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How to Get Your Business Found on Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant
Hi everyone, Ted Yeatts back with you here from Local Content Marketing in Tampa, Florida. We spend a lot of time talking about conquering the Search Engine Results Page and getting found on Google Maps. But the way people search is constantly changing. Today, an increasing number of your potential customers are looking for local services using only their voice, asking questions to smart speakers like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. If your Tampa business isn’t optimized for this kind of voice search, you are effectively invisible to a growing segment of our community.
Voice search is the ultimate form of local, immediate search. People aren't browsing the internet anymore. They’re intentionally searching for answers. They're asking, "Hey Google, where is the best pizza near me?" or "Siri, call a reliable plumber in South Tampa." The key challenge here is that voice assistants typically give the user only one definitive answer. To be that one answer, you have to nail the fundamentals of local content marketing with a voice-first approach.
If you want Google Assistant to recommend you, or even if you want Alexa (which often pulls local data from Yelp and Google) to find you, the absolute, non-negotiable starting point is your Google Business Profile. This is the single most important asset for voice search.
Voice assistants rely heavily on the data within your Google Business Profile to determine your location, category, hours, and phone number. To dominate this area, ensure every field is 100% complete and accurate. Critically, you must confirm your business categories are precise. If you are a coffee shop, list yourself as a "Coffee Shop," not just a "Restaurant." Voice assistants use this specific category data to filter results when a user asks for a business type. An incomplete Google Business Profile means you simply won't be considered as the one answer.
Next, you need to master the conversational answer. Voice search is conversational, and your website needs to be, too. People ask full questions, not two-word keywords. This means your website content needs to be structured to provide a clear, concise answer to a frequently asked question.
You can start by anticipating the exact questions your customers ask. A local auto repair shop should create content titled, "What is the average cost of an oil change in Tampa, FL?" or "How long does it take to replace brake pads?" Structure your content so the direct answer is provided in the first sentence of the paragraph under the question. This makes your content easily digestible for an answer engine, increasing the likelihood that your website is pulled for the Featured Snippet. That’s the snippet Google reads aloud for a voice search response.
This strategy requires using what we call long-tail, question-based keywords that include location modifiers. Basically, think in full sentences, just like your customers speak.
Another important thing to understand about voice assistants is that they are programmed to recommend the best option, not just any option. They use your online reputation and authority signals to make this choice. So, reviews are critical. The voice assistant will almost always prioritize a business with a high volume of positive reviews. A query like "Where's the best local dentist?" will default to the highest-rated practice. You must make collecting five-star reviews on your Google Business Profile and Yelp (which is used primarily by Siri and Alexa) a non-stop priority.
Finally, let’s talk about another important factor specific to voice search and that’s optimizing for “near me” and “open now” searches. The vast majority of voice searches are for immediate needs. Users often ask questions that include phrases like "near me," "open now," or "in the next hour." So, your website must include clear, structured data to address these needs including hours of operation and your specific service area. Ensure the hours listed on your Google Business Profile are always updated and use Schema Markup on your website to clearly label your opening times. This allows the assistants to confidently answer the question: "Are they open?"
Explicitly list the neighborhoods in Tampa and surrounding areas that you serve (for example: South Tampa, Seminole Heights, Indian Rocks Beach, Brandon, etc.). This reinforces your local relevance when a user includes a specific neighborhood in their query.
Ultimately, getting found on Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant is about recognizing that your website and your Google Business Profile are becoming conversational databases. By making your data clear, your answers concise, and your reputation strong, you ensure that when a local customer asks for help with their voice, your Tampa business is the trusted, immediate answer.
Until next time, this is Ted Yeatts reminding you that local content builds trust, and trust builds business.
How to Use Your Website to Attract Customers, Not Just Inform Them
Hi everyone, Ted Yeatts back with you here from Local Content Marketing in Tampa, Florida. You probably already know that your website is the most valuable digital asset your business owns. If you do it right, it has the power to be like a 24/7 sales representative. But, instead of leveraging that power, I see far too many local businesses treating their website like a digital brochure. For them, it’s just a place that lists their address and services and maybe has a few pretty pictures. To truly succeed, your website needs to do more than just inform people. It needs to actively attract and convert them into customers. So, how do you do that? Well, that’s exactly what we’re talking about in this episode. Let’s compare a simply “informative” website with an “attractive” website.
The shift from an informative website to an attractive one requires intentional design and strategic content placement that guides the user toward a specific action. The very first step is to ensure your website is engineered for conversion. This means prioritizing clarity and simplicity over elaborate design. When a potential customer in Tampa lands on your homepage, they need to know three things within three seconds: who you are, what you do, and what you want them to do next. Your Call to Action must be prominent and visually distinct. Don't hide your "Schedule Service" or "Request a Quote" buttons. Use contrasting colors, place them high up on every page, and make the words on those buttons action-oriented. An informative site lists services, but an attractive site prompts the user to access those services immediately. So, tell them exactly what to do!
Next, ensure your contact information is absolutely omnipresent. Your clickable phone number should be clearly visible on every page because, for a local business, the phone is often the fastest path to a sale. On mobile devices, your click-to-call button should be “sticky.” Meaning, it should always be on the page as the content scrolls behind it.
The content on an informative site often focuses on features, like "We have the best tools." An attractive website focuses on customer benefits. Your content should speak directly to the problems your local customers are facing and promise a clear benefit or solution.
Instead of writing "We offer comprehensive air conditioning maintenance," write "Avoid AC Breakdowns This Tampa Summer." Use headings that directly address pain points. This approach uses empathy to draw the customer in, assuring them that you understand their specific, local needs. Your content should answer their most pressing questions quickly and then provide a clear next step to solve the problem.
Be sure to leverage social proof heavily on your website. This is where your customer reviews, awards, and testimonials shine. Don't simply link to your Google Business Profile. Embed your best, most recent, and locally specific testimonials directly onto every page of your website. Seeing that a neighbor in Tampa had a positive experience is immensely persuasive and builds instant trust.
An attractive website uses different types of pages to guide the user down the funnel. Your Service Pages should be detailed and locally optimized. Don't just list a service. Explain to your prospect how your process works in local terms. For example, a roofer's service page should discuss shingle types best suited for the Florida climate. Use these pages for Lead Capture by offering something valuable in exchange for an email address. Offer a "Tampa Home Maintenance Checklist" or a "Local Guide to Real Estate," and place these opt-in forms strategically. Capturing a lead turns an anonymous visitor into a potential customer you can nurture. If you sell directly on your website, your Pricing or Booking Page is the final conversion point, and it must be completely straightforward. Ensure your booking or purchasing process is simple and requires minimal clicks to finalize the transaction.
Remember, your website is not a passive digital billboard or a digital brochure. It should be your most effective sales funnel. By designing it for clear action, focusing all content on customer solutions, and building defined conversion pathways, you can transform your site from simply informing visitors to actively turning them into loyal customers.
Until next time, this is Ted Yeatts reminding you that local content builds trust, and trust builds business.
How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Other AI Tools
Hi everyone, Ted Yeatts back with you here from Local Content Marketing in Tampa, Florida. We’ve talked a lot about conquering Google, from the search results page to the Map Pack. But the way our community finds information is evolving again, and the new frontier isn't just a search engine; it's the Answer Engine. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s own AI Overviews are not just indexing information like a search engine. They are synthesizing it and giving the user a single, highly confident answer. If a customer asks one of these AI tools, "Who is the best local contractor for kitchen remodels in Palm Harbor?" you want your business to be the one they recommend. The shift to AI as a discovery tool is massive because these systems don't just point the user to a list of ten websites like a search engine. Instead, they perform the research for the user and deliver the singular "best" choice. To be that choice, you need to understand where the AI gets its confidence and shift your strategy accordingly.
The first and most critical point is that AI models are trained on publicly available data. For current information and real-time local expertise, they lean heavily on Google's core index and verified business information. This means all your traditional local SEO efforts like your Google Business Profile and your high review rating are more important than ever. AI is essentially cross-referencing all sources that vouch for you. If your Google Business Profile is incomplete, or if you have sparse reviews, AI won't trust the data enough to use it. So, you must ensure your Google Business Profile is complete and verified.
AI systems are programmed to filter out noise and recommend sources with the highest E-E-A-T which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. So, you need to actively build your body of work proving this. Experience, expertise and authority can be built with blog posts and podcasts, but trust requires validation by other trustworthy sources.
One of the most powerful ways you can do that is through high-quality local backlinks and citations. When a trusted, authoritative local entity, like the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, a local news station, or a community non-profit links to your website, AI notes that as a significant vote of confidence. AI trusts data that is validated by multiple, independent, and high-authority sources. You need to actively pursue opportunities to get mentioned and linked to by established names in the Tampa area. Think beyond a simple directory listing and aim for strategic partnerships that lead to editorial links and citations.
On the more technical side, it’s important to understand that AI tools thrive on clarity and structure. Unlike a human browsing results, AI is looking for an exact, factual answer. This makes the specificity of your local entity information non-negotiable. You must ensure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) consistency is flawless across your website, Google Business Profile, and every directory. AI runs a sophisticated verification check to see if your data is uniform. Any inconsistency introduces doubt, which AI could use to pass over your business for one with cleaner data.
Furthermore, your website should use structured data, or Schema Markup, to explicitly tell AI what your service areas and unique selling propositions are. You can use Schema to literally tell AI that you are a "plumber serving the South Tampa area" who specializes in "tankless water heater installation." This structured information removes any ambiguity and increases AI’s confidence in recommending you for a hyper-specific query.
When it comes to content creation, AI is much less interested in keywords than it is comprehensive knowledge. Your content needs to be structured to address the same kind of questions your prospects would ask in a complete, authoritative manner. So, focus on question-based content that goes deep into a topic.
Use question-based headings for each major section of your content, followed immediately by a concise, authoritative answer, before diving into the detail. This format allows AI to easily extract the definitive answer snippet it needs for its recommendation. Remember, you are now writing content to educate both the human reader and the sophisticated AI system.
Getting recommended by AI tools is about making your business the most authoritative, best-reviewed, and most specifically detailed option in your community. When you achieve that level of validation, the AI systems have no choice but to confidently send customers your way. If you’d like to discuss how to do that for your business, reach out to me using the contact information in the show notes.
Until next time, this is Ted Yeatts reminding you that local content builds trust, and trust builds business.
How to Use Your Podcast to Make Google Love Your Website
Hi everyone, Ted Yeatts back with you here from Local Content Marketing in Tampa, Florida. We’ve established that a podcast is a powerful way to build intimacy and trust with your local audience. But here’s the often-missed secret: that audio content is one of the best tools you have to make Google absolutely love your website. By strategically leveraging your podcast, you can significantly boost your organic search rankings.
The key to making Google love your podcast lies in a simple process: turning that great audio content into even better text content on your website. Google’s crawlers are designed to read, and the more authoritative, relevant, and fresh text you provide, the higher your website will climb.
The first and most critical step is publishing full, accurate episode transcripts on your website. After you record and produce an episode, have it transcribed completely. Each transcription should be posted on a dedicated page on your website, serving as the official show notes for that episode. This provides search engines with a huge chunk of unique, keyword-rich content. When you discuss local issues, services, or landmarks in Tampa during your podcast, those keywords become permanently indexed text on your site. This is a massive boost to your local SEO because it confirms your relevance to Tampa-based searches.
Beyond the full transcript, you should be using your podcast content to create targeted blog posts. If you have a short podcast, an edit version of the transcript could serve that purpose. But, if you have a longer podcast, then your conversation probably covered several topics. Take two or three key segments from your episode and turn those into standalone, refined blog posts. This allows you to focus each piece of content on a specific local search term. You are essentially tripling your content output and targeting multiple keywords from a single hour of recording time, giving Google more reasons to send users to your site.
Another way your podcast helps Google is by naturally driving more traffic and engagement. When listeners go to your website to find the show notes, or perhaps to find the resource you mentioned on the episode, they increase your time on site and decrease your bounce rate. These engagement metrics are crucial signals to Google that your website provides a good user experience and contains valuable content. By consistently producing engaging audio, you are training your audience to visit your website, which Google recognizes as a vote of confidence.
Furthermore, a podcast naturally assists with building high-quality backlinks. If you interview a local leader, another Tampa business owner, or a community expert, they are highly likely to link to the episode page on your website when they promote their appearance. These local backlinks are gold for your authority and ranking power. They tell Google that established sources in the Tampa community trust and endorse your website.
Finally, your podcast content provides essential material for your Google Business Profile posts. You can use short summaries of new episodes, relevant quotes, and images from your recording session to post timely updates directly to your profile. This continuous activity across both your main website and your most important local asset signals to Google that your business is highly active and authoritative, ensuring you rank better in both map results and organic search.
By viewing your podcast not just as an audio channel but as a powerful engine for generating searchable, high-value text content, you turn a single creative effort into a multi-channel SEO strategy. That’s how you leverage your microphone to make Google love your website.
Until next time, this is Ted Yeatts reminding you that local content builds trust, and trust builds business.
How to Turn Content Into Customers (Not Just Clicks)
Hi everyone, Ted Yeatts back with you here from Local Content Marketing in Tampa, Florida. We’ve established that consistent, high-quality content is the foundation for building online authority and trust. We know we need to blog, we need to podcast, and we need to engage on our Google Business Profile. But there's a critical question that every local business owner must answer and that’s: How do you translate all that effort and great content into actual, paying customers, not just fleeting website clicks?
The difference between attracting clicks and creating customers lies in a deliberate shift from seeing content as an end goal to viewing it as a sales assistant that guides prospects through a journey. For local businesses in Tampa, this journey has to be hyper-focused and highly actionable. It requires moving people from general awareness to a specific transaction, and it requires starting with a logical progression for your content. We often call that a conversion ladder or a sales funnel. Every piece of content you create should be designed to move the customer one step closer to hiring or buying from you.
At the top of the ladder, what we call the awareness stage, you want to create content that is educational and focused on solving a prospect’s problem. This is where your blog posts and podcasts should address broad, common questions that initially bring people to your brand. For a Tampa HVAC company, this is content like "Why Does My AC Keep Freezing Up in Florida?" or "Your Guide to Home Humidity Levels in Tampa." This type of content attracts clicks because it solves a problem, but it shouldn't try to sell anything yet. Its main job is to establish your credibility and earn the initial trust of the searcher.
Once we’ve established that initial trust, the middle of the ladder is the consideration stage. Once a prospect trusts your expertise, you need content that helps them evaluate you against competitors. This content should be very specific and should prove your competence. This is where you introduce case studies showing how you fixed a complex problem for a local client right here in Tampa. Or, you might offer a detailed guide comparing different service options, or a video tour of your facilities that lets them meet your team. For the HVAC company, this is content such as "Comparing the Top 3 AC Brands for Energy Efficiency in Tampa Homes" or "Meet the Team: Our Certified Tampa Technicians." This is the content that builds confidence and narrows the field, making your business the obvious choice.
Finally, when the prospect is ready to move, we reach the bottom of the ladder, which is the decision stage. This content is short, direct, and eliminates every possible barrier to a transaction. This includes special offers for first-time customers, clear pricing pages, a detailed FAQ about your warranty, or a prominent, easy-to-use "Request a Free Quote" form. Every single click on this type of content should lead directly to a customer conversion, whether that’s a phone call, a text, or a scheduled appointment.
But, that’s not the end of the story. Once you’ve created this great content and guided them along, the biggest failure I see in content marketing is a weak or missing Call to Action (CTA). If your content is great but doesn't tell the reader exactly what to do next, you've wasted the opportunity. For local businesses, your Calls to Action must be geographically and contextually relevant. Don't just ask them to "Contact Us." Tell them to "Schedule a Free Roof Inspection for Your South Tampa Home Now" or "Book a Table at Our Downtown Tampa Location." Specificity increases conversion because it removes doubt about the relevance of the offer.
Furthermore, the Call to Action must align with the customer’s stage on the conversion ladder. A problem-solving blog post should prompt the reader to "Download Our Free Checklist" so you can capture their email address, not immediately ask them to buy. When you capture an email address, you gain permission to continue the nurturing process, sending follow-up content that moves them down the conversion ladder until they are ready to transact. Content at the bottom of the ladder, on the other hand, should prompt immediate action like "Call Now for Same-Day Service."
One more important note about Calls to Action: embed them everywhere. Don’t just wait until the end of your article, podcast or video. Use unobtrusive banners, in-text links, and integrate them naturally into your text or script to ensure your customers don’t miss the next step.
Content marketing is a long-term investment in trust, but to make it pay off, you must treat your content like a well-trained sales team. Each piece must have a purpose, a clear destination, and a compelling instruction for the customer's next step. When you intentionally design your content to guide users from their initial click to a final conversion, you ensure that every minute you spend creating content directly contributes to building your business.
Until next time, this is Ted Yeatts reminding you that local content builds trust, and trust builds business.