Voice search has changed how people—and probably you too—interact with the internet. Accessing information with just a spoken command has become easier than ever. For financial services firms, local voice SEO tactics for accountants ensure that nearby potential clients can easily find your services.
In a time when consumers rely on voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant for quick answers and local business recommendations, understanding and optimizing for local voice SEO can significantly enhance your firm’s online visibility, website traffic, and resulting new clients.
However, optimizing for voice goes beyond traditional SEO best practices. It requires a unique focus on conversational keywords and reading between local intent lines. In this post, we’ll explore the tactics you need to adapt your online presence to spoken search results.
What Makes Voice Search So Important for Local Businesses
Voice search is not a trend—it’s changing how your future clients find your firm online. The ease of asking a virtual assistant for recommendations makes it essential for local businesses. These include accounting firms like yours, which need to optimize for voice search to ensure your services are discoverable when potential clients make local inquiries.
According to Backlinko, 30% of Internet users globally use voice search at least weekly. In the US, where rates are a little higher, millennials use it most (around 68%), and Gen X and Gen Z are roughly tied (52%). Even Boomers are getting in on the action, with around 30% of those on the Internet using it.
Voice especially favors local results, making it easier and more cost-efficient to compete for maximum voice “visibility”. But gaining this visibility is not automatic! Investing in local voice SEO tactics for accountants is smart when you understand how voice search works to earn your firm prime placement.
Curiously, dentists are leading the charge in optimizing their websites for search. Search Engine Watch calls them the most voice-optimized business group. While you’re not a dental professional, this fact showcases how instrumental search is in helping people find local professionals.
Digging Into What Makes Voice Search Tick
Voice searches are more conversational and often local. For example, “what is the closest accounting firm” doesn’t mention where the searcher is. But the voice search-enabled device knows this person’s location and will present the “closest” relative to the searcher. “Near me” searches would be in the same vein.
This means accountants should incorporate long-tail keywords reflecting how clients naturally ask questions. For example, instead of optimizing for “accountant New York,” (traditional local SEO), consider phrasing like “Where can I find an accountant in New York for tax planning?”
When someone asks a question, voice search engines may speak the top answer or provide website links for a person to check out. 40.7% of the spoken answers are also rich snippets from schema markup (a specialized code that helps search engines understand information).
The average voice search result is 29 words and is typically written in a straightforward way that answers the question. You can leverage this ranking to generate financial services leads and re-engage existing clients. We’ll share how!
All major search engines have voice features that rely heavily on structured data, consistent business information, and locally relevant content to communicate the correct answers. This means that local voice SEO tactics for accountants must include focusing on complete, accurate, and consistent information across Google Business, Apple Maps, and Yelp. Amazon’s Alexa uses Yelp, which is a surprise to some people. It’s not just for restaurants anymore. It’s for all service providers.
Voice SEO Tactics for Local Visibility
1. Complete Local Keyword Research for Voice Search & Build Around It
Keyword research isn’t just about plugging some search terms into your content. This activity tells you what people are searching for locally related to financial services. By building answers around these topics, especially ones with local intent, you can earn ranking with voice search engines that lead to your answer being spoken and your firm being mentioned.
While the question may not specifically mention your location, including your location in your answers is helpful. These geo-targeting terms communicate to the search engine that your answer is geographically relevant to the searches. This gives your answer priority over less localized answers. It’s just additional information they use to decide which answers to speak/show in response to a voice query.
2. Claim and Optimize Your Business Profiles
Because Google is the most frequently used search engine, Google Business Profile (GBP) is a good place to start. But it’s also an important place to focus as you dig deeper into local voice SEO tactics for accountants.
Voice search algorithms often rely on GBP data to provide results. So, having a well-optimized business profile increases the chances that Google will suggest your business to users seeking local accounting services.
Simply setting this page up and filling it out completely can significantly influence your chances of being featured by voice search.
First, ensure that all your business information—such as name, address, phone number (NAP), business hours, and service offerings—is current and consistent across all platforms.
Next, naturally add locally relevant keywords (from tactic 1) into the profile to share what you do, who you help, how you work, etc. Then, make your profile visual with high-quality images and videos with your name and tag using your local keyword research as a guide. Finally, focus on getting people to leave you honest reviews. Both people and search engines consider the recency of the review, not just whether it’s 5-star or not.
Once you’ve optimized Google, do the same for Bing Places, Yelp, and Apple Maps. Then, create locally relevant content that you can post on each platform.
3. Optimize for Mobile
Over half of the search traffic is now on mobile. Plus, smartphones are the most common place people use voice search. So, mobile optimization is a must!
Make sure your site has a responsive design that adapts seamlessly to mobile screens. Prioritize fast-loading pages with clear, easily accessible information. Voice search users often look for quick answers on the go. So, make sure your site loads in under three seconds and includes key details like your location, services, and contact information prominently displayed.
On top of these key tactics, know that mobile users expect a fast and frictionless experience. They will leave if you give them extra buttons or pages to sift through. This means simplifying your layout and making sure the most important and frequently accessed information is prominent and easy to use.
For example, some sites now have clickable phone numbers. These instantly start a call from a mobile device when clicked. This optimization takes the steps of copying/memorizing the number, then closing the page, pulling up the phone, and then entering it out. You’ve eliminated many barriers that could have kept this person from calling.
You can make scheduling, paying invoices, safely uploading files, asking a chatbot questions 24/7, and setting up reminders for important due dates just as easy.
4. Implement Structured Data Markup
As mentioned, voice searches rely heavily on structured data. So, ensure that you’ve used schema markup (specialized code) to tell search engines how information should be organized and communicated. If someone wants to know if you’re open on a Wednesday at 6 PM, all they have to say is, “Is {your firm’s name} open?”. The structured data helps the voice search compare the current day and time to your hours on different days of the week to answer this question. This information may be misunderstood if you simply list this information using bullet points or other human-understandable formatting.
Services, pricing ranges, specialties, limited-time offers, and contact information are some things you can organize using structured data.
5. Maintain Consistent Business Information
As mentioned, your NAP must be consistent around the Internet. This serves a couple of key Voice SEO purposes. First, you don’t want brand confusion or someone getting directions to your previous office location because the information is incorrect. But beyond that, when search engines recognize your firm across platforms, it solidifies that you are a local business and you are who you say you are, thus deserving of local recognition.
You’re sending more and more consistent local signals!
Local Small Business Marketing Tools Simplify Local Voice SEO
By optimizing your firm for local voice SEO, you make people in your local area more aware of your existence when they ask questions about local accounting and financial services. From keyword research to schema markup to filling out key profiles and getting more reviews, you can take clear steps to optimize your online presence for these search results.
Surefire Local simplifies the process. We break down what you need to do into clearly defined tasks. You learn how to create and optimize the local signals that search engines use to determine whether they speak/display your firm when asked a question by someone in your community.
We give you access to the tools and reports you need to understand and improve your performance in the local search arena. Our all-in-one local marketing platform is built for small, local financial firms like yours. We’re the #1 marketing platform for local businesses.
We make building a localized online presence and converting that presence into high-value leads easier. But this is something you need to see for yourself. So we encourage you to Attend a Surefire Local Demo.