Is your website designed with voice search in mind? Even though the bright predictions about voice search taking over the world by 2021 did not come true, the method is used by a growing number of consumers of all ages. And with the in-home, smart speaker market booming, it’s only a matter of time before voice-based queries outnumber written ones.
Work Backwards from Written Queries
Write down ten questions potential customers might ask about your product or service. From there, spend time coming up with how people would say those same things. This is how to work backward from written to spoken language, and it’s at the heart of making voice search work for your design team. For example, someone might key in the best neurologists in south Kansas City Missouri. However, chances are that no one would speak the query that way. Perhaps they’d address their home’s smart speaker by saying, “who are the best neurologists in Kansas City, Missouri?”
Voice Search Tips – Analyze Competitors’ SEO
It’s possible to learn a lot by studying competitors’ websites. Even using something as simple as a Chrome SEO toolbar, you can dig into a rival’s main pages and find out how they’re doing with search engine optimization. How can this data help you with voice search tips? For starters, it will show you some of the keywords your competitor has chosen and the context around those words. From there, your team can build natural voice queries that encompass the same words but in a more spoken word way. If you’re not sure how to get started with this kind of effort, review a simple guide on the best SEO toolbars for Chrome, and put the power of competition research to work for you.
Seed Current Blog Posts
Revise blog posts so that they contain naturally spoken terms to capture more voice searches. This task doesn’t take as much time as you might suspect because you’re merely seeding one or two voiced phrases or terms into each relevant blog post, not rewriting entire articles.
Voice Search Tips – Go Local
For whatever reason, human beings tend to use location words much more frequently in voice searches than in written (typed) ones. This can be especially important for local businesses regarding web design. Possibly it’s because voice search is often used while driving, which means people are actively looking for a retail store or service provider that can give them what they need, so they add the location tag, as in, “where are drive-thru fast-food restaurants in downtown Seattle?” When you begin to add voice search terms and phrases to your commercial site, don’t forget to include lots of geographic names.