VoiceSEO

voice search optimization

How to Leverage “Near Me” Searches for Your Voice SEO

How to Leverage "Near Me" Searches for Your Voice SEO

The rise of voice-enabled search is changing the digital landscape as we know it. Thanks to advancements in technology, virtual assistants are now commonly featured in smart devices, making it more convenient for users to benefit from what voice search has to offer.

Voice-enabled devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, Siri and Google Assistant on iPhone and Android smartphones, respectively, are helping the number of searches continue to soar, particularly local searches. It’s estimated that by 2021, mobile devices are expected to impact $1.4 trillion in local sales.

Google reports that “near me” searches have grown by 150 percent over the past two years. This means that localized search not only tells us where to go but also helps us find what we need. Indeed, the willingness to interact with devices continue to rise over the past three years, even in public situations.

What’s remarkable is, people have continued to adapt to advances in search technology, leading to more users becoming increasingly comfortable in using voice search when conducting localized searches. That’s all the more reason to focus your marketing efforts to localized searches and be more visible to customers in your area.

The bottom line is that people searching for local services online is now more widespread than ever before. So, if you haven’t optimized your business for localized search, or what we call “near me” searches, it’s about time you consider doing it now through voice search SEO services.

Completely Fill Out Your Google My Business Page Profile

Showing up as a Google Local Business is one of the most effective ways to improve your visibility in Google search results. The way it works is, Google gets information from Google My Business (GMB) listings to know which businesses to show in the local search pack. If your listing doesn’t exist, you’re at a serious disadvantage. In fact, there’s a good chance your business wouldn’t appear at all.

This is the reason why it’s imperative you sign up for a business profile and fill out all the necessary information. One of the most guaranteed ways to boost your chances of getting one of the Google Local 3-Pack spots is by being as informative as possible when creating your GMB profile. If you input enough information, GMB will even create a simple website for your business that will serve as its online representation.

Here are a few pointers you need to consider when creating your GMB profile:

  • Make sure your display name and business name are one and the same. This avoids confusion when Google tries to rank your site for local search.
  • Upload an attractive custom image instead of a stock photo. Note that 60 percent of consumers say local search results with good images capture their attention and usher them towards a decision.
  • See to it that your URL is correct. You wouldn’t want them encountering an error 404, or worse, a different site.
  • Refrain from using legal terms such as “Inc.” or “LLC” in your business name. Avoid legal troubles.
  • Use local phone numbers instead of 800 digits. You want to focus on local search.
  • Have your business verified by Google to make it more legitimate.

Get Your Customers to Leave Positive Reviews

When you’ve established a stronger presence on Google through your GMB profile, your next step is to get more users to post reviews of your services after becoming your customers. Make it your mission to provide the best possible service to each of your customers, even the difficult ones. It’s the only way to earn genuine positive reviews and a higher number of stars.

According to Google’s GMB support page, review count and score are factored into local search ranking. And if you get more customers to come in and experience exceptional service from your business, you can get more positive reviews. Keep in mind that 86 percent of consumers read reviews for local businesses, which may convince them to patronize your brand.

Think of it as a cycle that favors your business: it pushes you to deliver the best possible service you can offer while helping your brand grow a larger customer base. Fortunately, Google aims to create a more positive user experience, making it easier for customers to leave a review through its search interface. The only thing you must worry about is how to get your customers to do it. Here are a few things you can do:

  • Hand out “leave us a review” cards. It’s not only another form of marketing, but also a way to get those reviews.
  • Simply ask for a review. Being direct sometimes works best.
  • Stress how easy it is to do. There’s nothing like letting them know it won’t be a hassle.
  • Launch a Google business review email campaign. Yes, direct requests work.
  • Display the Google Review link to your website. Accessibility is key.
  • Include the link in your surveys. Feedback forms and surveys will allow you to find ways to improve, so you might as well throw in a request for a review, too.
  • Publish positive reviews on your website using the Schema Review and Schema Rating markups to make it easier for Google to know about them.
  • Respond to the reviews, since Google also takes responses in consideration when ranking for local search

Include NAP Data on Your Site

There is one other place you need to complete your business information other than Google My Business, and it’s on your website. So, make sure you show your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) throughout your site and social media accounts.

Your NAP is what causes your site to appear in geo-targeted searches. If you skip on including these vital pieces of information, search engines won’t be able to display your business when someone conducts a local search for your product or service.

Despite search algorithms not being public knowledge, many SEO experts believe that search engines validate businesses by cross-referencing their NAP information as they appear on their website. Your site won’t be prioritized if search engines don’t believe it’s legitimate, making NAPs essential for SEO and local search results. If your NAP checks out, it increases the likelihood of ranking well.

Accuracy and consistency are key to doing this the proper way. Go through these guidelines to make sure you’re doing it correctly:

  • Make sure it’s written as crawlable text. This helps Google easily read the data and figure out how to rank your website.
  • Display the exact same business name, address, and phone number throughout your site.
  • Familiarize yourself with the Local Business schema markup to make it easier for Google to understand the contents of your site.
  • Include the area code in your phone number to help Google pinpoint your location.

Geocode Your Images

Geocoding your images associates them with your business location, which would help beef up your local signal, and eventually boost your presence for “near me” searches.

Incorporating images in your site’s overall content is a great strategy when trying to appear in local search. These images can provide more opportunities for adding keyword signals on a page, which presents better chances for ranking under search results in general.

If these images are also associated with places the right way, they convey additional location signals, which would help your business be considered more relevant in local searches.

Try to explore Google Maps, and you’ll come across locations that have a few images associated with local places in the web mapping service’s interface. If you geocode your images the right way, it gives Google and other search engines another reason why the content should be related to a specific place.

To do it right, here are a few guidelines:

  • Select the right image. This is going to be a visual representation of your business, so get it right.
  • Use a relevant file name. It’s SEO-friendly.
  • Consider the file size. Nothing too big for faster loading.
  • Embed alt text. This is a great way to boost SEO.
  • Add latitudinal and longitudinal data. Knowing your business’ specific location matters a lot.

Build a Backlink Profile That Includes Geographic Anchor Text

Building a healthy backlink profile is important for standard SEO. But when it comes to “near me” and voice search, you need to include geographic anchor text. It’s important to include your business city and state since it’s one more way Google determines where your business is located, which can help you rank in local search.

Your geographic anchor text should include your business, city, and state. A good example is “Deep End Guitar Luthier Services in Carson, California”.

Again, this is important so Google can determine where your business is located, which is a huge help in ranking for local voice search. But if you don’t have backlinks with geographic anchor text, you can reach out to non-competing, third-party sites for guest-blogging opportunities. You can then include your anchor text that links back to your business’s home page.

Include Landmarks and Neighborhood Names on Your Site

Just like telling someone who’s asking for directions, another way to help Google where your business is located is by naming landmarks and neighborhoods on your site.

A good example to include on your home page is: “We’re located at <number, street name, and city>, just around the corner from <landmark>, and across the street from <neighborhood village or subdivision>”.

Another effective tip is to let Google know where your customers come from. You can say, “We serve people from all over the <neighboring cities or areas>!” By doing this, even if your business is in a specific area, people who do a “near me” search from neighboring areas have better chances of seeing your business listing.

Include Driving Directions on Your Website

Knowing driving directions going to a specific place may slowly be losing its importance thanks to mobile GPS technology, but for search bots, it can be vital.

If you haven’t done so yet, include driving directions on your “Location” or “Contact Us” section of your website. Make sure to provide directions from different points going to your business establishment.

Again, your efforts to drop more clues about your location will prompt Google to take notice and help you rank in local search.

Boost Your Local SEO By Making Your Site “Sticky”

When we say “sticky,” this means that when people visit your site, they will tend to stay around for a while. This is important for Google since the search engine takes into consideration the average time on site and bounce rate when ranking websites. So, if it detects that people are leaving only after a few seconds, that’s a sign that whatever it is you’re offering isn’t what users are looking for. And when this happens, your ranking will drop.

The average bounce rate is 55 percent, so working on lowering this number would be great to work on.

To prevent this from happening, you should offer compelling content and seamless user experience that will keep your visitors browsing around. There are a few ways to do this:

  • Boost your site speed. If it takes time to load, your visitors tend to leave immediately.
  • Improve your content’s readability. Make it legible and easy to read. Avoid large blocks of text.
  • Refrain from adding popups. Do not ruin the user experience.
  • Add a compelling call to action. You not only want them to stay but also convert.

Build Local Links

It may be great to get a do-follow link from high authority sites such as Buzzfeed or HuffPost, but you can ease up on this and focus your efforts in looking for local backlinks instead.

Perhaps there are plenty of opportunities to get backlinks from websites that don’t have high domain authorities, but what they do have is local authority, and that can help you rank in local search.

  • There’s a good chance your local chamber of commerce has a website. Work on that.
  • Find opportunities from trade organizations, non-competing businesses, and local web directories.

These are the right places you’d want to look for links to boost your local search presence.

Conclusion

Voice technology is on the rise, and it will continue to grow by leaps and bounds. More advanced devices will be sold on the market, pushing it to become commonplace. This will make voice search a more practical way of conducting queries on the web.

This is a great opportunity for your business to start optimizing for local search, so you can grow your business more effectively. As long as you follow the guidelines, you’ll be able to leverage “near me” searches for voice SEO.

If you’re looking for a partner that can help grow your business, you can count on Voice SEO to utilize effective methods of optimization that’s sure to help boost your online presence, particularly for local search. Let us do the work and reap the benefits of showing up in local voice searches.

Voice Search SEO for Ecommerce: 23-Point Checklist for Your Online Shop

Online Shopping

Decades ago, the first mobile phone was invented to provide better and more accessible communication. Fast forward today, mobile phones have become predominant in people’s daily lives and are more than just a device for communication. These handy devices now play multiple roles to help users in various tasks like finding a restaurant nearby and shopping online with the aid of voice search technology.

Voice search tends to communicate beyond the basic level. They help users perform simple product queries as they depend on the technology to, for instance, order a pizza or buy a toilet paper.

Statistics show that over 30% of U.S. consumers have used voice-enabled devices to find product information or purchase products. Research also found that 22% of online consumers who purchase grocery products are using smart assistants. By 2022, revenue from voice shopping is expected to reach $40 billion in the U.S. alone.

With this, ecommerce marketers are finding ways to align their strategies for voice search shopping to stay ahead of the curve. If you’re an ecommerce business owner or a marketing manager of an online store, then you’re at the right place. Below is a rundown on how you can improve your ecommerce website’s voice search SEO—from finding the right market to conducting keyword research.

23-Point Voice Search SEO Checklist for Ecommerce Sites

Identify your target audience

Understanding and tapping into your ideal market is marketing 101. You need to know where to find them and how to capture their attention if you want them to buy your products.

1. Develop your buyer persona – This marketing basic has never been so vital in the effort to optimize for voice search. Customer research is an important methodical step to identify your target audience. Knowing your ideal customers and understanding their needs, habits, and behavior will help you develop a more targeted marketing approach.

2. Consider their own consumer journey – After clearly defining your target audience, identify the stages your customers will have to take to reach your desired goal, usually to make a purchase. Understanding what your customers have to go through will enable you to find the right keywords and phrases to use for each step of their journey—awareness, interest, evaluation, purchase, customer support, and advocacy.

Spy on your competitors

The ecommerce industry is a tough stage to dominate, especially when you have big competitors in your respective niche. If you want to be ahead of the game, you need to find out about your competition and see how they strategize. Once you have the data, use it to your advantage.

3. Create a list of your competitors – Evaluating your niche’s players in the field and conducting a competitor analysis will help you identify companies sharing the same target market with you. You can use SEMRush’s Smart Competitive Research tool to find your top competitors, and other additional information such as traffic sources, keywords, and backlinks, that can guide your next move.

4. Check the strategies of your competitors – Using a competitive research tool can also help you see what your competitors are doing right, how they’re doing it, and how you can overcome them. Find out what key phrases they’re focusing on and see if you could add the keywords to your voice search SEO strategy. This analysis can help you develop the necessary improvements for your ecommerce website over time.

Perform keyword research

Now that you have identified your target audience and seen what your close competitors are up to, you can start doing your keyword research. This gives you information about your market’s interests and intent—how and why they search for products your ecommerce site offers. It also gives you an idea about the qualified buyers’ top keyword searches.

5. Find long-tail keywords – In voice search, keyword queries contain more than three words and are targeted at a specific demographic. Identifying long-tail keywords in ecommerce isn’t easy. You can use a keyword research tool like Answer The Public, but it’s good to check ecommerce titan, Amazon, for this rich data. Try entering a general keyword on the search bar, and you’ll find the long-tail keyword suggestions below.

6. Use natural language – People who use voice search perform queries with natural and conversational language—as if they’re talking to a friend. This means they’re likely to ask questions or perform commands in full sentences. You can apply this tactic in your content marketing efforts like in your subheadings and your writing tone.

7. Find relevant keywords – Look for phrases related to the top search keywords in your industry. Then, look for other combinations of terms related to that, which your target consumers use to search for products that your ecommerce business offers.

8. Discover what keywords your competitors rank for – You can find this data during your competitor analysis. The objective is to see what organic and paid search keywords are sending traffic to your competitors. You can then update your strategy to target any keyword gaps or find any keyword opportunities based on the analysis.

9. Identify negatives – Negative keyword research is as important as regular keyword discovery opportunities because it prevents marketers from spending their PPC budget on irrelevant keywords. You can refer to WordStream’s Negative Keyword Tool to review negative keywords to avoid. This encourages you to bid on valuable keywords that will grow your click-through-rate.

Enhance your website speed

Yes, page speed matters even in voice search SEO because regardless of how consumers choose to make searches, search engines still favor websites that load faster.

10. Observe proper formatting – Accurate and proper formatting is not only helpful for making it more user-friendly for both text and voice search but also vital to reduce website load times. When your product page is appropriately formatted, your site will load faster, and search engines will find it easier to understand the context of your page.

11. Optimize for mobile – One way to ensure your site speed is by optimizing it for mobile. When a site loads quick and smooth on mobile gadgets, that means it will load just as nicely (if not better) on other more comprehensive platforms.

Improve your on-site content

Now that you’ve determined the relevant keywords for each page of your ecommerce site, it’s time to optimize your on-page elements for each page of your site. Furthermore, a well-rounded on-page SEO can help boost your website speed.

12. Designate a primary keyword for every page – Assign and target one keyword for each page of your website. Make sure that the keyword isn’t used for your other pages for because this will only confuse search engines as to which page should rank high on the SERPs.

13. Designate two to four LSI keywords for each page – LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords are phrases and terms that are related to a page’s primary keyword. Assigning LSI keywords for your product pages help search engines understand the extra context, based on search patterns, and connect it to the target keyword. LSIKeywords is a nifty tool that can help you find similar or related terms to your primary key phrase.

14. Produce content for product pages – Your product pages have higher chances to rank if a) they contain 300 or more words on the page and b) the content is high quality and helpful to readers. Include a brief summary that details the features, specifications, and benefits of the product to assist your consumers as well as search engines in understanding and ranking that page.

15. Add Schema Markup to every page – Schema markup language is a form of categorized micro-data that is encrypted into your page’s HTML code. The structured data boosts your content’s visibility and helps search engines decipher the page content.

The markup fleshes out your page content’s relevancy signals through context clues (i.e., title tags, headings elements, meta, etc.) for voice search SEO. You can use Google’s free tools:Structured Data Testing Tool to check your markup works correspondingly, and Structured Data Markup Helper to help you write the markup elements in your site.

16. Use unique title tags – Title tags are key elements for ecommerce stores. Since you’re hosting potentially hundreds or thousands of product pages, it’s important to use distinct title tags for every product page and category. Use key phrases and observe an organized structure (e.g., brand + model + item + type).

17. Write concise meta descriptions – Voice search results may not read meta descriptions as a direct answer, but it is displayed in the results. These snippets provide a brief yet concise (up to 230 characters) summary of a page. As much as possible, include your primary and secondary keywords on meta descriptions for your optimization efforts. 

Make your site mobile-friendly

Around 20% of searches on mobile devices are voice-based. This implies that a significant amount of voice search traffic is coming from mobile and tablet devices, and the search volume will only grow from here. This is why it’s vital to make your site more responsive on mobile gadgets.

18. Make it easy to navigate – Do bear in mind user experience when optimizing your site’s mobile version. Make your text easy to read and place the links at a good distance. Least you want is to make it hard for your visitors to click the right link. When visitors find your site far from mobile-ready, chances are they’ll leave immediately. This may increase your bounce rate, which can then negatively impact your page rankings.

Integrate local SEO tactics

Some ecommerce stores operate a physical shop; this is where local SEO strategies come in handy. About 46% of people who use voice search look for local business information daily. Moreover, “near me” and other localized queries are often answered aloud by a voice-enabled device.

19. Add local citations – Local citations are mentions or references of your ecommerce business on citation websites or online directories.The more citations your site gets, the higher the chances you get at topping the search engine results. You can build your local citations through online “yellow pages” such as Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook, and Google My Business (GMB).

Make sure that you include the basic information: business name, address, and phone number (NAP) across all directories for consistency as well as easy identification and indexing by search engines.

20. Optimize and verify your Google My Business – A Google My Business listing is arguably the most important listing your business can claim online. Claiming your GMB boosts your chances of appearing in Google’s Local Pack, Google Maps, and organic rankings. This means increasing your store’s chances of being read aloud as the answer to voice search queries.

Perform an ecommerce audit

It’s important to conduct an ecommerce SEO audit once you’ve done everything else in this checklist. This lets you see if you’ve missed any step in your voice search optimization strategy.

21. Check for any duplicate keywords – With ecommerce sites, your goal is to assign a unique keyword for each page on your site. This makes it easier for search engines to understand the context and category of your page content and rank them accordingly on the SERPs. If you optimize two pages for one keyword, search engines will get confused at identifying which one is more important.

22. Scan your site for duplicate content issues – Much like with duplicate keywords, duplicate content on your ecommerce site will contribute nothing good. Search engines will have a hard time ranking your content if it’s been used several times throughout your website.

Additionally, we all know how much Google hates duplicate content—you can get penalized for it. Using the same content more than once may not be intentional, that’s why it’s best to double-check your website to ensure that there are no cases like this.

23. Examine if there are crawl errors – Meta tag SEO refers to the process of inserting meta tags to the code of a webpage to help search engines better understand the context of the page. If they find it relevant and valuable to readers, they will place it high up the search ranks.

If you happen to insert meta tag SEO errors, the affected pages will be difficult for search engines to crawl and index.

You can use Alexa’s SEO Audit Tool to evaluate your website copy for any duplicate content. It also scans your site and provides a crawler status report to help you make improvements for your site’s grade.

Build an Effective Top to Bottom Voice SEO Strategy for Your Online Shop

With more and more people using the voice search function for their online shopping needs, you need to adopt and level up your optimization techniques to cater to this audience. Adding voice search optimization tactics to your pre-existing SEO strategies can place your ecommerce site more frequently at a better position in the search engine results pages.

Go through this checklist and make sure that you implement these steps on your online store’s SEO strategies to boost your brand’s visibility, traffic, conversions, and revenue.

Don’t know where to get started with your online site’s voice search optimization? Check us out at Voice SEO for all your voice search optimization needs!

How to Optimize Around User Intent for Voice Search

User Intent

Search engines exist to provide the best and most relevant answers to users who are looking for information. This specifically means that your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies should be built around the intent behind these queries.

A study by the University of Hong Kong discovered that web search intention can be divided into two means: one, a user may be looking for results to a more specific query (specificity); and two, a user may wish to check out more general information related to the keyword queried (exhaustivity).

Today, a new age of search is on the rise, giving much focus to user intent and voice search optimization. Thanks to new algorithm updates, Google now analyzes the intent behind each query to deliver the most relevant and accurate results that solve problems, not just match with the keywords.

With this, voice search optimization attempts to understand the intent behind the combination of long-tail keyphrases used. Voice SEO does this to deliver the best results and meet the searcher’s expectations in order to gain better search rankings in SERPs.

Google Hummingbird’s Job

As a way to deliver more accurate search results, Google released Google Hummingbird, which features a semantic search and knowledge graph. The algorithm update allows the search engine to have a more advanced understanding of a user’s search intent in order to display more relevant results to corresponding search queries.

This is a long shot from the traditional SEO practice of keyword stuffing. The Google Hummingbird update paved the way for more helpful search matches, finally putting into the register the criticality of user intent. As a result, digital marketers and brands now have the opportunity to produce more useful and valuable content for searchers, helping them rank better on SERPs.

What is User Intent?

Every time users pick up their mobile devices to get immediate answers to their problems or look for information about a brand or product, that action expresses user intent. The crux is that each user who conducts an Internet search has a particular intent. They have specific wants and expect the search results to meet that intent. This is the jump-off point for successful optimization for conversion.

There are four main categories of User Intent searches. This determines the type of results that Google provides to its searchers. The first three can be broken down as Do – Know – Go, and the fourth one being a commercial investigation.

Do (Transactional Queries)

Transactional queries are when users go on the web to perform specific actions such as buying a specific brand or product or availing a particular service. This search intent implies that the user is prepared to make a purchase. Example queries under this intent is “How to start a Netflix subscription?”

However, “Do” queries aren’t always about making a purchase. Some users perform queries that are not explicitly transactional in intent, but search engines still suggest pricing in case the user actually wants to buy (e.g., “Flight prices from New York to Hawaii.”).

Know (Informational Queries)

Informational queries are when users perform a search to find more information and learn about a certain topic or product. Queries like “How to make homemade hot chocolate?” or “What is the thirteenth zodiac?” fall under this category.

“Know” queries are tied to micro-moments. These micro-moments happens when a user acts upon fulfilling a specific query. Since users can pick up their smart devices to quickly look something up, brands and marketing experts are expected to deliver accessible, relevant, and real-time information anytime, anywhere.

Queries in this category of user intent can be simple or complex, but always informational in intent. While some queries may require product research, the action is neither commercial nor transactional.

Go (Navigational Queries)

Navigational queries are when users go on the web to find a specific website or location, usually a known brand or entity. “Go” queries skip going to the navigation bar or bookmark pages.  An example of this is when a searcher says “Log in on Spotify” or “Find Taylor Swift’s “ME!” official video on Youtube.” When users perform these queries, they expect to get directed to a particular location. If the search results deliver a competitor brand result (eg. suggesting Apple Music instead of Spotify), then it fails to satisfy the searcher’s needs. 

Commercial Investigation

Commercial investigation queries are when users have the intention to purchase a product or service in the future, but they go online to do research first. For instance, they would ask “What is the best shampoo for curly hair?” or “What’s the best movie streaming service?”

These users have an intention to buy a product or avail a service, but they’ll need more time for examining their options and conducting product research. These users need a bit of convincing.

How User Intent is Changing Marketing

User intent is reshaping the way people go through the buyer’s journey. Consumers today no longer follow a linear approach to purchasing. With online shopping and the convenience of search engines, customers can now enter the sales funnel at any point of the journey.

This change also allows brands and marketing experts to create their content to match the points in which searchers or buyers enter the funnel. In short, it’s become all about aligning the funnel to correspond with user intent. It’s all about giving people what they want and need. This helps refine your content development and research on relevant queries and topics.

Tips For Doing Voice Search Optimization Around User Intent

Aim for Position Zero

When you ask Siri or Google Assistant a question, they usually provide one answer. This answer usually comes from the featured snippet. About 40% of voice search results are pulled from Featured Snippets—the segment above the fold on page one of SERPs that is coined “Position 0”.

This means that you shouldn’t be just focusing on being on the first page, but also ranking for position 0. This can increase your website traffic which could result in introducing new customers to your brand. Moreover, featured snippets in position 0 generate an 8.6% click-through-rate.  

Project “Position 0” tip: Structure your content with proper formatting by using subheaders and bullet points. Search engines like organized content which they and the readers can easily digest.

Optimize your Google My Business listing

A study shows that roughly 58% of searchers have utilized voice search to look for local business information. Optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) listing and updating it with the latest information can boost your chances of ranking locally for voice search.

Here’s a basic checklist to guide you when completing your GMB profile:

  • Include complete necessary information such as name, address, and phone number (NAP).
  • Indicate the area code along with your phone number.
  • Use a professional business name associated with your website (e.g., [email protected])
  • Ensure that your business location is consistent between your website, GMB, and other local business listings.
  • Select the relevant categories for your business industry.
  • Use high-quality images to make your listing more credible and attractive.
  • Take the opportunity to describe your business, products, and services in the introduction field.

Many people are using voice assistants to ask for business opening hours, contact details, addresses, directions, and other queries that need direct answers. Make it easier for your local audience to find you.

Local and vocal

Speaking of optimizing for local search, Google found that “near me now” searches have increased by 150% over the past years. People trigger queries like “Show me the top Korean restaurants nearby in [specific city]” unless they’re within the vicinity and ready to head out for lunch or dinner.

They want to eat, they want results, and they want them now. Local voice search is all about urgency and delivering value immediately.

Given this, your local optimization strategy for voice search should focus on all the touchpoints. Create a FAQ segment on your website which provides in-depth answers to all common questions. You can also optimize your subheadings to correspond with such search questions, write list articles, or include tables in your site content. This will help you rank higher for local searches and increase your chances of turning queries into leads.

Keep the user’s own journey in mind

Since its introduction, the buyer’s journey has been the staple in mapping and developing campaigns and strategies for marketing and sales professionals. Fast forward to today, the evolution of online search and shopping has transformed the way people go through each stage of this journey. The customer journey is no longer linear.

Before, consumers follow a linear path when searching online: landing page > homepage or form > product page > form. But the inception of mobile and voice search dramatically transformed consumers’ purchasing decisions and their path towards that final stage.

As marketers, you can identify which part of the stage the customer is at the moment based on search results analysis and insights from tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Consider developing your SEO and content strategy for voice search through mapping questions as per the various stages of the customer journey:

  • Awareness: “What’s the best smartphone?”
  • Interest: “Can you do voice searches on Apple’s iPhone XS?”
  • Evaluation: “Which is better: Apple or Samsung?”
  • Purchase: “How much does the iPhone XS cost?”
  • Customer Support: “Why does the iPhone XS sometimes glitch after the iOS update?”
  • Loyalty: “What smart wearables work with iPhone XS?”         

Focus on content that solves problems

Most people who use voice search are on-the-go and seeking for immediate answers. If you fail to deliver, it’s likely that you’ll fail to rank on the SERPs for voice search.

Most questions start with H + 5W questions: how, who, what, when, where, and why. Google and other search engines tend to prioritize voice search answers that are concise and within 29 words. This doesn’t mean you should only write 29-word blog posts. Instead, you can use your FAQ page for this purpose.

As a guide, you can research questions in their conversational context through Reddit, Twitter comments, and other discussion threads to have an idea of what and how people craft their queries using voice search. You can also use some tools to optimize and segmentation of niche questions.

Complete the keyword query

“OK Google, find an in-depth article that explains what user intent is and how to optimize it around voice search.”

With voice search, keyword queries are longer and more conversational in nature. People are more likely to ask full questions rather than command one or two keyphrases as they would normally type in a search bar. And frankly, it’s easier and more convenient to speak than type. This implies big changes to how you should write the title of your blog post or your content in general.

So, instead of writing around one or two keywords, try experimenting with long-tail keywords (complete, conversational sentences) in your on-page content. Imagine you’re sitting face-to-face with a customer or your readers, think about how they would construct their question related to your business, industry, products, and services. Chances are it sounds conversational in nature.

Additionally, if you type your keyphrases on Google, you can check out the “People Also Ask” box to get a better understanding of other question ideas. You can see that the suggested queries are complete sentences and sound conversational—just as how someone would ask it using voice search.

Use structured data

Producing relevant content is an excellent voice search optimization tactic. Structured data, also known as schema markup language, can help augment your content for better visibility.

Structured data is a form of organized micro-data that you can insert into your site’s HTML code so that search engines can decipher and further understand your site content. Full disclosure: this doesn’t directly affect your site’s ranking. However, it does help Google contextualize and index your data.

The markup sets up your web content’s relevancy signals for voice search SEO through context cues (i.e., title, tags, meta, headings elements, etc.) that correspond with specific keyword queries. Below are some resources you can start with:

  • Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool – Google’s free tool that allows you to see if your markup works appropriately.
  • Schema.org – An online database of schema vocabularies you can use to make it easier for webmasters to construct their schema. You can also find FAQs, latest updates, and guides on how you can schema it to your site.
  • Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper – Another free tool that helps you markup elements in your website content to improve the search engine to comprehend your page data better.

A famous example of where structured data are seen and maximized is when searching for recipes. When results highlight images, calories, cooking duration, cooking steps, and other information, that’s structured language in action.

Summing up

People don’t just search online for no reason. There’s always a reason for it.

Users search online with a purpose; with an intent to find immediate answers for their queries—specific or general information. To optimize your voice search with user intent in mind, stop thinking like a marketer for one moment. Stand in your target audience’s shoes and think how they would: short, simple, and conversational.

At Voice SEO, we offer voice search optimization services that focus on getting your content in front of your target audience. If you want to drive valuable website traffic, grow conversions, generate revenue, and grow your business, consider voice search optimization tactics. Get in touch with Voice SEO now to optimize your website today!  

How to Optimize Your Voice SEO for the Google Local Three-Pack

How to Optimize Your Voice SEO for the Google Local Three-Pack

If you have a business in a particular community, being part of the Google Local Three-Pack can boost your overall online presence. Also called Map or Snack Pack, the local pack is the section that you see on the first page of search results, right below the search box. You’ll commonly encounter this when you’re searching for a business establishment in a specific area. 

As its name suggests, the Google Local Three-Pack lists the top three local businesses that match a user’s query in terms of proximity to the searcher’s location.

Having your business on the local pack can be a huge thing. It means that Google thinks your website is the most relevant to what people in your community are looking for, and therefore, should get the prime spot in local business listings. 

This position inside the local three-pack not only makes your business visible to internet users, but it also sends them signals that your business has a high authority with Google. As a result, you get more clicks and traffic to your website than competing businesses that appear outside of the Google local three-pack. 

Look at these supporting statistics about local search results:

  • 92% of online users pick businesses on the first page of local search results, according to SEO Expert. In comparison, Moz says there are only 8% clicks on “More local results” or “More places” among users of local search.
  • 72% of people who perform a local search end up visiting a store that’s within 5 miles of their location. In addition, 86% of people use Google Maps to locate a business. (Social Media Today)

At the rate or speed that local mobile search on Google is growing, optimizing your website to rank in Google’s local three-pack can give good mileage to your business. This will ensure that your business will come up at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) each time someone makes a local or “near me” search. 

How does Google determine local ranking? 

For you to show up in local search results, you need to comply with three requirements that Google uses to rank businesses.

► Relevance

Google wants you to provide detailed and complete information about your business so that it can make the closest match between your listing and user queries.

► Distance

Location is another major factor that helps Google decide whether or not to display your business in local results. What Google does is that it takes into account where your business is located based on a specific area included in the user’s search or based on what’s known about the user’s location.

► Prominence

Google also looks at the popularity of a business when selecting local businesses for its search results. Brands or places that are familiar to many people may get a prominent position in local search results. The same goes for businesses that get credited with links, positive reviews, or high rating scores across digital channels. These factors, along with a strong SEO performance, can put your business in front of users of local search.

How to Optimize Your Voice SEO for the Google Local Three-Pack

Voice search is a fast-rising aspect in organic search, as these numbers from Hubspot indicate:

  • As of January 2018, voice searches totaled approximately 1 billion per month.
  • 65% of consumers in the 25- to 49-year-old age range speak to their voice-enabled devices at least once a day.
  • By 2020, 50% of all online searches will be done via voice search.
  • By 2022, voice search is forecasted to be worth $40 billion.

Given how prevalent voice search is at the moment—and how it’s poised to get more mainstream in the near future— it’s only right that you turn to voice search to get your business to rank on Google’s elite local pack.

Through voice search SEO services, you can be more strategic in setting up and delivering your business listing to make it more noticeable by Google as well as by your target audience.

Here, we share some must-do strategies to help you make it to Google’s top three local listings.

1. Create a Google My Business page for your company

This is the first step to making your business searchable for Google users. It involves creating your Google My Business (GMB) profile so that customers will have all the important information about your business.

By having a listing on Google My Business, you’re making your company details available for voice assistants to access from search engines, maps, and other online databases.

Here’s what your Google My Business listing should contain:

  • Business name
  • Business category
  • Business address
  • Business telephone number
  • Business logo
  • Photos of your business
  • Clickable website, call, and direction buttons
  • Popular times
  • Hours of operation
  • User ratings or reviews

2. Optimize your business listings

An optimized business listing is one that’s properly set up and managed. Here’s how you can do it:

  • Ensure the accuracy and consistency of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) across the web. During the process of creating your Google My Business profile, you’ll be brought to a map page where you’ll be entering your business information. Whatever information you put here should be the same as what you provide on your website and other directory websites such as Yelp and Foursquare.
  • Once you’ve filled in your business information, make sure that you keep it as up to date. The more current your information is, the more useful your website will be for your online prospects. It’s also an effective way to provide the best possible user experience for your prospective customers.
  • Include high-quality images to cater to mobile users. Customers will definitely appreciate seeing clear pictures of your store or product even if they’re only looking at them from the small screen of their mobile device. Ultimately, this can help you attract more foot traffic to your business.

3. Manage and respond to reviews

We’ve mentioned that Google uses prominence as a factor in determining which businesses to display in local listings, but to set the record straight, being the largest, most popular, or most visited in your area isn’t the only yardstick that makes your business qualified.

Whenever customers leave favorable feedback about your business on online reviews, Google takes it into account and uses it to enhance your prominence as a local business. That said, you should devote time to getting 5-star reviews by being responsive to customers’ queries, requests, or feedback promptly. As you know, happy customers are the best brand ambassadors you could ever have.

Over time, as positive reviews keep coming for your business, voice search will more likely show your listing whenever someone asks for the best local business or the best local product.

4. Monitor your GMB information

You must claim and verify your GMB listing. Otherwise, anyone can make unwanted or unintentional changes to it without you knowing it by clicking the “Suggest an edit” button. Once the changes go live, the discrepancies in your business information or business citations may affect your local SEO rankings.

Fortunately, you can fix the changes you didn’t make by editing your business listing on Google although the more ideal practice is to claim your listing from the outset and to keep it always updated.

5. Use geo-phrases in your keywords

If your business is ranking organically, but not locally, the problem may lie on the keywords that you’re using. Since voice users are including location-based phrases in their queries, you’ll need to optimize your business listing with geo-related keywords or explicit locations. 

The reason for this is that SEO for local rankings depend heavily on factors such as proximity, NAPs, and other relevant categories on GMB listing. 

And with Google reporting that ”near me now” searches have grown by 150% over the last two years, ensuring that you do this properly is critical. Here’s how you can optimize for those types of highly specific searches:

  • Instead of just labeling your business with generic terms like “salad shop,” make sure to add keywords that voice searchers would typically use these days, such as “organic” or “locavore” around your product descriptions.
  • Instead of placing a zipcode or a state in your address, include the name of the street and the city in your location information as it helps Google come up with more relevant results that match hyper-specific queries from users.
  • Add in the hours when your store opens and closes, so your business can show up at the exact time that people are searching for nearby places or products.

6. Cultivate locally relevant links for higher online visibility

As with traditional SEO where you have to link to high authority pages, you need to build links to rank in voice search—this time focusing on links that are relevant to your local business. Here are some ideas for building links to your local business:

Links from local business partners—You can reach out to owners of companies that you do business with, asking them to include a link from their blog or webpages to your website. Their business may be different from yours, but as long as they can establish relevant connections between your businesses, you’ll be gaining valuable links to your site.

Links from local event partners—Being a participant or sponsor in local events also allows you to get links to your website. Any blog or announcement coming from the organizer or your event partners about the event can include links to your website.

Links from local industry resources and directories—Depending on your industry, you could look for associations that organize a list of local businesses in a particular area. Make sure that you get your business listed in their directories, especially the free ones. 

The bottom line here is that through local link building, you can become more active or visible in your area. Plus, with local organizations promoting and linking to your site, the quantity of your online exposure automatically increases. This can then help you get on the radar of Google for its local pack rankings.

7. Adhere to on-page SEO requirements

Website and webpage optimization is what helps your business rank in local search results, and paying attention to this checklist can boost your voice SEO and get your business found online.

  • Title Tags—Good title tags contain keywords for your website pages, which search engines use to identify what your page is all about. The tag should not exceed 55 characters, or the title for that page might appear cut off once published. There’s also no need to include stop words like “the” or ‘is” in your title tags.
     
  • Meta Description—This refers to the text that users see below your title tag and your website URL. Unlike title tags, the meta description you provide has more use for searchers than for search engines. If your meta description is concise and enticing enough, the more likely that users will click through to your page.
  • Header Tags—These are codes that define the structural makeup of your webpages. Aside from helping search engines understand how your text flows, header tags are also where you include keywords to optimize your headings and subheadings.
  • Alt Tags—You should use alt tags to describe images on your website to provide context to Google regarding their relevance to the content of your webpage. Ideally, your alt tags should include local keywords that are also found on the title of the page.
  • Internal Links—These links connect different pages of your website to one another. Internal linking requires that you build lots of quality content, so you’ll have multiple pages that can potentially rank on Google search.
  • Minimize Flash—Flash is the technology that adds animation to your content, but sadly, these animations are giving search engines a harder time trying to understand the content of your website. To optimize your website, you should minimize or eliminate the use of Flash.
  • Robots.txt and Sitemap Files—These two files help search engines locate your website, so without these files or if these files aren’t up to date, Google will not be able to index your content nor will they be able to include your website in the search results.
  • 301 Redirects—SEO algorithms require the presence of “www” at the beginning of your website address. Without this, traffic to your site might not be directed properly. Ask your website hosting company to set up a 301 redirect, so that visitors will be able to land on your website whether they type “www” to browse your site.
  • Images and Video—Images, video, and multimedia are getting more traction these days among content consumers, so you should use more of them to educate and engage your target market.
  • Readable URLs—Search engines and their users also turn to URLs to identify what a page is all about. You should optimize your URLs and use your primary keywords. Poorly crafted URLs might discourage people from clicking through to your webpages, or search engines from ranking your site.

Rank Your Local Business on the Google Three Pack

Today, consumers are highly dependent on search engines to help them find information, products, places, or businesses online. As a way of rewarding users, search engines are constantly improving the way their service works.

Now that the focus has shifted to voice search, the challenge for your business is to be where most of the search users—none other than the Google Local Three Pack. By optimizing your voice SEO, it will be easier for you to land in this highly coveted ranking, get your business discovered, and lead local audiences toward your website to further engage with them.

The Ultimate SEO Audit Checklist for Voice Search SEO

The Ultimate SEO Audit Checklist for Voice Search SEO

Digital assistants have changed the way people search. It’s evident in the way consumers have adapted to AI’s accessibility on mobile and home devices. You see it in the form of different names such as Siri, Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, and Google Assistant. They make life easier by minimizing the need to type queries and by providing answers more efficiently . 

Voice search essentially changes the game for SEO and digital marketers. According to a 2018 local business study in the US, 58% of consumers use voice search to find local businesses on a near-regular basis. ComScore predicts that by 2020, voice search will contribute to 50% of all search engine queries. That’s a significantly sizeable amount of users who you won’t want to miss visiting your website.

What does this mean for optimization? Because searchers are increasingly using more conversational phrases when interacting with digital assistants, the construction of queries have also changed. Gone is the need to skimp out on keywords as a means to lessen the effort in typing. 

A question can be asked as candidly and as long as desired because the more specific they are, the better the chance of getting a relevant answer. In effect, SERPs now also feature richer results ranging from Featured Snippets, Knowledge Graphs, video carousels, and many more—making it even more challenging to stand out in search results.

The rapidly growing presence of voice search only makes things like mobile-friendly pages, site speed, and linking structures crucial aspects to optimization. A thorough SEO audit will allow you to see where your site currently stands and how much you’ll need to prepare for voice search optimization. It might seem overwhelming with all that needs to be considered, but with the right audit checklist, it’ll be a cinch nailing everything you need.

Below is a foolproof list every SEO and digital marketer needs to include during an SEO audit prior to optimizing for voice search, to hit better rankings and engagement.

SEO Audit Checklist for Voice Search

1. Check your Organic Traffic

The first and most important task in starting your audit is taking a look at your organic traffic. From here, you’ll have a good idea of where you’re currently at in terms of your optimization success and how you can drive it even further. This point of reference will be able to help you identify your plan of action based on what to improve and how best to enhance the different parts of your website.

When checking your organic traffic on Google Analytics, make sure to set the right filters on your results. You’ll want to remove the irrelevant data, which includes yourself and your coworkers. Your best bet for this is to use IP address filters. 

Ideally, your traffic within half a year or more should be going in an upward trend. Don’t worry if it’s flat or declining as there’s been a 37% drop in organic clicks because of richer results on both text and voice search. The good news is, you can always optimize through a variety of means to improve your site’s success.

Some key metrics you’ll be able to look further into from organic traffic analysis on Google Analytics:

  • Devices. It’s a good way to measure what percent of your visitors are on desktop or mobile, so you know if you need to adjust your strategies.
  • User location. Identify where the concentration of your traffic comes from. From here, you can also see if there’s potential to expand your business to other locations.
  • User site navigation. You’ll be able to know if their behavior is going as planned and then determine if you need to adjust.

2. Asses if your site is mobile-friendly

Almost 60% of queries on Google are made via mobile devices. It was also found that smartphones are the most used device for voice search. 

If that isn’t enough to strengthen the need to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, Google has also started implementing mobile-first indexing. This effort is primarily made to address the growing rate of mobile searches, surfacing pages that’s ready with mobile-friendly content. 

Assess your site’s mobile friendliness with these tools:

  • Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. It views your site just like Googlebot and gives you a straightforward answer as to whether or not you need to make improvements on your site. 
  • HubSpot’s Website Grader. It conducts a thorough check of your website, showing your page on mobile view and determines if it’s responsive enough.
  • BrowserStack. It allows you to view how your website looks on different kinds of mobile devices.

3. Evaluate your site speed, then find and fix indexing problems

In 2018, Google announced that page speed would be included in the ranking algorithm for mobile searches. This implies the necessity to double check your site speed and boost its performance by fixing any indexing problems. You can do this a number of ways. 

  • A free and recommended platform for checking your site speed is Google PageSpeed Insights. Through it, you’ll be able to identify your page performance directly with a general score and get actionable tips to improve your current position.
  • Run speed tests with tools like GTMetrix and Webpagetest.org. You’ll be able to identify what exactly is slowing down your page.
  • Run crawling programs like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, DeepCrawl, and Ahrefs to see if you’re accidentally blocking pages you don’t want to be blocked with robots.txt file. 

4. Improve on-page SEO

Beefing up your on-page SEO is good practice for boosting relevant traffic on your site. Luckily, you don’t necessarily have to apply on-page SEO to all your pages. Choosing a handful of key pages will be able to do the trick. 

Ideas for selecting pages to improve:

  • Pages that rank well but hold potential for bigger success
  • Pages that target specific keywords
  • Pages that get significantly less traffic than other pages on your site

Some key points to kickstart this part of your audit:

  1. Are you maximizing your keywords? Implement your keywords well. They should be on on your URLs, title tag, headline tag, and description?
  2. Are you using modifiers to your titles? Add modifiers on your headlines. This helps your site rank for long tail keywords.
  3. Are you applying LSI keywords to your content? Use Latent Semantic Indexing keywords on your page. These keywords help Google identify the main topic and attribute it to the relevance and legitimacy of your site.
  4. How is your site’s link profile? Add internal and external links to your content. This strengthens your pages’ relevance as well as your own website’s relevance to other sites.

5. Set Up Keyword Rank Tracking

Monitor how your pages are performing for a variety of keywords. Once you know which pages aren’t performing well, you’ll be able to look into keyword targeting and improve the credibility of your page as needed.

SEMrush is a handy tool for getting the job done. It finds keywords your site ranks for. It’s a great way to figure out if you should refresh your keywords with new additions or drop any old ones. 

6. Analyze Your Backlinks

Google’s top 3 search ranking factors include links. In a Google Search results analysis by Backlinko, it was found that backlinks do play a significant role in rankings. These external links, after all, are basically other sites vouching for your website’s authority and relevance to related content. The more websites there are that “vote” for you by linking to your pages, the better your ranking will be. 

This, however, doesn’t mean that just any link from any other site will work. These external links still need to come from quality sources, which is why you still need to analyze your backlinks. Here’s what you can do:

  • Run a quick analysis with backlink tools. Some great tools are Ahrefs or Moz.
  • Monitor your domain authority. This tells you whether your site is credible based on the amount and quality of your backlinks.
  • Check for quality links. Are anchor texts valid and relevant to your domain, or are they simply spam keywords? Do these come from real websites that have content related to yours, or is it irrelevant?
  • Disavow links that you see unfit. 

7. Check for and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are generally bad for your site. If a user clicks on a link to your site and sees an Error 404, you lose a visitor and essentially prompt them to look for an answer elsewhere. When search engines crawl your website and come across a broken link, it can stop the spiders from indexing. You, therefore, lose both ranking potential and site visitors who could’ve become paying clients. 

Find broken links on your site with tools like Broken Link Check or Ahrefs. These can help you determine which pages are broken. If there are pages you want to rank that are affected, get around to fixing them ASAP. 

8. Optimize For UX Signals

UX affects the way a user finds value in your website. When a page is created with a user’s experience in mind, they’ll be able to see content relevant to their direct concern as well as intuitively find related content on your other pages.

Some UX signals you must optimize for:

  • Organic CTR. Make sure that your title tags, descriptions, and URLs employ your targeted keywords.
  • Dwell time. Enrich your page with content such as text, videos, and images that are relevant to the user’s intent.
  • Intent Optimization. It’s important to match your content based on your target audience’s intent. Review your main and long tail keywords to see that your content answers users’ questions.

9. Check and Fix Internal Linking Structure

Having a solid internal linking structure can set you up for success. Through it, you’ll be able to help both visitors and search engines better understand the relevance and relationships of your pages as well as their value. You can build up your internal linking structure a number of ways:

  • Link to cornerstone content. When your content mentions related terms that are fully explained in other pages (cornerstone content), take it as an opportunity to link to them.
  • Mention related posts. Similar to linking cornerstone content, having a list of related posts below your page content would also be able to let users find more value in your site. This will let them find useful resources they can also refer to.
  • Add navigation links. Strengthen your cornerstone content with direct links to them from your navigation bar or homepage.

10. Use a Site Audit Tool

Check the overall health of your website with SEO audit tools. They give you a more thorough look at what you might be missing in your own checks. You’ll also get a list of recommendations to optimize your site better, which proves tremendously helpful when there are frequent algorithm updates you need to be cautious of. Neil Patel recommends full SEO audits every quarter with mini-audits at least once a month.

Some good site audit tools are Seobility and SEMrush. With these, you’ll get a full sweep of your site and figure out actionable plans to improve your pages. Remember that while tools provide a wide variety of functions that can help you audit and optimize your SEO strategies for voice search, tools are only as good as its user.

11. Content Audit, Content Gap Analysis

Conducting a content audit and analysis evaluates the quality of your pages, accounting for the indexed content on your website. It focuses on which pages perform best, which topics are missing key supplementary articles, which needs updating, retention, and removal. This ultimately helps you better strategize the way you manage and produce your content to build value and authority for your site.

Perform Content Audits for Effective Voice SEO

With the entrance of voice search in the form of digital assistants seen mostly on mobile devices, the way people search on platforms like Google has changed. Factors like longer searches, colloquial terms used in search, and location make optimizing a bit more of a challenge. Add to the fact that search engine algorithms go through a motion of frequent changes, the importance of conducting regular SEO audits comes to light in an effort to keep abreast of everything.

An SEO audit gives you the rundown of your website’s overall performance. It’s an essential part of optimization that lets you see if everything is running smoothly or if there are things on your site that are affecting your ranking and user satisfaction. These are things you can only find with a thorough analysis of your site’s organic traffic, mobile adaptability, user path, content, architectural structure, and internal and external linking. 

Insights from an audit also give you a better understanding of how best to approach your SEO strategy to build your site up for success. You may find the need to retarget with your keywords, adjust your site navigation, or do some kind of overhaul to boost authority, traffic, engagement, and eventually a strong following.

Likewise, an SEO audit serves as a great point of reference for your website’s current status, which will help in the long run. The benchmark will allow you to see just how much change there needs to be before you adapt to voice search optimization, which is likely where the future of search is headed.

About Us

At Voice SEO, we make it a point to study industry trends and update our strategies each and every time we notice a change in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

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FAQ’s

How to Optimize Your Voice SEO for the Google Local Three-Pack
If you have a business in a particular community, being part of the Google Local Three-Pack can boost your overall online presence. Also called Map or Snack Pack, the local pack is the section that..

Should You Outsource Voice Search SEO Services or Build an In-house Team?
Without a doubt, the way we interact with technology has shifted over the years. Before, people only use their phone for sending text messages or calling someone. Today, you can now pick up your.. ...phone and ask your voice assistant to call a specific person or send them a message. They can also find you the answer to any question you have.