In the extremely competitive pet care industry, marketing your business locally has become the lynchpin of any business plan. Focusing on local SEO means paying attention to how your local customers are interacting with you, either through social media or other means, including voice search.
With the use of voice search now common practice, its impact on search results has become apparent, and businesses are starting to adapt their marketing to take this into account. What do you need to know to use voice search to your advantage and give your business a boost?
In this article, we’ll take you through what voice search is and some local voice SEO tactics for veterinarians.
What Is Voice Search?
Voice search is any search that is executed using voice commands to voice-enabled technology platforms such as Siri or Google Assistant. Asking a question out loud triggers the technology to initiate a search and return a result from a variety of sources such as Google, Yelp and other sources.
What Are the Major Platforms for Voice Search?
There are a number of voice-enabled platforms available to consumers. The major ones include:
- Siri: The platform developed by Apple is, unsurprisingly, the most popular platform for iPhones (and all of the Apple ecosystem). Siri uses local business data drawn from Apple Maps Connect and Yelp. It has high-quality voice recognition and strong privacy features. However, its limited third-party integration and less accurate search results than Google don’t always make it the best choice from a consumer point of view.
- Alexa: Although this platform has a strong presence in the smart home market (through the Amazon Echo speakers), it draws data from Amazon’s cloud, which means that the answers it provides are not always accurate.
- Google Assistant: This Google platform draws its data from Google search, giving it some of the most powerful and accurate search capabilities on the market. The platform is integrated into a wide range of devices, including Android smartphones, Google Home speakers and other smart devices.
- Cortana: The Microsoft platform is integrated into the Windows operating system, making it widely available and easily accessible for many businesses (which tend to favor Windows devices).
How Does Voice Search Influence Local Search?
According to NPR and Edison Research, 62% of adults (over the age of 18) in the U.S. currently use voice search. Voice search users often seek immediate solutions to problems that are geographically close to them. Common examples include finding restaurants, gas stations, or local services such as pet grooming.
As a result, voice search significantly influences local search by changing how people find and interact with businesses that are local to them. The nature of voice search means it’s more natural and conversational than text search. Instead of typing “nearest veterinarian,” people will ask a complete question, such as “Where is the nearest veterinarian?”
This means that longer, more specific keyword phrases (long-tail keywords) become more significant. Businesses are starting to incorporate these into their SEO strategies to take advantage of this traffic.
What Are the Best Local Voice SEO Tactics for Veterinarians?
So, which strategies should you focus on when optimizing for voice search?
We’re going to focus on the following:
- Local keyword research
- Local SEO tactics
- Mobile Optimization
- Structured data markup
- Maintaining consistent information
Local Keyword Research
Effective local keyword research is the place to start with any voice SEO strategy. Because voice search changes the nature of the keywords you are ranking for, it’s crucial you understand how your local customers find you when they search for you.
Instead of focusing on single words or short phrases such as “veterinarian in New York,” you would focus on a more specific phrase such as “best veterinarian in Manhattan.” This kind of targeted phrase helps capture the intent of the user, who is more likely to convert into a customer because they are actively searching for your service in your area.
In addition, it’s important to address specific local queries in any content you create. Any content strategy you develop should center around answering questions that customers might ask, such as “What are the opening hours of the nearest vet clinic?” or “How do I find a good vet for my dog in [City]?” Providing clear and concise answers to these questions will help you appear more frequently in voice searches and make you more attractive to your potential customers.
Local SEO tactics
We’ve touched on the major players in the voice search game and that they all rely on different data sources to answer your questions. In order to make your business visible to as many of the voice search data sources as possible, you need to make sure you’re visible online in a number of places.
Start with claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile. Ensure that your profile is accurate and you’ve filled out as much information as possible. Additionally, uploading high-quality photos, regularly updating posts, and actively managing customer reviews can significantly improve your profile’s attractiveness and credibility.
Follow the same process for your Yelp profile and Bing Places profile. While Google dominates the search space, many people still use Bing, so it pays to be visible in both search ecosystems.
Finally, don’t forget iOS users. The number of people accessing the internet through their mobile devices has grown and continues to grow. Create an Apple ID for your Apple Maps listing, and create locally relevant content. Producing content that addresses your local audience’s needs is key to boosting your rankings in voice search. You could write about local events relevant to your business or guides on pet care in your area.
Mobile Optimization
With so many people using their mobile devices to access voice search, making sure any web real estate you own is mobile-friendly should be one of your priorities. Start by making sure your website has a mobile-friendly design (a responsive design). A responsive design ensures that your website automatically adjusts its layout and content to fit any screen size.
This means anyone accessing your site on their phone or tablet will be able to navigate to the information they need quickly and easily.
Your site should also load quickly. Slow-loading sites frustrate users and result in a high bounce rate (people leaving your site before they have accessed the information they need). You can do this by compressing images, minimizing the use of heavy scripts, and using browser caching.
Structured Data Markup for Local Businesses
Implementing structured data markup (schema markup) is a strong strategy for those looking to improve their visibility in voice search. Structured data markup involves adding specific code to your website that helps search engines better understand your content. If you’re looking to attract local traffic, then highlighting your essential details such as address, business name, phone number, opening hours, services offered and customer reviews is the way to go.
Using schema markup for local business details allows search engines to present your information more effectively in search results, meaning that your business is more likely to appear in a voice search. This will help improve your click-through rates and drive more traffic to your site.
Maintaining Consistent Information
We’ve touched on maintaining your business information across multiple platforms, but this is such an important point that it bears repeating. Consistently maintaining your business information is a legitimate (and important) SEO strategy for maximizing your presence in results returned by voice search.
The most fundamental element to focus on is your NAP (Name, Address, Phone). Ensuring this information is consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, Bing Places, social media accounts, and other local directories helps search engines verify your legitimacy and improves your local rankings.
Review Your Voice SEO Tactics Today
With some thought and planning, you can put together a voice SEO strategy that promotes your business to local customers. Investing in voice search best practices now will help you build a solid local presence.
Surefire Local is all about helping small businesses establish their online presence by creating local signals across platforms and profiles in the form of content, photos, reviews, and ads that make it easier for new customers to connect with them.
We can help optimize your online presence for voice search simply by managing all aspects of voice SEO strategies within one platform.
If you’re looking for support with voice search SEO tactics (and more), then we encourage you to attend a Surefire Local demo.