Voice, Visual, and Vertical Searches – How to Prepare for the 3Vs in 2021?

1. VOICE, VISUAL, AND VERTICAL SEARCHES – HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE 3VS IN 2021? According to ‘SEO Software Market’ report, the global SEO software market is expected to grow by $740.01mn between 2021 and 2024 (marketwatch.com). With the search landscape evolving so rapidly, there is little wonder why the spending is poised to escalate in the upcoming years. If you want a competitive advantage, it is high time that you took into account the current search trends. Yes, we understand that the search industry is changing so fast that keeping up with everything new can be difficult. But, to help you make the most of the best trends, we shed light on the three broad categories of searches – voice, visual, and vertical.

2. You don’t want to lag behind your competitors, do you? So, you must take the necessary actions and deliver a unified search experience to your audience. The rest of the subject, we will discuss in the following section. VOICE SEARCH – HOW TO GET IT RIGHT? Underpinned on the speech recognition technology, voice search trend allows the users to get crisp answers to the queries made via voice. Do you know what’s shocking? While this technology has reached its peak point, yet 62% of marketers got no plans for voice search optimization. To stand apart from this herd, go through the must-leverage strategies we discuss below. Focus on Being Mobile Responsive –As most voice searches are made from mobile devices, it is no surprise that your website should be mobile-friendly. Given short attention spans of users, it is also expected of your website to load fast. For confirmation, you can use testing tools to check if your website is meeting these criteria. Open Google My Business Account –Do you know 75% of smartphone users perform voice searches for finding local businesses every week (99firms.com)? If you want yourself to be easily discoverable, then now is the time to open and update your Google My Business account. Need detailed assistance? You can always get in touch with an expert on digital marketing services. Get Best Results with Schema Markup –Also, known as structured data, the schema markup on your website helps the search engine crawlers index and classify your content. And based on this classification of data, the search engine can choose your content and present it as relevant information thereby answering the voice queries of users. Tweak Content for Voice Optimization – Since voice searches are conversational in tone, you should leverage long-tail keywords for improving your visibility on the search engine. Focus on creating blog posts that answer your customers’ queries. The best way is creating a FAQ page that follows the same conversational or question-answer pattern as the voice search queries.

3. VISUAL SEARCH – WHAT SHOULD BE YOUR STRATEGY? Here is another miracle of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Visual Search, which helps people search with real-world imagery, in place of text search. A bonanza for all e-commerce brands and stores, the visual search technology allows the users to take a picture, using a visually-focused software like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens and offers results relevant to the object in that picture. Here are some tips on how you should prep up for this trend. Follow Image Optimization – To optimize your images for visual search, you have to follow image SEO best practices like selecting the right format, creating unique images, customizing image file names, and writing SEO compliant alt text. Simultaneously, you should also make sure that your images are mobile- friendly and using them involves no copyright conflict. Update your Image Sitemap –Not sure if the image XML sitemaps have been uploaded on the website? Pay attention before it gets too late. That is important because, with an image sitemap, your chances of being discovered by the search engines increase manifold. As per the top SEO agency India, an updated image sitemap helps Google index your images and show them as visual search results for users. Emphasise Uniqueness & Creativity – Keep in mind that visual content is the same as your other forms of content, which requires to be unique and engaging for creating the right impact. That holds true in cases of e-commerce brands for whom the product pictures can make or break their reputation. Do you use stock imagery? Don’t forget to adapt it for uniqueness. Conduct Audience Analysis – With 62% of millennial customers using visual search over other technologies, you should delve into in-depth research and understand what exactly your customers are looking for (businesswire.com). Don’t churn out images just for the sake of it; ensure that your visual content caters perfectly to your target demography.

4. VERTICAL SEARCH – WHY MUST YOU CARE? Whenever we speak of search engines, ‘Google’ is the first name to strike our minds. But, do we consider search engines dedicated to a specific niche or vertical. And there you have got an idea of what vertical search is all about! Searching Pinterest for images, LinkedIn for jobs, or Yelp for online reviews serve as examples of vertical search engines. So, how do you plan to gain visibility on search engines other than Google? Here are some tips from the specialists in digital marketing services. Analyse Audience Behaviour – Should you think going beyond Google is a waste of time, you must know that 55% of overall retail searches in the US start from Amazon, and surprisingly not Google. And that’s just one out of many examples out there. To get the best results on other search engines you must conduct audience research and study why and how your target audience is using them for their benefit. Adapt Your Content for Specific Search Engines –To cut corners and save efforts, you cannot use the same content types for all search engines. If you’re doing that, it’s at all not professional! Even if the audience remains the same across all platforms, understand that the users’ expectations differ based on different search engines. Hence, you must plan your content strategy accordingly. Maintain Brand Consistency – Never ever mess up with your brand messaging, for it defines what you stand for. No matter what your touch points are, you must communicate with your customers in a consistent tone always. When that coherence breaks, the audience forsakes. After all, what is a reliable brand if it doesn’t stay true to its identity & messaging? Do not Ignore Google’s Very Own Verticals – While you focus on niche- related search engines, do not forget about Google’s network of vertical searches. From images and shopping to video and news, these specialised search engines being less competitive may drive in better traffic to your website. However, remember that vertical ranking is no substitute for horizontal search results. If

5. you are already performing great on Google’s universal search, you can simply optimize for segmented searches and beef up your ranking. Closing Thoughts – With search behaviour changing, new opportunities are coming up for businesses today. And to take advantage of these opportunities, you have to have a dynamic search optimization strategy. Now that you know the best practices, be quick to deploy them and see faster results. If you think you need our help, we will be glad to assist you in your endeavours. We wish you success! Resource: https://webguruinfosystem.weebly.com/blog/voice-visual-and-vertical-searches-how-to- prepare-for-the-3vs-in-2021 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… WebGuru Infosystems Y8, Block-EP, Sector V, Salt Lake Kolkata-700091, India Website: https://www.webguru-india.com/ Email: enquiry@webguru-india.com Phone: +91-8420197208 Follow us on: