AI-driven voice search is transforming the way people find information, make purchases, and interact with businesses. With 50% of all searches now conducted via voice and 76% of UK mobile users engaging with voice assistants regularly, it’s essential for shooting sports and gun trade businesses to ensure they can be found when customers are searching.
Voice search
AI is making voice interaction with your phone or smart speaker better than ever.
The way people find and use information is changing, and as AI tools improve and become better integrated, this trend will continue. At the heart of this shift is the rise of Voice Assistants that can simplify actions during people’s busy lives.
- 50% of all searches by volume are via voice!
- 76% of UK residents have used a voice assistant on their mobile phone in the last month.
- 63% have used a smart speaker recently.
All this means that people looking for local experiences, to buy goods and services, and for directions, are increasingly using voice search.
You need to be there when they call.
Voice assistants
There are three primary kinds of voice assistant. Mobile, smart speakers, and computers. Of these three, mobile is the leader in terms of volume of use. People are instinctively asking for directions and recommendations on their mobile or smart watch. Particularly while they’re driving or walking, and it would be difficult to type. Here are the top five.
- Google Assistant
- Amazon Alexa
- Apple Siri
- Samsung Bixby
- Microsoft Copilot
Begin by seeing what each of these tools knows about your business, opening hours, location, offering, and products. For example, I can get directions to Eaton Hall Shooting Ground, but the opening hours aren’t available on Apple Maps.
Voice search in the UK
Local business search
In the UK voice search is used most often to find local businesses. Make certain yours can be found using voice search on the five assistants already mentioned.
Shopping online
Voice assistants will recommend local businesses by product. You can search for wellington boots using Siri and currently it’s recommending a location in London, because that’s the nearest business that has optimised for that product. Make sure your business descriptions contain text about the things your most interested in promoting. Consider changing them occasionally to attract different customers. Based on the time of year perhaps.
Event bookings
If I ask Siri to book a clay shooting lesson near me I get a generic result from BASC. BUT. If I ask for the cost of a guided deer stalking trip the top result is a business providing that service. Be certain your website is directly answering the kinds of questions people might ask.
Optimising for voice search
Be conversational
The primary difference between voice search and our past understanding of search engine optimisation is that voice search is conversational, as opposed to SEO which has been keyword driven. The increasing integration of AI into voice assistants will mean that this trend will continue. When you’re writing content for you website, or your business listings, try to be a little more conversational.
Business listings
Voice search is, more often than not, location based. This means it is even more important than ever to have all your business listings up to date on Google, Apple, Bing and Duck Duck Go etc. Customer reviews will become more important too as these services try to prioritise their results. Gather reviews online whenever possible.
FAQs
FAQ pages are an excellent way to store answers to potential questions in a conversational way. Add an FAQ to your website with the most common questions you get asked on the phone. That’ll be a good start. Then perhaps add questions you would like to be asked more often. Things like, do you provide lessons for beginners? Or can you accommodate a large group?
An offer
It’s imperative that businesses in shooting sports and the gun trade take advantage of these opportunities to increase their visibility, beat out the competition, improve people’s experiences, and increase the number of people finding you. The first person to email: coffee@mk38.co.uk when this is published will receive a free voice search makeover, worth just under £1,000, and later in the year we’ll review what was done and what impact it had.
Conclusion
AI is likely to make many interactions with your mobile and computer obsolete in the near future. The Voice Assistants and AI tools will be selecting the best results for you. It’s in the battle to beat out the competition in this space that technology companies will be seeking to make their next billion. The great news is that on a global scale there isn’t a lot of competition for promoting shotguns and rifles. That means early adopters will clean up while most simply don’t realise what they’re missing out on.
Make certain that your business is well represented in this space as soon as possible. And if you’d like some help please email me at monty@mk38.co.uk or find me on Instagram @MontyShoots.
You can read the full March 2025 issue below:
