Here’s the short answer – by doing everything you should already be doing to optimize your website for regular search.
Unfortunately, there are a number of “marketing firms” out there that would have you believe that you should pay them a lot of money to help you optimize for voice search. Please don’t give them any of your money.
If your website adheres to modern search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, you should have to do very little, if anything, to optimize for voice. Let’s get into the main difference between voice and text search and what you should be doing to search well for voice.
The difference between voice search and text search
When it comes to how people use voice search versus how they use text search the most significant difference is what they put in the search box. Of course, when using voice search they are not literally putting anything in the search box, but the voice assistant inserts whatever they say into the “box.”
Moz.com Voice Search Query Chart
With text search, searches are much more likely to be shorter and often include only one to three words:
- Auto repair
- New tires
- Brake repair Raleigh
With voice search, searches are longer and more conversational:
- “Where can I get an oil change near me?”
- “Alexa, where can I get new tires for my 2017 Honda Civic?”
- “I need an auto repair shop to get my brakes fixed in Raleigh.”
This is what SEO experts will call the long tail search. Searches using voice are most often not as condensed as those using text. This is in part because people who often use voice search like the ease-of-use and are more likely to use it similar to how they may talk to a friend.
How to optimize for voice search
To expand on my short answer above, here’s what you should be doing to give your auto repair shop the best chance to perform well in voice search.
Write for Humans
This may seem somewhat obvious, but SEO for websites back in the day would include a lot of emphasis on keywords and writing for the search engines. That has changed over the past three to five years as search engines (especially Google) have continued to build in factors that reward writing for humans. The longer, conversational searches that we see more often in voice search lend themselves to conversational language that provides an answer. You should have easy-to-understand explanations for your services. You should also have content that provides answers to questions potential customers might ask.
Thorough Content
The longer queries that come with voice search require more depth in your content. Let’s use the example “I need an auto repair shop to get my brakes fixed in Raleigh.” There are three elements that need to be covered with this one – auto repair, brakes and Raleigh. In order to choose your website as the search result, Google is going to want to make sure you represent all three elements well. As we’ve been saying for many years, if you have a one-page website, or maybe just a few pages, you are not going to compete well in these searches. You need to be sure you have depth of content for your category (auto repair), your services and your location.
Mobile Friendly
Mobile friendly responsive design has been important for text search for years and it’s important for voice search as well. If you don’t have a mobile friendly website, you need to get that fixed right away.
Google My Business
In almost all cases a voice search that includes the words “near me” (like “auto repair near me”) will return a result directly from Google My Business (GMB) listings. This is similar to text search where the Local Pack full of Google My Business listings appears right at the top of the page and many people use that to make their choices. If you have not completely optimized your Google My Business listing, you should do that right away, for the same reasons you should have already done it for text search. Your website and your GMB profile are your most important tools for being found online by potential customers. They should be working together to attract new business for you.
As you can see, the things that you need for voice search optimization – writing for humans, thorough content and mobile friendly – are the same things you need for text search optimization. Having those key elements and an optimized Google My Business profile will give you the best chances of performing well in voice search.
We can help make sure your website and your Google My Business profile are set up for voice search success. Call us at 855-294-6397 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com and let’s talk through your options.