As we’ve explained in numerous spots throughout our website, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of ensuring your organization is found online for relevant search-engines searches in relevant geographies. But a huge mistake in 2025, and beyond, would be to only focus on your website and Google My Business Profile being optimized to be found by appropriate searchers/target audiences, as shown in the image below.
The answer to the above is “no way!” In fact, just the opposite, although some digital marketing experts are saying it is, or are reluctant to use/expand the SEO acronym or search engine optimization phrase to describe maximizing your opportunities for all and any digital assets, presences, or properties to be served up in search-engine results vs. just an organization’s website, Google My Business Profile, and paid search/search-engine ads (think Google and Bing ads).
Hey, right now in this time of constant change on the SEO front, no-one really is the one true expert or SEO guru, so we’re going to take our stand vs. following the crowd or one expert, and say that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about making sure all your digital assets, presences (think social media posts and presences and discussion forum presences) and properties serve you well related to being found online for the right search terms, questions, and topics in relevant geographies.
Let’s Chat About What SEO Means In This New Era And How Your Organization Can Plan and Respond To It!
As shown in the image below, my husband, Jay, and I had the good fortune of attending a women’s basketball game this past Sunday, at my undergraduate alma mater, University of Connecticut (better known as UCONN). If you’re a fan of college basketball and/or of March Madness, you know that UCONN has had a very strong women’s basketball team for years, and in recent years, the men’s basketball team has played quite well and won the NCAA championship for the last two years! I share all of this because their great success means it’s very hard to land tickets to watch either of the two teams play. Fortunately, we were gifted some tickets from our nephew for Christmas!
Being back on UCONN’s main campus in Storrs, CT brought back so many wonderful memories of my three years spent there (I spent my entire senior year abroad in France as a participant in their JYA (junior year abroad, although as previously stated I went my senior year) program in Rouen, Normandy.
A French Major To An SEO Expert
As a French major back in the 1980’s, I never would have imagined that I would eventually become a marketing professional nor that such a powerful networking enterprise/system/solution (I really don’t know the best way to refer to something that impacts our daily lives to the degree it does) like the internet would ever exist. Heck, PCs (personal computers) didn’t exist when I was at UCONN. The only computer courses that students had access to were ones where you created punch cards that fed some crazy big computer contraption (I think it was called a mainframe computer, but maybe someone will correct me?). Of course, that meant there were no knowledge or dreams of e-mail, social media, or search engines back then!
But, after working at financial services companies post-college-graduation for a few years, I went back to school part-time, and then full-time, to get my Master’s in Business Administration (M.B.A.) at Boston University (B.U.). Post graduate-school, I worked in many a corporate marketing role, and lead various marketing teams, at healthcare and financial institutions. And then, in 2014, I hung the shield for my digital marketing agency, Results Communications and Research, where I greatly enhanced my knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) and eventually began to specialize in it because I was so passionate about it!
If I had told my 17 – 21-year-old under-graduate self that, one day, many hours of my work day would be spent helping for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations be found on search engines for relevant terms in relevant geographies, and be found on the internet, in general, I’m sure she and my UCONN friends would have laughed.
But, here I find myself in 2025 and I’m loving every minute of it!
My blog title is a quote I plan to use this year to inspire myself as well as others — on both the work and personal fronts. You can see I’m already adhering to it on the personal front related to keeping a daily exercise routine going. But, what does it mean related to the SEO work I do for clients and for the SEO clients themselves?
Like Many Other Marketing Activities, SEO Should Be An Ongoing One
Many organizations get the ball rolling on their SEO — often in conjunction with launching a brand new website or in conjunction with revamping an existing one — but then, don’t keep the momentum going. I refer to the SEO work that gets done at the time of a new or revised website launch as “initial SEO” work. But, for-profit and non-profit organizations often lose site of the fact that they are going to need to continue to implement the following SEO tactics, on an ongoing basis, in order to ensure they make steady, positive progress as far as how their website ranks in search engines for relevant terms used by desired target audiences:
Ensuring that SEO page and post title tags are completed/filled in in their website content management system (CMS)/website platform, and structured properly each time a new page or post is added to their website.
Employing appropriate-to-page and/or appropriate-to-post high-volume keywords in their page or post headers/sub-headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
In addition to the above ongoing website-related tactics, as part of an ongoing SEO strategy, organizations should execute the following:
Post updates to their Google My Business Profile, regularly review Profile information to make sure it is still accurate, and be proactive about soliciting Google Reviews.
Since launching my digital marketing agency and SEO consultancy in 2014, I’ve found the only time of the year where it really works well to take a full week off is the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Why? Because that’s the one time of year most of my clients are off the work grid too and don’t want or need me to be in communication with them.
Putting Your Mental Health and Physical Health First As A Small Business Owner
As a small business owner working out of my home office, I have far less “automatic” exercise built into my day than I did when I was commuting to various corporate marketing jobs in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline (for my Brookline job I was able to walk to and from my job from my Brookline condo, which I adored). Commuting to work required me to take the stairs at MBTA (subway) stations, plus often walk part of the way to my office from the closest MBTA (T) station and/or take a lot of stairs to reach my office at the building in which I worked. Plus, I often did a quick lunch run to buy and bring back lunch to my office. So daily exercise was built into my daily life. Not so much now since I’m working out of my home in Braintree. A blessing is that we live in a tri-level house so there are lots of stairs to take to access various levels and rooms of the house.
Let’s face it. Exercise doesn’t just support physical health. It supports mental health by providing a means to manage stress, and if you exercise outdoors, there are so many benefits from being out in nature. Plus, exercise just provides time to step away from your computer and work!
Walking The Talk: Making Health A Priority
Being past mid-life, most of my friends and family members are prioritizing their health — both physical and mental. I’ve vowed to do the same numerous times in recent years, and I have walked pretty frequently, i.e., several times a week (particularly on the weekends), but I want and need to walk DAILY. I’ve stepped up my game (hah, hah) in recent months as far as prioritizing my walks – thanks to constant reminders from friends and accountability partners! Hey, the work will always be there, and I bring a better Gail to my client engagements and client discussions if I’m more mentally and physically healthy, right?
So, over the holiday break, I capitalized on my free time and set a goal to walk long distances during my days off. Unfortunately, I did end up needing to work the Thursday after Christmas (long story), so we’ll start with Friday of last week.
The next day I mall-walked at the South Shore Plaza with a good friend who also likes to walk regularly. We both wanted to get a good walk in after our annual holiday movie-watching activity with my twin. Mall walking provided the perfect solution since it was drizzling out. We were determined to not let excuses get in our way!
Day Three:
I walked to drop a holiday gift off at a friend’s house, and then just kept walking — visiting many of the smaller and/or less busy streets in the Highlands area of Braintree that I regularly walked during the pandemic to keep my sanity!
Day Four:
I went for a long walk around my neighborhood and stopped by the local lending library and found a book about Native Americans that I think that Jay and I will both enjoy reading! The added perks of walking around my neighborhood always include visiting this book-sharing spot, plus chatting with neighbors!
Day Five:
Jay and I visited the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. So loved the button art display, plus the basketball related art and learning the heart-warming story behind it. We got some good steps in just going up and down the stairs at the Museum, but after walked for about an hour at DW Field Park. If you haven’t checked it out — and I hadn’t — you are missing out on a beautiful place to walk in the Greater Boston area! Gorgeous ponds, lots of ducks, geese, swans, and seagulls, and tons of shorter and longer walking paths! Plus, lots of fellow walkers to encourage one to keep moving!
Day Six:
I love a good “destination walk,” so to motivate myself to accomplish 6 for 6, I walked to my local CVS and then took a different way home than I normally would — just to force me to do some of what I call “hill work” (walking up a steep hill to strengthen my glutes, which ultimately strengthens one’s back). I always welcome carrying a small package or bag home when I walk to CVS, Stop & Shop, or some other business within walking distance of my home because I’m really trying to strengthen my upper back right now. And, the aforementioned destination walk provided an opportunity for both my legs and back to get in better shape!
Speaking of backs, I was “back at it” on the work front yesterday, but so glad my time away from my office allowed me to refresh my brain and relax a bit, but also get some physical exercise. So, I’m starting off the new work year in a better place mentally and physically.
And now, I’m really excited about the new year will bring, so bring it on!!! I wish my readers the healthiest possible new year on all fronts!
