“But I’m Not a Writer”…
The (bleep) you aren’t. Everyone’s a writer, and today we’re going to talk about a FREE tool you already have access to, a tool that can make it easier for all of you “non-writers” out there to create kickass original content.
Words matter.
Not only can the right words help you to better resonate with your audience, but they could offer unique SEO value. Through informative landing pages, insightful blog content and eye-catching ad copy, the right words can help your dealership to drive more traffic by presenting itself as an authoritative resource. Authoritative content can make your content more valuable to potential clients, and more valuable in the eyes of Google itself, which can help to improve your search rankings. Unfortunately, most people find the task of writing intimidating…because they’re not confident in their own message, in their writing ability, or because they simply hate the act of typing.
Enter Google’s G Suite…
Google Voice Typing
As of early 2020, Google claimed over 2 billion users for their various G Suite resources, and you’re probably one of them, personally and/or professionally. As most of you know, G Suite is way more than just Gmail, in fact, it usually ranks higher in terms of popularity than nearly any other suite of document tools out there. But as one might expect, even within G Suite, most people stick to using the tools that they use most often. It’s like how most of your service guys are probably replacing their 9/16 crescent wrenches a whole hell of a lot more often than their 11/16 – which probably still has a sticker on it.
Well, within Google Docs, there’s an incredibly valuable (and totally underused) tool that can help all of you “non-writers” and “non-typists” to gather your thoughts together and write better copy.
Open Google Docs, then create a new document. By selecting ‘Tools’, you can then select ‘Voice Typing’ (or you can bypass that by using the shortcut command, Ctrl + Shift _S). Boom. Look at that sexy little microphone, right there. Now, give it a click, and then start talking, and you’ll see your thoughts begin to manifest themselves right in front of you, without a single additional keystroke.
Pretty convenient, right?
Will you need to go back to the document, once done, and make both grammatical and structural edits? Of course you will. But use of Voice Typing allows you to get your thoughts out there in a more natural fashion. It removes the burden of typing and allows you to speak knowledgeably and confidently about topics that you’re already well-versed in; topics that are important to prospective car buyers.
But hold up…this is more than just simple dictation. Why? Because Voice Typing offers you something even more valuable than “convenience”.
Role in Conversational Content
In previous episodes, we’ve talked about the ever-increasing importance of conversational content. Through machine learning, Google has evolved to gain a better understanding of how we speak conversationally, and that understanding helps Google to better deliver the search results that we’re looking for. Not only does this speak to an improved user experience, but it speaks to the growing popularity of voice search since roughly 40% of internet users use a voice assistant, such as Siri or Alexa.
This is important to remember when crafting landing pages, blog content and ad copy. By writing content that sounds similar to the way most people speak, high-quality content stands a better chance of being recognized as valuable by Google’s algorithm. In other words, it’s more important to sound casual and naturally knowledgable than it is to sound unnecessarily-polished, or overly formal.
So, set aside your insecurities, click that microphone and start talking. You might be surprised by how much you have to share, but you might even be more surprised by the long-term payoff received through increased engagement.