Voice Search Solutions: Important Advice for Small Business SEO

While all companies should care about SEO, it’s particularly critical for small businesses. If your firm has few resources and little recognition, it's a challenge merely getting people to notice you. SEO, or search engine optimization, lets you gain recognition by appearing at the top of search engine results that are relevant to your company. Through this method, small firms have achieved widespread publicity quickly and at minimal cost. But the rise of voice search threatens to upend standard SEO strategies, making it essential for your company to adapt.
 

SEO & Voice Search

Voice search involves using software like Siri and Alexa to conduct search engine queries by voice, rather than typing them out. With the rise of smartphones and home automation systems, this search method is growing increasingly popular. Already, 58 percent of American consumers have used voice search at least once in the previous year to find local business information. Even this is only the beginning; within a few years, most searches may be conducted by voice.

The problem with voice search is that when people are speaking, they use different words and phrasings than if they are typing. Because search engines rank pages based on the search terms entered, different pages will appear at the top of voice search queries compared to typed ones. This means that if potential customers switch from typing to using voice search, your SEO strategies may no longer work on them. As a result, you could lose business or be left out entirely!

SEO Strategies for Voice Search Success

While voice search threatens to disrupt your marketing strategy, there is a silver lining. All your competitors will have the same problem, so if you can adapt more quickly, you’ll gain an advantage over them. This means one of the best investments you can make is to tailor your SEO strategy to voice searches, which you can do by:

• Catering to Questions – Voice search queries are more likely to be phrased as questions than traditional ones are. When writing online content for your company, work in key phrases that are framed as questions. For example, if you sell baseball equipment, try to include phrases like, “Where can I find baseball bats near me?” You should also frame the content as an answer to a question.
• Leveraging Location Tags – Customers who conduct voice search queries are especially likely to mention location information, so you should include that in your content. As a Cedar Hill business, you’ll get better results if you work in terms like “in Cedar Hill,” as well as broader location tags like “near Dallas” or “in Ellis County.” You should also use “near me” and “nearby” for customers who conduct vague searches.
• Streamline Site Speed – Site speed matters for all SEO, but voice search makes it even more crucial. The longer it takes each page of your site to load, the more likely it is that customers who conduct voice queries will give up and go elsewhere. By raising site speed, you can improve your retention rate, leading Google and other search engines to rank your pages higher.

For more information on voice search, SEO, and other marketing trends and tips, contact the Cedar Hill Economic Development team today.