STAPAW grew out of a Facebook page. What began one weekend as a mission to help a tattooed woman get her job back has turned into a certifiable movement with a website that has been seen by over 4.2 million people worldwide. As their site describes, "STAPAW" is a Heal the World movement aimed at raising awareness about discrimination of piercings and tattoos in the workplace. We don't support employers hiring tattooed and pierced staff; we support employers hiring the most qualified candidate for the job.”
What is STAPAW?
It stands for “Support Tattoos and Piercings at Work” and its goal is to fight discrimination in the workplace against people with tattoos and body piercings. STAPAW is a resource base and support center for employees and employers alike. Filled with statistics, inspiring stories, points on how to make a solid argument, ideas on how to take action and some pretty awesome merchandise, the site has grown exponentially since it was first created in 2014. Thanks to its great SEO, STAPAW receives dozens of inquiries every week.
STAPAW Rises in the Ranks
Nathan Madden is the man behind the movement. The director of STAPAW, he created the website and personally takes care of all of the SEO work, both onsite and behind the scenes. We were impressed with STAPAW’s success and took the time to reach out to Nathan to hear how he was able to do so well in Google. Nathan said that Wix has been fundamental to his success! In fact, he chose to work with the Wix platform because of its SEO offerings. He wrote us:
“We chose Wix specifically because of the SEO features. Since STAPAW is a non-profit, organic searches through SEO are crucial for our movement's growth. We liked the ability to retain control of our SEO customization. We've suggested multiple SEO customization changes to the Wix platform and almost every single one has been implemented. Wix has also kept up with SEO developments at a consistently faster rate than its competitors. We can build solid looking pages in a fraction of the time, without losing the integrity of our SEO.
The Smart SEO Decision
Clearly, Nathan made a smart move building his site on Wix! He told us that organic search is the primary source of traffic to the STAPAW site and he describes their SEO performance as “Phenomenal!” “SEO enables STAPAW to reach hearts and minds in places we might never physically reach.” He went on to say:
“For novices at web building, the Wix customer support is absolutely unparalleled by Wix competitors. Also, the tutorial videos are actually concise and helpful.”
Meet Nathan Madden,
an SEO Hero with a Heroic Mission
“SEO enables STAPAW to reach hearts and minds in places we might never physically reach.”
How STAPAW Stepped Up
Nathan built the website with the help of Wix's tools and tutorials. He manages all of STAPAW’s SEO by himself and in his quest to get the message heard, he has left no stone unturned. "We prefer Wix to other alternatives because of the immense benefit of Wix's user-friendly tools", he explains. "It enables us to cultivate effective SEO in rapid speeds that exceed the publishing time necessary for the same effective SEO on any other alternatives."
Here’s a look at just some of the ways that Nathan has ensured that STAPAW makes a big splash on Google:
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Created SEO title tags and descriptions
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Optimized URLs
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Wrote optimized image alt text
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Optimized content (and specific pages) for relevant keywords
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Linked internally to relevant pages on website
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Designed mobile-optimized version of website
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Used Wix SEO Wizard
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Got more followers on Social Media with Wix Social Stream app
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Regularly adds new content
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Maintains active blog
A Verifiable SEO Success
Nathan knows that his SEO efforts are paying off. In addition to the phone calls, emails and visitors that he receives, he also tracks several metrics about his website. He checks his website traffic regularly, monitors his conversion rate and has watched the number of subscribers to his mailing list steadily grow.
Nathan also reported that STAPAW boasts an incredibly high time-on-page rate. Even with a limited budget, they have been able to rank high for their target keywords by creating good content and diligently optimizing the site for SEO. Tada!
The Key to SEO Success? It’s All About Keywords
As he learned about SEO, Nathan quickly realized that choosing good keywords and using them strategically were the keys to ranking high in Google. He invests a good deal of time in researching keywords and deciding which ones to target on each page of his site.
“At STAPAW, we never release a new website page or blog post without doing at least 1-2 hours of keyword research,” he explains. “Good keyword planning and strategy is complicated and intensive. However, to find solid keywords that will benefit STAPAW, we first figure out specific niche keywords that we think both relate to our new page and are keywords that people will search for.”
Nathan next used the Google Keyword Planner to find the most relevant keywords with significant search volume. He has found that long tail keywords with high search volume serve them best and he said, “Most of the keyword phrases we go after are at least 2-4 words long and almost 50% are four or more words long.” Finally, Nathan also gets ideas from Google SERPs. He searches for a relevant term on Google and then scrolls to the bottom of the page to look at the related terms. It’s a treasure trove of great keywords ideas!
What’s the Best Way for SMBs to Improve Organic Traffic?
Nathan has some advice for small businesses who want to improve their organic traffic. He believes that longtail keywords work best and he recommends targeting smaller, more specific niches where it's easier to rank. “The biggest advice for small companies with new websites is to not get too greedy for searches. The more specific your keywords and keyword phrases with 2-4 keywords often help you land great traffic.”
Secret SEO Strategy:
Targeting Different Keywords on Different Pages
Nathan has really taken SEO to the next level. Not only has he chosen target keywords for STAPAW’s site, but he is also targeting different terms on different internal pages, trying to minimize competition among different pages on his site. Nathan explains that because “the STAPAW website is fairly extensive, each page targets different keyword phrases. If you try to have multiple pages within your website go after the same keyword(s) it will often cannibalize your potential SEO. Your pages will end up competing against each other and thus create lower rankings.”
SEO Makes a Difference in People’s Lives
For STAPAW, SEO isn’t about increasing their bottom line or trying to outrank their competitors. SEO is about changing lives — and the more they succeed at SEO, the more lives they will be able to touch. Today, people are able to easily find STAPAW through search engines and online directories, on social media, in articles, email marketing and by word of mouth. The message is getting heard, and, in turn, STAPAW is making a difference. They are ranking very high for why do people get tattoos, tattoos in the workplace, tattoo statistics and other relevant keywords.
Nathan told us, “The goal for STAPAW is to educate and raise awareness so when we receive emails from visitors saying our website was helpful, it makes our day. We receive emails from HR staff saying STAPAW helped them to draft dress code and hiring policies. We also receive emails from students on a weekly basis saying our website helped them to write a speech or essay.”
What’s the Best Part?
Nathan thinks the greatest benefit of ranking high is that “it means STAPAW is making a difference in the workplace.”
Some closing words of wisdom directly from this SEO Hero: “With SEO, the more attempts you make, the more success you'll see. The great thing about solid SEO is it sees increased returns the longer it exists.’’