Is your small business ready for the voice search revolution in Utah?
If you replied ‘yes’ then you have been on top of it and probably have a some work history in the digital marketing industry. Given that a study done in 2019 showed that only 4% of U.S. businesses with a physical location are voice search ready.
In reality your most likely not the digital marketing guru you have always aspired to be and you are part of the other 96% of business owners who are just now hearing of this so called “revolution”.
If so, let’s start with the basics to get you completely caught up.
What is Voice Search?
“OK Google, tell me where I can go to lunch today.”
“Hey Alexa, what is the closest restaurant that delivers?”
And just so I don’t offend the Apple fanatics…
“Hey Siri, is it going to rain today?”
What do these three have in common?
They’re classic examples of the rising tide of voice search, and they signal a change in the SEO world that cannot be avoided.
As internet searches have progressed from primarily desktop-driven to mobile-driven, the most notable change is how people are searching using voice assistant devices. Whether it’s Apple’s Siri, Google’s Home, or Amazon’s Echo device, people are going hands-free for their searches. Voice search queries have gone up exponentially over the years, so it’s crucial to understand these developments and incorporate them into your digital marketing strategy as soon as possible.
How are customers using voice search in Utah?
The first thing you must understand about voice search in Utah is how people are using it. With voice search surging to the forefront of SEO and technological advances, it is critical to keep up with the stats so that you and your business are prepared for the advancements of this so called “revolution.” Here are some of the major voice search statistics we thought any business owner may find convincing
- “Google voice search queries in 2016 are up 35x over 2008” according to Google trends via Search Engine Watch
- “1 in 5 online adults have used voice search on their mobile in the last month” via Global Web Index
- More than 66 million Americans now own a smart speaker (TechCrunch, 2019)
- 2019 research from BrightLocal found that about 75% of smart-speaker owners search for local businesses at least once a week. More telling is the types of searches conducted:
- 54% make food and drink reservations.
- 46% inquire about the price of a certain product from a local business.
- 40% want to find out if a certain product is available at that business.
- 35% book a beauty appointment.
- “40% of adults now use voice search once per day” according to Location World
- Out of the 3.5 billion searches performed on Google every day, almost a third of those are voice searches (TheeDesign, 2017)
- 61% of those in the 25-64 age bracket say they’ll use their voice devices more in the future. The 18-24 demographic mirrors this trend, with 57% saying they’ll increase their voice device usage in the coming years (PwC, 2018).
- “1 in 2 use voice technology on their smartphone, 1 in 3 voice technology users use voice technology daily.” via ComScore
How people use voice search for local businesses
So, what are the things people search for? How do they use voice search for local businesses today? Making restaurant reservations receive the highest use, by far. Furthermore, people are using it to find deals and offers from local companies, as well as to find out which products a local business has in stock. In a nutshell, it consists of a lot of very product transaction-based searches.
What should Utah businesses should do about VEO?
Why is Voice search important?
Think about it… If your digital marketing approach has a direct effect on your company’s success, and voice search use has a direct effect on your digital marketing strategy, then voice search trends will certainly affect your business. Whether or not this will bring positive or negative results depends on how well you adapt your business to the ever changing world of digital marketing.
Research Keywords for Voice Search Separately
Potential customers type in their searches quite differently than they would say them. This is probably the most important rule to remember when considering voice search SEO. On a keyboard a person may search, “breakfast restaurant 84770,” but when speaking to their ALEXA, users may ask “what’s the best place for breakfast near me?” This question and answer format have become central to voice SEO strategies.
In order to research keywords and questions related to your small business, you can use tools like Answer the Public. All you need to do is type in a root keyword and it will generate a list of commonly asked questions, prepositional phrases and more.
Optimize for mobile
Voice search and mobile phones go hand in hand. It’s much simpler to talk into your phone to get a quick answer than it is to type on a tiny screen or stop to tap away when you’re driving. Mobile searches done by voice are growing, and expected to continue to grow annually. As most marketing professionals know, Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, which makes it even more crucial for your site to be mobile friendly. It is important to take action to verify the mobile version of your site, avoid Flash, minimize load time and check that each page on your site is mobile ready with proper web development.
Google My Business
If you’re a local business, you need to get really good at some of the things that Google has been telling us about for search anyway, such as optimizing your Google My Business listing. It’s recently has become more important so you must embrace it and optimize it. Google is clearly showing signs that they’re not kidding this time. They are investing a lot of time and energy into Google My Business and continue to add features, which we think businesses need to be paying attention to. We recommend taking advantage of every new feature they offer, including Google Posts, Messaging, the new description, and product and service offerings. And Don’t forget to add photos and videos as well!
Bottom line? Make sure the listing is claimed, accurate, and complete.
Enhanced Sitemaps
When setting up your website with voice search SEO in mind, you should look at sitemap templates and structure your content so that it answers important questions about your products, industry or other services that you provide. Your sitemap should also include several FAQ pages that incorporate the most important keywords for your product or small business.
After you create a sitemap, it’s important that you submit the new sitemap to Google. Once submitted, Google will know what pages should be crawled.
Create Voice Search FAQ Pages
FAQ pages are perfect for voice search?
Why?
Well as we mentioned earlier, questions such are on the rise when it comes to SEO and it is the frame work that Voice Search is built upon. Delivering answers to frequently asked questions and displaying them on your website can carry high SEO and VEO (Voice Engine Optimization) value. Whether you’re adding an FAQ page or FAQ sections to your website, the benefit of adding FAQs go far beyond merely providing your customers with answers about your services.
Search engines are looking to offer users with the best responses to their search inquiries. By creating FAQ sections that address common long-tail keyword searches from your customer base, search engines can be confident in suggesting your web page on the first page of results. When at least 75% of all clicks go to the first page of results, FAQ sections add significant VEO value.
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