Taking CTRL! The IT & Digital Marketing Podcast

The Impact of Voice-enabled Shopping, One-result Searches, & Photo-recognition On Businesses and Digital Marketers Alike This week’s installment of Digital Buzz features Lance & Anthony covering all things voice-enabled shopping, Google’s one-result search initial trial, and the future of Google Lens: the photo-recognition search tool. Google Shopping Actions & Voice-enabled Shopping (00:12 – 07:45) Lance and Anthony springboard from Google’s latest Shopping Actions feature into the development, implementation, audience, and usability of similar voice-enabled shopping platforms. 00:12 – How Google Shopping Actions works 01:12 – Lance dispels initial confusion surrounding Google Shopping Actions (it’s a PPC feature!) 01:36 – Beta testing phase: who is participating and their results (Target, 1-800 Flowers and others) 03:06 – The way “How-to”, “Where to”, and similar queries influenced the development of search queries 03:38 – Curiosity about voice search transitioning into the retail space 04:08 – The “frictionless” experience and voice shopping 05:40 – Voice shopping 10 years from now vs. today 06:50 – Demand and who should be excited about voice-enabled shopping Google’s One-result Search Trial (07:46 – 11:21) For better or worse, Google is always testing things. We support these initiatives because trial and error is the only way to move forward. In this segment, the guys discuss what happened during Google’s latest experiment: One-result search. 08:20 – Why Time Magazine took a hit 08:40 – Lexical semantics and other early bugs 10:30 – The critical role of intent in this and similar developments Google Lens & Photo Recognition (11:22 – 16:41) Very few people realize that Google Images is the second-most popular search engine. In fact, it generates more search volume every day than Bing, Yahoo, and others. In this segment, the guys discuss Google’s photo recognition beta testing and how it will benefit business (especially small businesses) in the very near future. 11:22 – How Anthony became interested in photo recognition search technology 12:00 – Rollout and availability 12:17 – Why it’s important 12:55 – How photo recognition searches work 13:36 – Where photo recognition technology is headed 14:35 – Google Images is #2 and how great this technology’s potential actually is 16:10 – Take a look for the photo recognition app if you have an iOS or an iPhone! See you Next Time!

Take control of your success by getting your website visitors to take action. Join 1SEO’s Director of SEO, BJ Bergey, for a crash course in conversions and get started today. All About Conversions (00:20 – 01:50) BJ breaks down the most common kinds of conversions, giving you a bird’s-eye view of what they look like and what they offer your business. 00:22 – Conversions: What they are, how to measure them, and why they matter 00:38 – Contact forms: How to use them 00:50 – Phone calls: Measuring your success 01:01 – UTM codes: Verifying results 01:08 – Emails: Make it easy with a unique “@yourcompany.com” email address 01:18 – Live chat: Why you need it 01:32 – Request a quote: Collect information and eliminate the middle man, not the human element Conversions are NOT the Same for Everyone (01:51 – 03:04) A conversion for you is not the same as a conversion for the business across the street. It all depends on what you need to move your business forward. 01:51 – Conversions are different for everyone 02:04 – What is a conversion for YOU? 02:25 – It’s about relevance, not rankings 02:57 – Buckle down and move forward Check out the rest of our episodes for some more quick, hard-hitting, meaningful information about your business and the digital space.

Making social media advertising easy to understand is CJ Bachman’s thing. In this episode, she helps you increase your business’ online visibility with a few tips on applying the sales funnel to social media advertising. 00:06 – How the traditional sales funnel model applies to Social Media advertising 00:21 – Top of the funnel: connecting with people 00:33 – Middle of the funnel: get a commitment 00:50 – Bottom of the funnel: getting a purchase/conversion 00:58 – Creating ads for people based on where they are in the funnel 01:11 – Why you shouldn’t do one ad for everyone 01:22 – Provide the right information at the right time 01:33 – Fine tune your audience Need a little more help? Let us know here. www.1seo.com/contact-us/

Have you ever encountered a popup or website telling you that your computer is at risk or that it has a virus? Don’t worry: It happens to everyone. Chances are you have nothing to worry about. Scott Fcasni returns for this week’s tech tip. This time, it’s all about popup scams. Show notes: 00:14 – Your computer is not vulnerable, at risk, or anything else a popup on the internet says it is. 00:42 – Who is behind these kinds of messages? 00:50 – Never give remote access to your computer to anyone who asks for it. 01:04 – What typically happens when people fall for these scams 01:21 – Who to contact if you think something might be wrong with your computer If someone or something online claims to be Microsoft and requests access to your computer: Don’t grant it. Instead, call Microsoft directly or contact your IT professional(s). If you don’t have one, contact us. www.1seo.com/contact-us/

Join head of development, Heather Sadorf, as she discusses what plugins are and how to make sure they’re giving your website the best possible user experience in this week’s segment of In It to Win It. In It to Win It: Plugins (00:20 - 3:02) 00:20 - Plugins: they can be your best friend or your worst enemy 00:26 - What a plugin is 00:38 - Cons of using plugins 00:52 - What you can do about using plugins that slow down your website 01:20 - Eliminating plugins that aren’t critical to the functionality of your site 01:59 - Why you may be susceptible to hacks 02:10 - What to do when going through the different features Remember: You can always contact us for help!

In this Tech Tip, President of 1SEO Technologies Scott Fcasni is going to walk you through IT pain points and what he’s seen in the IT field. Allow his experience to help you decide when to hire an IT company. Tech Tip: IT Pain Points (00:11 - 01:34) 00:14 - Deciding when to hire an IT company 00:23 - There are three common times when people decide they need an IT company: 00:27 - (1) When a business is wasting time and resources trying to fix problems using people who should be doing other jobs 00:44 - (2) When a business wants to make sure all hardware is safely backed up and protected 01:01 - (3) When it’s too late for a business 01:23 - Make sure you reach out before it’s too late! Contact us to get started with IT services.

Lance and Anthony are talking about why rankings don’t matter as a metric during this week’s whiteboard session. There are a ton of factors that determine what actually gets served up and for who. Here are a couple of examples that break it down! Whiteboard Session: Rankings (00:00 - 07:50) 00:15 - (1) Personalization plays a role in what gets served up to you in rankings (Factors: (1) intent, (2) demographic, (3) search history) 00:52 - What you’ve searched for in the past can determine results in future searches (Ex: Electric car - Tesla, Toyota) 02:35 - (2) Device (Mobile, Desktop) How what device your searching on can determine different results (Ex: Philly bars) 04:12 - Google uses your device to help find what you’re intending to do 04:34 - (3)Location (One of Anthony’s favorite examples!) Where you are determines what you’ll see in search results 05:40 - Lance ties the three factors together, letting you know how Google decides what to show you when 06:42 - Anthony describes how all the factors work together to serve up different results and why it’s impossible to put numbers on certain queries 07:00 - Next week, Lance and Anthony will discuss metrics and KPIs that actually matter Tune in next week to hear the guys breakdown metrics and KPIs that actually matter and why you should make your site the most relevant for your demographic.