Voice search changes SEO dynamic
SEO Geelong! They’re a couple of words Geelong business owners might type into Google hoping to find a web developer who can get their business’s website onto the home page of Google. In case you don’t know, SEO – search engine optimisation – is one of the crucial ingredients of a good website and what ensures a website’s prominence throughout Google’s search results.
Direct keyword approaches have worked well on the SEO front for years – SEO Geelong, websites Geelong, plumber Geelong, removalist Geelong. One or two words and a location were pretty much the focus of most online searches and, consequently, what many web developers focused on when building sites. But is that all about to change?
If the predictions about voice search are on the money, then the answer is “yes”. Two-or-three-word approaches to search aren’t going to apply for much longer.
And why is that? Because the spoken word is beginning to make its presence felt on the search landscape! Searchers are using voice search on their phones more and more often and Google is also increasing its focus and emphasis on voice search
Think about what you type into your computer, phone or tablet when searching Google for something. If you’re like most people you take the shortest and quickest approach possible, and the shortest and quickest approach is typing two or three words at most. “Weather Geelong” might be all you type to find out the current conditions or day’s forecast.
But now think about how you might ask Google’s voice search for the same results. Are you going to say “weather Geelong” or are you more inclined to ask: “What is the top temperature for Geelong today?” You know the answer. For whatever reason, what we type and what we verbalise are not the same, although the results from Google will be pretty much the same for both types of search: Google will dish up a result with the day’s forecast and top temperature.
However, voice search does change the landscape for those who build websites and particularly for those offering search engine optimisation.
Website developers offering legitimate SEO services will need to change how they actually go about structuring websites. Their approach to the content, metadata and structure will have to take into account those verbal searches and how Google interprets and delivers those spoken searches. Adding umpteen backlinks to a skinny, uninformative website just isn’t going to cut it!
Creating the structure for a text search for the keyword “SEO Geelong“, for example, is pretty straightforward in the scheme of building a website. But what about for all the verbal permutations of that search? How do you cover a vocal search for “who is the best company in Geelong to get my website on the home page of Google?” The intent is the same – the searcher is looking for a search engine optimisation company in Geelong – but the words and approach are much different.
Add to the equation that although Google provides basic instructions and directions for web developers, it never gives away the secrets to its search algorithms and therefore working out the best approach is largely a process of elimination involving endless research and testing.
Perhaps what’s going to happen – and this is what we’re tipping after a visit to Google and a week at one of the world’s leading SEO forums in the US earlier this year – is that websites featuring high-quality text content will gain more and more prominence because high-quality and highly informative text content will cover off many of those voice searches. Simply, Google will find the words you’ve spoken within the text of a well-research and well-written website. By the way, Google does understand what you’re saying!
Fortunately, from GOOP Digital’s perspective, our websites are jam-packed with high-quality text content written by the former journalists and public relations and marketing experts who make up our team of SEO copywriters. Their words cover off the most simple and most complex search scenarios.
None of us know precisely what tomorrow will bring but one thing we’re confident of at GOOP Digital is that our professionally written websites put our clients in the box seat for text and voice search. Whether a search comprises one or two words punched into a computer keyboard or a convoluted sentence spoken into smartphone search app, Google has the best possible chance of matching that search with the content of a GOOP Digital website.
If you want to know more about voice search, websites in general or even about our trip to Google, make sure you contact GOOP Digital.