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Aleksandra Pietrzak
Today, more than half of all Google searches are voice searches, and they’re growing by 10% per month. This means that search engine optimization tactics that worked only a few years ago are now outdated. In order to rank highly in local search results, you have to optimize your business listing and website copy for voice search as well as written search. But how exactly do you do this? Here are some ideas on how to best optimize your local SEO strategy for voice search so that your business can be found by people looking specifically in their city or zip code.
What do you think the first thing that comes to mind when you think of searching for information on the web? If you guessed search engines, then you were right! In fact, it’s estimated that 90% of all internet traffic goes through search engines. The other 10% is divided up among social media platforms and blogs. But what does this mean for your business?
Text searches have been around since the 1990s, but voice search is a relatively new technology that is quickly gaining popularity. It’s important to consider how these types of searches will affect your business and what you can do to optimize your local SEO strategy for voice search. Text searches are still popular because they are simple and quick to conduct. They also provide detailed results with links that help people easily navigate their options before making a purchase decision or booking an appointment online. Voice searches are increasingly becoming more popular because they are easier than ever before to use on smartphones and other devices without typing or clicking buttons on the screen.
Voice search is an increasing trend in the way people interact with technology. Voice search allows people to speak their queries aloud, which are then processed by voice-powered devices such as smartphones and smart speakers. With voice search, the user can dictate a question or request without the need of typing, thus making it easier than ever before to find what they’re looking for on the internet.
Voice search is the next big frontier in search, and it’s not just a fad. It’s actually a major change in how people find information, with the expectation that eventually most searches will be done by voice. As such, optimizing your website for voice search is an imperative if you want to stay competitive. The good news is that there are strategies that you can put into place today that will help ensure your site ranks well when voice searches take off as they should over the next year or two.
In October 2010, Siri was released as an application for iOS. In April 2011, Siri was released on the Mac. In September 2011, they was rewritten in a new programming language called C++ and given a new voice. As of March 2017, Siri is available on all major platforms including Apple TV. The new Siri uses machine learning on the user’s data to have an ever-increasing understanding of the person and their needs. Some areas where businesses are using this technology include customer service, the store floor, inventory management, production, human resources and more.
Alexa is the voice assistant that powers Amazon’s Echo devices. Alexa launched in late 2014 and was enabled on Amazon’s Fire TV Stick in 2017. In 2018, Amazon announced that it would be integrating Alexa into its own line of smart speakers. Two primary sources of local business data, photos, and reviews are used by Alexa. The first is Yelp, which has a high-volume of data and can quickly populate what customers are looking for. The second source is Google Maps which provides more detailed information about individual stores like hours of operation or phone numbers.
The Cortana digital assistant was introduced in 2014 as an integral part of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 operating system and released in 2015 with Windows 10. Cortana is a voice-activated virtual assistant with the ability to learn from users, provide relevant information at the right time, and proactively offer assistance. Cortana’s abilities are powered by machine learning and include natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, and other AI techniques that enable her to have conversations like a human would have.
The Google Assistant is a virtual assistant developed by Google that was first released on October 4th, 2016. It is the successor to the Google Now and features integration with many of Google’s services and products, including Gmail, YouTube, and Android. As more people have become accustomed to using voice commands over typing search terms into a web browser or smartphone keyboard, this has also impacted how consumers find businesses.
Local voice searches have increased in popularity, and with it comes a new set of challenges. One of the biggest differences between local voice search and traditional search engine queries is that people are more likely to ask a question than type one in. This poses a problem for those who want their business information at the top of their searches. Here are some ways you can prepare your strategy so that your business shows up when people need it most.
When doing voice search on a mobile device, the most popular voice search keywords are usually the shortest and easiest words to pronounce. When you’re optimizing your local SEO strategy, focus on this criteria and use short keywords that people can easily say out loud like dentist or restaurant. Make sure your content is relevant, keyword-rich, and easy to understand in order to get found by voice search.
Voice search is the future of search, but it’s still not easy to optimize your site or content for voice search. Still, there are a few things you can do. The first is to make sure your content is structured in such a way that it reads well out loud. The second is to make sure your site loads quickly and doesn’t have any broken links or other errors that might confuse people using voice search. Thirdly, make sure your content matches what people are looking for. Finally, consider transcribing your audio into text so it will be indexed by Google as text instead of an audio file.
Structured data markup is a way to communicate information about a web page using HTML tags. Adding structured data markup to your site enables Google to provide you with rich snippets in the SERPs when someone does a voice search for something related to your business or product. Rich snippets help provide users with additional information like star ratings, reviews or call-to-action buttons.
Google My Business is the most important tool you can use when optimizing your local presence. Claiming your GMB profile will ensure it has the right information and gets indexed properly in Google’s database. Plus, having a profile will make it easier to claim as a verified business on Google Maps and simplify what information you need to share with potential customers.
Smartphones have become a staple of modern life. In fact, most people will spend upwards of two hours per day on their smartphone. Mobile optimization is crucial because Google uses the mobile version of your site when ranking it in search results. To maintain a strong local presence, make sure your website is mobile friendly.
Voice searches have overtaken typed searches as the preferred way to interact with your device, which means it’s more important than ever that you optimize your local strategy. With a few tweaks, you can make sure your site is ready when customers use voice search. By 2026, it is predicted that 80% of queries will come from voice searches.
Aleksandra Pietrzak
Wiktoria CzerwAleksandra PietrzakGet started
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