SEO Day Ep 062
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Welcome to SEO Day Studio with your hosts, the Findability Queen, Denise Millet, and the entrepreneur whisperer, Kim White. This is a space to hear the questions that fellow entrepreneurs have about SEO and get them answered. So many discussions involving techy topics like SEO are loaded with jargon and unnecessary complexity, so much so that anyone outside the tech industry has difficulty getting to the real meaning inside the information.
Denise believes that every entrepreneur can benefit from search engines once they hear how they work in a clear and straightforward way. She is on a mission to help entrepreneurs get the content they spend hours creating included in search engines, so when their customers search online, they're findable.
Because she believes if they can't find you, they can't do business with you. So stay tuned. The fun starts now
Welcome back to the SEO Day podcast. We are here to help later in life entrepreneurs like us to be found online and do that without burning out. 'Cause sometimes you chase the thing, it gets very overwhelming. So I am Kim White, and I am here with your SEO guide and findability queen, Denise Millet.
Hey, Kim. Thank you so much for doing this with me. You make it so easy to, just sit down and chat. I love it.
I love being with you, Denise. We are changing the format of the show a little and doing our best to group questions in themes. So going forward you'll see the little bit of a difference, but I wanna make sure no one is worried.
I did not get fired from my official mailbag keeper job. I just was promoted to the director of themes now. So wanted to make sure no one was worrying, Denise.
Yeah, the badge is on its way. Okay.
Well, today we're talking about something that can simplify your entire content plan. Choosing one core theme for your business and building your content around it.
This is magic. Denise, when you say one core theme, you're really talking about a core idea that fits your business and shows up across everything you create. Mm-hmm. Before I start asking my million questions, I will tone it down to five, but I have a million. Can you explain what you mean by a core theme and why it matters for SEO?
Okay. So absolutely. When I say one core theme, I mean a central idea that sits at the heart of your business. You choose a core theme that fits who you serve, what problem you help them solve, and what you wanna be known for, which is important. And then you create one main piece of content about the theme on your website and create supporting content around that same theme in your blog, your podcast, your videos, and your socials.
So for example, a core theme might be SEO for beginning entrepreneurs. -
Or it could be like confident on camera for new course creators, or a money mindset for women starting businesses. You create one main in-depth piece about that theme on your site, and then everything else supports it and reinforces the focus. It matters because search engines see it as a clear topical focus, and your audience hears consistent things coming from you and will stop feel like they're starting over from zero every time they see some of your content.
So it's less about being everywhere with everything and more about being consistent and clear around one main idea?
Exactly.
Well, question number one to kick us off for this lovely show: How do I pick a core theme that really fits my business and can support all this content?
Great question, because the theme you choose shapes everything else, right?
Here's how you choose a core theme. So you first look at what you actually sell. What is the main problem your offers solve? For example, you're helping beginners get visible online, or you're helping coaches create their first course. Then second, listen to what your best clients ask for over and over.
What do you explain on repeat in calls or in videos, right? Or emails or DMs. Like, that repeated question is often a hint at your core theme. Third, check that it's big enough, but not vague. marketing is too broad. Instagram reels for left-handed knitters might be too narrow. Knitters, oh, God. SEO for beginning entrepreneurs is focused, but there's a lot of possibilities with subtopics that are good for me, actually.
fourth, make sure it's something you want to be known for. Ask yourself, "If people associated me th- with this i- one thing for the next few years, would I be happy about that?" Once you get that theme, everything else becomes, how do I talk about this in different ways or for different moments or different platforms?
So that's how you do it.
So we're talking about a theme that sits right at the intersection of what you sell, what people ask for, and what you want to be known for.
Exactly. That is your core.
Question number two is, once I've chosen a core theme, what does that main piece on my website actually look like?
Okay. I know there's a lot of terminology out there in the marketing world, but this is the way I think about it. So you think of your main piece as your hub, where it's the center of something and you've got spokes coming out, or you can have a pillar on your site and, there's things that are supporting the pillar on the sides of it.
It could be like a comprehensive guide, in a blog post, a start here or a resource page for that topic that's on your website separately. it could be a long form of your podcast, so you could have a special episode that answers all the questions or talks about just that topic at length. Um, you could do a video that summarizes it in different pieces and then embed that on the page that you're talking about it on in your website.
Let's say the, the main piece should explain the core theme in simple language, what it is, who it's for, and why it matters. Answer the biggest beginner questions. The things that are going to be like, "Where do I start with?" Or, "What do I need to know? What mistakes should I avoid?" The point to your... It points your authors or lead magnets, your quiz, or your workshop, or your starter program, but act as it's the home base for your topic.
answer those questions that people have when they're in the beginning. When someone lands on that main piece, they get a clear, grounded overview of your core theme plus an invitation into your world.
I love that part. So the main piece is like a front door into that theme. It welcomes people, orients them, and shows them where to go next?
Exactly. It's the anchor on your own site.
Love that. Y'all better mind your front doors. So-
Paint it pretty colors.
Exactly. Question number three. How do I take that core theme and create supporting content about it in my blog, podcast, videos, and socials?
Ooh, this is where we move from one big thing into a content, like, system.
So here's how I suggest building supporting content around your core themes. First, you break the theme into subtopics. So you ask what smaller questions sit underneath this big idea. For do it yourself SEO, that could be how do you choose keywords? How do I fix my blog titles? How often should I post?
What should be on my homepage, right? And then assign those formats to each subtopic. So maybe the blog has the deeper step-by-steps or the how-to post. The podcast has conversations or stories and Q&A around one of the topics. Videos could be short demonstrations of things you're doing if you're in that kind of realm, or it could be quick tips, right?
Social does better with the quotes before and after something people visually can see, something that you proved wrong, like a myth or a truth versus false or, that kind of thing that interrupts their scroll so they see something. I guess the third thing is you connect it all back to your main theme page.
So whatever you do with those things for the subtopics, connect it back somehow to the main page in links. And then fourth, repeat the theme. Not the exact content, but you're not copying and pasting the same words everywhere. You're approaching the same theme from different angles, different synonyms, different subtopics that all kind of meld together Over time, search engines see you as a trusted source on that theme, and humans see a consistent, clear message.
So instead of 100 random topics, we're saying the same important thing lots of ways in lots of places.
Yes, and that's when your content starts to feel cohesive instead of scattered all over the place.
I love that. Well, let's head over to a word from our sponsor for this week.
This episode is brought to you by the Findability Queen, Denise Millet.
Visit her YouTube channel, youtube.com/@findabilityqueen, for her collection of short videos answering questions about findability and SEO for entrepreneurs every day
Welcome back, and we are on question number four Mm-hmm "How does building everything around one core theme actually help my SEO, n- not just my sanity?"
Well, when you build around one core theme, you're helping both the search engine and your audience. So for SEO, a core theme helps because you send a clear signal to search engines with multiple related pages all about the same topic and linked together. You're telling them this site really knows about the subject.
You naturally create internal links because each supporting piece can link back to your main theme page somehow, and to each other, and that helps search engines understand your content structure and what's important to you and to your audience. You cover more things that way, so related keywords that tie back to a main, so people aren't guessing, and different pieces cover different questions or phrases with the same subtopic, which leads to the topic, and it all kind of relates, and it makes things...
gives you more chances to show up in search 'cause there's more opportunities out there of things you've written about the topic. And visitors are more likely to stay and explore when you have all these connections together, and you focus, but you spread it out into pieces too, so they consume what they really want.
you're... so you're helping search, and you're helping the people that are, simply by being topical about everything.
Love that, Denise. But it's not just nice branding, it's also an SEO strategy.
Exactly. So consistency is a strategy, not just a decoration.
Mm-hmm. I love it. It's not the wreath on the door.
No. So question number five is, "If I'm just starting out, what's the simplest way to begin building around one core theme without having to go back and redo everything?"
Well, you can start very small and still get the benefits. So here's a simple starter plan. Like step one, choose your theme. One sentence, my core theme is topic and who it's for.
You have to know who it's for. Step two... because that impacts your language. Let me explain that. if your audience is younger, older, in between, male, female, that does affect what language your brain chooses, so you need to know who it's for. Then you create- one main piece on your site, and it can be the guide or it can be, like a deep dive or whatever you want it to be, the one main thing about the big topic.
And then you pick one supporting format to focus on first, like the blog or the podcast or, you're going to put articles on Substack or whatever it is you're going to do for a one, just one media. And add like subtasks. So create subtopics for that one media and link them back to your main page, right?
Then you can either choose, and this is an option, you can then go with a different format and layer that on later, where you could add the podcast or you could add the blog, or you could just pick another subtopic and do four of that links back to the main page. So you could build out one piece of it without overwhelming yourself and do a million different things.
You don't have to redo your entire content either, what you've already have. You're just starting now with more focus.
Love it. So step one is pick the theme. Step two is give it a real home on your site. And step three is support it with one channel at a time.
Exactly. S- thank you for recapping that. Exa- simple and sustainable.
I am the kindergarten princess around here, let's just say.
Thank goodness.
Denise, for the listener who's thinking, "I like this idea of a core theme and building around it, but I'm a beginning entrepreneur and I'm still not sure what I actually need to understand about SEO if I want to do this myself," what's a good next step?
You know, that's... I had them in mind when I created my SEO quiz, the do it yourself quiz. It's designed for beginning entrepreneurs who wanna understand what they really need to know about SEO, figure out which pieces they can confidently do on their own, and see where they're missing simple, beginner-friendly kinda wins that they can learn themselves.
And the quiz, seven questions, short, walk you through, these questions and gives you a clear result. It tells you, "Here's what you already know and doing well. Here's what you're leaving opportunities on the table if you worked on that, and where to focus first if you wanna manage SEO yourself without getting overwhelmed."
I don't like jargon. There's no pressure to know everything. That is not how SEO should be for real people. Just a grounded overview of what matters at your place where you are.
I love it. I love not leaving opportunities on the table. That is, lovely. So if you, sweet listener, are a beginning entrepreneur and you want to understand what you need to know to do your own s- SEO, go take Denise's SEO quiz.
The link is in the show notes. And I took it. It really was painless, and it gave me a lot of information of what I needed to do. So I love the quiz.
Thanks, Kim. And, you know, really, just set aside a few minutes, five, 10 minutes. Answer, honestly, seven questions, and your results will email you, and it'll be like a roadmap of the things to work on.
They'll show you which SEO pieces deserve your attention now, which ones you can safely put on the later list. And-
Denise, thanks for breaking down how one core theme can simplify both content and SEO, and I'm going to add sanity. And thank you for listening to SEO Day. If this episode helped you, share it with another beginning entrepreneur who feels like their content is scattered and they want a clearer focus.
We'll see you on the next episode.
Bye for now.
Thank you for joining Denise and Kim in the SEO Day studio for today's discussion. If you would like one of your SEO questions answered in a future episode, head on over to denisemillet.com/questions to let us know. The link is also in the show notes. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the SEO Day podcast.
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