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Voice search in businesses is not the talk of future; it’s already here. Accessibility to personal assistant devices, no or fewer typo errors, and an improved user experience have led to the predictions that “50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020” (comScore).
Though previously considered as a must-follow technology for the B2C industry, voice search is now creating a buzz with its present and future impact on the B2B SEO. Accepting the emergence of a new era of user experience and human interactions, B2B marketers are now investing in developing a robust voice SEO strategy.
B2B Buyers and Voice Search
The reliability of personal assistants and the accuracy of speech recognition software have changed the entire spectrum of the B2B buying process. Here are the major reasons B2B buyers are seen inclined towards voice search:
1. Simplified Searching:
Modern B2B buyers look for efficiency in information. They tend to stay away from navigating to sites that offer confusing menus. Second, often they avoid typing as they have many things at one time on their desks.
Voice search satisfies their preference of a simplified searching process by landing them to the exact results even with occupied hands or vision.
2. Fast and Accurate:
Humans can speak 150 words per minute vs. type 40 words per minute making voice search technology an instant way to deliver results. As per the statistics laid down by Statista, 21% of users prefer voice search because they don’t like typing on their mobile devices and 43% said that using voice search is quicker than using a website or an app.
Google’s voice search technology is 95% accurate giving the users an undeniable reason to use it.
3. Satisfying the Needs of Next Generation B2B buyers
The next generation B2B buyer is tech savvy. These users believe in multitasking, time-consuming, and better results. They look for creating and living the new user experiences with the latest in technology.
Voice recognition technology fulfills the need of their craze and dependence on technology.
How B2B Marketers can get prepared for Voice SEO
20% of Google’s mobile queries were voice searches in 2016. Now that’s a quite old data but is new enough to speak much of the inevitability of using speech recognition technology in marketing campaigns, no matter to e-commerce or B2B industry. Below are some practical ways B2B marketers can get their marketing strategies ready for Voice Search Engine Optimization:
1. Mobile Optimization
The two main reasons B2B marketers can’t escape mobile optimization are:
- Voice searches are mostly done on mobiles.
- 90% of business executives use mobile devices at work and to research before making any purchase decision.
According to socPub, 57% of users said they wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. That means, optimizing your websites for mobile becomes imperative if you want to entice your potential clients.
So, work on creating a responsive design, improving page load speeds, and focus on delivering small screen user experience. From navigation to menus and from text to images and videos, all should be aligned to function correctly on a mobile.
2. Featured Snippets: Position Zero
Nearly 30% of the Google results have featured snippets, and B2B marketers can leverage these to build brand awareness through speech recognition software. Google often captures the text of snippets and reads it as the response to a query. It gives the brands that are not at the position one on the search page an excellent opportunity to establish their identity.
Second, if you provide relevant answers through your featured snippets, the searchers will eventually land down to your website to know more.
Thus, begin with optimizing sites for featured snippets. Occupying position zero can help you drive more traffic and increased CTR.
3. Long-tail Keywords and Conversational Language
Voice search is different than regular search. More than often, Voice search users conduct search queries in a natural conversational language with long-tail keywords. To target your prospects the right way and to win them as leads, you need to optimize your content as per long tail keywords and conversational tone:
- Know more about the ways your targeted audience speaks.
- Keep the structure of the introductory content according to the natural conversational language.
- Question and Answer style content works effectively if it is user-friendly.
- Keep the user intent based queries the center of your content.
A new world of interaction and user-experience has come into existence with voice search. Many B2B marketers are optimizing their SEO strategies for the technology, and many are planning to go for it in the future. Regardless of how small or big name you carry as a brand, adapting the voice search technology the right way can help you bring better engagement and higher click-through rates.