How Voice Search Is Changing How We Do Business

As voice search becomes a matter of course, it will behoove anyone who does any business anywhere to adjust how they do business. In fact, according to ComScore, half of all searches will be voice only by 2020 and more than half of those are “screenless” searches. That means the assistant tells the searcher the answer based on the information. This changes things because it changes how you develop your content marketing strategy.

Write Longer Content That Is More Voice Search Friendly

Long-form content with long-form keywords works better in blog posts than short posts. That doesn’t mean that every post or article that you publish has to be longer, but the longer content that you write using the right type of code that helps the search engines index your content will get more results for you.

Use Natural Conversational Tone

It’s more important than ever to create targeted content that uses a natural and conversational tone which doesn’t feel contrived. Speak to your audience as they speak. Use the words and tone that they use. Don’t try to stuff keywords in when they don’t fit.

Develop Content That Answers Your Customers’ Questions

Anytime you see questions from your audience on your site, in your email, on social, on your competitor’s websites, and on social media, that is a question you need to ask and answer on your site. Use the question as the title of the post so that it can be found more easily via voice search. Make the questions and answers narrow in scope.

Develop Content That Targets Locations

When appropriate, you’ll want to add keywords to the content that focuses on the location of the buyer. For example, if you have a local restaurant that sells pumpkin soup, you may want to publish content about pumpkin soup that uses local descriptive words such as the name of your town, city, or even the section of the city. For example, “What is the Best Pumpkin Soup You Can Find on The South Side of Tucson, Arizona?”

Consider Context and Intent More When You Create Content

When you develop content for your audience, context and intent are very important. If you’re not sure what this means, you need to study information about the buyer’s journey which forces you to focus on their intent at the time they’re conducting the search, so that you can deliver just the right content to them at the right time.

Consider Using Voice-Activated AI

Depending on the type of site you have, using some form of AI like a chatbot that can answer naturally-formed questions from the user and customer is a great way to increase voice search results for your site.

Develop Content That Is Easier to Understand

You don’t want to talk down to your audience. Therefore, make it a point to know who your audience is so that you can write to and create content directly for them. However, for the most part, creating more natural-to-understand content focused no higher than the 7th grade works best for voice search, due to the fact that people tend to talk at a lower grade level than they write.

Understand How People Use Voice Search

When you are creating content for voice search, look at how people phrase their questions and what they search for in your niche. For example, they more than likely use more specifics in terms of the information, location, and even time frames they’re looking for the information about. Try using mind maps or outlines to ensure you cover each keyword or question asked from all angles.

In some ways, voice search just helps you become closer to your audience and your customers. You have to get to know them better so that you can use the right keywords in titles and within the content. In this way, you can attract people who are ready to buy from you right now.