Focusing on SEO and Keyword Research with Cree Carraway | The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Cree, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me, Bjork. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, it's gonna be a fun conversation about this series that we're doing. It's a, it's a series focusing on what it's like to blog with a full time job. And you're in this interesting position where, uh, you have your work and you have your side hustle as your blog and you've had some success with your site and, and you're getting some traction. And now it's like, okay, this is, this is a legitimate business and we're going to talk about that, what that looks like, kind of the mechanics of it. But before we do that, I want to hear about November 2019, when you were kind of at this inflection point. And it sounds like it was this point where you had some considerations around, do I do this? Am I burnt out? Is it too much? Take us back to that point and where your headspace was at.

Yes, Bjork, for sure. So I had, as you mentioned, so much burnout. I had taken a three month break at one point, four months, five months. And so I remember in November 2019, I decided to make a peach cobbler recipe. And excuse me, during that time I hadn't been really consistent. But you know, I figure, okay, Thanksgiving is coming around, I'm going to make a Picha cobbler recipe. And at that time I hadn't really focused on Google Analytics. And so one day after making, or I think it may have been a week or so after making the peach cobbler recipe, I decided to look at my analytics. And I was shocked that I had for that month, from November 1st through, I don't know, a couple of days before Thanksgiving, I had 15,000 sessions. And so I was shocked because I was usually used to seeing maybe 75 sessions, 150, then it jumped up to 350 at some point. But November 2019, I felt as though it was a turning point for me. And so with 15,000 sessions, I'm thinking, okay, now I can really, I feel motivated. I can really focus on trying to get into mediavine. So at that time that was my goal. So, you know, I decided, you know, I'm just going to focus on SEO. I'm not going to try to do all the things I didn't know what was going on with Pinterest, so I just threw that out the door. I felt as though I was spending too much time on Instagram, but I just felt like the return on investment was not great at all. So I just really just focused on just trying to get into Mediavine. And so in June of 2020, I was at, I think 24,000 or so sessions, close to 25,000. And so I decided to apply to Mediavine. And I was so happy that I had reached that goal.

Yeah. And so at that point, you apply, you get accepted, and you're able to then start running ads where I feel like there's a, there's a couple steps along the way, right? So when you're in the very beginning stages, it's like, wow, somebody came and they visited my site. I still remember that in the super early stages for Pinch of Yam, when you know, we'd post something and be like, wow, 10 people yesterday. And I have friends who aren't in the food space, but like a mentor of mine who writes about kind of philosophy and faith and helped him kind of early stages get set up with a blog. And he's like, there's somebody from like Indonesia visited my site. And it's just really exciting in those early stages. And then comes a point where you think, okay, what does it look like to have a new mile marker? Right. So a thousand people in a month, whatever it might be. So if I'm kind of understanding your story, you have this inflection point, November, you're like, wait a minute, like, this is something where, like, if I improve this, these numbers a little bit, then I can actually go through the process of applying to be part of this ad networks to start to create some, some significant income in a way where you're also not having to have inventory, right? So if you have some, like an online boutique, like you might have $2000 in revenue, but then you have 1500 or $1000 in expenses, that looks different than what in some ways can be pure profit. You have to buy food and do the work, and sometimes you'll maybe hire pieces of that out. But that's one of the great things about this and one of the reasons why it makes it lucrative is because you don't have a lot of back office overhead or cost of goods. So when you first applied, when you got to that point, like, what did, what did those first few months look like? And was that motivating to start to see, you know, 300, 400, $500, what, what did that look like, that amount? And then did that encourage you to work more on it once you saw the possibilities?

Yes. So, okay, so I was so like, as I said, I applied June 1, June 30 month, I was Actually approved. And so I believe. I can't. I think. I believe. I believe I received my first payout in September. And so it was for $431. I'm like, oh, my gosh. For some reason, I just expected $100, possibly 100.

Yeah. And this is the best part about this, is you have a cheerleader in the background. You have your. Yeah, what is that? What is the name of your dog in the background? Anytime that a dog can make an appearance, it's a wonderful thing.

Right? Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry. Her name is. She's a Chihuahua mix. She's actually in the backyard. And I didn't realize the window was cracked. So my apology for that soon.

No, we all get it in this work from home reality that we live in.

Right? Exactly. So, as I mentioned, so my first payout was $431. And I was blown away by that 431. So I assumed, okay, so my next paycheck will be around, you know, $431, maybe $500. And it was for $1,610 $61. And so. And I was so. I just could not believe it. I was so encouraged, and I felt even more motivated. And so I remember saying to my mom, gosh, what if one day I can pay my mortgage?

Yeah.

Right. Through media. Or through my payout from mediavine if I wanted to. And so my next payout was $2,550. And so it just like went from there. However, then when you reach January. Yeah. I'm like, oh, my gosh.

Yeah, it's not exciting.

Right? Exactly. So I remember January of 20. 20.

21.

Yeah, 2021. My January check, I believe it was 1500. Oh, my gosh. But, you know, after the first quarter, it gets better.

Yep. And for those. Most people are educated in that world right now, but the idea being January advertising budgets reset scales way back. So even if you have more traffic, everybody's, you know, suddenly interested in cooking and eating well. And your traffic might go up, but earnings usually will go down in that first quarter. So you see that. And even. Even quarter to quarter, you see that, like the end of a quarter, money spend within advertising budgets will go up and reset. So like quarter three into quarter four, you'll see that. So that's why that sweet spot is really like dis. December at the end of the year, December. So what were the things that you did and what were the things you didn't do that were most helpful for you to get to that point where suddenly you're creating a substantial amount of income from your site.

You know, I. You know, I went through. I went through the SEO. I can't remember the. The actual course name that's on Food Blogger Pro.

Mm.

And I went through. I went back and read through the SEO threads. I mean, that. Those can actually be overwhelming too, because there are so many. But, you know, I just tried to just every day just. Just take in what I could. And I listened to podcasts that. I pretty much listened to all of Casey's podcast.

Yeah. Yes, Pro Expert. You'll see him in the forums in those SEO threads, and.

Yeah, yes, exactly. And. And, you know, I pretty much did that, and I started to be more intentional about my. My. My. My title. And so, yeah, that's what I pretty much did. I just really, just. I just really dove into SEO. Like, whatever information that I found was, you know, was reliable, was valid. I mean, obviously all of Casey's, you know, information is valid and things of that nature. So I just really, really focused on, you know, his different podcasts or podcasts that he was on.

Yeah. So do you remember anything that was a significant learning piece for you? So you. Like, like, oh, actually, I need to spend time in Google Search Console or, like, keyword research. Or, like, was there anything along the way that for you was significant in terms of a moment where you didn't know something and then you did know something and applying that new thing was impactful, right?

Yes, totally. So I started. I started with KeySearch. I think I use their. I think they have a free version, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. But anyhow, I remember using that for. Or maybe they have a trial period. I can't remember. But anyhow, I use their free service for, I believe, two weeks. And so I found that to be very, very valuable.

That's the keyword optimization research tool.

Yes, for sure. Yes. And so I felt as though I would really benefit from their paid version, so I purchased their paid version. And so I decided to really focus on monthly search. That was around, I don't know, 2,400 at the time. And then.

2,400 in terms of volume?

Yes, yes. I'm sorry, 2400 in terms of volume. Yes. And so then I started.

Can you talk about why you picked that number, just out of curiosity?

Yes, Well, I believe I recall Casey mentioning in one of his podcasts maybe 2000 or so monthly searches is a good point to start with. Don't know exactly.

The idea being that you don't want to start. Like, if you're in the early stages, you don't want to start with chocolate chip cookies, which might have a hundred thousand.

Exactly.

Because that's going to be super competitive. So you want to find this kind of sweet spot and you can start to think about, okay, if I can rank number one or two or three for a hundred pieces of content that get 2,000 searches, like, you can start to play the numbers game a little bit and say, so if you're in spot number one for 50 of those, and then you get a thousand of those clicks, that might be 50,000 page views in a month. So you can start to be kind of strategic.

Yeah.

Think about how you can get those lower volume but less competition keywords. So that's kind of what you were thinking about.

Exactly.

Yeah. Super smart.

Exactly. Yes. And so then eventually, you know, I got a little brave, so I started going for, I think the highest, you know, during that time I went for was 40 or 100. So. But even still, I still stay within that range. Sometimes I get a little bit more brave and I may go for 6,000 monthly search, but that's pretty much the tool that I use. And sometimes I'll go to Semrush just to kind of gauge numbers there. Because when you look at these different keyword tools, sometimes the volume can. I don't know, it's a bit different.

Right.

In terms of the keyword that you're. That you would like to aim for.

Yeah. So sometimes one of the realizations that is important within this world is like, the data isn't 100% accurate. Like, it's the best guess at. Like, these tools don't have direct access to Google necessarily. Sometimes they can pull in information via API. But like, it's like, it kind of is a general. It's like, you know, if I was here and somebody was like, how do you get to Duluth, Minnesota? It'd be like, well, directionally, like, you kind of go north and if you get to Grand Marais, you've gone too far. Like, that would be.

Right.

Like, it's, it's that versus like an exact calculation of this is exactly how many searches it is. So did you have a paid account for, um, Semrush?

No, I did not. However, recently I decided to use their paid version for a couple months. But, you know, I didn't see, like, I didn't see a huge benefit, you know, so I decided to cancel that and. But I still stick with key search. Yeah. Oh. And you know, and you know what I did recently also, which was so valuable, I took. What course was that? It's called Cooking with Keywords With. I believe her name is Aleka. I'm not mistaken. But that was a really valuable course as well.

Cool. And the idea with that is all around keyword research for food bloggers.

Yes. Yes.

One of the things that I love about your story, Cree, is that, like, two pieces. One of the things that I heard you talk about was this idea of, like, continual progress. So, like, this, you don't want to. It's not like you're going to try and do everything. You're not going to try and do Pinterest and Twitter and Instagram. You're going to focus on one thing and make a little bit of progress on that. Um, which we love that idea. The other thing that I think is so great is continual learning. Like, not only are you showing up every day and doing the work, but as you're doing that, you're also being intentional to learn along the way.