The only constant in digital marketing is that technology is always changing and evolving. Ten years ago, if a business had a website, it was good to go. However, that has begun to change in recent years. Nowadays, a competitive business must have a website, a social media presence, a business blog, and strong SEO. Unfortunately, they could still fall behind the competition without a digital voice.
This constantly evolving technology brings us to one of the biggest topics in today’s digital world: voice search. Whether you use a virtual assistant in your home, office, or smartphone, you are taking part in this digital trend. In fact, almost 50% of consumers are using voice search for general queries and it’s no wonder why. Voice search allows consumers to easily search a much longer entry than typing the inquiry into the search engine. Voice search also allows more granular targeting such as location, reviews, pricing, and specials and promotions.
So, is your digital voice being heard? Is your business optimized for voice search?
Optimizing Your Digital Voice with GMB
As of now, there is no way to utilize paid advertising in voice search. In contrast, display search engines offer both paid search ads and organic search options when consumers look for relevant keywords. So how can a business optimize its results when consumers use voice search?
The first step is to claim your business’s Google My Business (GMB) listing. The GMB listing should include plenty of information. Minimally, it should include store hours, a phone number, and descriptions of products and services. However, it is also important that your business’s GMB is completed with precision and registered the same way as other online NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) listings. This prevents confusion for both search engines and customers. After all, optimizing a GMB listing should be given a great deal of time and attention. Although many businesses claim their listing, few do it to a point that will enhance their local SEO.
For more information on how to utilize GMB, be sure to check out our posts “Be More Than a Directory Listing with Google My Business” and “Frequently Asked Questions: Google My Business.”
Factors Involved in Voice Search
Although an optimized GMB listing is important, there are many other factors involved in populating a result when a voice search is conducted.
For example, business proximity to the user is a huge factor. If a consumer is searching for a particular product or service, they’re unlikely to want a result that’s hundreds of miles away. In this way, GMB helps consumers by showing them businesses within their local proximity. This feature is especially relevant as the number of people using “near me” voice searches has increased in recent years and nearly 20% of consumers will visit a local business after utilizing voice search. Even more, 25% of consumers will either visit a local business’s website or make a phone call to that business after using voice search. (Source)
Category and keyword match are a couple other factors involved when a voice search is conducted. Keyword match is an especially interesting as voice search queries are typically longer than typed search queries. This makes it an important factor to consider when optimizing your business for voice search.
FAQs on Voice Search
How does voice search affect my SEO?
An SEO strategy for your business is extremely important no matter whether you want to reach customers searching via typed search, voice search, or both.
To create an effective SEO strategy for voice search, you should take into consideration the impact of a GMB profile and consistent NAP data, a mobile friendly website, website loading speed, and more. (Source) The use of longer search queries in voice search is also an important factor to consider when creating your business’s SEO strategy.
Why is optimizing my business for voice search important?
Optimizing your business for voice search is important because it provides an additional opportunity for consumers to find your business. In fact, voice search accounts for 1/5th of Google search queries!
How to Optimize Your Business’s Digital Voice
Media Venue realize all this information can be overwhelming –we are here to help! Visit the Media Venue website or give us a call today to learn more about these new and evolving technologies. We will review your website and online presence for efficiencies and areas of improvements, summarize the information, and give you a strategic roadmap on how to improve your business’s digital landscape.
Contact Cassie Rogers, our Director of Digital Marketing, at 502-855-4783 to learn how Media Venue can optimize your business for voice search and improve your business’s SEO to rise to the top of search rankings.
