The Emerging Power of Voice Search
The Emerging Power of Voice Search “Hello Google,” or “Hey Siri” are two things that you hear all around you these days. The act of typing in searches into a device is quickly disappearing with the prevalence of voice assisted searches rising higher than ever before. The thought that over 1 BILLION voice searches are performed every month brings into glaring focus that it is definitely the growing trend of the future. Especially in local searches with 58% of people looking to find a business quickly and they find it easier to speak the question then trying to find the right words to type. And by doing this they have changed the way that you get results. With long-tailed keywords, “Near Me” searches and the conversational style of speaking which brings more context to what you are searching for, search engines are adapting by bringing you results better tailored to your intent then it would have if you had typed in your query. Who uses voice search and what are the benefits? Everyone use voice search for basic things like “What’s the weather like today?”, “Play music by…”, “Find the nearest hardware store” to more uncommon searches like, “What did my web designer mean when he said…?”, “How can I kill the weeds in my lawn without killing my grass?”. All of these results will be more in line with user intent because user intent and context come through more clearly then if you had just typed in “How to kill weeds?” With the weather, music, news, entertainment, and shopping being the top 5 things people voice search for, it becomes more obvious that the need for voice optimized sites are what any growing business needs to keep current and to compete for local business. Do not underestimate this growing trend, that would be a huge mistake to the future of your online presence, to be completely skipped by search engines because of what you might consider a ‘fad’. To be left behind now will mean a big leap later to try and catch up. Now here comes the part that you will care about: the main ways that this will affect your business. There are several ways this will affect you, the first being in your keywords. Long-tailed, conversational keywords embedded into your site will help you get noticed. With the queries that people pose being in a more conversational style Google will be looking for a more complete answer. Changing the copy on your website to reflect an answer to the possible questions that might be asked in your industries niche will be a great way to start. Rich snippets are also a key component to Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) and a voice assistant will often read these results to you. Have you ever searched for a restaurant and in the search results you might see their ratings, menu, reviews? Or looked for a movie and under the search results there might be information on the times that the movie will be showing at that theatre, all right there on the search results? Those are called rich snippets and that is something that Google loves to see on a website because it makes it easier for Google to index what that site is about. Google will show that information in the search results to help people decide if the site is one that they will want to visit. How to make your website VSEO ready Now we come to the part where you learn a new term: VSEO Voice Search Engine Optimized There are several ways to optimize (make the best of) your website for voice search, you need to better understand the user intent behind their queries, as well as conduct keyword research into long-tailed keywords and use more conversational content that will help Google better understand and bring that understanding to the user. Your digital manager will also need to optimize (make the website better) for featured snippets to help search engines better understand what your site is about. Rich snippets have been around a long time, and they are becoming more important because the voice search uses these snippets to answer your queries (questions). And last but definitely not least it is becoming more and more important to enhance your website’s mobile friendliness. Since a majority of these voice searches are done on mobile devices it is essential that your website be enhanced effectively for mobile usage. Load speed times are a very important part of this process since you have about 1.2 seconds to catch a user’s attention before they push the back button to try the next site on the search results list. All of these processes are not easy for the general public to perform on their own, so my advice is to find a good digital marketing agency like Silver Moon Agency to keep your website on the cutting edge of technology and to keep the referrals from your website coming in !!
SEO Success Secrets: Insider Tips for SEO Success
SEO Success Secrets: Insider Tips for SEO Success As the vast and competitive digital landscape in Houston evolves, the demand for effective SEO strategies has never been higher. Businesses face unique challenges from competition, both local and nationally. Online, the SEO challenges range from changes in search engine algorithms to keeping up with product branding and buyer habits. In this blog, we delve into the success secrets of one SEO agency in the Houston area: Silver Moon Agency. We are going to discuss the tips and tactics that help set their clients apart in competitive marketplaces. Silver Moon Agency works almost exclusively with small businesses. This niche marketplace has a high demand for successful competition as well as very tight marketing budgets. Silver Moon has success in finding that “sweet spot” where their clients’ marketing efforts bring in leads that don’t cost them $85.00 per click (like one new client was paying) !! Silver Moon understands that small businesses do not have the financial depth to experiment. Small businesses need two things: a consultant that knows more than the company owner knows about marketing, and a marketing partner that will stand with the small business with regard to results. Sure, there are certain foundational issues that have to be resolved with every client. Those issues are quick, down, and easy to do. Every marketing agency out there will say they will solve these issues. But HOW the issues are solved can be very very different. That takes marketing skill and intense attention to detail. Silver Moon has the expertise and staff to correct the errors that others have made, and this is with very little outlay of cash. Here’s how we do it. Understanding the Texas SEO Landscape Texas boasts a diverse and dynamic business environment, and this makes SEO a critical component of online success. However, businesses often encounter challenges specific to the state’s expansive market. These are some of the functions programmed with SEO. The Foundation: Local SEO Mastery “Local SEO” is actually pretty easy to get started. Do not confuse this with the full “SEO” process, which is technically very complicated and can be expensive. This topic is discussed further in this article. Houston’s diverse business ecosystem calls for a nuanced approach to SEO. One size absolutely does not fit all. What is effective for a printing company does not at all work for a roofing contractor. One cookie-cutter marketing approach is not effective for the different marketplaces and the end-user customers. It takes long-term experience in marketing in general AS WELL AS in-depth experience in the murky world of digital marketing to create an effective online marketing campaign. Also, a company’s online marketing campaign should integrate seamlessly with any other marketing campaign the business is utilizing. It is ineffective for a business to hire multiple marketing agencies to do bits and pieces of marketing – what the business will end up with is a hodge-podge of marketing materials that does not “brand” the business. Keyword Research Excellence: Silver Moon Agency’s SEO Cornerstone Keywords lay the groundwork for successful SEO campaigns. Sounds so easy – just put a topic into ChatGPT and out pops keywords. Looking in from the outside, it seems as if everyone can do it in a heartbeat. Hold on, hoss fly – that’s a neophyte’s view of the digital world. It takes real skill, experience, and sometimes innovative thinking to ferret out the keywords for each type of business – sometimes HOURS of research. A business is just wasting their money if the wrong keywords are used. And the keywords have to be able to be gracefully installed into the content of the marketing material, whether that is a website or an introductory tri-fold brochure. Silver Moon Agency has staff whose minds go beyond just the generic down-and-dirty keyword production. Our approach ensures content relevance, which improves the chances of ranking higher in search engine result pages (when you search for “roofer near me,” does your company pop up on the first search page?) Strategic Content Creation: Tailored for SEO Success Creating compelling and SEO-friendly content (wording, paragraphs, marketing material) is an art all on its own. Many times, it’s not WHAT is written, it’s also HOW it’s written. For instance, a website for a plumber or an electrician is vastly different from that of an assisted living facility. The plumbing website is “all about the facts, Ma’am.” The water heater costs $XXX and the broken pipe will take XXX number of hours at XXX rate. The electrician’s website is all about how long it will take to replace that light fixture, and the fixture costs $XXX. BUT . . . . An assisted living facility is about housing your MOM or DAD for their later years. Here, the website has to evoke an emotion – will my mom be safe? Will my dad like the food? Will the caregivers treat my brother with respect? These two examples of copy are vastly different, and it takes a marketing expert to know how to present the content. Many content writers have copy they literally COPY over and over again, very rarely custom writing their clients’ marketing materials. Shocked? I was too, until I discovered I could almost predict who had written the materials because I had seen those words before, presented in almost exactly the same way, either on the screen or on paper. What is true is every business has its own corporate environment, no two businesses are the same. That’s why some people thrive in a particular firm, and other people don’t get along so well at Firm 1 but do wonderfully at Firm 2. It’s the difference in environment that people look for to suit their own personalities and character. Marketing materials must reflect the client’s corporate culture. How that happens is the content is custom written to convey what that special spice is that makes that business tick. That’s the secret of writing good copy. On-Page Optimization: Fine-Tuning
7 Questions When Shopping For a Website Designer
7 Questions When Shopping For a Website Designer Here’s a scenario: You are a business owner, and you want a website. You go onto the internet and search for “website designer Houston Texas.” Your search pulls up a jillion possibilities. You call a couple and the people you speak with are fast-talking and they use a lot of jargon you don’t understand. You ask for explanations for the abbreviations they use, and you don’t understand the explanations. Probably who you are talking to is the salesman for the company, not the technician. The salesman knows the abbreviations but not REALLY what they mean. So, the conversations are essentially useless. So how can you make a decision? It’s a shot in the dark, AND it’s a lot of money. You just pick the guy you liked best on the phone. And the website you get is so elementary, the information on the site isn’t what you told them (like hours or even address), and the site loads up so slowly you could take a nap while it’s loading. Now what? Second scenario: You are a new business, and you need a website. So, you call three of your friends with websites to get referrals. You are referred three different companies. You go out on the web to see what your friends’ websites look like. You pick one website that you think you like, and you call that company. You speak to a salesperson who immediately flips you into the sales pitch, “You saw our work, the amount for a comparable website is $XXXX.XX, let me send you an invoice and we can get started.” You work with the technical department for a couple of days, and the website you get doesn’t even COMPARE to your friend’s website. It somehow looks off on the spacing, the pictures are stock pictures, not the ones you sent to the designer, and you get something called a “404 error” when you try to go to one of the pages of the site. In both scenarios, you are not going to get your money back. The problem with the sites is you – you didn’t have enough education before you ordered the website to know what you were ordering. So, I’ve put together a quickie list of questions to ask whoever you speak to when you are shopping for a website. This list is for beginner shoppers so they are not defenseless with the technological gurus they will be speaking with. Don’t be disturbed if you don’t understand some of the terms – I’m giving you the appropriate answers to the questions you should ask. Here goes. Please give me five samples of your websites. This is critical, because if the samples don’t in any way resemble your type of business, the designer may have no experience with copy (the writing) for your type of website. Pay attention to the samples, see if you like the layout, see if the copy would be something that would effectively sell your product. Then, you can say to the designer: I like the look of websiteXXX.com. Can we use that basic layout? What program do you use for website programming? Wix? WordPress? Another program? WordPress is the most used program to create websites. Wix is good but is for more elementary programming than WordPress. WordPress is also more versatile and has more plug-ins available to programmers. Plug-ins are pre-programmed pieces of a prospective website that allow a website to perform a specific function: e-commerce (selling something online), contact form (a form that someone puts in their name, address, and other information), and other pre-programmed functions. Will you use a theme to build my website or is the design customized? Themes are ok to use for websites, but you want to view the theme the designer picks because you might not like the placement of the pictures and words on the pages. Also, if a theme is used, there is a lot of unused garbage often left on the website because of the pre-programming of the theme that the website designer doesn’t use. Insist that “pages” not used are removed from the design before it’s paid for. The additional pages will become a problem in the future when Google starts to “crawl” the pages of the website. And if you decide to add SEO to your website (which is a completely different type of programming) the extra pages become problematic. Will my website look just like the one you used as the sample, websiteXXX.com? Recently, I ran across a client that was shown great websites as examples of programming, and when she received her website, it was totally different, very disorganized, the copy (writing) was terrible, the whole construct of the website was terrible. She started arguing with the developer, who did end up completely re-programming her website. My opinion is if the client hadn’t been so insistent and angry, she would have had a terrible website and would have hired someone else to do another one. Will my website be optimized for responsiveness? This is a system used by programmers to make sure your website fits on a computer screen, a mobile phone screen, tablets/iPads, and all other kinds of devices. This takes special programming, and since 80% of the web searches done today are on mobile phones, it is critical the website design allows for viewing of the site on all devices people use for searches. Some WordPress themes are optimized, and some are not. You have to test them out on the different devices. Optimization and indexing. This process should be part of the charge of the website. If it’s not done, the search function to find your website on a Google search just won’t work. Make sure that is in your contract with the developer. Recently, I ran into a designer that was charging extra for this process. This was not told to the client before the website was ordered. And of course, the company
Cracking The Code: What the Web Guy Just Said
Cracking The Code: What the Web Guy Just Said Top 4 Confusing Things your Web Designer Might Say Everyone in business gets spam emails saying, “I’ve been looking at your website and you need to redo it.” Or “My company will optimize your website and you will get more leads.” What does that mean? What he says: Your website doesn’t look modern. You brought it up several years ago. What he means: Your website looks like the Year 2000, and your public will notice. So, let’s get started with color. The public’s preferences for colors change over the years. Remember the avocado refrigerators and stoves in the 60s? What was all the rage back then, and today no one would be caught ALIVE with one of those appliances. Websites are like that. Without the popular colors, bright and inviting, people will just click out of the website before they even read a word of the copy. And just because iridescent purple is your favorite color, it might not be appropriate for your plumbing business. TIP: Watch out for the web designer that will take your requests and not give you an opinion based on RESULTS. Many designers follow the rule of “it’s what the customer wanted.” These designers are hit-and-run artists who don’t stick around to see what the results are from their work. Get a designer who can give you a history of RESULTS for his/her clients. What he says: The copy on your website needs to be redone. What he means: We know from the reports that we pulled on your website that you are not getting the response you need from people that come to look, and we can tell it’s the writing (copy). Language is tricky, and this topic is critical. If you want help with your writing, here’s a website that can help you: https://www.grammarly.com. You can start with a free sample and see if you like it. Writing the words (copy) for a website is not a one-size-fits-all project. A good copywriter will use different language tools for blue-collar companies versus a company that houses the elderly. The first is all factual: fix the pipe, install the water heater, and how much will it cost. The second is all about emotion: I need a place to take care of my mom. Are you a safe place that will provide her favorite foods? Will you watch over her so that she doesn’t fall and damage her left hip? The language is different, and sometimes the differences are very subtle. If you are writing the copy in English, if English is not the native language of the writer, those subtleties might be missed. Same if the language is Spanish or any other language out there. As a business owner who is hoping their website will bring them leads, the copy (writing) has to push the reader to an action: call the company, email the company, or perhaps stop by the little antique shop to see what they have. An action. If the language is ineffective, the lead might not happen and you, as a business owner, have just wasted your money and your time. Tip: Be sure to ask who specifically will be writing the copy for the new website, and how much experience they have in your industry. Ask for three sample websites to see if they repeat the copy over and over again, or if they actually get to know your company and write copy specific to you. What he says: You need maintenance on your website. What he means: Websites are like 16-year-olds. If you leave them alone, they get into trouble. Five years ago, I had a client whose website just disappeared overnight. Poof!! Just gone. I found out he had not been paying for maintenance on the company website for three years, and one of the company executives decided it was a waste of money and canceled the service. His website was still out there, it just couldn’t hook to the web. Google makes between 1500 and 1800 changes a year. One of the items “maintenance” addresses is making sure that the “hooks” to the search engines remain up to date so your website can be found. Without maintenance, when Google makes some of those changes, your website might not have that hook that connects it to the internet. It cost my client $600 to get his website back in working order. Tip: Pay the maintenance gladly. What he says: Your website needs to be optimized. What he means: Your website isn’t producing results, and we need to do a lot of work on it. When you go and buy a website, it’s usually not part of the contract to have the developer produce a website that is “optimized” for SEO. Just the name “Search Engine Optimization” should give you the hint that it’s a separate contract, and much more expensive than just the initial programming of the website. I have clients asking me all the time, “Why is this so expensive?” It’s because it’s very labor-intensive, and the labor is provided by people who have YEARS of school and YEARS of experience in a very technical world. This isn’t something that is done once, and the developer just walks away from it. This system must be monitored, and updated, month after month, year after year. Things change, and we keep up with the changes. Website optimization is critical for any company that wants people to visit their website. Whether you are selling something or trying to build a brand. What is a brand? It is a name or image that can become a household name. Think Nike and its logo. Facebook and their blue color. Twitter and the bird. That’s branding. The word “optimize” is the first problem. What does that mean? Can you go to Walmart and buy an “optimize?” Optimize means a whole lot of adjusting, programming, changes, re-arranging, and coding. I used to think