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Who is struggling with this podcast? But I think I've figured out what I really want to do,
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and it starts with helping you to help yourself. So let's fucking go.
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This is SEO Buckingworth. I'm Nicky and I've been doing SEO for over 30 years, before it was
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even called SEO. I help people like you make money from your website by getting found on search.
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But today, I need to be honest with you about something. It's been struggling to find my feet
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with this podcast. When I started, I came in hot, all ranty, all sweary, really furious about
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the bollocks in this industry. And look, I am still angry. The way small business owners get treated
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by dodgy SEO agencies and LinkedIn course fluggers makes my fucking blood boil. But there's only so
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much sustained rage one woman can maintain. And after a chat with my brilliant podcast producer,
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Neil shout out to Neil. He's amazing. I realized I'd lost sight of why I actually started this.
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Wasn't to make a name for myself. It wasn't to be the sweary one on Spotify.
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It was to help website owners like you to help yourself. So whether you decide to do your SEO
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yourself or pay someone to do it, I want to educate you. I want to give you the knowledge to either
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crack on or to spot when someone's talking absolute shite. So we're kind of starting again.
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Still sweary. That's not going anywhere. Sorry, not sorry. Still angry about a lot of things.
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But focused more on what you can do to help your website right now. And that brings me to what we're
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doing today. This episode is the first in a series that's loosely based on my non-wanky SEO course.
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We're going to walk through your SEO step by step. But I need to be blunt with you right now.
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This only works if you actually do the thing I tell you to. Listening is lovely. Thank you.
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Thinking about it is nice. But without the doing, you're wasting my time and yours. And I don't say
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that to be a twat. I say it because I genuinely want you to get results. So today we're talking about
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the tools that will help you understand what's happening with your website. The tools that most
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people I speak to either don't have, or, and this is the common fucking denominator, they've got
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them set up and they never look at them. And seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've done
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an SEO one to one and asked someone to share their Google search console. I only define they haven't
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logged in for 18 months. So like having a sat nav but refusing to look at it and then wondering
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why you keep getting lost. So, three tools, all free, all essential.
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Websites made simple. The place where website designers finally stop winging it and start running
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a business that actually works. If you're a web designer who's constantly busy but still wondering
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why your business feels harder than it should, you're not alone. So many talented designers feel
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lost in the admin. The client boundaries, the pricing bubble, the, is this layout even good,
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spiral? And then they blame themselves for not having it all figured out. Or that ends here with us.
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I'm Holly Christie. I'm an experienced website designer, mentor and founder of two successful
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website businesses. And around here we talk honestly about what's really holding your design
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business back and how to fix it in a way that's doable, sustainable, and actually you.
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Every episode gives you something practical you can use straight away. Whether that's tightening
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your process, leveling up your design skills, handling tricky clients, or finally feeling confident
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about the business side of things. If you love designing websites but you're ready for the
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business to feel lighter, smoother and way more successful, you're in the right place. This is
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website's made simple. Let's make your business feel as good as your designs.
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Tour number one, an analytics platform. You need to know who's coming to your website.
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You need to know where they're coming from and what they're doing when they get there.
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And I know, your hosting company probably gives you stacks. Wix has built in analytics,
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Squarespace shows you numbers, and that's fine for a quick glance. But honestly, get the external
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analytics too. First of all, they're more detailed. Your hosting stats might tell you someone
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visited. Good analytics will tell you where they came from, how long they stayed, what pages
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they looked at, and if set up properly, whether they did anything useful, like filling in a form.
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Secondly, they integrate with other tools. If you want to connect your analytics to an SEO tool,
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or build a proper dashboard in Lucas Studio, you need external analytics.
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And thirdly, and this is kind of the big one, you as much as you can own the data.
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If you move hosting providers, change platforms, whatever, your analytics history goes with you.
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Google analytics is the obvious choice. It's free. It's powerful. And most SEO tools play nicely
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with it. I know it's got a learning curve, and since they changed to GA4, it's been a bit of a
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binfire, but you don't need to understand every single report to get value from it.
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If you hate Google, or want something simpler, I personally love clicky analytics.
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It's paid, but it's dead easy to use, and it shows you what's happening in real time.
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My affiliate link is in the show notes if you want to check it out. But just pick one and install
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it today before you do anything else. Tool number two, Google search console.
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If you take one thing away from this episode, let it be this. If you do not have a Google
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search console account already, get one. No other tool will tell you more about how Google sees
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your website. Nothing else gives you an almost direct gaze into Google's mind. And I know,
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Google is not the only search engine. But right now, even with the rise of AI search,
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it's the one that matters most to most businesses. Now, the thing about search console
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is it takes a few days to start collecting data, and it doesn't do it retrospectively.
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So if you don't have Google search console, just do both of us a favor and sign up now.
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For you listen to another word. I'm serious. Pause this. Go to search.google.com slash search
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hyphen console. Get it set up. It'll take 10 minutes. Done it again. Now let me tell you what
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search console tells you. It shows you the search phrases people type into Google when your website
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appears in the results. Not keyword, not provided or secure search, like Google Analytics gives you
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and used to give you the actual phrases. It tells you how many times you showed up for those
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phrases, how many people clicked through roughly, and where you were ranking on average.
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It shows you which pages on your site are indexed by Google, and crucially, which ones aren't,
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and why. It alerts you when Google finds problems with your site,
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mobile issues, security problems, indexing errors. You can submit new pages to Google and
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directly and request their crawled. So when you publish that new blog post, you don't have to
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sit around waiting for Google to find it. The data in Google search console is gold. Absolutely
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fucking gold. And I see business owners every week who either never set it up or haven't
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looked at it in months. Don't be that person. Until number three is Microsoft clarity.
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And this one flew under the radar for ages. Microsoft launched it quietly a few years back,
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and most people ignored it because they were already using analytics. But clarity does something
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different. It shows you how people use your website, not just that they visited. It records
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user sessions so you can literally watch what people do on your site. Where they move their mouse,
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what they click on, how far they scroll. It creates heat maps that show you where people click the
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most. And it highlights problems like rage clicks. You know when you're on a really shit website,
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and you click the same button 15 times because it's not doing anything, clarity tracks that.
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It also shows you dead clicks where people click on something, expecting it to do something,
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and nothing happens. It's incredibly useful figuring out why people aren't converting.
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Maybe they're not scrolling far enough to see you call to action. Maybe they're clicking on
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something they think is a button, but isn't. Maybe your contact form is broken on a mobile.
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And you know what? It's completely free forever. With no limits on website size, it takes about
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five minutes to set up and it won't slow your site down. Install it. Check it every couple of
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weeks. You'll learn things about how people use your site that you'd never discover any other way.
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Oh, so quick thing. If you're enjoying this, but thinking, Nikki, I don't want to wait
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to week for the next podcast. I just want to know how to do all of this myself right now.
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I've got you. I developed a non-page SEO course that shows you exactly how to get your
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pages ranking without hiring an SEO. It's all the stuff I do for clients, broken down so that
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you can do it yourself. Video, audio, text, however you like to learn. It's £200, no upsells,
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just the course. If you want more, there's a bigger course. Have a look at nonwankysio.com.
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Right. Let's make this practical. Here's your homework. Let me natural homework.
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Remember what I said about doing the thing. Today, sign up for Google search console if you haven't
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already. Very far your site takes 10 minutes. Check you've got Google Analytics or another
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analytics platform properly installed. Sign up for Microsoft clarity and add the tracking code to
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your site. If you can't do this, message me. I'm easy to find. Then this week, log into search
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console once it's collecting data. Have a look around. Don't panic about what you see. We'll
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cover how to look at it properly in a future episode. Watch a couple of clarity session recordings.
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Just observe. Notice anything surprising. And then ongoing, I want you to set a reminder to check
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these tools at least once a month. Put it in your calendar. Make it non-negotiable. Because look,
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these tools are only useful if you actually fucking look at them. Data sit in unread is just noise.
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But data you actually review, that's how you make better decisions.
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That's your lot for this week. If this was helpful, make sure you're following SEO fucking
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whore in whatever app you're using to listen right now so you don't miss the next episode.
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Because next time, we're talking about keywords, key phrases and search intent. Because if you don't
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know what you're optimizing your site for, you won't know bloody way of knowing if it's working.
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And if you know another small business owner who's been winging it without proper tracking,
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send them this episode. They'll thank you for it eventually. Until next time, get found,
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make money, stop stressing and actually set up your fucking tools.