Get Ready for Voice Search

A rising trend that isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon? Search by voice on search engines like Google.

Most people have gotten somewhat accustomed to voice assistants on smartphones and other devices. It certainly comes in handy when you’re unavailable to type in a search query, like when driving in the car or cooking at home. The convenience that comes with voice search solidifies it as a mainstay in the behavior of search engine users like your dealership customers. Instead of taking the time to type, they may choose to instead ask Siri or Alexa to find them the best local dealership for their latest purchase. That’s why it has now become crucial to optimize your website content for voice search.

People tend to type in a search query differently than they would speak it aloud. For example, a person might type in “pellet grills near me.” When they perform a voice search for the same thing, they might say, “Siri, find the closest hardware store that sells pellet grills and electric barbecues.” Searches tend to become more conversational and less robotic, and the content on your site should match that tone. Voice searches only produce one result – the one that the search engine algorithm determines to be the best match. Even if your business is the closest or highest-rated one that sells the product a searcher is looking for, the voice assistant may offer the searcher a different option if a competing business has optimized their content for conversational phrases that the searcher is most likely to use.

While voice search does change the game for SEO, it is still important to implement valuable, keyword-rich content – it just needs to sound like a person wrote it. It may be different than what many online marketers are accustomed to, but this actually makes content writing for your website an easier task. Instead of writing content specifically to attract search engines, write your content in a way that comes naturally. What would your customer reasonably say aloud when browsing online for a site like yours?

Do not think that because voice search is increasing in frequency, the basics of SEO best practices have disappeared. For instance, don’t underestimate the power of having plenty of content on your site through unit descriptions, articles, blog posts, and more. The more well-written and high-quality content on your site, the better – and it is always best practice to focus on one topic per page on your website. For example, creating separate pages for “About Us,” “Meet Our Staff,” and “Contact Us” and including only the relevant information on each of those pages. This builds up your SEO and earns credibility for your dealership.

However, with his new change it is worth the time and effort to take a second look at the content written on your site. Does your content read in a conversational way? How could it better match the natural tone of a searcher? Editing and optimizing your website’s SEO content could help bump your dealership website up to the top for future customers as voice search continues to become more and more popular.