“Okay, Google…”

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Why Your Brand Should Have a Voice Search Strategy

We’ve been subtly keeping tabs on voice marketing. Okay, you caught us. We’re full-on Hamburglar trying to sneak up on a family having a picnic when it comes to uncovering the latest news.

Can you blame us though? Consumers are swooning for Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s Siri. Voice technology is such an untapped territory, how can marketers not be excited? We foresee an adoption with voice to have competitor advantage, SEO tricks, and loyal friendly benefits.

1. Improve customer experience. Going after consumers who want instant gratification and amazing experience? Voice search takes far less time and has more convenience than text-based. Plus, interaction with voice has become more natural so is encouraging for retention!
2. Changing the face of SEO. Think of it this way, voice search tends to be longer than text. Say you wanna know the weather for this week. On a computer, you’d probably type in “weather.” On the other hand, with voice, you’ll most likely say something like, “Yo Alexa, am I gonna need my galoshes this week?” To take a step further, users won’t see a search engine result page. Voice tech gives the top answer.
3. Give us that traffic all day any day. Brands adopting voice tech should see higher web traffic in that when voice assistants like Siri provide an answer, users can open the site where the answer was pulled. We’re sold on this theory alone.
4. Don’t give your competitors an edge. If you don’t yet have a voice strategy assume your competitors do. Let’s say brand Coffee X doesn’t have a voice strategy yet, but their competitor, Java Y does. Coffee X showcases new flavors as a part of a weekly special. But when a big fan of Coffee X used Alexa to discover this week’s flavor special, Alexa instead gave them Java Y’s weekly special. Just like that, Coffee X lost a sale and potentially a life customer. Voice marketing is fairly new so why let your competitors have all the fun?
5. Join the brands already on capitalizing with voice. For example, Nestle created a skill providing voice instructions as a someone cooks, or Domino’s allows pizza-lovers (like us) to order without having to pick up the phone or place an online order. The takeaway, get in on the action on while the iron is still heating up.

“Okay, Google. Is there more to this article?”

Yes, There is More

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Eight Steps for a Bulletproof Local SEO Strategy

We know, you just saw, “Local SEO” in the title and you’re about to ignore this section.

Well…don’t.

Local SEO is probably more important than you think. If you have a physical location of any sort, local is something you should consider. More than ever, people are adding the words “near me” to their searches for goods and services. If you want to catch some of that search traffic (you do), then you should at least take a look at local SEO strategies.

Here are a few things to start with, courtesy of Search Engine Watch:

1. Titles and meta-description tags. Writing titles and metas is one part art, one part science. To capture local searches, add the name of your city or geographic area, to both of those tags. As always, keyword-stuffing is absolutely not allowed here.
2. Use online directories. Citysearch, Angie’s List, YP.com, and Yelp are just a few of the online directories that you’re going to want to register your business on. Believe it or not, Google pays attention to those sites. The more you can show up on these sites, the more Google trusts your business
3. Claim and optimize your Google My Business. This is another crazy-important piece to the Google Local 3-pack. It’s also the easiest piece to update.
4. Actively pursue online reviews. Google pays attention to review sites. The more reviews you have, the more likely you are to rank highly. Tools like Get Five Stars will help you get more reviews.
5. Produce local content. Not much we need to add to this one. All you gotta do is create blog content that is specific to your geographic area (when possible).
6. Use local structured data markup. This could be its own blog post (maybe it should be). This type of markup helps search engine bots understand necessary info about your business. Rather than try to run through this, we’re just gonna suggest your read this article from Uproer.

That sums up the bulk of it, but there’s still a coupla things you’re gonna want to read…

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How About a Little Bubbly?

You know when you’re on vacation and you find out your hotel has a jacuzzi? You immediately yell, “SCORE” in your head cause you’re totally taking a soak later. Then night time comes, so you and your bestie are all pruned up enjoying the bubbles when suddenly some stranger gets out and the bubbles aren’t as intense anymore. And the feeling of terror rushes over you…

Yeah, today’s Watch has that kind of vibe.

But don’t worry, it’s more hilarious ’cause we’re watching it, not living it. Upspring’s new commercial featuring their all natural, fast acting drops to relieve an upset stomach takes a little awkward turn during date night. The commercial itself looks older and lacks anything special, but the classic twist saves the day.

We’ll give this one a B-. Need a good chuckle, you know what to do!

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