Ok Google! This way local business monetize voice calls

Voice assistants are gaining more and more popularity.

• About 72% of smartphone owners use them, according to a recent Microsoft report .
• The most popular virtual assistants in the world are Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana.
• Own systems are developed by everyone who has the opportunity and who wants to be in the trend: Facebook, Xiaomi, Samsung.

Voice “revolution” cannot be avoided. The only thing left is to learn to be the first when questions come from potential customers.

In this article, we will tell you how to localize business owners (companies with physical locations selling goods and services) to monetize voice requests, which must be taken into account first. And also give some non-obvious, but meaningful tips that will help you get around competitors.

Few things can “interfere” with marketing like voice assistants

Voice Search is one of the fastest growing digital technologies today. We can explain the rapid growth: high-speed mobile Internet is becoming more accessible, as well as low-cost smartphones.

At the same time, the popularity of voice search transforms the marketing “landscape”. From now on, the strategy of “being one of” or even getting into the TOP 10 best loses its meaning. It’s important to just be the first.

1. The winner receives everything. If the shelf of a traditional supermarket contains 100-200 products, then this value narrows to 10 on the first page of organic issuance (plus a few more contextual advertising results). In the case of a smart assistant – up to 1-2 items. The important thing is not diversity, and not even falling into the category of the best – it is important to be the best. 

That is why the importance of elements that are “signals” for artificial intelligence, which is trying to determine which result to give to the user, is growing.

2. Voice assistants “kill” the graphical interface . The user no longer needs to search for answers himself, studying the results of organics, click on ads and banners. Website promotion, SMM, contextual and banner advertising are losing their meaning. The fact that the entire advertising budget of companies is usually spent on increasing position in the issuance becomes a waste of money as the era of voice search approaches. 

3. Sites with low download speeds, and also not adapted for mobile, do not participate in the race. Since most voice requests are made from mobile devices, non-adapted sites are unlikely to be delivered. In addition, page loading speed is crucial – voice search results load 52% faster. If you want to participate in the race, you will have to speed up the site.

Smart assistants do not voice to the user the results of organic “according to the list” or answers from advertising blocks. As a rule, they give one suitable (in their opinion) answer that is most relevant to the request (with the exception of responses to local requests with a map).

How to monetize voice calls

In a recent Microsoft study, it was revealed that searching for a local business is one of the three most popular voice queries (47%). This is almost half of all voice requests, and it can be profitable for offline companies.

Where will advise to have lunch or at what service station to call? What convenience store or pharmacy will the voice assistant offer? One of the guaranteed ways to stand out from the competition and become “noticeable” for a virtual assistant is to optimize your company’s locations on the network (integration with maps, geo services).

How to increase the visibility of your company for voice assistant

Since of all possible queries in the voice search, commercial and local ones are primarily profitable for companies, marketers and owners of organizations, it is imperative to ensure that the contact information on the site about all points of the company is reliable.

The second priority point is integration with cards. The presence of the correct maximally detailed information with a link to the site, photo, correctly configured category of business is positively perceived by the search engine when choosing a relevant answer to a local request by voice.

Below are a few non-obvious points that are no less important for optimizing locations:

1. Keywords from Google Posts (GMB) the search engine associates with the company. Using the same words as in the low-frequency queries, you increase the chance of the company’s card to get an “answer” to the relevant question of the user (for example, “where is a tasty and inexpensive business lunch”, “where to repair a laptop in the region of Colorado”).

2. Half of all Google ranking factors contain NAPWCHD data, ensure that it is present where it is needed: Google My Business, internal optimization (relevance of NAP data, keywords in Title and Description), citation (building up a high-quality external link mass). In favor of the information, NAPWCHD also speaks of an increase in requests from mobile devices with the phrase “nearest / next to me.” 

Mainly through the “signals” of this data, which contain the ranking factors mentioned above, the company appears in the issuance of a relevant voice request (for example, “a currency exchange near me”).

In the same context, do not neglect the significance of references: local links will help to bypass competitors.

3. Google takes into account the “signals” of reviews of all sites, therefore it is important to work with otzovik sites as well.

In order to get positive feedback, motivate customers to write, respond to all comments, including questions and negatives. Thus, you can affect the overall rating of the card.

Also, when adding information about the organization to directories, back links to the site are created, and building up a quality link mass is another plus in the piggy bank of the company.

It doesn’t matter how many locations (branches) your company has, each of them must be added to maps and other relevant sources. Organizations with multiple branches will benefit from professional services.

Some more insights for website optimization

The search engine evaluates all aspects of the digital footprint when ranking sites:

When it comes to issuing by voice request, download speed, NAPWCHD and Google My Business data, micro-markup, SSL, content, lists, etc. are of particular importance.

Backlinko’s specialists, while researching and analyzing 10,000 Google Home search results, found out what affects voice search promotion :

• Page loading speed is paramount. On average, a page with voice search results loads in 4.6 seconds (it’s 52% faster than a regular page);
• the presence of an SSL certificate, which guarantees site security. Thus, the study found that sites with HTTPS dominate voice delivery (70.4% of all results);
• the average voice search response is 29 words;
• micro-markup: 36.4% of voice search results refer to pages marked out by Schema ;
• domain reliability (76.8% of all results);
• – Advanced snippets – in 40.7% of cases, the search engine accesses them. Using structured markup, you can add blocks with addresses, a mark on the map, rating and reviews, event schedules, etc.

Be sure to consider these points when optimizing the site.

The priority is low-frequency queries , they are longer (5-7 words) than those that are entered in the search bar. Answers to voice requests use the same constructs as people do during a conversation. So select 5-7 words around which the optimization of the site / section for voice search will begin.

Seo Company conducted a study and created a list of voice search trigger words often used by users. When creating content for your site, use these words. For maximum efficiency, it is best to add them in the title, <description>, in the headings, in the upper paragraphs of the text.

Here are some tips to help you manage these words correctly:

• answer the questions that people ask – the keys should be in the first paragraph among the first 30 words;
• write as you speak (use spoken language constructs);
• structure your text with headings and subheadings;
• include low-frequency requests in the URL;
• write title – what is the content of a particular page (50-60 characters);
• write down the description using trigger words (166–215 characters);
• be sure to add your company to Google My Business and other business directories.

So that in response to your request the user will hear exactly your answer from the voice assistant, use all the optimization options. And if your company is represented offline, remember that almost half of all voice requests can make you profit.