There is a simple way of looking at Voice SEO For Aussie Firms: in plain terms people put questions to their phone to find some help close by and will go with the business that appears open, reliable and not hard to get hold of. When an Australian local business wants to be optimised for voice search it is about having information that is as useful and conversational as possible should one of your prospects put a query to Amazon Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant.
I am Thomas Murphy of Fremantle. Here a customer might be on his phone looking for a barber off the cappuccino strip, a mechanic on the way up the coast or a restaurant with room for a couple of teenagers and a parent in need of a rest. But voice search is no magic dust. It is local SEO done right, with an eye for the natural language and the kind of practicalities a person wants to know before he makes the trip out of the house.
The Basics of Voice Search For Local Businesses
In essence you are putting in the work to improve your online standing so that when a voice assistant is asked a pertinent local question it can vouch for and put forward your business. That involves your website content, technical performance, local schema markup, business listings, reviews and of course your Google Business Profile—all key local search optimisation methods.
It is a clear commercial proposition. Most of the time a spoken search is made by someone primed to do something: they want to know if you are open, have your number, give directions or offer a service in the vicinity. Should your details be hard to come by on a mobile or simply incorrect, the voice assistant will see no cause to put you in front of the customer.
Who is it for?
Small businesses stand to gain the most from voice SEO. I would say cafés, restaurants, retailers, accommodation, tourism and service-area operations, as well as trades, medical and barbershops. Any business where convenience or urgency is a factor; think “What time does the chemist shut?” or “a place to put a flat tyre right”.
Not so much if your business has no real local footprint or your particulars are in flux week in week out. Get the fundamentals in order. You may as well not bother with the voice search garnish if the main meal has no address or telephone number to speak of.
On the nature of spoken searches
A typed in “Fremantle barber” is typical. Put it to a device and it becomes “Where can I get a men’s haircut in Fremantle this afternoon?” The longer, more natural phrasing will have an impact on what you put in your headings, FAQs and at the top of a page.
Then there are action-based searches prompted by the device. Someone driving or on foot will compare hours, look for a service or ask for directions. The local intent is there whether they say “near me” or not.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes
Marketers have a way of writing but you should listen to how customers talk. The sort of thing you get from the front desk or over the phone, or in a review and on social media, will tell you the conversational keywords.
“Do you have parking out the back?” is what will be said, not “parking facilities”. A traveller on the Stuart Highway wants to know of “a motel with late check-in and somewhere to put a road train safely”. A parent will enquire “Can I bring the pram?” rather than “family access”. These make for good content since they are tied to a decision.
You can build pages on long-tail keywords that account for timing, conditions, landmarks and services. Just let the language be natural. There is no call to cram “best barber Fremantle near me open now” into every other line. Both the search engine and the human reader will pick up on it.
Make the most of your Business Profile
For local voice search optimisation a well done Google Business Profile is often the easiest fix. Google Maps and Google Assistant put a lot of store by information that is consistent and up to date.
If your profile has you open on a public holiday and the doors are locked it is more than a minor error. You have sent someone all the way across town for nothing and you can be sure of a one-star review and an unpleasant phone call to show for it.
Complete Essential Profile Fields
So make sure the essential fields are in order: name, categories, phone and web address, opening and holiday hours, service area, accessibility and booking options. Put in some photographs of the interior, the signage and parking that are easy to identify. The primary category you put down should be the most precise one on offer; only include secondary categories that are a true fit for the business. Be specific and unadorned in your description, noting key services, suburbs you cover and any access details of use. There is no need to pad it with the same keywords over and over.
In much the same way, your Google Business Profile has to be a true representation of how one would find you. A shop located in a shopping centre calls for an explanation of the centre and which entrance is most convenient. For a trade that goes to the customer instead of having a storefront, put the contact process and service area front and centre.
NAP Accuracy: Make a point of protecting it
There can be confusion if there are any discrepancies in the name, address or phone number between your site, social profiles, industry listings and Google Maps. This is all the more so where a business has put its trading name in shorter form, put in a new number or relocated.
Go through your listings and put right any old addresses, wrong opening times or duplicates. You will want to have the correct details on file. It is not the most glamorous of tasks but then again neither is tidying up the cool room, and both will spare you some unpleasantness.
Conversational Intent
Content for voice search SEO in Australia should be written to answer what someone is going to ask. Give the answer straight away, set out the next step and provide local context so the reader can make up his mind on the suitability of your business.
Resist the urge to put every suburb in the state on a single large page. Have service pages for actual locations and back them up with directions and proof you do business there.
Headings That Are Spoken-Style
A heading in the form of a question is well suited to conversational queries from a customer. “Where Can Customers Park?” or “How Long Does The Repair Usually Take?” or even “Do You Offer Saturday Appointments?” are good examples. The first sentence should contain the answer, followed by any pertinent detail on fees, timing, what to bring or limitations on access. Voice assistants require clarity and a customer has little patience for a paragraph that meanders to get to a yes or no.
Variations in Nearby Search
You are at the mercy of the searcher’s location when it comes to near me queries, as are relevance and the quality of information on hand. But you can render your local relevance and service area plain.
If you are in the Top End you may have to account for a road not being sealed or wet season access and cyclone closures from November through April. An operator in the Pilbara would do well to talk of long distances and road trains. And a business off the Gibb River Road would be wise not to represent that the going is smooth as a pancake come what may.
FAQs to Answer Questions
The best FAQ SEO does away with friction. Put short, complete answers to the questions that would put off a phone call or a booking. It might put you in the running for a featured snippet or position zero, though a search engine is under no obligation to put it forward as a voice answer. Better information for the customer is the objective; any additional visibility is a bonus, like an open bay outside a popular café.
Answer Blocks of Use
One question per answer. State it directly and then any exceptions. “Yes, we have Saturday appointments, though after midday a booking is needed” will serve better than some statement about being committed to flexibility. Address everything from your pricing and payment options to delivery areas, turnaround and emergency contacts. Should there be a change for public holidays or the summer bushfires, let the customer know where to look for an update.
It is a technical aid, not a licence for unsupported claims, so do not put an FAQPage schema label on something a visitor cannot see. Structured data is meant to be an accurate description of the page.
Local Schema
Search engines are given structured clues to your organisation and contact details with local schema markup. LocalBusiness schema in particular can bolster what is in your listings and on the page for a lot of local businesses. But do not expect it to make up for a poor service page or a slow website. Consider it a clear label on a box that is well stocked, not a way to cut across the bush.
Choose Accurate Business Data
The business type, name, physical address (where it applies), phone and web details, service area and hours of operation should all be put in place. As for FAQPage schema, employ it only if the page has those questions and answers on display.
Structured data is to be consistent with what is on your website and in your Google Business Profile. A discrepancy between sources over whether you open at 8 or 9 am is a matter for the search engine to resolve; do not expect customers to stand by for it.
| Area To Check | What Customers Need | Practical Voice Search Action |
|---|---|---|
| Business profile | What you do and where you are | Use the right categories, services and address to let people know where you are and what you do. |
| Opening hours | Whether you are available now | Keep regular, holiday and any temporary times up to date so they can tell if you are open. |
| Directions | How to reach you | Spell out parking, access restrictions, landmarks and entrances. |
| Website content | Whether you solve the customer’s problem | Have some succinct, local information at hand to answer a spoken query and solve the customer’s problem. |
| Technical performance | Whether the page loads properly | Make sure the page loads as it should by way of good mobile layout, tap targets and speed. |
| Reputation | Whether other people trust you | Put in a request for some straight talking from customers and put in a professional response to show others will put their trust in you. |
Make Mobile Visits Easy
For a local business there is an imperative to do your mobile SEO since voice searches are frequently done on a phone while one is on the move. With mobile-first indexing the onus is on the mobile site to have as much of use to it as the desktop. Put the number where it is easy to tap, the address in plain sight and a path to Google Maps. Do not put visitors to rights with a succession of pop-ups. One does not want to be standing in the drizzle and have to pinch and zoom a menu made for a desktop.
Improve Speed And Access
A slow page will try a customer’s patience and he may never get round to making a booking or contacting you. Compress the images, do away with superfluous scripts and put in text that is legible. Test the page on a typical mobile connection, not just the Wi-Fi in the office.
There are practical access points to consider too. Be specific about stairs, lifts, wheelchair access, public transport and parking limits, or after-hours entry. Such specifics are of more commercial worth than yet another paragraph on your passion.
Earn Trust Beyond Listings
Local authority in the form of sound reviews, accurate citations and pertinent local content underpins voice visibility. The more a business is reviewed and referenced in a consistent manner the more readily it is understood by search systems and trusted by the customer.
Once a service is done, ask for some honest feedback. But do not write a review for the customer or put a reward on a favourable one. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in its guidance to Australian businesses is clear on the need for truthfulness in online reviews and cautions against anything misleading.
Turn Reviews Into Insight
You will find conversational keywords in the way a review is worded. “Quick haircut before work”, “friendly advice about dry-season travel” or “easy parking near the station” are phrases that come up again and again and can be put to use in your FAQs or service pages in a natural way.
Be calm and specific in replying to reviews, positive or otherwise. Should a real issue be put forward, lay out the next step. There is a certain satisfaction in a defensive reply for seven seconds but it will be online for a good deal longer.
Measure Local Voice Progress
It is not possible to get a perfect report on voice search as the platforms will not always tell you which were spoken. What you can measure are the things voice search is supposed to bring about: the calls and bookings, enquiries and direction requests from the neighbourhood, and profile actions.
Combine the figures from your call or booking records with website analytics and the data from Google Search Console and your Google Business Profile. You are better served looking for patterns than fixating on a dramatic ranking.
Useful Local Signals to Track
Keep an eye on the numbers for branded and non-branded local searches, be they impressions or actions. This includes calls made from your profile, website clicks, booking completions, direction requests and the queries that put visitors on your pages. You will want to see how things have changed once you have put in a batch of genuine reviews, made the page load faster, added some FAQs or revised opening hours.
An audit need not be complicated; ten checks on access information, schema, reviews, mobile usability and profile accuracy will do. A 70 per cent working score is what you get if seven are in order, but consider it an internal way to measure progress, not something akin to a Google ranking. The search engines are not in the habit of issuing report cards.
A One-Day Action Plan
When time is short, make the tasks with the most direct bearing on the customer your priority. Put the phone number to the test, verify your Google Business Profile and opening hours, check the map pin, put in parking and access details and put pen to paper on five succinct answers to the sort of questions customers ask.
Then go outside and try the website on your mobile. If a customer has to squint to find an address, book or call you, or cannot get directions and comprehend your service area, attend to those issues before putting any money into further content.
Some Practical Clarity
One does not optimise for voice search by trying to second guess every word put to an Amazon Alexa or Siri. It is simply a matter of being helpful when an answer is called for and ensuring your business is locally relevant and easy to use.
There is a misconception among some that voice SEO is a trick of its own. In reality, good local voice search optimisation is born of a disciplined approach to Australian local SEO: reliable directions, unvarnished customer reviews, pages built for mobile, useful FAQs and listings that are consistent. I have seen in my work with independent hospitality operations how a guest can be put off and walk out over a poorly explained parking situation or incorrect advertised hours; the same obtains with online discovery. Provide the information up front and the hard yards are done.
Voice Search Questions Answered
The following are in response to the kind of practical concerns that keep many an Australian business from making a move. In brief, there is no need for a large budget or elaborate equipment to get started.
Special Software for Voice Search?
Not at all. To start with, a mobile-friendly site, accurate Google Business Profile data, some real reviews and consistent listings are all that is required of most. Technical tools may be of assistance in an audit but for the most part the fixes are elementary matters of information and usability.
Make “Near Me” Ubiquitous?
There is no call for it. Your business information and the location of the searcher are enough for the engine to pick up local intent. “Near me” is fine as a concept for planning, but let your copy be natural and refer to the suburbs and landmarks and services in question.
Will Schema Put You in Position Zero?
Don’t count on it. While LocalBusiness and FAQPage schema serve to describe your content, a featured snippet or spoken answer is not assured. What counts is the quality of the page, authority, relevance and the context of the one doing the searching.
What Is the Right Number of Reviews?
Visibility is not guaranteed by any particular figure. A sudden spate is less desirable than a steady run of pertinent and honest reviews from customers. Make use of their language in your service information, put in a response to feedback and shun anything that is not genuine.
Trades Should Worry About Voice SEO?
For the most part yes. The searches they attract are of a very practical nature with regard to location, availability and urgency. Ensure that on a mobile device one can easily come by your phone number, travel fees, emergency set-up and a realistic idea of response times.
