Voice search is revolutionizing the world of local SEO, and it’s changing the way businesses optimize their content for maximum visibility on SERPs.
With voice search, users can quickly and easily access real-time data with a simple voice command, which is incredibly helpful when it comes to finding products and service providers in their community. This opens up huge opportunities for local businesses to reach potential customers through natural language and longtail keyword queries — so long as they’re optimizing their online presence for these types of searches.
Through proper optimization strategies tailored specifically for voice searches, local businesses have an incredible opportunity to capture audiences beyond those searching manually, so let’s get into it!
Voice Search and Local SEO
Voice search refers to the use of smart speakers, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, to search for information via voice commands. Voice search takes away the need for manual typing and allows users to find results quickly and easily.
Search engine results for voice searches are typically delivered in one of three forms:
- organic results
- knowledge graph cards
- featured snippets
Organic results are regular web pages that have been indexed by the search engine and may appear in response to a query.
Knowledge graph cards are boxes that provide additional information and media related to the query.
Featured snippets are a special type of answer box that contains a summary of an answer based on the query. These snippets usually appear at the top of the SERP, making them more likely to be noticed than other organic results.
Understanding the Value of Voice Search for Businesses
Voice search provides an opportunity for local businesses to break into other markets as the technology continues to improve. By optimizing for natural language processing, keyword variations, and intent analysis, businesses can improve their visibility on local SERPs and increase their chances of reaching potential customers.
Additionally, because voice search takes context into account while understanding queries, subtle nuances in searches may lead potential customers directly to your business even if they don’t use your exact keywords or terms.
Businesses that are optimized for voice search typically see the following benefits:
- Increased website traffic and leads due to higher rankings on SERPs.
- Improved discoverability through structured data and better descriptions of their products or services.
- Easier access to information with natural language processing (NLP) techniques used to create content for voice searches.
- Greater customer engagement through more relevant content.
- Faster conversions due to concise answer boxes and featured snippets appearing at the top of SERPs.
Get Voice Search Ready with Direction Local
Use Direction Local to list your business on Amazon Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant and 50+ online directories.
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Optimizing Your Website for Voice Search Queries
With voice search becoming an increasingly popular way for customers to find what they’re looking for, optimizing content for voice searches has become more important.
By understanding how voice queries work and leveraging the following local SEO tactics, you can increase your online visibility and reach new segments of customers looking for immediate answers to their questions.
1. Create content that includes natural language and long-tail keywords
Here are some simple steps you can take to create natural language content that will help optimize your brand for local voice search queries:
- Understand how voice queries work and what people are searching for locally.
- Identify target keywords and use variations of those keywords in your content.
- Leverage long-tail keywords to target more specific terms related to your business.
- Incorporate natural language processing (NLP) into your content to make it easier for people to find you via voice searches.
- Consider the intent behind the query and make sure your content is written in a way that makes accurate predictions about what the customer wants to know or buy.
2. Develop an FAQ page for your business and services
Creating an FAQ page about your business and services can be done in the following steps:
- Identify the most commonly asked questions from customers (look to Questions and Answers on your Google Business Profile, as well as reviews from previous customers).
- Develop clear, concise answers for each question that are easily understandable by all users (keep it simple and don’t include links to other resources).
- Structure your FAQ page into relevant categories for easier navigation and access (if you have an active blog, you can use the same category structure for your FAQs and further break this down by silos).
- Add supporting documents such as videos and knowledge graphs that help explain concepts or ideas more clearly when needed.
- Test and optimize content regularly to ensure that customers have access to accurate and up-to-date information about your business and product offerings.
3. Add structured data to your website
Adding local business schema to a website in order to optimize for voice search can be done in the following steps:
- Create landing pages on your website for each of your business’ locations.
- Generate a JSON-LD script with the required structured data properties and values for each location.
- Insert the JSON-LD script into the source code of the page listing all your locations and make sure it is visible in the HTML code of the webpage.
- Test if your changes have been accepted through Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure that all information has been correctly formatted and applied.
4. Use location-based keywords and phrases
Adding location based keywords to content, titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags to optimize a website for local voice searches can be done in the following steps:
- Research location-based keywords that are relevant to your business and niche.
- Incorporate these location-based keywords into your website’s content, titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags as naturally as possible.
- Focus on using variations of the same keyword or phrase in order to build relevance and reach a wider audience.
- Refrain from keyword stuffing and use contextual clues such as synonyms or related terms that are related to your main keyword or phrase when possible.
6. Make sure your website is mobile friendly and loads quickly
Ensuring a website is mobile friendly and loads quickly in order to be more visible in local voice search queries can be done in the following steps:
- Optimize images for faster loading times by compressing or slightly resizing them as needed.
- Use minified JavaScript and CSS files to improve page loading speed.
- Ensure your site’s code is streamlined and free of large, bulky files that can slow down page load time significantly.
- Use browser caching to store data from previously visited pages, which will allow the webpage to load faster when revisited by returning visitors.
- Test your website across multiple devices, browsers, and resolutions to make sure it looks consistent, renders correctly, and functions properly on all platforms.
7. Leverage social media channels to connect with customers in real time
Here are five simple steps that you can take to increase their voice search visibility via social media:
- Create posts with relevant location-based keywords and descriptions that give users an idea of what your business is about.
- Post content frequently in order to keep users engaged with your brand and generate organic interactions on each post.
- Utilize hashtags related to your industry in order to make it easier for people to find your content when searching for relevant topics online.
- Re-share content from other sources that is related to the local area, such as news articles or events, in order to stay active and connected with what’s happening around you.
- Monitor user comments and reviews regularly to ensure that people have a positive experience when interacting with your business – this will help boost engagement further and potentially improve organic rankings for voice search queries.
Conclusion: Taking Advantage of Voice Search to Outperform Competitors
Clearly, voice search is transforming the way businesses approach local SEO.
By leveraging social media, creating content with long-tail keywords and utilizing structured data (to name a few tactics), your brand can become more visible in local voice searches and benefit from improved organic rankings for keywords that drive sales.
This shift toward voice search requires you to think differently about how you operate in order to survive and thrive within the digital landscape. With the right approach, you can gain a competitive edge over your rivals and establish yourself as an industry leader in the community.
Get Voice Search Ready with Direction Local
Use Direction Local to list your business on Amazon Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant and 50+ online directories.
Get Listed
