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Five trends to incorporate into your Digital Media Marketing Strategy for the remainder of 2020 and in 2021.

· Google Verified Listing for Local SEO Crucial

Local results will show in a user’s search when they are searching for businesses near their location. Improving your business’ local ranking will help your business’ chances of showing.

Claiming your Google My Business listing and verifying your business on Google is the first step. Enhancing your Google My Business listing will help even more. Local search results favor the most relevant results for each search. Make sure all business information is entered into the Google My Business listing, post regular updates with images, update photos, answer reviews, and provide all relevant information regarding location, address, hours, etc.

Featured snippets are special boxes where the format of regular listings is reversed, showing the descriptive snippet first.

Typically, when asking a question on Google a “no-click search” or “featured snippet” shows in a box on the search results page. This box contains an image and an answer to your question. Thus, you do not need to click through to an article.

Providing useful information that will be used for these snippets shows that your website contains valuable content. The trick is to provide enough useful information while still enticing the searcher to click on your website for more information.

· Voice Search Optimization Required

111.8 million, or one-third of the US population, used a voice assistant monthly in 2019. Alexa, Siri, Google Home, Cortana, and all voice-activated assistants are still popular. These voice-activated searches have made the most significant change to the use of keywords so far.

To optimize your business for digital assistants you must alter your content. Using keywords that fit a question (where, when, what, etc.) is necessary to increase “visibility” in voice activated searches.

· Image is Everything

More and more users are uploading images to search information, rather than typing in a description. Users searching for specific products are using Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and other image search tools, turning cameras into a search bar.

Adding high-quality images tagged with keywords will help to leverage visual search, in addition to using descriptive file names for images before uploading to your website as well as adding in alternative text.

· Word-of-Mouth is No Longer Spoken

84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

Online customer reviews and testimonials contribute to a businesses success in attracting new customers. Using real-time, real-life consumers to share positive, unbiased reviews of your services or products is much more successful than promoting your own positives.

In fact, 91% of people regularly or occasionally read reviews and 68% form an opinion after reading 1 to 6 reviews.