SEO & Voice Optimization

“Siri, look up the weather today… Alexa, find me the best-rated recent horror books.” The list of questions that we verbally ask our devices can get long really fast. We now live in a world that is synchronous with smart technology that ten years ago we would have said was impossible. Hell, we even ask our T.V.s to find specific shows for us now. It’s easy and convenient. That being said, we should preface this entire article by saying that typing a search and voice search are not the same. The main difference is that when people ask a question they usually speak more naturally, using long keywords. Text search is usually shorter and gives more options to choose from. With voice search being so popular and fast, your website must be optimized for SEO voice search now as well. It will help increase how many voice searches you appear in and improve user experiences so, here are some ways to help improve your website for voice search results.

1.     Use conversational language in your web content: If you feature blogs, make sure that they are written conversationally. This will help with organic search results because this style is considered more relevant concerning voice search. When writing, speak to the reader. Use terms such as I, we, you, etc.

2.     Make sure your site is fast to load: Nobody likes a slow site. Attention spans are getting shorter. Ensure your site loads in under 2 seconds to keep the user from experiencing negativity with the brand. This is considered when Google ranks your site.

3.     Optimize for mobile: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Websites MUST be optimized for mobile. Most people search on their phone. If your site is impossible to read and navigate, you will lose your audience. Not only this, Google again, considers it when ranking your site.

4.     Target long-tail keywords: Since voice search is more specific long-tail keywords can better optimize. These are 3 or more words that contain who, what, when, where, and how questions. There are keyword research tools you can use to find which long-tail keywords work for your brand.

5.     Localize your business: If your brand is local, it’s important to add a location to your pages. Use visual content that tags the specific location of the area. Use local keywords and a Google business profile.

6.     Try to land Google Snippets: A Google snippet is a short piece of content that is above search results. They come from pages that rank high for a specific query.

Following these practices will help optimize your website SEO for voice search in our world of artificially intelligent devices. Even if you don’t see results right away, they are happening trust us. Using these tips will help better your chances of reaching more customers. Modern consumers crave convenience so make sure your website offers what they need.

How AI Will Affect SEO

AI seems a bit scary but it will come with some benefits and trust us when we say it will come. People are already utilizing artificial intelligence in advertising and marketing. It’s pretty much inevitable that it will become part of our daily lives in the not so distant future. So, with that, how will it affect SEO? This is what we found.

1.     Better user experience: improved personalized content and quality of interactions

2.     Voice search optimization: with Siri, Alexa and Google Home voice search has improved

3.     Greater understanding of language: provides more accurate answers to user questions

4.     Accuracy: because AI can analyze massive amounts of data at once it makes it easier for search engines to provide precise results.

As uncomfortable as it may be for some, AI isn’t going anywhere. In fact, chances are we’re just getting started. Sometimes if you can’t beat em’, join em’. AI can provide benefits for business other than a positive tool for SEO performance.

Programmatic SEO

We all know that high SEO is important for your brand but what is programmatic SEO? Even if you’ve never heard of it, it is quite common practice in the digital space. Instead of spilling a definition at you, let’s look at an example of programmatic SEO and work our way backwards. Imagine you do a web search on best restaurants in (city) and when the results come back with a TripAdvisor page in at least the top 3. The reason for this is that they have a page for almost everything travel related anywhere in the world. They have to create thousands of landing pages in order to increase their SEO ranking. This is programmatic SEO in a nutshell. It is building a database of thousands of pages that are connected to a template in order to rank higher in Google’s search query. They all use similar, long-structure keywords. Brands can use this to write the content and publish for them instead of having to it all manually. So, how do you implement programmatic SEO? Here is a quick tips list to get you started.

1.     Choose your head terms: this is the overall broad categories. Advertising, advertising agency, content agency would be an example of some we would use. These will have a large search volume.

2.     Figure out what the modifier keywords are: Primary: found content agency, user-generated content agency. Secondary: advertising: user-generated content, found content, sourced content.

3.     Put them all together: it’s not uncommon to have 100K keywords.

4.     Do competitive analysis: what keywords and long for modifiers are your competition showing up on with Google search?

5.     Build the landing pages: they will all be a similar template but slightly unique. It’s important for the algorithm so it sees it as a unique value for visitors on each page.

Every brand can benefit from programmatic SEO, because every brand should have an online presence, no matter the size of the company. We live in a digital world, so improving your brand’s SEO will allow it to reach more people, make your site more attractive and the ROI on programmatic SEO is very high. It can also require much less time to achieve results.

Optimizing Your Google Position

Is your business showing up at the top of Google searches for your industry? Here are some quick tips on things to do to improve your SEO on Google searches.

1. Make sure your business information is up to date on the Google Business profile. Are the hours, phone, address correct? What about your website URL alongside your social media profiles?

2. Know the keywords you’re competing for.

3. Continuously update your pages and content. A blog is a good way to do this. Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic, according to HubSpot.

4. Know Google’s ranking factors. There are 4:

   1. Words in the search box

   2. Relevance & usability of your pages

   3. Expertise of source

   4. Location and settings of searcher’s Google account

5. Review analytics often. Find keywords that aren’t working so well and replace them. It will be important to analyze data and see what’s working and what is not.

People run searches on Google to research businesses before they even plan to go visit them in person or an online store. Higher SEO will drive more traffic to your brands website and ultimately, more revenue.

Ensuring a Great Brand Reputation

While in our personal lives, we agree that Joanne Jett got it right, from a business stand point your brand’s reputation is everything! Building your brand is hard enough and ensuring that its reputation remains intact requires work, but the stronger it is, the more your audience will trust you and become ambassadors for you for a lifetime. So, what influences brand reputation? Reputation is a culmination of the appearance, the words, the voice and the actions that you use for your brand. All of which will be represented through your website, your social media, consumer reviews, customer service, product/service quality, Google and if applicable, Wikipedia. It’s also important to note that in today’s cultural climate, it’s crucial to take stances on socioeconomic and environmental issues as well, especially with the younger generations in mind. That being said, here are some ways that your brand can increase its reputation and keep it there for years to come!

1. Make customer service priority #1. This is your chance for face to face interaction with your audience so make sure it’s a positive experience for them. According to Microsoft, 58% of customers who feel their experience falls short will sever their relationship with them. It takes only one person’s negative experience to ruin potential business and if you make a mistake don’t be afraid to own up to it! People appreciate honestly and trust those who hold themselves accountable.

2. Actively listen. It’s important that you apply feedback from your customers now that they have given it. Whether positive or negative. Who’s talking about you? What are they saying? Make sure to stay on top of this and respond to every review. It will show others who are looking to work with your brand that you do care and listen in order to resolve problems that may have arisen.

3. Create high-quality content and be consistent on social media. The speed at which news travels on social media is insurmountable. It’s also important that people see you post consistently with relevant content in your field. Answering any comments or direct messages in a timely manner is crucial to keeping your reputation high with your followers. Here are some more key tips for social channels:

   1. Schedule posts when they perform best

   2. Have a developed and consistent brand voice

   3. Amplify positive reviews and testimonials

4. Search engine results. Improving your SEO on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, and YouTube are all important. Google is king nowadays and is the most convenient. People tend to choose the one with the best search profile and think about it, there are only about 10 or 11 on that first page. This forms first impressions for those that are new to your brand. People will form opinions quickly from these top listed, relevant brands.

Character is defined as moral or ethical quality and this is the foundation of your brand, so make sure that what people see online is what they get in real life. Having this cohesiveness between brand character and reputation will protect you. Although it may seem that the way that others view your brand is outside of your control, you can remain focused on those things that you can control that will ultimately affect the opinions of the public.  

Importance of Mobile Optimization

We assume that your brand wants to reach every consumer that it can! If this is true, then your business must adopt a mindset that has the mobile experience in the forefront. In our previous article we talked about how different generations require different marketing techniques. Many of these reasons are due to technological preferences across generations. According to the HubSpot State of U.S. Consumer Trends, 56% of people surveyed stated that they use their mobile phones for searches and 44% of those people discover new products through these mobile searches. You’re probably reading this article on your phone right now aren’t you? It’s important that whatever your brand is putting out there not only looks great on desktop format but also on a smartphone. The more user-friendly things are the more likely they are to stay and discover what your brand has to offer them. It should be noted that mobile optimization and mobile friendly are not the same. Mobile friendly will display on smaller screens but mobile optimization will actually reformat itself for a mobile device. Websites should not only be clean but simple to navigate as well. Improving your brands mobile optimization of its website, newsletters, etc. will get you higher search engine rankings, increased positive audience experiences and in turn, more business.