Harj Gill – Blogging with Strategy for Growth.
If you’ve ever wished you could grow from your couch in cozy socks, this one’s for you.
Our guest UpNext on the Podcast is Harjit Gill of Designed by Harj— She’s Frame of Life’s web designer and SEO strategist who helps introverted founders grow with blogs (not burnout).
Speed up traffic and get off the social media content creation hamster wheel
In this episode we chat about:
- Creating a content calendar you’ll actually follow,
- The long game of SEO, and
- Pairing Pinterest with blogging
Harj is a website designer and blogging-focused SEO strategist based in Vancouver, BC. After chronic pain pushed her to pivot from hairstyling (and a brief mobile blow-dry biz), she designed her own website, fell in love with web design, and never looked back.
Today she helps introverted entrepreneurs build simple, strategy-first Showit sites and sustainable blog systems that compound traffic over time—no daily dancing on social required.
In fact, Harj designed our site — yes this very website you’re reading now!
After I purchased a Tonic Template for my new ShowIt website and worked for months to try to implement it — and didn’t get far — I learned about Harj from a friend of mine Sarah Prentice Studio. After our first virtual coffee chat I was hooked!
Harj is so delightful to work with. She is organized and thoughtful and is an extraordinary listener. Taking my “all over the place vision” and helping make it a reality.
Strategy > Fancy
We learned together that pretty websites alone are useless if they aren’t searchable.
I was a lucky first client of Harj’s while she expanded her services to focus on SEO strategy and web design. She wants to ensure that your website shows up when your dream clients are searching for content related to what you offer.
I keep Harj on my short list of friends to call and can’t wait to work with her again real soon as we adjust the sails of how Frame of Life is discovered in the world.
Download Harj’s Ultimate Website Content Roadmap here
Key Takeaways
- Plan once, publish often.
- A 90-day content calendar (with pillars + keywords) makes twice-a-week blogging easier than unplanned “once a week.”
- See how Harj does this in action on her blog
- Play the long game.
- Organic results typically snowball in 6–12 months—but compounding traffic is worth the patience.
- Measure what matters.
- Track impressions, clicks, queries, and top pages in Google Search Console; use Google Analytics for site behavior.
- Pinterest accelerates SEO.
- Turn each post into 13–15 pins and schedule natively to drive earlier traffic.
- Check out Harj on Pinterest here
- Strategy > fancy.
- Clean, minimal, brand-true design that guides the user beats intricate layouts every time.
Wanna watch the episode instead? Check it out here
Episode Highlights
00:56 — Harj’s pivot from hairstylist to web designer
03:58 — Why she serves introverts (and what “introvert” really means)
05:49 — The compound effect: how long SEO takes and why it’s worth it
06:58 — The 90-day content calendar that made consistency click
07:58 — Content pillars for blogs
10:04 — What to track in Google Search Console & Analytics
12:19 — Pairing every post with 13–15 Pinterest pins
13:37 — Weekly time budget
20:47 — Hot take: strategy beats ornate design, every time
21:48 — What to ask before you hire a web designer — check out the blog post she references here: 10 Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring a Web Designer
24:31 — Photos for websites: shoots, stock, and what images to plan
25:29 — Image tips for blogs
32:51 — Who Harj loves to work with
35:17 — Wins: blog + email growth after consistent posts
37:15 — Running a business with chronic pain: grace, pacing, and couch-friendly marketing
Connect with Harj:
Website: www.designedbyharj.com
Instagram: @designedbyharj
Pinterest: @designedbyharj
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