SEO Case Study: Salt and Lavender

There’s a dirty rumor going around: Ads are bad for SEO.

At Mediavine, there’s not much that we love to focus on more than SEO. Pagespeed is our other company passion and we all know that it goes with SEO like peas and carrots.

In fact, Mediavine began as an SEO contract firm and we built our owned and operated websites on the power of strong SEO. To this day, search engines are what fuel traffic to Mediavine’s sites, so everything we do with ads keeps SEO front of mind. You can read more about how Mediavine ads play nicely with SEO in Eric’s post.

It’s our passion for SEO that we love passing onto our publishers, via our Facebook lives, help center and blog in posts such as our ultimate SEO checklist and other SEO resources. When you succeed, we all succeed.

That’s why we decided to start a new Case Study series focused on how our publishers are leveraging Mediavine’s SEO and pagespeed tools and settings to rank higher in search engines, boost traffic and earn even more with their ads.

First up, we’re excited to introduce you to Natasha Bull of the food blog Salt and Lavender. She’s here with us today to tell us about her SEO strategy. Welcome to the blog, Natasha!

How long have you been blogging? When did you join Mediavine?

Blogging for 3.5 years. Joined Mediavine in October of 2016.

What is your current ad density setting in the dashboard for desktop and mobile? Why did you choose this setting?

“Normal” – a good balance between user friendliness and ad revenue.

What are you currently averaging in page speed per Google Page Speed Insights?

I’ve seen everything from 66 to 70s depending on the page.

When did you start focusing on SEO and/or site speed?

About 2 years ago.

How has working with Mediavine impacted your SEO, site speed and site overall?

Working with Mediavine has allowed me to turn a hobby into a business, and I will be forever grateful. I love the tips Mediavine provides on their blog and Facebook page on SEO and various tips to help us optimize revenue/increase RPMs, etc.

What steps have you taken to improve your SEO and/or site speed? What resources/tools have you used?

I did a site speed optimization several months back (my host offered this service), and I was in the 90s on Google Pagespeed Insights, but then their ranking factors changed and I’m back down unfortunately. Re: SEO I use the paid tool KeySearch and the free Chrome extension Keywords Everywhere.

I’ve stopped being too precious with my recipes. I try to make what people want/are searching for and make sure it’s very simple and easy to follow. I also try to replicate what’s already working. Mediavine’s blog and Facebook page always have some good tips that have helped me out over the past couple years.

Are you taking advantage of any of the site speed tools offered by Mediavine, like Optimize Ads for Mobile or Desktop Pagespeed? If yes, which ones?

Yes, I’m currently using Optimize Ads for Mobile.

Did you find any Mediavine resources useful as you optimized your site speed or SEO? Specific help docs, blog posts and/or YouTube videos? Please list them.

Yes, I can’t remember specifics, but the Facebook Lives with various experts, the blog posts, and the fact that the co-founders and other Mediavine team members are active in the Facebook group to help answer our questions is all super helpful.

Have you asked for help when optimizing for site speed and/or SEO, either from Mediavine Publisher Support or elsewhere? If yes, please tell us where from.

Yes, my host WPOpt for the site speed optimization.

What advice do you have for someone who would like to increase their organic search traffic?

Don’t overthink it. Make what people want, and write for real humans. SEO is important, but writing for a robot won’t get you a loyal following. Publish as much quality content as possible. It takes time to get established, but the more (good) content you have, the easier it is.