Voice Search Optimisation: What Does It Mean for Your Brand?

With the rise of digital assistants comes the rise of digital voice search! Users everywhere are now opting to speak queries instead of typing them out, and according to Search Engine Watch, 35x more voice searches than when the technology was originally launched in 2008. Plus, as of January 2018, over one billion voice searches per month were conducted — that’s a whole lot of chatter!

While this breakthrough in technology is exciting for users, it’s turned into a critical turning point for brands that consider themselves digitally savvy. Why? Because now the question becomes what is voice search optimisation and what does it mean for your brand? Thankfully, this blog post will walk you through what these new trends mean for the industry and how you can tackle them with all the finesse of a luxury branding agency.

Let’s get started!

Siri, What Are Some Voice Search Trends for 2018?

While your overall SEO strategy might aim for a wider reach, your voice search marketing strategy should be optimised for your local community. In fact, mobile voice-related searches are 3x more likely to be locally-based compared to text. This means that when users are using voice search, they’re looking for businesses that provide products and services within a certain proximity from where they’re searching.

In order to “level-up” your voice search SEO 2018 strategy, you want to make sure your business is optimised to appear on local voice search. You can do this by naming the location of your business in several key spots throughout your digital presence. Don’t forget to do this on all your social media profiles too! While social media may not be the first place a digital assistant goes to pull your information, having your geographical location listed in multiple places, especially on social, will definitely help with your SEO.

Another area where naming your brand’s location is of utmost importance is on Google My Business. Accurately naming your location on here is important because it’s a free listing that shows you how your name will appear on Google Search and Google Maps. Make sure to claim and optimise your business for local search so you can rank higher the next time a user speaks their query.

Alexa, How Are Brands Responding to Voice Search? 

Since its inception, brands have responded quite well to voice search technology and have slowly started to integrate the technology into their own digital presence in many different forms. For example, you can now order a pizza using voice technology in the Domino’s app — simply let them know whether you want pepperoni or ham, and a couple moments later the pizza is at your doorstep.

Other brands like Whirlpool and Ocado have even partnered with major digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa to hop on the voice search trends wagon. For example, Whirlpool appliances can receive voice commands through Alexa so you can do your laundry by just saying so, and Ocado, a British online supermarket, allows you to add groceries onto your shopping list while you cook thanks to your voice.

These applications of voice technology are important for voice search optimisation 2018 strategies because these brands have already begun to make their content accessible for rel=”noopener noreferrer” this platform. Dale Beaumont, Founder of the AI-powered business app, BRiN, said “[t]hose who are ready for the new voice-activated era- will have a competitive advantage. They saw the future early and have already built their digital assistant.”

In order to integrate voice technology into your brand, ask yourself where you can integrate this technology into your business. Will the use of voice technology help improve UX? Is there a way to combine this it with your products and services? Think about how voice technology can help elevate your brand and how users will interact with it.

Google, Can Voice Search Be Used for eCommerce?

Voice search is the next frontier for eCommerce businesses. Instead of searching online by typing, users will soon be asking their digital devices where the nearest shoe store is, or what the best dress shop is in London. To create a comprehensive list of keywords for your voice search 2018 strategy, your team needs to understand that most users will speak using colloquial language, and their queries will come in the form of a question.

For the best results, start paying attention to the spoken language your customers use when speaking about your business. Much like written SEO for eCommerce, voice search optimisation necessitates your team to understand what keywords your target audience is using to find your brand. If you’re unsure of how to go about finding that information, you can always ask your local digital creative agency to help compile the research for you. Remember, the goal is to make it easier for your users to find you. Voice search is just another avenue of discovery.

Cortana, What’s Next?

Now that we’ve gone over some of the top voice search 2018 trends and have shown you some best practices for how to optimise for voice search, what’s next? The next step for your brand would be implementation! These tips are just the beginning of what’s possible for your brand and voice technology. To help you launch your new marketing initiative, here are the top tips one more time:

1. List your location on your social media profiles and across your general digital presence to optimise your location for local search
2. Consider how your users will benefit from voice technology and how you want to integrate the feature in your business
3. Target spoken keywords your audience is using to make your brand more easily discoverable