From Voice to Local: Optimizing Your Search for the Future

The introduction of hands-free technology within the past decade has changed the realm of marketing for businesses and has led to an overwhelming demand for ease of access among users. Being able to market to devices that thrive off of voice search is essential in the social age, whereas many as 65% of individuals aged 25-50 interacting with voice applicable devices. Just as well with local search, to be able to create a competitive advantage within your specific locale in tandem with enhancing the reach of your voice search allows for rapid and influential growth. In the digital world of marketing, those who are the easiest to see will be the easiest to convert.

From household appliances like vacuum cleaners to smart technology designed to assist persons with disabilities, voice-capable devices have an infinite number of applications in the real world and are only becoming more and more innovative. In response to this growth, companies of all kinds need to be accessible via voice search queries and should compete to have the top spot, or in this case the featured snippet, among its peers. Much like SEO, Voice Search Optimization, VSO, is pertinent to increase the position of your company or brand on a SERP, and a mastery of it will allow you to noticeably increase your traffic and conversion rate.

The Why and How: VSO

To incorporate VSO into your digital marketing structure you need to look at featured snippets. Featured Snippets are the first search result queues that appear when a user initiates a search online. When a user initiates a voice search, the featured snippet will be the response that will be given by the voice search assistant that is being used. Similar to SEO, what helps increase or drive SERP placement with voice search and featured snippets is keywords. Unlike standard hands-on formal searching vernacular, VSO needs to accommodate more organic inquiries.

Use Long-tail keywords in search inquiries accommodates the much more conversational nature of voice search. Setting your VSO strategy to include more tailored keywords and drawn-out exclusive questions that your site can specifically provide solutions to will increase the chances of you ranking high in a SERP, and being put in a featured snippet. Emulating individual consumer's behavior for voice search can be difficult than hands-on searching, so being able to cover many broad keyword sets is important for placements.

Sites like AnswerThePublic have tools that collectively source search inquiries and determines which best keywords and phrases drive the most traffic and are most relevant to you and the products or services that you are trying to convert on. Within voice search, people want to be able to have a seamless casual interaction with their inquiries much like the rest of their experience, so you want to build around VSO that is trustworthy and informative, and quick. Knowing VSO is just a stepping stone within augmenting SERP placement for your business through voice search. Knowing how to market to your crowd on a broad level is a start, but knowing how to engage and provide service and ease of access to the physical community surrounding your business or brand can help skyrocket and prioritize your spot on the SERP.

The Why and How: Local Search Marketing and NAP

When you want consumers to go straight to the source of your business or service, or you come to them, Local Search Marketing is a must. Being marketable within your community and being seeing as the most viable resource amongst immediate local competitors can help set your business apart overall. In addition to the general standards of SEO, local search also thrives off of NAP. Name, Address, and Phone Number are the lifeblood of any local search strategy. Getting this information out there through listing sites and link building will help establish your site's prowess in its field and lead to climbing up the local visibility ladder. In addition to being seen, you want to be reviewed. Impressions are everything, and the more you can get consumers to review your product or service and perpetuate your business's name through the search algorithm, the more it will show up and place in listings.

To Be Seen Is to Be Heard, Or Vice Versa?

It is evident that voice search is on an upward climb, and that companies new and old must adapt to these technologies. Bringing oneself into the modern age is the only proper way to convert to the most demanding of consumers regardless of niche. If your company cannot be seen or searched and viewed as the most reliable source, or at least within the top ten of them, the statistics show a mass decline in conversions beyond these points. Whether it's on a national branding level or being able to place amongst the top results of your local competition, prepping and optimizing your site or digital marketing strategy to accommodate the world of voice search can only result in positive outcomes.