Optimising For Voice Search

 

The way people search is changing. More and more people are using voice search via their smartphones, tablets or voice assistants such as Amazon echo opening up another channel to optimise your content for.

With over 60% of all searches being performed on mobile devices, it was inevitable that voice search would become increasingly popular due to its ease of use to get answers for any questions.

So how can you optimise your website for the likes of Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana?

What are people using voice search for?

First, it is important to understand what people are using voice search for. According to recent studies, people are using voice search for a number of reasons but a huge chunk of that is for local information.

Here’s what you have to do to optimise for voice search:

1) Google My Business

As a huge amount of people are using voice search for local information ensure your Google My Business listing has been claimed, verified and fully completed. Having a Google My Business listing helps Google understand your business better and provides them with the basics right at their fingertips such as what you do, your address, phone number, business hours, etc.

As a lot of voice searches are performed in search of local business information having an up-to-date Google My Business listing is crucial.

2) Conversational Content

The content on your website needs to include more conversational type content to mimic how people really talk and ask questions.

Focus on the questions your customers ask on the phone and in person, these types of questions will be similar to the ones they will use via voice search so take note and begin to create content including the words they use as well as providing more conversational content within it.

Searches like “Instant Property Valuations” will begin to disappear, instead more specific and direct searches will become more popular, for example “Hey Siri, find an estate agent that can value my property instantly”.

3) FAQ Pages

Frequently asked questions pages aren’t as popular as they once were but are a great way to add more conversational type content on your website.

Create a page of common questions and provide clear natural answers.

 

Voice search will continue to grow as the likes of Siri and other virtual personal assistants improve, so it is time to start looking at your content and finding ways to optimise it for voice search.