SEO for Your Voiceover Website

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Our company, Saco Media LLC, designs and manages web sites for Florida attorneys in addition to producing voiceover and providing network and IT support. Somehow all that fits together pretty well, and provides a nice package of services for our major clients.

One of our biggest challenges has been to better position our clients’ web sites on Google search results. For Florida attorneys this has been particularly difficult given recent Bar guidelines which significantly restrict their web content. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to consistently get clients on page one of Google search results for specific searches. Considering the number of Florida attorneys out there, that’s a tricky endeavor.

These experiences have helped us develop a better understanding of what works. Here are some of the ways we’ve improved our clients’ search standings. These are tips which you can implement today without spending a fortune for search engine optimization:

Treat the entire web site like a collection of specific landing pages. This allows you to market a specific service or highlight a unique selling proposition (USP) on specific pages. From the outset, this also compels you to utilize other best practices for search engine optimization.

  • Target a specific audience
  • Keep page content shorter, optimally under 3 paragraphs unless it is an article.
  • Keep pages focused, on topic, specific, on point. Grandma’s spicy pumpkin soup recipe can be shared on Facebook.
  • Use rich keywords for the page content. If you sell pink widgets cheaper than anyone else then cheap, pink, and widget would be good keywords to weave into your text, your title and your meta tags, more on that below.

Optimize each page of your web site for specific keyword searches and page content. You’re wasting virtual real estate if every page just generally describes you as an English male voice actor. Use one page to promote your uncanny ability to sound like Morgan Freeman; another page might promote your extensive experience narrating military training videos; and another page might showcase your live voiceover work at industrial trade shows. Your meta tags for each page should then match the page content.

  • Textual Content. You can optimize your page content, the actual text a site visitor can read, by using specific formatting.
  • Use header tags like <h2> or <h3> for your page titles
  • Bold keywords like voiceover and IVR.
  • Use bullet points or numbered lists
  • Non-Textual Content. You can optimize non-textual content, like images or audio files, by using alt tags or link title attributes on non-textual content like audio files or images.

Use unique title tags specific to the content, target audience, USP for each page. The title tag is the meta tag which displays a page title or short description at the top of the browser window for most browsers or as part of the browser tab. The title tag is html code nested within the <head> tags of your page code and might look something like this:

<title>Voiceover Web Site Search Engine Optimization Tips</title>

Don’t give up on other meta tags, keyword tags and content description. Although some web developers speculate that meta tags are losing importance, search results repeatedly show that Google and other major search engines continue to give significant weight to meta tags as long as they are supported by related page content.  Your keyword and content meta tags should be tailored to the specific page content.

Bottom line: focus is the key to effective search engine optimization.  Everything about a specific web page should be focused: the page itself, the page content (what your site visitor can immediately see) and the meta data (the extra information in the background code for your page).  Even if you’re a jack of all trades, you can develop web pages for each thing you’re good at.  Then, drink two or three espressos and you’ll be well on your way.

Oscar Pulls Hyundai Ads Featuring Bridges’ Voiceovers

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I love some celebrity voiceovers. Christine Lahti is great in the Oil of Olay spots and Antonio Banderas makes me wish I was congested, but here is an article that may make major companies think twice about using celebrity voiceovers — definitely an increased risk of conflict of interest:

How Jeff Bridges Voice-overs Imperiled Hyundai’s Oscars Blitz
 by Brian Steinberg – Published: March 01, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Hyundai Motor America was all ready to bombard this year’s Oscars with a raft of commercials — seven different spots were locked, loaded and ready to go. With just a few weeks to go before the March 7 ceremony, however, the company was told its commercials were unfit for air.

The problem? Actor Jeff Bridges has been doing voice-overs for Hyundai since 2007. But Mr. Bridges is also a nominee for best actor in this year’s contest for his role in “Crazy Heart” . . .

I feel bad for the car company, worse for their ad agency. That’s a tough spot to be in. Hope they work it out.

Preparing Your Voiceover Script

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Writing effective copy for your ad campaign, DVD promo, or even voicemail system takes a certain kind of expertise. Professional copywriters can do amazing things. I produce some content for many projects, and actually have training in technical writing, legal writing and radio scriptwriting as part of my Communications degree. But I don’t put myself out there as a copywriter. Still, there are mechanical limitations to how a script can be interpreted. With that in mind, I provide these few guidelines from a voice actor’s perspective:

  • Be realistic about word count.  If your message must be delivered in a specific duration, you can only fit so many words into the script. A :15 TV spot, for example, will accommodate only between 35 to 40 words. Deliveries that are supposed to sound rushed can definitely fit  a few more words. But you can’t fit 100 word script into a :15 spot and expect effective brand building or ROI. Audiences can’t realistically understand let alone absorb a word-bloated :15 spot, if it can even be produced.
  • Check your script before you send it to the voice actor. Nothing will delay a rush script faster than mistakes that could have been avoided, but are instead sent into production. Phone numbers and web sites are the usual suspects when it comes to script mistakes. Other culprits are bloated word counts for short commercial spots. To avoid delays and additional voiceover charges for  script corrections, trim your script for the appropriate running time of your commercial, verify your contact information, and check any other detail before sending it for recording. Remember that voice actors are only responsible for their own mistakes, if such a thing can occur.
  • Remember that numbers are words. A phone number is not a single word even if your word processor  says so.  A spoken ten-digit phone number is almost always ten separate words. Each digit should be included in your total word count to make sure it will fit in your :15 spot. (On projects that may be charged by the word, for voicemail systems for example, expect voiceover talents to appropriately count phone numbers and addresses as a separate word per digit.)
  • Consider omitting superfluous information when script duration is an issue.  For example, if your script has a web site address, remember that “www” is three words (or two if you use the more urban “trip dub”). The “www” is generally implied and you may want to consider dropping it from your script to save on precious real estate. Most web servers will in fact accept a web site address without “www.” Try your web site address and see whether it works without the trip dub.
  • Don’t just write your script. Speak it. Conversation should flow, and often something that looks good in writing, sounds awkward when you say it out loud. Choose words that flow unless you’re trying to achieve a particular effect with the script.
  • Create a script for  your audience, not for your message.  Describe your house first to an architect,  then to a close friend, and finally to a child. Chances are good you would not choose the same words each time.  Choose words that appeal to the people you’re trying to reach.
  • Don’t translate more of the script than you should.
    • If your script is to be translated into different language, Spanish for example, only provide a Spanish translation for a web site address if you’ve actually created the Spanish domain. Otherwise you’re sending people to a non-existent web site. That’s kind of a duh, but it happens.
    • Similarly, only translate numbers in mailing addresses for English-speaking countries. Leave the “P.O. Box,” street names, citys and states in English (maybe with a slight Spanish pronunciation) to ensure that Spanish listeners correctly address mail the way an English-speaking postal worker will understand it.