Guest: Tianna Mamalick, SMB Marketing School
Episode Overview
Tianna Mamalick shares her 12-year journey in SEO and why she's passionate about working with small businesses. With honest insights on managing client expectations, pairing SEO with paid ads, and the current state of AI-generated content, this conversation reveals what's actually working for service-based businesses right now.
Key Discussion Points
Why Small Businesses? For small businesses, a 10K monthly revenue increase is life-changing. Tianna shares how clients email her about hiring their first employee or taking their first vacation—results that go far beyond vanity metrics.
Managing Expectations Brutally honest approach: clients sign for three months minimum, must have budget they can afford to lose, and receive realistic assessments of whether their business model fits the proven formula.
SEO + Ads Strategy When done strategically, pairing ads with SEO helps prime new location pages and service pages through engagement, even though ads don't directly impact SEO rankings.
The AI Content Reality After extensive testing: AI-generated content isn't ranking. Tianna's agency went 100% back to human-written content, using AI only for outlines based on top-ranking articles.
Content Strategy Shifts

Focus on service pages over blog posts
Every service needs its own detailed page
Mine customer support logs and sales calls for real language
Create collaboration posts featuring complementary businesses

AI Search Adoption Despite the hype, less than 10% of traffic comes from ChatGPT for most small businesses. Prepare by enriching About pages and author bios, but don't panic about immediate massive shifts.
Resources Mentioned

Andy Crestodina & Content Chemistry
SEOteric - Matt Brooks
Get Me Links - Alejandro Marinas
Gus Pelogia interview on SEO's universal superpower
Michael McDougald, Right Thing Agency
Precast Walls - service business example

Best Quote
"People want to work with people they like, know and trust. It's not just about the backlink. We're really looking at conversions—how can we get SEO to convert for you?" — Tianna Mamalick
Connect with Tianna

Website: smbmarketingschool.com
Instagram: @smbmarketingschool
Funnel Summit - January 28th

Key Takeaways
✓ Service pages first: Make product and service pages comprehensive before worrying about blog content
✓ Human content wins: AI-generated articles aren't ranking—use AI for outlines, humans for writing
✓ Record everything: Mine sales calls, customer support logs, and front-line staff conversations for gold
✓ Every service gets a page: Stop using men...

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