¶ Squarespace Updates and Changes
So last week we talked about Squarespace .
Yes , we did .
And I had a couple more episodes about Squarespace coming up . Yes , you did . We recorded one of them . Yes , we did , and I talked about a couple things specifically , like where to find them on Squarespace . If you go log in , you know click here , click here . Do that , yes , Do this .
Yes .
Okay , so I went and looked at Squarespace just a few days ago , yes , went and looked at Squarespace just a few days ago , yes , and it changed .
Oh my God .
Yeah , they changed the layout completely , Really , yeah , so this I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me I'll do something like this . I'll do like a demo say , go here , click this , do that , blah , blah , blah and then they changed the layout and so then I got to read it . So that episode I have to redo a little bit .
The content is all the same , Like all the stuff I talk about once you get to like the SEO checklist on Squarespace . It's the same . It's just how you get . There has changed . Squarespace has added some more stuff in their I'll call it SEO section . It is as unimpressive as always , I think . Although they have made some effort into making it look better .
But , it seems to me they have not made any effort into actually making it better , they just make it look better , anyway . So that's coming . That'll be next week . Sorry , it's delayed by a week , it's okay . Today I'm going to talk about two of the most common mistakes I see for SEO . I kind of think of this as like the Goldilocks issue with SEO .
What does that mean ?
Well , that'll make sense as we go through .
I will trust you .
One of my students said a couple weeks ago just a comment and every once in a while , like , a student will say something
¶ The Goldilocks Issue with SEO
and it will just like ring . I'm like oh , that's such a common issue .
And the student says it better than .
I could ever sometimes say that . But this student , who is making , I think , really good progress , said something about oh , it's hard to work on this stuff constantly .
Yes .
And that kind of rang a bell in my head . I'm like well you're not supposed to work on it constantly . You want to work on it consistently , but not constantly .
There's a difference between those two and I think a lot of people I will talk about the difference , but a lot of people think , oh , it's something I need to work on constantly , I need to do it all the time .
I need to , for example , be blogging all the time , I need to be working on my website all the time , and that's unrealistic and it puts a lot of pressure on you . It's kind of like , at least in my head . It's like no , it's like the gym in January .
Super busy , right so ?
lots of people set New Year's resolutions , and I've been one of them . I've done this myself . You say , okay , boom , this year going to work out . You start going to the gym every day in January . By the end of January you're burned out . You're like fuck this , I'm not going to the gym anymore . And so why don't people do that ? Why don't people keep going ?
Why do they stop going
¶ Constantly vs Consistently: The Gym Analogy
?
Right .
I think one reason is you probably don't see results in that short of time frame . Yeah , right .
Yeah .
It's not like you can go to the gym a couple times a week for a few weeks and see amazing results .
And you haven't built anything . You know , they always say it takes time to create something , a process . If you just change it radically .
It's interesting . But even that aside , if you saw like , let's say , you went to the gym , yes , three days a week for January , if you saw like amazing results at the end of January , yeah , do you think you would like ?
Let's say , you lose weight , you got more muscle , get more muscle , you look better , you feel better , yeah , you even start like you feel so much better , your career is going better , like everything is better , would you keep going ? Yes , yeah , probably .
Hell yes .
I would think so . So one thing is , you don't get the results that you… .
It gets frustrating .
Yeah , so that's one issue . That's one side of the Goldilocks phenomenon . You overcommit , you say I'm going to do this , and it's not really a realistic thing .
I have no idea what that feels like , and the other side of that is people undercommit .
I've experienced this a lot in my career as a consultant . I've had many times where a client in fact one client in particular , potential client started and they were it was kind of an acquaintance of mine , a sort of friend , and they he was starting a business with his father and he was like let's see what we can do with this .
We're just going to like throw $500 at it and see what sticks . And I was like okay , well , nothing is going to stick Like for $500 , you're just getting ready , you're just setting up like nothing is going to stick in there . And they were like no , let's , we just want to do it this way and we're going to see what happens .
And so $500 later , like nothing had really happened , like nah , seo didn't really work for us . That has happened . That happens often .
That's literally like I really
¶ The Undercommitment Problem
feel like getting a donut and you turn around and enter a furniture store .
I have no idea what you're talking about , but that's how I see it , that would . I think that would kind of be like going to the gym once and being like I don't feel much different . Like in fact , I feel worse , like I'm sore . So , the trick is at least as far as I see it the trick is to find a rhythm that's right for you , that you can do Right .
Maybe it's going to the gym once a week .
And you used to say it's find something you like .
Yeah , let's save that one for another episode , finding a way to enjoy the gym . I think that's a whole other discussion .
Yes , true , but the trick is to find something you can do realistically and it doesn't have to be constantly Right , it doesn't have to be every day or every week or even every month I mean , my own stuff is not , I don't do that but you find a rhythm that you can do realistically and then you keep doing it . You have to keep doing it .
That's the thing .
I remember . This reminds me of a kid I went to high school with yeah , I that's the thing I remember . This reminds me of a kid . I went to high school with . Yeah , I played baseball in high school . You were great .
And coming into high school , this kid , he didn't have the most natural talent , let's say he wasn't as talented as probably at least a handful of kids on the team . But you could see it in his eyes and the way he moved and the way he did things that he was going to fucking do it .
And I remember thinking , oh man , this kid is going to do it , he is going . He is not as
¶ Finding Your Sustainable Rhythm
good as a bunch of us , but he is going to be better than all of us . And he put in the time and he put in the work .
He ended up getting a full ride to a pretty good university with a baseball scholarship and I think I don't know what happened from that point on , but I think he Even then set a bunch of records at that university on the baseball team .
Good for him Now .
he didn't go pro , but he got a full ride . Like he got out of it , like so much .
How many people actually go pro as well . Yeah right Percent-wise .
And he never . I don't think he ever wanted to .
I think if he wanted to , he would . It sounds .
Perhaps , but what he did do is he identified something that he could do . He was going to go to the batting cage , say , every afternoon , and hit baseballs for an hour , whatever his rhythm was . That he could do consistently . He identified that and he did that
¶ The Baseball Player Who Kept Showing Up
and progress was made . I have never , ever in 20 plus years of doing SEO , I have never seen anyone put in a consistent effort over a period of time and not get results .
Doing SEO , I've seen a bunch of people like overcommit and say , oh OK , I've never blogged before , but I'm going to start blogging every single day , and a month later they're like screw blogging , that's too hard and I didn't see the results I wanted . I have seen lots of people dabble , throw $500 at it .
Or not listen to you , or say let's do SEO for an afternoon and see if it works .
I would be that person .
Or say , yeah , I'm going to blog every single hour forever and a month later be like , okay , that's not doable . So my point is that you don't need to work on SDO constantly . You don't need to probably do anything constantly , but you do need to be consistent , find out what your rhythm is , what is possible , and then stick to it .
I have a question . If somebody like me were to say how often is often enough and how often is too often , Well , I would say how often is often enough , and how often is too often .
Well , I would say how often can you do it Right . Start there Realistically . Yeah , you got to start something .
Like if .
I said , oh , blogging once a week is really what you want to be doing , and you're have never blogged , ever in your life . That might be unrealistic .
Yeah .
You know you probably don't need , you don't need to blog that often .
Right , oh , you don't . No , how often should one blog ?
You know , I would say and this is more for usability is , try to blog once a month , and that's just for appearance , to make it look to these people who come to your site that , oh , this blog is active , he's got something every month or she's got something every month . There's also some advantage
¶ How Often Should You Blog?
to having a rhythm that Google will recognize and they will keep coming back to revisit your site . But you don't need to start . Like I said , if you've never blogged , you don't need to start blogging . Every month , ramp up , you know .
Right , Don't start at 11 .
Ultimately it's more important to have good blogs than have a bunch of blogs Right ? I've always , not always . I often say that a lot of garbage is still garbage . So if you're putting garbage on your blog every day , it doesn't matter .
I would rather , personally I'd rather have one good blog per month or even per three months than have a shitty blog every week or every day .
Yeah , written by AI from scratch .
You know , when I log into ChatGPT does it give you , like the most popular prompts , gives you a whole bunch of prompts that I don't think it does .
I don't think my ChatGPT does .
When I log in to ChatGPT , there's public prompts there . Chat GPT does . When I log in to chat GPT , there's public prompts there and they are exclusively like and I don't know if this is because of my browsing history or what I do or whatever , but it's always they're always SEO related and most of them now say 100% manually written , seo blog content .
And I'm like are you fucking kidding me ? Oh , my God , it's a prompt on chat GPT saying that it's a hundred percent manually written . Now , two things , okay , bullshit , obviously . And then number two that should give you some sort of clue that an AI generated blog is probably not as good as a handwritten book , yeah , anyway .
My chat GPT is very lovely . She's great . I love my chat GPT .
My chat GPT is great too . He's very cool .
Well mine , she is just incredible .
Okay .
We're keeping all of that .
Yeah , okay , don't stress out . You don't need to do your SEO constantly .
Yes , you do not .
Find a rhythm that is realistic for you .
And look up at the sky .
What does that mean ?
It's just something nice to do when you're outside . Look up at the sky , yeah do that too . It's very grounding .
Okay , isn't that weird . You look at the sky and you become more grounded .
Well , because you're on the ground looking at the sky .
I feel ,