At Digible, staying ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of SEO is essential to delivering results for our partners. Our SEO team recently hosted its first ever SEO Roundtable Discussion, diving into the exciting and rapidly changing landscape of AI in search and voice search optimizations.
This roundtable served as a platform for us to informally share insights, discuss emerging trends, and collaborate on strategies that could potentially help us stay proactive in an industry driven by innovation.
Meet Our SEO Team
During the session viewers get to meet our team. We also shared our experiences at Digible and in the digital marketing space overall.
We dove into the conversation with a couple key questions:
“SEO is constantly evolving with AI, voice search, and algorithm updates. What recent trends have you noticed that are changing the way we approach SEO?”
From the rise of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) to the increasing impact of AI-driven content and predictive analytics, our discussion explored how these advancements are shaping search behaviors and optimization strategies. As AI continues to influence the search landscape, the challenge lies in adapting our tactics to remain both competitive and forward-thinking.
In our closing reflections, the team shared valuable takeaways and explored ways to stay ahead of SEO changes rather than reacting to them. Questions like “What’s one thing you’re excited to explore further from today’s discussion?” sparked thoughtful conversations on continuous learning and adaptation.
This roundtable marked an exciting step in fostering collaboration and innovation within our SEO team. Stay tuned as we continue to explore new trends and refine our strategies to stay at the forefront of digital marketing.
Looking Ahead in the Evolving World of SEO
Our first SEO Roundtable discussion on AI in Search and Voice Search Optimizations provided valuable insights into how emerging technologies are reshaping the way we approach SEO strategies. From the potential of AI-powered search experiences to the growing importance of optimizing for voice search, it’s clear that staying informed and adaptable is key to success in this ever-changing landscape.
As we move forward, our team is excited to continue exploring these trends, testing new strategies, and sharing knowledge to ensure we remain proactive rather than reactive. By fostering open discussions and collaboration, we can stay ahead of industry shifts and provide even greater value to Digible’s clients.
This roundtable is just the beginning—our commitment to ongoing learning and innovation will drive us to refine our SEO strategies and embrace the opportunities that AI and voice search present. Stay tuned for more insights as we continue to navigate the future of SEO together.
Full Video Transcript
00:00 –> 00:11
All right, gang, welcome to our very first SEO roundtable here at Digible.
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Today we’re going to talk about emerging SEO trends, and we’re going to talk about AI and Search and
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the rise of voice search optimization. So I know it’s something that’s top of mind,
00:21 –> 00:27
even a client today brought up AI a little bit. So exciting, everybody’s thinking about it.
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I know that we think about it all the time, we use it. Let’s talk about what we do.
00:34 –> 00:41
To start out, I would love to start with introductions. So I’ll just go around and state your name, how
00:41 –> 00:49
long you’ve been at Digible, and how long you’ve been doing digital marketing. I’ll start. I’m Tammy
00:49 –> 00:57
Smith. I’ve been at Digible since 2020, so almost five years. And I’ve been doing digital
00:57 –> 01:02
marketing for, ooh, I always say 12 years, but then I’ve been here for four years. So that makes
01:02 –> 01:12
it about 16 years, a long time. Who would like to go next? Cassia, you’re on my screen next, if you
01:12 –> 01:19
want to go. All right, my name is Cassia. I have been at Digible for just under two
01:19 –> 01:28
months. It does, it feels like I’ve always been here. But I’ve worked in SEO for over two years.
01:28 –> 01:40
Awesome. Cherry, you’re next on my screen. Hi, I’m Cherry. I have been at Digible for two years,
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and I’ve been working digital marketing for four and a half. Awesome. Joe.
01:50 –> 01:57
I have been at Digible for three years next month. And I’ve been doing SEO and digital marketing for something like eight years.
01:57 –> 02:03
I don’t know. The answer changes every time somebody asks. You’re like 22 years, man. That’s a young boy.
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Totally. You got in it young. Awesome. Kelsie. Hi, I’m Kelsie. I’ve been at Digible for the same time as Joe, so almost three years now. And I’ve been doing digital marketing for seven years. Cool. Karina. Hi, I’m Karina. I am the SEO coordinator. I’ve been at Digible for a little over two months. And I’ve been in digital marketing for two years.
02:33 –> 02:55
Kristen. I’m Kristen. I’ve been at Digible for coming up on four years, and I’ve been in digital marketing for seven. Cool. Rachel. Hi, I’m Rachel. I’ve been at Digible for about a year and a half. And I’ve been working in digital marketing for almost a decade. And eight of those years have been SEO specifically.
02:56 –> 03:03
Ooh, I should change my answer to like 1.5 decades. I love that. Grace.
03:04 –> 03:12
Hi, Grace. I’ve been at Digible for almost five years now. And that’s all I’ve ever known. So that’s how long I’ve been in digital marketing.
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Sweet. Christa.
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Hi, I’m Christa. I have been at Digible for about two and a half months and have been doing SEO for I think a little over 12 years.
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And Bailey.
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I’m Bailey. I have been at Digible for six years, and that’s how long I’ve been doing digital marketing.
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You are OG, the digital OG SEO.
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SEO elder here.
03:45 –> 04:01
Awesome. All right, so here is our first question. So SEO is constantly evolving with AI voice search and algorithm updates, which we love. What recent trends have you noticed that are changing the way we approach SEO?
04:03 –> 04:06
What affects you most, would you say?
04:12 –> 04:26
I would say there’s been a big shift in how people are searching. Things are getting way more conversational. So it’s more about how you’re asking Google a question, and then it’s sort of giving you
04:27 –> 04:44
a broader response, I guess. So you’re asking a more broad question and it’s giving you a chunk of an answer. So instead of going into websites necessarily to find what you’re looking for, most of it is done on the search engine results page. Zero click search as they’re called.
04:44 –> 04:59
Yeah, which can be scary, especially for clients, because they really want you to click through. So that kind of changes. I mean, I know that we now want people to show up in those generative search results, because if you’re not there, you might not be getting
04:59 –> 05:10
eyeballs on your site, your brand. But have you noticed clients ask what we’re doing with generative search? Or are they just
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they’re in control? They know what’s best? We’ll just leave it in their hands.
05:18 –> 05:28
I’ve definitely had clients ask about it. And I think it is, you’re right, it’s sort of this double edge. They want people to click to their website, but they also want to show up in the very top spot.
05:29 –> 05:46
So it’s kind of like playing the game with AI search, you know, you want to make sure that you are showing up for more broad terms. You know, someone’s looking for like apartments in, you know, whatever city, like apartments in Chicago, you know, that’s really hard to rank for.
05:46 –> 06:01
But if you can give more information and hopefully find ways to be further down the funnel and optimizing for that, it’s more likely to get people to go to your website. So you show up on top and then people are more likely to click into your website to find more answers.
06:01 –> 06:14
So, you know, having like pet-friendly apartments or apartments with a pool or something like that, you know, really making sure that you are showing up for those terms instead of just apartments in Chicago, because that could give you a million results.
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And you know, like pricing information and stuff. So it’s all about results too, not nearly as targeted.
06:23 –> 06:26
Exactly. Yeah. So playing the game of AI.
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This makes me think too, if they are asking questions in generative search, we do want really good imagery and maybe some really good videos or just something else that goes with the text to entice those click throughs, because now we have to think what’s going to make people click through more.
06:43 –> 06:56
So having those, it’s always been important, especially, I mean, Kristen can speak all day long about Google business posts. Like we need really good photos enticing photos, lots of them things that are specific to everything we would talk about.
06:57 –> 07:11
But I think that that’s even more valid now. Like, you got to be a very visual entity out there on the web, so that all that stuff is being grabbed by generative search to kind of show what’s happening.
07:13 –> 07:31
I think it’s kind of interesting, like the irony behind going off what Rachel said, the more AI driven search becomes, the more human driven our SEO approach has to be. Because like you were saying, Rachel, everything is turning into conversational, easy to digest snippets.
07:31 –> 07:48
Which is kind of the opposite of how we used to conduct SEO of being like really robust with our content and authoritative. And I think being authoritative still matters. But it seems like what is working really well for AI search results is the pieces that sound the most human.
07:48 –> 08:01
So I find that really interesting. It’s definitely a reminder to lean into kind of like the the jargon of the industry that we’re in, which I think, at the end of the day, like we’re marketing homes to humans.
08:01 –> 08:23
And I think that it’s a good opportunity for us, like in the coming year, as we experiment more with how we can show up for these AI driven results, leaning into kind of the conversationality of that industry and how we can speak more to to the people behind it and not just build content that sounds really nice.
08:24 –> 08:24
Awesome.
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That kind of flows into the next item to talk about. And these are very similar, so there wasn’t too much difference with this next question. But it was that AI is becoming more sophisticated with search generative experience, SGE and AI driven content and predictive analytics shaping SEO.
08:44 –> 08:58
How do you see AI affecting search behaviors and optimization strategies? And I kind of think about the article that I found and I shared it in our chat with what was the article called? So it says.
09:00 –> 09:30
It’s like research shows how to rank in AI search, and they were kind of trying to figure out the people in the article were trying to figure out how they could maybe game it so that we would show up better. And the top ranking strategies were site sources, so external links. We love that quotation addition. So adding maybe a source and somebody’s quote, like an authoritative person, maybe at the complex or just authoritative person within the PMC itself, having them quoted in there might also.
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Lend credibility into the EEAT vectors there and then statistics edition. What do you guys think about that stuff?
09:41 –> 10:02
Well, I think in past conversations, Joe’s brought up the significance of like author authority for content and how that can be kind of challenging for these types of websites. So I think that’s, that would be a really great opportunity to collaborate with clients.
10:03 –> 10:13
On a deeper level to go to get someone on their site to represent that content and to build out that author authority.
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With them. Yeah.
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Thinking of some of our bigger PMCs, if they had somebody that maybe goes on the circuit that travels and talks at conventions that’s known within the circles a little bit that they could give some quotes about a specific property, even like tell us about this property of yours.
10:33 –> 10:48
Like, give us something specific about maybe what we’re trying to rank for. We would we could prompt them, like, tell us about the luxury amenities at XYZ high rise in Lodo or whatever. And maybe they could help us out there and give us good quotes.
10:49 –> 11:06
For sure. Yeah. And some of the background for that is the impact of an influx of AI content. Definitely there’s a lot more importance put on showcasing who’s the author and showing the humanity behind the content like Grace was saying for sure.
11:06 –> 11:12
Yeah, it’s like a real human said this and here’s how we know because somebody’s name is tied to it. I love that.
11:15 –> 11:37
I ran a little experiment before this call. So I think it kind of ties into this human aspect. I asked chat GPT and Google, similar queries, but Google is slightly reworded how you would probably Google it. But essentially, the query was,
11:38 –> 12:05
this is very long, “Are there any pet-friendly one bedroom apartments within walking distance of downtown Pittsburgh with a gym under twenty five hundred dollars a month?” So I gave this to both chat GPT using the web search feature it has and Google. And I thought it was very interesting that chat GPT gave results that are all property websites, so websites for individual properties.
12:06 –> 12:14
And then Google was nine out of ten results were apartments.com and similar directories.
12:16 –> 12:34
And it seems like chat GPT has a very strong preference for what is more typical human style written content and, you know, you telling your story of your property, it did not include a single apartments.com listing.
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I need to finish up some formatting, but I can share the results.
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Take a screenshot or just, yeah, that would be awesome. Thank you. Really cool test. How fun.
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Yeah, one way that we can finally bust through the apartments.com glass ceiling. Right. It’s like, thank you. Generative AI search.
12:58 –> 13:17
Very, yeah, that’s really crazy. I think to go on like to piggyback on to like the how is AI affecting search behaviors and stuff. I feel like even personally, I have been lazier when it comes to searching. I’m like, let me just ask Google really quick instead of actually investigating and finding out something.
13:18 –> 13:34
So it definitely, I mean, we’re going to probably have to do a lot of testing and like different things to see how that’s going to relate to our industry. Obviously, like Cassia just did that. That is mind blowing. I wouldn’t even thought of that. So I can be like mad props. That was really cool.
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It was, but
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yeah, no, it’ll be interesting to see like how, what are the lazy queries that potential renters are going to have? Or what are the things that people are asking in chat GBT or on Google? Like, and how can we capture that audience in an easy way for all of our properties? So
13:59 –> 14:11
I want to coin the lazy, what did you say? Like a lazy search? What was that lazy query? Lazy query. I want us to coin that. That’s our new our new keyword there. Lazy queries by digital.
14:11 –> 14:29
Every query I make is a lazy query. I’m like, how long would it take me to X, Y, and Z? But I think that’s how everyone kind of searches. I mean, even like TikTok, you’re like, how do I turn off this setting in my phone? And instead of going to Google, sometimes I’m like, someone on TikTok has probably already done this.
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And I’ll do it step by step. So it’ll be interesting to see what kind of queries are relevant to our industry because I really haven’t thought super hard on that.
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Yeah, definitely.
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I also, I also asked Claude to generate a list of conversational queries one might ask when searching for an apartment.
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What do you say?
14:54 –> 15:24
So some examples are, overall, they are significantly more conversational. I would also say a lot of them are if you were to Google these things traditionally, you would either have to do it in multiple steps or, you know, open up all of your options and dig down and like search through these, but you can do things like, I am a young professional moving to this city. Can you recommend apartments with X, Y, Z? They’re all much more,
15:24 –> 15:43
they’re detailed, I would say. And they usually are the beginning of a conversation. One of them was, where was it? I ended up going overboard and making so many questions just to see what it would come up with.
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Once you get started, it’s so much fun.
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Here it is. I need help finding an apartment in city. Can you walk me through my options based on my needs? And that was interesting because I was like, well, that would be really a conversation. So I asked what it would respond with to get more information.
16:00 –> 16:11
So then it asked me, what’s your monthly budget? When do you need to move in? Et cetera, et cetera. So I think it will be kind of lazier in the sense that you are not doing a lot of this research yourself.
16:12 –> 16:30
The AI will be doing that for you. I think it will also be interesting to see if it thinks of things you would never think of. Well, did you think of this amenity? Do you need that? So that will be very interesting to see if it lines up with Claude’s guess on what people will search for.
16:30 –> 16:43
I love that. Maybe we need to craft a blog that’s like how to talk to your AI assistant and get the best results in your apartment search. Like, bam, that could be really cool. Very cool.
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I think another opportunity that comes to mind for us at Digible is how we can like lean into cross channel strategy to help us have the most success with AI driven results. What comes to mind reading about this and talking about this is native articles, just because they’re such long form content that typically is more of a human approach to things.
17:11 –> 17:16
I remember working with an apartment like a conglomerate of apartment complexes and we
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were writing a native article about the best neighborhoods to live in in Minneapolis.
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And it was all these areas.
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And I think as people lean into AI to help do the heavy lifting like Bailey was talking
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about having those like community-based responses or something like an article that gives you
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exactly what you want, like, Hey, we reviewed these five neighborhoods in Minneapolis and
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this is the best neighborhood and being able to like spit that result out in an AI snippet.
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I think that’s a really cool opportunity.
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And I think being able to have that and collaborate with what we’re doing on SEO and lean into
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those other channels, I think would be a really great way to kind of work smarter, not harder.
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Awesome.
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My brain’s just firing now I’m thinking, alright, content that’s really good for a website would
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be a moving guide since my kiddos are moving in a week and a half.
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Yes, I’m panicking.
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Um, I’m like, they could really use a moving guide, like things that would help them gather
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all this stuff that I’m trying to help them do.
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Like moving guides would be great, but then, um, location guides, like what’s the best,
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you know, neighborhoods in, you know, Northern Denver, Western Denver, Southern Denver, or
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just Western Connecticut, or just like, we could do state, we could do city.
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That’s a lot of content right there.
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Well, that’s great too, because you know, there’s sort of two methods that AI search really
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loves and they love like long form authoritative content that is actually useful, but we’ve
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seen it time and time again where like lists are always preferred by readers and they’re
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very much preferred by AI crawlers, especially bullet points and number lists, because they’ll
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just go through the article and then they’ll take you, like jump you down to the spot and
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answers the questions. So anything that is sort of question answer based, so you can
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use, you know, like Cassia did, you can use AI to figure out what questions people are
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asking, compare that with keyword research, and then just put it into this, you know,
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make sure that your blog has the answers to these questions that people are asking. And
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that’s just a great way to kind of just give AI exactly what it’s looking for and get more
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people on your site.
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Yeah, piggyback off of that, I think, you know, that makes our job just as more important
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on making sure that information is accurate, because we have to think like, since AI, you
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know, they’re already using data driven algorithms and the machine learning is developing on the
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flip side, they’re fraudulent detection is developing as well. So we want to make sure,
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you know, that we have all the accurate information, because Google might challenge the validity
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of what we push out just because of something missing or we might miss, you know, prospecting
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customers for these clients because of the information not being all there. But yeah,
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AI can be…
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Also, Google told you to put glue on pizza. So, you know, take them for yourself. So…
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That’s it.
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I feel like it’s so hard because it’s… Oh, Bailey, no, you chime and you go girl. No,
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I just was going to say I feel like it’s so hard because in my mind, it’s like SEO and
20:24 –> 20:28
content digital marketing is like content, content, content, but at the same time, it’s
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like, there’s so much content out there that like, we need to be better at being fresh,
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relevant and concise. But how do we do that with also having ample content? So we rank
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and it just… It’s so hard because in my brain, I’m like, we need more content as an
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SEO. But then as a user, I’m like, when I get onto a page and I have to scroll three
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times to get to something, I’m like, get to the point, dude, why are we wasting so much
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time with words? So I don’t know. That was just my two cents of… I just needed to get
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out there. Sorry, Kelsie. I didn’t mean to cut you off.
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Thanks. You know, that’s a perfect segue because I was going to go down that route of, I also
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think AI is great, but to what extent is like, it gets too much AI? Because right now we’re
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like in the very much like the developmental stage and everyone’s… Like, whether they
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like it or not, like it’s being forced at us. And if Google’s implementing all of like these
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fraudulent detections, who’s to say that the content that we’re seeing from AI is actually
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even valid anymore if it’s up to date. So I’ve always thought about like, search intent
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is a big thing. Like if you’re going to write a blog or create content, like it has to answer
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what the user wants. So I think that’s why… You can see his point of like running that
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test of like between the two different chat GBTs, Google probably showed apartments.com
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because it’s thinking of like the user and like what they would want to see if they search
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for something like that. But then like the way that search is changing too, like people
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are going on TikTok to look up stuff and like would they even want to read a blog? So is
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writing really great blog content even worth it? Because all you’re doing is training an
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AI that someone may not even look at because they just want to be shown what to do instead
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of told what to do. So I think it’s a cool pivot in how maybe we make content with that
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in mind. That’s an awesome pivot. So thinking about how do we integrate these ideas. Like
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you said, search intent. If we’re thinking about searchers who are searching on a place
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like TikTok, they’re not going to want to read a blog. So a blog topic might come up,
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but they’re going to go to the video, right? Like something comes up that’s video-oriented.
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They’re like, that’s my gym. I’m going to go there. You might even trust it more, or
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it’s like, I can actually see the visuals. So how are we going to integrate this? Does
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it make sense to be everywhere? Do we hone in on places that we’re not currently? Like
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TikTok, I know paid media is using TikTok ads, but as you know, we’re not really using
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TikTok in our social platforms and our SEO. Is there space for us there? What do you guys
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think? I think that brings up an important opportunity to work together across departmentally
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because 100%, it’s so broad. Like Bailey and Kelsie were saying, the locations people can
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gather the information that they’re looking for. It’s so vast that we need to be working
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together with the other departments to be able to say like, Hey, we’re writing this blog
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because we do need to train the AI tools about who we are. You know, that is significant.
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But then, Hey, maybe this is a good topic we’ve identified for a video somewhere else. You
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know? Yeah. Maybe we’ll see. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s important because obviously even
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if TikTok is banned and there’s a new, like there’s always going to be something new,
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I’m sure it’s going to be a new TikTok. Somebody is going to pick that up and be like, here’s
23:54 –> 24:01
the US TikTok. It’s Utah. Right. UA Talk. I don’t know. Right. So it’ll be interesting.
24:01 –> 24:09
But, yeah, it’d be interesting to see how we could integrate like apartment SEO onto
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something like TikTok. Yeah. Something that just kind of explodes. And that’s definitely
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a different demographic, right? My mom’s not going to find apartments on TikTok. My mom’s
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probably going to use Bing. I’m not saying that in a mean way, but MSN is her browser.
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She calls it the internet and what she means her MSN. Like when the internet is broken,
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I know she means that her email MSN thing is broken and I have to go fix it. So yeah.
24:35 –> 24:41
Yeah. Instagram reels. Feels like the, what did that say? I just missed the chat. But
24:41 –> 24:48
yeah, that was a good point. I like that. Yeah. I think it’s worth targeting to continue
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to target multiple things because I was thinking of the other elder millennial mindset of,
24:55 –> 25:01
oh, finding an apartment. That’s a laptop task. You don’t do that on a phone. If I’m making
25:01 –> 25:07
a big purchase, I’m going to go on my laptop and that is not how my younger brother would
25:07 –> 25:14
do that search at all. I don’t even think he owns a computer, which is insane to me.
25:14 –> 25:21
So I think targeting multiple platforms is definitely beneficial. Especially when we
25:21 –> 25:27
have a lot of apartments that the average college student on TikTok is not going to
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be moving into anytime soon. Yeah. To that point, my kids, I don’t think used a laptop
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at all to do, maybe, maybe they did once or twice, but it was mostly on the phone. They
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were getting chats and they were sending it to each other and I’m sending them things
25:43 –> 25:48
that I’m finding at work from my laptop and they’re just like, I could hear the eyes rolling
25:48 –> 25:55
and they’re like, “Yeah. Okay. Thanks mom.” To go off of that, I recently, since we’re
25:55 –> 26:00
moving, have been on everything on my phone. I’m like the complete opposite of Cassia.
26:00 –> 26:05
I was on my phone and I just remember on one website, I was about to throw my phone. I
26:05 –> 26:09
was like, “Why is this so bad? This experience is so bad. It keeps refreshing and freaking
26:09 –> 26:16
out and- So experience is bad. Groundbreaking to say that mobile is important in SEO. Mobile
26:16 –> 26:24
is important, you guys. But I feel like sometimes we do all of our work on a computer. Very
26:24 –> 26:29
rarely do I actually put my clients into the mobile view and mess around or look on my
26:29 –> 26:35
phone to see how things are working. So maybe it’s a good exercise that we integrate doing
26:35 –> 26:39
that every now and then. Let’s go see what that experience looks like. I know that we
26:39 –> 26:45
test like PageSpeed Insights does test on mobile and desktop, but it’s a little bit different
26:45 –> 26:49
of running the test than us actually being there and using it as if we were looking for
26:49 –> 26:55
an apartment. That’s a good call out. I think something else that’s good to remember
26:55 –> 27:02
about our industry is that the cycle to convert is really long compared to some other industries
27:02 –> 27:08
and products. If I’m going to buy a pair of Red 10 issues, I might commit to that in 30
27:08 –> 27:13
minutes on a mobile search, but- Especially if they’re cute. Yeah, especially if they’re
27:13 –> 27:19
cute. But I’m not really going to decide on my apartment the same day I think about renting
27:19 –> 27:25
one. So I think that’s helpful when it comes to all the work we’re doing on site and what
27:25 –> 27:30
Bailey was saying about really engaging with the user once they get there. And if we’re
27:30 –> 27:34
only writing content to be able to rank, is that really helpful? Because you would hope
27:34 –> 27:42
that if we’re building a strategy surrounding user intent, we would show up somehow at some
27:42 –> 27:47
point. And then once we get them on site, it’s just like being really intentional about
27:47 –> 27:51
selling ourselves and what the product is. So I think that’s something helpful to think
27:51 –> 27:55
about in the AI landscape is it would probably be a different conversation we’d be having
27:55 –> 28:02
if we were like Ecom. But given the nature of what our prospects have to go through and
28:02 –> 28:08
the time it takes them to really think about their purchase, I think is super helpful for
28:08 –> 28:13
resiliency in a time that we’re in. I love that. So I’m thinking too, like you said, if
28:13 –> 28:17
they don’t, like you would buy the shoes really quick because you can see them, right? You
28:17 –> 28:20
can see them. You can imagine if I wear those, those are cool. The only thing that I need
28:20 –> 28:24
to know is do they fit? I’ll get it. If they don’t fit, I can send them back. Can’t really
28:24 –> 28:29
do that with an apartment. So the, I think the touring piece is really huge. And I know
28:29 –> 28:33
during COVID we did a lot with video, like we’re going to do this video walkthrough of
28:33 –> 28:38
the tour. You can kind of get the idea. Or they had the leasing agent, like do the phone
28:38 –> 28:43
tour with the person so they could talk to them. Like, do you think there’s still room
28:43 –> 28:47
there for things like that? Cause I still think that that could be impactful. Like just
28:47 –> 28:54
the feel of being there, knowing what it looks like inside. I think more than ever, honestly,
28:54 –> 29:00
especially post COVID, you know, and this is such a big decision that I maybe look at
29:00 –> 29:03
a website, I might look at some pictures and like, I don’t know if I really want to like
29:03 –> 29:07
schedule a tour and take some time out of my day or my week to go down there and not
29:07 –> 29:12
see something that I like. But you know, this, as we get more and more digital, especially
29:12 –> 29:16
younger generations, the more we can hit them with like, here’s like a property tour or
29:16 –> 29:20
like here are some short clips of some of the amenity is, you know, this is stuff that
29:20 –> 29:25
I can do more research using my own eyes from multiple sources, instead of just reading
29:25 –> 29:31
texts on a page and seeing some, you know, professional pictures. Yeah. Yeah. Also as
29:31 –> 29:36
someone who’s done several cross country moves, I can’t always just like be in the city to
29:36 –> 29:42
go tour in place in person. So even when I originally moved to Denver, I, you know,
29:42 –> 29:45
signed my lease for that apartment site unseen basically just going off of what they had on
29:45 –> 29:48
their website, but thankfully they had some really great virtual tours. So I think it’s
29:48 –> 29:54
important just for that aspect of it as well. Huge. Are you guys getting sites that have
29:54 –> 30:00
actual video tours or are the virtual tours, the generated kind that’s like, here’s an approximation
30:00 –> 30:09
of what the space looks like. Like, is it real versus image generated? I’ve seen several
30:09 –> 30:14
real like tours on sites. I have several sites that have both like a video page and a virtual
30:14 –> 30:18
tour page, which I also think is helpful because if I just wanted like a general idea of what
30:18 –> 30:22
amenities they had to offer and kind of what that community space looks like, I don’t care
30:22 –> 30:27
as much of like touring through, you know? So yeah, I think both have their benefits.
30:27 –> 30:35
Awesome. What do you guys think about, just having videos from properties that run you
30:35 –> 30:38
through it? It doesn’t have to be every one bedroom apartment they have in every two bedroom
30:38 –> 30:44
apartment, every studio. But if they had like a general, like here’s what our average studio
30:44 –> 30:48
looks like or one or two different versions of it. And they just have those on their YouTube
30:48 –> 30:54
channel or Instagram that people could reference and go look at. It’s like, I can’t take the
30:54 –> 30:57
tour. I don’t want to slow the website down. I don’t want to put all the videos on the
30:57 –> 31:03
website, but we’ve got links out to go view some of our virtual tours on these platforms.
31:03 –> 31:10
Do you think that would be a good strategy? I will say I do have a client that did like,
31:10 –> 31:14
basically like a clubhouse walkthrough video tour that showed off different amenities,
31:14 –> 31:19
like the pool and the fitness center. And that had one of the highest engagements on their
31:19 –> 31:24
YouTube channel. And, you know, a lot of views where people were just watching it. That’s
31:24 –> 31:33
cool. We could have a videographer on staff who flies out and records these things for
31:33 –> 31:41
us. Social could use them. Yeah. I will do it. I love that. Have you guys seen the, there’s
31:41 –> 31:47
like a chat bot that’s like, you can talk to a current resident. I think it would be so
31:47 –> 31:52
cool if current residents would take a video of their apartment. Like this is what the
31:52 –> 31:57
1A looks like. And then there’s stuff in there. You can actually visualize living there. And
31:57 –> 32:00
then you would also have just like an empty apartment. This doesn’t really have anything
32:00 –> 32:07
to do with SEO. But yeah, I don’t know, just like with the flood of AI content and just
32:07 –> 32:12
these written words, I feel like videos can be more important and that would just be a
32:12 –> 32:18
unique way to stand out. Yeah, I agree. All right. That is always sorry because no, you,
32:18 –> 32:22
you go ahead first. I want to hear your thing first. Well, this is just like the shameless
32:22 –> 32:27
plug to like the case study. Me and Tatiana are working on because I read that like article
32:27 –> 32:31
months ago about how people are searching for things differently, like on TikTok versus
32:31 –> 32:36
Google. So I wanted to see if like we can make videos, but like make them fun. So like instead
32:36 –> 32:42
of just a general, like here’s like a one bedroom apartment tour and said, like, you can showcase
32:42 –> 32:46
that same content, but maybe say, here’s how you can decorate your one bedroom apartment.
32:46 –> 32:50
And like that video then still shows you the apartment itself, but shows you like, hey,
32:50 –> 32:54
you can like put shelves here. Like that way you can maximize vertical space versus like,
32:54 –> 33:01
you know, the landscape. So just like fun ways to get your point across, but still, you
33:01 –> 33:08
know, like plug, you know. Yeah, I think that’s great. I think one of the, like Beacost used
33:08 –> 33:12
to do that actually, they don’t have a blog on each property website, but they talk about
33:12 –> 33:19
like how to make your studio look roomier or how to get the Bohemian style in your one
33:19 –> 33:23
bedroom apartment. Like they used to do things or they do do things like that, which is a
33:23 –> 33:28
lot of fun. It’d be really cool just to get links back from that and just being able to
33:28 –> 33:37
see the properties for sure. All right, guys, ready for the wrap up question? Cool. All
33:37 –> 33:42
right. So, we’re going to wrap up with key takeaways. What is one thing that each of
33:42 –> 33:47
you are excited to explore further from today’s discussion? And much like we did the intros,
33:47 –> 33:55
I’m going to go backwards this time and let’s start with Bailey. Wait, sorry, I have to
33:55 –> 34:01
like read the questions from the SEO channel, so I was reading it again while you’re talking.
34:01 –> 34:06
That’s okay. It’s the one thing that you’re excited to explore further from today’s discussion.
34:06 –> 34:13
Miss Lee, after Cassia brought up her point. Yeah. Like my little brain did not think at
34:13 –> 34:19
all to like actually go test things and be like, what are some apartment queries that
34:19 –> 34:25
like users have? And what do we do if we like throw it into Google or throw it into chat
34:25 –> 34:30
GBT? And like what do those results look like? So that’s definitely something I’m excited
34:30 –> 34:37
to see more. I’m excited to see what Cassia has pulled up. But also just to be like, how
34:37 –> 34:46
are people searching in that way? Like how can we answer those questions and steal that
34:46 –> 34:59
data? Sorry, steal that audience. Awesome. How about you Christa? It was pretty quiet
34:59 –> 35:09
in here. So I was thinking, I think the thing that I was most intrigued about is really
35:09 –> 35:14
the different content types that are getting pulled in those search results. So kind of,
35:14 –> 35:22
as much as AI is new, I still think from an SEO perspective, the range and variety of
35:22 –> 35:31
content types is just as important now as it has ever been. So yeah, I think that’s
35:31 –> 35:37
one thing. And also just like content refreshes are even more important, especially when it
35:37 –> 35:46
comes to apartment complex, which are adding new amenities, new buildings, new landmarks
35:46 –> 35:51
around the area. I think that would be super important. So just stuff to keep in mind.
35:51 –> 35:56
I love that. I love being relevant in every possible place. Cause we don’t know what like
35:56 –> 36:01
today, whatever generative AI loves might not be the same in like six months from now.
36:01 –> 36:12
So just having all your bases covered is great. All right. Grace, how about you? I was originally
36:12 –> 36:17
going to say the diversification of content formats. Like Christa said, I’m super excited
36:17 –> 36:23
about how we can use bullet points and all that jazz. But I’m also excited about prioritizing
36:23 –> 36:31
FAQ content and also FAQs on the GBP. I feel like that is overwhelmingly a successful tactic
36:31 –> 36:37
with AI results, at least as far as we’ve seen. And we have like so much juicy info
36:37 –> 36:43
to pull FAQs from. So I’m pumped about being able to utilize those, really recommend FAQ
36:43 –> 36:48
pages or find ways to integrate that content into existing stuff. Sorry, Rachel, I stole
36:48 –> 36:52
it, but you can just say the exact same thing. You’ll probably say it much more eloquently.
36:52 –> 37:00
I’m going to say the exact same thing. What Grace said, but better. I think like all the
37:00 –> 37:04
same things, you know, really like talking with clients about how we really want to start
37:04 –> 37:08
integrating more question based. So looking up more questions that people are asking instead
37:08 –> 37:13
of just kind of putting keywords in and focusing on how do we make this keyword so natural,
37:13 –> 37:17
we get to shift, like, how do we have this conversation based on what people, questions
37:17 –> 37:24
people are asking? And also, like Grace said, like mining your Google Business profile,
37:24 –> 37:28
your reviews, your FAQ section, and also mining your competitors. Yeah. See what those people
37:28 –> 37:33
are talking about and then making sure you’ve got the answers that they don’t. Love it.
37:33 –> 37:39
Love it. Kristen, what do you got? For me, it’s videos. I, we’ve obviously touched on
37:39 –> 37:45
the importance of it and I feel like it’s just another opportunity for cross departmental
37:45 –> 37:51
collaboration, which we also discussed. I was recently involved in a video campaign
37:51 –> 37:55
for like five properties that we’re trying out. And it was a nice opportunity to like
37:55 –> 37:59
work with the pay team. And then obviously I’m able to take that video. We created YouTube
37:59 –> 38:04
channels, like optimize that they’re able to take it on their end and run some campaigns
38:04 –> 38:08
with it. So I just think that even though we’ve been creating videos for some of our
38:08 –> 38:14
properties, there’s still a lot of room for growth there. Great. Karina, what do you think?
38:14 –> 38:25
Honestly, kind of like a blanket of what everybody’s been saying. We’re focused on like the content
38:25 –> 38:33
aspect. Yeah. But just, you know, like seeing how like we take a creative approach to engaging
38:33 –> 38:39
and maintaining attention to people who may be looking at these sites. And you just, just
38:39 –> 38:43
our approach in general. That’s what I’m excited to see. I love that. Kelsie, what are you
38:43 –> 38:50
excited about? It’s hard not to say something that everyone else hasn’t said already. Okay,
38:50 –> 38:57
but I am excited. Well, I haven’t heard to say, I think I can find stuff in my head.
38:57 –> 39:03
I am excited about like how content is treated and viewed on different platforms. So I’m
39:03 –> 39:08
excited to see what the case study gives me at the end of this trial, just to see like
39:08 –> 39:15
how Facebook and Instagram, just how we can like, you know, better create videos for those
39:15 –> 39:18
platforms. And hopefully maybe we can like integrate it more into like SEO, like me,
39:18 –> 39:25
who knows what’s going to happen. Life’s crazy. I love it. We never know. Never know. How about
39:25 –> 39:32
you, Joe? I’m really interested in like Kaseya did with comparing chat GBT to Google. I’m
39:32 –> 39:38
also really interested in seeing like how that references up with Bing, since Microsoft
39:38 –> 39:44
invested so much in chat GBT. Yeah. Because if they’re just doing a Bing search, that
39:44 –> 39:48
would just like, and that reinforced the importance of ranking number one, number two, number three,
39:48 –> 39:53
if they’re just pulling those results in, if that is the case. But yeah, interested to
39:53 –> 40:02
see what happens there. Well, Sheri. I think what stuck with me the most, particularly
40:02 –> 40:09
from this conversation is back to Kaseya and her fantastic test, but the results that Claude
40:09 –> 40:16
gave you about what a conversational query looks like in combination with, you know,
40:16 –> 40:22
the light pushback from Bailey about are we overly optimizing for AI and not thinking
40:22 –> 40:27
about what is, what is it going to be like for the human being who asked the question?
40:27 –> 40:32
And once they, you know, they land on that website, is it going to be engaging and help
40:32 –> 40:37
them, you know, continue to answer the questions they have? And it sort of got me thinking
40:37 –> 40:43
about how much more important it is to present information from a lifestyle perspective,
40:43 –> 40:50
because Claude was saying things like, this is who I am. I have this type of job and I
40:50 –> 40:57
have this dog. And I think those are like such specific and interesting details about people
40:57 –> 41:03
and the lifestyles they’re looking for, that we could maybe be creative about addressing.
41:03 –> 41:09
And I think that’s exciting. Cool. All right. Kaseya bring us home. What are you excited
41:09 –> 41:19
about? Well, I’m excited about a lot of things. I think kind of a few things tied together.
41:19 –> 41:26
Snippets I think are a really interesting thing that have a lot of potential for our
41:26 –> 41:34
industry. I think on my second day here, you, Tammy, told me that page two is our page one,
41:34 –> 41:39
because we end up after so many sites like apartments.com and we just get pushed down
41:39 –> 41:47
and I think that’s an amazing opportunity to jump ahead and get on top of those and just
41:47 –> 41:52
kind of skip the line, which I think is really fun. And I think it’s a good opportunity to
41:52 –> 41:59
make content that is extremely useful to people just having those answers to questions. FAQs
41:59 –> 42:05
have been huge for a while now and I feel like a lot of people aren’t taking advantage
42:05 –> 42:13
of it. I think especially for this industry, people are looking for answers to very specific
42:13 –> 42:22
questions. So we can definitely take advantage of that. And I think just having content that
42:22 –> 42:30
is still long form, but having those little snippets in it is a great balance. And I think
42:30 –> 42:35
based on that short test, we might be able to find some interesting things we maybe have
42:35 –> 42:41
not thought of before. Yeah. I love that. That’s exciting. All right, guys. Thank you
42:41 –> 42:48
so much for chatting today. Lots of good things going on in the noodle. So I love this. I
42:48 –> 42:55
can’t wait for our next one. I appreciate you coming here and I will follow up with ideas.
42:55 –> 42:59
Think about what you want to talk about for the next one. I’ll submit a, like just a query,
42:59 –> 43:04
like what do you guys want to talk about? I’ll take it in taken if we get multiple answers.
43:04 –> 43:12
We’ll do a vote and we’ll do another one. Thank you so much. Have a good afternoon. Bye, guys.
43:12 –> 43:22
