Imagine two companies competing for the same customers.
Let’s call them store A and store B.
They are identical except for one thing: Store A has a location that 7 out of 10 customers can easily access.
Which company will do more business?
You don’t need an MBA to figure this out: Store A offers more convenience and will therefore take more market share.
Now, consider a convenience you can add to your website that will have a similar impact: voice search.
According to Statistathere will be 8 billion voice assistants in use worldwide by 2024.
That’s a lot of people talking on their phones or smart speakers.
And if you’re not optimizing your web content to account for that, you’re leaving a lot of opportunities on the table.
Why do so many people use this feature? Why is it important for search engine optimization? And most importantly, how do you claim your share?
Read on for answers to these questions and more.
How popular is voice search?
We’ve already established how many people prefer to use voice search capabilities on their devices, but let’s look at some other relevant ones. statistics, just to elaborate on the importance of capitalizing on this trend:
By 2022, 35% of Americans over 18 will own a smart speaker (up from 32% in 2021). 62% of Americans over the age of 18 use voice assistants on their devices. One of the top three reasons consumers want a smart speaker is to ask questions without typing. 80% of smart speaker owners find it easier to use to discover new content and events. 57% of voice assistant users use it at least once a day.
As you can see, the use of smart speaker and voice assistant is becoming more and more popular among the competition for search traffic and it is only expected to increase.
And there are two key things we haven’t mentioned yet: accessibility and UX (user experience).
Voice search improves accessibility
The US Department of Justice has been clear: websites are subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
And noncompliance can cost you more than potential traffic—you can be fined up to $75,000 for a first offense.
Voice search plays an important role in ensuring that your website is accessible to everyone.
This includes those with physical limitations that restrict them from using a keyboard and mouse, those with repetitive stress injuries who need to limit their time with keyboards and mice, and people with cognitive impairments who prefer to use voice search.
Much of this functionality is based on speech recognition technology, but you may not realize that the way your website is coded can also have a big impact.
According to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), there are several best practices that your site must adhere to to ensure accessibility, such as reading order corresponding to code order, using of high tags for images and adding tags to convey meaning and context. .
For a complete list of WAI recommendations and information on their implementation, click here.
UX voice search results for users
The link between good UX and improved search engine results has been well demonstrated. And the growth of voice search means that designing your UX around voice interaction is becoming increasingly important.
How your brand interacts with different voice-enabled devices can significantly determine whether users have a positive or negative experience.
But before we tackle that, you need to understand how people use voice search.
One of its main uses is informative.
Let’s say you’re elbow deep in pasta dough, making tortellini while a red sauce simmers in a pot on the stove.
You can’t remember how long the sauce is supposed to be on, so without taking the time to wash and dry your hands, you call out to your smart speaker, “Hey Google, how long does the tomato sauce have to be cooked?”
Or you’re hanging out with friends when one of your friends refuses to believe that Willie Mays ever played for the Mets.
A quick voice search can help you once again demonstrate your superior baseball knowledge.
In addition to settling disputes, many people also use it to check the news and weather.
Another common use is “near me” searches.
For example, you’re on a road trip in a state you’ve never been to. Your car runs on fumes and you need to find a gas station as soon as possible.
Without ever taking your eyes off the road, voice search can direct you to the nearest place to fill up your tank.
And, of course, there’s voice shopping, which was briefly discussed earlier.
From making shopping lists to ordering pizza or buying products with just their voice, more and more people are starting and completing purchases without ever looking at a screen.
The uses of voice search are growing along with its growing popularity.
So that begs the question: How do you get into it?
Prioritize your voice search efforts by channel and audience
When developing your voice SEO strategy, you need to understand the capabilities and limitations of the platform you’re designing for. There are two approaches here:
First screen devices such as smartphones, tablets and smart TVs.
Voice devices like smart speakers.
Each of these offers different strengths.
First screen devices (when the screen is used) provide an efficient output of information.
Visual scanning is faster than listening and can be used to convey more information in less time. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Voice devices, on the other hand, provide efficient input.
Users can give orders quickly and easily on their own terms.
Of course, this depends on the device understanding natural language, a technology that has greatly improved since voice commands were in their infancy.
Depending on the content of your website, the demographics of your users, and a number of other factors, users may be more inclined to prefer one type of device over another.
You also need to understand at what stage of the buyer’s journey voice search is used.
More people use voice assistants to research products than to buy them 44.4% of US consumers use them to search for new products, but only 24.2% use them to complete a purchase.
Most of these purchases are small items that don’t need to be watched, like toilet paper or dog food.
Consider all of these factors, then tailor your voice strategy to your specific audience and channel.
Once you’ve done that, it’s time to learn how to optimize your content.
Content optimization for voice search
If you don’t have a lot of experience designing vocal user experiences or VUIs (voice user interfaces), don’t worry: this is fairly new ground.
Although different from GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces), UX/UI principles still apply, as does the effect user experience has on your search rankings.
Here are some important things to consider when designing your VUI or converting existing content to optimize for voice search:
Start with a plan
Rather than tackling your VUI and/or voice search optimization bit by bit, you should spend time developing a flowchart that explains how voice search users will navigate your site.
Doing a little planning upfront will save you a lot of headaches, hassles, and duplicate work on the back end.
Make the interaction natural
Voice searchers use natural language to find things, often using more words.
While a desktop search engine might type [Chinese delivery nearby]someone using voice search is more likely to say, “Where’s a good Chinese delivery site near me?”
The same long-tail keywords that are used for normal SEO purposes will come into play in voice search.
Try to use full phrases and queries, which are even better than long-tail keywords. And make sure you’re always thinking about user intent.
Design for flow
Earlier, we mentioned how your HTML, CSS, and other code should be structured the same way a person would read your site to tell the same story to voice search.
You also need to take this sequential approach to structuring your content.
Make sure the content follows a logical course.
Create verbal tags that can be easily navigated by voice alone (eg, “select option #2”).
Improve your domain authority
This is where your regular SEO efforts can pay off for voice SEO.
Voice search almost always selects the first search result to answer a query.
This makes it crucial to have your site fully optimized for normal search.
Check your backlinks, maximize your keywords, improve local search, and do all the other tasks that come with SEO, and you’ll reap the benefits of voice search, too.
Grab highlights
Highlights not only are they great for mobile and desktop search, but they’re also used to respond to voice search results.
In fact, 60% of all voice search responses come from featured snippets.
So if your content claims that valuable real estate for a query, you’ll get the lion’s share of voice traffic.
Get local
Since many voice searchers are looking for local answers, your content should be optimized for this.
If you’re not already, go to the list Google local rankings.
If you’re already there, work to improve your results.
The goal is to be the answer when someone searches on Google to answer questions like, [Where can I get a dress altered near me?]
Voice search will only increase
Some technologies burn bright for a few years and then fade away completely – remember HD DVD?
Voice search is unlikely to be one of them.
Instead, it is finding new uses and an even bigger niche as the technology becomes more advanced.
If anything, it’s the keyboard and mouse model we’ve come to know and love that’s most likely to become obsolete, especially if Elon Musk’s futuristic Neuralink to take
The most important thing in this sci-fi world come to life will be the user experience.
It’s not far-fetched to imagine AI-powered search learning our likes and dislikes and providing personalized responses to our unique intent.
The best way to make sure you’re ready for this brave new world is to take advantage of existing cutting-edge technologies to make sure you’ve prepared your position as much as possible.
And that means harnessing the power of voice search.
It is the foundation upon which much of the future of research will be built, making it crucial that you sign up.
Your goals speak for themselves. Make sure your website is listening.
More resources:
Featured image: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock
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