What Will Voice Search Mean for Your Business?

Did you know tens of millions of people bought Amazon’s “digital assistant” Alexa? Holy moly! That’s tens of millions of people turning to voice-command options to make their day-to-day lives easier. What’s more, big names like Google and Microsoft are also joining this rising trend with the creation of Google Assistant and Cortana.

Once upon a time, the central technology of these devices—that is, voice search/command—was limited to smartphones (Siri, anyone?), but now smart speakers are implementing it in radically new ways. Here are a few mind blowing numbers to consider:

• 10% of UK households already own a smart speaker.
• OC&C Strategy Consultants project that usage growth will hit 50% of UK households by 2022.
• ComScore predicts that that voice search will account for 50% of all search activity by 2020.

Okay, so you might be asking yourself, “But how does this relate to my business?” And yes, it is true that people talking to their devices and asking them to take care of household matters (such as turning on and off their music) has nothing to do with your business…

…but here’s what does matter:  

Almost half of smart speaker owners (44%) made a purchase using their smart speaker last year. Groceries accounted for 20% of those purchases, entertainment accounted for 19%, and electronics accounted for 17%. As the popularity of voice e-commerce grows, so will the types of purchases made by voice.

What does this mean? If you don’t want your business to fall behind, you need to start optimizing for voice purchases.

Voice Search & SEO

We know you’re a go-getter and want to be ahead of the game! As such, you’ve likely developed and implemented an SEO strategy for your business’ website. With that in mind, did you know that voice search is still dictating the results a user searches for, but the results they receive are often different than if the user had typed their query?

Say what?!

Yup, this means your business’ SEO strategy needs to keep up with voice search components if you want to attract those consumers who are incorporating voice search/digital assistant devices into their lives. You should also switch up the format of your content so that it is more direct and conversational; this will better match the types of search queries that are used via voice search.

The more traffic you get to your website, the more likely you are to net consumers… and of course, the only way to boost traffic is by becoming more visible and credible. Here are some ways you can accomplish this when it comes to voice search while continuing to rock your business:

Adjust for Natural Language

When it comes to both content and SEO, get your marketing team to learn and understand the difference between typed search language and voice search language. Once they have mastered that, optimize your content and copy so it takes into account the highest value natural language searches. Then, choose and modify keywords based on the degree of intent behind each search.

Incorporate an FAQ Strategy

Voice search means your customers will now be using question-related search queries that will often include words like “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, and “why”. Incorporate an FAQ strategy by determining which questions are most important to your potential consumers and then directly answer those questions in your blog posts, social media posts, and website copy.

Implement Long-Tail Keywords

When we talk, we tend to be more lengthy with our thoughts than if we had simply typed them out. Typed searches are often much shorter, concise and more specific than voice search queries. This means short, specific keywords are better for typed searches. With the rise of voice search, however, it’s important to broaden your keywords to include long-tail keywords that reflect the natural way a person speaks.

Hire Necessary Talent

This is our favourite way to ensure that your business stays ahead of the curve when it comes to integrating voice search! Just because you’re a business superstar doesn’t mean you’re an SEO expert, or more specifically, an expert with voice search specialization… and that’s totally okay! Why bother learning the complicated ins-and-outs of voice search optimization when you could hire a pro, thereby allowing you to focus on your own areas of expertise?

This is typically where’d I’d tell you to get in touch to find out what an effective SEO and content strategy involves but I’m throwing you a curveball.

SEO is a big complicated beast and should be done by an actual expert, not just a tech-savvy VA like myself.

But don’t worry! I gotta guy.

So, if you’re looking for a superstar SEO expert to help you develop and implement a strategy let me know and I’ll be happy to share my contact.