Is your website optimized for voice search?

alarsonOctober 31, 2019

BY LAUREN LABUNSKY

If you haven’t incorporated voice assistants into your daily life yet, chances are it won’t be long before you do. According to a recent study, 70% of people will swap store visits for voice assistants by 2022¹. This means that in just two years, people will opt out of physically driving to a dealership, browsing the available inventory, and asking a team member questions about the bike they are interested in. Instead, they will use a voice assistant like Alexa or Siri to research purchases and ask customer service questions.

Why is this something that your dealership needs to consider when it comes to your digital marketing strategy? The content on your site needs to be optimized for voice search. Trendy SEO strategies that may have worked in the past such as stuffing content with relevant keywords will not serve you well when it comes to online searches that people make by voice. It’s important that the content on your site is well-written and conversational, because the content needs to match the way people speak in real life. This type of speaking isn’t always proper or grammatically perfect, and that does stand to be corrected. However, a conversational tone that matches the way people speak in real life will match the way people speak to voice assistants on devices.

Optimizing your website content for voice search is a win/win for everyone – it’s easier for you as the writer, because it will come more naturally than trying to write in a formal tone with an overload of keywords, and it’s more enjoyable for your website visitors to read as well. As you can imagine, people make voice searches like “Find a dealer nearby that sells KTMs” – not a search like “KTM motorcycle powersports dealership motorsports dirt bike sales.” If you’re not sure if your content is written conversationally, try reading it out loud. Does it flow naturally, rather than sounding repetitive or robotic? It should be easy to tell if adjustments need to be made.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about having a large amount of high-quality, keyword-rich content on your site to attract search engines, increasing the chance that your site will be ranked highly for searchers. None of that changes with the added element of voice search optimization. It is still true that the more high-quality content you have, the more likely your site will appear in search results for searches that match that content. Keywords will come naturally if you are writing about a topic that makes sense in relation to those keywords.

Voice assistants are becoming more advanced and more popular – the percentage of people who used voice assistants jumped from 35% in 2017 to 53% in 2019¹. Not only is optimizing your website content mutually beneficial for your customers and your business, but it will help your dealership get found online, too.

Lauren Labunsky is the public relations manager at Dealer Spike, a leading web services provider for powersports dealerships. The award-winning digital advertising company is focused on helping dealers increase sales through powerful, distinctive website design and a full suite of online marketing tools to drive results. Dealer Spike’s expertise comes from real-world dealership experience and a team of professionals who also ride. When you work with Dealer Spike, you’re working with digital marketing experts who have a passion for your industry.