voice search statistics©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Voice Search Statistics [ infographic ]

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Colleen EakinsColleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it […]

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voice search and seo©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

What You Need to Know About Voice Search and SEO

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As technology and the way that people use it changes, marketing companies and small businesses must stay abreast of how they can adjust their strategies to remain competitive.

In 2018, one of the most significant shifts in the way people query for information is the broader adoption of voice search. Mobile devices and the introduction of voice assistant devices such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, can now perform searches just by asking a question. A helpful Alexa or Siri is always happy to respond with no keyboard required!

As you can imagine, this change in the way people search for information and data online has surprising and far-reaching implications as it relates to search engine optimization.

Facts About Voice Search

In 2015, 65% of smartphone users in the United States used a voice assistant. In 2013, only 30% reported using this feature on their phone.

In 2016, Google disclosed that 20% of searches originated from voice-based queries.

In 2017, 33 million voice-assistant devices were reportedly in use.

There’s little doubt that voice search is here to stay, so the big question is how this displacement of search queries affect search engine optimization.

How Voice Search Changes Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Without users having to type keywords or search phrases into a search bar, it’s easy to see how everything changes for search engine optimizers. Here are a few factors to account for when optimizing for voice search queries.

People Ask Full Questions Instead of Using Keyword Strings

One of the most significant differences when people use a voice assistant, versus performing a keyword search at their favorite search engine, is the way the query is phrased. When using a voice assistant, people are more likely to ask a direct question using everyday language and not a string of keyword phrases.

Whereas, when using a search engine, the query would include relevant keyword phrases.

For example, let’s say you want to find pizza delivery in your neighborhood. If you’re using your desktop computer, you might enter the query “pizza delivery” plus your zip code number and the search engine returns the best possible matches that offer pizza delivery services.

When asking a voice assistant, the chances are good that your question would be something like ‘which pizza place delivers to my house?’ To which the voice assistance would find possible matches for Italian restaurants and pizza joints that offer delivery services in the area.

Over the years of development, virtual assistants have come to understand complex queries and answer satisfactorily. For people who prefer to work handsfree, it’s a more convenient way to get answers to the questions they have.

Contextual and Local Search Matters

When conducting a desktop-based search, it wasn’t uncommon for these queries to be without a lot of added context. The submitted keyword or keyword string was the only qualifier. Recent changes to major search engine algorithms have emphasized the meaning in which search terms are used when assigning ranking positions. Today, the best search engine results help answer the question of the searcher, based on the intent of their search query and serving matched results.

There is little doubt that contextual, local, and voice search should work together to connect with existing and potential new clients, regardless of the type of Internet-connected device they are using. By putting all of the pieces together in the right way, business owners and marketers can succeed in attaining their business objectives.

Catering to A Mobile Market

In 2013, nearly half of all searches conducted from a mobile device had local intent. When local purchasing intent and purpose is combined with voice assistant queries, the combination can be a powerful driver of foot traffic for businesses.

Think about it. Nearly everyone carries a smartphone with them at all times. No longer do people have to drive around hopelessly lost or unsure of where to find the next gas station. All they need to do is use their phone and/or its voice assist to get helpful directions to the nearest gas station or a major highway.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

Simple keyword strings are being replaced with phrase-based queries often worded as simple questions, which are longer and more precisely formulated. Industry insiders refer to these query strings as ‘long tail keywords.’ They are the foundation for almost all SEO-related activity.

As users transition to using voice search for simple queries, the importance of long tail keywords is critical, as questions are asked in a more conversational tone. By understanding what your core keyword focus is, along with your local market, you can begin formulating a plan to be more relevant with voice assistant searches.

By fashioning relevant long tail keyword phrases into your content, in addition to providing helpful, user-friendly material, you are optimizing your website content for greater success. Ideally, the site should be friendly for visitors on browsers of all sizes, as well as compatible with search engine spiders and web crawlers that are responsible for indexing and ranking these pages.

gdpr compliant©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

5 Steps to Make Your Website GDPR Compliant

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Colleen EakinsColleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it […]

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privacy and security©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

User Privacy and Security Concerns Shake Up the Internet

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If you’ve been paying attention to recent news, the chances are good that you heard about all the controversy surrounding the ways that major platforms, such as Facebook, collect and share data with publishers, users, and advertisers.

In the wake of these disclosures to the public, and testimony before Congress, Facebook, Instagram, and many other high-traffic websites and mobile apps have had to update and make changes to their terms of service and operating agreements recently.

All you need to do to is check the email address registered with these sites, to find all the notices alerting you to these amendments to their operating agreements.

How Do These Changes Affect Businesses and Marketers?

On Facebook, changes to the terms of service could potentially affect how brands and marketers connect with possible customers and clients. Changes to API access could limit the information provided when making a query.

Additionally, all applications that use the events, pages, and groups API must go through an app review process to assure that they are compliant with the new terms and conditions of the platform.

New restrictions on the Facebook login could also affect third-party providers who log in to their services using a Facebook account. Recently, covert trackers were found to be collecting data transmitted through the login and measures were taken to prevent third-parties from accessing user data including relationship status, education, interests, work history and more. On the Instagram side, the old Instagram API platform is getting deprecated and phased out as part of their current changes to their systems.

Protecting Privacy and Security Online

Privacy and security are two severe pain points for platforms like Facebook. Brands and vendors who built custom Facebook apps or utilized Facebook’s login to manage profiles or provide client services could experience issues with core functionality and usability.

It’s worth noting that while you may not have built your own custom app that integrates with these API calls, many third-party tools used to help with social media profile management rely on API calls to do tasks such as content sharing, replying to comments or messages, and other everyday online communications.

With more oversights, audits, and inquiries into how user data gets collected, shared, and disseminated, companies and individuals who work with clients to help them maintain their digital assets and brands could face more challenges as they implement changes to safeguard user information and protect privacy.

How These Changes Affect Facebook Advertisers

Advertisers who use social media platforms to market to existing and potential new customers could experience some changes in targeting capabilities, and other ad controls that specifically target their preferred client or customer.

When combined with other shifts the company has made in how news and updates get displayed to users, advertisers are well-served to create a strategic content marketing campaign to boost virality and the share-ability of content on these platforms.

What Events Lead to These Changes?

In the last few years, the Internet has empowered people and organizations to share their values, beliefs, and opinions with anyone who is willing to listen. For that reason, more people than ever before began chiming in to try and influence others, especially during a particularly tense political climate.

Twitter revealed concerns over ‘bot activity’ surrounding US election meddling and responded by changing their API to limit or restrict API access.

These election bots were said to have been used to help mold and form the political opinions of users, as well as engage with others using the social networking application and website.

Additional scandal at Twitter includes employees getting caught on video making negative ‘off the record’ remarks about users and the internal policies. (Their comments were not representative of Twitter management.) As a result of these ‘off the record’ remarks, the platform has faced scrutiny from users who claim that they are being censored by the platform for their views.

Twitter politics aside, these API changes most likely won’t affect the average platform user, changes to the API could throttle usage for businesses and agencies who use tools not aligned with the updated terms and conditions of the platform.

Most of the mainstream social media management tools, such as HootSuite and others, are whitelisted so as long as you are following all the rules there should be very few issues with using them to manage clients’ social media pages.

Klout is No More

In the wake of the upcoming updates to the Data Protection Directive regulations, Klout, a site that tallied the score of the influence and importance in their social media circles announced they were shuttering the site on May 25, 2018.

As part of their scoring algorithm, users had to grant third-party access to all their social sites including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and others. Using all of this collated information, Klout issued the user a score from 1 – 100, with 100 being the highest score possible.

Now, all those scores are being set to zero as the site that was sold for $200M a few short years ago, is put into sunset mode forever.

Keep an Eye out for Terms of Service Updates

Changes to the General Data Protection Regulation, in effect since April 2016, will begin superseding the Data Protection Directive on May 25, 2018. Changes will be made to website’s Terms Of Service to abide by the updated specifications.

For companies who are updating their Terms of Service, this offers them the opportunity to ask users to agree to their terms, as well as verify their membership at their site.

As you can imagine, this verification process is helpful for platforms to identify inactive, fake, robotic, or unclaimed accounts. Active users who confirm their account will be counted accurately by management. Inactive, unverified, or robotic accounts will be scheduled for review or deletion, saving liability, space, and resources for the company.

The only thing that remains the same is change. If you are receiving numerous terms of service agreement emails, this is the reason why!

integrated marketing©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

What Is Integrated Marketing and Why Do I Need It?

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As technology and the use of the Internet changes and evolves, it’s critical to stay on top of trends to remain competitive. It should come as no surprise that the conversations surrounding marketing and the internet have expanded in response to these developments. No longer is it enough just to do search engine optimization or link building. An integrated marketing strategy is needed.

The broad adoption of mobile devices for internet access in combination with the use of social media and mobile apps require businesses to expand upon marketing efforts on these platforms.

From this, the term “Integrated Marketing” was coined. Integrated marketing is the use of multiple channels to reach target demographics using email, search engine optimization, social media platforms, content marketing, paid advertisements, mobile app support, direct mail, and listing services.

Companies who implement an integrated marketing strategy are more likely to see results than a company that only focuses only on SEO tactics or PPC advertising to drive traffic to their website.

Here we’ll explore some of the different options available for expanding your integrated marketing efforts.

Email Marketing – Email marketing remains a classic method for business owners to keep in touch with prospects and customers. Techniques to build your email list include offering newsletter signup on your website, collecting email addresses at your physical business, adding a content locker to premium or exclusive content. Your email list, especially when it is well-managed, is a valuable tool in your integrated marketing toolbox.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization has always been viewed as a pillar of all marketing efforts. Proper SEO is somewhat of a technical and detail-oriented aspect of marketing. SEO includes tracking pixel installations, keyword selection, making sure that all meta data, descriptions, keyword density, calls to action, and other technical ‘best practices’ are followed when publishing a web page or new blog post. Other related tasks associated with formal SEO include assuring the site has TLS/SSL protection and is mobile-friendly, notably since Google announced they are switching to a ‘Mobile First’ search index. This switch gives preference to websites that cater to mobile site traffic and devalues the importance of websites that do not meet their new standards.

Social Media – Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others offer business owners the chance to connect with their target audience. Not only can you connect with fans and friends who are using their desktop computer, but you also bridge to a broader segment of people using mobile apps to use these platforms. By sharing funny, helpful, or just content of general interest, you can increase the number of meaningful relationships you build with existing or potential clients. Anytime your friends, fans, and family share your posts, this helps raise awareness about your company with the potential to expand your social network even further.

Content Marketing – One of the longstanding principles in the digital marketing industry is that ‘Content is King.’ By creating compelling, value-added content on a consistent basis, you amass digital assets that can be shared on Social Media Channels or be used as marketing materials. Adding helpful blog posts can assist in building organic (free) search traffic to your website. Ideally, you want your website visitors to share your content in their networks, so you’ll want to be sure that you offer Social Sharing tools on all pages of your blog or site to make the process easier. Fresh content that engages with your visitors helps build your reputation, trust, and loyalty.

Paid Advertisements – No integrated marketing campaign is complete without a paid advertising component. After all, how will people know you have an offer if you don’t make one? Depending on the nature of your business, you might consider using ad programs available on Facebook, Bing, or Google. With multiple types of ad modules available, you or your marketing team can design a campaign that helps you meet your business objectives, whatever they are. Other creative forms of paid advertising include print advertisements, local sponsorships, and even vehicle wraps! The goal is to get your brand in front of as many people as possible. Don’t be afraid to get creative.

Mobile Apps – Mobile Apps offer business owners the opportunity to connect with their clients directly on their mobile phone, without the need to read email, visit a website, or search for them on social media. An investment in a mobile app is helpful for sending push notifications, managing loyalty rewards programs, making special offers, or offering a text club. For food service businesses, additional functionality such as the ability to place orders online offset development and management expenses.

Direct Mail – Direct mail remains a trusted and legitimate method to connect with potential customers and clients in your desired target demographics. Printed mail pieces including postcards, inserts, and flyers are cost-effective and offer a longer shelf-life than it’s electronic contemporary, email. Further, they can be customized with unique URLs, Coupon Codes, and Phone Numbers to track the return on investment accurately.

Listing Services – When you want to make sure that your company or brand is seen by the right audience, listing services are helpful. References and links from authority sites such as Google, Bing, Yelp, Manta, Yellow Pages, Angie’s List, the Better Business Bureau, your local Chamber of Commerce, align you with your preferred audience. These links back are valuable citations to your company! (Pro Tip: If you haven’t given much thought to the importance of listing citations, you should start checking for inclusion and accuracy as soon as possible.) Depending on the organization, the addition to their directory may be free, upgraded, or paid. Free listing services typically offer business owners a basic listing that contains minimal information. Upgraded or paid inclusion listing services often offer business owners more features or value-added functionality from their listing, so be sure to have marketing funds set aside to cover the costs of these listings.

As you can see, there are a lot of working parts when forming an Integrated Marketing campaign. Need help putting all of the pieces together? Get in touch with Colleen Eakins Design today!