The possibilities for the future of voice technology are endless. Still, one thing is certain: consumers who are enamoured with the latest home voice assistant devices such as Google Home and Amazon’s Echo are increasingly using voice search.

This new way of searching for information online is transforming how people search for and find brands to interact with, which calls for businesses to establish a voice search strategy to incorporate into their digital marketing efforts as quickly as voice is taking off among consumers.

What is Voice Search exactly?

The definition of Voice Search, according to Google, is a type of technology that allows you to give voice commands and ask questions, then receive an answer spoken back to you through your phone or computer. This process has become very popular with the rise of smartphones and tablets because it reduces the time necessary for ordinary internet searches. Now, businesses can also benefit from the technology.

More and more people are using voice search as a substitute for the traditional method of text-based searching. In fact, according to Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian, as much as 50% of searches done on mobile devices today are done using voice input.

Your customers are becoming increasingly comfortable with speaking their queries instead of typing them. Not only does voice search give the users the ability to ask questions when they’re on the go, but it also gives them another way to find answers in situations where they might not have the time or privacy necessary to type out a question.

Why Is Voice Search Important?

Voice search is important because it represents a whole new way of navigating the internet, and it allows for increased precision when looking for information.

Navigating the web through voice commands helps take the cognitive load off the user, who may not have their hands free or would prefer not to break their concentration while driving to look at a screen.

How Is This Different From Google Search?

Google Search has always allowed users to search by voice. The difference is that before, this could be activated by mistake while the user was doing something else, which would result in them being confused when their phone started talking back to them.

Now that all of this functionality has been rolled into Google Assistant, the user must activate it themselves and can choose whether or not they want the assistant to respond.

Does that mean that businesses need to optimize their websites for voice searches?

The answer is a definite yes! By incorporating voice search compatible features into your website, you can ensure that potential visitors will find what they’re looking for on your site.

Voice Search is only growing in popularity, which means that if you want to be the best digital marketing agency in your target market, you need to start optimizing your websites for it, and here’s how you can do just that.

Create long-form content.

When writing a blog post, web page, or other pieces of text that you want to rank well for voice search, it is important that you include as many relevant keywords and key phrases as possible. This means writing at least 1,500 words worth of content if you’re trying to rank high in localized searches.

Include links.

It’s also good to include links within your longer-form text whenever appropriate so that people can easily find more detailed information on the topic. This is part of Google’s algorithm, and it will impact how well your website ranks overall for voice search.

Create an FAQ page.

If you have a blog or other web page that has lots of frequently asked questions (FAQs), then make sure to create a specific page where you list all of your most common questions and answers in one place.

Create an info-graphic or video.

Highly visual content is more engaging for web searchers, so even if you don’t have lots of written content on your website, it can still rank well in voice search by having visuals like graphics or videos.

These types of content also help support the text on your website too, so you might consider embedding a video within your blog post or including an info-graphic to help people better understand what you’re saying in your article or review.

Use Google Adwords.

Voice search is starting to influence how well websites rank within the search engines, so if you want to see your site receive more traffic from voice searches on Google, then you might want to use Google’s Local or Mobile Ads.

Optimize for local results.

Make sure that your business details on places like Facebook and Yelp include your physical address so that you rank well in localized voice searches.

Get listed on review sites.

A profitable business is a positively reviewed business, no matter the scale or type. Thus, if your goal is, say, to be the best digital marketing agency in your niche, it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re listed on review sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor. These can help rank well in voice search because people often ask questions about location and reviews before getting too deep into the details of your company’s services or products.

Get listed on Wikipedia.

If you want your website to rank well for voice search, then it’s a good idea to have a link from Wikipedia so that Google trusts your website as an authority. Since people often turn to Wikipedia for factual information, this is a good place to link back to your business if you have the information on your website to support it.

Add links within body content.

It’s also good to include links back to your site in blog posts, reviews, and other long-form web pages too, but it’s even more important that you include links within your actual digital marketing messages.

This means adding outbound links to relevant content throughout your blog posts or website pages to increase the likelihood of getting people who are searching for more information on that specific topic.

Takeaway

As consumer demand for voice technology grows, it will become increasingly crucial for businesses of all sizes to incorporate a voice search strategy into their overall digital marketing strategy.

Voice search is offering businesses the potential to provide an enhanced consumer experience, and brands that want to compete and stay relevant will have to jump on board.

Furthermore, if you have a solid voice-optimized SEO plan in place to push your brand to the top of the search engine result pages, voice search might be a terrific tool for growing online traffic and beating the competition.