To stay on top of results, you need to be on top of trends. One such trend that is evolving drastically is Voice Search.
Nearly 30% of all searches made on the web are voice searches. There is no doubt that this rate would increase to 50% very shortly. Google Assistant, Cortana, SIRI, and smart devices such as Alexa, Google Home have become an integral part of our lives. You would be surprised that over 3.25 billion voice assistants are being used over the world as of 2019. With this data, it is more clear that voice searches are gaining huge importance and so it has become important for websites to optimize for them to offer results for the queries. But how to optimize for voice search? Well, we’ll look at that in this article.
Voice Search? Why does it matter?
While SEO is already there, Voice Search emerged into it like a new revolution. But why do you think voice search has become such popular? Of course, people find it easy to speak louder than type no matter where they are or what they are doing.
Do you know? Nearly 37% of teen and adult users do voice search queries when they are in the bathroom? The percentage is higher when they are with friends and is lower when are cooking, exercising and watching TV. But anyway, people are using voice search assistant to find answers in their daily lives. So, if you are a business owner who drives traffic from online you need to be aware that you have noticeable leads from voice assistants.
Therefore only the websites and blogs that are optimized for voice search are going to surpass in this revolution. So, how do you optimize your site to appear or heard for voice searches? This article walks you through 8 simple yet efficient ways to rank top for voice search queries.
8 effective ways to optimize for voice search
As most of the voice search queries are related to local information, fun & entertainment along with personal assistant and general information, both small and large businesses need to make maximum out of it.
Moreover, the results for search queries including “where” and “when” resulted in same-day and next-day customer visits to their physical stores.
This example alone can say how important it is to rank for voice searches for local businesses. Isn’t it?
Enough said! Now let’s quickly dig into how to optimize for voice search…
Optimize your site for mobile device
Out of total voice searches made, nearly half are on done on mobiles. This simply means your customers are visiting you or learning about you through mobiles. So, it is highly important to optimize your site for mobile devices. Moreover, according to the 2015 Google algorithm update, mobile responsive sites are given priority to appear top on the search results. So, ensure your site is mobile optimized and mobile-friendly, so that voice assistants can retrieve answers from your website.
Read our On-Page SEO Ultimate Guide
Use Long-tail keywords
The keywords used for typing and for voice search are completely different. For instance, you type “best cafe”, whereas you say “Hey Google, what is the best cafe near me” on your phone when you are passing through a busy street in your car. So, typically for voice search queries, people use long-tail keywords. So, never ignore using them, long-tail keywords are the most profitable keywords to generate more traffic.
Wondering to find them? Simple, you can do a simple brainstorming about how can people reach you and jot them down. Using those as a base find relevant keywords on Google People Also Ask section.
Include FAQs
Your answers need to be straight, simple, and relevant for reflecting on voice search results. Hence, FAQs serve the purpose here. It is even recommended that FAQs on every page of your site with the most relevant questions can help you sit in voice search results. So, pick the questions related to your niche or business and answer them in a simple, and crisp manner. You can explore AnswerThePublic SEO tool to learn more long-tail as well as question keyword ideas for business.
Focus on Question keywords
As mentioned already, the question keywords “what”, where”, “how”, “why”, and “when” play well on voice searches. So, you need to rank for them, there is no excuse. Moreover, with that said, “where” and “when” are potential keywords that drive traffic to your business the same day or the next day.
Use natural or conversational language
While the questions are natural and conversational as users ask “Hey Siri, tell me what is the price of so and so near me”. The user expects the answers the same way, or at least the same understandable way. So, make sure you write the content on your site that is understandable even to an 8th grade or 9th-grade schoolboy. So, the search engines pick your content to answer the users’ queries.
Rank in Featured Snippets
You are almost well-optimized for voice search results if you are ranking for featured snippets. Frankly, this is the secret sauce to boost your business. So, try to win that zeroth position. Do competitor analysis, find out ways to rank as a featured snippet, of course, the best way is through FAQs.
Key Takeaway: Get more number of backlinks to your site for profitable yet natural anchor texts. Backlinks contribute to improving your DA and higher DA sites appear more on featured snippets and top results.
Optimize your YouTube videos
Google has become smarter, it is even showing the time frame in YouTube videos that appear in the snippet as a result of the user query. So, ensure your YouTube videos rank well on Google. Moreover, videos play a key role in Google’s algorithm for voice search. Hence, it is crucial for your videos to rank top on Google search result page.
Improve your site loading speed
Your site speed plays a vital role in search engine optimization. The same goes for voice search. So, boost your site loading speed by seeking expert SEO and developer support. Check your site speed on tools like GTMetrix, PageSpeedInsights, etc, and gain insights into how to improve the speed.
Optimize for local searches
Having said that, voice searches are traffic drivers to local businesses. So, be the early bird and start optimizing your business for local searches which are likely to result in voice searches. All you need to do is Go to Google MyBusiness and fill in your information such as business name, contact details, address, working hours. You can even register your business with accurate information in local business directories.
Read: 100+ Business Ideas to Start Business and Make Money
Bottom Line
The importance of voice search is not going to fade away anytime in the future instead it is going to invade more into people’s lives. Hence, businesses that don’t catch up with the trend are going to witness a major loss. The ones that are benefiting from the trend are those who optimize their sites for voice search. Moreover, it is not that hard to optimize your site for voice search, just keep voice search users in mind before you start writing content for your site. Also, make both user and crawler’s journey easy on your site, so that they can access required information with much ease.
Read: 10 SEO blogs you should follow for regular Google updates
