Voice Search has grown into a phenomenon that is changing how information can be found online. Since its debut, it has simplified the lives of billions of users worldwide and has unlocked innovative ways for consumers to connect with brands. This presents an amazing opportunity for businesses to strategically reach their audience. Below you can find out more about what voice search is and some tips on how businesses can optimize for voice search.  

What Is Voice Search? 

Voice Search is very similar to typed internet searches, but there are some key differences. Users with a smartphone, desktop, or a smart speaker can search the internet by simply speaking requests and commands. The results will appear on the screen as they normally do and if there is a speaker the answer is spoken back to the user.  

The reality of hands-free internet searching grows in popularity every year. Voice search is more convenient and appropriate in this fast-paced world and it is clear users appreciate that. A study done by Microsoft estimated that 75% of U.S households would have a least one smart speaker by 2020. In light of this accelerated growth in popularity, a greater emphasis must be placed on voice search optimization. 

How To Optimize For Voice Search

  • List your business on voice search technology
  • Optimize your site for voice search

List your business on voice search technology

According to Small Business Trends, 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the last 12 months. If you have a physical location, listing your business on voice search technology and ensuring all your information is accurate (industry, phone number, address, business hours, and more) is very important. This makes certain that your local customers can find information about your business when doing a voice search. For instance, if someone was to ask Alexa or Siri “Where is the closest hair salon,” these voice technologies would suggest to the user hair salons that have a voice search directory listing and are near that person's relevant location. Getting your business listed on voice search technology will ensure customers can find your business information when doing a voice search.  

Optimize Your Website For Voice Search

Insert questions or long-tail keywords (3-5 words) into your website’s content. Typed searches are typically shorter than voice searches. Voice searches are posed as questions or are phrased longer than what someone would usually type into a search engine. This means that keyword optimization on your website would need to be strategized differently for voice search. Think about the kinds of questions someone might ask about the products or services that your business offers. Add these long tail keywords and questions into the content of your site (Blog, FAQ page, etc..). When possible getting them to be the url, heading 1 or heading 2 of a page is even more powerful. Answer the Public is a great tool to use to help you figure out questions relevant to your industry.  

How To Get Your Business Listed On Voice Search Technology 

Before you start implementing long-tails keywords and questions into your website’s content to help optimize your site for voice search. You should check that your business is listed accurately on all major voice search technologies (Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant). Over 96% of all business locations list their business information incorrectly online (SearchEngineWatch, 2019).  

Voice Command is a voice search synchronizing provider that's helped over 10,000 businesses get listed on major voice search technologies. They manage your listing to ensure your business information is represented accurately and ranks for local voice searches. Learn how Voice Command can get your business listed on voice search technology and help your business be a trailblazer in the voice search craze by visiting https://voicecommand.net/.