Voice Search: What do small business owners and marketers need to know?
Voice Search: What Small Business Owners and Marketers Need to Know by John Jantsch Read more in Duct Tape Marketing
About Voice Search Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch
More and more people are turning to search tools, but not necessarily search engines per se. We have laptops and our phones, and then, of course, we’ve got these Alexa and Google Home devices. That’s how people are actually executing searches now. It’s not all direction-based (“Google, find a salon nearby). A lot of it’s going to be assistant-based. It’s going to play our music. It’s going to turn off our lights. The sky’s the limit. Is.
As marketers, we need to start embracing this idea of ​​discovery using voice. Research says that 50% of searches will be voice-based by 2020.
So are we in a time of “panic mode”? I don’t know if that’s the case, but we’re definitely on “attention mode” times, even for small businesses.
In fact, for local businesses, it’s coming up faster than you realize or understand, and it may be more important for these businesses to now focus more on voice search than any other business. According to Search Engine Watch, searches related to mobile voice are three times more likely to be based locally than text.
Yes, a lot of those searches are concerned with looking for directions or trying to find a good place to do “X”. They don’t necessarily require thorough research, such as hiring a lawyer or hiring a plumber, but there are plenty of transaction-based searches and location-based searches in the local market via voice search. are happening.
According to Bright Local, 53% of people use voice search to find information about local businesses. Many say they use voice search every day (especially on smart speakers).
Smart speakers have clearly taken off over the years, with Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa dominating the market. Google has really hit the headlines with its speakers this year because It is so tightly integrated into the search at the beginning.
How people use voice search for local businesses
So, what do people search for? How do they use voice search for local businesses today? Making restaurant reservations gets the most use by far. Additionally, people are using it to find sales and offers from local businesses, as well as What products are in stock with a local business. In short, it involves a lot of product transaction-based searches.
What local businesses should do about voice search
Google My Business
If you’re a local business, you need to be really good at some of the things Google is telling us for search anyway, like optimizing your Google My Business listing. It has become more important now so you should adopt and adapt to it. Google is clearly showing signs that they’re not kidding this time around. They are putting a lot of time and energy into Google My Business and continue to add features that I think businesses need to pay attention to. I recommend taking advantage of every new feature they offer, including Google Posts, messaging, new details, and product and service offerings. Don’t forget to add photos and videos as well.
ground level? Make sure the listing is as claimed, accurate and complete.
featured snippet
Have you ever searched for something and saw a full description at the top of the page? People have started calling it position zero or featured snippet.
I believe Google is trying to motivate you to stay on the page. Why ever give up on search results if they can give you most of the answers they think you want? The featured snippet is what brings about 70% of voice searches today. Google Maps results are even bigger for voice search results.
To get this coveted place,Something sharp is churning. Find some low intent words that don’t have a featured snippet today and write an answer-based or list-based blog post that clearly meets the intent of those low intent search terms. You might want to take a look at Reply to the Public to find the question or related phrase. Very often you can create content that specifically addresses the search term or at least what the search term is intended to do.
Site speed and security
It has never been more important. If your site doesn’t load, you’ll never appear in voice search results because it’s a bad experience.
According to my friend Brian Dean of Backlinko, 70.4% of Google Home result pages were secured with an HTTPS or SSL certificate. We all need to go over HTTPS, or have secure websites. At some point in 2018, you’ll start seeing search results that indicate a site isn’t secure.
As you can see, reputation matters more than ever. There are plenty of indications that search results for companies with low ratings for voice search will not show up. Mentions in the local media are probably underreported, so make sure you pay attention to those as well as social cues (eg.Even though Google denies it, I believe it really matters).
google assistant
Google Assistant, which is actually part of the Google Home piece, is actually about to start working. They have a new tool they’ve announced that’s getting a lot of publicity called Duplex, where you can say, “Hey Google, find a hairdresser near me and make an appointment for me next Wednesday at 2:00 “And it’s actually going to make the phone call and interact in an artificial intelligence-like manner with whoever answers the phone.”
You’re going to have more to come and for a lot of businesses, especially appointment-based businesses like restaurants and hair salons, employees will need to receive those phone calls and that’s clearly sounding like Google. They need to understand what it is and how to respond to it.
You’re also going to start seeing Smart Displays. The built-in Google Assistant is going to be more and more available in televisions today where someone can just sit there and ask Google to order them a pizza from their television without getting up.
Like I said, this is not the time to panic. It’s time to start preparing. Be realistic about this and see if voice search applies to your business at this point. You’re not going to go out and dominate voice search in a competitive industry, but I’ll tell you one thing: even if you think they’re evil, pure evil, yYou need to get one of these smart speakers like Alexa, or Google Home so that you understand a little about how they work, and what kind of search results they return.
What is your business currently doing for voice search?
Need more tips on Search Engine Optimization? Check out our complete guide to SEO.
