How to Optimize Your Apartment Website for Voice Search

Have you ever spoken into your phone or device to ask a question? If so, you are like most people that have already participated in voice search. Technology is constantly changing the way we communicate, the way we obtain information, and the way we market. 

Voice search has already merged into our daily life through smartphones and smart speakers. According to eMarketer , 36.6% of the US population will use voice assistants monthly in 2021. With the increasing popularity of voice search among all age groups, your marketing strategy should include optimizing your apartment website for voice search. 

In this blog, we will break down the difference between the traditional search and voice search. From there, we will show you 7 ways to optimize your apartment website for voice search and that will put you at the top of voice search results. 

What’s the difference between traditional search and voice search?

When it comes to traditional search, also known as finger-to-keyboard search, users tend to type as few keywords as possible to minimize the effort, and marketers are focusing on short-tail keywords. 

When it comes to voice search, people are more likely to ask complete questions to voice assistants with longer and conversational phrases — 6 words or more. Long-tail keywords are the gems for voice search.

For example, when we search for apartments, with traditional search we are more likely to type “apartments near me”, but for voice search, we will add more detailed information like “What’s the best-rated apartment community near me?”

Compared to traditional search, voice search results focus on answering questions. While traditional search results provide broader answers, voice search results center around the user’s search intention and provide the best answer according to the question being asked.

6 ways to optimize your apartment website for voice search

Optimizing local listings is used in traditional search strategies, but it’s also a ranking factor in voice search results. Local listings help search engines to pull information about your apartment like the address, office hours, floor plans, phone number, etc. Many of your prospects’ questions can be answered from your accurate online listing.

Geographic information is crucial when your future renters are looking for apartments near them or a specific location. Voice search results are very localized, so embed a google map on your site to help with local search. According to the 2018 BrightLocal survey , 50% of people used voice search to find a local business over the past year. 

Make sure you not only optimize your Google My Business listing, but also Apple Map listing, Bing Places, and alternative third parties like Yelp. Different voice search assistants obtain information from various sources. Google Assistant pulls data from Google, but Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana use listing information from Apple Map, Bing, Yelp, etc. 

Search intention is also important for not only traditional search but also voice search. Find the questions that your renter uses to find your apartment. Ask yourself what kind of questions your renters ask and provide those answers on your FAQ page.  

FAQ pages help to organize and structure your questions and answers, which helps search engines to answer questions from voice assistants. Make sure you provide precise and accurate responses and explanations. The typical voice search result is only 29 words. People want quick answers, not paragraphs.

Website loading speed is one of Google’s top-ranking factors. Our team has provided insights into how to improve website loading speed to rank higher for SEO. You can test your apartment website performance using our template, here. 

To ensure your apartment website is a trustworthy source for search engines, HTTPS is a key to make your site safe and secure. HTTPS uses a Secure Socket Layer to create a secure encrypted connection among the information being transferred. 

According to Backlinco , 70.4% of voice search result URLs have adopted HTTPS. Implementing HTTPS will definitely increase your apartment website’s chance to be found on voice search. 

Smartphones make voice search easier than ever, and mobile users leverage most of voice search. 

According to BrightLocal , 56% of all voice searches are made on a smartphone. In addition, 50% of apartment searches happen on mobile devices. Mobile friendly apartment websites not only benefit voice search results but also SEO. 

Here are some key features of a mobile-friendly apartment website:

Want to know if your apartment website is mobile-friendly or not? Take a Mobile-Friendly Test.

The featured snippet is defined as a quick snap of the information that ranks on the top of the Google search result. More than 40 percent of all voice-search answers were pulled from featured snippets. We can draw a conclusion that optimizing your content for featured snippets may help you to rank better in voice search. 

Here are some tips of featured snippets:

Voice search keywords are very different from traditional keywords. They tend to be longer keywords, or we call it natural language keywords. Here are some characteristics of voice search keywords:

Make sure to optimize your content with those long-tail keywords. Also, your content needs to be easy to understand. Writing your content within the ninth-grade reading level would help your users digest your content & make it more accessible.

If you want to find out more about apartment voice search keywords, check our blog on Apartment Marketing Target Keywords for Voice Search.

As technology advances, your apartment marketing strategy should be adjusted to your prospect’s needs and wants accordingly. Take the time to follow the guidelines and perfect your apartment website for voice search optimization. Expect to see your apartment show up on top of the voice search results in no time!

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