An Overview of Voice Search

The digital marketing environment in Singapore continues to change rapidly. As a digital marketer, you have to stay abreast of the changes in this volatile business landscape and adapt your strategy accordingly. Voice search is one of the prominent changes that every business needs to embrace. The demand for voice technology is on the rise and you need to adapt fast to leverage this growth.

By 2024, research projects global smart speaker sales to surpass $30 billion. By 2022, voice will be a $40 billion channel. All these numbers highlight the prominence of voice in the digital marketing landscape.

Voice-enabled interaction is gradually becoming part of day to day routine, and for this reason, it should be at the core of your SEO Singapore campaign. More people are now using voice to find whatever they need online instead of written search. If you want to rejuvenate your marketing campaigns, it is time to appreciate the place of voice search optimization.

 This post explores the why and how of voice search optimization to guide your campaign.

An Overview of Voice Search

In the most basic definition, voice search is the use of the spoken word to find something on a search engine or voice-enabled device. For many years, internet users have had to type whatever they wanted on search engines but advances in voice technology have now changed this.

Leading tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Amazon, among others have invested billions of dollars in making voice search a reality. Speech-to-text and voice dialing were the early applications of voice, but the technology is now more refined.

New voice applications such as Google Assistant, Siri, Microsoft Cortana, and Amazon Alexa have helped popularize the concept of voice search. Whether you want to find direction on Google Map or find a product on Amazon, it is now easy to do this with a simple voice query.

The advent of smart speakers by the largest tech and electronics companies have also made voice search critical for business marketing. For instance, homeowners can now use voice commands to play music, switch lights on, open doors, and start ceiling fans and many other things. If you want to identify a good SEO agency in the country, make sure they have experience in voice search.

Why Voice Search Matters for SEO

Some of the reasons why voice search optimization is critical include:

1. User convenience: Most people prefer using voice search due to its convenience. For instance, when doing some tasks such as cooking, driving, and others, it is easier to use voice instead of typing a query.
2. The proliferation of virtual assistants/ smart speakers: With more advanced virtual assistants now available, more people will adopt voice search for multiple tasks online from entertainment to shopping.
3. Cutting-edge technology in speech accuracy: When voice-enabled devices first appeared, they were clumsy to use, and speech accuracy was poor. Today, refined speech technology means more people are ready to try voice search on their devices.
4. The explosion of mobile technology: Voice search continues growing on the backdrop of mobile technology. Millions of people are now on mobile and likely to use voice search on the go.
5. Leveraging wider reach: You can reach more customers with voice search. A recent Adobe survey says 50% of all search today is now voice and with mobile telephony on the rise, your market reach will continue expanding.
6. Impact on SEO: Through better user experience, voice search guarantees better SEO results. By creating content that is voice optimized, you can now rank higher on search engine results. If you want to spruce up your SEO efforts, you need to consider the impact of voice. Voice search improves the user experience, which is a big plus on search engine result pages (SERPs). This means if your content is optimized for search, you’ll rank highly for your target keywords. Your SEO agency Singapore will come handy in creating content optimized for voice.

How to Optimize For Voice Search

Here are some effective strategies for voice search optimization:

Keyword research: Voice search is naturally more conversational with long-tail keywords featuring more in queries.  For instance, a voice search user is more likely to ask, “What is the best car dealer in Singapore? As opposed to “car dealer Singapore.” Other keywords to target include question keywords.

1. Content that answers common questions: Create content that answers the frequently asked questions (FAQs) or create a FAQ page on your site. To reach more voice searchers, use content that answers “what,” “why,” and “how.” Your SEO expert Singapore will help you with this.
2. Conversational Language for Content: Don’t write for search engines but rather, write your content the way you would speak. Keep phrases short and simple.
3. Focus on local search: Most of the voice search users are after location-based information. For this reason, you should optimize your content for local search. Use phrases like “near me,” “near you” and others that will feature on local search. You should also consider Use Google My Business Listings
4. Re-Imagine and Restructure Your Content: Take your existing content and include concise questions and answers.
5. Optimize for rich answers: Google displays rich answers to voice searches for the best user experience. Such answers include featured snippets.
6. Optimize for mobile: Build a mobile-responsive website and ensure your site is easy to crawl for higher visibility.
7. Optimize site speed: Work with your SEO consultant Singapore to check your site’s speed and rectify any causes of poor loading speed.

Wrapping Up

Voice search is the future of search engine optimization (SEO). You need to adapt your marketing strategy to embrace voice quickly. This voice search optimization will help you leverage the growth in voice search and position your business highly both in organic listing and local listings.