On Voice123, your voice over profile is like your resume - it represents your voice, vocal skills, abilities, and achievements. In this series, we’ll share how to optimize your Voice123 profile with insights and best practices from Julie Shanahan, Voice123's Product Designer.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & why should you care?
Before we get into the dos and don’ts for your Voice123 profile, we need to dive into the big deal around SEO and its advantages. How does it support the creation of a strategic online presence when voice acting is all about performance?
Simple: SEO helps with visibility. It’s an enabler. It grows your digital presence and your potential for booking voice over work.
There’s no argument these days that having a successful voice over career takes a lot more than just having a good voice and acting talent. It’s a very competitive industry. The acting profession itself is also demanding. It requires you to stretch your acting talent, interpretive ability, as well as your business acumen. In short, you need an entrepreneurial mindset; you must be a VO-entrepreneur. After all, you are a business.
So, where does SEO fit in?
Basically, SEO is making use of keywords to increase your online presence, so you rank better in search engines. By optimizing your profile, including your samples according to best practices, your online visibility will improve — and the more visible you are, the easier it is for clients to find you. No one will book you if they don’t know you’re there!
Improving your visibility will then help you rank on Voice123 and other search engines like Google, and keeping your profile up to date means you’ll be properly equipped to show your work to potential clients. Especially to clients who aren’t looking on Voice123.
To help you apply these skills, Julie Shanahan, Voice123’s Product Designer, shares best practices that you can start following today. Keep in mind that this won’t provide you with instant results. It takes time. It’s not a one-and-done implementation either; it’s a skill that requires knowledge to develop and persistence.
The weight of word usage
When it comes to optimizing your profile, word choice is very important. Changing one word to another can make the difference between your content ranking well on search engines or not ranking at all. And that’s important because 75% of users never click past the first page of search results, which means that word differentiation could bring your profile to more clients or hide it behind overwhelming amounts of search results.
What to write in your ‘About’ section
So how do landing voice acting gigs intertwine with writing for SEO? By imagining yourself as the client who’s searching for a voice actor. As mentioned in our video, you would write on your About page in a third-person perspective.
Speaking in the third person is optimal because when clients write in the search bar of any search engine, they’re not searching “I am a voice actor” they’re searching for your name.
And if your name is used frequently in your profile, recurring clients and new prospects who search for you are more likely to find you. That also means words that aren’t relevant or important and words that clutter the profile should be avoided. For instance, avoid emojis and writing about your favorite pastimes unless they add credibility to your voice acting skills.
Keep in mind that you’re not writing an essay about yourself – just the main highlights of your vocal career to help clients understand your strenghts and abilities. Julie Shanahan
❌ Avoid this type of About section
This is NOT a good example of how to optimize your Voice123 profile. In this section, the voice actor is describing his voice with many, many keywords.
If you do this, we assume the intention is to provide clients with the full picture of your skills and to make sure you are covered under Voice123’s search capabilities. However, public search engines will do absolutely nothing with this, because there’s no context behind the usage of these words.
What’s annoying? What’s awkward? How is your voice quirky? How is it calm?
✅ Aim for this type of About section
This is a good example of how to optimize your Voice123 profile. You need to think strategically here; pick a couple of keywords you’d use to promote yourself, ones that you’d be confident to rank for. If you are going to mention your clients, mention the projects you completed with them. If you describe your voice styles and tones, don’t forget to mention the character and/or role you performed.
It’s all about giving context, being specific, and writing in proper, full sentences. Plus, the most important information should sit at the top of the page. *The examples above are for demonstration purposes only.
Template: About section
Here’s a template to help get you started. Alternatively, you can start by listing descriptive words instead of introducing your name to immediately show the characteristics of your voice.
"(First name & last name) is a (nationality) voice actor who has a (adjectives like warm, friendly, conversational) voice. (Your name) has worked on a variety of projects, including: (project types like commercial, audiobook narration, etc), and has worked for (brand names & clients)."
It’s short but delivers the essentials and saves clients from reading unnecessary information. They’ll appreciate that. Feel free to change, add and remove whatever you’d like to fit your profile better.
What to write when specifying work you've done
It’s great to include brands and clients you’ve worked with before, as listing brand names tends to bring more attention to a profile than listing voice over categories in your About section, such as audiobook narration, commercial, eLearning, animation, corporate, promos, and so on. You can write something along the lines of:
“(Your name) is the voice of (brand/role), and has worked for (brands).”
And if you haven’t worked for brands yet, it’s still good to note some of your most prominent works and roles.
Daniel Amerman has successfully secured a SERP (search engine results page) featured snippet with his Voice123 profile.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t list project types you’re proficient with, that’s still a good idea.
Often, clients will already have a project in development and know what kind of voice they’re looking for. Including your ability to cover certain project types, such as audiobook or eLearning, in your profile will increase your visibility and your chances of booking a gig.
As mentioned in the video, try to keep paragraphs between 40-60 words. Run-on sentences can lose a client’s attention. A word count is just a guideline, but the idea behind it is to convey information directly and succinctly. If you imagine yourself as a client looking for a voice-over, you’ll likely want to read the About sections as quickly and efficiently as possible. Helping clients understand your About section better will make it easier for them to choose you.
And there you have it, we hope you’ve found these tips and tricks on how to optimize your Voice123 profile. Once your About section is looking sharp and delivers important information well, you can start to optimize your samples.
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