How to Win Customers with Voice Search

SEO Web Design

Published Jun 18, 2019, 11:52 AM
Approx. read time 3 mins

Every person who has a website knows the benefits of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) when it comes to making their site more visible to search engines. There are so many tips and tricks that can be used to be viewed more favourably. To get to grips with the basics, check out our previous post on SEO.

In recent years, however, SEO has been shaken up by voice search, and many marketers are now looking at new ways in which they can use SEO to get ahead of their competitors. So let's take a look at how voice search works and how you can improve your voice search visibility.

The Creation of Voice Search

Voice search, particularly Google voice search, has grown in value, much for the reason that it's more accurate than it once was.

It has climbed from 80% accuracy to a staggering 95% accuracy, with the goal of improving to 99% eventually.

This accuracy has led to more and more people using voice search over the more conventional methods.

How Can You Generate Conversions with Voice Search?

There are a few tips you can incorporate into your website in order to capitalise on this growing trend.

Create an easy-to-read site map

Your site map is how search engines recognise your keywords and their relevance to the user's search. When you're creating new pages on your site, think about the keywords you're choosing and how this will differ from what words people are using to search for content.

If your site map is clean and well-organised, search engines will be able to recommend your site to a user if they use the correct keyword or phrase. It may also be a good idea to carry out a content audit and ensure the pages are still relevant. This can help the audience when they're looking for information relevant to your niche.

Rethink your keywords

Over time, what used to work for your SEO may no longer work well. This can be because of voice search and search terms being closer to naturalistic speech patterns. For example, your old search term "Car cleaning supplies", may now need to be along the lines of "How can I remove scratches from my car?". You need to think about what the average person will ask, or think about, while they are looking for your website and target those keywords. This can work better than thinking of generic phrases for your product.

Using Snippets

If you've used voice search yourself, you've likely come across a featured snippet. Typically this is a short answer to your question (usually less than 50 words). The goal is to appear in this featured snippet when people ask a question using your keywords. These appear on search engines themselves too, not just voice.

Think about ways you can make your writing more concise while answering multiple questions for the end user. If you're consistently writing high-quality content, there's a good chance you'll become a featured snippet.

Summing Up

The increasing use of voice search is changing SEO. As more people use home devices and smartphones, the AI will need to keep improving so they're as useful as possible for the end user. The constant evolving will mean marketers need to keep on top of their SEO and make sure their websites are as optimised as possible.