How Voice Search Shopping Will Affect Your Business: 4 Tips for Adapting to Voice Search

Voice search impacts the way people search and shop online, and if you don’t want to lose valuable leads, you must adapt your search engine optimization (SEO) campaign for voice search. Adapting for voice search will help you reach more online shoppers and earn valuable conversions for your ecommerce business.

On this page, we’ll discuss how voice search shopping impacts the ecommerce world and provide you with four tips for adapting to voice search. If you need help adapting your voice search strategy, call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about how our featured snippet creation & optimization can improve your voice search SEO.

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What is voice search?

Voice search is the process of verbally searching on the web. Using voice search-enabled devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, people ask questions and receive information from the web.

Speech recognition technology allows users to speak to obtain information rather than typing information in a search bar. In addition to standalone devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, voice search software, like Siri, is integrated into mobile devices.

These are the most popular search devices that people use for voice search — to ask questions, conduct searches, play music, and look for products. They are extremely helpful to a user’s daily life.

How does voice search shopping work?

As voice search technology develops, these devices offer users new capabilities — like voice search shopping.

So, how does voice search shopping work?

First, users must input their information for purchasing products. Just like you input your name, shipping address, and card number into a website to purchase a product, you input your information into your account on Google or Amazon’s system. It will remain in the system so you can use that information regardless of what site you visit to purchase products.

Once the information is integrated into the system, users can start shopping. As users request certain products, Google and Amazon will provide the brand name and price of the product. These devices will ask if the person wants to purchase that product or visit a local location to purchase.

If a user likes the product, they can confirm and add it to their cart. The voice search system will ask if the user is ready to check out. Once confirmed, the device places the order.

This is an efficient way for people to shop and reorder products. You can easily streamline the shopping process and efficiently order products.

In fact, 29 percent of people who own voice devices shop via voice. Many people are starting to use these devices to reorder products and order products quickly.

Let’s say you ordered toilet paper online through your voice search device. When you start to run out of toilet paper, you can ask your device to reorder toilet paper for you. It will remember your previous order and reorder that product for you.

This makes shopping easier and more efficient for people. Instead of having to search for the product online and reorder it, you can easily reorder your product by asking a voice search device.

This makes voice shopping an appealing option for your audience because it streamlines the purchasing process.

It can also save people time from browsing pages of products. They can use their voice search devices to find the right products. If Google offers a product that fits what they need and fits their budget, they can easily order the product, look at it online, or find the nearest store to purchase it.

This makes the shopping process more streamlined than traditional online shopping processes. It’s more efficient and allows users to order products quicker.

The general consensus about voice shopping is positive. In fact, 41 percent of people say they plan to shop via voice in the future. This means that the voice search shopping experience may grow exponentially.

In addition, researchers predict that voice search will grow into a $40 billion industry by 2022. Considering it is currently a $2 billion industry, this is a sign of strong and rapid growth from voice search shopping.

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How will voice search change the way we shop?

Voice search will have a huge impact on the search experience. This technology brings a new dimension to the shopping experience.

Here are a few ways voice search is changing how people shop:

1. It makes online shopping feel more human

Traditional online shopping is void of any human interaction. While businesses have chat support and phone numbers people can call with questions, there is a general lack of human interaction throughout the process. There isn’t anyone to talk to you when you’re debating between products or going through the check-out process.

While many people enjoy the convenience of buying online, some people miss the human interaction that comes along with shopping in stores. With voice shopping, the online experience feels more human-like.

With voice search shopping, you can ask devices questions about products and request that they order certain items for you. You even hear a voice responding to your shopping requests. This makes the shopping experience feel more like you’re interacting with an employee at a store.

Adapting your website for voice search shopping helps you build trust and connections with shoppers. You make the shopping experience more authentic and can create a personalized experience for your audience.

2. People can provide more feedback

Reviews are a vital piece of information that affects whether someone converts. New leads look at reviews to help them decide if they want to convert.

It’s challenging to get people to review your products. Even people who have awesome experiences with your products forget to leave reviews. With voice search shopping, you can make it even easier for your audience to review your products.

Many companies email customers after they purchase and encourage them to review products. While they would love to leave a review, they often forget. They might open the email at a time that isn’t convenient for them to review the product and forget to return to it later.

If people purchase products through voice search, those devices can remind people to review those products. Users can set a reminder to review the products once they read the email and Google can remind them days later to write the review.

These devices can ask people for their feedback days after they receive the product. Users don’t have to dig through their emails, and it streamlines the review process.

This will change the way the rest of your leads shop. When you have more reviews on a product, you’ll earn more conversions.

3. Notify shoppers when it’s time to order

Many people purchase online products that they need periodically. Products like diapers, shampoo, toothpaste, and toilet paper are common refill products that people order constantly. With voice search shopping, these devices can notify people when it’s time to reorder.

This makes it extremely convenient for both shoppers and retailers. Shoppers can easily refill products before they run out of them, making it convenient and painless for them. Instead of having to run to the nearest store at 10 p.m. because someone forgot to buy toothpaste, customers can easily stock up on important products ahead of time.

It also benefits your business, too. Notifying shoppers when it’s time to reorder extends the lifetime value of your products and builds loyalty with your audience. You’ll encourage members of your audience to become repeat customers.

4 tips for adapting to voice search

With voice search being such a new technology, it may feel challenging to adapt your marketing strategy for it. Here are four tips to guide you in the right direction to optimizing your website for voice search shopping.

1. Optimize for conversational searches

The way people type and the way they speak are entirely different. It’s important to remember that people speak and type differently. This means you must account for slang that people use in their voice search shopping queries.

You want to think about how your audience conducts searches. Are there certain words that they are more likely to use than others? For instance, one person may conduct a search for “soda” while another will search for “pop.”

These two words mean the same thing, but some regions use one term over another. It’s important that you’re accounting for slang words like these when you try to adapt your voice search strategy.

This all boils down to how people talk and the words they use. Let’s say someone is searching for a coffee maker. If they were typing the information into Google, they may type “single-serve coffee maker.”

Someone who conducts a voice search won’t phrase their query the same way. They may ask, “What’s the best single-serve coffee maker?” or “Where can I buy a single-serve coffee maker?”

These questions are presented in a more conversational tone. It’s as if someone is asking a friend these questions. Voice searchers tend to ask questions and use a more conversational tone when conducting voice searches.

Since this differs from regular searches on Google, it’s important that you optimize your voice search for conversational tones. It will help you reach more valuable leads when they conduct voice searches.

2. Think about the type of queries people will conduct

When it comes to voice search shopping, you must get in the minds of your consumers. How are they likely to shop for your products through voice search? What type of content can you create to guide them to your products?

For instance, someone may use their voice search device to ask, “How do I get grass stains out of clothes?” If you were a laundry detergent company, it would be in your best interest to create content about how to remove stains and guide searchers towards buying your products to remove them.

The key is to optimize your product pages with valuable content for your audience. If your product page has relevant information for your audience, they are more likely to choose your listing.

Google will read this relevant information to your audience. If they like what they hear, they can easily purchase your product.

This will turn their query from “how to” to “Where can I get detergent that removes grass stains?” It guides users towards buying your products.

3. Focus on long-tail keywords

Since users conduct longer searches on voice search, you’ll want to choose keywords that match their search behavior. Long-tail keywords, which contain three or more words, will help you drive valuable leads to buy your products.

People who conduct voice searches tend to search in phrases that are six to ten words long. By adapting for long-tail keywords, you’ll help more people find your site when they conduct searches.

If we reference back to the laundry detergent example, a keyword like “grass stain remover” would be a great long-tail keyword. This would drive leads to your business that are specifically looking for a grass stain remover.

Let’s say someone was conducting a search to find the best grass stain remover. They ask their voice search device, “What is the best grass stain remover?” If you sell grass stain remover, you’d want to optimize for that long-tail keyword to get Google to read the information on your site first when someone searches that keyword.

4. Update your local listing

Voice search shopping is very focused on local businesses. When voice search shopping, many people ask questions like, “Where can I buy [product or service] near me?” It’s important that you adapt your voice search shopping strategy to drive people to your physical location too.

If people are conducting searches to shop in person at a store, you want to ensure that your local listing is updated. You’ll want to claim your Google Business Profile listing if you haven’t already. If you have your Google Business Profile set up, it’s best to review it to ensure all your information is accurate.

This ensures that, when people conduct voice shopping searches, they’ll find the most updated information about your business. In addition, it’s a great way to boost traffic to your website and store.

Create a winning voice search strategy with WebFX

As technology continues to evolve, voice search will grow and become a common activity in people’s daily lives. If you want your business to reach these people, you must start modifying your marketing strategies for shopping with voice search. At WebFX, we know how to help adapt your website for voice search shopping.

We’re a full-service digital marketing company with a team of over 500 experts who can help you create an SEO strategy that leads to valuable conversions. We offer featured snippet creation & optimization services that can help you rank for voice searches, as well as various other digital marketing services.

If you’re looking for a company that knows how to drive results, look no further than WebFX. In the last five years, we’ve driven over $6 billion in sales and over 24 million leads for our clients. When you partner with us, you’ll get a team that is dedicated to helping your business grow.

If you’re ready to start adapting your SEO strategy for voice search shopping, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist!

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