SEO services

Apr 03 2020

How to Build an In-House Voice SEO Dream Team

If you think SEO is highly competitive today, then brace yourself for the rise of voice SEO in the coming years. Voice search, which is predicted to comprise 50% of searches by 2020, will prove to be even more challenging for SEO. Sure, it has its rewards when done right, but that doesn’t make it any less difficult.

With digital assistants only pulling a single result, and with Google’s several SERP features minimizing the need to click on search results, ranking for voice search will be an uphill battle. Luckily, it’s a battle you need not face on your own.

SEO is not a one-man job. It’s a field that requires the collaboration of experts from multiple disciplines. The rise of voice search has only presented yet another field of specialization. And with more and more people leaning towards voice search, the need for SEO strategies specifically geared for voice search will similarly continue to rise. For your brand to remain competitive, you’ll need to invest in voice SEO.

You can outsource from an agency, or better yet, build an in-house team! Outsourcing voice SEO services is a good option if you’re working with a limited budget, but if your company has enough resources, why not be in full control of your voice search SEO efforts? Having an in-house voice SEO team will help you adapt to the demands of the market quicker while hastening the growth of your business.

3 Questions You Need to Ask Before Building and In-House Voice SEO

Building your in-house voice SEO dream team may sound like a good choice, but it’s not always the right one. When deciding whether to choose to outsource to an SEO agency or to build your own dream team, you will need to consider your company’s current standing and unique needs.

1. What’s your budget?

Outsourcing from another SEO agency will always cost less. SEO agencies have different services and payment options suited to your company’s needs. You won’t need to worry about the monthly salary of the employees you will hire, and you won’t need to worry about providing the right tools and equipment.

But if your company has enough funds and resources to start an in-house voice SEO team, why not consider it? Depending on your company and the industry you operate, having your own in-house voice SEO team may eventually be better in the long run.

2. What are the risks you are willing to take?

Several risks come with building your own in-house SEO team. One of the biggest and easiest risks to fall into would be recruiting the wrong people. Google gives everyone the privilege of learning how to do SEO for free (try searching for SEO and see for yourself). This seems like a big plus for people who want to learn, but it also makes it easier for pseudo-experts to claim that they know everything about SEO.

Outsourcing to an SEO agency will make more sense if you don’t want to risk hiring the wrong person. But just like an In-House Voice SEO team, there are also risks when you choose to outsource to a third-party agency. For instance, the agency you end up hiring may not be knowledgeable about your industry. This can lead to ineffective marketing strategies.

Of course, all risks have preventive measures. When building an in-house team, doing a thorough background check via interview and testing can help you find the right employees. When outsourcing, it pays to review the agency’s track record and the companies they’ve worked with.

With this example in mind, and what your budget will allow, what risks are you willing to take?

3. How much control do you want?

If you’re the hands-on type, then building your own in-house voice SEO team is the right thing for you.

One of the advantages of having an in-house voice SEO team is that you’ll have full control over the SEO strategies you will develop. Your table would just be a few steps away from your team, making collaboration easier. As such, aligning with your team and implementing changes when necessary is faster.

With an in-house team, it takes less time to produce and implement strategies that are highly targeted since your team would already be familiar with your audience.

If you want to focus on your core business function, outsourcing with another agency may be the better option.

You don’t have to spend too much time on building SEO strategies because the experts of the agency will be the ones to do it for you. At this point, you’ll be the client rather than the director.

All you need to do is discuss your business and evaluate the strategies that they’re offering to you. Once it’s approved, you can focus on other things in your business while they give you updates. The level of control you’ll have is less, but in return, you’ll get more time and effort for other areas of your operations.

How to Build Your Voice SEO Dream Team from Scratch

By now I’m sure that you’ve already decided that you want to build your own In-House SEO team. Building your in-house SEO dream team from scratch may seem intimidating at first, but don’t worry, we’re here to help.

1. Define your team culture

How your employees will work together and build relationships with each other will ultimately depend on how you structure your team. Managing an SEO team is a lot of work, and having the right structure will keep your team intact.

To develop the right structure for your team, you need to consider your budget, company size, and what team structure works best for your organization. Below are some examples of team structures:

Center of Excellence Model

The center of excellence (CoE) model is a centralized department that is composed of experts in a specific field (in this case, voice SEO specialists). For large companies with multiple branches, this could be a great option, especially if you do not have the capacity to build an SEO team in every location of your business.

Distributed Team

This distributed team model is ideal if you’re starting your team from scratch. You’ll be creating a virtual team wherein both on-site, and off-site employees work together to take on projects. In this model, you will need professionals who are independent enough to work on their own but can also collaborate with their colleagues without any issues.

A good example would be how designers and developers can work independently, but they must also collaborate with each other to ensure project success. Having a good sense of coordination will make sure that what they’re both producing are aligned to your SEO goals.

Hub and Spoke

Like the CoE model, it focuses on centralization that builds a hierarchy of control. The “Hub” will act as the decision-makers, while the “Spoke” will represent the workers. Having everything centralized, the policies and procedures of your organization will be implemented with more consistency and accuracy.

Establishing a hierarchy of control does not mean that one is of a higher position. Just like a car is built up of many parts, all parts work together to get the whole thing moving. There are different roles to be filled, but, in the end, everybody is on the same page.

Defining your team’s culture starts with how you structure it. With these models in mind, what’s the best structure you can apply for your team?

2. Consider the costs

Every single decision you will make will boil down to your budget. Keep in mind that SEO specialists are not cheap. During the recruitment process, you need to figure out your company’s needs and your team’s maximum capacity. Primarily, you will need to consider your company’s benefits and the hourly or monthly salary of each individual employee.

SEO Specialists aren’t the only employees you’ll need. Developing an excellent strategy requires experts from other fields. You need to consider the expenses of hiring content creators, project managers, link builders, and the like. Besides your employees, you must also invest in the right tools, equipment, and training to ensure that your employees can deliver optimum results.

3. Determine Your Goals

Once your budget is clearly defined, you can finally establish your goals. Setting goals such as traffic growth, increase in organic visitors, and better keyword rankings can be indicators of the roles you need to fill. Analyzing your company’s current metrics can help you discover your company’s gaps and treat them accordingly.

Once you know what you want to achieve and what your company needs, you’ll have a clearer picture of the things you should invest in. A clear goal in mind will help you make the right choices, from allotting your expenses to the materials and tools you need to hiring the right specialists.

4. Identify the roles you need to fill

You’ve set your goals, and now you’re ready to hire. When establishing a new team, it’s better to go with a top-down approach. You can start by hiring the SEO director and work your way down the organizational chart. Starting with the supervisors and directors is critical because they will help you in the building process while filling out any necessary gaps you may have overlooked.

6 Critical Roles You Need to Fill

Adapting to the voice search revolution can be a breeze when you’re working with an excellent team. Now that you’re about to commence with the hiring process, below is an imperative list of positions you need to fill to build a highly productive team.

1. SEO Team Manager/Lead Strategist

Every successful SEO team starts with a competent team leader. As mentioned previously, hiring the leader first will give you another consultant. The leader will tell you who you need to hire and recommend tools and materials for the team to succeed. Give your leader the right resources; they will help you get the team to where you want them to be.

You need to get someone who not only has the critical SEO expertise but also has the leadership skills necessary to manage a team efficiently.

2. On-page Voice SEO Specialist

Voice search changed how people look for information in two important ways:

Voice search keywords are significantly longer than text-based searches
70% of searches on Google Assistant use “natural language.”

A voice SEO specialist will help you adapt to the developments in voice search technology. In other words, you need to get someone who has a knack for identifying powerful keywords that has the potential to drive valuable traffic to your site.

Hire someone who has experience implementing voice search optimization tactics and knows how to use and maximize Google Analytics and other website optimization and keyword research tools.

3. Technical SEO Specialist

SEO Specialists are tasked with performing the technical side of SEO. Take note that site speed, proper site architecture, and structured data has become crucial ranking factors in voice search. Having structured data helps search engines crawl and read your content efficiently, which gives you better chances of ranking in the more competitive voice search landscape. Additionally, 53% of mobile users leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.

As such, it’s vital that you hire a specialist who is highly competent in performing and analyzing SEO audits, identifying site speed issues, has proficient knowledge in website architecture, and has strong experience in Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

4. Link Building Specialist (Off Page SEO)

If your content has more links, Google will recognize it as a credible source, giving your site a higher chance to appear at the top of the results page. Indeed, sites with a lot of links rank more often in voice search. Of course, they can’t just be any links; they have to be links from high-authority sites, which is why you’ll need a Link Building Specialist.

Hire link builders to promote your content through various link seeding tactics, and to continuously develop link building strategies for your site. Look for link builders who have excellent organizational, communication, and analytical skills, as well as a mastery of relevant link-building tactics.

5. Content Writer

Content is the heart of SEO. In order to keep your site optimized, you will need to attract people by consistently producing valuable content that educates, delights, and converts. With all the competition in the market today, there is no room for mediocrity; posting just any content is not enough. Hiring excellent writers who are knowledgeable in different fields will help your site produce timely, relevant, and engaging content.

Hire individuals who are not only excellent writers but are also proficient in optimizing content for voice search. For instance, having writers who know how to create articles that are optimized for featured snippets and other critical SERPs can make a huge difference in your voice SEO strategy.

6. Web Developer and Designer

Regardless of how good your content may be, you won’t find your site ranking up if it’s hard to use and navigate. While UX is not a direct ranking factor per se, Google still looks for features that indicate a positive user experience. With voice SEO and the fact that 60% of Google searches are done via mobile phones, having a good UX is more important now than ever.

Get a web developer to perform maintenance checks on your site to prevent any technical issues from holding your site back. Similarly, invest in designers to make sure your site is user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and provides a seamless experience for your visitors.

Final Takeaways

Having your own in-house team or outsourcing to an agency has its own pros and cons. In the end, it all boils down to your company’s current situation. While outsourcing to an agency may prove to be more cost-efficient, having your own in-house voice SEO team will may be more advantageous in the long run.

Don’t hesitate to consult with experts. Creating your own team of experts will require you to be hands-on, but you will get full control of everything.

Once you’ve determined your goals, you can quickly identify the resource you need to achieve them. Building your team from scratch is not an easy task but having these things in mind will make the recruitment process more productive and worthwhile. Having experts from different fields with a great sense of collaboration will ensure you higher chances of success with regards to your SEO efforts.

Mar 29 2020

7 Voice Search SEO Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Bottomline

As long as new digital marketing tools and trends surface, search engine optimization (SEO) practices will continue to evolve. The case is true with all the historical algorithm updates that keep on challenging experts to go for white hat tactics and provide value to their target audience.

Besides these search guidelines that get regularly refined, one of the most significant changes to hit SEO is what you’ve come to know as the voice search revolution. People have entered the era where they no longer have to type in their queries via touch screens or tactile keyboards; there is now an option to talk to your gadgets.

In this day and age, it’s not uncommon to own a device pre-installed with a voice assistant. As of 2018, there were already 2.5 billion assistants in use, and this figure is projected to go up to 8 billion in 2023.

These intelligent robots live inside smartphones and smart speakers, promising to make life easier and more manageable for the users who choose to engage with their features. The most popular ones in the game so far are Siri for iOS users and Alexa or Google Assistant for Android users.

Back in the day, they were mostly used to play music, set reminders, or maybe call someone from your phonebook. Now, they’re being used to search for pertinent information online or navigate the way to the nearest establishment of your choice—features that can help businesses maximize their digital marketing efforts.

That said, if you’re not in on the voice search phenomenon, you could be severely hurting your bottom line! If you’ve already begun to optimize your business for voice search, you’re on the right track, but your work is far from over. It pays to familiarize yourself with the most common VoiceSEO mistakes businesses can make.

The voice search industry is new, and there are many things to consider. Thankfully, this post will help you identify and avoid said mistakes to make sure you can maximize your business growth without worry.

Top Voice Search SEO Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake #1: Not optimizing for local search

Local SEO is a critical ingredient in voice search. BrightLocal conducted a 2018 study that shows that 75% of smart speaker owners perform searches for local businesses weekly, and an astounding 53% say they perform these searches every day. If you’re not giving out your location information online, you could be robbing people of the chance to discover your business.

The frequency for these types of search shows that voice search tech is relevant for businesses with physical stores that customers can visit.

Solution: Invest in Local SEO

One of the easiest ways to invest in local SEO is to claim your Google My Business page. It shows all the info people would want from your sites such as an address, operating hours, contact number, website, and reviews, if any. Other tactics include optimizing your website by adding your location as one of your main keywords. You can incorporate this on your home page, metadata, and even service or product pages.

Mistake #2: Poor internal link structure

You’ve probably heard about backlinks being king, but internal links serve a significant purpose, too. Its most essential function is creating a clear path for users to navigate your pages, makes your site easier to crawl, and defines your website architecture, to name a few. Additionally, proper internal linking helps search engines understand your content better.

Solution: Observe consistency in internal linking

As much as possible, it would be wise to have at least five internal links in one long blog post. This won’t only ensure that you’re referencing a lot of resource material you’ve written in the past, but also aid in the crawling process that bots do. It should go without saying that you should link intelligently, too. Use anchor texts and links that would be natural for the reader to click on, such as citing a topic with a much more in-depth explanation in another post.

Solution: Submit an XML sitemap to search engines

Your XML sitemap is essentially a blueprint of your website. It will contain all pages, posts, links and where they redirect to, as well as how often each page is updated when they were last changed, and the degree of relevance each page has to another. Having a sitemap is vital if you have over thousands of pages of content that are not linked together and you’re falling behind on your backlinks. This will help search engines understand the content of your site better and assess where your ranking should be.

Solution: Go for structured data

Structured data or schema markup is a type of code or tag that you can add to your HTML so search engines can understand and skim your page better. There are many examples of this, such as the site navigation shown below your main homepage URL on search results or the star ratings, price, and availability on your product results. This is another backend process that will help search engines better understand what content you’re putting out online, to better rank your relevance on SERPs.

Mistake #3: Not tailoring content for voice search

Online content production is increasing every year. In 2018, there were over 4 million blog posts published daily. That means it’s getting more and more challenging to be discovered by your audience, much less by voice assistants. Poor body copy will not get you anywhere, and so your articles and landing pages should be one of the first things you should fix when it comes to the voice search revolution. The good news is, there are ways to tailor your content creation to voice search that will enrich your content further.

Solution: Perform strategic voice keyword research

What are your users saying to their digital assistants to find your website? These keywords are essential to include in future or existing content so your chances of getting picked as the top search result increases. Voice search results don’t show ten or so blue links, but rather speak out the top result that the assistant finds. Similar to how you would conduct text keyword research for SEO, voice keyword research is essential for voice search.

Solution: Use natural language

Another critical thing to note is that voice search queries are longer than text since people use natural language when asking voice assistants. It would then make sense to incorporate conversational words in your posts, all the while not delving away from your brand voice. Write for your audience and not for search engines.

Solution: Create long-form content

The average content length for websites that’s great for SEO is around 1,600 words. The longer you discuss a topic, the more search engines will recognize you as an expert or authority on a subject. This won’t only help you for voice search ranking but desktop search ranking as well.

Mistake #4: Not investing in linkable content

As mentioned earlier, backlinks are critical in SEO. If you’re not creating content that’s credible or exciting enough for other websites to link to, it will be difficult for you to raise your domain rating and rank higher on SERPs naturally. Creating linkable content also helps your content promotion tactics. The more people see your name online, the more they are likely to believe you are credible.

Voice search technology relies on the performance of desktop search as well, which is why you would naturally want to increase your desktop SERP ranking to get noticed by Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

Solution: Create link-worthy content

One of the most popular ways of creating linkable content is to include relevant images, videos, and even create infographics that will support what you’re trying to say. Visuals are a great way to keep readers interested and hooked on your piece, especially if you want to create something upwards of 1,500 words.

Another tactic is including statistics and survey results in your piece. Data is fascinating to readers, and many other websites love collating research or case studies as abundant resources for others who are learning about a specific topic.

Adding to this, you may also want to include interview snippets or quotes from interviews that other websites won’t necessarily be able to produce anywhere else. You want your content to contain a wealth of resources yet still be organized and engaging, so people also won’t be overwhelmed with the amount of information packed into one space.

Mistake #5: Not having a mobile-friendly website

It’s 2019, and if you haven’t hopped on the mobile-friendly train, then your digital marketing efforts have been suffering for quite some time now. Mobile-friendly websites are not a new concept, but a few years ago, they were more of a novelty than a necessity. Now, things have changed. Beginning July 2019, all new sites will be indexed using Google’s mobile-first indexing by default. There’s also a global rollout for this algorithm update to existing websites, and as of December 2018, half of all Google searches are powered by this new ranking factor.

Majority of voice searches happen on mobile phones since assistants are pre-installed on there. The chances of your website getting picked as a top result reduce if your mobile site won’t load since the assistant will have trouble crawling through the information on your site.

Solution: Mobile Optimization

The first thing you should do is test your current performance using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Tool. Enter your website and wait for the assessment. You’ll know right then and there if your website is optimized for mobile, as well as any issues you should address (error in loading images, small fonts, and more).

One of the most significant factors for having a mobile-friendly website is choosing a reliable web host and responsive website theme before installation. Having a responsive design can already take away much of the work in ensuring your website looks good across any device your content gets viewed or accessed on like smartphones, desktops, and tablets.

Mistake #6: Ignoring site speed or page load times

The digital age has created a culture of instant gratification and consumers wanting everything in a snap. This is no exception for website loading times—and this is a real issue that could affect your bottom line. The slower your page loads, the more your audience loses interest in what you have to offer. They’ll exit and search for something else that can operate on the speed they want.

So, how fast is fast enough?

If your site loads in 2.9 seconds, you’re only faster than half of all websites online. This in itself is a feat, but you also have to remember that there are one billion websites. So, you’re competing with 500,000 million others at this rate. On the other hand, if your page load time drops to 1.7 seconds, it will be faster than 75% of all websites, leaving you with 250,000 million competitors.

If you want to be part of the top, make sure your site loads in 0.8 seconds—you’ll then be faster than 94% of the worldwide web or just 60 million rivals.

Solution: Thorough SEO audit

Investigate the overall framework of your site to know which ones are potentially slowing it down. A thorough SEO audit can help you identify the loose parts. For one, you can implement caching so your website files can be saved on your visitor’s local device versus having it to load whenever accessed.

You can also simplify your CSS or HTML codes so that it can become more efficient and reduce waiting time. Lastly, you can also compress those HD images. Yes, it’s nice to have high-quality photos on your site. However, if it’s going to load after ten years, no one’s going to stick around enough to see it.

Mistake #7: Not having optimized images and videos

As mentioned earlier, high definition visuals matter—but they can hurt your site performance if you don’t know how to optimize them. In the case of voice search, you also need to give voice assistants context on what your visuals are portraying. This creates a much more thorough understanding of what message your webpage is trying to convey.

Solution: Optimize the alt text

When uploading your images and videos, don’t forget to add alternative text. You can use this to position your images to rank in a targeted keyword image search. The alt text is what’s displayed when the site fails to load and display the image. It’s used to tell search engines the content of your photos and describe the visuals to desktops users, as well as voice assistants.

Be Part of the Voice Search Revolution

Just like how it’s imperative to reassess your SEO efforts frequently, it’s equally essential to review if your current practices follow voice search SEO best practices. All the mistakes mentioned above prevent you from reaching your goal: making a sale.

If your readers don’t find value in your content or have a hard time loading your website, they’ll most likely look somewhere else. Since voice assistants don’t automatically read the top spot on desktop SERPs, the playing field is much more exciting.

Navigating through this new industry may feel overwhelming in the beginning, but that’s why there are experts who dedicate their time to study trends and help other companies grow their business. Voice Search can help you find your footing in the voice search revolution by offering intelligent voice search SEO services relevant to your company’s needs. Contact us now!