Something worth shouting about: VOICE SEARCH
15 June 2020
Voice search is calling, are you home?
Once upon a time we imagined a future where we could talk with computers. We watched in awe as a fictional astronaut asked HAL to open the pod bay door. Today we can ask Siri to play a podcast. We can say “hey Google” and quickly find out the weather forecast. We can even ask Alexa for fund information from J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Putnam Investments. While we can’t yet experience the full A.I. interaction that Iron Man enjoys with Jarvis, voice activation is real and it’s here. What does it mean for your brand?
As part of the ongoing internet-of-things phenomenon, voice search is being driven by the ubiquitous ownership of voice assistants. More than 80% of households are expected to have at least one device by the end of 2021. And right now, nearly 25% of people are using voice search at least once a day. With so much of the world experiencing some period of ‘working from home’ during the pandemic, the adoption of voice search will only be accelerated.
Can you answer the call?
People can now have conversations with the brands in their lives – and when they ask a question, they expect an answer. Some marketers have begun to proactively revisit the structure and content of their websites to ensure that everything is properly tagged, that syntax is natural, and that new material is being conceived with voice search in mind.
Preparing your website for voice search is an extension – a tech-driven evolution – of search engine optimisation. The importance of SEO cannot be overstated. Since your web presence is effectively a tool for clients, prospects, resource partners and potential employees to learn more about you, you must make finding you an easy and intuitive exercise. There are various ways to improve your rankings in search results, including H1 tags, page speed, and image compression, to name just a few.
The approach to preparing your website for voice search requires a concerted effort to strategically craft three key components: questions, content and tagging.
- The language on your website should be naturally phrased, anticipating how people will ask questions. More than 25% of voice search questions begin with ‘How?’ and ‘What?’
- Your content should be written with key search words in mind, especially superlatives like ‘best,’ ‘top,’ and ‘easiest.’
- Everything on your site should be tagged with descriptive or statistical metadata to facilitate search results.
This approach must be applied to the evergreen content as well as any dynamic content that may live only temporarily on your site. Lastly, you need to be sure to register your site with the major search engine services.
Speak up if you’re to be heard
Over 16 years, Living has helped companies in the financial, professional services and technology sectors stay ahead of the curve as new digital functionality has emerged. We collaborate with our clients to develop a user experience that leads to deeper, longer engagement that in turn leads to customer loyalty and richer relationships. We do this by conceiving and creating valuable online tools such as interactive dashboards and data consoles. We create standout websites that deliver an effective balance of functionality and content, supported with all the SEO tools needed to ensure a brand’s online presence cuts through the competitive landscape.
If you’d like to discuss how to optimise your website for voice search while enhancing your overall user experience, please reach out to Greg Hobden in London, Duncan Shaw in New York or Gigi Yung in Hong Kong and we’ll give you a call.
Next week’s quick read!
Since SEO is so critical to the success of your web presence, next week we’ll do a deeper dive on what you need to know… and what you should be doing to be at the top of a search results page.
Timothy Nanan, Head of Development & Operations
