In an article on the Active Rain website written by By Pamela Cendejas citing a study by Bright Local
- 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the last 12 months.
- 46% of voice search users look for a local business on a daily basis
- 27% visit the website of a local business after making a voice search
- 76% of smart speaker users perform local searches at least weekly—with 53% searching using these devices every day
What does this mean for Realtors? Instead of a buyer typing in “4 bedroom homes for sale” they are dictating a voice search through Amazon Alexa, Siri and Google Home that is more like this; “4 bedroom homes for sale under $700,000 within walking distance to schools and a 2 car garage”. To underline the importance of voice search you only have to look at the last 5 changes to the Google Algorithm which all point to websites on page 1 answer search queries on context. If you don’t have the words on your website your website will not likely be on page 1.
Studies have shown that voice-activation results tend to use long-tail keywords and keyphrases. They may not be as popular as the more common text searches, but can possibly uncover a range of search terms that may not have normally been used.
How do you add the words?
Primarily through blogging. You need great post titles and you need to use the words buyers use to find a home. A blog post with a title like “4 Bedroom Houses For Sale With Swimming Pools” will allbut guarantee a page 1 result as not many websites will have the word swimming pool. This is called a long-tail search and while there may not be a lot of people looking for houses with swimming pools, even if there is one you might get the business. Another good blog post title is “Houses For Sale With Mortgage Helper and In-Law Suites“. In many markets a Mortgage Helper is the only way some people can afford a home.
Bottom Line
If you are not blogging regularilywith a focus on the long-tail keywords your website is not likely to be found on page 1. Check out our Guest Blogging Services if you need a jump start.