What Is “Voice Search”?
Voice search allows consumers to speak to their devices, such as smartphones when searching for a particular topic or business.
For example, someone driving home and wanting to find a coffee shop will probably not want to be distracted by opening a Google search and typing “coffee shop near me.” Instead, they’ll open a voice search and say, “where can I get coffee.”
Voice search is an alternative to text search, where consumers type out their questions in search engines. It’s much easier and more convenient because you don’t have to type. The best part is consumers can use voice search virtually on any device, including smartphones, laptops, tablets, and PCs.
Why is Voice Search Getting More Popular?
Faster and Easier
It’s faster and easier to search for products or services in search engines like Google using voice search than the conventional search method. With voice search, answers are delivered quicker, making it a fast-rising search trend among consumers.
More Convenient
In a busy and fast-paced world, where time is money, many people no longer like to type out their questions. If you had to choose between speaking and typing a query like “what is the second most valuable tech company after Apple,” you would probably choose the former option for obvious reasons.
More Appropriate for Mobile
In the last decade, there has been a steady increase in the number of people who access the internet using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
Smartphones paved the way for search assistants and smart speakers, as users on mobile devices tend to leverage voice search the most.
According to BrightLocal, 56 percent of all voice searches are conducted on a smartphone.
Strategies for Voice Search Optimization Success
Understand Your Type of Customer & Device Behavior.
The best marketing decisions are those driven by data. A successful voice search optimization starts with research to know where users are searching from, search context, and customer behavior.
Having relevant information about your potential customers helps you understand how different people use voice search and the type of voice-enabled device the user.
Focus on conversation keywords.
When people opt for voice search, they’re more likely to use a conversational tone than short phrases commonly used in text search.
For example, someone using text search will simply type out “roof repair service near me” when looking for a local roofing company in their area. But someone using voice search on their phone is likelier to use conversational long-tail keywords like “who offers the best roof repair service?”
Choose Long-Tail Keywords
Similar to the previous point, focusing on long-tail keywords is essential if you show up for voice-generated search results pages in search engines like Google or Bing. That said, you need to start considering local SEO and creating more location-specific content for each service area you’re targeting.
Build Pages That Answer FAQs
When people ask questions using voice search, they typically begin with “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” “why,” and “how.”
This means they’re looking for specific answers relevant to their queries.
To answer these questions, create a FAQ (frequently asked question) page with each question beginning with the above-listed words.
Then go ahead to answer these questions using a conversational tone and relevant long-tail keywords to appeal to voice search.
Optimize your website’s loading time
Page loading speed is an essential ranking factor in traditional SEO and voice search. Voice searchers want to get immediate results, and if you have a slow website that takes several seconds to load, your content won’t rank for verbal queries.
The longer it takes for a website to load, the more likely users will abandon it very quickly. That said, optimizing your page load speed at all costs is essential.
Here are some of the ways to improve your website loading speed:
- Use compressed visual elements (images and videos) on your site
- Reduce stylesheets and JavaScripts
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- It’s recommended to use CSS3 and HTML5 frameworks as they load mobile web pages quickly
Optimize your GMB Listing
In the last few years, there has been an astronomical increase in the number of people using location-based search terms such as “near me,” both in traditional and voice searches. You need to optimize your Google My Business listing to rank for this search.
A GMB listing is a way to let Google know that your business is located in a particular place. When a searcher asks Google for a product, service, or business similar to yours in that area, your business could rank for that query.
Some of the ways to rank for “near me” include:
- Use the correct name, address, and phone number (NAP) in your listing
- Choose the right business category
- Include area codes
- Target keywords with local search intents
- Embed structured data using schema.org for improved performance in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Wrapping up
With each year passing, voice search’s popularity has continued to rise and will soon become a norm. Consumer behavior constantly changes, and businesses and marketers must be prepared for the voice search trend to meet expectations.
Follow the steps highlighted in this post to improve your website’s chances of showing up in voice-generated research results.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you need further assistance optimizing your website for voice search.
For more information on how https://brooksinternetmarketing.com/ can help you with How To Optimize For Voice Search, please contact us here: (702) 249-0905.
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