Are you optimizing your content for Voice Search?

[Alexander Lau]

Greg Giffords of Digital Dealer said recently that we don't necessarily need to change the way we (as car dealers) are optimizing our sites for voice search. I think his reasoning was that many of the voice searches (at least for now) are telling Siri to set reminders, alarms, get phone numbers to places, etc..

I'd bet that an extremely small amount of voice searches are even related to dealerships or automotive in any way (other than something like "What is Buerkle Honda's phone number?") and that our energy could be better spent elsewhere. I think that in the current state of voice search and our industry, focusing your energy on other things will be more effective. Unless you're a 30-store group with F-U money and you'd like to give it a go.

However, I still think its important to pay attention to voice search so that you can prepare for the future. Maybe we'll see an upward swing in its usage or its relevance to our industry and it will make sense to allocate resources to it.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, much assumptions there. I would definitely pay attention to the essentials, but it's not granular (yet). Look at it this way, if Dealer A has it covered and Dealer B doesn't, who do you think is going to fair better?

 

[AWNick]

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, much assumptions there. I would definitely pay attention to the essentials, but it's not granular (yet). Look at it this way, if Dealer A has it covered and Dealer B doesn't, who do you think is going to fair better?

If Dealer A has Voice Search optimization covered and Dealer B puts their efforts instead towards local search optimization or better content optimization or whatever, I think AT THIS TIME, Dealer B will be better off.

But that's just an opinion. I think we're probably close to a point where it'll matter. Dealer B should definitely still be paying attention to voice, though.

 

[Alexander Lau]

If Dealer A has Voice Search optimization covered and Dealer B puts their efforts instead towards local search optimization or better content optimization or whatever, I think AT THIS TIME, Dealer B will be better off.

But that's just an opinion. I think we're probably close to a point where it'll matter. Dealer B should definitely still be paying attention to voice, though.

I can appreciate that and I see where you're going with it, but I'd do both. I'd not spend a terrible amount of money on it, but I'd cover the bases and I'd measure it. Obviously, some demographics are more likely to use it.

 

[AWNick]

If you were my colleague making that argument, I'd shake your hand and say let's do it.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Excellent find @reverson

Dealer Inspire is currently rolling out Voice Search functionality on their websites!

 

[Alexander Lau]

https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-lessons-google/amp/
Lesson #7: You are not going to like the future
I saved the biggest lesson for last because it affects most marketers who are used to Google in its current form and how it has been for years.

From all of my conversations with people who work at Google, they all know the world is changing and they want to make sure Google adapts with it and, more importantly, stays ahead.

For example, they know a lot of searches are going through voice devices like Alexa and Google Home. If you just look at mobile devices, voice already accounts for 20% of the searches.

And it is happening at a rapid pace based on the graph below:

And it isn’t stopping there. Both the Internet world and the real world are starting to be connected.

 

[Alexander Lau]

What email marketers should know about Alexa's latest feature
https://marketingland.com/what-email-marketers-should-know-about-alexas-latest-feature-253436

If millions of people start listening to Alexa read their email, email marketers will have to adapt to avoid deletion.

On Monday, Amazon announced some new Alexa capabilities. Chief among them was the ability to read and delete email. The company also is enabling location-based reminders and routines (tied to the smartphone Alexa app) and other incremental local search improvements. However the email capabilities are the most compelling of the announcements.

Works with Gmail and Outlook. In order to access email on Alexa, users need to add their email accounts under “settings” in the Alexa app. The “calendar” setting will update to “email + calendar.” It currently works with Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail and Live.com. You have to choose the account and sign in with your password.

 

[Steve Stauning]

Giffords is 100% correct. There is NO DIFFERENCE (regardless of what those trying to sell your SEO will say) between search and voice search. The best practice for optimizing content for search always included using verbiage common in your market. To think that someone is going to ask Siri a question any differently (relatively speaking) than they type it into a search bar is ludicrous.

Search: "Car dealer near me"
Voice Search: "Hey Siri, can you list some car dealers near me?"

(Is this where I insert a Mic Drop hashtag or GIF? #AskingForAFriend)

 

[craigh]

Search: "Car dealer near me"
Voice Search: "Hey Siri, can you list some car dealers near me?"

There are some pretty significant differences. Many Google users ask questions when using voice (any assistant), but use keywords when searching on a phone or computer. The important thing for both is that you have proper schema markup and use common language. The big difference is that you can have great SEO performance with 0 schema markup, but you're going to have a more difficult time getting great voice results and integration without that markup to tell various search engines which values are which.

https://www.xovi.com/2018/08/speakable-schema-org-markup-for-voice-search/

 

[Alexander Lau]

There are some pretty significant differences. Many Google users ask questions when using voice (any assistant), but use keywords when searching on a phone or computer. The important thing for both is that you have proper schema markup and use common language. The big difference is that you can have great SEO performance with 0 schema markup, but you're going to have a more difficult time getting great voice results and integration without that markup to tell various search engines which values are which.

https://www.xovi.com/2018/08/speakable-schema-org-markup-for-voice-search/

Nice find! I respect Gifford, but he's wrong there.