There is nothing new about voice search. It has, however seen increased usage in the past few years. Voice search has become a premiere feature that marketers use to target their customers more easily. In 2014, Andrew Ng, then chief scientist of China’s largest search engine, Baidu, predicted that “50% of all searches will be through images or speech.” At the time of his interview, 10% of all Baidu searches were done by voice search.
What is voice search?
Voice search is the technology that allows people using search clients to make queries using speech recognition. Voice search acts in the same way as text search, yielding direct answers to questions given via voice command.The search engine will match your voice-recognized question to the most relevant information available. There are a few examples of voice search such as speech-to-text and voice dialing. If you use Windows 10, you are probably familiar with Microsoft’s Desktop Assistant, Cortana. Mobile phones are known to have popular, built-in assistants as well. Apple’s iPhone has Siri. Samsung has Bixby. And Amazon has voice-activated, smart home devices that use an assistant named Alexa.
How do you optimize for voice search?
Most devices, brands, platforms, and websites can be optimized for voice search. In fact, to stay ahead of competitors, web development companies in Chicago optimize their platforms for voice search.
- Use long-tail keywords. Most people speak differently than they write or type. This is especially true of those who speak American English. This makes a difference when it comes to optimizing your platform for voice search. When we search for information using text, we usually use short keyword. But as voice search increases in popularity, so too, will long-tail keywords. As a matter of fact, long tail keywords are quite useful for Google’s search engine.
- Use Microdata as you optimize your local listing. Have you ever noticed that when you use your mobile device at a restaurant or other local business, apps will ask you if you want to check in? Or maybe the app will show “Places Near Me.” Voice search helps gather information about physical locations. Optimizing your platform so that customers or clients can check-in can go a long way to helping improve your business’s online presence. You can optimize your local listing by adding your business’s information and relevant categories.
- Include a FAQ page to your website or app. If visitors to your website are searching for your product, they could be searching because they are in immediate need of a solution to a problem. Voice searches usually seek to satisfy an immediate need or solve a specific problem.
- Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Business owners and web development agencies know that responsive websites are an integral part to customer/client satisfaction.
- Include schema markup in your backend. Schema markup is code that you insert into the back end of your website. It helps search engines understand the information of your site so that it can return better results to searchers.
- Monitor your site’s analytics. Stay up to date on the traffic coming into your website. Google’s Search Console provides vital data on visitors’ search habits, keywords that they use to reach your site and more.
The popularity and capabilities of voice search will only grow and improve over the years. Don’t let your business be left behind. If you implement these practices and create high-quality content, you will be able to easily optimize your site for voice search.Call KitelyTech on (800) 274 2908 today for more information.
