Google has recently revealed that at least 20 percent of searches are voice searches, with this percentage expected to increase significantly within the next half-decade.
Well, this makes a lot of sense since it is easier to ask than to type your query into a search engine. Considering that voice search is almost exclusive to mobile search vis-à-vis desktop search, it makes perfect sense to make sure that your site is mobile friendly. So, what steps should you take to make sure that your SEO strategies are ready for voice search development? While the first obvious step is to work with a reputable SEO company, knowing a few more tips would be helpful. Here are three easy tips to optimise your site for voice search:
Perfect your local SEO
A whopping 72% of people who conducted a local search in 2016 visited a shop within five minutes, according to a Papersky blog. Businesses that hope to cash in on these numbers need to perfect their local SEO across all channels, including voice search. A good number of voice searches are done by people who would like to get some information about a specific business. For this reason, it makes sense to ensure that the local details of your business, such as your contact and operating hours, are accurately listed on your website. Not only will this help customers find your business physically, but it will also help them identify your operating hours. Otherwise, you might risk losing a potential conversion. Other great ways for local search optimisation, include using structured data markups or schema, and building your local reviews.
Use conversational content
Up to 60% of companies are expected to experiment with conversational commerce by 2020, according to an E-commerce report from Econsultancy. This is likely to be adopted in the form of chatbots that will help businesses steer users towards a purchase. When using voice search, users will typically ask the search engines questions while expecting a human-like answer. To accommodate this, you should make use of conversational content. Instead of using short keywords such as ‘SEO companies’, include long keywords, such as ‘which are the best SEO companies?’, into your content. Additionally, make sure your content has enough flow to ensure it’s organized as it is read out loud to your visitors by the voice search assistants. In case you feel stuck, you can always find forums to ask a few questions about how to succeed with the latest SEO strategies.
Make your pages mobile-friendly
If your business is not focused on appealing to the ever-growing mobile audience, you could be missing out on the potential to increase your conversions. In fact, roughly 57% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices and tablets, according to a Forbes article, so making your site mobile-friendly should be a priority. No one wants to get information from a mobile page that takes ages to load. If your website is slow, it will have high bounce rates as visitors simply scan through it only to search for the information they need elsewhere. Such a scenario can easily impact your rankings negatively. To prevent this, make sure that your pages load quickly both on mobile devices and on desktops. You can also use Google’s mobile-friendly test to increase the responsiveness of your site.
The increasing popularity of voice search should not be a challenge, but an opportunity for your business. With the right approach, it can give you a competitive edge over your competitors. Use the above tips to increase the number of conversions arising from voice search.
