November 2021 | Seven Industries, LLC.

Artificial Intelligence + Content

Q1, 2022 is looming in the weeks ahead. Anyone with a website should be thinking about their audience, reaching them and keeping the conversation going. With every passing minute algorithms around the world are getting smarter and more efficient in every way possible. As the pandemic and it’s variants forge ahead in each of our lives, the digital world spins on – and faster. It’s no secret that Covid-19 pushed every business, small or large – to dig deeper and invest more into digital. For those that saw the precursors and dove in, dividends have been paid; for the rest – it’s time to catch up.

Artificial Intelligence has been around for awhile now, but it’s use among medium to small businesses is still speckled at best. With the large investments made in digital as a result of the pandemic, A.I. will continue it’s shift to mainstream, perhaps with a bit more speed in the new year. A.I. can be useful for a litany of businesses in verticals all over the board. The question that each business owner needs to be asking is how it is best applied to their industry. The world is always awake. There is always an opportunity out there just waiting to be discovered and assisted. Will it be your business that gains traction by taking advantage of A.I.? The opposite end of that prospect is less appetizing to the senses, I assure you. As Forbes pointed out, “health care, finance and other industries can use AI-powered tools to formulate digital strategies to attract and retain customers.”

Content. Content. Content. Perhaps the single most important thing you should invest in is content on your platforms. Always be your own customer and ask yourself if what you are showing the world in fact answers their questions. It’s tough to take the ‘expert’ hat off and window shop your website, but it is a must – and you can’t afford to be lazy about it. Video content continues to grow at astounding rates. We’re all ‘guilty’ of it – you have surely seen how Google points to a segment of a video when you ask a “How to” question. Every bit of content you upload should be tied to what you do in order to serve others. You can take advantage of a multitude of tools that will help grow your audience, and you should. Everyone experiences the web on their own terms and on their own turf, which is where you have to meet them. Stuck on writing blogs? Good. You can take those blogs, upload them and have them transformed into diction – and now you have content for your brand new podcast. Sure, you can pay someone to read and voice record your blog – but you don’t have to.

In the end, if you’re not impressed with your content- they won’t be impressed. Reach deep into the depths of your digital soul, and reinvent yourself. Your audience is changing every single day, and you have to speak their language and be able to have a conversation with them. Continue to explore the options in 2022, but don’t get too hung up on details. Take the leap, make the investment and let the experts do the work, so you don’t have to.

Need help? Drop a line to hello@sevenind.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin.

Nov 12 2021

SEO + Your Local Business

11/12/2021 / 4 minutes of reading

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has always been important, and it will continue to be as such. If you are a business owner of any kind, you’ll want to be sure your website and surrounding digital assets are up to snuff. It’s wise to think like you do when you need something. Think about it. You’re in your car and you need to know who repairs broken iPhone screens, or who has the best pizza. So, you either use your voice to search, or you key in your query. If your digital assets are up to date and optimized, there’s a solid chance your business name and website will rise to the top. If you lean towards playing it fast and loose, you are not likely to be found.

Where to start? Make a list of your digital accounts and ask yourself if they are up to date and serving a purpose. Google likes websites that are mobile friendly first, then on to desktop performance. This is simply because the world continues the shift towards mobility. Now, go through your website page by page, consider everything and list out what you think it needs and what may need to go away. If you are a pizza place, you’ll want to talk about how great your pizza is, and show it through reviews and other means. Can people order online? This is very important during a pandemic, and options we’ve grown accustomed to during the pandemic are not going away. They are only going to harness technology greater. The businesses that participate and keep up will flourish by answering existing demand. SEO wise, you’ll need to make mention of your location, and other traits that help Google’s engines find you. Page rank goes up when you are searched, found, visited and solve a problem/answer a question.

Every page on your website should be fully functional on mobile and be up to date. Using keywords that describe what you do is a must, alongside being sure your title and meta data is uniform and correct for each page on your site. Every image should have appropriate alt text as well. Taking the time to do these things is important, and most of all a necessity. If you build a site and let things like title and meta data fall towards the default category, Google will assign what it thinks* to your website, should it be found in search results. You know what you create, sell or offer as a service – so it’s best to tell Google yourself. This helps the search engines to know without question what you are offering. Local SEO has always been big, and it’s important to participate in. The reason for this is that most searches end in ‘…near me’. You’ve probably noticed how Google autofills this when you type in certain keywords. So, if you are SEO optimized and someone types in ‘best pizza near me’ -you’ll likely see that person within minutes.

Keeping your hours of operation, phone number and menu up to date is very important. Taking advantage of your free Google My Business profile is a great way to do this. With the majority of searches happening on Google, it just makes good sense to do this. Google uses things like location data on people to give us all useful information on Google My Business. When you search for a business and they tell you when it’s usually busy or not, that’s how they know. That is how it is accurate. These are just a few reasons as to why you should keep your digital assets up to date. As I like to remind clients, it is the World Wide Web. Before anybody sets foot in your establishment, has a surgery scheduled or hires you to build their home – they have researched you online. If your website and associated properties are not up to date, they will potentially see your business as less successful and even lazy. We each experience gratification when we search for anything, find it and solve our problem. If your properties aren’t doing that, we can help.

Digital Presence Management is a service we offer that handles things like this on a month to month basis. Each month planning occurs and we then execute with intent to stabilize and grow your digital assets. This in turn will increase your business measurably, and allow you to handle your day-to-day work without interruption. Don’t have a website yet? We can do that too. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin.

#localseo #localseomarketing #googlemybusinessseo #localseoagency

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