How to optimize your website for voice search

Voice Search Trends: Is Your Business Ready?
When Google released the Voice Search app for the iPhone in 2008, it was far from perfect. Over the years, voice-activated technology has become much more precise and human-like. Statistics show that Google’s English recognition accuracy rate is now over 95%.

People want instant solutions when looking for something online.

While typing a query into a search bar is quick, simply speaking into your device and getting the same results is even quicker. On average, a person can type around 40 words per minute and speak around 150 words per minute.

To try out a spoken search, you can activate your phone’s assistant (Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, for example). Or try it online: Click the microphone icon to the right of the Google search bar, to the left of the magnifying glass.

You will be prompted to “Speak Now” and you will see the results appear after you have made your request.

What voice search means for your business
If you’re a small business owner, it’s a good idea to start thinking about ways to optimize your website for voice search.

Many consumers already use it to find what they’re looking for, and according to ComScore, 50% of searches will be done this way by 2020.

Here’s how to make it work for your business:
Think in phrases, not keywords. When we type something into the search bar, we tend to keep it short, like “Canada Food Guide fruit servings.”

However, when we talk to a device, we use a conversational tone, so it would be more like “How many servings of fruit per day does Canada’s Food Guide recommend?” Before optimizing your site, research long-tail keywords that someone might use to find your products or services.

stay local. Voice-related mobile searches are three times more likely to be local. Use your location with keywords in your site content, and don’t forget to keep your Google My Business page up to date.

If you have accolades or awards, include those too: Users are often looking for the “best” or “superior” products or services in the area.

Be too informative. A virtual assistant pulls information from the internet, so you want to make sure there’s plenty of it to find.

Keep your website, Google My Business, Yelp, and other third-party sites up to date with things like your contact information, hours of operation, location, and menu.

However, that’s just the basics. Dig even deeper: does your company accept American Express? Does your boutique sell local designer clothes? Is your business a good place to take kids, pets, or a date?

The more you can post, the more questions you can answer. Creating an FAQ page is a great way to provide relevant information to both writers and speakers.

speed up The loading time of your mobile page is important. The average spoken search results page loads nearly twice as fast as a web page, so you’ll need to keep up if you want to get noticed.

Google also includes page speed as a ranking factor, so faster is always better. Check the speed of your site.

It will be increasingly relevant, and necessary, to make it easier for customers to “talk” to your business. Instead of waiting for your competitors to catch up and overtake you, start working on optimizing your site now.