it, it's like, okay, let's lean into it. Let's evolve. Let's change. Let's bring people along in the journey. So I'm gonna maybe better about that. So those are all of the things that happen. Now, as far as results, again, like I said, these things are like trickling out happening really in Q2. I am showing up more in AI searches, which is beautiful.
I'm not having any like clear keywords. Like I checked this thing on Bing called it's Bing Webmaster Tools and it's the AI performance tab. And you can see queries, which is translates to keywords, or you can see a tab that shows pages that you're from your website that are getting shown as answers to an AI search. It doesn't tell you exactly who's clicking what or what's leading to visits on your website, but you can see what you're showing up for. So I like a lot of that and I'm still showing up for some things that I don't necessarily want to keep showing up for, like case studies.
So that tells me I still have some work to do, but it's all good data. And to see that I'm showing up for more AI search results, I love it. I am also getting traffic from AI search results to my website, which I know because of the SEO data dashboard that I have. You don't get that information from Bing or Google Search Console yet. It's starting, I'm sure things will keep on rolling out quickly, possibly even between me recording this and the episode going live, but there are ways to find these bits of information.
And you do want to be tracking your metrics at least once a month. So yeah, showing up in more AI searches, I am seeing a lot more traffic coming to my website organically, which we love. And I'm ranking for keywords that are more aligned for the season of my business. So all of those changes are good. The thing I can do to keep the needle moving in the right direction, having this forward movement, is to continue blogging. Again, like I mentioned, it's kind of a sticking point for me, but that is one big thing that I really want to be focusing on.
Brittany Herzberg (11:43.192) also by shifting the podcast episodes to being solo to being much more SEO focused and having really clear but kind of like hooky ish titles. That's really helping because those are also going on my website as blog posts. And so that's all factored in as part of the content. So that's all good. Those are all things that I want to continue focusing on. Collaborations are still a big thing for me. let's see what else am I working on next. I've also got help continuing with my systems and workflows and automations, which I'm thrilled about. Not
Super like SEO related, but just that that's going on in the background, which makes me just feel more and more confident with all this stuff, which is good. And that still plays out and comes into our business, you know? I will definitely be having Jenna come back for a few more design tweaks as I get my entire store off my Squarespace site and onto Member Vault, which is really just because, well, one, it gave me an easy opportunity to have affiliates. It gave me a simpler way to deliver products, which I really needed, products, resources.
And Member Vault integrates really, really well with MailerLite, which I use for my emails. So I had it on Squarespace. It was fine. I just noticed that things were falling through the cracks and I wasn't happy about it. So Member Vault came on my radar thanks to Mariah. And I was able to pop over there. And it's been wonderful. Erin is amazing. I cannot say enough good things about it. I'm sure I'll have a link below for that stuff too. Again, sharing more content, blog posts for sure. I love threads. I really, really love threads.
And I have an Instagram plan as well. But like those are things that I'm going to be focusing on, just putting a little bit more attention on, playing with. That's gonna be a big thing for me, is just like coming to it with this element of play and letting it be fun and letting it just be an experiment. Like I said, I don't love it, but we're leaning into it. We're having fun, dang it. And of course, podcast content, sticking with more solo episodes, any kind of guest case study interviews that are gonna be sprinkled in. I've got a few coming up.
Which I think you're really gonna love. And I'm going to be updating my trailer. I actually hid the old one because it just wasn't aligned anymore. Yet another thing where I was like, okay, that's not what I want it to be sharing. So let me just hide it and then I'll record another one. I have a couple of new freebies launching very, very soon. And yes, two new ones. One is going to be a guide. So it's gonna have a PDF document. There's some interactive spots in it, which I love. It walks you through my framework.
Brittany Herzberg (14:05.21) And it walks you through my framework by way of a case study with Ellie, my bookkeeper, an amazing virtual bookkeeper. And then I'm going to record that and use that to basically turn it into a private podcast. So I will have those two freebies launching very, very soon. You'll start seeing links for them and I'm sure I'll be dropping it in any of the podcast recordings too. And then I also have, which I mentioned earlier, that summer SEO-ification challenge. We start on July 28th, which I'm thrilled. I
Braindumped the entire thing just a few days ago, created everything, landing page, emails, graphics, everything. Just like got the entire information, just like dropped in my brain. And I was like, sweet, we're rolling with it. So it's $33. It's gonna be over three days. Again, we start July 28th. It's gonna be hosted in Telegram. There will be a member vault component to it as well. So I'm planning on having video and audio trainings, a Google Doc workbook. And then on that third day, which I think is that Thursday,
gosh, that's confusing. That sounds almost like the same thing. There will be a live QA call. So you can submit questions and then I will actually answer them on the call. And if you're on the call, then I'll be able to answer anything else for you. We're really going to be looking at these three elements. So ironically, website, content, off-site, opportunities, like again, your Instagrammer threads, bio, that type of thing, profile. And looking at
What's going on? We're kind of auditing it. It's a guided audit, if you will. So what could be optimized for SEO? Have you taken advantage of any of those things already? Is there any way that you can refine it? And just looking for those SEO opportunities and looking at how that can play out and all that it could do for you and your business and really to in a sustainable and consistent way market your business for you because we're busy enough, you know? So join us. The link is below for that.
I'm just like, I'm giddy about it. I can't shut up about it, which is part of the reason why I'm recording this today. So to wrap this up with a cute little bow, let this episode really just serve as a reminder that it's never, ever, ever, ever, ever too late to get started with SEO. And that even like I said earlier, those tiny actions add up over time. You've totally got this. You can come find me, ask me questions, share all the things, sign up for the challenge, and know that I'm over here cheering you on on your SEO journey.
