Voice search is the latest technology making waves in the ecommerce landscape. Customers are using this technology to search for products and services online. As per the latest market reports, in a few decades, around 50% of online searches will be conducted using this technology.

The rise in the popularity of devices that feature voice search functionality has also led to an increase in the number of people using spoken language than written for searching anything online. Many popular ecommerce sites are prepping their sites for this technology as it is believed to shape the future of online searches.

In today’s article, we’ll let you know about the tried-and-tested ways to optimize your ecommerce website for voice search. Prepping your online store so that customers can find you easily is crucial for your business.

What is Voice Search?

Voice search technology is a medium of interaction between customers and the internet. It involves customers using spoken language instead of writing.

This technology is transforming the way in which customers interact with brands. The rise in the usage of smartphones for online shopping has led to a dramatic increase in the usage of voice search.

Ecommerce businesses are using this technology to offer a personalized shopping experience to the customers.

Importance of Voice Search

Here are some notable statistics to emphasize on the importance of voice search:

• More than 50% of consumers use the voice search for finding contact details among other info for local businesses.
• In the United States, 71% of individuals in the age group of 18-29 use mobile virtual assistants.
• Estimatedly 22% of consumers are using smart home speakers with voice enabled functions.
• 20% of all the search queries online are voice-based.
• By the end of 2020, that figure is predicted to change to 50% which will make voice search more popular.
• The Voice-based speakers market is globally forecasted to reach $30 billion in revenue by 2024.
• Voice-enabled shopping will rise to $40 billion.

If you’re wondering how voice search can help your ecommerce business attain profitable gains, then here is a list of benefits of this technology:

• It promotes personalization of the online shopping experience by offering personalized product recommendations and discounts.
• It is faster than typical online searches and yields faster results, thereby making it a time-efficient technology.
• Ecommerce brands offering this feature to their users have reported a rise in sales.

How to Prepare Your E-Store For Voice Search?

Whether you’re an established ecommerce company looking to integrate this technology in your e-store or a startup firm about to hire an ecommerce website development company for developing a robust ecommerce site, it is essential to jump on this technology trend to offer best services to the customers. If you want to know how to make your ecommerce store voice search-ready? Here are the 8 effective ways to optimize your ecommerce store for voice search.

1. Long-tail Keywords

Unlike written language, spoken language is more conversational, and, thus it is critical to use long-tail keywords. Unlike standard keywords used in SEO campaigns, long-tail keywords are more specific as they often include key phrases. Long-tail keywords are popular for higher conversion rates.

Fine tuning your keywords will help your ecommerce store receive more traffic and expand the brand’s outreach. Customers using voice search speak specific words to get the most appropriate result.

2. Featured Snippets

When you search for something on Google, the first snippet that pops up on the top of the page is referred to as a featured snippet.

A featured snipped showcases a descriptive text that serves as an indication of the website’s credibility. As one can imagine, getting featured as the top-most result on a search engine leads to a dramatic rise in the organic traffic for the website.

According to the latest market reports, a majority of the voice search results came from the top-most results, aka the featured snippets.

That is why more ecommerce businesses are trying to get the zero result position that would give them an edge over the competitors.

The artificial intelligence technology used by search engines often gives more preference to the featured snippets than other search results.

3. Improve Website Structure

The structure of the website can have a huge impact on your ecommerce site’s search engine ranking. Site structure enhances SEO and offers the better user experience.

If you want to optimize your ecommerce site for voice search, it is imperative to improve the structure of the website.

By properly structuring your website, you can offer accurate suggestions to the customers who use the voice search feature.

An ecommerce store should consider structuring the content in a way that the voice search leads to the customer to the relevant page, whether it is the landing page, product page, or the FAQ page.

4. Maximize Website Speed

Nowadays, a fast-loading website is a necessity as customers mostly prefer visiting and spending time on websites that load fast than the slow ones.

Also, search engines such as Google give better ranking to fast sites. Especially when it comes to optimizing the site for voice search, it is critical to maximize the loading speed of the website.

As per the market reports, ecommerce sites that take just a couple seconds for loading pop up before the slow one on voice-related searches.

Modern customers don’t like to explore ecommerce portals that take too long to load. So, increase your website’s speed to receive a better ranking from Google and lead more voice searchers to your brand.

5. Use Social Media

Social media platforms offer great insight into customer preferences. Through social media websites, businesses can find out what type of terms customers use while looking for products online.

This is a great way to establish a connection with customers and stay updated with the languages they use online.

Countless customers use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites to interact with the brands, and thus using these platforms can help you optimize your e-store for voice search.

Furthermore, these sites offer a lot of useful data that can help you improve the overall reachability of the e-store and create a long-lasting relationship with the consumers.

6. Create an FAQ Page

FAQ (frequently asked questions) page of any ecommerce store provides information to site visitors in a question and answer format. The conversational nature of the question and answer format makes it a perfect landing page for a voice search.

In case your ecommerce site does not already have a FAQ page, then you can ask your ecommerce website development company to create one.

Refer to the types of questions ask over emails and phone calls and check the type of questions your competitors are answering on their FAQ page, to create a list of most effective questions.

Also, the answers should feature conversational language to be able to engage customers.

7. Reshape your Site’s Content

The quality of content on your ecommerce store can determine if the site receives exposure. In today’s competitive ecommerce landscape, it is critical to feature top-quality, original, and engaging content on the site to reach out to more customers and build credibility among the target audience.

In order to prep your website for voice search, you will have to reshape the site’s content. From an effective FAQ page to blog posts with headlines that are in question forms, there are tons of ways to reshape the content on your site to optimize it for voice search. A majority of the voice searches are done in a question form, that is why keeping the tone of the content conversational is important.

8. Employ HTTPS

Employing HTTPS is more of a necessity as search engines give preference to ecommerce stores that provide protection to user data. Even if you have a feature-rich ecommerce store that offers great user experience, the lack of an SSL certification can cause serious damage to the site’s credibility and trustworthiness.

In order to ensure that a customer’s voice search leads him or her to your commerce store, it is essential to make the switch to HTTPS. Employing HTTPS is often included in the ecommerce website development services offered by leading agencies.

9. Enlist the Products on Google Shopping

Enlisting your products on Google Shopping is a tried-and-tested way to boost website traffic, broaden the outreach of the business, and outpace the competition. These are the most commonly-known advantages of listing your site’s products on Google Shopping. But, using this service is also an excellent way to prepare your ecommerce site for voice search.

Customers who use Google for voice search are often directed to the Google Shopping page. Displaying your store’s products on that page can help you reach out to more customers and drive sales.

Use the aforementioned ways to optimize your ecommerce store to not only stay abreast with the latest technology but to also offer enhanced shopping experience to the customers. Before picking an ecommerce website development company for building an online store for your brand, do communicate your requirements to ensure that the developed site is flexible, scalable, and boasts the latest features.

Author Bio. :- Mahima Radhachal was raised in New Delhi. She works at the best eCommerce development company as Creative Operations Manager.