We are living in the age of the internet, and nothing proves that more than the necessity of SEO when it comes to the success of your business, brand, or even blog! Iman Bashir, the 24-year-old founder of Craftly.AI knows that truth all too well. She has been consumed with optimizing search engine rankings, so much so that she has built a new tool that can boost your SEO using AI.
We sat down with Iman to pick her brain about AI, SEO, and Cai (who you’ll meet later)!
First things first, what is SEO?
SEO is a process of enhancing your website and its content so that it can be found and recognized by search engines. Simply put, it is how to get to the top of Google. Google works similar to that of a voting system with smart algorithms to decide who gets on top.
Why would you want to be on top? More exposure and clicks, which ultimately leads to more leads. There are various contributing factors at play mainly being on-page, off-page, and content marketing.
What are the most important things to keep in mind when tackling SEO?
The world of SEO is so much more competitive and intense than it may seem from an outsider’s perspective. There is always a new scam tactic that people will use to try to trick the system. These short-term plays can manipulate your rankings and give you a little boost, but the quality of these links ultimately harms your website.
My number one tip is to avoid these tactics at all costs. The link portfolio of your website is like your website’s diet. Feeding your website hearty, high-quality links will keep it strong, healthy, and high-performing.
The field of SEO is constantly evolving to outsmart these scam tactics or quick hacks, and there are always new ways to improve your ranking. My second most important tip to winning in SEO is to always stay on top of the latest trends! You need to be evolving alongside the industry while strengthening your understanding of the basics. Whatever worked 6 months ago, can not work tomorrow.
I push myself to learn something new about SEO each day. Whether that information is coming from a podcast, audiobook, or even a 5-minute article that I can read in the Uber from one meeting to the next – push yourself to become an expert and in time you will be one!
How did you get into marketing, web development, and SEO?
I wasn’t always planning on having a career in tech. It wasn’t until a mentor introduced me to the world of business that I discovered my passion for transforming businesses through their online presence.
When I became interested in this growing field I was learning about social media, website building, content writing, and thrown into managing third party contracts which included SEO. It became clear that content is everything and when it comes to content, you need both quality and quantity to make an impact on your SEO (and your audience).
I started to outsource my tasks in order to stay on top of it all. While there is nothing wrong with that approach, I soon realized that when it came down to it, I wasn’t becoming the expert I wanted to be. This led me to take 6 months off to learn how to code my own websites and develop full SEO campaigns and strategies that I was proud of. I am continuously learning and growing in this ever-changing field.
Anything exciting coming up?
YES! Learning where my passion lies were always one of my biggest challenges. That’s when I learned about AI, and the doors it was opening for so many businesses.
Enter Craftly.AI– my (self-funded and female-run) startup that I developed alongside my incredible team. Craftly uses artificial intelligence to generate creative, original content for web copy, blog posts, product descriptions, press releases, and so much more.
To give this AI a personality, we designed a sweet little virtual robot and named her Cai. Cai is the AI copywriting assistant you never knew you needed. She is also the tool I never knew I needed to automate parts of my SEO campaigns and efficiently pump out content that continuously impresses me and my clients.
Craftly.AI will be launching in July 2021, so stay tuned for more details and sign up for early access to try it out!
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