Voice Search and Why It Matters to Your SEO Strategy

Voice search, or voice-enabled, allows the user to use a voice command to search the internet or portable device.  Whether it’s on your smart phone or smart speaker, voice search is growing in popularity because it’s a fast and easy way to find an answer to a question. 

“Siri what time is it?” or “Alexa find me a reputable plumber nearby.”  Sound familiar?  Life has become increasingly busier and we’re constantly looking for ways to make simple tasks easier.

Consider the following statistics:

• One in six Americans now own a Smart Speaker (TechCrunch)
• 40% of adults now use voice search once per day (Branded3)
• By 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches (ComScore)
• 20% of mobile queries are voice searches (Google)
• Mobile voice-related searches are three times more likely to be local-based than text (Search Engine Watch)
• 72% of people who own a voice-activated speaker say their devices are often used as part of their daily routine. (Think With Google)

Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s Google Assistant are all examples of voice search services.  If those names aren’t enough to convince you of the predominance of Voice Search, I don’t know what will.

The number of smart speaker users is growing at a compound annual rate of 47.9% (eMarketer – 2018).  That’s faster than any tech product since the smartphone.  In the U.S. alone, that number will be over 90 million. And it’s not just tech-savy teenagers using this medium, baby-boomers are a growing market of users as well.  Think not having to type tiny letters on a tiny screen…

Optimize Website for Voice Search

Voice search will add a new dimension to how a user or potential client finds your product or service.  Businesses will need to understand what their prospects are searching for and the questions they ask in order to optimize their websites for voice search.

Keep in mind that audio queries are conversational and longer. Long-tail and conversational keywords will be crucial to your search ranking.  A prospect searching for a restaurant wouldn’t say: “Alexa, restaurant,” but something like: “Alexa, what restaurants are serving dinner now?” 

If you were optimizing for “restaurants serving dinner now,” you could write content that says, “We serve dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday thru Saturday.” This would get picked up and allow you to rank higher with voice search. Create content that incorporates those longer search phrases.

Another strategy is to develop your company FAQ page with rich, detailed content that can help digital voice assistants locate information on your page to deliver to the user. Answer all of those questions you discovered.

Times they are a changing!  Voice Search SEO is going to be an increasingly critical element in your digital marketing strategy.  Stay ahead of the curve and keep your company out in front!