With over one billion voice searches performed each month, there’s no ignoring the way this technology is revolutionising how customers interact with digital content. Devices like smart speakers, virtual assistants and other voice-activated devices are now widely used across the world, including in Australia. Voice search optimisation now has to be part of your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy for 2025.
Smart speaker creation is already a multi-billion dollar industry, but it’s expected to be worth more than $100 billion in the next 10 years. Popular smart speakers include Amazon Alexa, Amazon Echo, Sonos, Google Home, Google Nest Audio and Apple HomePod. A growing number of young people are using smartphone technology like Google Assistant, Apple Siri or Android VoiceAction to find new brands and businesses to use.
That’s where you come in. Brands that embrace voice search marketing will be in a stronger position as it quickly becomes the dominant form of online search. How do you optimise for voice search? As a creative marketing agency, that’s something Anchor Digital is happy to help you with.
What Is Voice Search?
Voice search (or voice-enabled search) is when people use their voice to access information available on the web. Voice commerce is when they use their voice to make purchases.
Voice searches are typically performed on smart speakers and digital assistants. Instead of the usual results of text, images and links, voice search results are short, spoken answers that the voice search assistant reads aloud in their distinctive tone. If you’ve ever searched with Siri, you’ll know just what that sounds like.
Voice search devices are not only used to find information quickly and easily but to play music, make phone calls, turn the smart devices in your home on and off and do plenty of other tasks.
Why Voice Search is Becoming More Popular
Voice recognition technology has existed in some form since the 1950s when devices like Bell Laboratories’ ‘Audrey’ and IBM’s ‘Shoebox’ could recognise and respond to strings of numbers and words. Voice search as we know it began with Siri on Apple’s app store in 2010, but it didn’t set the world on fire straight away. Limitations in hardware, accuracy, and connectivity led to a slow start in voice search. Apart from its convenience, the reasons for its recent surge in popularity lie in the wider adoption of smart speakers, better Internet connectivity and new developments in technology.
Mobile-first consumer behaviour plays a role, of course, with smartphones now used for the majority of Internet searches. Artificial intelligence (AI) also continues to refine voice search technology with Machine Learning algorithms to improve search accuracy and natural language processing (NLP), teaching the bots to better match the results with user intent.
Voice search will continue growing in 2025, thanks to further advancements in technology, connectivity and AI, as well as the convenience of hands-free technology and the sheer range of virtual assistants available. Voice search optimisation will help your brand stay ahead of the curve.
How to Optimise for Voice Search
Voice search is making life more convenient for a lot of people. You can use it while you’re driving or cooking, making it easier to multi-task. It’s useful for people with visual impairments and other accessibility issues. It’s also immediate. When you know exactly what you want, and you don’t need to spend time browsing your options, a voice search is the most convenient approach.
How can a brand like yours optimise for voice searches? Here are some actions you can take:
Understand user intent
Voice search queries tend to be very conversational and very specific. Often, users want to find the opening hours, address or phone number of a particular business. Brands should focus on search intents for needs they can fulfil.
Optimise for featured snippets and structured data
Featured snippets are the answer boxes that appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). They provide voice search devices with a readymade short response to read to searchers. Producing well-researched content with clearly defined answers increases the likelihood of you appearing in one of these summaries.
Using common structured data markup on your pages, like sections for events, FAQs, reviews, etc., also gives the search engines a clearer idea of your page intent.
Focus on conversational phrases
Because this is a voice search, it’s helpful to optimise for longer and more conversational phrases than the traditional keyword approach. Long-tail keywords like “restaurants in Fortitude Valley with outdoor seating” can help you better match what users are searching for.
Create content that answers questions
For voice search success, content should be designed to answer the genuine queries that customers are looking for rather than just to meet the ranking factors.
Mobile-friendly and fast-loading website
Speed and performance on mobile devices are always important as far as search goes. With the mobile-focused nature of voice search, it’s essential to make sure your site is fast, responsive and provides a pleasant experience for users on smartphones.
Turning Voice Search Leads into Conversions
One of the biggest benefits of voice search optimisation for businesses is improved local SEO. Users heavily rely on voice search to find local results, where it’s important to make sure your brand appears. By providing customers with such an easy and natural way to access your business, you help build brand loyalty.
Optimising the user experience in a way that considers the unique nature of voice searches gives you the best possible chance of turning voice search leads into conversions. Once you’ve factored voice search optimisation into your SEO strategy, there are other ways to make the path to conversion a smoother one. You can include voice-assisted payment systems as well as easy-to-use ones like Google Pay or Apple Pay. Analytics tools can track users’ progress from initial inquiry through to conversions so you can streamline it for greater success.
Get the Most Out Of Your Marketing with Anchor
If you need to modify your approach to your SEO marketing (including voice search marketing), Anchor Digital has the right knowledge, skills and people. With over a decade of experience in the industry, we’ve transformed businesses through best-practice SEO to better reflect their brand identities and the stories they wish to tell.
Using our in-depth understanding of both timeless principles and new developments like voice search, we’ll help you be the answer to the questions that customers are asking their smart devices. Our A/B and multivariate testing help you refine your approach as necessary and avoid wasting time in the pursuit of results.
Our digital marketing strategy services start with what you want to communicate and then get down to finding the best techniques for the task. We know how fast change can come in this industry, which is why we keep up with new developments and modify our approach when we have to. If you need to build your strategy from scratch, we can help you identify your unique selling proposition (USP) and grow your strategy from there.
To make voice search marketing part of your strategy, contact the Anchor team.
