The Business of Digital Podcast

Often we only think we need to worry about localization when expanding into a new country but the English language here in the US requires its own localization.

No matter where you live, even if you are in the United States and all of your audience is in the US or even just your own town there can be language that changes from one region to another and even one city to another.

Local Languages Examples

Trunk vs BootLighting Bugs vs FirefliesGarage Sale vs Yard Sale vs Tag Sale vs Rummage SaleCoke vs. Pop vs Soda vs Very Wrong Answers!!Yintz vs. You All vs. Ya'll vs even moreGym Shoes vs Sneakers vs Tennis ShoesExamples above are from Josh Katz's book, Speaking American.

How Language Impacts Keyword Research

Tools and keyword research can only take you so far and then you need to localize your data. A tool may say that sneakers gets X searches and gym shoes gets Y so go with sneakers. What if your audience is who searches gym shoes? The data is wrong.

As you write copy the examples covered may not impact you but there may be similar differences in your own region and industry. Are you a hoagie shop or a sub shop?

Regional and Language Impacts to Writing

Similar to the video to how someone says "Illinois" and "Chicago" things can change based on your regional dialect.

Below is an example of how many dialects there are (and I was told about many that were missed too) just over in the United Kingdom. Give a listen to get an idea of just how different language (spoken and written) can change in very small areas.

Streets, Cars, Shoes, Shopping, All the Things

As you write your site's copy or an ad think about who you are targeting and where they are from. Will someone know what you are talking about? Are you targeting people from out of town? Localization and translation isn't just for when you are doing International keyword research or for other languages but also think about your target audience and words they may use.

Even if none of these examples impact you the whole idea is to speak the language do think about your marketing speak compared to what your customers are saying to your customer service team, sales team and what they actually are searching for online.

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt silt and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you on another one of these business of digital podcast episodes. And as always, we have Dave over there, how's it going, bud?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:18] It is going, it is going crazy for the two of us trying to figure out places to record.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:23] Yes, I'm trapped in the closet right now. So I apologize. To anyone listening, if the normal great sound that I have is not up to par

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:34] something about contractors and a week behind on flooring two weeks behind. Oh three. Oh, that's it. So

Matt Siltala: [00:00:42] anyway, hopefully we're going to find out something today, but yeah.

House was pretty torn up. And so I appreciate you guys dealing with us, but yeah, I'm glad that, uh, you went ahead and started the, you just stopped us from our chat earlier and said, Hey, we need to be recording. So yeah, this has been a fun one already. And so I'm [00:01:00] looking forward to getting into this one, but what we're going to dive into today guys is why brands need to always think a local and they've had a pretty good exercise going.

And this was based on a tweet that you saw, uh, this idea, right? Dave,

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:14] it was based on a tweet, which is based on a book that some people have probably heard of. Um, it's called speaking American by Josh Katz. And over the last couple years, I think I've seen variations of this or some of this data pop up every now and then.

And I just happened to see it. I don't know, last couple of weeks. Oh yeah. This is original. This Facebook post I found, which has a bunch of stuff is from 2017 when the book came out. So we've all seen it from time to time, but it's still interesting. Um, yeah. Um, Oh, I was

Do you see this? Can you read it? What does it look like when shared on social networks? What does your content look like? Find tools and tips to optimize your shared content.

When is the last time you tested your various pages in Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter or on any other social network?

Do you know how a product page, category page or blog page will display in various circumstances? What happens if you don't have an image for a service page or blog post? What about category pages where there is no default image declared in your CMS? What will that page look like when shared?

Here is the example the sent Dave down a rabbit hole and inspired this episode:

As you can see, Indeed.com and likely many other sites simply aren't setup to do well when shared on some social sites.

So take some time this week and use the tools listed below or your own tool of choice and test a few pages from each type (category, service, product, about, blog post, etc.) and see how your site does.

Be sure to look for pages without Meta Descriptions or that don't clearly have an image in the page - how do these display?

Open Graph Tools

iframely debugging toolOpen Graph CheckTwitter Card ValidatorFB Open Graph DebuggerOpen Graph Tester - site is not secure fyiOpen Graph CheckerSocial Media Optimizer (covers all in one place nicely)

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt  and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these business of digital podcast episodes. And today we're just going to jump right into it because we're hungry right now, right? Me

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:23] and I was already hungry.

Now I'm starving.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:25] Where should I have pictures of. Snippets of food and all kinds of stuff, but what are we talking about today? We are talking about why open graph meta-description and other things

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:37] matter. Okay. I know it's a working title is always, uh, yeah, another tagging matters. That was the, in a hurry, wrote that down,

Matt Siltala: [00:00:48] but that's all, but the point was we have a bunch of different tools that Dave was going to share with you.

I'm hearing a little while about, you know, testing out your sites and things like that, your socials. But I thought it [00:01:00] was interesting because, um, you know, I thought that I was given an example of one that wasn't doing necessarily a good job with some of that. And I shared it with you on Facebook and you're like, no, it comes up with this huge sandwich and I'm hungry now.

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:12] Yeah, well that was in messenger. Now, the first thing I'll do is if you're ever curious the quickest way. Um, and I've had, I've actually been forgotten to switch it back is take a link and post it on Facebook

Matt Siltala: [00:01:32] in the regular,

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:33] just in the regular thing. Alright. Don't hit post, but just see what comes

Matt Siltala: [00:01:38] up. So, cause I've done that before.

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:42] Sometimes even if you screw up open graph and you screw up everything, sometimes it will still. Grab something, but it also depends on the page. So we were talking about different examples in different businesses where one, they might care and two, they might not care [00:02:00] and restaurants, especially right now.

You know, if my wife was, we're not going out right now, we're going to order out. She would send me a link to somewhere new, like maybe a new restaurant just opened up or there was some special and she sent me a link. And it's in messenger or it's on Facebook or, you know, it's on Twitter or whatever. Um, what shows up

Matt Siltala: [00:02:21] and depending on what shows up could get you excited about if you liked that suggestion or not,

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:27] that's correct.

Or if you have a menu page or a blog post and say you don't have a default image or that the open graph is not set up correctly, or, you know, the Twitter cards aren't set up correctly. All of

Fabrice Canel from Bing joins to talk about the Bing WordPress Plugin, the updated Webmaster Tools & recently updated Webmaster Guidelines.

In recent weeks Bing has made some major updates and news with three things designed to help webmasters, site owners and SEOs. We were able to get Fabrice Canel on right as Bing was pushing the new Bing Webmaster Tools live.

We would also like to thank Fabrice for joining us on such short notice and digging into all these topics with us for you all!

Bing WordPress Plugin

In the past week Bing rolled out a WordPress plugin that works with the Bing API just like the Bing Webmaster Tools URL Submission does.

The one great feature of the Bing WP Plugin is that it will automatically update Bing anytime you add new content or update content. You CAN turn this feature off but in most cases you likely want to leave it on.

Bing Webmasters Update 2020

Just this week (July 28-29 to be exact) the new Bing Webmaster Tool interface rolled out to users. If you are just hearing this podcast is is likely you haven't had a chance to really dig in so do give a listen as we cover some of the "why things were done" and "how they approached" the new design.

As Dave dug into it prior to recording he thought that some of the tools were just "gone" but as you will hear on the episode he learns that it simply has been moved. Instead of a wall of 40+ tools on the left side navigation things are much cleaner and more organized.

Just like all interface updates it will take some getting use too (have you fully switched to the new Facebook interface on Desktop or did you stay with the classic?) but in the long run we think this is a great upgrade and update.

What do you think of the new Bing Webmaster Tools?

Lastly, there is a feature that Dave found that most are going to love - the link data comparison. Bing is giving you not only a list of the links YOUR site has but is allowing you to dig into the links it knows about of your COMPETITORS.

Yes, you heard that you can now use Bing Webmaster Tools to audit and compare links between you and competitors.

Bing Webmaster Guidelines

Lastly we talked about all the updates, edits and new organization of the Bing Webmaster Guidelines that happened. As we talked it also became clear that the new organization and changes tie directly in with the setup and tools in the Bing Webmaster admin area.

So if you are new to SEO and managing a website and have questions while in Bing Webmaster you can easily find help and support in these guidelines. For those that are more experienced there is also plenty to dig into and use as a guide or to help understand how Bing looks at things (vs. Google, Yandex, Baidu and others).

If you don't currently spend time in Bing Webmaster Tools give a listen to our older episode that will give you some ideas on how and what to do in it.

Related News and Resource Links

Bing Blogs - Webmaster Tools PluginSEJ - Bing WP PluginSER - Bing WP PluginBing WebmasterBing’s new URL Inspection tool: What it does and why to use it

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt silt and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these business of digital podcast episodes. And today we have a fun one. I'm really excited to, uh, to jump in on this one because, uh, today, uh, we have a special guest with us for briefs canal.

A welcome for brief. Thank you welcome. And from breezes, from being, and we are going to be talking about, um, a couple of new tools or not new tools, I guess, but just released, uh, updated versions of, of, uh, of, of the webmaster tools area. And then, uh, I'm going to let Dave go ahead and just jump into it. And I know he's got some questions, but we do appreciate it.

Uh, you're joining us, uh, for briefs and I'm looking forward to hearing all about what we got going on. Well, I'll let

[00:01:00] Dave Rohrer: [00:01:00] you feel free to introduce yourself and exactly what you work on and do at B

What is digital shelf space, how do you measure digital shelf space and why does it even matter to your business? Dig in with us as we answer all those questions.

What is the digital shelf?

Dave puts Mat on the spot and asks him to explain what he thinks it is.

Marketing channels? Or is it data in the cloud space?- Mat

Sorry Mat, nope!

What is the digital shelf - really?

Think of when you are at a grocery store and you are down the cereal or chip aisle? Think of where things are placed in terms of eye level with adults or with kids. Think of how many items are on a shelf for a brand and how much of the shelf they take up.

The digital version of shelf space is a SERP (search engine result page) in Google or Bing. For your brand, category keyword or target term how many of those listings do you directly own or indirectly own?

That (to Dave) is what digital shelf space is/means.

How brands can own the digital shelf?

For your brand you work at or your name you can leverage social sites (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Dribbl, and industry specific sites), personal site, speaker bios, guest post bio, podcast bio, etc.

The video above is from Aleyda Solis' Crawling Monday YouTube series that you should check out even if you don't work at a SaaS company.

Why you should try and own the digital shelf.

Even if your brand's site or social profile is not specifically listed, obtaining shelf space on 3rd party sites will allow you to rank for keywords that you can't otherwise.

So whatever the 3rd party aggregators that show the "best" or "top" or "local" brand you can work in that "eco system" to have a strong position and while not getting a direct listing, still have an opportunity to capture interested prospects.

Why is digital shelf space an important metric?

The higher the percentage of shelf space that you own, the more often your site and thus company will have an opportunity to be in front of prospects. To calculate what the percentage is will require a bit more work than just dropping keywords into a tool and being done.

To fully know what your ownership of shelf space is you will need to pay attention to 3rd party sites AND your own sites to figure out what your shelf space metrics look like.

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt  and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us for another one of these business of digital podcast episodes as always. Thank you very much for listening to us and taking the time out of your day. So I believe, uh, we have Dave in the house.

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:24] How's it going? Dave is in the house.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:27] And, um, I'm a little bit nervous to start this one. Cause you know, when you're, when you're again, when you're told you're going to be thrown under the bus a little bit,

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:36] I did phrase it that way. It didn't. I literally just phrased it

Matt Siltala: [00:00:40] that way. This is going to be an interesting one.

We were going to talk about what digital shelf space is and how it can help your SEO. So that's

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:50] why it matters and why you should care and

Matt Siltala: [00:00:53] all that stuff. So feel free. They've put me on the spot.

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:58] So we did not talk a [00:01:00] lot about what this is. And so I'm putting you on the spot. I'm not throwing you under the bus, I'm putting you on the spot right away.

Um, it just seems gentler when you hear me say, we're going to talk about digital shelf space. What the heck do you think that is? Cause I'm curious. Cause I've heard, I hear some people say it and I hear other people say it, talk about it, but.

Matt Siltala: [00:01:24] I almost think of it as, as two different things. Cause I have to admit, I haven't heard until you said you wanted to talk about it.

I haven't really heard people talking about digital selves shelf space. Um, and so just, I have two thoughts of it is one of them would be, is this kind of like marketing channels or

Mat leads the episode digging into the State of Business from businesses that he has talked to in recent weeks.

As always, the title may or may not be the best but hopefully it gives you an idea of what we tried to do and dig into!

Matt leads this episode and digs into some things and Dave joins him here and there but for some of the main things that they covered, here you go:

Business is inconsistent. From week to week and even day to day there are drops and pops in business for no reason. This seems especially true for restaurants.Mailers - Matt notes that some restaurants have been testing mailer coupons and have seen an uptick due to those.Newer businesses that just started and don't have a community are struggling to find consistency in business.Marketing agencies are seeing mixed results depending on their portfolio of clients. Those agencies that focused just on paid search, small businesses and/or those in the industries hit the most in recent months are struggling. Matt noted that some agencies and businesses in general have seen a huge uptick, but it all depends on your industry (home workout, leisurewear, healthcare (obviously not all but many sub sectors)).Online training and master classes is another example of an industry Matt has heard of things going quite well.

Dave joins and takes a more B2B approach in what he has been seeing.

Look at your education vs. product/service content. Look week to week, month to month, and year to year. Things are all over so it can be hard to make of it all but compare impressions of paid search and in Google Search Console.And be sure to question any data or reports you see!If people are cutting budgets or out of work, how would that impact people searching for your product or service? You should see it in the data hopefully.Look at conversion and deeper into data. Don't just look at year over year, habits are currently different so no matter your business you just can't compare YOY.Adjust your offers and deals to work with how your customers are changing. Dave's example is a place that he loves that changed their usual Tuesday pizza offer to work with carryout.

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt  and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another business of digital podcast episode as always really grateful for this time that you invest in Dave and I, and I believe we got day over there somewhere.

We're going to wave a day virtually. All right. My friend. Well, Uh, we were talking about, uh, this book, you know, before we started recording, as we do. And, um, I just thought everybody listening. I just thought that it would be a good opportunity to do a quote unquote state of the union. And I don't really know if I like that title, but I thought it would be interesting to kind of give everybody a heads up as to like how things have been going on and, and just things that I've heard, things that Dave's heard from businesses.

Clients we've worked with, um, just businesses that we [00:01:00] frequent restaurants, things like that. Um, the reason I had this thought to do this is because I was chatting with a couple local restaurant owners, places that I go to and frequent a lot in this area. And I was sharing with them some of the information from some of the other guys and, and just kind of like how things were and whatnot.

And, and a lot of them told me the same thing. They're like, Oh, that's. That's really good to know. I'm glad that you told me that because I was wondering if like I was doing something wrong. I was wondering if something, you know, different was, was, uh, you know, things like that. And so, um, also some interesting things that I've learned that these guys have been doing, um, that have been continuing to drive.

A business to their site, which again, you know, like every state's different right now there's some that like have been able to open up and then there's some places that have been ordered to shut back down. A