2019 voice search marketing trends for small businesses
Ownership in devices such as Amazon Alexa, Google Voice, and other smart voice speakers has jumped from 23% to 45% according to a recent survey by Microsoft. In fact nearly 3/4ths of smartphone owners have used their digital assistants to help research or find the answer to a question they have. The same study also found that 35% of the people survey have used voice searches through a smart speaker. What this information tells us that there has clearly been a rise in the use and popularity of voice searches and it is something that business owners need to take advantage of moving forward. Here are the 2019 voice search marketing trends that small business owners need to take advantage of according to MarketKeep.
2019 voice search marketing trends
1. Searching for a quick fact – 68% of searchers have performed this search
2. Asking for directions – 65% of searchers have performed this search
3. Searching for a business – 31% of searchers have performed this search
4. Researching a product or service – 44% of searchers have performed this search
5. Making a shopping list – 39% of searchers have performed this search
6. Comparing products or services – 31% of searchers have performed this search
7. Adding items to a shopping cart – 26% of searchers have performed this search
8. Making a purchase – 25% of searchers have performed this search
9. Contacting customer service or support -21% of searchers have performed this search
10. Providing feedback for a product or service – 19% of searchers have performed this search
2019 voice search marketing trends continued…
Digging deeper we find that more and more consumers are using voice to perform search engine queries, to find a local, or to help in purchasing decisions.
65% of 25-49-year-olds speak to their voice-enabled devices at least once per day. The next closest age group to perform a voice-related search is the 18 to 24-year-olds followed by 50 and older. What makes these statistics stand out, even more, is that by the year 2020 half of all online searches will be voice searches. So how do you optimize your website for voice searches?
Optimizing for Voice Searches
There are four types of campaigns that a small business owner can run to optimize for voice search.
Strategy #1: Use Structured Data
Structured Data incorporates the use of schema into your website and the content that goes with it. By incorporating schema into your website it will give you an edge over your competitors. That is because it incorporates information about your website that goes into your source code and helps identify local searches which is what a majority of voice searches are for.
Strategy #2: Google Business Profile
As we now know voice searches see a high number of hyper-local search queries. Sharing your information via a Google Business Profile is an excellent way to draw attention to your business and help your business with voice search.
Strategy #3: Be Mobile-friendly
Sounds silly since we all know the importance of a mobile-friendly website, but Google prefers mobile sites versus those that are not. Are you worried your website might not be mobile-friendly? Check out Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool.
Strategy #4: Create content answering your customer’s questions
Listen carefully to how your customers ask questions and talk to their voice-related devices. Why someone may be typing into Google “digital marketing agency near me” they may be saying to their voice tool “what is the nearest digital marketing agency?” Listen carefully to how your customers talk and communicate and build content around that.