When we talk about voice search it may sound as though we’re referencing a futuristic technology that’s still yet to become a reality. However, voice search has already arrived and is used by millions of users on a daily basis: Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are just three of the most commonly used voice search services and more and more join their ranks every month.
As voice search is only set to grow and become more dominant, particularly as mobile browsing continues to take over from desktop browsing, how will this impact the way users find your business online? It may impact it more than you think, as voice search will likely play a large role in how many new users find your site.
SEO is something all businesses should place high up on their list of priorities. It ensures your company can be easily found online, outranking competitors and bringing new users to your site. While SEO will continue to be the most important element that contributes to how voice search technology generates results, there are some specific areas of SEO where businesses should be looking to future proof their sites.
First up? Consider your language.
Up until now you’ve probably optimised your site around computer language-based keywords and phrases but now is the time to start looking towards more natural language-based phrases.
To understand what we mean, think about how you search for answers online. If you’re looking for a supermarket in Edinburgh you’re likely to type something like: ‘Edinburgh supermarkets’.
However, if you’re asking Siri or Alexa the same question you’re more likely to ask: ‘Where is the nearest supermarket?’ or ‘Where is the nearest supermarket in Edinburgh?’
Thinking about the differences in text-based and voice-based queries should give you plenty of ideas of how you can bring in natural keywords and phrases to help you get the best of both worlds – traffic from traditional online searches and traffic from voice searches.
Next? Focus on featured snippets.
In this world of instant gratification people are looking for instant results. Most voice search services are pulling their results from Google’s featured snippets, so business owners will want to start focusing on optimising their most valuable content for featured snippets. There are many guides online that can help you with this but Moz’s guide here is a great starting point.
Finally? Stay engaged.
Voice search technology is taking huge strides forward and the advertising and optimisation potential is growing month on month. A wealth of information is out there to be discovered, there are 100s of strategies and techniques to try so we urge you to start building voice search optimisation into your marketing plan and putting strategies into effect now, rather than waiting until every other competitor is doing the same thing.
Good luck! We’d love to hear more about your planned voice search strategies, so please do leave a comment below to let us know how you’re getting on with voice search optimisation.
