Instead of typing text into a search box, voice search allows you to communicate with search engines using spoken language. Digital assistants like Amazon Echo, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri, and Google Home were some inventions to accomplish this. You’ve definitely noticed that the number of speech-activated products on the market is growing, and voice technology is continually evolving. In fact, as per a recent study, shopping done using voice search is predicted to grow to $40 million in 2022.
Voice Search is Here to Stay! Is Your Business Ready?
Whatever has brought you here, it is pretty clear that consumers are increasingly using voice search to look up things on the internet. They are voicing out their questions and queries, and you, too, are looking to put your business in front of them and optimize your site for voice search optimization. If this is right, you have hit the right place.
So, let’s know how exactly you should optimize your eCommerce site for voice search.
7 Ways to Optimize an eCommerce Site for Voice Search
With voice search traffic continuing to increase, it makes perfect sense to look at how you can optimize results from voice searches. We have put together some key pointers that will help you optimize voice search for eCommerce.
1. Optimize for Questions
A voice search has to be more conversational and also more likely to be phrased as a question rather than a ‘chain’ of keywords. For example, if using a voice search, a user may say something like “Where can I buy a new car in Texas?”. If people are putting questions in voice searches, you have to give answers that are relevant. By answering directly, you drive more traffic to your site. As the question is asked orally, it has a conversational tone. So, it sounds natural when said out loud.
Always, keep this in mind when optimizing your site for voice. Structure your content to answer your target customer’s questions instead of just considering keywords or phrases. For better results, pay attention to “trigger words” such as “what,” “how,” “where” and “best” for voice search and try incorporating them into your content.
For example: Suppose users are searching for the term “where can I buy a new car in Texas?” As you can see in the image below, Google shows a number of companies when one searches for the term. So, be sure to optimize for such queries.
2. Target Long-Tail Keywords
SEO conversation is never complete without keywords. Have you heard that 70% of search queries are long-tailed keywords? When it comes to voice search keywords, long-tail keywords cannot be ignored. But how do long-tail keywords play a good role? Know-how:
- Less competition or monthly searches make long-tail keywords more likely to rank.
- Long-tail keywords usually don’t require a plethora of links
- Long-tail keywords equip you with increased conversion accelerations
We have now moved ahead into the era of semantics rather than mere keyword-oriented website optimization. And long-tail keywords are a result of that. Hence, people who use voice search often look for specific information and ask longer queries. So, it is advisable to target long-tail keywords. They may have fewer monthly searches in comparison to short keywords but have a high conversion rate.
3. Make Your Website Faster
A fast site significantly improves your user experience, engages the audience, boosts your customers’ time on your site, and inspires them to make a purchase. However, website speed also plays a vital role in voice search optimization. For instance, when a user conducts a voice search, Google instantly provides a relevant answer. But, if your page loads slowly, Google will ignore it. After analyzing 10,000 voice searches, it was concluded that, unlike the average page loading speed of 8.8 seconds, voice search results pages load in less than 4.6 seconds.
A few tips to boost your page load speed:
- Choose a fast web host
- Use caching
- Remove broken links
- Invest in CDN
4. Invest in High-Quality Content
To increase your online credibility, communicate with your customers, and appear higher in the SERPs, you need to publish high-quality content. Of course, this does not imply that you should write 500-word essays stuffed with keywords. The information you post on your blog should be useful to those who read it, i.e., it should be interactive, and industry-specific. As far as voice searches are concerned, you need to optimize your content for it.
5. Boost Mobile Experiences
We live in a mobile-first era, and today’s online customers are tech-savvy and know better what pleasant mobile experiences look like. According to recent studies, 1 out of every 5 voice searchers uses mobile devices. They don’t want to pinch-zoom in and out to read your information, scroll endlessly to discover the things they want, or get lost in your too complex menus of many categories. No. They look for a pleasant user experience on your website. How to go about it? Here’s how:
- Make your clickable elements easy to tap on
- Display catchy and visually appealing images.
- Simplify your navigation menu
- Add a search bar to your sites to make it easier for customers to find the products they’re looking for.
For example: Look at the picture below showing the current website performance of neilpatel.com on mobile devices. It has a score of 73, which is considered good from the perspective of user experience. You can also aim for a score of 50-89 to boost mobile experience of your website visitors.
6. Optimize Your Local Listing
Users conduct searches through voice and ask specific questions such as “Where can I buy winter coats? or “Nearest stores to buy winter coats? From these results, Google will automatically generate local businesses that sell winter coats. Google voice search online pulls all this information from local listings to provide it to your audience. So, if you want to drive valuable leads to your business, make sure the information you add during Google My Business listing is correct, precise, and up-to-date. You will lose leads if your information is inaccurate. It can also lead your audience to lose confidence in your company.
7. Aim for Google Position 0
You are probably doing SEO optimization for traditional searches and digital marketing, so you need to know all about Google position 0. That’s where Google selects featured snippets of information and places them in a box at the top of any search result. This generates more traffic to your web page and, hopefully, leads to the traffic converting to customers.
The same idea holds for voice searches; you want to provide direct answers to direct questions. For example, what are the best deals on expensive watches in Miami? If you answer a question such as “Bob’s watch dealership in Miami offers the best deals in the state on new watches,” then that position 0 could be yours.
Over to You!
Voice searches are rapidly becoming a significant part of our daily lives. They have transformed the way people use smart devices and search engines. So, if you have been looking to hook your customers with voice queries, this was the read for you. You must begin optimizing your search strategy for voice search to stay ahead of the competition.
At knotsync, we have a team of experts who bring their knowledge and expertise to help you! If you’re ready to start obtaining more valuable leads through voice search.
We look forward to helping your business reach new heights! Contact us!
