Caitland Conley
SEO Content Strategist / Copywriter / Founder of Conley Creative Studio
Brooklyn, NY
www.caitlandconley.com
instagram @stateofcaitland
Q What do you do?
“I’m a freelance copywriter + SEO content strategist, so there’s two prongs to my work.”
As a copywriter, I generally put pen to (virtual) paper on blog posts, entire websites, product descriptions, landing pages, email copy, ads, etc. I’ve worked in travel + tourism, beauty + skincare, B2B SaaS, food + bev — to name a few industries.
The other arm of my business is SEO content strategy + consulting, which really means I help brands create discoverable content experiences that meet organic search intent and drive traffic for your business. This could be informational, long-form guides to establish your brand authority and awareness, or high-intent content that speaks to ready-to-convert searchers.
I actively work to debunk the myth that good SEO = bad, robotic writing. My ultimate goal is to solve for the user — the same way good UX does.
SEO strategy (imo!) is a fun, constantly-changing race to create the most helpful content on the internet, so there’s a lot of iterating, competitive analysis, and user research that goes into it. 😎
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
A ton of this work was lining up expectations and matching that to achievable realities.
- Expectation: After moving to New York in 2017, I worked as a digital marketer in an office with tons of fun office snacks.
- Reality: I wrote / pre-scheduled a lot of Tweets. I didn’t love it, so I quit after nine months.
- Expectation: I started my freelance business in 2018 + quickly made loads of cash writing words on the internet (hahaha).
- Reality: I got a part-time job at a bakery to make rent + had exactly one client for the first 6+ months! By 2020, the business finally was chugging along without the need for a part-time gig in food service.
- Expectation: “I’m gonna freelance forever! No one can stop me now!”
- Reality: I hit a wall toward the end of 2020 where I was burning out on writing every day for clients, plus the general toll of the pandemic was adding up. I wanted to return to my roots in SEO and grow as a strategist, so I went back in house in 2021 at Vimeo. (I love it there!)
Now I’m balancing both my 9-5 job and pivoting my freelance work away from in-the-weeds writing to bite off meatier projects as an SEO consultant. Eventually, I’d love to balance my love of SEO with dreamier, more conceptual work for brands.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
Knowing how to create traffic-driving organic content is an art and a science. I balance SEO best practices — often as nitty-gritty as knowing the specifics of headers, character counts, and schema — with evergreen principles of good writing to create something discoverable and uniquely helpful.
Q What are you working on right now?
SEO strategy consulting, keyword research and market analysis, creating hub + spoke content experiences, and some fun copywriting projects for brands like Covey and ilovecreatives! Plus I’m embarking on my first brand identity exercise and a website redesign with the very talented Slashie Shelby at wunderweb studio.
Q What’s your style?
I prefer writing that’s crisp and says more with less. And not taking yourself too seriously. Ultimately, I vibe with clients who understand that marketing is (in the grand scheme of things) pretty low stakes.
I also love brands who promote active or mindful consumerism (or at least try!) It’s challenging to be constantly sold to — for a copywriter, that means I’m both the seller and the person sold to.
That’s why I like working with Covey, a three-step skincare brand founded by model Emily DiDonato and Google exec Christina Garcia. It’s only three essential products, so as a writer, I was able to get really educated on each ingredient they use and why. It’s a lot easier to believe in a brand that encourages me to go deep and ask questions rather than stick to a one-sheeter of value props.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I love writing super-short form, but my work in SEO tends to favor long-form. I really love working on punchy website copy and snackable ads, taglines. The Peggy Olsen Mad Men kind of copywriting, which I don’t always get to flex into.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Honestly, concepting and thinking bigger about my own brand identity always gets pushed out to some nebulous future moment where things will be “less busy.” Also, as a person with a full-time gig and a business, I need to learn how to say “no” more. (For now, to that end, my plan is to take August off from freelance work.)
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Oooooh. I’d love someone to stand in line for me once a month at USPS on the rare occasion I need to ship something. Someone who taps me on the shoulder and tells me to take a life admin day and oh, they’ve conveniently scheduled my least-favorite doctor’s appointments for the same day so they’re all out of the way.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
Realistically, it takes years to create the life you want. Building a life and a business brick-by-brick is an exercise in patience. And the quality of your bricks matter — whether that’s how you value yourself, how you choose your friends, the kinds of clients you work with, etc.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
Raising my rates strategically and on a cadence without breaking out into hives. And how to really clearly demonstrate SEO wins to clients who aren’t as well-versed in organic search as a marketing channel.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
Really into one-off projects right now, as I'm a little saturated on monthly retainers. Hit me up for website copywriting projects for brands and solo creatives, or if you want 3-6 months of content ideas informed by organic search opportunity 😍
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
See above! I'm lucky to work with a lot of great clients who see the value of content creation.
Q: What is your rate?
It really depends on the deliverables.
Some packages are ongoing retainers, so they might range from $1000-1500 monthly for x pieces of search optimized content. I do the keyword research/idea concepting/copywriting from start to finish, then the client reviews and signs off.
My SEO consulting package provides clients with anywhere from 3-6 months worth of opportune organic content ideas in their niche, keyword targets and competitive analysis, and traffic projections. These packages start at $2000, but often clients will cherry pick the deliverables, so quotes are often iterative based on what matters most to them.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
A good email sent lovingly to caitlandconley@gmail.com will always do the trick. If you’d like to mention you heard about me from ILC in the subject line or intro, please do! I love making new friends.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Tasha Young - content strategist
Shelby Herbst - SquareSpace designer
Sandy Sanchez - brand strategist + copywriter
instagram @sandy_snchz
Nina Bishop - motion graphics designer
instagram @ninabeesh
Zoey Cole - content writer + marketer
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Go out dancing often. Never rush to catch the subway. Biking in the city!
This member profile was originally published in May 2022.