Weekly Content Marketing Trends April 25, 2022

Published by Ciara Antolini on Thursday, April 21, 2022 in Marketing Agencies, Tool Review, Tools, Tools Reviews.

As we roll into the last week of April, it's time to turn up the heat and explore some cutting-edge areas of marketing. This edition of weekly content marketing trends will explore voice optimization marketing so you can show up to the increasing masses who are asking Siri, Alexa, and Google for anything and everything without even lifting a finger to type their queries into a search bar.

Quick links:

Voice Search: What Marketers Need To Know

Voice Search Marketing Tips

SEO Research Tools

Taking Action

Voice Search: What Marketers Need to Know

Voice search has been around for a while, made popular by Apple's voice assistant Siri. Voice searching is basically what engages Alexa, Google, or any other voice-operated assistants to deliver information or to complete a task such as creating an event on a calendar. 

Not long ago, speaking to a phone that fits in your pocket that gives you access to literally all the information in the world to have your bidding done would have seemed like something out of The Jetsons, but today asking Alexa to play you your favorite Taylor Swift throwback is second nature for a growing percentage of the population. 

Voice search is something that will need to be integrated into most businesses' marketing strategies sooner rather than later. There are plenty of stats to back it up.

According to Serpwatch:

• There are 4.2 billion voice assistants (such as Siri, Alexa, or Google Home) worldwide
• The voice recognition industry was valued at $40.2 Billion in 2020
• An average voice search result is 29 words long
• Approximately 46% of voice search users search for local businesses every day
• 3.1 billion voice searches are performed each month
• 24% of Americans aged 18-29 own a smart speaker (Alexa, Google Home, etc.)

And if these numbers aren't enough to pique your interest in implementing voice search into your strategy, here are a few other facts to consider, also from our friends at Serpwatch:

• 63% of Americans lean on their voice-operated assistant in their daily lives
• 50,000 smart home devices are supported by Google
• 56% of people who have started using a voice assistant leave their smart speaker on all the time
• 62% of smartphone users use their voice assistant when driving
• $2 billion of sales was generated by smart voice searches in 2020

These numbers paint a clear picture that voice search is here to stay, which means it's becoming just as important as search engine optimization when it comes to staying competitive in your market and reaching your future customers. 

Voice Search Optimization Tips

If you're reading this and wondering how you could possibly add another "thing" to your marketing strategy, there's good news. Voice search optimization will help your search engine optimization overall, and the two dovetail quite nicely with each other. 

Going back to our friends at Serpwatch, here are the best practices for voice search optimization in 2022.

1. Do your research. Any successful marketing strategy begins with research. Check out this list of SEO tools to get you started.
2. Put yourself in the user's shoes. Where a traditional web search for "best boutiques near me" would be phrased as such, a voice search is more interactive and might sound like "where is the best boutique near me?" This necessitates a more conversational tone when optimizing for voice search.
3. Target keywords as questions. Once your research is completed, find ways to turn keywords or key phrases into questions.
4. Provide the answers. The questions are one part of the conversation. Your website needs to provide the other side of the conversation which are the answers. Find ways to naturally incorporate answers in a conversational tone. At the time of writing this article, Google prefers concise answers that are around 29 words long.
5. Create an FAQ Page. An FAQ page provides a home for all of the key questions included in your SEO strategy. Provide clear, concise answers so the search engines can easily pick up what your website provides.
6. Optimize for location, if applicable. With many voice searches being performed on mobile for location-specific queries, it's important to optimize for your business's location.

While keeping these tips in mind, always remember to understand your audience. The urgency you should apply to incorporate voice search optimization is related to your target market. If they're younger, early adopters of all things tech, or people who love all things smart home, you can bet they're using voice search already. If that's the case, we invite you to move voice search optimization closer to the top of your list. 

If your target market is searching "how to get off the grid" and looking for solar panels and chicken coops, they might not have adopted voice search or plan on it any time soon.

However, as with most technology, it's beneficial to stay ahead of the curve so your target market can catch up to you instead of the other way around.

Taking Action

Need an SEO overhaul to include voice optimization? Need some fresh blog posts to create a conversation with your readers? Need help with strategy? We have a team of results-obsessed content geeks who are ready to help you out. Right now, you can get started with a free 30-day trial to see how our team of professionals can help get your content marketing on track. 

Sign up for your free 30-day trial here.