Optimize Local SEO for Web and Voice Search
Optimizing your SEO efforts to incorporate voice search is the most important step. Doing so will expand your brand’s reach and make it easier for local customers to find your dispensary.
39% of voice search users are actually searching for business information. As such, optimizing your local SEO efforts will naturally lead to more traffic from local voice searches.
One way of doing this is through the use of Google My Business (GMB). GMB pages appear at the top of relevant searches to inform potential customers about your business. Your dispensary’s GMB page should always be up-to-date with your dispensary’s address, phone number, and operating hours.
A GMB presence is especially important for voice queries that use the term ‘near me’. For these kinds of questions, Google first determines a user’s physical location before linking them to the local businesses they may be searching for.
Having an active GMB profile will simply make it easier for local customers to find you, regardless of whether they are searching through voice or text.
Improve Mobile Optimization and Site Speed
Another way to optimize for voice search is by optimizing for mobile. Because the majority of voice searches are conducted through mobile devices, making it easier for them to find you will naturally boost your chances of being found.
Data shows that mobile users are less patient than desktop users. If they’re unable to find the information they’re looking for, they’re likely to look elsewhere more quickly than if they’re on a desktop.
Improving your site’s mobile performance will keep users on your site after they’ve landed on it. Keeping landing and navigation pages simple is a good way to make your mobile site fluid and convenient. You can quickly test your site’s performance metrics over at https://www.webpagetest.org/. Or, for a more in-depth analysis directly from Google itself, you can use their PageSpeed Insights tool.
Understand Your Target Demographic
It can be extremely helpful to understand exactly how your target demographic thinks, especially when they may be searching or shopping for something.
Most significantly, data shows that people search differently through voice and text. While the majority of text searches are only 1-2 words in length, voice search is conducted primarily through the use of long-tail queries (longer searches with more terms). SEO efforts must be optimized to respond to both shorter text searchers and long-tail voice queries to be effective. By observing the way in which people communicate with voice search, you can develop an attractive content plan that will appeal to them.
For example, since many long-tail queries are questions, you should be prepared to answer them. One way to optimize for long-tail voice searches is through a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Another way to do this is through the use of blog posts that seek to answer specific questions. Existing posts can also be edited and updated to better appeal to voice search.
