“Hey, Google, what coffee shops are open near me?”
“Hey Siri, what’s the weather like in Geelong this morning?”
“Hey Alexa, is there a furniture store open in my area?
Since smart devices have made their way into Australian homes, cars, hands and wrists en masse, voice search has accelerated at warp speed and the research to back this up speaks volumes.
Believe it or not, 49% of Australians now use voice assistant devices to interact with brands, almost every Australian adult now owns a smart speaker (smart phones and watches, Google Home, Amazon Alexa devices, and the like), and a whopping 49% of Australians use voice search on their mobile – compelling stats and an excellent reminder to ensure your site is mobile-friendly!
Research firm Year 13 also surveyed 1000 young Australians aged 15-24 in 2021 and found 65% of Gen Zs use voice assistants on a regular basis. 53% of respondents used Apple’s Siri, 25% opted for Google Assistant, 25% Amazon Alexa, 4% Microsoft Cortana, and 2% Samsung Bixby.
Back in 2018 – PwC conducted research into this area also interviewing 1000 Americans aged 18-64 and found 50% of respondents had made a purchase using their voice assistant, and an additional 25% would consider doing so in the future. And this was 5 years ago!
So, what does all this mean for marketing professionals and business owners in 2023 and beyond? Well, quite a lot.
The rise of voice search has revolutionised the way people search for information and purchase goods and services online.
Up until now, you’ve invested in your site’s SEO from a text search perspective, doing the keyword research and optimising your website on page and on the back end.
But voice search differs to traditional SEO, which is why there is now a golden opportunity to be on the forefront of this change to stay competitive in tomorrow’s digital landscape.
Voice search vs text search SEO
To optimise your website for voice search, it’s important to understand how people use voice search and the kinds of queries they make. The journey is a little different.
Voice search queries tend to be longer than text, more conversational and complete sentences. Usually, they take the form of questions with the who, what, when, where, and why.
This is why brands must start to incorporate long-tail keywords and natural language phrases into their website content, and to structure content in a way that answers common questions people have about their business, product, or service.
Instead of searching for ‘Melbourne Weather,’ people are now talking to their devices and asking them ‘What’s the weather in Melbourne today?’. See the difference?
The power of long-tail keyword searches
While brands still need to consider traditional keyword research and certainly not neglect this, the long-tail keywords are the focus area for voice search – complete sentences and/or questions.
Interestingly, if we look at the recent growth of AI chatbot, ChatGPT, this is also getting people more familiar with a question query style of search.
This is why the use of natural conversational language is crucial. Brands need to understand what their customers are searching for and the exact phrases they are using, to get the best results.
So how long is the piece of voice search string? How many keywords do you need to include? Well, that depends on the nature of the search itself, but research by Backlinko suggests 29 words is the average voice search length. A stark difference to text-based SEO keyword optimisation!
Just like text-based SEO, using the right keyword research tools can help determine the long-tail questions to focus on. We can’t also forget about the local angle – many voice searches tend to be searching for localised content, which is why your SEO will require a local lens.
The ultimate goal will be to improve your ranking for voice search and make your way to Google’s featured snippets – the top results for question-based queries where the voice searches are reading from.
Why your FAQs page matters
If you don’t have a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page on your website yet, now is the time to consider it.
We love a FAQ page – they’re a great way to convert website visitors into customers and answer all the burning questions they have about your brand/products/services.
But from an SEO perspective they have also proven to be very powerful for voice search and an organic place on your site to house all these long-tail keyword question searches you’ll be targeting.
Brands that have considered this in their marketing already via FAQ pages on their website and SEO strategy, have increased discoverability and are reaping the rewards right now, showing up in Google’s featured snippets as the first organic result.
But it isn’t too late to get on the FAQ train, brands should focus on this now to be there later, before more and more businesses catch on and incorporate this into their strategy.
What is the impact and takeaways for business owners and marketing managers?
There is no denying the rise of voice search is changing the game for SEO and content creation.
It is another level of consideration for your SEO and content creation as more and more people, particularly Gen Z, turn to voice search as their preferred option over text.
Here are the key actions we recommend you start implementing in your business or organisation:
- An audit of your existing SEO strategy for both text and voice search
- Long-tail keyword research to determine the best questions to be incorporating into your website copy, including a FAQ page and regular blog content that adds values while also helping your achieve your SEO objectives
- Competitor analysis to see who is currently ranking #1 in the searches your brand wants to be featured on
- Optimising your website and Google Business profile for local searches
And if you prefer to let the experts take this off your plate, at Made Great our SEO strategists and content mavens have been helping our clients rank high for voice search for years.
We have an invested interest in this area and have seen the power in optimising your content to show up in Google’s featured snippets.
We’d love to share more information with you and discuss a tailored strategy for your brand. If you’d like more details, send us an email at: [email protected]
