Optimising Your Website for Voice Search
Digital Marketing is one of the most dynamic fields you could imagine. In my recent article, I was talking about bots which take over sales and marketing. This time I am going to talk about the impact of voice search on the way people are using search engines.
With the development of voice typing technology more and more users have access to it. There is Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Google Now and more and there will be more. What does that mean for us, marketers?
Search terms become longer and longer.
To get an idea of the change I would advise you to check your search term report on Google AdWords. Navigate to Keywords and then choose Search terms. You will see that most of the searches are longer than four words. Words like how, where, how much are often appearing in the report. One way to take advantage of this is to make sure you bid on long tail keywords and avoid too generic ones. Long tail keywords are also cheaper and now is the time to take advantage in getting those deals.
The importance of accurate location and contact details.
Many of the searches happening with voice are have an instant character. They are done on the go, while searching something nearby. Therefore, it is important to have your Google My Business profile up to date. Opening hours, address and phone number must be correct. Asking for directions is one of the main categories of voice searches amongst adults and teens. Between 40–43% of them have used voice search tool to get directions. For 36% of Americans a car is a primary setting for voice search users.
To optimise your ads for this kind of searches you can use locations extensions on Google as use Google Maps Local Search Ads.
Use of secular language
Using more secular language in your advertising and web content can help you with SEO and average ad position. Searches people do are usually very informal, they might contain words you would not use to describe your business. A “traditional embellished bad” might be called a “where to find hippie bags”; “recruiting opportunities” will most likely be “where to hire bartenders” etc. A good way to update your content is to have a well written FAQ section of your website.
In 2017 there is a record count of people who did their first voice search. This trend is going to go higher in the following years and may completely redefine the way search engines work in the future.