SEO Crash Course: How to Rank Higher In Search Results & Be Found By Your Ideal Clients

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to The Modern Hairstylist podcast. If you are a business owner or a hairstylist who hates the constant hustle of marketing yourself to get new potential clients into the door, um, if you are somebody who hates social media, or if you have an ideal client who is not on social media, and more likely, they're just going to find you in a Google search, or you're already getting good results through, um, Google My Business and Yelp and your website, right? Then this episode is gonna be really fantastic for you, because we're gonna be talking about SEO, which stands for search engine optimization.

Now, search engine optimization is what you can focus on as a marketer to make it so you are more likely to show up in search results and be in front of people's faces in digital places, assets, and placements. And so, there are a couple different things that you wanna take in consideration, and some must dos and some nice-to-haves when it comes to SEO. Um, and recently, I just taught an entire, very comprehensive, juicy masterclass to my Modern Stylist Movement members, and it wa- i- I th- I thought it went over really well, and I had a lot of fun researching for it and implementing and taking all the actions for it. I think it went really well, and that's why I wanted to share it with you all today on The Modern Hairstylist podcast.

Now, if you're a Modern Stylist Movement member listening to this, just know that I'm not giving away all the juicy information that I gave you and that you have access to in the hub. You have crazy hacks and how to make it so, you know, you get the most impact and the actual deep dive how-to. Um, but for this episode particularly, I'm gonna be doing some- a big overview and giving some tips and tricks and different things to consider in general. So, you're gonna be getting a little bit of a sneak peek into the super comprehensive class that I gave my MSM members today, my friend, so I'm really, really excited to be sharing it with you.

Um, so if you're ready to get into it and you f- you wanna optimize the shit out of your SEO, then let's go. Okay, so first off, I'm gonna go into a little bit more of a defined, uh, explanation of what SEO is, just to make sure that we're on the same page. So, search engine optimization, SEO for short, is the process of improving a digital platform's visibility and ranking on search engine result pages by optimizing its content, structure, and external factors to attract more organic content. Long story short, it's making your shit easier to find and see.

Now, whether that be your website or your social media, or whatever other digital profile or placement that you have, it's all about making those things being more likely to be found, right? Now, you- the- a great reason to focus on optimizing your search engine, um, ranking is it's little effort and high impact, particularly, like, the main things that you wanna do when you first set up your SEO with your digital placements. They don't really take that much effort. Now, if you want to really dive deep into making SEO a part of your main strategy, then some of that can take a little bit more effort.

And I'll be talking about what that looks like more towards the end of the episode, but the main things that are kind of, like, the must haves are really kind of, like, a set it and forget it type of thing, which is really great and can possibly, in some circumstances, get you really high impact. Now, you know me, my friend, as the modern hairstylist, and as somebody who is teaching you how to be a modern hairstylist, I'm all about working smarter, not harder. So, we always wanna look for ways where we can put in the littlest amount of effort and get the highest return on investment. I mean, any CEO, any Fortune 500 company would say that that is always what their focus is going to be.

That should be a priority for you as a CEO, right? Um, your search engine optimization being optimized can help you with more credibility. So, if you're showing up higher in search results, if you are often, uh, popping up in s- in front of somebody's face, then somebody is going to naturally- a new potential client is going to naturally look at you as an authority and look and see you as somebody who has a little bit more credibility. Um, and also, uh, sales psychology, there was some statistic or data or study, I could not pull ya- it fr- uh, specifically for you right now off the top of my head.

However, what it said was that sometimes people need to s- on average see or hear about something seven times before they actually decide to buy it, which is why sometimes when you get maybe, like, Facebook ads or Instagram ads or ads on social media in general, like on TikTok or whatever it may be, that you see the same ad over and over and over and over. Like, I know you know what I'm talking about, right? Like, you typed in one thing one time, and then you're seeing an ad for it, like, a million times after. The reason that happens is because these companies are particularly retargeting you because they believe and they've seen that you need to be able to see an ad many, many, many times and be aware of a product many, many times before you actually trust it enough to buy it.

So, if you search- if you work on your search engine optimization, when there's somebody who's on the search for a new hairstylist or a salon or whatever it may be, if you're showing up multiple times over and over and over, you're gonna permeate more into that person's brain, and it's going to create more authory- authority and trust and more likely for them- make it more likely for them to want to work with you. Then you're gonna have higher conversions. And the reason why you're gonna have higher conversions- And actually, let me explain what I mean by higher conversions. So, by higher conversions, I mean when somebody finds out about you, they're gonna be more likely to actually want to convert into a buying customer, somebody who actually wants to sit in your chair.

And the reason why working on your SEO is going to help you with creating higher conversions for yourself is because when you have curated your SEO to make it so the right ideal client is finding you and you are the perfect match for that person and that search result, then it's gonna be somebody who is a much warmer lead, or somebody who doesn't have to be as convinced to want to go ahead and work with you. And the majority, almost, like, 99% of the things that we do with SEO are free, so it's like, you might as well take advantage of the free tools that we have to make it so you can grow your business. Now, what exactly can you search engine optimize? So, what we normally think of when it comes to our search engine optimization is our website and our Google My Business listing, but what I also think that you need to be thinking about when it comes to your search engine optimization is your social media profiles as well.

Now, I know at the top of this episode, I said if you hate having to deal with social media to get new clients, then this is gonna be great for you, which is true, but I do still believe that growing your clientele with social media is still an extremely powerful, viable option for you and can help you ex- co- completely explode your business, even in today's day and age. And so, in order for you to do that, you wanna focus on how you can get your social media profile to also show up in search results and for it to be most likely to be found. And I'm not talking about whether the algorithm pushes out your content or not. That is a different conversation.

But-There are fundamental things that you can do with your social media posts and your profiles to make it so that you are showing up in the right places, in the right times when somebody is actually trying to find you, and make it so you are more likely to b- show up. So you... I don't want you to just think about surgent- search engine optimization as a way to make it so your website shows up higher in a Google search, or that your Google My Business profile or your Yelp profile shows up higher. But also think about how you can make it so your Instagram, your TikTok, or your Facebook profile, or whatever it may be that you're using, is one that is going to be most likely to show up when somebody in your local area is trying to find a new hairstylist or salon.

Now, I wanna caveat this, because I truly do not believe that SEO is something that you should bet all of your, um, uh, uh, efforts on. I don't think that you should put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to search engine optimization, because the result of it can very much vary from person to person, from business to business, from location to location, and it can be quite unpredictable. Like, there's definitely things that you can do to make it so you are more likely to show up, and you can consistently work on to strengthen your SEO as well. And particularly when it comes to independent hairstylists, you have to realize that, like, as an independent business, you are up against a bunch of multi-operator salons that are getting sometimes 10 times the foot traffic and also the digital traffic than you ever will, solely because you are only one person.

When you have an entire reputable salon that you are competing with when it comes to search results, that salon is going to naturally have a ton more traffic, because all of those stylists in there all have a shit ton of their own clients, right? And if they're in a place where there's a lot of foot traffic and you're not, then that makes a big difference as well. So, you know, it's, it's... uh, for particularly the independent stylists out there, I just wanna warn you that, like, SEO is not something that you will ever be able to rely on as a sole way to get new clients into your door unless you are really focusing on hardcore, continuously pushing out content, content that then pushes your SEO result and makes it even more optimized.

So, it's not this thing that you're going to be able to just sit back and passively make work and set up and forget and just bet on for the rest of your life. However, like I said earlier, it can be a little effort, high impact return, and it's kind of like a, you might as well do this because it's free and it's not that hard, right? So, I just wanna be clear that, like, if anybody's ever selling to you the dream of like, oh, once you get your SEO great, then you are gonna get a shit ton of clients into your chair and you'll never have to do anything else, then that is not the tea, my friends. Like, it is, it...

Marketing is a never-ending journey, and unfortunately, it takes much more than that, and, uh, you will always have to adapt. You will always have to put in some sort of work. However, this can give you a really strong backbone where you may not have to work as hard. Now, I'm gonna be covering a couple different ways that you can optimize your SEO by category of where you'd actually do it and then also giving you an overview of keywords.

So, I'm first gonna be going over keywords, what they are, how to find them, um, and what they should generally be. Then we're gonna be going into Google My Business, how to make sure your Google My Business profile is set up the best way that you possibly can make it. And then we have your social media platforms, and then we have your website, and then I'm gonna be sharing with you an extra bonus tip at the end that is something where it would be a little bit more effort for you to do to make it so you are search engine optimized, however, could have a really big impact on your search engine rankings. So first, let's go over keywords.

So, your keywords are the words or phrases and topics that your ideal audience sw- would mo- be most likely to search to find you. So, understanding what they are and using them frequently, especially in highly searchable placements, will help you be found easier. Now, when you're thinking about what your keywords are, you wanna think about what type of business you are, what your local location l- is, like, so your local city or county or whatever your ideal client would be most likely to search when it comes to a- the name of a location, but your local location, um, and then, of course, the actual services that you offer. Maybe you are specialized in a specific service, so then you wanna make sure that's a big part of your keywords, right?

And with all of this, your job is to be as searchable as possible and then give the searcher a great user experience. So, you don't wanna just come up in search results, but you want to be chosen to be looked into even further and then engaged with after being found. Because if you go ahead and do something like this, like, let's say that you put every single keyword in every single place that you possibly can to make it so you are most likely to show up no matter what, like maybe you are a hair salon, and yeah, you have some eyebrow waxing, but there's only a very tiny little section on your website about eyebrow waxing, right? Then what may happen is, is you may show up when somebody is searching for an eyebrow waxing service, but the majority of your website is not catering to that specific service, so somebody may go on the website, not see where you talk about eyebrow waxing, and they may dip.

So then what that's gonna do is it's gonna penalize you in your Google search results rankings, because not only is Google looking for how many people are clicking your website link when it comes up based upon the certain search, but they're also trying to see if that person actually stays on the website after they click your website, right? They're lo- they're trying to see like, okay, I wanna... This platform is trying to make it so that the user has the best experience possible using it. So Google really cares that when somebody googles something, that somebody is finding a great result that matches what they're looking for.

And so within their algorithm, they are going to be tracking whether or not, when somebody clicks on your website, are they staying for a long time or not, and that's gonna tell Google whether or not your search engine, uh, uh, keywords are kind of catfishing or not. So, you wanna make sure that your keywords aren't just popular things that will make sure that you show up in the results when somebody is searching for somebody like you, but you wanna make sure that you're not u- overusing words that may be too off-topic, or that s- if somebody was searching for those other things, that they wouldn't have a good experience or feel like they found what they needed when they actually land on your platform. I hope that makes sense. So, if you're...

If you're using keywords that aren't necessarily, um, something that somebody can dive deep into on your website or find more information about very easily on your website, then that can lead to quick visitor bounce rates and lower search engine rankings due to a poor user experience. Now, to find your keywords, of course, educated guesses. You know, we can all figure out, like, what our keywords would most likely be just from, uh, from our common sense, um, including your specialty or your niche and then your location and then, you know, hair salon. Everybody would freaking know what those words are and probably be the thing that people most likely are to search.

However, if you wanna get a little bit more advanced and you wanna be super targeted, real surveying and feedback. So, asking your ideal clients, like, if, who are real humans in your real location exactly what they would search if they were looking for a new hairstylist today. And in my Chief Marketing Hairstylist program, um, available on my website, if you wanna ever check it out, we have real data and feedback that we, um, uh, solicit from our ideal clients, and then we're able to use that to make data-driven decisions and really figure out exactly where our keywords are with, uh, without just educated guesses. These are actually literally what our ideal clients would be searching for us.

And then there's also tools like Google Keyword Planner, which is something that will actually show you, like, what the majority of people are searching for, um, based upon certain keywords and certain, uh, uh, themes of websites and things like that. I found this tool to be kind of irrelevant to us particularly. Um, I think it'd be better for, like, e-commerce businesses or, uh, uh, things that weren't regional or things that weren't as straightforward as hair salons. Um, so I found that, like, the stress of figuring out how to use it and going through it wasn't necessarily worth the reward.

So, you wanna have your bank of keywords. You wanna understand what are the words that my ideal client is going to be most likely to put into a search engine to find me, and then you wanna put those keywords everywhere that you possibly can, particularly in the most searchable places, um, throughout all of your digital assets. Okay, so this brings me to the actual placements of all the places that you can actually SEO. So, the very first thing is gonna be a Google My Business listing.

Now, this is gonna be the most straightforward and obvious one, I feel like, and the most simple for you to actually optimize. Um, first off, you wanna make sure that you are actually listed, right? That your Google My Business is actually something that is registered and verified as well too, um, and you can figure out how to do that through your Google My Business profile. And then I want you to make sure that you are thinking very smartly when it comes to how you name your business and then also how that translates onto your Google My Business listing, because the words in your title of your actual business very much matter.

So, think about how can you make sure that your keywords are in your title of your salon in a tasteful way that won't mess up anything aesthetically or from a brand perspective, but will also make you most likely to be searched. Now, this isn't something that I necessarily think that you absolutely have to 100% optimize or else you are screwed, um, but I do think that it can give you a massive, very simple advantage if you have particular, uh, words in the title of the name of your business. Because let's say that your business was named Hair Salon Near Me. Like, dude, that would get a million hits.

Like, your SEO would automatically be freaking optimized, because that is what the majority of people are searching for when they're trying to find a salon near them, right? And so, you know, ju- that's just an example and a very radical example of how you can make it so your name is helping you in your search results. And then the last thing with Google My Business, I mean, we could go really deep into a bunch of different Google My Business strategies, but I'm just giving you a really quick overview here. Um, make sure that you have the most relevant primary category set, um, within your Google My Business settings, and then you wanna make sure that you max out your secondary, secondary categories.

And you wanna make sure that all of them are very, very, very relevant. Remember, I said you don't wanna catfish people. So, although there's a ton of different things that you can list as your categories of business, you don't want to put anything in there that is going to be too, like, too far away from what you're actually advertising. And then lastly, with Google My Business, just make sure that in your business description and then anywhere else where you can put any type of text and keywords that you are being smart with your keywords and you are, yes, putting something that is tasteful and relevant in there.

Like, you don't wanna just spam with a bunch of keywords. You wanna put a description that makes sense, but you wanna try to sprinkle your keywords throughout that description as much as you possibly can. Okay, then we go into social media profiles. So, I'm just gonna give you some general advice here.

Number one, you wanna make sure that your, your profile is as built out as possible. So, as much information that it allows you to list about your business, you want to be filling in those spaces, and you wanna be thinking about your SEO and your keywords every time you do that. So, think about the title of your Instagram profile and your Facebook profile. Think, look and see all of the different things that you can put in the About on your business f-, uh, Facebook page, right?

Think about what are the main things that show up in search results, the main placements that show up in search results when somebody is actually searching on Instagram. So, you... A, a great experiment for you to do is go ahead and search in your own Instagram account and look up local hairstylists in your area and see who shows up first and then look and see what keywords they're putting in their title and in their handle, right? And you might wanna take some notes from that.

And then make sure that everything is as optimized as possible when it comes to as many different ways that somebody can find you. And that also goes into hashtags. So, like, every time you post a post, you, it's, it'd be, it would be very smart for you to put location-relevant hashtags-... under each of your posts to make it so they are more likely to be found.

And then lastly, as far as placement goes, we have your website SEO. So, as far as your website SEO goes, you really wanna make sure that, number one, of course, that throughout your entire website, you're using your keywords in all of your copy, in all of your sections. Now, like I said, you wanna do this in a tasteful way, particularly on your website, because the words that you use on your website matter very much in making it so a new potential client is most likely to convert into a butt in your chair. Like, the copy on your website is literally the difference between a shit-ton of money and not.

It is the make or break. So, you, again, you don't wanna just spam these keywords all over the place, but I do believe that you can very tastefully include them throughout your copy and sprinkle them throughout each page in your website. There's also backend settings when it comes to your SEO on your website host, things that will make it so the page title and navigation title and the URL slug, et cetera, et cetera, and the SEO site descriptions, all of that stuff will have your keywords in it. Again, make sure you do it in a tasteful way.

So, you wanna make sure that you build all of that stuff out as much as you possibly can, keeping your keywords in mind. Same with all of your images on your website. You most likely are able to do alt text on all of your images, and you wanna make sure that you give a comprehensive description that absolutely does describe the picture, but is including your keywords in it as well. Now, that's website, super simple, although it takes a little bit to get set up.

Once you have it set up, it's set it and forget it, and you really don't have to worry about it most likely ever again. Now, my last big bonus tip for you is starting a blog on your website. And what you could do is, is you could blog about different topics that make you the authority of your niche, or the authority of your location where your salon actually is. And a great way, um, to post in the way that will actually help you in your SEO is by answering questions.

So, you think about it, like, most people are Googling to get answer to, answers to their question. So, think about what is your ideal client most likely going to Google when it comes to the questions or problems that they have around their hair? And then, you wanna make blog posts, multiple blog posts, that will then answer those types of questions, and make sure that they're pretty comprehensive. And there's also different formatting that you can put in there that will actually help you in your SEO as well, because it'll give Google an easier time to actually read through it all and then translate that and tell their algorithm whether or not you're worth being referred to or not.

And then you'll be much more likely to show up in search results, because then now i- it's really proving that you're the authority if people are, if you are answering people's questions and you're the first thing that shows up when somebody googles a question particular to your area. So, the more local area kind of, um, relevant topics that you can blog about, the better. Now, I get that, uh, starting a blog may sound like a lot of work, but if you really wanna put your eggs in the basket of SEO and really optimize the shit out of it, it's a really goi- great way for you to be ranking higher if you would like to get into it. So, my friend, I hope that this overview and my little tips and tricks of search engine optimization were helpful for you today, my friend.

There are a bunch of different things that you can do to make all of this stuff a lot easier, and a lot of different hacks, and like I said, I go over all that stuff within my program, so you can check out all that I have to offer at huntredonia.com. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate if you just hit the subscribe button, just to make sure that you're telling the podcast algorithm that people actually like to listen to me and that you don't miss an episode. I really appreciate you tuning in.

So much love to you. Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2024 Hunter Donia LLC.