Voice search is one of the top tech trends heading into the new year. However, most financial advisor websites are not optimized for voice search. If your website lacks this optimization, you will miss out on investors who choose your voice search-friendly competitors simply because they took the time to optimize their site for verbal searches.
Do not assume optimizing your financial advisor website for voice search is an egregiously challenging tech project. Invest a little bit of time and effort in such optimization as part of your financial advisor digital marketing strategy and you will find it really does make a meaningful impact on the number of new leads that are produced by your website.
Voice Search is Dependent on Keywords
Like other searches, keywords are critical for voice searches for financial advisors. Develop a list of the right keywords for your voice searches and you will produce long-term benefits for your firm in the form of increased visitors, leads, and prospects. In particular, it is important to target keywords that are questions.
The majority of voice searches center on question-oriented words such as “where”, “why”, “when” and “what”. Be cognizant of these question-oriented keywords when adding SEO for voice search.
Furthermore, long-tail keywords are also important as they complete questions. Resist the temptation to fall into the trap of ignoring long-tail keywords and you will improve your voice search results.
Don’t forget about filler words in the context of SEO. Such filler words are added within questions to make the search that much more conversational, meaning it is that closer to how human beings actually talk when interacting with one another. As an example, filler words such as “to”, “for”, “on the”, “I” and “of the” are particularly important to add to your voice search SEO.
Mobile Matters
Google is placing that much more emphasis on the importance of the mobile experience with each passing day. In fact, the majority of the company’s most notable announcements made at Google I/O 2019 pertained to mobile technology and tools used with mobile devices. It is quite clear that Google is emphasizing the mobile experience.
Mobile is particularly important for voice search queries. The majority of such verbalized questions are asked on mobile devices connected to the web. This is precisely why your website and other components of your online footprint should provide a top-notch mobile user experience design. Refine every aspect of your website for optimal functionality on mobile devices, conduct tests to ensure your site is mobile-friendly, make the appropriate optimizations, and don’t forget to make the site crawlable to enhance visibility.
Optimization for Rich Answers
Voice research studies indicate nearly three-quarters of answers generated through voice searches occupy a search engine results page (SERP) feature. In fact, nearly two-thirds of those answers generate a featured snippet result.
The majority of smart devices that conduct voice searches will produce similar answers to inquiries. The answer tends to be rich. Rich answers are those that contain either a knowledge graph, box, panel, or snippet.
Website Load Time is Important
Website load time is a key component of voice search yet plenty of business owners and webmasters ignore this important aspect of the user experience. It is important to recognize the fact that attention spans are shrinking as user options proliferate.
If a voice search is conducted and your website does not load in 2.8 seconds of less after the result is selected, the sleuth will move on to the next result and so on. The last thing you need is for your hard work in SEO to result in web surfers (investors) abandoning your site for that of a competitor.
The bottom line is bounce rates are largely dependent on website loading speed so you should do everything in your power to maximize your site’s load time. In fact, Google now considers website load time in its new Page Experience search engine ranking algorithm.
If your website does not fully load in two to three seconds or less, Google will penalize it in the Page Experience metric, ultimately hurting your SERP performance. This reduction in the rankings means your site will not be used when sleuths pose verbal questions and other queries to search giants.
You have the power to decrease your website’s load time. Compress all of the videos and images on your website to expedite its load time. Reliance on a Content Delivery Network (CDN), a reduction in the redirections and plugins, fewer HTTP requests, and a reliance on “defer” and “async” to minimize JavaScript parsing will also enhance your site’s speed.
In terms of frameworks, industry veterans insist HTML5 and CSS3 frameworks expedite the loading of mobile pages, ultimately helping those who conduct voice searches find the content they are looking for in an accurate and timely manner.
Consider Google Maps’ Local Search Ads
Google Maps has a local search ads component that helps shift the spotlight to your company. This way, when people conduct a voice search for financial advisor services or similar services in your area, a local search ad will appear on the mobile device that looks like a regular organic search result. These ads really will steer that much more traffic to your financial advisor website.
Key in on “Near Me” Queries
Nowadays, more and more people are conducting voice searches with the qualifier of “near me” added to the end of the query. You will significantly ramp up your company’s visibility by including the key phrase of “near me” on your financial advisor website, blog, social media, and other parts of your online footprint.
Restructure Your Online Content With Voice Search in Mind
Though conventional text-based web searches will not be completely abandoned, it is becoming increasingly clear that voice search is gradually becoming the new normal. There is a high probability voice search will overtake traditional text-based queries at some point in the not too distant future. This means your website should be restructured to ensure it is listed in the SERPs when a relevant voice search is conducted.
Voice search is much more conversational than text-based searches so your website’s language should reflect that idiosyncrasy. Analyze your current content and restructure it to ensure it results in a match after a voice search related to financial advisor services is conducted.
This is your opportunity to create competitive advantage when investors use voice search to find financial advisors.
