{"id":4125,"date":"2017-07-04T14:54:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-04T13:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/?p=4125"},"modified":"2020-07-06T10:49:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T09:49:36","slug":"incorporating-voice-search-into-your-local-seo-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/incorporating-voice-search-into-your-local-seo-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Incorporating Voice Search Into Your Local SEO Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Google<\/a>

How Google Assistant Displays Voice Search Results<\/p><\/div>\n

As mentioned in our <\/span>SEO predictions for 2017<\/span><\/a>, voice search is becoming much more prominent in organic search. Not only is it a big feature on the latest mobile phones, devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home are shipping by the millions, and they\u2019re adding another dimension to how we search.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conversational or voice search allows us to get the answers we need quickly and efficiently. For example, finding the best restaurants, cinema times and shop opening hours is now only an utter away. So why is this important to local businesses? Not only can your customers find key information about your business, it makes you discoverable to new customers too. <\/span><\/p>\n

Customers don\u2019t necessarily need to be searching for brand terms for you to appear, for example \u2018best pub in Ripon\u2019 simply pulls in the pubs with the best reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

This opens up new possibilities for local businesses. No longer are you just found for your brand or company name, you can be discovered for the most relevant terms that matter most.<\/span><\/p>\n

Catering for Conversational Search & Longer Queries<\/span><\/h2>\n

Incorporate Natural Speech Patterns<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Google<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Last year <\/span>Bing<\/span><\/a> announced that 25% of all searches are voice searches on the Windows 10 taskbar, and <\/span>ComScore<\/span><\/a> suggests that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be done by voice, so the questions is, can you really afford not to cater for voice search? <\/span><\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, voice searches are going to be longer as they\u2019re more conversational, with increasing use of interrogatives such as what, why, when, how and so on. Instead of \u2018Bronco opening times\u2019, you might instead say \u2018what time does Bronco open?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Rob Wilk<\/span><\/a>, the VP North America for Search Sales at Microsoft Search Advertising says whilst text searches are between 1 to 3 words, voice searches have grown to be between 6 and 10 words. So how can you go about implementing this change of searching behaviour into digital strategies?<\/span><\/p>\n

Start With The Basics<\/span><\/h3>\n

This means getting your location data and structured data in place and correct. Not only ensuring your NAP (Name, address and phone number) is correct on your Google My Business listing, but also your location data across the web. The importance of citations may be argued, but ensuring your details are correct and consistent within them is essential. <\/span>Moz\u2019s Local Tool<\/span><\/a> is good for finding your existing citations, and ensuring they\u2019re correct.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Google's<\/a>

Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool<\/p><\/div>\n

Once you\u2019re happy with your location data and citations, it\u2019s time to check your markup and microdata. If you\u2019re not sure what\u2019s in place already, put your location pages or relevant pages that would usually use markup, e.g. product pages, into <\/span>Google\u2019s Structured Data Testing Tool<\/span><\/a>. You can also take a look in <\/span>Search Console<\/span><\/a> – under Search Appearance in the left hand navigation, you\u2019ll find Structured Data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Note:<\/i><\/b> If you\u2019re stuck as to what Structured Data your site should be using, check out this handy post from <\/span><\/i>Whitespark<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and try putting your competitors into the Structured Data Testing Tool to see what you can replicate on your own site.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As conversational search is seeing, and will continue to see, a hike in query word length, your copy should be just that: conversational. Make an effort to include natural speech patterns in your website\u2019s content so it reads naturally. As always, you\u2019re looking to target a human audience, not a Googlebot audience, so ensure your copy considers this and is semantically sound. <\/span><\/p>\n

Find What People are Asking<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Establish<\/a><\/p>\n

A really great tool for finding questions associated with keywords is <\/span>keywordtool.io<\/span><\/a>. Entering your main keyword and navigating to \u2018questions\u2019 gives you long tail questions often generated from voice search. The Keyword Planner is another go-to, and more question\u00a0structured keywords and phrases are likely to appear here at voice search grows in popularity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Provide The Answers In A Simple Format<\/span><\/h3>\n

Consider mobile-friendly Q and A style guides, and how that can be used to answer user queries. With this, you can soon find yourself at <\/span>position 0<\/span><\/a> as Google uses your content to answer questions in its Knowledge Graph. As well as this, you’re improving brand recognition, becoming a valuable resource for potential customers. Of course, the traditional highlight of Q and A, Frequently Asked Questions content is providing customers with the answers they need before making a purchase or an enquiry, so you’re also getting an aspect of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) in there, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Discover Untapped Keywords<\/span><\/h3>\n

Take a dip into your Search Console reports on a regular basis to see how people are finding your site. From here you might just find yourself uncovering new long tail keyword targets you hadn\u2019t considered before. Search Analytics within Search Console provides some really great insights, not just for voice search keywords, so make the most out of this great resource when possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reviews<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Incorporate<\/a>In order to be competitive in local search, you\u2019re going to need to be backed up by solid, genuine reviews. They\u2019re a must have and although not the easiest aspect of a local campaign, they\u2019re perhaps the most influential when it comes to users navigating what can be a crowded market.<\/span><\/p>\n

Encourage existing customers to review when possible to build up a strong profile. It\u2019s old news and common sense that good reviews, and plenty of them, result in a higher Click Through Rate (CTR). A recent study by <\/span>Reputation Loop<\/span><\/a> confirmed this with some pretty telling stats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get Started<\/span><\/h2>\n

Google makes a point of ensuring the local business tools are easy to use, so setting up your Google My Business Profile is quick and easy, and can be done <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s well worth allocating time to a specific local search strategy, regardless of your business size, to ensure you\u2019re making the most out of local opportunities, pulling in as much organic traffic through your listing as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Need help with your local strategy? Our team of SEO experts are on hand to kick start your campaign today, Get in touch<\/a> to find out more.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in our SEO predictions for 2017, voice search is becoming much more prominent in organic search. Not only is it a big feature on the latest mobile phones, devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home are shipping by the millions, and they\u2019re adding another dimension to how we search. Conversational or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":4240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search-engine-optimisation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}