Have you ever asked an in-home voice activated device like Google Home or Amazon Echo a question instead of manually performing a search? Probably – more people this year are using these devices than the year before.
The two most common names for voice assistants are Siri and Alexa but they are all doing the same basic functions. Voice-activated localized search results are replacing casual human speech and traditional keyword searches.
The growing popularity of these devices is only contributing to the upwards progression of this trend. As of March 2017, 12% of American households use a voice assistant.
So in other words, instead of going to Google and typing:
Best delivery pizza Chicago
People are not even starting up their computers, they are asking their devices:
Okay Google, what’s the best pizza delivery place?
Voice assistants need more than simple keywords to perform their searches. Virtual assistants use GPS to provide local results, and they have actually been programmed to decipher the intent of our question.
People are looking for a local answer to their questions from their voice-activated devices – not only search results.
The good news is that “keyword stuffing” is no longer needed in content writing. You don’t have to spend your time worrying about keyword quantity, and you certainly don’t need to stress writing articles for your businesses while trying to use an awkward long-tail keyword over and over without it making sense.
Does that mean you can ignore keywords?
Absolutely not, but it does mean that you need to be smart about the context in which you use them. Try to think the person asking a question rather than already knowing the answer about your business.
Use long-tail keywords that people use to search businesses like yours and use them on your website in ways that make sense for virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri.
Long-tail keywords should include specific information about your business. Local words like your city or neighborhood will help your business become an answer for those asking questions regarding your business. They’re the specific words that will help smart speakers and virtual assistants find you.
If you are not already using long-tail keywords for your business you might be asking yourself where to find them. The good news for businesses is that it’s not a complicated process to find these keywords.
There are several free tools you can use, and some of them don’t even require you to go any further than the Google homepage.
• Let Google autofill suggest long-tail keywords. When you start typing in Google’s search box, you get a list of suggested searches that pop up automatically. As you type, the suggested search terms change. These lists – which are based on search volume – can help you identify long-tail keywords to use on your website.
• Another Google tip involves scrolling down to the bottom of the search engine results page and checking out the related searches. You’ll see a list of words in bright blue with a headline that starts, “Searches related to” and then lists the keyword that you originally searched. These terms are also known as LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing, and they can add context and meaning to your website.
• Try Ubersuggest, a free tool that suggests long-tail keywords for your business based on an existing keyword. It’s simple to use and can provide you with useful ideas to build your site’s SEO for voice-activated devices. It even links out to Google and GoogleTrends to make it simple to dig a little deeper on any suggested keyword you may want to investigate.
• Speaking of GoogleTrends, you may want to try their site to assist you. This is another free tool that gives you the opportunity to gage a keyword’s popularity before you add it to your site. You always want to make sure you are using the most popular keywords possible to boost your business.
• Consider asking your customers how they’d search for you if they were using a smart speaker or virtual assistant. Even an informal poll like this can help you choose the right keywords.
These tools can make the task of revamping your site for voice search a lot easier and more efficient. As you compile your list of keywords, try to add some stats and data that will help you determine which keywords you should focus on.
Remember what we said earlier, that keyword stuffing is dead? It is, still.
Today, search engines are looking for relevance, not volume. Going overboard to include discovered keywords into your website could put people off who are actually looking at your website. Make the keywords make sense.
It’s important to use them – but in a tactful way that leaves your website readable and useful to potential customers. In other words, you shouldn’t be trying to pound people over the head with your keywords – they should appear as they would in normal conversation.
Sometimes, the keywords that you find might sound awkward after entering them into your existing content on your website without altering it to your specific focus. You don’t want keywords and phrases to seem forced so that they sound unnatural on your site.
A quick and easy way to include new long-tail keywords into your website is using them in the Frequently Asked Questions page. Plus, if a topic needs more in-depth coverage, consider writing a blog post about it or using it in a key spot on your homepage or on a product page. Writing specific content to use keywords in is a great place for people to go for information without having to force the keywords into already existing content.
It’s essential to make sure that your entire site is optimized for local search because a big percentage of voice-activated searches have local intent. (40% according to BrightLocal)
You can provide local results by using local keywords, linking to local authority sites, and claiming your listings in online directories and on review sites like Yelp.
You’ll also want to make sure that your NAP listings are uniform and that your online presence is organized and designed to help local customers find you.
It’s a Whole New World of Search…
The likelihood is that the percentage of people who search for your business using smart speakers, virtual assistants, and voice searches will increase in the coming months and years. Don’t be caught unprepared by the sweeping trend – optimize your website for search activated devices to capitalize on this growing movement.