Q: If we want to describe voice search in 3 words, what would it be?
A:FAST, RELIABLE, LIFE-CHANGING

VEO is essential to all brand & marketing strategies going forward, and if you don’t have a plan in place to strengthen this strategy, annually and over the next 5 years, you will lose big in the marketplace.

Figuratively speaking, you’ll miss the boat if you don’t get on now. It’s going to be extremely hard for smaller businesses to compete with the mid-size competitors if they start rolling out their strategic phases in the next 2-3 financial quarters.

Many advisors are under the impression that VEO isn’t going to be of immediate concern for larger businesses to be implementing in their SEO strategies right away, however, there is strong evidence to say otherwise. Ageing marketers are ignoring the emerging patterns in Social Media Optimisation (SMO) & localised marketing, which is going to play a huge factor in VEO 2020 and beyond.

Uber Smart.

Marketeers & creative writers alike, never fear, you are still needed for now. Writing great content won’t be substituted by artificial intelligence (AI) in this era.

We’ve still got a little ways to go before we can completely let go and become couch potatoes, but you’ll need to rethink your mindset when sitting down with your team to discuss the variables in a VEO world that is quickly approaching.

More importantly, we’re talking about getting inside the head of your local customer.

Uber has started this SMO strategy already, and It doesn’t take a genius to work out that they willleverage this to maximise their return on investment (ROI) when it comes to implementing the notion below:

When creating your content you’re going to need to understand how your customer talks. All the unique colloquial terms and phrases will come into play whilst copywriting conversational pieces. This is the future, and if you’re thinking like this now, you will have a paramount advantage amongst the rest.

FREE VEO ADVICE

You can win at VEO with a focus on localised marketing, and one key factor — Boosting your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy with SMO. Be sure to target information to your customers on a micro level and you will takeaway a more in-depth understanding of their needs in real-time. This strategy compliments the needs of VEO in the future and you will be able to compete and meet the demands of your consumer with flair.

Recent Google studies have shown that we can divide our voice searches into 4 categories. We want quick, reliable information, and it has to be credible as well as engaging.

A great stepping stone when optimising your VEO strategy is google my business.

Create & claim your business account, then make sure your listing is fresh &updated periodically or as needed.

Choosing the right categories will reflect back to your website itself.

#TIP: CREATE GREAT VIDEO CONTENT

PAGE SPEED IS A RANKING FACTOR

Voice search is quick… 4.6 seconds loading on average, and it’s getting faster. The average website loads in double that time, so if you haven’t optimised your speed capability you need to figure out a solution ASAP!

Things like minimising your video content to 25mb-50mb (download) will help too. That size is a comfy download for most users at the moment who have basic data plans with their providers.

You don’t have to compromise the content of your video, just look into “adobe media encoder”. This tool can reduce the download size of your video content drastically, it’s amazing and totally worth the investment.

Why Video?
Because video works on all SEO strategies. It’s cool, engaging and enhances the users experience. It gives you a better chance of getting the top spot on any voice & desktop search. This is called ‘’position 0’’.

YELPIS ON THE WAY!

Business insider gave us a look into the market share of voice assistants last year, and it will only get more competitive in the next 12 months leading into 2020. Naturally, Google will want to create a ‘’Google world’’, much like Apple have done with their products & services. The parent company has optimised their products to work cohesively with one-another, and in the past it’s been Apple’s way or a tricky highway.

Interestingly, Google’s voice recognition technology is far superior, and they will look to leverage this by pushing any on-the-fence consumers in the direction of their services.

Companies like Yelp provide a great solution to this issue for marketeers looking to capitalise on the Siri customer. Make sure you’re claiming your business on both of these platforms at a minimum and you’ll have a lot less headaches in your SEO plan for 2020.

#TIP

You’ll need some 5 star reviews. Work hard and let them flow naturally. There’s nothing worse than a business faking reviews and being found out. You lose all domain authority and your dignity— dude, seriously!
PS: Location keywords & phrases will matter! We’re talking mostly “near me” searches after-all.

HOW TO MAKE VIDEO WORK FOR YOUR VEO IN 2019

As mentioned, video can get you the top spot in voice search, this is the poll position, the inside lane, the bookie’s favourite— you get the point. Position zero, better known as the snippet that appears top of screen on the search page, can get your content viewed as a priority. The search algorithm takes keywords and phrases to suggest the best suited content to the user.

Example: If you were to voice search “Hey, Siri, How do I make an omelette?”, You’re more than likely going to see a video of someone teaching you to make an omelette accompanied by a written dot point or numbered ordered on how to do this. Google loves it when you optimise your video content in a call & response type nature.

VEO, BECOMING CREDIBLE, SMO IN 2020

Raise your website domain authority by adding more links, publishing more creative content, encouraging social sharing, and improving the user experience. Google love this, and it will boost your web ranking.

72% percent of people who own a smart speaker say it’s part of their daily routine. We will see this technology become an extension of us as people. VEO and SMO will be paramount to all 3-5 year SEO strategies in 2019, as we all become smarter and better equipped to deal with the ever-changing world we live in— and in part, the world that we have created.

#TIP

Optimise the video title to the exact question people are going to ask it. You’ll also want to optimise the question, and the variables of the question, in the tags.Ideally, you should write a very detailed text description in the box YouTube provides you also staying as close to the video title and tags as possible.

Q: YouTube!?
A: Yes. When creating your content have it published on Youtube. Google own them, so they give it priority.

If you get stuck thinking of keywords & phrases relevant to your page and content, a great website to use is answerthepublic.comcheck them out!

A great trick is to make a list of the best questions you can come up with and try to answer them all. This will be a great indication if you’re on the right track to communicating effectively to your customers.

If you’d like more information on the digital market transformation of 2020, reach out to us at GYA.