Meet Sara Dunn | Wedding SEO Specialist & SEO Coach for Web Designers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Dunn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I started making websites on the side just for fun—it was a creative outlet, something I enjoyed doing for friends or local businesses in my free time. Then I had a realization: people would actually pay me to do this! That kicked off a whole journey of learning web design and digital marketing, all completely self-taught.

As I built websites for small businesses, I kept running into the same problem: a beautiful website wasn’t enough—people needed to actually find it. That’s when I discovered SEO, and I became obsessed with understanding how search engines work and how to get websites ranking higher on Google.

What should our readers know about your business?
I’ll never forget the day a client said to me, “This new website you’re building for us… it will help us get found on Google, right?.” That’s what led me down the path of search engine optimization (SEO). I became fascinated by how Google worked, how people searched, and how strategic optimizations could help businesses attract more of the right clients for free.

As I deepened my expertise, I noticed a huge opportunity in the wedding industry. Wedding professionals—planners, photographers, venues, florists, makeup artists, entertainers, and officiants—rely on local search to book clients, yet most weren’t using SEO effectively. They were spending hours on social media or paying for ads, but they weren’t leveraging organic search to bring in leads consistently. That’s when I decided to fully specialize in SEO for wedding professionals, and Sara Does SEO was born.

Today, we help wedding pros rank higher, get more inquiries, and grow sustainably through our done-for-you services and our hands-on course, Wedding SEO Bootcamp. What sets us apart is our exclusive focus on the wedding industry—we know exactly how engaged couples search, and we build strategies that work specifically for wedding businesses.

One of the things I’m most proud of is the team I’ve built—a fully remote group of high-performing individuals who left the corporate world for more flexible, fulfilling work. Growing a business while supporting my team with meaningful work has been just as rewarding as seeing our clients succeed.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned along the way? Focus leads to impact. It’s tempting to expand into different industries or add more services, but I’ve found that refining what works and going deeper instead of wider has been the key to long-term success.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When a friend visits Southwest Michigan, I like to take them all over the area. If it’s a weekend trip in the summer, we always go to the Kalamazoo Farmers Market on Saturday, with a stop first at Water Street Coffee for an “iced coffee with a bang.” If they love plants and gardening as much as I do, we might swing through River Street Flowerland on our way back to Battle Creek. In Battle Creek, I would take them to Goguac Lake and have dinner at Kitchen Proper.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe so much to the KCORE chapter of Business Networking International (BNI) in Kalamazoo. When I was invited to join in 2013 as the Web Design category member, I had no idea how much it would shape my business and personal growth.

So many members of that group gave me a chance early on. They trusted me with their websites, referred clients to me, and, most importantly, taught me about business. I learned not just how to market my services, but how to build relationships, communicate my value, and show up with confidence.

Through BNI, I also sharpened my networking and public speaking skills—two things that have been invaluable as my business has grown. What started as a way to get referrals turned into a supportive community of professionals who truly wanted to see each other succeed.

I’m so grateful for the encouragement and lessons I gained from BNI KCORE. That group played a huge role in helping me become the business owner I am today!

Website: https://saradoesseo.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saradoesseo/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradoesseo

Other: https://saradoesseo.com/seo-for-wedding-planners/
https://saradoesseo.com/seo-for-wedding-venues/

Image Credits
Abby Grace Photography