ComScore predicts that by 2020, half of Google searches will be done by voice in the United States. Will people find your website when they search for information via Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant or Cortana?
Voice-activated commands are quickly becoming a new normal. When marketing a website, companies have been taught to prepare a SEO strategy for non-voice commands. How do they adapt to this swiftly changing user behavior?
A piece by Robert Katai at the Content Marketing Institute dives into this topic. Here’s where to start:
Know that there are more words in voice searches
People make voice inquiries more like they are speaking to someone, not just giving a voice to the few words they would have typed into a search bar.
Thus, they use more words in voice searches.
Voice searchers also are more likely to ask questions (again, more conversational inquiries).
Optimize for speed
Robert Katai explores three major steps to make your site stand out via higher rankings. The first focuses on optimizing for speed.
Google values speed for all, but particularly for voice searches.
Why?
People who use voice search often are mobile-based. They are not necessarily connected to broadband fiber networks. They want websites that load fast and deliver results right away. They won’t wait for a page to take 10 or 20 seconds to load.