Voice searches are increasing in popularity at a tremendous rate.
18 to 36 year olds are the main demogaphic however with the advent of home personal voice command assistants like “Alexa’ and ‘Echo Dot’ this is changing all the time. By the end of 2020, Google are expecting that 50% of searches will be voice searches.
Infact, all of the voice search statistics are pretty powerful. So, what does this mean for web design and website content?
We’ve put together some ways the rise in voice searches will impact how we design and write content for websites. If you need any help, or think you may be missing out, just let us know and we can go through it with you.
Here are the points we think are important for you to know:
Natural Language
We are big believers in making content relatable and using it to be build rapport, as opposed to being formal, or methodical. With voice searches, this is even more revelant. Rather than keeping to short search subjects when we type, when we speak we are naturally more, well, natural!
Search requests sound more like ‘Alexa, where is the nearest place to park for The Brewhouse in Sutton Coldfield’ rather than ‘parking brewhouse Sutton Coldfield’. This means that your content should be written in a way that people might speak.
It’s interesting to note that the words ‘How’, ‘What’ and ‘Best’ are, according to Brightlocal, the top 3 trigger words. We always love questions as a way of organising content and connecting with web visitors and for voice searches they would be a useful asset. Research even suggests that people are using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when speaking to Alexa! The tone and nature of our websites is important.
Long Tailed Keywords
Taking into account this change in consumer behaviour, your focus on keywords is even more crucial.
We already advise our web clients to think about the language a customer would use in a search for your services. As an expert in your field, how you would search for your business will probably be a lot different. This is where Long Tailed Keywords come in.
Long tailed Keywords are the longer, more specific phrases people use to search on the internet. A ‘Fat Head’ general search might be ‘ Men’s Trainers’. A Long Tailed Keyword would be ‘Men’s Trainers Size 7 Nike Grey’. It’s important that your content reflects the types of searches your prospective customers may make.
We can help you identify the longer search phrases to include in your content to capture these potential opportunities and create that conversation.
Web Page Loading Speed
If you’re a regular to this blog, or one of our lovely clients/social media followers, you’ll know that we do regularly mention how important web page loading speed is. It is one of the top reasons that people leave a website. Anything over 3 seconds is thought too slow these days (no, we really aren’t very patient are we!) but this is just one reason loading speed is important.
Without getting too technical, voice searches require quick access to your content and if you’re page just doesn’t load quick enough your listing won’t be shown/told.
Website speed is due to lots of things, including: quality of build, optimisation of images, security and back end health. As well as choosing a professional web designer/developer to build your website, once it is live it is important to maintain and care for your site. If it is a WordPress site a WordPress Care Package, like ours, is even more essential with the onset of voice search capabilities.
Optimise Your Content
This is basically SEO and more back end. Once you’ve ticked all the boxes for your content you need to make sure this part is actioned so that your optimised content reaches your target audience.
You can do this by making sure you’ve done things like:
- Correctly inputting relevant tags
- Comprehnsive alternative text
- Full, detailed meta description
- Designed your site for mobiles
- Use structured data or schema
If the above doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone! As we often say, a well built website with excellent copy and user experience is a brilliant start, but it is the start. For a website to be truly efficient you need to market it like you would other resources and with voice search optimisation we would recommend that you consult SEO experts to make sure you’re doing all you can to appear on this up and coming new way of working.
So, there you go. A snapshot of how voice searches are going to change consumer behaviour and how we can respond to maximise this opportuity.
If you would like to have a chat about how your website is faring in this new climate contact us here today.
For more information about our SEO packages or WordPress Care Packages please click here or call 0121 354 1010. We’d love to help you.
