Voice searches of all types have been growing rapidly over the last few years. Siri, Google, and Alexa are all well known for their advanced voice search capabilities, and as each year goes by, the algorithms behind each get increasingly better at finding the answers you’re looking for and displaying them, or even reading the results back to you.
If your business is already online, but you’re not sure if you’re receiving all the SEO traffic you can get based on the growth of voice search, this post will help clarify what you may be missing.
Location, Location, Location
Did you know that, according to Google Internal Data, nearly one-third of all mobile searches are now related to location? That’s right, mobile users are increasingly searching for the businesses they seek while they’re on the move.
I often find myself strolling through Boston, and since I discovered Google Voice last year, all I do is put my phone near my mouth and say “Ok Google, show restaurants near me,” and I receive results of restaurants closest to me. It’s an incredible feature, and one I’ve seen more people using it in public recently.
Must-Know Facts about Voice Searching
- There are over one billion voice searches per month as of January 2018
- 40% of adults now use voice search at least once per day
- According to Global Web Index, an estimated 325.8 million people used voice control in between December 2017 and January 2018
- Only around a third of smartphone owners use their voice assistants regularly – though 95% have tried them at some point.
Voice Search is Here to Stay
As you can see from the usage trends, voice search is becoming an incredibly popular application, and this one is indeed expected to continue growing. According to ComScore, 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. If you have an Android or Google Pixel smartphone, and haven’t tried using Google Voice Search yet, we recommend you try it – you can ask it any question or tell it to save reminders for you as well many other features.
3 Tips to Optimize Your Business for Google Voice:
So now that you understand voice search’s increasing value, here are some key examples of how to get Google to list your business for relevant voice queries:
1. Claim and Verify your Google My Business Listing
If your business has a physical location, or you have a shareable address for your headquarters, your first step should be to claim and verify your listing.
You can go through the details on how to verify your business on Google here. Essentially, this process is to confirm your website is trustworthy, and that Google can (and should) send customers to it.
2. Update Your Business Information
After you verify your business, you’re going to want to update your business information.
Business information can include details such as the category of your business, the hours of operation, the phone number for your business, and high-quality images which will ideally compel the user to click on your website link.
This is an example of a business that has listed its information with the most details they were able. The images clearly show a well lit, clean office, while there’s also an outside picture of what the building looks like to help the user identify it upon arrival.3. Utilize AdWords’ Location Extensions
AdWords’ location extension is a way to ensure your ads are being displayed to those highly motivated mobile shoppers.
Enabling location extensions enables you to have your business’ address, phone number, and directions to your business displayed alongside your ads – which is crucial if you want to show up in those “near me” voice searches.
Check out what Think With Google has to say about AdWords location extensions to find out why these extensions are so powerful and how to use them.
What’s Next?
Optimizing your business for Google is essential to improve your search rank – however, this alone is not enough to get you appearing in the top search results. You also have to compete with everyone else who’s verified their business before you did, and as noted, you also need to consider the details being sought by searchers using voice and on-the-go references to meet those needs.
Covering off on these key details is the first step towards ensuring you stay up to date with these trends.