Voice search through Okay Google, Siri, Cortana and other platforms has risen in popularity in recent years. The trends are continuing to grow and the popularity of voice search isn't slowing down. I myself now use voice search quite a lot as it is more natural for me than typing, and easier! Also, the technology is getting better and is understanding speech better than it was. We posted an article on voice search last year here: Google Voice Search The Future Of Mobile Search.
It now looks as if Google are looking to make their products better by enabling webmasters to access voice search query data and reports through Google Search Console.
More On This New Feature
Although this new feature hasn't been released yet it definitely looks like it is in the pipeline. This is exciting for us as marketers as it allows us to see more data than before to grasp what potential customers are really looking for.
John Mueller, a well-known Google Webmaster Trends Analyst stated in a recent Google hangout that they are currently working on a way for voice search data to be shown in Google Search Console. You can find out more about what he actually says in the video below. He mentions it at the 23 minute mark.
This feature, when released will be fantastic! We'll be able to segment voice search queries from keyboard search queries and learn some real differences in how people search. This is further going to help us all market better and target our customers in an improved way.
What To Do Next
As I continue in this article I am going to go through some of the things you need to be doing with your website, and as part of your marketing strategy, to ensure you are as visible as you can be in voice search results.
1) Long Tail Keywords Are A Necessity
Long tailed keywords make up more than 70% of current search queries, even more so with voice search. If you are not optimising your website for these long tailed keywords then you could be losing out on enquiries and customers! The value of optimising for these keywords is incredible due to the amount of long tailed queries there are. If you don't have them included as part of your SEO or PPC campaign, now is the time.
A long tail keyword is usually anything over 3 words. i.e. “get more customers online”. That is an example of a long tailed keyword. You should first do research on these keywords using the Google keyword Planner to get an idea of what people are searching. Once you have selected some keywords you can start including them in your marketing. Find out more about long tailed keywords here: What Is A Long Tail Keyword And Why Should I Care?
2) Blog, Blog and Blog
Moving on from long tail keywords, blogging is something you NEED to be doing. It is an extremely powerful marketing tool for generating more traffic, more leads and more sales. Blogging really helps take into account the long tailed keywords as well. You can write different articles based around the long tail phrases people are searching for. The more content you can write the better, and the more traffic you will generate to your website. Read more on using blogging for generating more business leads here – How Blogging Can Be Used As An Effective Business Lead Generation Tool
3) Frequently Asked Questions
If you aren't currently using Frequently Asked Questions on your website, now is the time. They are great, not only to help with appearing for longer tailed searches and voice search but they can also help with conversions. If a user can easily find the answer on your website to a problem they might be more likely to convert, depending on the situation. Make sure you do some research by asking clients and prospects what their main challenges are and use these to create a FAQ page on your website. It's also really good if you can write an entire blog article on the main challenges your prospects and clients face.
4) Make Sure You Are Mobile Friendly
This is another element that is going to help you appear more in voice searches. As the vast majority of voice searches will be done on mobile devices, making sure your website is mobile friendly should be a top priority. If it is you will generally rank better in Google mobile searches and your website will appear better to users. If it isn't mobile friendly you could be losing out on business due to a poor user experience! Find out more about making your website mobile friendly by reading this blog article – How To Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
Conclusion
If this new feature gets added to Google Search Console in the coming months, it will provide us all with much more data to make informed choices. However, if you aren't appearing in voice searches at the minute then you're not going to be able to see the benefits of that. Implement some of the points above and you will be well on your way to becoming more visible in long tailed searches and therefore voice searches.
