For years now, marketers have been advising us to ensure our content is picked up on the internet when potential customers search for their problems to be solved. They find our content, like it lots and zoom over to our website.
This, unfortunately, won’t work anymore. Why? Alexa and Google’s answers have killed it. Let me explain.
Last night I was watching TV and wanted an answer to a very quick question from the TV show. I wanted to know how high up in the army a Lieutenant-Colonel was. So I asked Alexa. Alexa gave me a reasonably good answer, but I wanted more. I googled on my phone. Now Google has changed things recently. It now gives you an answer which it obtains from various web sources and dishes it up to you as it’s own answer. You see Google has its own voice assistant and this is a prelude to that.
No one wants a stream of websites for quick queries anymore; they rely on one sentence answers or google’s own version. So the chances of your website appearing are virtually nil.
That changes everything.
The quick answer is to diversify your content beyond just words. Look to publish video on YouTube, podcasts on Podbean or iTunes. Infographics on your website. People often do “image only” searches nowadays.
The long term answer is to move beyond simple searches. Make sure that your information published is expert, unique and niched to your market place.
Rather than writing about apprenticeships and how they can spend your levy pot, write about spending your levy pot on specific apprenticeships within the construction industry.
Google or Alexa can’t provide simple answers to that complexity or specialisation. Your content will be fed up instead.
The Lieutenant-Colonel mentioned earlier was for Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Francis Strawbridge, MBE, who cohosts the Channel 4 Show – Escape to the Chateau – I wanted to know how much pension he would be on to not have to worry about making a decent profit from his castle. £38,000 a year, according to Google. Plus Channel Four’s fee.
