Professional Voiceover Actress Debbie Grattan chats with SEO Expert Jason McDonald about how professional voiceover talents can improve their website ranking through SEO (search engine optimization). Check out Part 1 of this article first.
Part 2 of an Interview with Voiceover SEO Expert Jason McDonald of JM Internet Group
Dr. McDonald has extensive online journalism and teaching experience. In charge of eg3.com’s SEO and PPC strategy, he built eg3.com into the oldest and largest web portal in embedded systems with over 25,000 monthly users and over 35,000 registered eLetter subscribers. He also teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area at AcademyX, DeVry, and Stanford University (Continuing Studies).
SEO Expert Jason McDonald: The fourth thing you need to focus on has a way to add inbound links to your professional voiceover website. Easy pickings for that are Google Places, your local listing, Bing, being a member of various associations, Chamber of Commerce websites, etc. Make sure you’re getting other websites to link to your site. I always recommend people create a habit of asking for inbound links every chance they get.
Professional Voiceover Talent, Debbie Grattan: Just to clarify… Inbound links are different than reciprocal links. Is that right?
SEO Expert Jason McDonald: Yes, that gets a little bit complicated. It’s like a politician getting votes — you definitely want to get other websites to link to your website without always having to do a reciprocal link. One of the mistakes many businesses make is they don’t have a systematic always-looking-for-links strategy. So they think, oh, I need 10,000 links, and they just give up because it’s overwhelming. If you just have ten links and your competitor has three, then you win. It’s always relative. You don’t have to run faster than the bear, and you just have to run faster than the guy you’re hiking with!
Professional Voiceover Talent, Debbie Grattan: I get it!
SEO Expert Jason McDonald: Finally, we reach number five, where we get into social media. At least think about doing things with Google+, a little on Twitter, and posting to Facebook. Google looks at what’s called your social mentions. Is your website being talked about? That social part of the search can be essential.
Debbie Grattan: What is a good social media strategy for a professional voiceover talent? Is this really something we need to focus on?
SEO Expert Jason McDonald: The short answer to should social media be important? is: Absolutely! You’ve got to fish where the fish are. You’ve got to go to the area where people might be in the mindset for engaging with your type of service. So for instance, to the extent that this is a business relationship, that’s where LinkedIn is probably your more important social media platform because that is more geared toward business. Even if you go with the minimal stuff – at least have a LinkedIn profile. Try to build your connections so that when someone starts to think, “Oh I need a voice for an upcoming professional voiceover project,” they easily think of you. Social media can help you stay top of mind with your clients and prospects.
The first thing to do is identify which platforms make sense for your business. Where can you come into contact with your target customers? LinkedIn is a good platform if you have a more serious professional business service to offer.
Facebook is sort of weird because, on the one hand, it’s the largest platform, but on the other hand, the mood people are in when they’re on Facebook is more about fun, family, and friends. So to the extent that you can have a persona for your company on Facebook that’s about those things, it can be a good platform. Some businesses are very Facebook-friendly. Others are not. So, Facebook is a bit of a question mark for this industry.
The next one I see a lot of potential for with professional voiceovers is YouTube. What’s cool about YouTube is it can be sort of a supporting role for a website. So if I land on your website and I’m curious about you as a professional voice over talent, YouTube’s got the platform installed. I can click on a YouTube video inside of a webpage or blog post, and I can really get to know you and what you can offer. Even something as simple as, here’s Debbie with her headphones on, recording some stuff… Even though you’re an auditory service, the picture’s worth a thousand words. The engagement’s worth a thousand words.
The other thing I think about YouTube that I don’t think people fully appreciate is human beings are wired for facial recognition, face-to-face contact – there’s something very powerful about looking into a computer screen and seeing another person looking back at you and saying, “I’m a professional voiceover talent, and this is how I do it.” It’s very personal.
You get a feel for a person through a video that you cannot get otherwise. Not only your completed projects but also some behind-the-scenes footage of you doing your job. It’s very interesting because you get a good sense of the artist and see them enjoying making their art.
Debbie Grattan: That’s a great point. That’s something I hadn’t thought of.
SEO Expert Jason McDonald: It’s compelling to have it be not too slick but authentic. You could have both of those and do well for a professional voiceover business. I think we feel like if we’re going to do video, we have to be perfect, and sometimes there’s a tension between the slickness of the perfection and authenticity. Authentic is more important on YouTube than slick.
Read the final installment of this interview, and also be sure to check out Part 1 of Professional Voice Over SEO Marketing Tips.
Part 1: Professional Voice Over Marketing SEO Tips for Voice Talent – Part 1
Part 3: Affordable Voice-Over SEO Tips for Voice Talent – Part 3
