Kelly Stanze (she/her)

Hi bsky. I've been drowning in the Q4 crazies and Christmas prep. Sorry for ghosting y'all.

BUT I just wanted to say I'm listening to the Nutcracker orchestral arrangements from start to finish for the first time in years and that tambourine is GOING OFF. Get it, tambourine.

I have informed delivery alerts set up with USPS and UPS, so generally I know when packages are arriving. Just saw an email from UPS that someone is sending us Spoonful of Comfort to arrive tomorrow and I am SO JAZZED.

But I need to know who is sending me soup. Are you the soup sender? LET ME KNOW.

Also, did you know it's common for neurodivergents to practice personification and anthropomorphism?

This is probably why I am so kind to the robots. I don't care if it's weird.

Me: "ChatGPT is AI, it doesn't care if you're nice to it."

Also Me: "I want to be the nicest person that ChatGPT deals with today. I bet it'll work better if I'm polite and friendly. I hope it's not overworked with the holidays!"

Liam Mairi (Fourth Wing) is one of the best fictional characters to ever exist and no one can convince me otherwise.

He's Uncle Iroh level perfect.

And, yes, he wears a collar. Pro tip: if you can find a creative way to label stuffed animals that go everywhere with your kid, it can create a lot of peace of mind. My son was a big fan of his "Puppy Doggy" having a collar like a real dog.

SEO is fun because you work on so many topics, and sometimes sentimental things pop up. I'm currently working on an ecommerce category page about fox plushes, and all I see in my head is this. Our kid's "Puppy Doggy."

A free fox stuffed animal from a work conference became his lovey.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I should see if they have that one. Wouldn’t surprise me.

This is so real for where I am in the Tech SEO trenches right now.

Today, I deactivated 3 plugins of his in favor of one that does all the same things.

I wish I knew how many lines of JavaScript I killed with that one power move. But I know it was just drops in the bucket.

Understatement of the year. They asked me why a specific SKU wasn't performing in organic search (which...that question is a whole other issue) and it finally gave me the inroad to discuss bringing in a WP site health expert.

This is so much more than SEO.

“Well, I prefer to use specific plugins to resolve single issues. The combo ones just break more things in my opinions.” — a so-called WP developer

It’s been months since I read that in an email and I still feel rage every time I think about it. The site has 75 active plugins.

Anyone want to guess what the emergency was?

YES BUSINESS ETHICS. You love to see it.

Not that it's celebrated with a cake or anything, but your Proposify subscription will renew automatically on Dec 13, 2024. You can manage your subscription via your account. If you have any questions, please email support@proposify.com.

Hey, every SAAS known to man...

PLEASE TAKE NOTE 📝

Remind people before you charge them for another year. It's the right thing to do.

Here's a Friday reminder than if your small business has an "ads person" and that person is just dumping money into PMax...you don't have an ads person, you have a snake oil seller.

PMax is good for Google, and good for making lazy buyers look important. It is usually not good for your business.

Google November 2024 core update rollout is now complete This update took 24 days to roll out and was a typical Google core update.

Google November 2024 core update rollout is now complete searchengineland.com/google-novem...

Two stages of writing:

1) This shouldn't take too long
2) Oh no

A business contact informed me (on a call about business) that she started seeing a therapist because of a social post she saw by me years ago.

Talking about mental health to end the stigma and improve visibility DOES help.

Anyway, happy Thursday.

One of the best little treasures of our industry is getting to witness the ribbing that you and @rustybrick.com give each other. I feel like I'm sitting down to beers or something with industry friends when the banter starts.

I was 15 when my oldest niece was born. She's coming to visit in a few weeks. Think I'll ride the line of being "close enough in age to be cool" to a 19-year-old or will I be full-on cringe when she visits?

WHO CAN SAY? Guess we'll find out.

Amazon Music, calling me out.

Privatized healthcare funding is such a con. Idk if single payer is attainable here in our lifetimes, but we’re HAS to be reform in the insurance industry. It’s such a racket.

At Hallmark, it was for me. We did so much cool stuff, even if there were hurdles. My big clients when I was agency-side were less rewarding.

There’s trade-offs no matter what, though. I’m where I am meant to be now, though.

Yep. I miss the resources of big companies, but I don’t miss the red tape. I could do a lot of cool stuff, BUT I had to have approval for it, and get product management on board, and get it prioritized, and on and on.

ooooyy yes. Proofreading is one of my weaker points. I can do it if I absolutely must, but when I have to do a lot of it professionally, my ADHD taps out on doing it personally. It's like I literally CANNOT English on social media sometimes.

Like it's easy to feel like you're onto something great when you have the best software, tons of data that's managed well, developers on demand, copywriters and editors...

But, damn, have you sat in a room with a team of two and had a lightbulb moment that changes their search trajectory? POWERFUL.

Having worked agency side and in-house both as one of those "big SEO movers & shakers" and now being independent primarily with small businesses and non-profits, it can be hard to ramp up ingenuity when you're on a tight budget or smaller site.

But it's EVEN MORE rewarding.

Sticking with my philosophy that there is something I can learn from anyone, no matter how big or small.

Current status:

Googling fairly common words like "sculptor" and "renowned" because nothing feels like it's spelled right after this many words on this many sites.

But, hey, I can spell out Wednesday so I always get that one right.