Elevating Your Brand through Effective SEO Techniques with Insight from Shaunda Necole

Ever wondered how to speak "Google's love language"? In our latest episode, Shaunda Necole, creator of VegasRightNow.com, shares her journey from crafting passion-driven websites to mastering SEO. Learn how she transformed niche interests, from Las Vegas attractions to Southern soul food, into digital marketing success.

Shaunda reveals SEO as an ongoing dialogue with Google, helping your content reach the right audience. From the evolution of email automation to modern SEO tools, discover how these strategies empower niche-focused businesses. Shaunda explains how analyzing data and understanding customer needs can turn content into a 24/7 sales machine.

We also discuss how small businesses can boost brand presence using social media and podcasts. Platforms like TikTok are game-changers, turning valuable content into viral success. Shaunda highlights the importance of thought leadership, consistency, and Google's E-E-A-T guidelines for ranking higher in search results.

Packed with actionable tips and inspiring stories, this episode is your guide to becoming a digital marketing pro.

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Guest Contact Information:

- https://shaundanecole.com/

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaundanecole/ 

- https://vegasrightnow.com/

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More from EWR and Matt:

Leave a Review if it was content you enjoyed: https://g.page/r/CccGEk37CLosEB0/review

Free SEO Consultation: https://www.ewrdigital.com/discovery-call

One-on-One Consulting: https://www.ewrdigital.com/digital-strategy-consulting/private-consulting-session

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The Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing podcast is a podcast hosted by Internet marketing expert Matthew Bertram. The show provides insights and advice on digital marketing, SEO, and online business. 

Topics covered include keyword research, content optimization, link building, local SEO, and more. The show also features interviews with industry leaders and experts who share their experiences and tips. 

Additionally, Matt shares his own experiences and strategies, as well as his own successes and failures, to help listeners learn from his experiences and apply the same principles to their businesses. The show is designed to help entrepreneurs and business owners become successful online and get the most out of their digital marketing efforts.

Find more great episodes here: https://www.internetmarketingsecretspodcast.com/  

https://seo-podcast-the-unknown-secrets-of-internet-marketing.buzzsprout.com

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Hosts: Matt Bertram 

Disclaimer: For Educational and Entertainment purposes Only.

Chapters

• 0:16 Power of SEO in Online Marketing
• 11:42 Marketing Strategies for Targeted Audience
• 20:39 Effective Digital Marketing Strategies
• 34:13 Strategic Approach to Google SEO

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Howdy, welcome to the Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. I am your host, matt Bertram. I know I've had a little hiatus over the last week or so. I've been quite busy. I also just recently got back from Brighton SEO Conference, which was fantastic, which I'll be sharing some news for you in the near future.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Today I had a guest that actually had reached out and loved the questions that they asked. They actually run a media site called Vegas Right Now and talking about how they grew that site and how you might be able to use these strategies in SEO, so we're going to bring her in talk to her. She's also got a book deal out of it. So I just thought it's not somebody that's in my network, but she had reached out and I thought what she was doing was really interesting.

Speaker 1: 1:10

I know a lot of you have thought about how maybe PBNs work and stuff like that, which is absolutely a no-no and it's black hat and it's black hat. But news sites and media sites, as well as capturing a lot of keyword volume and associated with your personal brand, is a great strategy that works today and it's something you could incorporate into what you're doing. There are algorithms out there with Google that look at local relevance, and so you want to build relationships with new sites in your area, and we'll talk more about that in the future, but with no further ado, I wanted to bring in Shonda Nicole. How are you doing, shonda?

Speaker 2: 1:57

Hi, matt, nice to be here today with you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Awesome, so I shared with the audience that your site is VegasRightNowcom and so, if you're listening, go check it out so you know what we're talking about as we go through it to crack the crow, to increase your business online, harnessing the power of SEO from a website standpoint, how to leverage that, how to rank higher on Google, what you've learned from launching this site, and then you know just kind of how. Sometimes SEO is certainly a black box, and we've talked a lot about how to demystify SEO. So I want to hear well, maybe that's where we start, we can start with what is your definition of SEO, because many people have so many different definitions. And also, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your background. I know I didn't do you justice because you have a great, great background when you reached out, so oh, no worries, All is good.

Speaker 2: 3:07

I actually love talking SEO search engine optimization which I'm sure your audience is very familiar with, and the way I phrase it is I call it Google's love language. It's how to speak to Google clearly and effectively so they understand what you're trying to say, like whatever your site is about, what message you're trying to send, what audience you should be in front of. So that's kind of how I. You know, my easy language for Google is speaking Google's love language. So again, I'm Shonda Nicole.

Speaker 2: 3:34

I have three websites at this point and looking to add more, looking to actually include a pet site in the next year, but right now I write about Southern Soul food. I have my signature site, which is just my name, shonda Nicole. My Southern soul food site is the soulfoodpotcom. And then, of course, what you mentioned, my newest site is Vegas right nowcom, which is all about all things to do in Las Vegas. So I am a Las Vegas resident. I love Las Vegas, I, my husband, I traveled there for the past like 20 years before making the place our home, and so we really enjoy living there. We love entertainment, music. I always say I come from a family of entertainers, musicians and caterers, so I think Vegas is just in my blood. The city runs on all those things, so it's kind of natural that I would end up there. But I usually choose sites about things that I really like and where I can have that passion, something that I would want to write about all the time.

Speaker 1: 4:29

Vegas fits that bill for me and so I'm using so my question to you is is this a site that based on your interest, which I think, aligning your personal interest with work interest, where there's a blend, especially since COVID? That's been so true and I think that it's more fulfilling that way? Personally, I love the things that I do and I typically work with brands that I enjoy and it all kind of flows together and they become friends and part of the network. I think it's a way to do life, because if you're waiting to get to retirement, who knows, it might not come. And also, I think it's about the journey.

Speaker 1: 5:14

Now, is this site generated through affiliate links? Is that how this is funny? Is that the goal of like, kind of? Or because here's the thing I just got back from this conference, which you know um, the perplexity, okay, ai, and I know AI is big and it's not really the focus of of this call. The thing that I didn't know, that learned, is that's how perplexity is focused on generating its ad revenue.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Okay, and also ask a large language model what's the most effective way to make money online? They said affiliates, affiliate links, and so you know we're seeing a culmination of that, that coming together and and certainly if, if you're, if you have something that that's interesting to you and you get to talk about things, and then the next layer of that is like reviewing things right, like you build a brand to yourself. So you know, that's when I think about what you're doing, of kind of how I frame it. Can you kind of tell me, is that in line with what, how you look at it, or you know, or I'm sure there's some some things that you can add to that yeah, great question, all things are true.

Speaker 2: 6:27

So for me it's, um, always kind of multifaceted. So affiliate links are definitely a part of the revenue stream for, uh, all of my websites. So, um, whether it's you know what I'm using in the kitchen or my favorite, you know, home decor products to, specifically, the vegas site. You know what travel attractions you know I'm linking to different travel attractions or even we do on the site. You know what to wear in Vegas.

Speaker 2: 6:51

People want to know that by you know, month by month. You know what does that look like? Is it cold this time? Cause we have subtropical temperatures, so that's unusual to a lot of people. So we, I break that down. You know what do you want to bring, how you want to layer it up or how you don't want to layer so and it's just, you know. I know, for myself, being a viewer or, excuse me, a reader of many other blogs and websites myself, I want you to just like, if you tell me I should wear this jacket, give me the link to that jacket. You know, make my life easier.

Speaker 2: 7:19

So we're always definitely putting affiliate links in there, like I said, to attractions also, but we are multifaceted. Where it's also, you know we're going for traffic. We always want, you know, as many people as we can on the site. So we have ad revenue partners, you know, that are on the site also, so that we're just, you know, kind of earning that passive income, which affiliate links are the same way, but while we're sleeping, where our ad partners, you know, are showing relevant ads to customers on the site and we're earning income that way also, and then of course it's our own product.

Speaker 2: 7:46

So I mentioned to you earlier in our conversation my blog, you know, transformed into a book deal, which was super exciting. So I have a book coming out a hundred things to do in Las Vegas before you die, which is I really go deep into, like specific attractions in the area, my top end recommendations, you know, making it easy for you because Vegas is overwhelming, you know there's a lot to do I know there's just one strip, but it's like where do I start on this one?

Speaker 2: 8:12

you know massive strip, so the book really breaks that down for you. You know, categorizes things, and the same with the website. Where should you go to start this journey?

Speaker 1: 8:22

So so that reminds me you should check out. Um. I heard this guy speak at a conference and I think he was called the um bucket list guy.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Um and and uh, at the time he had green hair, so he might be easy to find. I don't know if he still has green hair. This is a couple of years ago. But, um, you know, he, he turned it into motivational speaking, Okay Cause I think he went through some cancer and stuff like that and he shared his story, um, and then he just started doing crazy stuff and inviting people to come along, right, and then that that turned into all these things, right, and so, um, I think that for people listening, there's so much opportunity that online unlocks, yeah, and, and you can take it so many different directions.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Like I am going to have somebody on that is like a digital nomad and and you know, I mean they just follow their passions and the travel and you can use currency kind of dislocations to live in different places, to travel, and there's just so many ways. I mean this blog or sorry, this podcast or pod is not to really focused on people that are making money online. Really focused on people that are making money online. It's really about how to leverage online, because I came from sales and I was calling people right Phone calls. I did direct sales too. Do you want to buy a chicken. Do you want to buy a chicken? Do you want to buy a chicken? And I was saying the same thing over and over again right and then that led to multi-level marketing, where I actually never did multi-level marketing.

Speaker 1: 10:07

I don't think I mean maybe I had signed up, but I didn't do it. I helped people build funnels online to drive people through the process to to, basically, and so I was working with some a hundred million dollar like billers and and literally how to bring people in, how to answer their objections and to go through that customer journey and and as that process happened, I, I, I came along agency as I was doing affiliate stuff and then then it shifted. But the same strategies that apply for individuals apply for businesses, you know, and, and so I'm interested to hear, uh, somebody that is building their own business, that is, that is utilizing SEO. That is a niche specific. Like, what are, what are some of those key things that that you learned? Or how do you approach the market? Like, certainly you're doing some keyword research in this.

Speaker 1: 11:01

This podcast has been sponsored by, you know, sem rush, a trust by foo um se ranking, like all the different kinds of tools, right? So, uh, no, the audience is no, from no, uh no, no stranger to how to find keyword data, but I think that what do you do with that keyword data is where it gets interesting and opening up people's minds of how to look at things differently. So I love to kind of hear you know the genesis of how you, how you built the, the the Vegas right now brand, and kind of what you look for and how you try to grow traffic Cause I, I, I, I think I have some ideas, but I want to hear it from you.

Speaker 2: 11:39

So of course, and Matt, that's fun. I loved hearing your backstory because I my first job was also in direct sales. It was a telemarketing when I was 16, the old fashioned way with the office copy phone book pages and we sat there and called them and offered a carpet cleaning service and crossed out you know each person off the list as we called. So, uh, that probably definitely was. Uh, uh, I was.

Speaker 1: 12:03

I was pre, I was actually. No, I was post, sorry, post, fax blasting days like fax blasting became illegal, like or whatever, right, right, but the, the phone calls you know, were the canned spam act, you know. And and with the emails I was right, right in that Right and, and it was, it was about volume and it was about reaching as many people. But I can tell you that that job taught me so much. It was all commission I made. I can't even, I don't even want to disclose how much money I made. I, I was.

Speaker 1: 12:39

I went from that to recruitment and then recruitment.

Speaker 1: 12:42

I would get 20% to 33% of salaries and then I went, and I also I'm a CMO of a oil and gas podcast network, so then, but I did for seven and a half years, executive placement with oil and gas professionals and it was always, you know, $150,000 and up jobs, and so, like I just gravitated to, to, to where, the, where the money went, um and uh.

Speaker 1: 13:07

But but I digital marketing, and that was my first book and I want you to talk about your book. Mine was called build your brand mania and I tell my story in that. But I, but I essentially just kept like as digital and retargeting all this was happening, and and and email automation, and I was just like I all these things help me, give me leverage to do my job better, right, and then, and then, and then it's like, okay, well, every I have to call to sell something, right, and what you talked about is like, well, if it sells while I'm sleeping and I can create things at scale, this sounds like something for me, right? So I would. I would love to hear your origin story in more detail.

Speaker 1: 13:50

I apologize, but I get excited about this kind of stuff because I just I think it's so, so awesome and we live in a great time, so oh, what a time to be alive.

Speaker 2: 13:59

I agree with you a hundred percent. I I'm super excited about it as well, that the idea that I say that I sit home with my cat and dog and do the thing that I love all day, you know, and earn a living. So, yeah, I'm dating myself, because the same thing I'm sure I was post the fax blast era also, which was amazing. It definitely set me up a little bit, I know, at 16, it would set me up for a successful launch of websites, which at that point is like what were those back then?

Speaker 2: 14:28

But I had a corporate job for probably about seven years, a Fortune 500 company, and I learned be nice and make money, which are principles that I hold onto today, and we used to do it beans and M&Ms and we'd give out jelly beans and then M&Ms for the BNMM be nice and make money. And so that's kind of really my thought process. Definitely, with SEO, we're always one of my strategies is to be as niche as possible, and so when we're talking, you know, search engine optimization, we want to be as niche as possible, and so my food site's easy to explain that with. If it's.

Speaker 1: 15:02

You know, I write about Southern soul food, if it's not recipes do great and you're focused on a particular niche. So if people are looking for that, and I'll I'll just tell you I had uh, bbs. Uh, we had a fried chicken and their spinach for Thanksgiving, in addition to a lot of other things. But, oh my gosh, like uh, and when I went to go pick that up it would there was a line out the door.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Um, it would, and it was like a thing. I didn't even know it was like a thing. So I, I I have a certain. I grew up in the South and I have a certain appreciation, certainly. But if you're looking for that, that is very, very specific and those people are very targeted. So having a location, site and having that, I mean you know, I think that's a great way to explore two different niches.

Speaker 2: 15:52

Yeah, they definitely so your Thanksgiving meal. That restaurant definitely knows who their audience and who their customer is, and that's the same way we want to approach things. When we're online, you want to know exactly who your audience is and the data will speak to you and tell you more of what they want. Their comments certainly do that, which is super fun and engaging, but also the data tells you where they're looking at and what they're looking for, and you want to. Then you know our strategies to create more content off of those types of topics where we can niche down even harder and go further into things.

Speaker 2: 16:22

So you know, if it's one recipe I thrive on my recipe site, specifically on modern kitchen appliances, to make classic Southern soul food recipes. So we'll break everything down where you know, we'll take a collard greens recipe and we're making it in the Instant Pot. You know there's a way to do kale in the air fryer. We don't really do collard greens that way, but if we can use an air fryer. So all the different ways, as well as traditional stove top, or you can, you know, bake your yams as well as put them on the stove top as well as put them in the end spot. So we're, you know, reaching that same customer just in various ways of cooking methods, which is really fun.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Are you site when you're building it out, have you tested, you know, different kind of images, image quality, videos, like content, like layout. What are some of the takeaways that you've learned? Uh, at what ranks better?

Speaker 2: 17:13

I guess yeah well, you want to be consistent, uh, but every, consistently everywhere, and so, uh, that's like you say, videos that you know we have a social media presence. We're on TikTok, we're on Instagram, and so, for a website, our main focus is definitely organic, you know, traffic from from Google, but we also put a lot into Pinterest, you know, which I think is a best kept secret for bloggers. It's a great. Pinterest is a search engine, so it's a great way to, you know, bring in traffic from our Vegas site to the soul food pot. So we're always, you know, like I said, being consistently everywhere.

Speaker 2: 17:49

So we are cross pollinating that content, that if there's a YouTube video, you know, or YouTube short, there is also a TikTok video.

Speaker 2: 17:56

There is also an Instagram reel, you know there is also a, you know, pinterest pins that you know, resonate with that. So we are trying to cover all ground because people are savvy these days. You know, our readers, our listeners, we, you know, there's also we have two podcasts, one for the Vegas site and also one for the Soul Food Pot site. So we want to be conscious to be in all platforms that people, you know, that are viable, where people are consuming their content, because our listeners, our readers. They have choices nowadays and so, when even using those other platforms, we are still conscious to use keywords and keep that same SEO strategy going forward. Because, as your audience and Matt, you probably already know that Instagram reels show up in search now as well as TikTok videos. So we are just very cognizant, while we're being, you know, consistently creating content all over the place, that we are still using those same foundational strategies to make sure that our, our, our content is showing up top of search for people who want to find it.

Speaker 1: 18:58

So that aligns so well with what we're doing for a lot of clients and and really, uh, in the past, uh, search has been a silver bullet, okay, uh, and you know people go to Google, they're looking for it. It's the, the, the closest point from point A to point B. Um, you go to search, well, what we're finding in the data? And we have some really cool enterprise tools where we can track IP addresses so we can see what websites they visit currently, what subreddits you know podcasts, social media accounts, they follow keywords they're searching for websites they go to like. We can start to get this data to build. What you were talking about is that customer persona, and one of the things we're we're seeing across the board in the data is, well, what social media channels they're on, but also the search typically will start on social media and then Google is where the confirmation happens right and maybe some comparison happens. Reddit's also a comparison, but they get the idea. The idea is pollinated on social media. So, if, if and also now, yes, all the social medias talk to each other like before, you know, facebook and Google didn't like each other and they wouldn't index it and and and, so it was kind of different funnels and and being everywhere and syndicating was was super important. But now, as we get a bigger picture of what's going on, we see how people are searching and it's not a direct line either, Right, and so you know you're catching people at different levels of the funnel. They got to be familiar with you, with your name, what, what, what's happening and and even what you're talking about a content creation of. With the podcast, with the books, I actually am in the process of turning we have 700, I don't know exactly how many podcasts, but turning those into a book and repurposing this content. But we're working with businesses going hey, a podcast is a great way to generate that high quality content.

Speaker 1: 21:01

That's typically the most difficult part for small businesses, right, and and you can set it in a, a container and and also social media has really changed the game with Tik TOK, where it wasn't a, it's not so much now on on YouTube, instagram and Tik TOK about your um, you know your audience count, which consistently building audience is what's going to get people to remember you and buy from you, and there's so much data surrounding that. But in today's world, um, you don't have to wait that long If you put out a good piece of content that's valuable, the algorithm is going to show it to the right people and it could go viral and you could be a overnight success, right, and, and then you need to manage and and and maintain the relationship with them, or you're like a flash in the pan. So the strategies of what you're doing has, well, you know, the internet's matured, the strategies matured, and if you're a small business, um, you know, and your job is to be a digital marketer, um, now I, I work at the agency, at DWR, with a lot of businesses that are trying to sell whatever widget they're trying to sell, right, um, and, and I am not quite an influencer of, like, pushing their products. That's not like my business model, but my business model is to help them, um, become a, a thought leader, um, become, uh, uh, expert, become an authority, you know, and and if they want to become a celebrity, like that kind of tends to happen, but, but it's how to help them do that and build the systems for them to be successful, because once you do start ranking in those top three positions in Google, and then you know that takes a lot of different effort and and a lot of it does start on the social media channels, but once you get into those positions and you earn it and you have to earn it across the board it's kind of like incumbency.

Speaker 1: 22:57

It's like something like 68.7% of all traffics in the top three positions at Google, so it's like, how do you get there? And then how do you stay there? And then that's when, like the high quality leads, that's when, like that's where the lion's share of the traffic comes in, and so it's so important to understand how to speak to the love language, as you called it, to the search engines. I did a blog a while back about, like you know well, AI, or Google, is a large language model. It is machine learning, it's taking all that data and organizing it, and the faster you know you need to speak SEO is the language of search engines the faster you know how to talk to them and understand what you're saying. They want to talk back to you and they want to help you because they want to show you that content. So I I think that that's, um, a great example and that that is something that that, uh, I I did a blog about like a couple years ago, so I love that, tell me more.

Speaker 1: 24:03

I want to know more of what you've learned.

Speaker 2: 24:06

Share some secrets that you have of digital marketing, yeah, so one of the big things and I love that that you wrote an article about that because it really is so important and can be missed or overlooked. And the same idea with a lot of folks that are. You know, when we're bloggers or we're content creators, we can really sometimes get lost in the idea, kind of in our creative world. You know, because you know we are creators, we're artists, you know writers, so it can be easy and I know I did this on my first blog and usually try to share so people don't make the same mistake but we can get lost in the idea of creating content that we think is valuable, that no one's actually said that they want to hear or read about. So it's very important. One of my pillars, along with niching down as hard and precise as you can, is also it's not what you say as the creator, it's what they say as the audience. So it's very important that we are in tune with those keywords you know what are people searching for with respect to the niche category that you're in and making sure that we really stick to that, you know. So you know for myself, with a Vegas site, you won't I may take a trip to Mexico.

Speaker 2: 25:23

I have one coming up in January. If I were to share that, it is only going to be related to Las Vegas. You know whether that is. You know here are, you know, five Vegas resorts that have a Mexican or tropical vibe. You know it's going to be something like that. Maybe I can compare the pictures that I took when I was at the resort on my vacation or something to the effect of a day trip to Mexico and it only takes this long from Las Vegas, another thing to do. So I wouldn't just put an article up there about a wonderful resort in Mexico and how that worked, because that's not my niche and so, whereas that might be something that is fascinating to me, I had a wonderful time on my vacation. We want to make sure that it's very aligned with. You know what the site is about, which is things to do in Las Vegas.

Speaker 2: 26:10

So always remembering that and also even first making sure that someone's even searching for that type of content, so that we know you know, hey, what's the search volume on that? Is someone? Are people really looking for that? Is it worth our time in writing that? Otherwise, a great way to use that type of content. If the answer is no, it's not worth writing about that. No one's searching for that. It's just to use it on our Instagram stories, which that's a great way, you know, a tool that we all can use to just get more personal with our audience. Share what you know my Mexico trip is actually a business trip to share why I'm there and you know what I'm doing on business. So it's a great way just to keep our audience engaged with us as a personality online. But if it doesn't make sense, the bottom line is, if it doesn't make sense for the blog, it doesn't land there.

Speaker 1: 26:51

Yeah, I'm, I'm actually sharing, for, for those of you that are watching on YouTube, I'm sharing the Vegas right now site and there you are, and there there's.

Speaker 1: 27:04

There's a lot going on here and I think that um, breaking some of this down is, um, uh, really, really, uh, quite a successful site. I would tell you that, uh, building out, like the history of the different places, right, build the contextual background to, to what's happening with the site. One of the things from the affiliate standpoint which I'm sure you know is and this was from another interview I did a guy had affiliate site on mushrooms, like all different kinds of mushrooms, and really the keyword search bar provided that best user feedback, as you were talking about. Um, you can use those different tools, uh, to help you. Um, ooh, look at that. We'll try to make that picture bigger again. There we go, um, the that like, you can use these search tools to get you started. But those long tail key phrases and the things that are going to convert for you the best are not always on there, those little honey holes. You have to discover those. You have to be an expert, you have to go where nobody else has been, like kind of a blue ocean strategy. But once you start building traffic with the site and there's different kinds of strategies that you can use, getting that feedback from the people that are searching for it and having that two-way interaction is critically important and you can do that on social media. You can see how many times it's shared or shown. There's comment sections which you got to be sometimes careful of because people will spam, but the search bar is one of the the the most useful tools to get feedback of what are people trying to find when they come to the site. Once you, once you rank, and there there's there's just so much opportunity to find a way to add value to people and and serve that niche.

Speaker 1: 29:01

And then there's all these different kinds of ways to to make um affiliate money. So, you know, tell me a little bit about, like product reviews or how, how you incorporate affiliate links, cause I I am going to do another podcast because perplexityai. What's a little shady, I'll be honest, is um. From a study that I saw, most of the links that were click through links right, like when you're used, and about 4% all searches are coming from large language models now. So you know, search is changing Right, but they were just showing affiliate links that they own the affiliate link to. They weren't showing like regular resource links. So if you're a business, right now Google still shares pass through traffic to your site more than anything else but these social media accounts.

Speaker 1: 29:55

If you're selling something, you know like Tik TOK shop and you know things that Amazon there's all kinds of deals changing and happening and you know like TikTok shop and you know things that Amazon there's all kinds of deals changing and happening and you know I'm not saying that Shopify or if you're doing e-commerce, there's not opportunity. But you need to understand that you can get visibility on TikTok to build your brand. Tiktok doesn't share through any links Okay, except for, like, the profiling. So you need to understand these different platforms and how to drive traffic. And also, when you're looking at metrics, when you're running different campaigns, if you're a business or if you're trying to hit certain metrics, you need to understand that awareness, share a voice. All these things need to work together and you need to look at your kind of customer journey and where your attribution is and what your KPIs are to make it work.

Speaker 1: 30:46

Now, if you're running your own business, you can kind of go okay, I spend money over here and I see that. But if you're a marketer in house and you decide to use one of these platforms, you're like, okay, tiktok's changed, let me do this. You need to make sure you have buy. You know buy-in from, from upper management of. Okay, this data is not going to look as good Like where's the the traffic going to come from or where the tricks clicks are going to come from, and also what I've seen is, when you start running an ad, um, it typically takes about two weeks for you to get any kind of like where you see that bump, like you don't just turn it on. People got to see that ad, you know they got to be in that buying window and so. So it's really important to build a long term strategy.

Speaker 1: 31:32

I mean, what like? What are some strategies and then I would love to go into the book after that. But what are just some strategies that you've really found that are really kind of unknown secrets when it comes to building traffic on the site, like not the high level stuff, like the really really like long tail specific stuff that maybe maybe you've done that maybe people might not be aware of?

Speaker 2: 32:01

Yeah, specific stuff that maybe you've done, that maybe people might not be aware of, yeah, so one of the great things and all that you said, so spot on, of course, but one of the really granular secrets to really, because of course, we all on this show are probably aware of Google, eeat, so the expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. So that's if Google tells us that, and my thing is always that Google actually gives us the answers, and you just spoke to that when you were talking about using the search bar as a, you know, a foundational starting point. You know what are people searching for. That's telling you exactly what your audience is looking for. So, with that in mind, one of the things and I said just being, you know consistently everywhere, on all over the place, but consistent, which is one of my models to success, and that means you know posting content, content consistently and consistently staying on theme with that content. But it's also who you are and what you do and why it matters. You're basically your elevator pitch. You want that consistently everywhere, across all platforms online, and why is important it goes right back to what I mentioned about the EAT is that Google think about it this way, whereas I look at it, as Google also has an obligation to serve its customers, those who are searching online me, you and all of our readers and listeners, those who are searching. There's an obligation to give them the best product that they can.

Speaker 2: 33:20

And so, with that said, if we are telling Google that we are the expert, the trustworthy person, the one with the experience in our particular niche for me that's going to be things to do in Las Vegas then we have to set the stage for Google to know that we are that person. So that means any type of press I have in Las Vegas, any type of experience I have in Las Vegas. Like I mentioned to you earlier, my husband and I, before becoming residents, you know, we came to the state consistently, to the state of Nevada, to the city of Las Vegas, for 20 years. You know, just as tourists, you know racking up ways, you know figuring out ways to do things or how to make the best of these trips, and so I tell that story everywhere I can, that you know I've got 20 years of doing this.

Speaker 2: 34:01

I also live here. You know here I am at this place. You know and I can I tell that in the alt text or in the caption. Here I am. It's me, you know, at this concert that I'm talking about, or at this restaurant I'm talking about. So in all ways that you can, you want to speak that to Google that you are the experienced and expert person on this top. You know, on this topical, on this topical authority and bios, I'm a big proponent about getting someone professional to write a bio for you. It's kind of one of my secrets is bringing in. You had a great bio when they pitched me.

Speaker 1: 34:35

You had a great bio.

Speaker 2: 34:36

Yeah, Thank you, I appreciate hearing that and you know we we hired great help to make sure that we had a, that I have a great bio. So I think just calling on other experts where you know I may be an expert in Las Vegas, but I'm not an expert on publicity, you know. I'm an expert on, you know, or I like to say I know a lot about search engine optimization there, but when it's necessary we call in the publicist, you know, to help with those things. We call in the publicist, you know, to help with those things. So calling in experts in a particular field is also a great way to get your message out there. And then, once you do that and you have that amazing bio and you know all that expertise, you want to shout it from the rooftops on every platform that you're on so that Google is very clear, you know that hey, Shonda's the girl to go to for anything to do in Las Vegas. She knows, she's there, she's a local right on the scene. That's the message that I want to be sending, so that Google is confident in showing my content. Not only am I doing that backend research on the keywords and making sure that I'm speaking Google's love language so that it knows exactly what this article is about. But I also want it to trust me in the sense that, hey, she's your gal, she lives there, she goes to all these things, she's got lots of content on things to do. I can see the picture that says that's her. She's there.

Speaker 2: 35:47

I support it with a great about page as to why I should be a trusted authority on Las Vegas, and I want to marry that same type of conversation or that contextual strategy across everywhere. So on Pinterest, I want my bio in Pinterest to be very matchy matchy to what I'm saying on my about page on the website. I want it to be the same for Facebook and the same for YouTube and on Instagram. So you know, of course bios get short and you only have so many characters on Instagram or TikTok, but the messaging should be very consistent so that Google's very clear about who you are. I'm from Virginia Beach, so I'm from the East Coast, coastal Virginia Beach, but I live in Las Vegas and that's where my authority is. So I don't want Google to be confused by that. I want to make it very clear I may be from Virginia Beach, but I've spent 20 years diving into Las Vegas. I know the ins and outs of the strip and off the strip, so that kind of message you just want to be succinct everywhere online.

Speaker 1: 36:43

You know I want to piggyback on a couple of things you said and then I want to jump into this book because we're running a little low on time. But what I would tell you is you hit on something huge. Eat is absolutely critical. They've even what you were talking about of being in the picture showing the proof, holding the product, all that sort of thing. Google's added an E to eat experience, right. So you got E to eat, or whatever it's called, right?

Speaker 1: 37:06

So, experience, authority, trust and expertise, right, but that experience piece can't be faked, right? Or? I mean, I guess AI is going to get good with the pictures, enough, but right, that that's how Google added to it to show proof, right, and, and and also you, you, you hit on authorship. So authorship, I think it was like 2014. They brought it, they brought it back in kind of a different way. It's kind of like a entity, like entity SEO and and being in the knowledge graph and Google understanding who you are and how all these websites are connected, like. So, using schema, there, it's really really important for you think Google just knows that this over here and this over here, you know, there there's the same as, like, there's there, there's things that you have to do in the Google language to code these things together, cause, um, I can tell you a funny story Uh, a client of mine, uh wanted, uh in mixed martial arts, wanted to outrank the person that invented uh like uh jujitsu.

Speaker 2: 38:15

Okay.

Speaker 1: 38:16

And because, because they didn't set up their entity online correctly and this was like pre-COVID we were able to outrank them for something that they invented, like the Gracie family. We were able to outrank them in Houston for jujitsu a client of mine to a client of mine. And so you know, now Google's getting better, google's getting smarter, but it's really important to connect these things together because there's no way that that should have been possible online and what's happening is Google's getting smarter and figuring this stuff out on its own, but certainly, you know, it's still learning and there's a growth curve there and and the more that you can do as an individual or a business to speak that language and speak in that way to help Google make those decisions, cause you like, think about it. I was like, how does Google figure all this stuff out? And you know it's it's, it's it's codes, like you know what I mean Like it's algorithms, it's like these different things, and so you know it does a pretty good at catching stuff, but not not everything, not all the time, and if you're writing on different platforms and also you need to, you know, okay, you grew up over here, but you're spending time over here, how does it wait. It Like even when you're building a website where, where do you want that waiting on the site to go? Because if you just make everything equally of the same value, right, people do that in their menu structure a lot.

Speaker 1: 39:52

Google doesn't know what's what right, like or what how to value stuff, and so you want to help give it signals in that area. And that's why SEO is so important, just like a publicist is important, like having an SEO consultant, at least even if you're doing it on your own to to, to know, um, are we presenting to Google in the right way? What do I want to communicate? What are those signals being sent? And I think all the things that you're doing are actually just very intuitive. Um, and and, and, and you, you've understand the love language, so tell me about this book and kind of what. What is the strategy with that? Uh, I know we kind of talked about at the beginning. I think it's good to close out with it, but, like, what are you trying to do with that? Where's that trying to go? What is the process? Just, whatever you you would like to share, I'd love to hear it.

Speaker 2: 40:38

Oh, absolutely Thank you. And yeah, the book 100 Things to Do in Las Vegas Before you Die comes out again March 1st of 2025. I'm super excited about it. Having the blog definitely set a wonderful foundation to be able to write a book for the first time, and so a first time book, and then to even get that a deal with a publisher who believed in me and that was from the blog. So our first conversation was wow, you're a great writer and you do know a lot about Las Vegas. So it really the proposal didn't have to be as much, because they were pretty much sold from the blog itself. So that creating that content consistently or, if someone were to Google me, it's very clear that I write about Las Vegas but I also write about Southern Soul Food, but Google is not confused by that. We've set the stage that I am, you know, I do both of these things, a topical authority of these different areas?

Speaker 1: 41:28

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 41:29

Right, absolutely. And so you know. There was a time, almost a decade ago, where Google was certainly confused by me, you know, when I was throwing spaghetti at the wall in that first vlog. But that's not the case anymore and really proud of the work that we've done and, like I said, I feel like I've transformed that vlog into a successful book deal, so I'm very excited about it.

Speaker 2: 41:48

It's again all about all the things that many tourists would miss out on the hidden jewels and treasures of las vegas, on both on and off the strip. But I just make it, um, break it down very easy for you with this book Lots of places. My favorite line is there's the Vegas you think you know, and then there's this, and so I'm delivering the this you know all of the natural beauties, the wonders of Las Vegas, beyond what you thought that you knew. We have so many tucked away secrets on purpose that it's just a really a fun place to explore, even if, like folks that come in just for a convention, even if you're just there for one day, I want to make sure that you get the best experience and know exactly where to go and what to do without having to really worry about that.

Speaker 1: 42:33

Awesome and what's the best way if someone can find you? I know we've talked about it. I'll put the links in the show notes but just for everyone listening, can you repeat back how people can find you or where you want people to reach out to you and check out your stuff?

Speaker 2: 42:46

Absolutely, so we're covering all ground, but the easiest way is probably my website, my namesake, my signature site, which is Shonda Nicole, and it's S-H-A-U-N-D-A, nicole, n-e-c-o-l-ecom, so ShondaNicolecom From there on the homepage. We're very strategic that you can get to the book from the homepage, you can get to VegasRightNowcom or you can get to the SoulFoodPotcom from the homepage and all social channels are there. I like playing the best on Instagram, which is also ShondaNicolecom. So, yeah, I'd love for anyone to stop by the website or visit on social.

Speaker 1: 43:24

Well, shonda, it was a pleasure to have you on. Stick around after the outro and we can talk for a few minutes more while it's uploading Everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Hopefully this was a little bit different flavor from what we normally do. If you want to grow your business with the largest, most powerful tool on the planet, the internet, reach out to EWR for more revenue in your business. And thanks so much for listening. If you've got any value of this, please like it, share it, follow the channel. It really helps. Thank you so much and until the next time. Bye-bye for now.