Ever since PC, and later notebook, and later smartphone, are released, our fingers have never been so busy typing and scrolling. These two are nowadays daily activities. We can’t imagine there’s a day when we’re not typing keyword, message, and then scrolling Google search result and contacts and feeds.
Yet, by next year, it is estimated that we’re going to use our fingers for this less. And no, it’s not because we’re going to limit our internet consumption, but because by next year, it is estimated that voice search will replace typing keyword into search engine by 50%.
It may sounds reaching, but it is actually possible. Voice command text has been available since early 2000s, but because accuracy is still low, it’s not quite popular. However, From a couple of years it’s accuracy has increased up to 90%. With the release of many voice-commanded devices and apps such as Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and others, many users now adapting to use voice search and voice command in their daily life.
What does this mean for your business?
It means that you have to follow the change, if you want to capture the market. Will your website still rank when users are using voice search instead of typing the keyword? Is your current SEO strategy still sound enough to face this change in trend? Today, we’re going to Explore the topic on how SEO works with voice search in 2019 and how to capitalize it for your business.
How SEO works with voice search
Search Engine Optimization for business owners are how they can get their website rank high in Google search result to get organic reach for their business. However, SEO is actually made for users, not for business owners. The ultimate goal of Google is to give users accurate and timely information, as easy as possible.
So, business owners will have to craft a slightly different SEO strategy to cater for voice search, because the nature of voice search and traditional search is different as well. Here are five strategies you can apply to capitalize the rise of voice search in SEO for the success of your business.
1) Use spoken language
When we want to search for something in Google, we’ll type the keyword for the information we want. For example, when I’m planning a vacation in Bali, my search history is going to look like these:
- Flight to Bali
- Hotel in Bali
- Place to visit in Bali
- Best restaurant in Bali
But, imagine we’re talking to Google Assistant. We’re going to say our search query like these instead:
- Find me a flight to Bali
- Where should I stay in Bali?
- What should I visit when I’m in Bali?
- Where should I go eat when I’m in Bali?
Written language and spoken language is different, and if we only put short keyword in our post or website, we may rank high when people are typing their keyword, but not when people are using voice search for it. So, try to incorporate these spoken language phrases in your website.
2) Use question or command phrases
This tip is still correlated to the first tip. Look again at the examples of spoken search query above. You’ll notice that they are either in the form of question or command. This is because when using voice search, we’ll feel like we’re conversing with other people, and it’s awkward when you’re talking to people and only use short words like “flight to Bali” or “hotel in Bali”.
3) Provide direct answers
As a form of their commitment to give the best user experience, in recent days Google have started to prefer giving direct answers for query that is specific enough. What is direct answer? It is a phrase from one of the website that directly answers a search query, in desktop view, it is located in a box under Google Ads and above organic search result.
For example, if I type “Arkansas weather”, instead of giving a list of weather prediction website, google will give me a direct answer “12° C”.
To be able to get featured in this direct answer box, there are several tricks you can do. Make a summary of your topic that you think can directly answer the keyword, in less than 29 words, and put in above the fold (area that visitors can see without having to scroll downward).
4) Go local
Most of voice search query are intended for local search. So, if you are a business owners catering for local consumers, it’s your opportunity to take advantage of this rising trend. How can you optimize your local business to show up in voice search result?
You can include phrases “near me” or “nearby” in your keyword to appear on the list when users are looking for local content. This won’t convert your visitor online, but you may be able to do the conversion offline.
Other than “near me” and “nearby”, you can also include your area name in the keyword. For example, bike shop in Arkansas.
5) Join Google My Business
Google has never been so supportive of local business. Now you can get a free page in Google My Business, where you can write description of your shop or service, post photos, and get rating and review from Google users. The best of all those? You can get it for free.
When users are searching, business that got listed in Google My Business will appear beside organic search result, so you don’t have to compete with website that isn’t actually a local shop.
Voice search is not yet the mainstream way for people to search information online. However, it is getting there. Optimizing your SEO strategy for voice search today will hopefully give you an advantage later when other business are starting to scramble to catch up with this rising trend.