Voice Search and Local Search
Voice search has become a truly revolutionary piece of technology that has greatly changed the digital marketing world. While it seems to have come out of a science-fiction novel, voice search is slowly becoming many user's desired and most convenient medium of searching the web. This blog will go into depth about voice search and its effect on optimization and also the importance of local search.
What is Voice Search?
Voice search is a piece of technology that allows users to search the internet by using their voice instead of typing. Voice search has really begun to blossom due to powerful smartphones being widely available and compatible. Currently, according to Google 20% of all searches are voice searches and that number will continue to rise in the coming years.
Why is it important for digital marketers?
Voice search is important for digital marketers because it is changing the foundation of how SEO works. Being located on page 1 of the SERP is not enough anymore. When a user makes a voice search there are rarely even presented two options, the majority of users are presented with the first ranked option available. This means because of the increased use of voice search (20%) firms need to adapt and prioritize due to the increasing number of users.
Optimizing For Voice Search
Firms need to focus on optimization for voice search, not just text-based search. Optimizing for voice search can prove to be tricky because of how users interact with it.
- Keywords: Voice-based queries on average tend to be longer than text-based, meaning marketers should try to include longer keyword-based writing within the website content.
- Make Content Easily Scannable: a relatively simple way to optimize for voice search is to make sure that websites easily readable, not full of pop-ups, and are clear in solving the user's needs.
- Featured Snippets: Moz describes featured snippets as selected search results that are on the top of Google's organic results below ads in a box. Their purpose is to immediately answer the user's question. Google decides which search requests are best answered by a featured snippet. Featured snippets can be either paragraphs text form, lists, or tables.
These are just a few of many ways you can optimize your content for voice search. Check out this link for more strategies.
What is Local Search?
Local search marketing is quite simply anything firms do on the web to promote a brick and mortar business that makes in-person contact with its consumers. It is a form of SEO that helps consumers and businesses within their local areas connect with each other. Search results are determined by several factors including, the user's search history and their geographic location.
Why is Local Search Useful to marketers?
Local search is incredibly important for digital marketers for several reasons. Traffic from local search converts better, due to results being highly relevant to the user, and being delivered immediately so that consumers can act upon them. According to Seach Engine Journal, a massive 50 percent of people who did a local search on their phone went to a physical store within one day. Local also search ties together neatly with voice search, a whopping 22% of voice searches are for local content. This is because people are using their mobile phones on the go, for whether it's looking for a nearby restaurant or clothing store. Users generally have local intent when searching on their mobile phones which means digital marketers can easily manipulate keywords in order to improve their relevance. Examples of keywords relevant to local search may be "near me" or "open now". Users using the voice function want immediate results, so when paired with a local search it is an effective combination.
Local search also has a high dependence on NAP consistency. NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. Even though it may seem obvious, NAP can be the reason a customer visits a store location. NAP also directly affects a websites rank in the SERP, which as stated earlier is of the utmost importance when using voice search.
Wrap Up
Voice search is becoming the way of the future. As society progresses, people want answers and gratification immediately. Nobody wants to scroll through page after page of search results, or ad infested sites, looking for the answers they seek. The technology available to most of the population now is truly changing the old rules of SEO. As with most trends within digital marketing, it is so important to keep up with, otherwise, firms risk being made irrelevant. Especially due to the effective nature of the local search, having a website optimized for voice search can make a huge impact on local businesses. I have provided several links below with more information about voice search and local search if you want more in-depth information. Thanks for reading this week's edition of #wwudigimark, and I will see you all next week!
Voice Search Optimization: 6 Big Changes You'll Need to Make
A Comprehensive Guide to Local Search in 2020
The Link Between Voice Search and Local Search