Episode 418: Great Strategies to Grow Your Domain Authority (DA) As a New Blogger with Allie Petersen

EBT418 – Allie Petersen

Intro: Food bloggers, hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate their blog’s growth and ultimately help them to achieve their freedom, whether that’s financial, personal, or professional.

I’m Megan Porta and I’ve been a food blogger for over 12 years. I understand how isolating food blogging can be at times. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

I hear this concern all the time in our space, and you might be able to relate to this, but a lot of food bloggers really want to increase their domain authority, and they just don’t know how to do it. I have Allie Peterson with me. She is from NaturAlliePlantBased.com, the food blog, and she started food blogging one year ago, you guys in January of this year. Three, or four months ago, she started digging into increasing her domain authority and just learning about it and figuring out how to do it. She went from a DA of three to a DA of 22 currently, which is incredible. So in this episode, she shares all of her secrets. She has a few strategies that I think anyone can employ, and I hope that you find value in it whether you are interested in doing this quickly or not. This is episode number 418, sponsored by RankIQ.

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Megan Porta: Allie is a plant-based food blogger who creates small-batch vegan recipes for the busy individual. She has followed a plant-based lifestyle for six years now and loves sharing her passion for easy, healthy cooking. Allie is dedicated to teaching others about the plant-based diet and showing them simple ways to cook vegan meals. Hey, Allie. Thank you so much for joining me on Eat Blog Talk. How are you today?

Allie Petersen: I’m good. How are you, Megan? 

Megan Porta: I’m doing good, too. This is such a great way to end my day. You’re my last interview. I’m super pumped to talk about domain authority today. I know you have a cool story to bring to the table, but we’d love to hear a fun fact first if you have one. 

Allie Petersen: Sure. Yeah. I just want to say thanks again for having me. I’m really excited to talk to you because I’ve been blogging for a bit now and listening to your podcast for a while and you’re so helpful and inspirational, especially for new bloggers. So I just want to start off by saying thank you and I’m so honored to be able to talk to you today. Yeah. So my fun fact is actually before I became a vegan food blogger, I actually blogged in a lot of other areas, just randomly. So back when I was 16 years old, I decided that I really wanted to do makeup videos. So I actually did a couple of makeup videos back then, just a couple, and they were goofy videos. That was my first trial really at blogging. I didn’t really move that far into that, but just my first trial blogging and then after that I did a, they’re funny and embarrassing. I can’t find them anymore, which is good.

Megan Porta: I was going to ask if you could find them. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, I don’t think I’d want anyone to discover them but I also tried out a lifestyle kind of food blog back when I was in college. Then after that, I did a little bit of blogging actually for a physician assistant blog. Outside of being a food blogger, I’m actually a full-time physician assistant. So I had this idea to create a blog for other physician assistants, but that just wasn’t where my passion was. So all of those led me to vegan food blogging. 

Megan Porta: Oh my gosh, so you have quite a collection of experiences with blogging and content creation.

Allie Petersen: I feel like all of those just led me towards this path of I should be a blogger. I just needed to find the right avenue for me. 

Megan Porta: Yes, and you’re here, right? Or maybe you’ll keep evolving. Who knows? I don’t think any of us ever know that. That’s awesome. I love that. That kind of leads into this, just your story about starting food blogging very recently and then just making this decision to focus on your domain authority. So I guess to start, Allie, do you just want to talk about that point when you decided to start food blogging and when and just talk us through how that’s been? 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, so I started it a little over a year ago. I actually started mostly on Instagram, just creating recipe videos, and vegan slash plant-based recipe videos. That was really fun, except I wasn’t really focusing on anything with a website. I started a website, but I didn’t really post too much on it. I just threw on a couple of recipes. Nothing was really formal. This past fall, and winter, I started to learn a little bit more about developing my website. That’s when you discover everything about SEO, keyword research, and things like that. That’s when, if you’re doing all that research, you discover this thing called DA, domain authority. What does that mean? I remember this fall/winter time, I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I was on Keysearch and I saw my number for DA. I just remember just feeling like my heart dropped when I saw that number like, oh wow, my blog is not doing too hot. I had really not focused on it that much. So it’s understandable that my DA was at a level three. It was pretty low, but you have to start somewhere. So I did feel a little bit discouraged at first, but I tried to really take that doubt and, sadness, I guess I could say about having a low DA and turning it into motivation to learn all about growing my DA, really growing the authority of my blog to be more visible on Google search. So that’s really how it all started. I was just really motivated to see that number grow and build my E. A. T. as we call it, the expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. Would you say that’s been your primary focus for the past few months is just focusing on getting your DA up?

Allie Petersen: For the most part, yeah. I think when you’re growing your DA, you’re also building your blog as a whole, but I really like numbers. So I do like to track and see the changes with my DA. That’s what I’ve really been delving into is, we’ll talk about further, building the backlinks, and building the authority of your blog so that I can rank a little bit better on Google, amongst a lot of the other higher DA sites.

Megan Porta: Yeah. Okay, so you mentioned backlinks. So do you want to talk about that? For anyone who’s not familiar, what is a backlink? What is the importance of it? Then maybe no follow, do follow the situation. 

Allie Petersen: So backlinks are when someone on another website is linking back to your site. There are two ways that they could be linked back to you. So it could be either a do-follow, which signals to Google that the site is really pointing back to you, showing your blog’s authority. Saying that they trust you as a source versus a nofollow link really doesn’t have any, shall I say like authority juice. There’s nothing really supporting your blog from that. But it’s still a backlink. But definitely what we focus on with domain authority is trying to grow the do-follow links back to your site. So it’s trying to grow that authority of your blog. My goal with building these do-follow links is really trying to find links in general that are more relevant to my site. So I’m not trying to get backlinks from a hunting and fishing site, linking back to my vegan food blog. So it’s really good to try to overall, gain more backlinks that are from sites that are a little bit more relevant to your blog. Just generally how I use EA, I just wanted to talk about that briefly, because I know a lot of people talk about it essentially to not focusing so much on the number. I totally get that because it’s not a Google ranking factor, as we talk about, as other people have talked about before too. It doesn’t really dictate exactly where you’re going to land, in the SERPs, but I feel like it’s really useful to know your DA and grow your DA so that you can know really the strength of your page, against your competition. So I really use it mostly just like to compare and, watch my growth too. That’s the main way that I use it to grow my blog’s authority on Google. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. Since it is not a ranking factor, I know a lot of people just set it aside. I’m one of those people. I. I feel like my blog is really old and I have a higher DA, but I’ve never really focused on that. I think that’s okay, too. I think it just depends on what your goals are. It sounds like it’s incorporated into your goals and your plan to increase that and increase your authority and all of that. But I don’t necessarily think that it should be a laser focus for everyone. Do you agree with that? 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, I definitely think it’s probably more useful for people who are just starting out to understand what DA is and just use it really it’s a guide to continue to grow your blog, grow your backlinks But really you should be focusing on just growing your overall EAT of your blog and you know creating good content and creating content that’s going to rank. So I don’t think it’s for everyone to focus on, and for you, your blog is a very strong blog that’s been around for a long time. So you don’t have to worry about the DA as much too, which is nice. We start off our blogs working really hard, putting in all this time in hopes that, someday our blog will be like yours, where it will be just a very strong blog with a really great DA that kind of keeps it going, too.

Megan Porta: I appreciate that. Also, you could see it as a giant mess because I have so much content. It is interesting, I think, to just peek at your DA once in a while just to see oh, okay, it’s gone up a few points or down a few points. Mine fluctuates over time and it also varies from checker to checker pretty greatly. On one checker, I think I’m like 65, and on another, I’m high 50s. I think the advice I’ve heard from SEO experts is to just pick your checker and stick with it. Is that kind of what you do? 

Allie Petersen: Yeah. Yeah. I really stick with Ahrefs. I don’t know why from the beginning, I just always use them. But I know a lot of people use Moz and like a lot of other things, but you’re totally right. It’s all over the board. So I just try to stick with one number just to guide me along the way. 

Megan Porta: An arbitrary number. Yeah. So do you use DA as a reference point when you were doing keyword research?

Allie Petersen: I did. I would use it a little bit. I should say, I do use it as a guide to know if I might rank on the first page of Google. So if I look at a keyword and all the sites and the sites have DAs of 50 plus, I have a DA now of 22. I know it’s going to be a little bit tougher. It doesn’t mean that I couldn’t rank for it. It would just be, I have to write a really good quality blog that may take a long time to get to that point. But I do know that over time as we grow our blogs, we can start to rank for some of those words later on too. So I use it a little bit. Do you use DA at all when you choose your keywords?

Megan Porta: I do. I keep an eye on other people’s DA, having an idea of what mine is and mine too. If there’s a keyword that I really want to go after, but I see that 75 and up is the DA for the top five people who have that keyword secured on Google, I tend to shy away, so I do use it. It’s in the back of my mind all the time, so I think that’s good to have in mind. That’s a good reason to have yours in mind so that you can gauge where other people are at, too. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, especially for people in your niche too. They’re your bigger competition, per se, I know we’re all friends with food bloggers, but they are like essentially your competition to rank on the first page. So it’s good to know where they’re at with their DA. 

Megan Porta: I agree. There are those times when I don’t look at that and then I go for a bigger keyword and I actually can get the spot. It’s an anomaly when that happens, but not to tell you that you should shy away from every keyword that has higher DAs. Sometimes I feel like it’s worth going for it, but just like you’ve said, Allie, just keep it in mind.

Allie Petersen: Yeah. Actually, it’s funny that you say sometimes you’ll go for a keyword and, you don’t really look at the DA and then you’ll just rank really well for it, even higher DAs. Because when I first was looking at my DA and understanding keyword research and everything, I saw that I had one post that was ranking above everyone else on the first page of Google with my DA of three. It was actually a word that was getting some traffic to my blog, so it doesn’t mean everything. That actually made me feel good that despite having a low DA, I was still having a good ranking post. 

Megan Porta: Yeah, absolutely. You just never know, right? Okay, when you checked in January, you had a DA of three, and you were like, oh my gosh, this is so low. Then, in just a short time, it is only April, so what is your DA now? 

Allie Petersen: Now I’m at 22. It fluctuates like you said yours does. I’ve been up to 23, maybe 24 at a couple of times, but I’m at a steady 22 right now. 

Megan Porta: That’s a huge increase in a very short amount of time. So kudos to you for making this happen and everyone’s dying to know now, how did you do this?

Allie Petersen: Yeah, I’m so happy to share it with other people, especially new bloggers who are trying to grow, especially in their backlinks and their DA. One of the biggest things that I focused on was actually the Facebook roundup group. So I’m sure a lot of people have heard about these. They’re the food blogging niche roundup groups. There are a lot of them on Facebook. I think there are four or five of them now. I don’t know if you’re a part of those. You probably are. A lot of food bloggers are. 

Megan Porta: I am not. I avoid Facebook if at all possible, but I know a lot of people do those groups. Yeah. 

Allie Petersen: There’s like Rounduppalooza, Blogger Roundup Request. There are a lot of them. But essentially, a lot of other bloggers with really high DAs to arrange are posting these roundup requests, looking for certain recipes. Pretty much all of them are going to give you a do-follow link back. So it’s either for their own blog or for a client.

So what I did for the past month is I would be checking Facebook frequently. I actually turned on notifications from these blog roundup groups. If someone was posting, I would get most of the notifications. Not that it would like ding my phone, but if I went on Facebook, I would see that people had put requests in a certain group. So I would check this three to four times a day. I have to admit, quite a bit. I don’t love to be on Facebook, but I was dedicated to finding, these posts where people were looking for certain recipes. So definitely check frequently. I would try to respond really as soon as possible. So some of these bloggers want recipes within an hour. I’ve seen them close the comments within an hour. They’re not always that quick, but I’ve seen it and I’ve gotten my recipe in there and they end up choosing it, which sometimes they tell you they don’t like your recipe and sometimes they don’t tell you that yours was chosen. But I would really try to respond as soon as possible because yours is just more likely to get seen if you respond quicker. Especially if they close the comments more quickly. 

Megan Porta: Yeah, that’s great advice.

Allie Petersen: But that was pretty much my main focus on Facebook was these roundup groups. I would really look at the relevancy too of the blogs. Any food blog is great to backlink to yours. It’s still relevant, but if it was a vegan niche, that was even better because I just feel like it helped strengthen my blog a little bit more to have it from other vegan or plant-based sites. So that was my main strategy on Facebook. 

Megan Porta: Okay. Then you said that just like the relevancy thing was huge. So do you ever branch out of your niche if you see something that you’re like, Oh, I could fit in there? Or do you stay away from that? 

Allie Petersen: Oh, I do still like to post in other people’s requests out there. So if there’s a site that’s looking for sides for barbecue, I’m not really creating barbecue recipes, but I still post in that because I still think it’s supporting my blog. But I would definitely prefer if it was Vegan if possible. But yeah, I think, especially at the beginning, it’s great if you could just build up as many of the backlinks to your post as possible. I’ll usually try to post more of my newer and updated content to try to give it a boost to getting more backlinks, especially if it’s a keyword that’s low competition. Do you use RankIQ? 

Megan Porta: Yes. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, so you know about the low competition, trying to find low competition keywords that are going to rank more quickly. So I’ll try to use my new recipe posts that are maybe more likely to rank quickly, very fast or something like that, as RankIQ says, in hopes that they can get a few more backlinks to boost them a little bit quicker with the SERP.

Megan Porta: Oh, that’s smart. That’s gold right there. I love that you mentioned it. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I have noticed a difference. If I can get more backlinks earlier on, I feel like it does rank a little bit more quickly. 

Megan Porta: Okay. I love that. Then just like you mentioned, just doing it consistently. So you go on every day. First of all, are there inquiries every day in these groups? 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, there are quite a few. Because there are four to five groups, there are a lot of requests. I would say there are sometimes upwards of 10 requests per day. Sometimes they’re cross-posted, in multiple groups where it’s the same request. But, some days I’ll strike out, there won’t be anything that fits my blog, but sometimes I’ll get lucky and there’ll be maybe two or three blogs that are looking for posts that are related to my content. 

Megan Porta: Okay, a great place to start. So you use that as a base strategy. Is there anything else you do to help boost that number?

Allie Petersen: Yeah, and I use the HARO and Quora sites. So probably a lot of other bloggers have heard of these. I’m sure you have heard of these too. Yeah. So it’s a great spot to check out where journalists post a lot of questions, looking for quotes or comments specifically from professionals in certain fields. Sometimes these are pretty big sites. I’ve heard, the New York Times or, other big sites like that too, that are looking for quotes or comments, and most of them are going to backlink to you and a do-follow backlink. Although I have heard some sad stories of people getting backlinks that are not followed. I don’t know if you’ve heard about that, but overall, I hear good things about this. So I would be checking this often too. You can get email notifications, seeing if there’s anything related to what you do in your food blogging. I think it’s great for people who have qualifications, if you’re a dietitian or a nutritionist or culinary trained chef or anything like that, I think it will help you get chosen more for quotes or comments.

Megan Porta: Yeah, I love this recommendation, this comes from Brandon, the creator of RankIQ and the Blogging Millionaire. He talks about if you get on the HARO email list, and they send it out twice daily. So there’s a morning edition and an afternoon edition, and they send it at the same time. So if you get the email, note the time, whatever it is, and then put a notification in your phone or computer five minutes before, so that you’re ready, in your inbox, and if you can be one of those first people to act on whatever they’re asking for the deliverables, then they’ll likely pick you. Kind of what you were saying about the Facebook groups. First come, first serve. Be fast. Be there. Be ready. So I love that. I never thought of that. I was like, Oh my gosh, it’s so simple. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah. I love that idea too. I don’t feel like I’ve been as on top of it as I should be. You get so many emails from them. That’s the problem. You sign up for it. You’re going to get a lot of emails, but that’s such a good idea to you put notifications on to check it. Like the Facebook thing, as you said, just trying to be consistent and trying to be quick. Getting your recipe or your word out there too in hopes that you’re more likely to get chosen. 

Megan Porta: Some of them, you have to look through a long list and you’re like, really? It’s funny reading through all the topics. 

Allie Petersen: I know. 

Megan Porta: Maybe once in a while I’m like, oh my gosh, I know I could give them a recipe or I could give them something that I know about, some sort of knowledge. So it is worth just browsing through, I think. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah. Just curious, have you ever been chosen through these sites? 

Megan Porta: I have. Yeah. It’s been a while. I still get the emails. I see them and browse through them. I haven’t responded to any in years, but yeah, I’ve been chosen before. There’s actually a member in my mastermind group right now who, that’s how she got on the map and she got selected for a really big piece for I want to say it was the New York Times digital something. It was a big deal and she’s a really good writer so she wrote a really comprehensive good quality piece and then because of that she got chosen for other things and then I think they hired her. So it can lead to good things if you take it seriously.

Allie Petersen: It can snowball into other opportunities. That’s great. That’s amazing. 

Megan Porta: It can go beyond DA to other opportunities if you deliver just quality work, right? 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, that’s amazing. I wish I was honestly a better writer. If I had the skills, to write a really amazing article for someone, I would definitely take advantage of that. So kudos to her. That’s amazing.

Megan Porta: Yeah. Yes. Then Quora, I’m not super familiar with Cora. Can you describe how that works? Is it the same as HARO or is it different?

Allie Petersen: Yeah, it’s pretty similar and to be honest, I use mostly Haro, but I’ve logged onto Quora just to look every once in a while too. But I think Casey Markee recommended it as an alternative if people wanted to look for more options. But I used it a little bit. I haven’t had any success with that one, but maybe someone else will.

Megan Porta: Yeah. Chime in and let me know about that. Yep. Okay. So what else do you use for a strategy to get that DA up? 

Allie Petersen: So the next strategy that I use is posting on Foodgawker. So this is actually a recipe gallery site and they accept high-quality food photography. You can only post, I think, It’s not that often because they have to review the post and it pens for a really long time, but you can post and get your photo out there and essentially have it get seen by a lot of other big sites in hopes to get backlinks. I have gotten one backlink through that, but it’s just a little bit slower process, but definitely, something people should check out. Especially if you’re really into food photography and getting your beautiful photos out there in hopes that they can be seen so you can get some links from that too.

Megan Porta: Yes, I think Foodgawker’s been around forever. Even way back when I started blogging, it was a thing along with Tastespotting was a thing back then. I don’t think that exists anymore. But it used to be a big deal and I sometimes forget about it. Oh, that’s right. Foodgawker’s still around. I think my VA still posts my images there. I don’t hear people talking about this a lot, so I’m really glad you brought it up because newer bloggers might not even have it on their radar, so go check it out. Thank you. I feel like back in the day they were really selective about the photos they allowed in. Is that still the case? 

Allie Petersen: Yeah. I only get to post every two weeks pretty much, just two photos. So far they’ve chosen my photos, so I’m not sure how selective they are now. Maybe they’ve changed their process a little bit. My food photography is okay, I don’t think I’m amazing or anything. But I try to choose the photos I’m proud of in hopes that they’ll be more likely to choose them.

Megan Porta: I remember sitting by my computer just every day, did they pick mine? Did they pick mine? It was an obsession. It’s so funny. 

Allie Petersen: It’s fun to see and then you wait to see if they’ll accept it. I think other bloggers should definitely check it out. It’s a cool resource. Just to put your name out there and, also it’s almost it appears to be almost like an Instagram style with posts where people can like them and go to your website too. So I don’t know how many people are using it to actually look for recipes, but it could get some traffic to your site too possibly. 

Megan Porta: Yeah, definitely. All right, what other strategies do you use?

Allie Petersen: My last strategy that I wanted to talk about is really just trying to get your post more on the first page of Google to gain more natural backlinks. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this study, but Brandon Gaille, who we’ve talked about already in this podcast, from RankIQ. He talks about this study that Ahrefs did that people who are in the position one spot on Google, will get 24 do-follow backlinks a year, just natural backlinks, which is quite a few.

Megan Porta: Yes. Yeah, that’s a lot. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, I would definitely try to get my posts, as much as I can, on the first page of Google because, the reporters or journalists are more likely to see your posts and choose the first, maybe top three or, the top posts on Google and then give you a natural backlink. So just in general, I’ve been trying to really focus on the, the low-competition keywords that we were talking about before too. Using RankIQ, and then also linking, doing a lot of internal linking throughout my post to try to help them rank using link whisperer. I don’t know if you’ve ever used that. 

Megan Porta: I have not. 

Allie Petersen: Yeah, it’s a good tool to help you do internal linking between your posts so that you can try to help them boost a little bit more in the SERPs too. I think Brandon Gaile talks about this, how you should try to link from, essentially a post that’s like ranking higher on Google to a newer post if they match up, and it can help that newer post rank higher. So I do a lot of that just to try to see if it’ll help boost things up a little bit more. I don’t know how well it really works, but I follow his advice. I feel like he usually has good advice. 

Megan Porta: I feel like he’s an extremely smart person that we should all listen to. There’s so much that he says that I’m like, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Allie Petersen: He’s very logical. 

Megan Porta: Yes. Very logical. Exactly. I love that you brought this subtopic up because this reminded me that this is the answer Brandon gives when people ask him about backlinks, he goes through all of the things we’ve talked about. But then he says, creating these posts with low competition, high search volume, which is the whole point of RankIQ, will get you on page one, toward the top and that is natural like you’re saying, Allie, going to get you natural backlinks that you really don’t have to work for because people are going to find that. They’re going to be like, Oh, this is a great guide. I’m going to link to this. So you’re killing two birds with one stone. You’re getting traction for that post and you’re getting traffic, but then you’re also naturally getting in the door for those backlinks.

Allie Petersen: Yeah, I think it’s a great way just to remind us that, try to just focus on building your overall blog, building good content, to try to get it to rank on the first page of Google. That will end up just leading to some natural building of authority over time, the building of that DA naturally. Just like for you now, you just, try to get your post to rank, and then I’m sure it gets so many natural backlinks now, each year, because you have so many posts that are ranking. So you don’t really have to worry about trying to get as many backlinks because your blog is just getting them naturally, which is great. 

Megan Porta: I think that’s the best strategy because it’s going to build more momentum over time. It might happen quickly with yours, but also thinking about in two years, think about how fast the momentum will be going on that. You’re going to have all of these awesome ranking posts that went to Google really fast and, yeah, it’s just going to build up speed from there. It’s less work. 

Allie Petersen: Oh, yeah, definitely. We all like that, just something that’s building itself in the background. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. I didn’t intend for this to be like a Brandon Gaille total episode, but it is because he has so much good advice about this. But one other thing that he tells me, when he comes into my groups, he will say, being a guest on a podcast, guesting. That is another great way to build backlinks really easily because most podcast show notes will include a do-follow link to your blog, so a lot of podcasts have just really reputable, awesome blogs. So to link to your site from there would be a great idea, too. We already have the knowledge, whatever your niche is, if you’re talking about like how to make vegan meat, soy curls or whatever, and you’re on a podcast, that’s something you already know about. So you can show up and just naturally talk about that and get a do-follow link. So I think that’s another great way to do that. 

Allie Petersen: I love that idea too. It’s so lovely to be on your podcast too and get to share my knowledge. I really hope that this encourages other new bloggers too, to look into doing a podcast or getting on a podcast. You can build that backlink but also share your experiences. I feel like we all have something to share. We’ve all had different journeys. We’ve all learned something along the way that we can use to help other people. So I definitely encourage other bloggers to look into podcasting too.

Megan Porta: Yeah. It’s a win for everyone. When you’re on a podcast, the host welcomes you on the show and you’re delivering value to their listeners. So it’s a win for them. It’s a win for you because you get a backlink. It’s a win all around. So yeah, I think that everyone should check that, and explore that possibility.

Allie Petersen: Yes. I love that. 

Megan Porta: Is there anything else? What other strategies are in your back pocket? 

Allie Petersen: That’s pretty much it for my strategies. I would say the biggest one, though, is really the Facebook roundup groups and just being consistent. Really just comes down to trying to show up every day, even if you don’t feel like it. Trying to find a place where you get a backlink, trying to find someone who’s looking for a recipe roundup. So I would definitely just keep trying every day and, the number will build over time and your blog’s authority will continue to grow just like yours, over the years too. So I think going into this blogging journey, I know it’s not going to be a short-term win. You’re really in it for the long haul. So I think starting off strong like this is a great way to build your blog, for the long term. 

Megan Porta: Yes. I love this. I think that we allude to this topic occasionally on podcasts, but we’ve never dedicated an entire episode to it. So I think this is so great to dive into whether you’re a newer blogger or a more experienced blogger. I think we all could benefit from a little domain authority boost, right? Why not give it a try? 

Allie Petersen: Yes. I hope it’s helpful to people. 

Megan Porta: Yes. Thank you so much, Allie. This was awesome. I really enjoyed talking to you, and we appreciate you. 

Allie Petersen: Oh, yeah. Thank you so much, Megan, for having me on. It was really great chatting with you. You’re so sweet. You sound so sweet on all of your podcasts, and It’s so great to meet you, finally.

Megan Porta: Wouldn’t that be funny if I was actually a big jerk in real life? Just I wonder if that ever happens when people are like, they sound so nice on the podcast, and then in real life, you’re like, oh. 

Allie Petersen: Oh, I’m sure it’s happened. You think about actresses too, they seem all sweet, and then you hear about these stories about how they’re not so nice in real life. So I’m sure it happens, but definitely not the case for you at all.

Megan Porta: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. That’s super nice of you. Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with, Allie?

Allie Petersen: I do have a favorite quote, and I actually don’t know who it’s by. I tried to Google it, but I couldn’t find the author of it, but I want to share it with people. So the quote is, when people go all in on the things they love, magical things start to happen. I just really love that quote because I feel like it really resonates with me and my passion and love for food blogging, sharing my love for plant-based cooking, and trying to share that with the world. I’m just really diving into this, like head first and I’m already seeing magical things start to happen. I’m growing my blog and helping other people and so I hope other people resonate with that too. As food bloggers, we’re very passionate people, so I’m sure we see a lot of magical things from our passion for food blogging.

Megan Porta: I love that you chose that quote. I just have to say to you, Allie, nice work, just making a goal. You did this in such a short time frame. 

Allie Petersen: Oh, thank you. 

Megan Porta: I just feel so inspired by that. That’s so amazing that you did it and you just made it happen. That’s the point of that whole quote.

Allie Petersen: Yeah. I’m a goal-setter. So it’s that’s definitely who I am. I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you, Megan. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. Got to crush those goals, right? We will put show notes together for you, Allie. So if anyone wants to go look at any of the references or resources we talked about in the episode, you can go to eatblogtalk.com/naturallyplant based and I’m going to let you tell everyone how you spell that because I think it’s so cool. I love the play on words and then you can also tell everyone where to find you. Yeah, so how you spell it is N A T U R A L I E. So I have my name in it, so you can find it at, see, I’m actually, Megan, it’s funny that you say it, but I’m still debating if I want it to be Naturallie xPlant-Based or Naturally Plant Based, but I haven’t totally decided yet.

Allie Petersen: So if other people who are listening want to let me know which one they like better, let me know. You can find me at NaturalliePlantBased.com or my Instagram is the same at Naturallie Plant Based. 

Megan Porta: Yeah, that’s great. Thank you again so much, Allie, for being here. Thank you for listening, food bloggers. I will see you in the next episode. 

Outro: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you posted it to your social media feed and stories. I will see you next time.