Voice Search Optimization: Top 3 Benefits and 5 Action Steps
Voice-enabled devices are shaping the manner in which people ask for and receive information. Why do a growing number of people rely on them, and what does this mean for your business?
Benefits of Voice Search
What is voice search? It involves speaking to your device to make a query. Your voice prompts the speech recognition technology of your mobile phone, smart speaker, or other devices to activate the search engine of your device and provide the closest answer to your question. This hands-free approach is beneficial in the following ways:
- Your device can capture your speech three times faster than you type.
- You can multitask.
- You have multi-lingual options. Google Assistant alone can translate 29 languages.
How Many People Own Voice-Assisted Devices?
The number of users of voice-assisted technology in the U.S. reached 120.4 million in 2021 (about 46% of the national population). Statista forecasts this market will rise to 130 million by 2025.
Does Your Company Need to Prioritize Voice Search?
Sooner or later, you must add voice search to your marketing strategy because voice-enabled devices are fast becoming a part of people's lives. According to a 2022 UpCity survey, 58% of 25 to 34-year-olds use voice search technology daily. Meanwhile, 43% of device owners aged 55 and up search by voice weekly.
What Does Voice Search Mean for Business?
With 67% of consumers preferring voice instead of text-based queries, brands must harness voice search to educate them about their brand, encourage sales, and gather customer insights to improve their products and services.
How is Voice Search Changing Digital Marketing Strategy?
Incorporating natural language will become integral to search engine optimization (SEO), which is the bedrock of digital marketing. Ensuring that your online content uses conversational language will be the key.
What is Voice Search Optimization?
Voice search optimization is converting your online content into search engine-friendly format. The process helps ensure that Google and other platforms choose your brand when answering a query during a voice search.
How to Prepare Your Company for Voice Search
You can start optimizing your online content for voice search by taking these steps:
- Optimize your website speed. Slow page loading turns off site visitors.
- Feature "user intent content" or statements that will answer questions starting with can, does, what, how, where, when, why, who, and define. Writing an FAQ page that answers questions at each step of a buyer's journey will help.
- Include relevant keywords by doing a keyword search on your topic. Remember to keep a conversational tone. Search for relevant long-tail keywords, as voice searchers typically ask questions in sentence form instead of just keywords.
- Reduce the length of your sentences. Google picks up short answers for voice searches—typically 29 words long.
- Get optimized for local search by claiming your local listing in online business directories such as Google My Business and Bing Places.
Let iMapping Support Your Voice Search Strategy
Nearly 60% of consumers use voice search to look for nearby ("near me") businesses. Make your company more easily discoverable by working with iMapping. Our team can get your business listed on these top platforms: Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps, Here, Bing, and CarPlay. Contact us today.