← Coffee N° 5 with Lara Schmoisman
Coffee N° 5 with Lara Schmoisman
The Future of Creativity: Building Emotionally Intelligent AI with Lalla Asmaa Alaoui
00:24:50
Loading summary
Transcript74 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:05]
B
This is Coffee Number Five. I'm your host, Lara Schmoisman.
- [00:11]
A
Hi, everyone.
- [00:12]
B
Welcome back to Coffee Number Five. I'm so excited today because everyone who knows me knows me, that knows about me, that I'm a closet geek, but I don't think it's a secret anymore. Everyone knows that I'm kind of a geek and I love technology, but mostly what I love is to help businesses grow. And one of the strategies that I love is SEO. I feel like it's such important part of your foundation on your digital strategy. And it's like I always say that websites, for example, are a window and there could be beautiful windows, but if they don't have the right information to be, people cannot find it. So. So let's talk today a little more about SEO. And I want to bring another agency owner and a founder and someone that I respect that is in the SEO and AI space. So, Laila, welcome.
- [01:11]
A
Thank you.
- [01:12]
B
I'm so happy to have you here. So I think we bonded a little bit. We were both talking in a panel and we were bonding over the love of SEO and how we can use SEO and GEO for AI. And, and so, and I think that there are a lot of misconceptions of what SEO is. And so let's start from the beginning. Let's start. What is SEO Tree for you?
- [01:40]
A
Okay. Thank you, Lara, for having me in your podcast. I'm really honored. First and SEO, search engine optimization. So a lot of people underestimate SEO. They just want results asap. They want the result yesterday. They say, okay, I'm going to have my website is launched and it's going to work. A lot of people forget that actually you need the right foundation. Right? And the right foundation is to have a good SEO. When you go to any agency, right. If they're not good, they will just sell you a website. But they're, they're good. They will say, we need to work your business plan and your SEO strategy. That's when you know that there is already it's good. You should stay with them because they care about you long term, not short term.
- [02:22]
B
So short term is, I see so many businesses having a lot more ad spend that they needed because they don't have a strong SEO.
- [02:32]
A
And I believe that ad spending is like gambling. Once you stop, there is no more result. While SEO is a long, it takes longer to, to, to kick in, but once it's kick in, you're there, you don't go down any.
- [02:45]
B
It's a balancing art and also something I want to say SEO is not something that you can just set it up. It's an ongoing maintenance. And let's divide it a little bit because SEO is dividing a few things because a lot of things, even agencies, I see that they believe that SEO is just putting keywords. That is not right. SEO has a lot of parts. So let's talk about different parts of SEO. Like for example, what people don't know many times is that if a website is not performing well, it in Google eyes, in ChatGPT eyes, Gemini, then nothing is going to perform well. Not even your social media because everything is interconnected now.
- [03:30]
A
Yeah. So I think the most thing that is important is like the page first you have, you have your optimization. When you go, you have the SEO ranking, the speed, the backlink, the Google authority, all this. I think it's, I said it in your panel, I remember there's a checklist and you build up gradually. First you have to work on your website speed, the SEO, the meta description in the back and every single picture has to have a meta description. People think oh let me just put a picture. But that picture, did you put a meta description under it? Can Google identify what you put or you put just an alien over there? So I always say like every single thing you put inside of your website has to be categorized properly and labeled properly. So then when someone is searching in Google, we don't miss you. Even a minor letter, a minor little section, a minor little page have to be labeled properly. So SEO, there's the technical SEO, the on page SEO, a lot of kind of SEO and I think you have to is a check in. And then there is the blogs which people say, oh we don't need blogs. But blogs are very important. These 2000.
- [04:38]
B
Very important, very important. But also something that is super important is about your technical SEO. If your website is not performing well, if you have so many speed issues also you're going to be. And I think that very soon also we're going to be affecting the ranking if you are not ADA compliant.
- [05:01]
A
Yes. And also you have also the broken links. So many times broken links affect your page and a lot of people don't know. Sometimes you have page that don't make any sense and or duplicated links.
- [05:14]
B
I see people putting a product over and over without meta description with the right, without the right keywords and then they're cannibalizing themselves basically.
- [05:25]
A
You know, I feel like SEO is like your executive checkup. If you go to like a hospital, you tell them check me out all you have to be scanned the whole day. So I think anybody who has a website, you have to do an audit. I think you have to audit of SEO. Technical SEO optimization is optimism. Backlink is Google authority. You have to have I think 33 or above to be good. Right. And then.
- [05:51]
B
And it's hard to get there. It doesn't happen overnight. That's why you need an SEO all the time in your business.
- [05:57]
A
You need like someone who's professional and someone who cares enough because it's really detailed, oriented, like you don't want to miss any spots.
- [06:05]
B
Yes. But also there is something about NCO that I feel like a lot of people like outsource it or they are not. You need to understand the culture and the market that you are doing SEO for, because it's just not about. I see it so many times, people just putting keywords and the keywords are not the right. I mean something that I always explain to people that still search engines and now AI, they do their crawling by intention. So you want to be an intention that is informative and you need to be informing people with really what they want to know or is like, think about this, you go to Google or to ChatGPT and you have a problem and you're looking for a solution, an answer to your problem. So are your keywords the answer to the problem?
- [06:58]
A
Yeah, you have to know your. I think by doing that, I. The most important stuff is to know your brand DNA. Like anybody who's going to work on your SEO has to first go take three steps back. You know and know your brand DNA. Who's your, your target client, who. What's your brand Persona? What do you want to achieve? You know the what, how and why. Like that's it in your life. So it's good to have it also for you, like why you're doing this, what you want to do and how you want to do it. You know those three.
- [07:32]
B
One of the things that I always talk to my clients and my team when we do an SEO is that we have three kind of different keywords. One of them, they are the DNA keywords. That is who is the brand is. And those are always going to be there from your setup on. Then you have your competitors keywords because you need to make sure that if your competition is showing up, you're showing up too for those keywords. And the third one, because it's all about brand awareness and visibility. If you keep showing and showing, showing at some point, say, oh, I'm curious, I always see these People and the last one which to me is super important is what I personally call trending keywords. And those are things that is a popular culture. Things are changing, keywords are changing, interests are changing. If we're talking about a supplement for example and there is in any ingredient who becomes popular how we're going to integrate that. But at the same time we need to make sure that if we going to integrate that ingredient there is a way to link it to our story. Our pro, our products.
- [08:38]
A
That's come also with storytelling like what you say storytelling. And I think it's not about the product is how what's the story you're giving to people. Like yesterday I was reading something about Steve Jobs for his iPad. Is how he wanted to make it so perfect. Like how people feel about it, what it will execute. Not really about the product but what is how would people feel about it. Right. Every single brand is how you feel about it. And the storytelling as you said. And sometimes it's funny there is some trend coming up and if you link it right you can rank very fast on this first page because the trend what's going on right now. And I think you want to be always in the now I want to.
- [09:19]
B
Keep why it's so important those blogs are now using the same keywords exporting in social media. Like social media. Unless you're a very well known brand that everyone is looking for your products already. And not even that that's not an excuse. It should be there anyway. You always need to be doing SEO and cross over right now use your keywords and use it in social media. Because social media now they're search engines too.
- [09:48]
A
Yeah and social media is another so songs that trend is not just about the keyword. When you post in social media you want to put the trending song song the trending now the keyword is a whole. That's. It's a whole other concept again when you take it to. But there is a way. If you do. If you do your math right from your website. If your website which is your foundation is right then you can just go. You can flourish better because the awareness is there is the website. And then we're going to go to social media which is come start to be the consideration. And then you're going to start have the conversion eventually right. Coming back to your website to buy. But if. But for the funnel is always awareness consideration and then conversion. Right. So if the awareness which is the website is right and you you speaking right about your brand then you're putting IT in the social media, look at us, it's what we do. And then they look at you and then they come back and then convert in the website and buy from you.
- [10:47]
B
Absolutely. It's about controlling the narrative and how we connect with people. But at the same time, people you need to remember that you cannot control completely your Facebook, your TikTok because they can shut down the only narrative that is really yours. It's your website. But also now we have a new funnel that is the AI funnel. That basically is one question, one answer.
- [11:14]
A
That's nice, that's faster.
- [11:18]
B
It is much faster. But at the same time, how do we help brands compete in AI? I know that we're doing it at the darl, but I would love to hear what changes you had to do or implementing in website on SEO to become searchable by AI.
- [11:37]
A
Right now we're talking about generative engine optimization.
- [11:41]
B
Yes.
- [11:41]
A
So you want to pop in Perplexity Cloth chatgpt Gemini. And for that you have to answer the right answer to the prompt. Right. So you work backward. That means what will people look for? And I have to answer it again in the blog, in the wording and everything. And Google is smart. You don't want to just pop in and throw words here and there and there just to say, hey, I have keywords. No, actually if you do, if you spam, Google, Google put you in the back. So there is an art to do it. Like a lot of people say, oh, I'm going to just put keyword. I can do it by myself.
- [12:16]
B
No, no, no. You have to structure the data in certain ways.
- [12:19]
A
And they say, I will do it for me. And I love when they say that. I'm like, okay, go try the AI do it for there is an art behind it. It's like, you know, AI is a co creator, is a co pilot, is not the one who's going to take your place. What's gonna happen? He's gonna work fast to execute better. But it's like if I'm a surgeon and I know my surgery, I'm gonna ask him the right question, right? And he's gonna answer. Or if I am like a plumber, but if I'm not and he's gonna tell me, oh, put this piece.
- [12:47]
B
I always say that we are a tool using. We are using AI. AI is not using us. Definitely we are the ones. If you can. You don't know how to prompt AI, right? You're going to get the wrong answer. So. So you need to know enough or so to guide AI AI. To me what it does is to make us faster. That's it.
- [13:10]
A
Yeah, it's a faster execution.
- [13:11]
B
Yes, exactly. So let me ask you a question. So how. How would you structure data differently for AI?
- [13:21]
A
So as I said, for AI will work backward. So I will see what people gonna go and prompt, right? So one they're gonna prompt. I have to think of every single person, the person who knows nothing and the person who knows something about it. And so the person who's expert, right. And I will work backward. Then I will answer that and I will. What is the best thing is I think the blogs have been doing very well in ranking. And also the service page, your service page have to have a lot of. Let's say I am selling cars, right? So put as much features of the car and what you're doing and how you're doing it and what, what you're doing. Like as more as you have storytelling is better then I find you. Because as you say, AI is about the intention. So you really want to know what's the intention? Like why I am looking for this, right?
- [14:10]
B
That's really important. Something that I think we do really well. Because I feel like a lot of brands out there, they have their branding and what they've been talking about branding. And maybe because I come in from the digital and I'm always such a big advocate of SEO, but I feel like most brands that we work with or that I talk to that when we talk about the brand, they give you colors and a palette and fonts and they don't tell you who is their consumer. So if we don't understand who is their consumer, then how can we create the right content for them?
- [14:45]
A
So I think this is where comes the onboarding session for every consul, for every client, right? Ask the right question. Even I think this is the lengthier is. Then you know the emotion, the soul behind each brand, right? And then you create a SWOT analysis. You create the differentiation of positioning of the brand and you try to know who's the, you know, what's the weakness and who's the competitor. If you don't know your competitor, you cannot compete, period. You're out of the game. And then you want to be not just compete because you want to stay in your lane. You want to be ahead of the game. So before they catch on is like I always say, catch me if you can to everyone. So always thinking of the next step before you catch me. I already have the next step. Because competition is beautiful. I love competition because we without Competition, there is no challenge in the story. Right. But you have to always think of the next step.
- [15:38]
B
But things. It's not even about competition. It's good to know who your competitors and how you're going to be different so you have a place of. For some target audience. They're not going to be a place of competition. It's going to be your. There is no option that choosing your brand.
- [15:54]
A
Yeah. Sometimes you have no option. Sometimes they took the whole market. So there's no even need. Maybe you reposition your brand. Sometimes you have to reposition your brand and go another route. So it's good to know everything. Like you're. I think data is very important. Like any data you have. Yeah. Like everybody think what we do sometimes is easy and you just design and just this. Every single data, we assimilate in the onboarding session and our business plan. We put it in the UX ui, the user experience, we put it in the SEO, the content and know we know how to go to market and we know how to market our product and we know how to win the game. But if we don't have, you know, you cannot miss any step. I feel like missing a step is missing a part of the story.
- [16:39]
B
Absolutely. And you need to be. You cannot have gaps in your marketing. And it's more than ever you need to. Being omnichannel doesn't mean that you need to be everywhere. Usually means that you need to choose your channels and then in those channels you need to be consistent. Because consistency is key.
- [17:00]
A
Yes, consistency is key. And repositioning also. And always changing. If you need to change the narrative as you grow, it's okay. Especially with now, with AI, things are going fast. So fast. So sometimes to keep up, you have to change the narrative and you have to be up for it.
- [17:18]
B
Yeah. And so I. What would you say to brands and companies that they say, I cannot, it's not important to afford marketing or I can have my cousin's nephew, brother do my Instagram.
- [17:32]
A
Let them be. They're going to break, they're going to, they're going to come back to you. This happened a lot. You know, it happens a lot. And it also happens sometimes you have a client that's already good and you're doing amazing. They're like, I don't see what you're doing. You know, I'm like, okay.
- [17:47]
B
I mean. And they. We are, we're very big at reporting and to understand where the data comes in, but. And I think it's super important to share it and Brands need to learn how to read the data because there is a lot of information there. Or for example, if also listening, social listening, listening what people say, the reviews say. So you can address things. And even I saw that when. Let's say that you have a lot of returns. So in your brand, why are those returns? You need to listen. You need to find out what the returns are. So then there's a lot of things that we can address by information that maybe will remove some of those returns.
- [18:33]
A
Yeah. So feedbacks are important. Work, work on the feedbacks to get better. And you want to work on retention. Customer retention, I think is the best. You don't need to go get new ones. Sometimes if you stay with your customer and you make them better is the best. I work a lot on customer retention. Always listen to them, what's going on, what is it, you know, and, and it's nice to set them free at one time. You don't want them also to be addicted to you. Like, okay, we're going to teach you how to do it. But you want also somebody who listen. Like last time I had a client and it's funny, we did a 2500 blog for her, all SEO, very well researched. She said, yeah, but nobody read it. I have to make just a five line. We're like when it's. It's for SEO. So we had to explain to her and said GPT said that we're like, I know ChatGPT will tell you what you want to hear, but you have to have a physical AI like an SEO expert behind it to tell GPT what to do. Yes. With two people. There was a person that got an answer and they were the SEO expert who got the same answer. Then she end up understanding that ChatGPT will give you the answer you want to hear. Yeah.
- [19:46]
B
It's not what you. If you don't tell them. Exactly. You need like you were saying before, it's like a surgery. You need to know how to perform that surgery. And I feel like it's so weird even sometimes because I will never even think of going and buying surgical kit. I mean I could and try to perform it as a surgery. But there's so many people that they can say, oh, I can do marketing.
- [20:13]
A
Yeah, yeah. But I don't think then there will be no school of marketing. There will be. And even if you go to a school of marketing is by practice that you learn.
- [20:22]
B
Totally. So Lala, you I. I heard that you're having a very exciting lunch coming up.
- [20:28]
A
Yes, I'm So excited. That's my new.
- [20:30]
B
So tell us about it.
- [20:31]
A
Okay, so actually it's all about what we just spoke about, right?
- [20:35]
B
So share with us.
- [20:37]
A
Okay. So in few weeks I will be launching all my AI. So all my AI is a digital plat. It's an AI platform. So I trained many agents. So as I told you from the beginning, we cannot skip this line. And you as a creative agency, you will understand that this is it. So I have an onboarding session with an agent. Then we have a brand DNA agent, right? And after that we have one who creates the brand DNA. Then we have the business expert who will give you the whole strategy of business agent. And then we're going to have the UX UI agent who will create the website. Then you have the content SEO Geo agent who will fix it. And then we're going to have the marketing agent and the sales agent, right? And one extra agent that I created is the AI fashion and AI product designer. So let's say you want to go to market fast, right? For founder VCs, you have an MVP. I'm skipping all these lines. Let's say you have a fashion designer that want to put a collection and you saw that when we did the with corp, then we can have like collection done in second, right? So it's good because it's faster to go and launch your brand. So what I'm doing right now and it's nice is the multi LLMs in one. So it's no more just ChatGPT. I have chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, many, right? Llama, Grok, I can name them. So every time those are vertical agent that I created and each one will perform its task. So why did I do that is more that's the most important and one thing that is beautiful with my app. Let's say you said to ChatGPT to create you a picture you will use Soran created, right? And then mine also edited going back and talk to him and take. Sometimes you just want to take control over and just do it fast, right? Let's say I'm doing slides like a pitch deck and you finished and it's already generated but I want to change colors on position and I have editing inside of it.
- [22:41]
B
So one of the things that I found challenging sometimes of working with AI is that they forget and you need to prompt them again. So how are you resolving that issue?
- [22:53]
A
So this is what I do. So that's why I have vertical agent. I have a brand DNA. So once you give your brand DNA, let's say I'm working on the DART project. Right. So automatically once I click on the file DART project, all your memory is saved. So if you go between agent, remember exactly who you are, what you do, what we need, your brand, Persona, everything, brand identity.
- [23:14]
B
So looking forward to try it.
- [23:16]
A
But I'm gonna say something. We're not removing the creative agency behind it. Because once you're gonna do a react website or 40 page website, you really need a professional.
- [23:27]
B
Yes, right, absolutely. That was my next question.
- [23:30]
A
Yeah, we know.
- [23:31]
B
You really need to have a professional behind it. This is to expedite processes, but it doesn't put the. It's like it doesn't put the business together.
- [23:43]
A
No, this is. If you say it's a smart tool for creators, like for you, I'm sure you're juggling between many, many AI tools, which is ChatGPT, whatever, to get your answer. So this is all in one. That's why we call it All My AI.
- [23:56]
B
Perfect. All right. Can't wait to try it.
- [24:00]
A
Thank you.
- [24:01]
B
Lala, before we go, I have one more question for you.
- [24:04]
A
Go ahead.
- [24:05]
B
How do you drink your coffee?
- [24:07]
A
How do I trend my coffee?
- [24:08]
B
Drink your coffee.
- [24:09]
A
Latte, no sugar, milk, 2% is good. Or almond milk. Yeah, well, thank you.
- [24:18]
B
Thank you so much for geeking out with me today.
- [24:21]
A
Thank you so much for having me, Lara. And I'm looking forward to see you in person and have that cafe latte with you.
- [24:27]
B
I would love that. And to you guys, I will see you next week with more coffee number five.
- [24:33]
A
Thank you. Bye bye.
- [24:35]
B
Find everything you need@larashmoisman.com or in the episode notes right below. Don't forget to subscribe. Was so good to have you here today. See you next time. Catch you on the flip side. Ciao. Ciao.