463: How a Love of SEO and Entrepreneurship Helped Shaunda Necole Grow Three Successful Websites and Hit 1 Million Monthly Pageviews

The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Leaning into the science of SEO, committing to a niche, and dividing attention between three websites and businesses.

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Welcome to episode 463 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Shaunda Necole from The Soul Food Pot.

How a Love of SEO and Entrepreneurship Helped Shaunda Necole Grow Three Successful Websites and Hit 1 Million Monthly Pageviews

Shaunda Necole has a true passion for being an entrepreneur — from her first business owning a cheerleading product company to today, running three websites, a food tour of Las Vegas, writing books, and more.

In this interview, she shares more about her love of SEO and keyword research and how her SEO strategy has changed in light of Google’s recent Helpful Content Updates. She also explains how she divides her time between her three websites (a food blog, a travel website, and her personal site), in addition to her SEO consulting, Las Vegas food tours, and upcoming travel book.

In a time where SEO can feel really unpredictable, Shaunda’s perspective and approach to SEO is one we all need to hear (and she clearly knows what she’s doing — her food blog hits 1 million monthly pageviews during the holiday season)! We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Shaunda first got interested in SEO via Pinterest.
• How she first started out as an entrepreneur in the cheerleading product space.
• How she went from cheerleading products to MacKenzie-Childs to the food space.
• More about how she started with brand partnerships (and why she brought on a manager).
• Why (and how) she transitioned from brand partnerships to SEO.
• How she has committed to her niche (Southern soul food) over the years.
• Why she enjoys keyword research and SEO for her site.
• How she divides her attention between her three websites.
• Why she syndicates content from her travel website to MSN (hint: backlinks!).
• How content syndication with MSN works (plugin, canonical links, ad profit sharing, appeasing Google, and more).
• Her favorite keyword research tool and how that has changed since the recent Helpful Content Updates (HCUs).
• How she is updating and republishing content to recover from the HCU.
• The importance of being “well-rounded.”

Resources:

• The Soul Food Pot
• Shaunda Necole
• White & Sable
• Wix
• MacKenzie-Childs
• 406: Monetization Strategies in the Influencer Industry with Brittany Hennessy
• Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media
• Johanna Voss
• Las Vegas Right Now
• Tiny Bites: Understanding and Reacting to Google Algorithm Updates
• Consulting with Shaunda
• Superfrico
• Follow Shaunda on Instagram
• Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group

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This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors.

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