Voice search is growing, as are the ‘personalities’ associated with voice search: Alexa (Amazon), Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft) and Google Home. When the results are accurate, it’s a powerful medium. When they are not, it’s a source of frustration. Try asking your phone for the name of an estate planning lawyer, and you’ll just as likely get a question about location services or a list of legal search platforms.
IMS is always keeping an eye on what is coming next, and just as we continue to add services for our clients in law firm strategic planning and automated intake and CRM systems, we are now watching voice search.
While not every search gets you exactly what you want, the technology is improving and its growth is, frankly, exponential.
Voice search is local. If you ask a question, it will be answered with your location in mind. Voice searches are reported to be three times more likely to be local as typed in searches. It’s yet another reason why estate planning law firm websites need to be geo-specific and all NAP information must be uniform.
Voice search is looking for great SEO. Excellent and relevant content, written in a conversational tone–no legalese—will do well with voice search. Legalese is likely to confuse the algorithms.
Consider that many voice searches are about directions, and make sure that your website content includes directions to your office.
Return to the 5-W’s: Who, What, When, Where and Why, as once taught in every journalism course, are important to voice search because they match how people typically speak. The power of the FAQ page is growing with the increasing use of voice search. The page should include questions and answers, in a conversational tone. If you don’t have an FAQ page on your IMS website, submit a support ticket and let’s talk.
Long-tail keywords are more valuable in voice search than simple keywords. This is something that IMS has done on our websites as a best practice for some time. We know that “keyword stuffing,” where certain phrases are repeated with no connection to content makes Google mad. Our site content has always focused on providing a conversational, non-jargon approach to legal information, and that’s part of why our websites perform so well.
If voice search is the new kid on the block, mobile SEO is the best pal who still needs to be attended to. If you haven’t done a mobile overhaul of your IMS law firm website, there are two ways to know if it’s performing: open up the firm’s website on your phone and on a tablet and see how easy (or difficult) it is to use. Next, take a look at how many new clients are coming in from your website. If you have our E2 CRM, that will be easy. How are you doing?