ImagesMagUK-Sep18

www.images-magazine.com SEPTEMBER 2018 images 25 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Voice search: The future of online marketing? services and a bit about what you do, go a long way to helping you achieve voice search success. For example, when a customer asks, “Where can I find T-shirt printing in London?“, “What time does the nearest printers shut?“, and “Where is my nearest printer?“, your (completed) Google My Business and Google Maps information will help your business be the one selected. 3 On-page content Content found using voice search should be concise, grammatical and answer the question appropriately. It should reflect how you might engage with another user rather than a Google bot using the traditional SEO approach where content is built around keywords and lots of content creation. Focus on providing text that your customer may find useful and helpful, such as FAQs. Users want answers and they want them within seconds. On average, each user won‘t listen to an answer for voice search for more than 15 seconds, so you have that amount of time to get your point across to the customer. It‘s all about meeting the information needs of the customer. 4 Important There is still room for traditional SEO, so don‘t rush to your website and delete pages of content. Do, however, take time to consider whether the content you currently have is authentic, useful for the user and answers customers‘ queries. The factors mentioned in this article also help with non-voice searches: writing content in a natural, engaging and conversational way and optimising local search will all help your website‘s visibility in Google‘s results pages. Andrew Langridge is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk R ewind three years to the findings of the 2015 Fespa Print Census that showed textile printing was the leading application growth trend, then fast-forward to today and you’ll find that textile continues to attract attention from print service providers looking for opportunities to diversify. This sustained growth was evident at Fespa Global Print Expo 2018 – around 20% of the 700 exhibitors shared textile production solutions, with a number of prominent suppliers launching textile- specific products. In addition, one in three visitors indicated an interest in textile and fabric printing. Looking further into the trends affecting garment decorators, our 2018 Print Census revealed that garment products dominated across all textile businesses, with sports apparel and fast fashion topping the leader board for growth applications. A firm indication of the rising interest levels in garment applications was the enthusiastic response to our inaugural Print Make Wear fast fashion feature at FESPA 2018: some 500 visitors registered specifically to see Print Make Wear, and almost one in five visitors to Fespa 2018 explored it and took advantage of the guided feature tours. Analogue production is still the key process for textile printing, delivering 70% of revenues in the garment decoration market. Digital Graeme Richardson-Locke is technical support manager at Fespa, a global federation of national associations for the screen printing, digital printing and textile printing community. If you have a question for Fespa, please email editorial@images- magazine.com with Fespa in the subject line. www.fespa.com FESPA: TEXTILE TRENDS printing, however, is continuing to make strides, driven by benefits such as reduced time to market, creativity and customisation. Fifty- six percent of textile print businesses are already investing in digital technology and a further 19% are planning to do so in the next two years, with faster production speeds noted as the dominant driver for investment for 69% of textile businesses. All in all, the 2018 findings paint an optimistic picture of the speciality print industry with 83% of the Print Census respondents stating that they are ‘very optimistic‘ for the future of their business. And with the sustained positive picture in the textile market, it looks like opportunities will continue. “H ey, Google! How many mice are there in the UK?“ “When does my local pub open?” “What time does the match kick off?” Voice search may at first glance seem just a bit of fun, but it is becoming an increasingly important tool for businesses to consider. The number of people using voice search bots is on the rise, whether they are opting for Siri on the iPhone and other smartphone assistants, or devices like Google Home or Amazon Echo. ComScore predicts that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be carried out using voice search. So, what does this mean for your business? As users move away from ‘traditional‘ search, your business will need to make sure it is making the most of voice search. Points to consider: 1 Aim for position zero In last month‘s column, I discussed the ‘Featured Snippets‘ results that Google searches now produce. Google Home and Google Assistant read these snippets out first, so make sure your business features in them. Consider what questions your customers commonly ask that relate to your core products and services, and build content around this. Remember though, that where traditional SEO in the past relied heavily on keywords and content, voice search relies on you answering the question. Keep your answers concise and conversational. 2 Perfect your local SEO Thirty-nine percent of voice search users are looking for a business‘s information, so ensure your Google My Business and Google Maps listing is verified and optimised. Complete your profile so when a user asks to find local businesses, your business appears at the top. Little things, like a fully completed listing with store times,