Philadelphia-based Julia Bocchese is a Strategic SEO, Pinterest & AI Search Consultant for Small Businesses & in this interview, she shares practical & actionable advice on how to rank higher & reach your target customers or clients online.
1. Julia’s Services & Background
- Services: Since 2017, Julia Bocchese has been offering SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Pinterest & AI Search services through her business, Julia Renee Consulting.
- SEO Focus: She primarily works on foundational SEO, like setting up strong site foundations & fixing technical errors, rather than long-term, ongoing management.
- Pinterest Services: She offers two main services: full Pinterest management for clients who want to be on the platform but not manage it & a six-week setup/management package followed by a handover to the client or their team.
- Clients: She works with small businesses, especially in the creative & holistic industries, focusing mainly on service providers, though she also works with product sellers on Pinterest.
- Origin Story: Her business started unexpectedly while she was in grad school studying the Viking Age, after using SEO & Pinterest to market her own travel photography site, Through Julia’s Lens.
2. SEO Fundamentals & Common Issues
- Biggest Client Issue: Many clients know what SEO is but fail to implement keywords strategically. They want to rank for a term (e.g. ‘interior designer in Philadelphia’) but don’t use the full, exact keyword phrase anywhere on their website.
- Strategy for Niches: For clients in specific niches where people don’t know to search for their service directly, the strategy shifts to content creation that answers questions & provides information, allowing them to connect with their target audience.
- SEO is Always Changing: It can be difficult for a small business owner or leader to do SEO & AI Search well due to constant changes in trends & search algorithms. This is where Julia comes in.
3. AI Search Strategy
- AI Search Specificity: AI searches are often highly specific & complex (e.g. ‘female interior designer in Philadelphia who focuses on luxury design but works with young children’), making traditional keyword research difficult.
- SEO is the Foundation: Everything done for traditional SEO (strong keywords, informative copy, multiple pages/blog posts) also helps with AI Search. Word content is crucial, as AI may not fully understand the context of images.
- AI Crawling Behaviour:
- AI often only crawls the first 30% of a page, so it’s critical to be concise & place essential information (who you are, what you do, location) in the first third.
- FAQs on different pages are beneficial for quick, accessible information.
- Meta Descriptions Matter: AI relies heavily on meta descriptions as a page summary because it often doesn’t crawl the whole page. Optimizing these for AI search is key.
- Brand Authority (Off-Site SEO): A strong brand authority across different platforms is vital. This includes:
- PR activities (podcast interviews like the one on this page, local publications, blog features).
- Business directories & Google Business Profile reviews.
- One of the top websites that ChatGPT looks at for trust signals is Reddit, as people talk about businesses there rather than businesses promoting themselves.
4. Pinterest as a Search Engine and Marketing Tool
- Search Engine, Not Social Media: Pinterest is a visual search engine where people go to find ideas, products, & information – not primarily to follow accounts or engage with comments.
- Who Should Use It: Most businesses can perform well if they regularly create content. Online businesses, local service providers (like real estate, photographers, wedding industry) & highly niche businesses can all succeed due to lower competition.
- Service-Based Businesses:
- Visuals are NOT required to be your product: You don’t have to be a visual business. You can use stock photos or create pin graphics with text overlays (using brand colours/fonts).
- Audience Focus: People on Pinterest don’t care who you are; they care about the information you provide. Focus on speaking to a cold audience.
- Pin Creation Tips:
- Use a vertical (2:3) ratio for pins.
- Include keywords in the pin title & description, as it’s a search engine. Do not copy-paste Instagram captions.
- Use simple, easy-to-read designs. Avoid busy layouts, low-quality photos & hard-to-read fonts.
- Simple designs are better than complex ones.
- Evergreen Traffic Driver: Pins are evergreen. Unlike posts on other social media platforms that often die after 48 hours, pins can drive traffic for months or even years.
- Activity: It is beneficial to be active daily, aiming for 5-10 pins per day eventually. This can be achieved by scheduling a mix of at least one new pin per day and repinning old, well-performing, or seasonal content.
- Ads Platform: Pinterest has an ads platform that allows you to start with a small budget. A major benefit is that if another user saves one of your ad pins, it lives on their account & can continue to drive organic traffic & views even after the paid campaign stops.
Want to know more?
If you’d like to learn more from Julia, visit https://juliareneeconsulting.com where you can read handy blogs & guides. You can also Follow her on Instagram @juliareneeconsulting & on Pinterest @juliareneeconsulting
ps You can also listen to this interview (& more) on Paul’s ‘SuperConnector Show’ podcast which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible or Spreaker via our ‘Podcasts‘ page.
