How I Was Forced to Reassess SEO by a 70-Year-Old Voice Search Booking that Tripled My Local Conversions
It all began with a California call. A 70 year old lady who was lovely and curious saying: “I asked Siri, ‘for a private driver to the pyramids and your service came up.’ ” That event—so simple, so human, so voice activated—changed everything about my SEO perspective with Mexico-City-Private-Driver.com.
At the time, my site had decent rankings for certain terms like, “private driver Mexico City” or “airport transfer CDMX.” What I didn’t realize was that half of my potential clients had already adjusted their search behavior from typing and were now asking for help with their voice.
Voice Search: From Novelty to Norm
By 2025, there will be over 8.4 billion voice-enabled devices in use worldwide, exceeding the planet’s population. In the U.S., 153 million adults engage with their voice assistants routinely, and over 50% of online searches are done using voice. Voice search is not just a trend, it is the predominant mode of online search.
For a business like mine—providing humane, reliable, local transportation, in a chaotic city like Mexico City—this voice search revolution cut to the core of what I do. People in transit, fatigued and flight-weary, or nervous and anxious about safety are not typing. They are saying things like:
- “What’s the safest way to get from Mexico City airport to Condesa?”
- “Find me an English speaking driver near me.”
- “Can I get a ride to Teotihuacán tomorrow morning?”
These are full sentence, long-tail, intent-driven voice queries that classic SEO does not account for.
From Keywords to Conversations
My most significant early error? I was also overly relying on short-tail keywords such as, “Mexico City chauffeur,” and “CDMX airport transfer.” Yet the research says, voice search has a natural inclination towards questions and long-tail: “Where can I get a private driver in Mexico City for 5 people?” not, “Mexico City driver.”
So I rewrote my pages. I stopped listing services, and moved to answering questions:
- How early should I leave Polanco to get to Mexico City airport?
- Can your drivers take luggage in a car at a hotel?
- Do you do rides from Airbnb to airport with car seats?
I then used FAQPage and Speakable schema, and I created micro-content blocks of about 40–60 words with bolded key phrases for voice assistants to grab. In six weeks, my bounce rate dropped by 22% and I began seeing a healthy assortment of families, elderly people, business clientele—all indicated they found me through the voice assistant.
Voice + Local = The Hidden Gold Mine
Now it gets more interesting: 58% of voice searches are local searches, and 27% of mobile users using voice are on-the-go (immediately searching). That’s right in my market: “near me,” “open now,” “best rated,” etc.
So, I really dug deep into hyper-local SEO:
- Optimized my Google Business Profile to neighborhood-level detail
- Structured content around phrases like “best private driver in Roma Norte” or “safe SUV airport pickup Polanco”
- Added time-sensitive content to events: “Private driver for Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix,” “Pick up at St. Regis after Elton John concert”
What happened? A 31% increase quarter-over-quarter in mobile bookings—right from users accessing voice-optimized pages.
Technical Changes: Not Just Content
Research shows that voice search results load 52% faster than traditional pages. I didn’t even realize it until I noticed I had been dragging around older blog pages. I upgraded to a mobile-first design with AMP enabled, resized images, and cleaned up code and clunky plugins.
Although that was important, I started to develop a structure for creating content for multi-intent queries. For instance, a traveler might ask:
“Find a private driver from the Mexico City airport with the least expensive option that is available tonight, speaks English, and accepts pets on board.”
Now instead of simply stating what I offer, I have structured the same information in modular blocks of content:
“Yes, we have bookings last minute (up to two hours in advance).”
“Yes, all of our drivers speak fluent English and Spanish.”
“Pet-friendly SUVs available by request”
Incredible! These responses are all hyperlinked to each other, schema tagged, and ready for voice assistants to ask for service on demand.
Defining a Brand Voice (Literally)
One trend in the research really struck a chord with me: voice persona development. I am not an enterprise organization. My brand is me, Martin. I customized the tone of how I wrote on my website to sound like I sound over the phone and introduced the feeling of being reassuring, clear, and human.
In place of boring text, I included lines like:
“Hi, I am Martin, I have lived in Mexico City for years and know how overwhelming it can feel. I put together this service so you could relax and enjoy your trip.”
This change along with using consistent language across listings and verbal responses increased my repeat customer rate by 19%.
Voice Commerce: Slow and Go
Another big change in 2025: voice assistants can now process transactions too! I haven’t incorporated voice payments just yet, but I did everything I could to make the booking process voice-friendly:
- A more straightforward checkout (fewer fields)
- Mobile-first speed on pages
- Forms that autofill on iOS/Android
- Calls-to-action that voice assistants read like “Reserve this ride right now”
As a result, my overall mobile conversion rate increased by 42% after I altered just three service pages.
The Bigger Lesson: SEO is Now Empathy
The most important thing I learned from this evolution in voice SEO is that it is all about empathy. My clients are asking questions, not typing words. And they are asking those questions when they are at their most vulnerable; arriving in a place they have never been, coordinating a wedding, and planning a honeymoon.
When someone says, “Hey Siri, who can get me from the Mexico City airport to my hotel safely?”, they are not looking for the cheapest option; they are looking for trust. And we need to remember that this is what voice search tells us: intent.
And that’s the space I want to own.
Metric
| Metric | Impact |
|---|---|
| 8.4 billion voice-enabled devices in 2025 | More devices than people – voice is ubiquitous |
| More than 50% of all online searches are done via voice | Not an afterthought in SEO |
| 58% of voice searches are local | Great for a service-based business like mine |
| Voice-ranked pages load 52% faster than non-voice pages | Speed isn't optional now |
| 27% of mobile users use voice search | Critical for a traveler – my key audience |
| 31% increase in voice-led bookings | After restructuring content to be voice-friendly |
| 42% higher mobile conversion | After simplifying checkout for voice-readability |
Final Thought
If you are a local business and you haven’t restructured your content to be voice-friendly, you are missing not only traffic but actual real customers who are ready to buy. Voice-search is not futuristic, it is here. And it all started with one voice, one question and one answer, that by happenstance, Siri read out loud.
I have made sure that I am always the voice that gets read next.
About the author
Martin Weidemann is a multi-industry entrepreneur, digital transformation strategist, and parallel architect of ventures across diverse sectors. With over 15 years of experience building and scaling businesses, his work bridges innovation and execution—combining systems thinking, customer experience, and operational clarity to deliver high-impact solutions. Martin writes about entrepreneurship, transformation, and how technology reshapes business from the ground up. Learn more at weidemann.tech.