NerdBrand Podcast
The NerdBrand Podcast is at the intersection of nerd culture, branding, and advertising. Nerd culture is no longer an isolated subculture; it’s THE culture of the day and makes its way into our daily lives through the entertainment we seek and the technology we rely upon. Listen as we discuss our views on visual design, branding, and advertising for movies, comics and novels, video games, technology, and other nerdy passions.
NerdBrand Podcast
Your Website is Selling Ottoman Lids When Customers Want the Whole Ottoman
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Welcome everyone to this episode of the NerdBrand Podcast. And I'm using a default camera. Well, that's interesting. I know y'all like to know the behind-the-scenes things that I do, the equipment that I use, blah, blah, blah. But that's what I'm doing now. Anyway, today we'll talk about SEO again, some interesting things, because there's a lot going on in SEO.
Speaker 1:I was up last night, got an alert. It's like hey, unstable search ranking stuff, google's making some changes. So here we go, have some fun. All right, everybody, welcome back to this episode of the Mirror Brand Podcast. So let's talk about search engine stuff. So it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:We talked about ai summaries and in the last episode, me and michaela went over some brands. Then mascots do you use them? Do you not use them? How does it work out? How does the messaging? Like, we talked about sharman. If you're a dude, hear the word poop, you're probably all in, so I don't have to convince you. Um, so at the end of the day, uh, I'm here and I'm recording again by myself, because I'm like you know what? I don't want to get woken up.
Speaker 1:A search engine notice is like google's making some changes. Like thank you, google, thank you, thank you very, very much. Um, how does this affect people? Well, um, so ranking well doesn't guarantee clicks. Let's just start with this.
Speaker 1:In that idea of SEO, everybody goes I want to rank number one for XYZ service. Look, if there's a lot of people in your city, you're not the only one doing that service. I hate to burst your bubble, but that's going to be really competitive for you. So you're going to really have to work on with the budget. You have some other effective strategies, and that's just being blunt and as you all know me to be blunt. So, um, you know, everybody's sort of facing um, this thing where it's like, okay, I want to rank number one. Is it still possible? Yes and no, uh, yes, because because you can't be just focused on optimizing web pages, you need visibility across every part of the search engine result pages. So that's every stage of your funnel.
Speaker 1:And if you don't know what your funnel is, it's hard to go and step into SEO. So, do you know the first page people land on? Do you know the next click? Do you know what converts? Is it hopefully a form or what? Do you know what your funnels are? And if you have a lot of funnels, then that's really taking people down a very, very long journey on your site. So you want to keep your visibility up and high by having a very small, funnel, very lean website and don't make people click to try to figure out what to do, where to go, when they've already come to you for a service or pain point they need to solve, because now they've got to figure out your stuff in order to figure out how to get their stuff fixed. Hopefully that makes sense. Thank God this is on video and recorded so you can just wind that nugget back if you want to listen to it again.
Speaker 1:So in the business of driving traffic, that's not a siloed approach of optimization. It can be a siloed approach of optimization but it's not a bad idea because that is how you're going to get brand awareness. You're going to get a lot of traffic. How am I going to get more traffic to my site? Well, you're going to need to run multiple channels. In marketing, you're going to go from paid advertising to organic. Those are major two ones, right, but within organic, you're going to have to look at social media posts. Now if you're going to say and what you're delivering and how you're trying to help the audience or help your prospects in order to click through to go to your website, and this is important when they get to your website and how well it's optimized. It's not about necessarily about coding as much anymore as it is about the content and how the content's arranged what's visible, what's easy to search for, what's easy to find on your website. You know, if I gotta go through five clicks to figure out, oh, I'm gonna order a pizza, well, I'm not going five clicks in to get that. So how has it changed and have you changed?
Speaker 1:Ai generated summaries are basically what I would call, in my generation, the cliff notes of the internet. So as you're looking at the cliff notes of the internet, you have to keep in mind that, well, if that's what people are doing, then you need to probably work on your website so that you're taking advantage of these summaries and that you are going through every nook and cranny of your website. You're going to have to hire somebody. I'm sorry, this can't be a DIY thing. If you're going to do a DIY job with this, either your business is too small or you can't afford a professional. But at the end of the day, negotiate. Just ask them, ask us Happy to go through your site, see what needs to be improved, what needs to be cut, what needs to be leaned out, because actually, any improvement you make to the website, any changes you make to the website, should ping Google and say, hey, something's happening over here. But it's also important to remember that how these summaries are working, and kind of Google things for yourself and pay attention to those summaries. Do not try to Google people in your own industry. Just Google stuff that you think you would need.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for an ottoman. I hate furniture shopping. I gotta go get one. I know it's weird, welcome to my world but that's what I'm looking for. Am I looking for an ottoman with a Batman logo on it? No, just an ottoman, it's just something small. And you believe that, oh, just go on Amazon, jason, and get one. No, you get a lid for an ottoman, but you don't get the whole ottoman. It's a weird time in our economy right now. So, at the end of the day, that's what it feels like browsing a website that's not very well organized. You don't really get the result you're looking for. You get part of it and so you're kind of like, but where's the rest of it? So there's something to consider in hiring a professional to take a look at your site and make sure that you know if they come onto your site to order an ottoman, they don't get just the lid. And if you're wondering if this is a true story, yes, it is. Yes, it is Lesson learned no more Amazon shopping for furniture. So when you're thinking about SEO traffic I know this this podcast just changes your life right.
Speaker 1:Try to figure out what the opportunities are to optimize for. So if you're a service-based industry, kind of, pay attention to things that are going on around you, like if you're in the homeowner, like if it's home-based in services. Well, what are homeowners looking for right now? Are they kind of like, hmm, not ready yet, okay, makes sense, but you can't be like, hmm, if you do it now. The interest rates there's a lot of ways to counter the objections to not engage in services with you at the moment. It could be just an issue of you needing to be better at negotiating prices and rates. That's it. Everybody's very careful about what they want to spend their money on, and justifiably so. There is a way that you can cut too deep, so you need to know your price matrix in order to figure out what you can charge and what you can take a break on for margins. But at the end of the day, the bottom line is it's a strategy that's very. You've got to have a baseline strategy just to start search engine optimization.
Speaker 1:And remember, remember, remember you're dealing with people. People either will like what they read about you or they won't. You cannot really make a person's mind up. I don't think that we're in that age. I remember going through school and it was like, uh, sure, I'm going to make somebody's mind up, I'm going to, we're going to do a debate team. I think that's what they called it. Um, now it's more like yelling at one another. I don't think anybody debates anymore. So, uh, you know, when you're putting together something, I mean everybody is, everybody makes the best pizza. You know, I heard this a long time ago and it's very true. And, um, you know, you don't really want to kind of run over competition because you never know if you need them or not. But uh, I couldn't imagine if you did.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, it's simple, as you do what you do really well and you focus on that and you just kind of not dismiss, like whatever your prospect is saying about the other person, but at the end of the day, it's like well, what is it about them that you like that you're not? Maybe hearing what I'm saying, because maybe I'm saying it differently, would be a great way to kind of level out that conversation, because when somebody asked me about SEO, that's what I have to do majority of the time. You know what does SEO mean to you, what do you think it is and what would you expect to come from it if you actually engaged with search engine optimization services? So those are fair questions to ask because, honestly, if your site's designed poorly, if you have a poorly designed logo, if it's not a vector file, that's going to be a problem. You have to also think about image search. You know all the photos on your website need to be professional and they need to be unique. Um, on theme for the brand, and because Google is going to scan those and look at those and go, that's you Okay. Now you're on image search, which everybody neglects. It's hilarious. Um, do you need to blog? Well, yes and no, it depends how many times, how many blog posts can you write about the topic of the industry that you're in? What's the strategy for blogging that you're trying to practice and initiate or execute. So there's a lot with that.
Speaker 1:Now, this podcast is everything from some tips like this to just, you know, telling stories and having other nerds on here, like you know, the nerds here like Michaela and Mitch and talking about whatever we've seen in pop culture and how that's been marketed. I mean, ads this week have been interesting. Um, I'm seeing Home Depot ads again. So that's good. It's always good to see Home Depot ads because now you know, like people making stuff, um, but at the end of the day, it's always good to see home depot ads because now you know, like people making stuff, um, but at the end of the day, it's sort of, uh, you know, watching the week go by and the events go by.
Speaker 1:I would be curious how much of that influences people's decisions into what service they want, because it's always seasonal beginning of the year, middle and you know, I need a website, I need, I need social media, any marketing, I need seo. It's like you actually need all of it. So you might as well like negotiate a 12-month retainer, because something of each of those things is going to come up and it's better to kind of work that scope out at the beginning, so that you know exactly when you're going to need to do what and pivot as a business. Just a free advice if you to us. That's how we would like to work with you.
Speaker 1:So, on that note, this is a very short podcast. It's only around 10 minutes maybe or so. But if you would go to nerdbrandagencycom and let me show you something so you can, you know, go to our website. You can click the menu tab up here and you and you can pick one of the fabulous things that we have to offer. The first four are our major pillars, our portfolio and our contact.
Speaker 1:If you really want to talk to us, but you can go through our pillars and check out, oh well, maybe I just need consulting or maybe I need to work on my identity, or maybe you just want to go ahead and click that little slide out right there and talk to Michaela. But you know, down at the bottom, in the footer of our site, you also have other additional specialties, like geofencing. We'd love to talk to you about that, because how we do it and how people are selling it and not the same. I promise I can prove it. Seo we just had that one Photography. You need that one Website management. Yep, we do monthly website management, maintenance and video production.
Speaker 1:Now, what does that mean? We'd have to talk about that like asking how much is a car, but at the end of the day, we can actually do everything from small social media stuff to the big stuff, so it's really kind of up to you. So, at the end of the day, please subscribe to the nerd brand podcast. Go to nerdbrandagencycom slash podcast. Sign up for it. We will be onboarding some guests here. This year it's been slow because we've been busy, so, um, but we hope you enjoy this episode and you'll tune in next week and remember, keep your nerd brand strong.
