Designing a website is no longer just about making something look good on a computer 

When Designing a website it's not just about making something look good on a computer – you have to also factor in the smaller screens of mobile devices like smartphones. Did you know that there’s also a new consideration to keep in mind? Voice search.With the explosion in popularity of mobile devices and voice assistants like Amazon’s Echo and Google Home (not to mention Siri and Alexa), voice search is also becoming a verified pathway into your site. More and more users are having conversations with their devices when they find something – which means your website should also be designed with that habit in mind. Read on to find out how to ensure your new site design is optimised to benefit from this growing area of search engine marketing.

First off, what is voice search? This is an easy one to answer. Voice search is simply when someone talks to their voice assistant and tells it what they are looking for, rather than typing in a search query on a mobile or desktop device. If you’re driving for example and are looking for the nearest restaurant to grab lunch, you won’t want to take your eyes from the road to type in a search query on your browser. Instead, you’ll take out your device and tell it to find a restaurant near you. That’s the power of voice search. Develop a separate keyword strategy The way people search with voice assistants differs to the language used when a search query is typed into a search box. Voice search is more colloquial and conversational and that means you’ll need an entirely separate keyword strategy. You’ll need to focus on the words and phrases your users routinely use when speaking and then create a list of keywords based on that use of language. Don’t be surprised if this is quite different to the keywords you have shortlisted for regular search. Be aware of more action-based terms Voice search tends to be used when there is a more immediate need for something. This means it is more action-based. You’ll need to be aware of this and create content that meets that immediate need and reflects the desire of the user to do or have a product, service or piece of information right away. Create specific voice search landing pages You may want to think about creating landing pages specifically for voice search. Because voice search uses more natural, conversational language, these pages will differ in style to your other web pages but, you can use this to your advantage and create content that is optimised for voice search.