Technology is always evolving, and so are the ways people search for information. As marketers, and specifically as search experts, we need to be quick to adapt our strategies to benefit from these new trends.
SEO
1. Tighten up your tech
First things first, you need to think about your website’s technical setup. Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and fast loading is important, as most voice search takes place on mobiles. Voice search users are looking for specific answers to specific questions, so make sure your site’s pages include as much contextual information as possible. If you’re not sure where to get started, have a look at schema.org, which explains type of information which can be “marked-up” for search engines.
Don’t forget to optimise your pages for Quick Answers too. If you have data arranged in lists and tables, for instance, mark it up with relevant tags as this is the kind of information that Quick Answers will pull.
2. Put your content in context and make it conversational
Search engines scan the information and text you place around keywords to place search queries in the right context. So think carefully about what you write, and how to help search engines find the right information people are searching for. Write your content in a conversational style while you’re at it.
3. Don’t forget the FAQ
Think about what frequently asked questions users might ask around a particular topic, and try to pre-empt them in your copywriting. Writing FAQs will also increase the likelihood that your content is included in Quick Answers, and therefore voice search results, too. And to take advantage of question-led search queries, think about how you can create top-of-the-funnel, informational content.
4. Think local
Did you know 40% of adults use voice search to ask for directions? And 42% use it while driving. That means it’s really important that you optimise your local profiles as users become increasingly expectant to receive information directly in search results pages. To that end, make sure that your Google+ Local pages and local listings on third party platforms (such as Foursquare, Yelp, Yahoo, Yellow Pages and Facebook) are updated as frequently as possible.
SEA
5. Adapt your keywords and ad copy
Paid ads take up the majority of the mobile screen. So it’s important to appear at the top in order to grab the most clicks. As voice search queries are typically question-led, one way of doing this is by optimising your PPC ad copy and bidding strategy to focus on strong intent keywords (like ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘where’ and ‘how’). Think about the type of questions your consumer might ask themselves when searching for your product/service.
6. Adjust your bids by device
The further down the page you appear, the less likely people will be to click on your link. So adapt your PPC strategies for voice search by using Google’s device bid adjustment feature. Do this by increasing mobile bids for campaigns which contain query-based keywords (as it’s more likely they will have come from asking Google rather than typing).
7. Add brand misspells
Google Now, Google’s voice assistant, has 92% accuracy, which means that it even identify brand names that use regular words. But to cover all bases, it’s worthwhile adding brand misspells as keywords. Usually in PPC this is used to capture people who have heard a name, but don’t know how to spell it. But voice search works the other way round; misspells should be added for people who have seen the brand name written down but don’t know how it’s pronounced.
8. Optimise for changing shopping habits
As well as changing the way we search, voice search is also changing – and streamlining – the way we buy online. Google is already optimising its Shopping service to respond to spoken queries, and we are moving closer to the reality of no-click purchasing (where we can tell Google to buy a certain product from a certain retailer, and be taken straight to the check-out to confirm the purchase).
For more information, please contact our local search expert Benjamin Bonnet.
Read our related article: How voice search is changing the way we search for content