Welcome to Part 1 of our SEO series on Salty Little Business, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs, photographers, digital product pros, and small business owners ready to build real traction with strategic marketing.

In this episode, Mandy Ford breaks down one of the most important — and most overlooked — tools in your entire marketing system: Google Analytics. If you're not tracking your traffic, understanding your bounce rates, or measuring what content is actually working, you're guessing. And in 2025, that’s a growth strategy that just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Whether you're building a new Showit website, marketing your photography business, launching digital products, or scaling your brand through Pinterest and Instagram, this episode will help you shift from “post and pray” to measure and refine.

You’ll learn:

• Why Google Analytics is essential for creative business owners

• What metrics matter most — and how to read them without overwhelm

• How to understand your traffic sources: Is it Pinterest, Instagram, Google, podcast referrals?

• Why bounce rate and time-on-page give you powerful insight into what’s broken

• Real client and Marketing Lab member stories on how GA data improved their site and strategy

• Why SEO, content strategy, and analytics are inseparable in 2025

Mandy shares a simple breakdown of how to get started and reveals one of her favorite wins from inside The Marketing Lab — a headline tweak that cut a student’s bounce rate in half after seeing the data inside her dashboard.

If you're someone who’s been avoiding analytics because it sounds technical or overwhelming, this episode will reframe that for you. This is not about becoming a data nerd — it’s about becoming the kind of business owner who’s equipped to grow intentionally.

This episode is perfect for:

• Women in business ready to scale with clarity

• Creative entrepreneurs and photographers looking for smarter SEO strategy

• Digital product sellers who want to know what’s working

• Small business owners tired of relying on guesswork or social media metrics

• Anyone in The Marketing Lab who’s ready to take their measurement game to the next level

You don’t need to wait until you’re “ready” to track your data — start collecting it now, so your numbers are working behind the scenes while you build your brand.

Next up in the SEO series? We’re diving into one of the most overlooked areas of visibility — Instagram bios — and why that tiny box is one of the most powerful pieces of searchable real estate in your business.

This series was built to help you finally understand where your leads are coming from, how to show up in search, and how to market with intention — not panic.

If you’re ready to go deeper and get personalized support, tools, walkthroughs, and strategy built for how people actually search and buy in 2025, it’s time to join The Marketing Lab.

Work With Us + Education: https://hightidestrategy.com/podcast
Join The Marketing Lab: https://www.skool.com/the-marketing-lab/about