Hey, Alexa/Siri/Google/Allegra/WhateverYourName Is! How do I get you to find my content?
AI assistants and smart speakers are growing rapidly in popularity. Currently, at least one in six Americans are using a smart speaker, and it’s estimated that about 8 billion voice assistants will be in use by 2023. This means that people are starting to replace their traditional internet searches with voice search. In fact, Gartner predicts that 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen by 2020.
So what does this mean for your online content? We’ve conquered SEO and design practices for phones, tablets, TVs, and laptops, but how do we ensure we’re being discovered by the Alexas of the world?
Here are a few tips to make sure your content remains king in the age of AI assistants.
1. Use Words Commonly Used in Voice Search
When people ask their smart speaker a question, they’ll often use longer sentences than they normally would on a regular internet search. They’ll also speak more naturally, as if they were in a conversation, using words such as who, what, how, when, and where. Other top words found in voice searches are best, top, easy, new, and good. When creating content, make sure to use these keywords when possible to boost your appearance on voice search results.
2. Answer Those FAQs
A good way for your content to answer those long-tail verbal searches is FAQ pages. You’ll want to use more conversational questions with succinct answers and group similar content onto one page. That might mean you have several FAQ pages, but this will ultimately help you with voice search.
3. Be Mobile Friendly
It should go without saying in this day and age, but your website must be designed with mobile in mind. Your website will actually get more traffic from voice search if it’s mobile-friendly.
4. Secure Your Site
Websites secured with HTTPS are more likely to appear in Google results, which carries over to voice search. 70 percent of Google Home results are secured with HTTPS.
5. Speed It Up
Lord knows no one has the patience to wait for a slow-loading website. Well, it turns out, neither do search engines or voice assistants. If you want your ranking to be high, you’ll want to ensure your load time is as fast as possible.
6. Leverage Video
People love to watch “how to” and other helpful videos. If you can try to capitalize on this by posting digestible videos – making sure to add titles, tags, and, detailed descriptions to score a good rank and appear in search results.
7. Claim Your Business on Google
Voice searches are often local in nature, so you’ll want your businesses’ information to be credible and easily accessible. Enter your digital footprint and Google My Business listing. It’s time to claim it so AI assistants can know your category of business, phone number, address, hours, and more.
Read: Do You Have Control Over Your Digital Footprint? Take Back Control
As AI and voice search technology evolve, it will be critical to stay on top of the latest techniques to optimize your content and make sure your business is ever-present in voice searches. Keep a close eye on this one – it’s a rapidly growing trend that can revolutionize the way we create content.
See Also:
The 8 Web Design Commandments That Will Deliver a Heavenly Website
What if Ben Franklin had the Power of Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots?
