Hey Siri, where’s the closest Chipotle?
Sources say that “50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020.” Furthermore, the graph below displays the projection of voice search trends.
You will find more statistics at Statista
The voice search stats speak for themselves. SEO needs to reflect the times, so how clearly does your website speak to your audience?
Let’s look at some reasons why you need to care about voice search trends.
Reasons Why You Should Give a Rat’s Arse about Voice Search Trends in Web Presence Marketing
Reason One: Everyone Else Is
The first reason you need to start paying attention to voice search is because everyone else is. Almost everyone. We probably know at least one person who doesn’t have a smartphone yet. We don’t hang out with them, though.
At first, we used Siri to show off or check the score of a basketball game. Now, we’re taking her Siriously. Think back: How many times have you or a someone close to you used a voice search in the last week? We predict it’s more than you realize.
Reason Two: Voice Search Is Another Search Engine
Smartphones are smart, NOT clairvoyant.
Why do we get angry at a cyber personal assistant like Siri? Because she doesn’t understand the simplest of requests sometimes. Have you ever tried asking Siri to call your mom and have Siri end up calling the cops instead? So why do we as humans who get frustrated over misunderstandings and convoluted instructions insist on purporting the same obstacles with our website or local SEO?
We want smartphones to just know and give an easily digestible response. Voice search is adapting like Google, learning what the user really wants. If your website is overly complicated, that content sets the tone for your business, therefore, reflects your message to anyone who voice searches your storefront or online services.
Reason Three: More Traffic
Seriously, this one should be obvious. If you’re found easily via voice search, people will visit your site and browse for the answer they’re looking for. If you don’t heed your customer’s questions, you’ll never get the chance to reach them—in any capacity.
Have we sufficiently convinced you? Good. Now the important part. The how.
How to Use Voice Search Trends to Your Advantage
Read your content out loud.
You’ll sound crazy, yes. But, if you stumble over your own words when reading the words out loud to yourself, you’ll be just as confusing to smartphones. Keep it simple, for goodness sake. For your audience’s sake.
Have someone else read your content out loud.
Sometimes we’re biased when it comes to our own content marketing. What may sound like unspeakable brilliance to you may sound like Klingon to your customer base. Hearing your words come out of someone else’s mouth can be humbling but also help foster a new perspective on how you present your company through content.
Write conversationally.
If you’ve tried the first two steps to making your content more voice search friendly and failed miserably, then this is how to remedy that: Write like you talk. While grammar is still important to your SEO to some extent, sometimes the best way to understand a voice search is to understand your own voice, capture that voice in a coffee mug, and type it out. Try recording yourself (take out the um and uhs) and review the results.
Check your basic SEO.
When we say basic, we mean those quick and delicious SEO tips. This includes local SEO. Las Vegas is infamous for having some confusing roads so don’t make it any more confusing by having the incorrect address on Yelp or Google+. It’s stupid obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many local businesses forget to keep their basic info consistent across all social and business directories.
Be forewarned: Checking your Google Map listings, the reverse of being ignorant of your local SEO, can drive you (and Siri) crazy.
Look at what your followers are saying.
Last but not the least, the customer is (or should be) at the center of your web presence marketing universe. If you’re not listening to their voice, your voice won’t be heard either. Here’s what you need to do:
- Look at your social followers (brother-in-law does not count)
- Look at their social feeds
- See what their sharing
- See what they’ve liked on your social feeds
- Review which social posts get the most likes and engagement
- Look at Twitter’s Moments and see what people are talking about
This only takes a couple of seconds; we know you already have your Facebook open in a different tab.
If no one has liked your posts in awhile, you need to take a hot minute and evaluate what your voice is and whether first, it’s worth hearing, and second, if it’s able to be searched.
Mobile and Voice Search is the Future
Most folks use their phones like a fourth limb. Listen: You can hear the distant bleat of social notifications or the subtle boop boop of Siri standing to attention. Don’t miss the signals.
Stuff can get complicated when it comes to SEO, and you can try to do it yourself for a bit, but there comes a time when you just don’t have time. Fill out our contact form, and we’ll make the internet work for your online success.
