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Tired of traffic that doesn’t convert? SEO isn’t just about chasing keywords, it’s about creating a clear journey for your audience. Nina Clapperton shares her “audience-first” approach for turning your content into a powerful sales funnel that attracts the right people and guides them towards action.
Converting Clicks to Customers through CRO Summary
Most marketers are doing SEO like it’s 2007. They’re chasing algorithms, obsessing over backlinks, and writing content that might rank but doesn’t actually convert visitors into customers.
Nina Clapperton figured this out the hard way. Stuck in a soul-crushing job as an estate law clerk, she gave herself 12 months to make her travel blog profitable—or go back to law school (which she’d already bailed on once). The threat of writing wills for the rest of her life was apparently excellent motivation.
But Nina didn’t succeed by following traditional SEO advice. She found her own path. And now she’s teaching over 10,000 business owners how to turn their content into actual revenue instead of just vanity metrics.
The Problem With Algorithm-First Thinking
When you focus on satisfying search engine algorithms, you’re always one step behind. Algorithms advance to meet user needs, so by the time you’ve “cracked the code,” users have already moved on to the next thing.
Nina puts it perfectly: “If we’re satisfying the algorithm, we’re actually a step behind, because users are always advancing, and algorithms are advancing to meet the user.”
This is like trying to pass a hockey puck to where a player is instead of where he’s going. You’ll miss every time.
The smarter approach? Go straight to the source. Figure out what your actual humans need, want, and struggle with. Build content that serves them completely, and the algorithms will follow.
How AI Search Changes the Game
ChatGPT and AI overviews are fundamentally changing how people search. Google’s “query fan-out method” means AI is now doing multiple related searches simultaneously and combining the results.
So when someone searches “best restaurants in Nashville for a girls trip,” AI is running separate searches for:
- Things to do in Nashville
- Nashville girls trip activities
- Celiac-friendly restaurants Nashville
- Dog-friendly restaurants (if it knows you have a dog)
- What’s open today
This means writing broad articles like “Best Restaurants in Portland” isn’t enough anymore. You need to get specific: “Best Restaurants in Portland for People with Celiac Disease” or “Dog-Friendly Restaurants in Portland.”
Long-tail keywords aren’t just nice to have—they’re essential for getting found in this new search landscape.
The SEO Sales Funnel That Actually Converts
Here’s where most people mess up: they treat every blog post like it exists in isolation. Nina’s approach is different. She builds SEO sales funnels—connected content that guides visitors through a complete journey from problem-unaware to ready-to-buy.
Think of it like the classic AIDA framework (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) but spread across 10-20 blog posts instead of crammed into one sales page.
A Real Example: The Window Company
Let’s say you’re an eco-friendly window installer. Your SEO sales funnel might look like this:
Awareness Stage (they don’t even know windows are the solution):
- “Five Signs Your Old Windows Are Costing You Money”
- “Hidden Health Risks of Drafts in Your House”
Interest Stage (they’re learning about solutions):
- “Should You Repair or Replace Your Windows?”
- “How Eco Windows Improve Home Insulation”
- “Home Energy Audit Checklist”
Desire Stage (they’re evaluating options):
- “Eco Windows vs Traditional Windows: Cost Analysis”
- “Customer Success Story: How We Saved $10,000 Yearly on Energy”
- “Complete Guide to Window Replacement Costs”
Action Stage:
- Your sales page with contact form
Each post answers one specific question in the customer journey and every post links to the next logical step using strategic internal linking.
Internal Linking: Your Secret Conversion Weapon
Internal linking is often an afterthought. Nina sees it as the backbone of her entire strategy.
Instead of generic conclusions like “In summary, windows are important,” she writes CTAs that move the conversation forward: “Now that you know your windows are wasting money, here’s how to choose the right replacement windows for your home.”
This isn’t just good for SEO—it’s good for humans. You’re having a conversation with your visitors, anticipating their next question and providing the answer.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
Page views and sessions? Vanity metrics. Nina compares them to people browsing in a store—they don’t matter unless they’re buying something.
Focus on:
- Time spent on site (are people actually reading?)
- Email signups (are they engaged enough to stay connected?)
- Contact form submissions
- Actual conversions and sales
Think quality over quantity. You’d rather have 100 engaged visitors who convert than 10,000 who bounce immediately.
Why Your Introduction Is Make-or-Break
Nina believes your introduction is the most important part of your content. Not your title, not your backlinks—your intro.
AI overviews pull from the first 1,000 words most often. It’s where people decide whether to keep reading or bounce. And it’s where you have visitors’ maximum attention.
So don’t save your best stuff for the end. Lead with your unique insights, specific examples, and credibility markers. Give people a reason to stick around right from the start.
Your Next Steps
Ready to flip your SEO strategy? Start here:
- Define your audience specifically – Who exactly are you trying to reach? Get granular.
- Map your customer journey – What questions do people ask as they move from problem-unaware to ready-to-buy?
- Write 10 connected posts – Create content for each stage of the journey, with strategic internal links moving people forward.
- Focus on conversions over traffic – Set up email capture, contact forms, and track what really matters for your business.
- Front-load your best content – Put your strongest insights and unique perspective in your introductions.
The old SEO game of keyword stuffing and link farming is dying. No, actually it’s dead. The new game is about building genuine relationships with your audience through helpful, connected content.
Stop chasing algorithms. Start serving humans. Your bottom line will thank you.
Converting Clicks to Customers through CRO Episode Transcript
Rich: My next guest is the founder of She Knows SEO and a multi six-figure blogger who turned travel stories into a seven-figure business. She grew her blog to 50,000 sessions in six months, scaled to $30,000 monthly income in under a year, and has since hit a hundred thousand months with her content strategy.
She now teaches over 10,000 bloggers and business owners how to turn their content into passive traffic, scalable income, and real freedom without burning out or relying on social media. Today we’re going to be talking SEO sales funnels with Nina Clapperton. Nina, welcome to the podcast.
Nina: Thanks so much for having me, Rich.
Rich: So what led you to your interest in SEO?
Nina: Mostly hating my job as an estate law clerk and being extremely bored. I had a travel blog that I wanted to be like ‘Instagram famous’ on, but I didn’t even own a phone or a camera, so that wasn’t working. And I gave myself a challenge that I had 12 months to make my blog profitable, or I had to go back to law school, which I’d bailed on before. And it’s a really good incentive when you don’t want to write wills for the rest of your life.
Rich: Absolutely. Burning the ships. But what was it like? So you sat there, and you were like, okay, I’m going to give myself 12 months. Did you immediately say SEO is probably a solution, or did you try a bunch of things and end up with SEO?
Nina: I had already been trying things, but I would do that whole like hop between different frying pan method of, I’ll do TikTok for two days, I’ll do Pinterest for two days, I’ll do whatever for two days. And SEO, as someone who’s not a visual thinker and as someone who didn’t have a camera, it was the easiest option where I started working on it and it made sense immediately to my brain. And I figured out pretty quickly that algorithms have a lot of patterns I could recognize. And as someone who’s autistic, pattern recognition is a lot easier for me. So it was very easy to lean into that, I think.
And when I set myself the goal, I wasn’t even really sure it would work, to be honest. I just knew I needed to actually stick to one thing. So SEO, of all the options, seemed like the easiest to stick to for a year. And that’s really where it came from. And I figured, I’ve heard other people have done well with it, why can’t I do well with it.
Rich: So that is fascinating, especially your diagnosis. I’m just curious, for somebody who maybe runs on a different operating system than I do, give me one example of a pattern that you saw that you’re like, oh, I’m seeing maybe what not everybody else sees.
Nina: That’s a good question. I also have ADHD, so I don’t remember the patterns that I see often, which is very funny.
No, I think the biggest thing was that I just saw that people had questions that no one was answering. And it didn’t matter if they were on any sort of keyword research platform or not. And I kept seeing people keep asking because it wasn’t on Google, but then SEMrush and Ahrefs would tell me, no, no one cares about that. And it was a pattern that kept coming up.
So I wrote for those kind of keywords twice, and then I realized, hey, they got 5,000 pages each for two posts. And so quickly I started to notice as well, patterns in the keyword structure and what tended to work in the keyword structure the most. So it’s called ‘programmatic SEO’ to some degree, but I wasn’t doing it quite as extensively as they do it. Where it was like pros and cons of living in x, pros and cons of living in y. Does it rain in winter in X? Like you just keep subbing through. So I think those were the first two immediate patterns for me.
Rich: Interesting.
Nina: Yeah. And then just I love to track data. So getting to track how everything was interconnected, and the cause and effect of it all I actually care about, where other people get very tired of looking at it.
Rich: Fascinating. Alright, thank you. Now you talk a lot about audience-first SEO. For those of us who focus on algorithms and rankings, what does audience-first look like in practice?
Nina: So ultimately, it is about thinking about humans first. Because if we think about algorithms, their entire goal is to satisfy the user, right? But if we’re satisfying the algorithm, we’re actually a step behind, because users are always advancing and algorithms are advancing to meet the user.
So most of the time, if you’re satisfying an algorithm, you’re satisfying a trend that’s already ending for the user, like they’re already starting to move on to the next thing. When you’re actually going straight to the source, when you’re going right to those people and figuring out what they need, what they want, what’s best for them, that’s when you get diehard fans that are in it, that will stay with you, that care more about like your site and your business than just hitting it once and then going back to Google to find the next list of restaurants near you or something like they’re actually here for you.
I also think it’s more about the full audience journey. So figuring out how someone moves through your site. And, because I started in travel, the main way that looked to me was how can someone plan a full trip on my website? Like, how can someone have a Nina level trip, not just one post on a thing, and then they dip and they’re gone. I want to make sure that they can move through and keep talking to me and keep learning about these things.
It also means sometimes writing for stuff that does not rank. Because things to do in Rome, my baby brand new site, not going to get that one. But it’s important for the context because if I was an audience member who shows up on that site and it’s a site about Rome, you don’t have things to do in Rome, I’m like, what’s happening? What is this website? And same for businesses.
So I think it’s really important to think about audience experience, audience trust, and ultimately what the audience’s goal is, and make sure that you’re satisfying every level of that. And then, I don’t even think secondary, I think like fourth is when we start thinking about the algorithm. Because ultimately, they are focused on the user first, so we should be, too.
Rich: I love that approach. It almost feels like the Wayne Gretzky approach to SEO. Like you don’t pass where they are, you pass where they’re going to be. Alright.
So more people obviously are turning to ChatGPT to answer questions, or they’re stopping at AI overviews on Google. How does that impact our approach to SEO, or how should it impact our approach to SEO?
Nina: I think it does in a couple ways. So number one, backlinks and DA, kind of dead, which I think is great, to be honest. Because some of those backlink farms need to go. But I think we also are again, getting more into the user.
So AI knows the user inside and out. It knows that anytime I look for restaurants, I’m celiac, so it’s never going to suggest the gluten hut or something. It’s going to be like, nope, Nina would never go there. So it is getting so introspective that we need to really know who we’re talking to and be very firm on that.
I think we also need to do a lot more long tail keywords. Because a search now with ChatGPT, “what are the best restaurants near me?” It’s using what Google calls the “query fan out method”, which is basically just a fancy way of saying it’s doing a hundred searches and then combining them for you. Where it’s going to search, okay, celiac restaurants, it knows Nina likes Mexican restaurants. It knows that I like to bring my dog with me, so it’s going to look for dog-friendly options. It knows that today is Tuesday, so what’s open today? Stuff like that. It’s doing all of that at once. So rather than writing an article that is, “Best restaurants in Portland” or something, we need to be doing, “Best restaurants in Portland for people with celiac”, for that long tail keyword.
I also think the biggest thing is topical authority, because all of these things they’re trusting you like a user. So the thing that I found that has had the most impact, I just started a new site literally on June 17th, and it is the beginning of July now. So it’s been up for two weeks. It is already ranking really well because I immediately published a full topic cluster that’s connected. It has no back links, it has nothing, it is just that. And within seven days it was already getting traffic from Google. And I had literally, again, done nothing that you’re supposed to do for traditional SEO, but it was getting AI search as well.
And I noticed in the analytics, it got indexed by ChatGPT so fast because I was attracting… sorry. I was thinking of the audience for like their full journey. So I was attracting people at any point in the journey, and I think that’s what it really likes. Because when someone’s saying, okay, best restaurants, you’ll notice it starts to think of the next thing and starts to cite extra bits and details. And if you already have those posts, then you can rank for that or get cited or whatever we’re going to call it – because we still haven’t landed on a term for it, I don’t think, in the industry.
But I would also say it’s less about informational posts. So anything that was a yes or no answer, meh. And I think a lot of us need to start thinking like local business owners, like service-based business owners where any press is good press. We want to have our name in the billboard of ChatGPT because it is huge for ChatGPT to say, “Hey, who’s a great blogging coach? You should go to Nina, she knows SEO.” People are like, oh my God, ChatGPT knows you. And I’m like, yeah, because I’ve trained it a lot at this point.
But also, it’s important for business owners to be found that way. So I think a bigger thing is we need to accept that we’re not going to get the same percentages of traffic that we used to from a single query, but we can get more from different places. And we need to be thinking, again, user-first. Because algorithm-first, like AI algorithms advance way too fast to be able to quote unquote “hack” them.
Rich: All right. Now you mentioned the fan out method, and this is a term that John in my office, my digital marketing manager, has been starting to throw around. And yeah, on some level it sounded like a rename of some previous SEO approaches. So can you just quickly define for us what you mean by the fan out method?
Nina: Yeah, so I’m using Google’s exact definition from their IO keynote, where basically they even give a visual of like on one side it’s like someone typing in, “things to do in Nashville or for a girls trip, one of us is celiac, 10 of us want to wear cowboy hats at dinner”, and so it’s pulling out all of the little individual searches out of that, and it’s running those searches.
So it would then basically fan out to do okay. “Things to do in Nashville. Things to do in Nashville, girls trip restaurants, Nashville, celiac friendly, Cowboy themed activities, I guess in Nashville”. It’s running all those searches. Then it goes to a mid-ground parses. It comes through, analyzes, creates an answer, and then sends it to the audience back. So essentially, it’s like I went to an assistant and said, “Can you do 10 searches for me? Read the results, then filter through what’s best, and then give it back.” And that’s what we’re getting back with AI mode and ChatGPT.
Rich: So with that in mind, how has that changed your approach to blogging and content creation? Are you writing, I know you said you don’t write for the algorithms, but that must have affected the way that you approach content creation?
Nina: I definitely, like algorithms are still a part of it for sure. But I’m still, I’ve always been okay with writing for stuff that won’t rank if it helps my audience, because with internal linking, you can get people there.
But with this, I’d say the main thing it changed is that you really need to make sure that you are super, super clear on all of those defining characteristics. So if I’m writing a post that’s like, “things to do in Rome or Nashville”. I used to do things to do in Nashville, but then I’d hint at who my ideal audience was inside of the post because I didn’t want to turn off, I guess, Google or people being like, “No, I don’t want solo female traveler version of this”.
Now I’m getting very specific, and I think ultimately pushing people away brings your ideal people closer. And especially with ChatGPT search, I’m also using headings less for secondary keywords and more for secondary intent. So if it is things to do in Nashville, I’m going to use headings to signal, okay, “things do in Nashville for a girls’ trip”, “best restaurants for a girls’ trip”. Like things where it’s a next step. It’s not just rewriting the H one over and over again, which kept being a thing for a while.
I’d also say that like it’s, let me get shorter and sweeter because I was definitely one of those people who did the skyscraper method, where it was just write more than everyone else. And that’s not helpful. If you think of it, do you really care if the apartment building you live in is a story higher than another apartment building? No. You care that yours has a doorman, a dog washing station, free parking, a massage every Tuesday, which would be amazing. I wish my apartment would do that. You care about the quality of it. And then I would say, again, like for me, it’s always just been connecting the content.
And then the main change I’d say is my offsite strategy, where I’m no longer worried about backlinks, I’m worried about branded mentions. And mentions can happen now in Instagram captions, it can happen on podcasts like this, YouTube interviews, YouTube videos. And I’m much more worried about multimodal, which is essentially Google’s fancy term of saying, be everywhere, don’t just be in SEO. They really want us to have at least one or two other digital presences so that they’re like, hey, you’re not made up, you actually exist. That’s kind of my biggest change, to be honest.
And then a lot of it is just continuing to listen to my audience, and know what they need before they need it, so that ChatGPT can recommend me and next things that I’ve written about it.
Rich: Love it. Love it. All right, one thing you talk about is the idea of an SEO sales funnel. Can you explain what that looks like?
Nina: For sure. So an SEO sales funnel is that old like AIDA or AIDA marketing kind of upside-down triangle, where basically we’re going from someone who has no idea what the thing is, all the way down to, oh my God, I need this thing, I’m adding it to my cart right now,
Here’s my credit card information.
And it’s typically something that we see with like email marketing funnels or with businesses literally on one single sales page. But I actually do it across the website. So when I’ve been talking about topical authority, The way that I build that is by writing 10 to 20 posts on a subject, and each post is one stage of that funnel.
So essentially we’re going from okay, I don’t even know where I should travel, all the way down to my trip is booked, I’ve used Nina’s affiliate link for rental cars, I’ve done this, I’ve done that. All good. And so we just want to think about the order in which people search. That’s the easiest way to think of it.
If you are planning to work with an architect, if you are planning to work with someone in marketing, if you’re planning to work with me and you’re like, “Hey, what is SEO? What does that even mean?” That’s actually probably not your first search. Your first search is, how do I get people to my business? How does this work? How do I make money blogging? And then you’re like, oh, okay, SEO is a thing. What is that? Those are the awareness stage.
Then we move to interest. You know what SEO is, but you need to get a bit more information on it. You’re learning about it. You’re getting some tutorials, and then you’re like, okay, now I need to evaluate in the desire stage. Is this right for me? Should I buy this? Is this something that works for me? Will SEO work for me? And then the action is, yes, it will. I’m pressing ‘purchase’ or ‘submit my inquiry’ or whatever it is to actually get the thing.
And the way that you just connect all of those is with internal linking. And so you treat it literally like an email funnel, where email one then goes to email two. In this case, it just links to the second one. And if you link to the entire funnel as a little bonus choose your own adventure thing, you can get people no matter what stage they’re at. Because some people advance faster than others.
Rich: Alright. That is helpful. But I’m wondering if you can anchor it down for us and give us a kind of real-world example for, say, a service-based business?
Nina: For sure. So my sister’s an architect and she was recently working with people to do some windows. So that was what I went with is some window people. And so with the awareness, it’s going to be some problems or mistakes you’re making. So, “five signs your old windows are costing you money”. And then, “hidden health risks of drafts in your house”. So things that are problems people are having, and they don’t really even know if new windows are the option yet.
Then the interest is more of that solution, how to. So, “should you repair or replace your windows, which is a better option?” These were specifically eco-friendly window people, so it was like, “how eco windows improve insulation – a home energy audit checklist”. And then there were a couple other options there. I don’t know a lot about windows, so I did my best. But things like, “how many windows should you have in your house in Canada?” We have a ratio you’re allowed to have. And choosing between a couple different eco windows.
Then we had the desire, which is more comparison, proof strategy. The other one was comparing between eco versus traditional windows. This one was comparing different types of eco windows. Then we had a customer success story of how this person saved $10,000 a year on energy costs. Then we had cost analysis of how much do eco windows cost entirely. And then we had a green analysis of how eco-friendly your home would be before and after. And the action is their sales page.
Rich: Now, is that all on one page or is that a series of different articles or blog posts?
Nina: All different posts. So each one of those would have been its own post. And essentially, it’s just each post needs to be one question or one stage of thought. Think of the way you’d have a conversation with someone. If I’m like, “Oh, my house is so drafty, it’s costing me so much”. Someone goes, “Oh, you need new windows”. And I’m like, “Are you sure?” And they’re like, yeah, windows dah. And I’m like, okay. So I think I do need new windows. What type of windows should I get? You should get these type of windows because X, Y, Z. Okay, I think eco windows are the way to go. Can you tell me more about them? Like how does a window be eco, whatever?
And so if you just think of those questions that you are asking somebody in the point of a conversation, that’s the easiest way to do it.
Rich: Alright.
Nina: And pro-tip, ChatGPT can pretend to be that person asking you the questions.
Rich: Yes. Always good to create your ICPs in AI. So talk to me a little bit more about internal linking and this idea of these content silos. If we don’t have a full-time SEO or marketer on staff, what should we be trying to accomplish?
Nina: You should try to get 10 to 20 posts out. I’d say 10 maybe like within a couple months. Doesn’t take that long, to be honest. Most posts can be a thousand words or so. What you need to do basically is just figure out what am I selling? What is that main thing I’m selling? If it’s a service, if it’s a product, whatever. And then you’re going to figure out those ten posts – well, nine, because your 10th is going to be the sales page. But you’re going to figure out those posts that happen above it. You’re going to write them and then you’re going to add internal links.
Internal links are basically just when you use a hyperlink from any text to move to another post. So we typically want to have all of that kind of silo, cluster, whatever terms you want to use, pillars, I don’t know, beam, whatever term we want to use. You’re going to want to make sure they’re all linked together, but the main link we care about is the CTA at the end of the post.
So in your conclusion, rather than your conclusion being like, “Heretofore, this happened in this post.” It’s like no, no, no. What’s the next thing? So if you’re like, okay, yeah, like my house, I’m wasting so much money on energy. What can I do to fix it? Okay, now that you know what to fix, the best fix is windows. Here’s a post all about how to choose the right window. So you’re moving that conversation yourself.
So I’d write those posts, add those links, and then that’s kind of it. Like basically, just make sure you’re giving the advice and really think of it the way that you would talk to a customer. If you had a discovery call with a customer who’s not really sure if they need you yet, or if you’ve been that person at a party who – I do this all the time because ADHA, no impulse control when people start talking about SEO. I’m like, “Ah, actually…” Or they’re like, “Yeah, my business has no leads. I’m spending so much on ads.” I’m like, “I could help.” And I’m like the weird Kool-Aid man, just shoving myself into conversations.
But when I do that, I think about what are they asking in those moments? What are they thinking about? Put those into your 10, connect them, and then just make sure that when you look at it, you’re like, hey, if someone was true beginner, intermediate, almost ready to purchase, there’s something for each one of them. And then write the post, publish, go do the actual work you enjoy doing.
Rich: All right. So I assume that if we’re shifting our approach to SEO, we might also be looking at different metrics. As we look to our GA4 or to Microsoft Clarity, what are the KPIs we should be paying more attention to if we adopt your approach?
Nina: I think the main thing is going to be conversions over like quick page views. Like you care more about time spent on your site because that’s showing you that your content is converting and doing something for them.
But I also think conversions to getting people on your email list, to getting people to send you a contact information form, or whatever to getting people to purchase, I think that’s going to ultimately be the main KPI we need to look at. I think things like page views and sessions, honestly, I see them as vanity metrics. Which I know is a bit weird because they do exist. They are doing something. But people browsing in a store don’t matter to the store. It’s the people that purchase from the store, the people that try things on, the people that are engaging with it.
So I would recommend setting things up, like having an email list. That way you can be checking those metrics and seeing how people engage. Having little mini quizzes or little polls or something, give people opportunities to engage. Those are the biggest ones to me.
Rich: All right. You’ve already given us a few, but what is one contrarian take that you have on SEO, either something that most people are saying you should absolutely do this, and you roll your eyes, or vice versa?
Nina: I have so many, but my biggest thing is that I think your intro is the most important part of your content. Everyone always says it’s no, it’s the back links, or it’s this, or it’s the title. I’m like, actually, no. You can adjust those things very easily. But the thing that number one, AI overviews pulls from the most, the first thousand words of your content that Google’s pulling from, most of that’s coming from your intro. And the thing that AI search often cites the most is your intro. It’s also the part where people will leave if it’s not good, and it’s the reason people end up skimming. People have the most attention at the beginning of your post, so get their attention.
Actually, tell them what all of this is. Think of it like a movie trailer. What are we going to talk about? Who are you to talk about this thing? And give them some of the answers. Don’t save it all. You don’t have to put it your best stuff at the end. In fact, put it early, and put some of your unique experiences early that really say, here’s why I am someone to listen to, not that other random girl down the block that’s also talking about solo travel, who probably hasn’t actually ever left the block, and I have.
So for the window business, with one of those introductions you would talk about we’ve installed this many windows, or we saw this result from installing windows. You would talk about okay, there are 10 types of windows. We always use this one because it’s lead certified and dah, dah, dah, but there are other options too. So people will keep reading. If all they wanted was one sentence, at least you gave it to them. But most people want more than that. So please, for the love of God, write a good intro because it is going to save your SEO.
Rich: Alright. Nina, if somebody wanted to shift to a funnel-based SEO approach, what is the first step that they should take on that journey?
Nina: First thing, you got to really define your audience. So who are you focusing on? And then the second thing is, what do you want them to do? And if you don’t know what you’re funneling someone towards, you’re just building a weird corn maze that like, no one likes a corn maze. They’re weird and they smell like corn. So you really want to make sure you have something streamlined. And if you don’t know those two things, you’re going to be a mess.
Then if you are struggling, ChatGPT can definitely help. But please don’t trust ChatGPT for keyword research. It does not have the ability yet. I would definitely go to something like Key Search, SEMrush, Ahrefs, SE ranking. There’s so many to figure out the actual terms your audience is using. And if you don’t know who your audience is, go to some Facebook groups, stalk some YouTube comments. Be a little bit like a weird 13-year-old girl doing an FBI mission on her potential crush. Go learn everything you can learn and then figure out what they’re struggling with and then work on that first.
Rich: Awesome. Nina, if people want to check out your blog, if they want to learn more about your SEO services, if they want to know more about you, where can we send them?
Nina: You can come find me at sheknowsseo.co. That’s where I live on the internet, basically. It has all my offers, all my freebies. But I also have a special freebie for you guys, sheknowsseo.co/audit will get you my 12-page content audit workbook that I actually use to basically unstuck my site from going from 6,000 page views to 10,000 page views in one month, and then it just kept growing from there. So you guys will get that entirely for free.
You can also find me at, @SheKnowsSEO on YouTube or my free Facebook group, ‘SEO for Bloggers’, but business owners are welcome. We just needed something that wasn’t a million words, and if I said SEO for every single thing, we would be over the limit.
Rich: Awesome. We’ll have links to all those in the show notes. Nina, thanks so much for your time today.
Nina: Thank you so much, Rich.
Show Notes:
Is Comprehension in Comics More Effective Than in Traditional Texts in Skilled Adult Readers? An Eye Movement-Based Study
Nina Clapperton is the founder of She Knows SEO and a content strategist who turned her travel blog into a 7-figure business. She now helps bloggers and small business owners create audience-first content and SEO funnels that drive sustainable, scalable traffic. Don’t forget to grab her FREE SEO Content Audit Checklist!
Rich Brooks is the President of flyte new media, a web design & digital marketing agency in Portland, Maine, and founder of the Agents of Change. He’s passionate about helping small businesses grow online and has put his 25+ years of experience into the book, The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing.