How to Add SEO to Your Squarespace Website

How to Add SEO to Your Squarespace Website

I know how important it is to drive traffic to your website if you have a blog. Otherwise, what's the point, if no one can actually see the content that you're creating? So today I want to support you in two pieces of the puzzle to improving the SEO on your website.

1. Content is Key

Number one is your content. I am telling you that none of the cool features matter if the content on your blog and on your website is kind of crappy and ultimately if your audience doesn't want it, then they're not going to be searching for it, so it's really important that you put the majority of your energy on creating content that your audience wants. You need to know who your audience is and, more specifically, what it is that they're looking for online and then you create the content to meet that need.

Some of my favorite ways to find out what my audience is searching for are to step in their shoes and imagine what they're googling online. Now if you're like, I don't want to imagine Michelle, I just want to know specifically, so I ask them. Go ahead in a group, in a private community and ask them what they're searching for online or what specific questions they have about the industry that you're in. Another fun tip is to go to blog posts that are in a similar industry as you would see, what kind of comments are coming through the bottom, see what people are asking about, and then create content that meets that need. Or, go into a facebook group and see what people are asking about your specific niche and create content that again meets that need. I can't stress enough to you how important content is and if you're struggling with coming up with ideas, it is as simple as asking your audience, what can I create for you? 

Some of my biggest, most impactful, most traffic driven blog posts that I have are really specific, so the titles themselves need to be really specific as well. Some examples for you are "7 Tips For A Well Branded Photo Shoot" or "How to Convert Clients on your Website." Remember you. People are searching for the content that they need, so make sure that not only is the content amazing, but also the title is super descriptive and on point for what your audience is ultimately searching for.

2. Keywords

The second piece of this puzzle is my favorite thing to do, and that is adding keywords to your blog posts. Now, I do not suggest that it's just a keyword heavy blog posts, so it's just keywords, right? You're not actually giving value, none, no, no, no, no. Lead with value, but add in those key words that's going to tell Google, hey, that's what this blog post is about. 

Another really cool thing that you could do is add keywords to the images within your blog post. If you watch the whole Youtube video below, I actually dive-in to my Squarespace site and show you exactly what I'm talking about here. As a result, I saw this was having a big impact on my SEO. You'll see I have a ton of images in my blog post. I have videos, I have all kinds of things. One of the things that I absolutely love to do is to go in and edit the image. Once you upload your image, you'll see a place for file name, update your file name, make your file name, the name of your blog post, or maybe a key word that is in relation to your blog post. This helps Google rank your content. So they're pulling all the different pieces from your website, including your images, so update your file name. It's as simple as seriously just clicking on here and typing what ever you want. I don't have captions underneath my photos, that you guys can see, but I do have things written. Again, giving google more to work with, with my site. Again, I show you exactly how to this in the video below, so be sure to watch if you're not sure what to do!

Bonus Tip

I'm going to give you guys one more bonus that I absolutely love. At the end of all my blog posts throughout my website, I have a lot of personal information, and I have a signature. This is another amazing space to add a little bit more seo to your website. You can go ahead and just type in your title right or maybe the name of your business. So for me, I type branding and business coach, and then I can also go into design caption below and you'll see branding and business coach. Okay, so this helps. This helps you rank on Google for your title. It helps Google know who you are, what it is that you do specifically. And again, all I have to do is do not display caption and hit apply. So fun little tip for you in improving SEO. Using images on Squarespace, making these small changes to the content that you're creating and the SEO that you are adding to your website in the form of keywords can have a big impact on your brand awareness. 

Can I get an "A" for driving traffic to your website with zero ad spend? That's like the entreprenuers dream, but I also understand that coming up with content, coming up with ideas is kind of daunting. So I have a really cool free resource for you that you can grab here: https://brandmerry.lpages.co/content-creation-training/ 

It's how I map out 30 days worth of content and as little as 30 minutes, there's a really cool bonus video that kind of walks you through my process and they're really easy spreadsheet that you can use in your own business to kind of categorize what content you're going to create and plan it all out in advance. It's going to help you overall in your business, if you can start streamlining these practices now. 

You can watch the whole video for a more in-depth tutorial of this with several bonus tips below!

Head over to Youtube and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over there to help more people see this information ↠ https://youtu.be/H39rEQNWBdw

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

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Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>

How to Use Facebook Messenger Bots For Your Brand {Video Inside}

How to Use Facebook Messenger Bots For Your Brand

In today's video I'm going to be sharing with you three simple ways to use Facebook Messenger bots, specifically mini chat, to not only grow your audience, but also increase brand awareness, and more importantly, engagement. But before I dive into those three simple steps, I want to share with you an upcoming masterclass that I'm hosting on how to create an authentic brand that allows you to grow your community with ease and leads to more clients. You can find an upcoming time and all the information in the link below.

But before I jump into those three simple steps, I want to go ahead and invite you to an upcoming training that I am doing. I'm going to be sharing five steps on creating an authentic brand that grows your loyal community and leads to more clients. You can join here: https://brandmerry.com/authenticbrand 

1. Using Messenger Bots for Live Video Notification

This has been so much fun for me in my brand and business, and I'm so excited to share it with you, because it has really not only increased live viewers, but also increased engagement, which is so important with the social media algorithm. We want people not only showing up to watch, liking and hearting your content, sharing and commenting. All of those pieces are really, really important.

So the more people that you can get on the actual live video, as opposed to watching it on replay, is going to help you stand out online. So how do you do this with mini chat? So there's so many different ways to use Messenger bots, but I absolutely love creating a really simple form in Manychat for an upcoming live video that you are hosting. Maybe for you it's a live video, a live training, a challenge, or a weekly or biweekly segment, like Mondays with Michelle, which I do biweekly on my Facebook business page.

Creating a really simple opt in form using Manychat, putting a cool little title telling them if they sign up they'll get a notification right in their Messenger box, so they don't miss a single thing. Then, when they sign up, you can schedule a broadcast to all of the amazing women and men who have signed up to get the notification, and send them a really cool notification that says "Oh my gosh, we're live." They can click the button and join you live right there and then.

It's also a really cool idea to follow up with any posts afterwards asking if they have any takeaways or questions, or reminding them about a special offer that you mentioned on the live video, which they will hopefully be live on, with that really awesome reminder.

It takes the guess work out for people wondering "When is that person going to go live? Do I have to set a reminder?" And what if they forget, because life gets in the way. We are all by our phones most of the time, so it's really cool to have just a little Facebook Messenger pop up and say "Oh yeah, I'll watch right here on my phone."

2. Using Messenger Bots for Pre-Enrollment to a Launch

So maybe you're rolling out a new course, or a new program, and this is a strategy that I absolutely loved doing for my signature course, Your Brand New Adventure. And it worked really, really well. So what I did is I created a wait list on my website, by embedding a Manychat form onto my website, so that they could go to my website, to the sales page, and click to get a messenger reminder when the cart opened.

Then about a week before the cart opens, I sent a Facebook message to them, just letting them know that they had signed up to join the wait list, and the offer was now available. It was so powerful, I had 50% women buy on the very first day, and the other 50%, yes 100% conversion on a wait list, signed up before the cart closed.

And all I needed to do, because they were an engaged audience, is send them a reminder message mid way through, just letting them know that that special pre-enrollment offer was ending, and then again on the final day, saying "Hey, now if you're interested, here's the information to learn more."

It saved me a ton of time when it came to pre-enrollment for my launch, I didn't have to send out a ton of emails. It was just three simple Manychat messages, and I was done. So it's a really cool tool to use in your arsenal.

One thing to keep in mind is that Manychat and other messenger bots do not allow sole promotion. So you want to make sure that the people who sign up for your wait list are engaged before you actually promote a free order. In order to do that you can add a couple of questions like "Are you still interested in the Brand New Adventure that you signed up for. Click yes or no." And once they respond, they will be considered an engaged audience.

3. Using Messenger bots to Announce a YouTube Video or a Blog Post that just went live

This is really important, especially when it comes to YouTube, because Google wants to see that people are responding to the video shortly after it's published. And the same goes for your blog post.

So the more eyes that you can get on that content right away, the better. So using Messenger bots to send reminders to your audience when a blog post is published, or a YouTube video is live, is really, really powerful. You can create a simple signup using something like Manychat, where they can just sign up for notifications, and then every week, or biweekly, or whenever your schedule is for your blog, or your YouTube channel, you can send a little reminder to their inbox saying "Hey, here's today's topic. I'd love for you to head over to the website, or YouTube. Hit like, write a comment, and let me know your feedback."

It's a great way to get instant feedback, and instant eyes on the content you're creating. Messenger bots are seriously exploding, and I'll share with you my personal favorite, which is Manychat. It's free to use, it's a really, really great tool to add to your online business. But it's really important because it improves engagement, and engagement is so important with the way Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, basically every single algorithm, is functioning today.

So the more people that you can get onto your live videos, or into your programs, on to your blog posts or your YouTube video right away, the better it is going to be for you and your brand. But here's the thing, I shared with you three simple steps today on how you can incorporate Messenger bots, but if you don't have a clear voice for your brand and your business, none of that stuff, that fancy stuff, makes any sense.

Which is why I'm really going to encourage you one more time to join me for my upcoming masterclass on five simple steps to create an authentic brand that allows you to grow your community with ease, and leads to more clients. You can click the link right here https://brandmerry.com/authenticbrand to sign up at the time that works best for you.

You can watch the whole video for a more in-depth version of this and several bonus tips below!

Head over to YouTube and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over there to help more people see this information ↠ https://youtu.be/zc19LlZCIu0

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

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Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>

How to Create a Visibility Plan for Your Online Business

Creating a visibility plan that gets you seen, heard, and paid is so incredibly important for your online business. Yet, so many entrepreneurs get stuck when they enter the visibility or marketing phase.

And, as I shared in this post we know that without marketing, your business is not going to reach its full potential.

We see this when entrepreneurs build websites and receive no traffic.
Create an offer and make no sales.
Work for years, but never see the growth they deserve.

All of these elements, and more require marketing (aka getting visible)!

I’ve been marketing online and teaching my clients sustainable marketing for over 8 years now, and one of the things I specialize in is a multi-channel marketing approach, centered around repurposing, and search engine optimization.

As a Brand Strategist, my goal is to help you create a visibility plan that gets your brand noticed and paid online. If you're looking to establish your presence online without solely relying on social media, this comprehensive guide will walk you through the essential steps to create a visibility plan that can drive leads and sales for your business.

This visibility plan is focused on big-picture, long-term success. Think of it as a roadmap. Don’t try to tackle all of this at once, rather start with part one for 30 days and after the first month add on the next part. Continue doing this until you have all the pieces working together.

This blog post is also featured on my YouTube channel. To watch the full video head here.

Visibility Plan Foundation: Understanding Your Audience

The foundation of an effective visibility plan lies in understanding what your audience truly needs from you. 

It's important to create a variety of content tailored to different stages of the customer journey—from those just identifying their problems to those ready to make a purchase. I dive deeper into the Customer Buying Journey in this post here.

Educational content, despite what others might be saying online, is a powerful way to build trust and position yourself as an expert. It’s fundamental when thinking of the Client Buying Journey and supporting your clients at various stages. Educational content also builds authority, making you a trusted solution for your ideal customer.

Two tools I highly recommend for content research are Answer the Public and Ubersuggest. These tools help you discover what your audience is searching for, providing a wealth of content ideas based on actual search data. They are also incredibly useful when optimizing for SEO something we’ll talk about a little later.

Creating a 90-Day Content Plan

Now that you have a list of content ideas, it's time to organize them into a 90-day content plan. 

Remember, we’re no longer focused on coming up with a new topic every single day, since we’re no longer focused on just social media, so there are only 12 topics for you to plan out.

Choose 12 topics to focus on, considering any seasonal things, trends, or upcoming launches. This focused approach allows you to deliver quality content consistently without overwhelming yourself with having to create new content every single day.

Want to learn my entire content planning process, including content research? Check out the 90-Day Content Blueprint here.

Visibility Plan Part One: Choosing Your Core Content 

Decide on your core content format: a podcast or a video. Both have their advantages, but ultimately, choose the format that aligns with your strengths and preferences. 

Remember, you only need to produce one piece of core content each week. But, you’ll want to focus on long-form content here because it will make repurposing your content to multiple platforms easier.

If you choose to start with a podcast, consider adding a video element after 30 days. Recording a video version of your podcast can greatly expand your reach, especially if you utilize platforms like YouTube, which functions as a search engine. It will also give you additional video content to repurpose.

If you have the capacity to start with video content, you can choose to create pre-recorded content for YouTube. This again, can later be repurposed to a podcast by stripping the audio.

For our purposes today, we’re going to use a weekly podcast as our core content.

Visibility Plan Part Two: Video Content

After you get into the habit of creating and distributing your weekly podcast content, it’s time to add in the video element.

A great tool to distribute your podcast content (audio only) is Libsyn. Libsyn allows you to easily push it out to the top podcasting platforms each week. 

Now, the goal is to add the video element which we will distribute on YouTube. YouTube is a search engine so not only is your content discoverable by new people, but it will also continue performing for years to come.

To easily edit your video content, I suggest a tool called Descript. This video was edited in Descript!

Visibility Plan Part Three: Blogging and SEO

Your core content should also be repurposed and featured on your website as blog posts. 

Now that you have an audio recording you can easily turn that into a blog post thanks to AI tools like Descript. The best part is that it’s taking your original content and turning it into a blog post, which is such an authentic way to use these amazing tools.

Simply add your recording to Descript and ask their AI tool to give you a blog post. Within minutes, you’ll have content that you can minimally edit and add to your website.

At this stage, you want to be sure and optimize your blog for search engines to attract organic traffic. By optimizing your content, you’re improving your odds of being discovered on another platform. Google is an amazing resource for driving organic, free traffic to your website.

Fun fact: This blog post was originally published in 2018, and started ranking higher in 2024. So we updated it with fresh content which Google loves!

Learn more about SEO research and optimizing your account in SEO Bootcamp. Details can be found here.

Visibility Plan Part Four: Leveraging Pinterest

Pinterest can be a game-changer for driving traffic to your website. It operates like a search engine, providing evergreen content that continues to attract visitors long after it's posted. 

You already have everything you need to start showing up on Pinterest and driving traffic to your blog post, and even to your YouTube videos if you choose.

Pinterest relies heavily on keyword research, optimization like your blog, and visually appealing graphics. Use Canva to create visually appealing pins and schedule them directly on the Pinterest platform.

I continuously get traffic from Pinterest years after my original content is created and added to the platform. So, even if I’m not creating anything new I know I’m still getting my brand seen.

I’ve been on Pinterest for eight years now and help my clients create stellar Pinterest strategies as well. I’ve bundled up everything I teach inside my course Pinterest Mastery. Learn more here.

Visibility Plan Part Five: Utilizing Short-Form Video

Short-form videos are incredibly effective for building trust and reaching new audiences. You can use these types of videos to enhance your content on Pinterest, and YouTube Shorts. So even if you don’t want to show up on social media, you can still elevate your marketing strategy.

However, they also make amazing pieces of content for social media where you’re creating more of a profile of your work. Tools like Opus Clip Pro can help you create multiple short clips from your longer videos efficiently. 

All you have to do is add your YouTube link or upload a video and let AI work its magic. 

Visibility Plan Part Six: Social Media Marketing

Remember what I said earlier about using social media to nurture your existing audience? This is where your core content makes that 100x easier.

Simply take your blog post or transcript and pop it into an AI tool like ChatGPT. Ask ChatGPT to help you write a few social media posts from this content, ask it to create a carousel, or give you Reel ideas. Within minutes, which includes a little tweaking cause ChatGPT loves to take liberties, you’ll have social media ideas.

Pair these ideas with your short-form videos and consistency on social media becomes a breeze!

Visibility Plan Part Seven: Nurturing Your Email List

As we’re building our brand awareness, we can’t forget to show up for the people who have said yes to hearing from us. Your email list is a valuable resource and we want to be sure to share our core content with them every week. 

This can be an excellent way to nurture your audience, showcase authority, and support them through the Customer Buying Journey. Simply sending a weekly newsletter with a link to your core content works like a charm.

If you need a little support in growing your email list via a freebie and funnel, then check out Funnel in a Weekend where I show you how to do it all in just 3 days.

Visibility Plan Part Eight: Incorporating Public Relations (PR)

Once you've established a strong base of content, it's time to explore PR opportunities. 

With a background in PR, I can tell you this is the secret weapon that not enough entrepreneurs are utilizing. A robust portfolio of blog posts, videos, and podcasts will make it easier to pitch yourself for interviews and collaborations, expanding your reach even further.

When you’re featured on someone else’s channel you’re reaching a new audience every single time. Not to mention the credibility of being invited into someone’s business is huge, and can lead to much higher conversion rates for you.

Inside my membership at Brandmerry Academy, I teach my clients how to approach PR Marketing, along with all the other stages of the visibility plan mentioned above. Learn more about the Academy at brandmerry.com/academy.

CONCLUSION

Creating a visibility plan may seem overwhelming at first, but by breaking it down into manageable phases, you can build a multifaceted approach to get your brand noticed. 

Whether you focus on SEO, Pinterest, or expanding into video content, each step brings you closer to a comprehensive and sustainable visibility plan.

The goal here is to feature your content on platforms that work for you, for years to come and utilize tools and strategy to make sure you’re not spending all of your time creating content.

Take it one step at a time and watch how your results improve!

Ready to take your visibility and marketing plan to the next level? Tired of relying on social media and intrigued, but slightly overwhelmed, with SEO, Pinterest, YouTube, Blogging, List Building, and more?

Brandmerry Academy was made just for you! My signature membership will give you access to all of my top courses to help you build a brand and get it seen and paid consistently.

Get more details at brandmerry.com/academy

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DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

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Meet Michelle

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Grow Your List Using FACEBOOK Lives + YOUR Free Offer

GROW YOUR LIST USING FACEBOOK LIVES + YOUR FREE OFFER

Facebook Lives (well any live video really) have transformed my business and since we are all about visibility here at Brandmerry I want to give you the tools you need to feel confident in sharing your freebie via live videos.

FB lives are two-fold: an excellent way to grow your online visibility and build trust with your audience PLUS grow your list of community.

Today, I'm sharing with you 4 simple ways to start using your Facebook lives to their full advantage to grow your list!

1. CREATE A FREEBIE SPECIFIC VIDEO

An amazing tool to grow your visibility and get the message out about your free offer. Create a FB live where you introduce yourself and then talk up your free offer. Be sure to share the title, some super descriptive bullets or talking about about the benefits of the free offer (exactly what they will learn), why you created and how they can access it.

Once your video is created share it out like crazy, pin the post in your private community and your business page AND if you have a little extra cash you can boost your video so more people see it (be sure to create a custom audience and don't just throw money at it).

2. INTRODUCE YOUR FREE OFFER

You are already going live, and if you aren't you should be, so why not share your free offer with EVERY SINGLE video. I always encourage my clients to pitch with every video, and this doesn't have to be just paid offers it also includes your free workbooks, trainings, challenges and more. There are two places to share your free offer:

Beginning: After your introduction at the beginning of your video share your free offer and how they can get there hands on it (i.e. give them a specific link).

End: Once your video ends remind them of the free offer, talk a little more about the benefits of your offer and how they can get their hands on it. 

3. UPDATE THE DESCRIPTION

If you are not doing this you are missing out on a golden opportunity! The #1 thing I recommend ALL my clients do is go back to update the description of their live video to give tons of value and information that entices your audience to watch the video. Remember, your video doesn't matter if no one is watching it. 

After your video is complete be sure to give the title of your free offer, your descriptive bullets and the link to access it. Accessibility is super important so make it easy for people to click, give their information and go.

4. BONUS TIP: PIN YOUR LINK IN THE COMMENTS

Another great FB live addition is the option to pin a specific comment or link to the top of your video. With most videos, unless changed, you will see the comments in realtime, so when you pin the comment you guarantee that no matter when someone starts or stops watching the replay they will have access to the link.

Want a little more information on creating free offers (aka lead magnets)? Check out my blog on Four Steps to Create Your Next Free Offer here ↠ 

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Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>

What is Personal Branding and Why is Personal Branding Important?

What is Branding and
Why is Branding Important
for Female Entrepreneurs?

**The post was updated on October 2019

I absolutely love personal branding, but as much as I LOVE it, it didn't come easy to me early on in my business.

In fact, the very first website I made took almost five months to make and the end result was NOTHING like what I imagined. Sure I had done it myself, but I got so wrapped up in what everyone else was doing and what their brands looked like that I lost myself in the process.

When I became a personal branding coach and consultant female entrepreneurs I knew I wanted to share my discoveries and knowledge around branding with as many women as possible.

Why is Personal Branding Important?

Because when you start thinking about branding as so much more than just aesthetic, you are able to create a truly authentic personal brand that stands out in your industry.

And, yes when I say personal branding, I mean you!

In fact, no matter what you sell online you need to be focused on the person behind the business. It is the personal connection that attracts your dream clients and keeps them engaged.

4 Pieces for your Personal Brand

This 7-minute video will give you a look inside personal branding and the 4 pieces needed for a strong personal brand online.

When you take the time to lay the foundational pieces of your personal brand, you create a brand that is so on-point to who you are and your purpose and clearly connects with your audience.

This is how you create a brand that attracts fans, not just followers.

Leave your biggest takeaway from today’s video below.

P.S. If you’re ready to create a strong personal brand on social media, then be sure to check out my FREE masterclass where I’m sharing my Build a Better Brand Method. You’ll learn the exact framework I teach my clients to create a brand that stands out on social media, attracts their dream clients and creates a revenue-generating business. Sign up here!

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