CANNABIS VOICE SEARCH
Voice Search is the technology (first popularized by Apple’s Siri) embedded in your phone, tablet, and other internet appliances that allows you to perform searches by speaking rather than typing.
Why is voice search important for cannabis businesses?
The functionality and sophistication of Voice Search is evolving rapidly. Initially considered more “gimmicky” than practical, Voice Search has now achieved widespread mainstream adoption. In fact, many consider 2017 as the breakout year for Voice Search.
So how big is it? The search firm, Higher Visibility, recently surveyed more than 2000 consumers to determine how people were using Voice. Of those surveyed, more than 70 percent reported using voice search at least once per month, while almost half reported using daily or weekly. As recently as 2013, 85% of consumers reported NEVER using Siri.
The four most popular Voice Search technologies are as follows:
01. Google Now
Google Now is Google’s answer to Apple’s Siri. An intelligent personal assistant, it is now more popular than Siri. It’s available for Android and iOS.
02. Siri
Siri is an “intelligent assistant” embedded into Apple iPhones (4s and later), and newer iPads, iTouches, and Apple TV.
03. Cortana
Cortana is Microsoft’s intelligent personal assistant created for Windows-powered devices (Windows 10 & future OS releases), Xbox One, iOS, Android, Windows Mixed Reality. It will soon also be available on Amazon Alexa.
04. Alexa
Alexa is the Amazon-developed intelligent personal assistant popularized by Amazon’s Echo and the Echo Dot devices.
" 25 percent of Android searches in the US are voice searches. "
– Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Inc. (Google) 5
How Often Do People Use Voice Search?
Over 70% of consumers now report using Voice Search regularly (from daily to at least once per month). Remarkably, only 28.7% consumers — roughly 1 out of 4 of those surveyed — reported never using Voice. The most popular reasons people cited is that it’s “faster” (25.7%) or easier (32.6%) than traditional search. As recently as 2013, 85% of consumers reported NEVER using Siri!
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How Does My Dispensary Take Advantage of Voice Search?
Location, location, location.
You’ve heard it countless times: it’s all about location. And, when it comes to mobile search, location plays a role in 80 percent of all searches.
Make sure you’ve set up your site correctly for local search:
01. Google My Business Page
Make sure your Google My Business page is set up correctly, all the information is correct (name, address, phone #, hours of operation, correct categories), you’ve uploaded 5+ photos, you have a unique description, etc. (If you haven’t registered your business for Google My Business, you can register here.
02. Reviews
Google (and consumers) places high value on the number of reviews you have and how consumers are rating you. Make sure your team is well-trained on how to encourage customers to leave reviews (and how to address negative comments).
03. Cortana
Most business owners don’t realize it, but Google likes — er, really likes — photos, especially original photos and geo-tagged photos. It pays off bigly to take the time to snap some original photos or hire a professional to take some great shots.
"Speech will take over typing and texting because it is 3x as fast with 20% fewer errors."
– Arun Rao, Co-Founder of Starbutter AI
Learn What Your Customers Want to Know
Research what questions your customers are most frequently asking (you can poll your budtenders to find out what people are most asking in-store). Then make sure your website has answers to these questions, shorter answers in the form of an FAQ page, and longer answers (for example, your “best strains for chronic pain”) in the form of blog posts, articles, and social media posts.
Search is becoming more conversational -- So, be more conversational!
When you use Voice Search, how do you usually input a query? Generally, Voice Search is done in response to a situation. You want an answer to a question. So rather than speaking keywords, you’re more likely to ask a question or a command than if you were typing.
“Where is the closest gas station?”
“Show me a list of movies playing.”
“What time does XYZ dispensary close?”
(Interestingly, our Voice Search habits are creeping over to traditional search, and we’re now querying search engines more like we query Voice Search.)So how does this trend impact how you should design your website?
Long gone are the days of exact match keyword searches. That went out with the launch of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm in 2013. And with the growing popularity of Voice (and it’s impact on traditional online search), exact-match keyword matching is virtually a thing of the past. The good news is: what’s best practice for Voice Search is also the best practice for all SEO.
So how does this trend impact how you should design your website?
Long gone are the days of exact match keyword searches. That went out with the launch of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm in 2013. And with the growing popularity of Voice (and it’s impact on traditional online search), exact-match keyword matching is virtually a thing of the past. The good news is: what’s best practice for Voice Search is also the best practice for all SEO.
Let’s take an in-depth look at each digital marketing channel.
Given the unique position of the cannabis industry, we’re only covering the digital marketing channels that are permitted to use by ancillary businesses, brands, dispensary owners, mobile applications, producers, processors, and websites. There is a legal gray area when marketing cannabis companies, and you should regularly reference the laws within your state before starting any campaign.
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