Voice search is today’s reality, it is no longer a futuristic technology or trend—it is the existing technology which changes people’s search behavior on internet. With tech giants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri the use of voice search is gradually shifting from being a preference to the normal way people search for information or products online. With this shift, every company that wants to gain or at least sustain its positions in voice search needs to adapt for it. This article will focus on Voice Search Optimization and how it is affecting SEO in our today’s markets. More importantly, it will give some useful strategies on how to properly prepare content for voice search to future proof your content.
Why Is Voice Search Becoming so Popular?
Voice Search Optimization is a new phenomenon in SEO, it is adopted most of the time because most of the people have voice-activated devices. Knowing why and how voice search is becoming prominent should be the initial way towards preparing for this era of SEO.
Increased Use of Smart Devices
One of the main drivers for the surge of voice search is the number of smart devices in people’s homes. As for smart speakers, Smartphones and smart voice activated gadgets are getting popular, the users have become more conversant with voice commands. From playing some tunes through Alexa or searching for a restaurant that is nearby using Siri, voice search request has become so natural to many consumers.
On the same note, voice search is advancing not only through smart speakers but also through the mobile phone where people use voice commands to interact. The ease that this provides to consumers is adjusting the very manner in which people are seeking information, and as such is a key reason why businesses will need to adapt how they are optimizing for the search engines.
Conversational Search Queries
Voice search queries differ from traditional text-based searches in a significant way: they are more conversational in its tone. Most of the time users use full phrases or even questions rather than entering short keywords of a couple of words into a search engine.
For instance, a user will use a regular text search to type ‘best pizza place near me’ while the same user will use voice search to say ‘what is the best pizza place around here? That means SEO trends must change because it is moving away from stilted, keyword-stuffed language and towards natural discourse. The content now needs to address these queries more effectively as well as longer and innovative forms as to stand any chance in voice search.
Voice Search Preferences
With voice search people can search quickly, and easily without having to stretch out their hands to type on a device. People are attracted to it because it enables them to perform other activities at the same time — driving, cooking or exercising. The mobile trend that involves people using voice to search rather than typing is likely to benefit its users but a business that is not listed for voice search is likely to defer as people tend to use voice search more and more.
Why Voice Search Matters for SEO
Voice Search Optimization is quickly becoming an indispensable part of SEO, and it is unwise to simply wave it off as a niche trend that isn’t based on reality. Now, let’s take a look at how voice search impacts your SEO plan.
Changing Search Engine Algorithms
Web-based search engines like Google for instance use algorithms in providing relevant search results and these are being changed all the time to even provide better search results. Due to the application of the voce search, search engines are continuing to focus on the content that can be spoken. This means that current search websites that are designed under natural language and conversational search intend will generally rank better under voice search agendas.
Also, the companies that are interested in the featured snippets that are the boxes displayed at the top of the search results, voice search is more valuable. Several of these voice assistants retrieve information from these snippets and so any site that is incorporated in such snippets is likely to be read through voice assistants.
Voice Search and Mobile SEO
One of the most commonly used gadgets to perform voice searches is the mobile devices. Since mobile-first indexing is being encouraged more and more, Voice Search SEO helps your mobile SEO as well automatically. Google respects mobile first index, page speed and responsive design, all of which are essential to voice search as well. When you optimize for voice search, it directly aligns with mobile SEO, which means that, after following all the steps in this guide, your site will be strong for mobile users – one of the fundamental tenets of its SEO.
Voice Search Drives Local SEO
Voice search is important to local businesses since users provide with location-specific questions during voice searches. Local people use phrases such as ‘closest coffee shop’ or ‘a plumber nearby’ for instance; local SEO helps to place your business in these searches.
Local voice search gadgets depend on Google My Business listings and other local listings in order to offer the required information. Having well-structured business details in your site matters a lot to make you have a greater chance of featuring in local voice search.
How to Optimize for Voice Search
As we have seen above, it is crucial to optimize your content for voice search queries, so let us move to the next part of the article to see the steps to take in achieving this.
Focus on Conversational Keywords
Voice search tends to be more conversational, in contrast to the traditional text search, then, there is need for targeting key phrases and natural language. It is ‘Time’ to start populating the content with full questions and conversational phrases in addition to key phrases. For instance, instead of going for “best car insurance” you might use “Affordable car insurance for families.” There are online tools available which can assist you in discovering the various questions that users are likely to ask about your particular area of interest.
Write content for Featured Snippets
Earlier we have discussed that featured snippets are very useful for the voice searches as well. To improve the possibility of having your content shown in a snippet, one must try to address simple questions in your content as much as possible. For instance, if you are writing an article that is centered on SEO, you may have a subtopic, “What is SEO?” in which you give straightforward and brief answers.
Organise your content under easily readable subheadings, bullet points, and concise Qs and As. This makes the search engine to easily locate your content when searching for the content that could be featured in the featured snippet, which is normally used when a voice search is conducted.
Increase the loading time of the page
Page load speed is very critical for SEO and is even more important when it comes to Voice Search. If your page takes time to load, users get impatient and waiting for them to type in their next question, voice assistants may ignore your content and go for the faster searching companies. Using Google tools such as PageSpeed Insights, one is able to ensure that content ends up getting delivered at the right speed.
For improving the load speed, one should reduce the image dimension, implement caching on the browser side as well as on the CDN server in order to deliver content faster. Not only with the help of a faster website do users have a better experience but you also stand a better chance to rank for voice search queries.
Local SEO and Voice Search
Undoubtedly, the relationship between voice search and local SEO can be considered as one of the most critical factors in its success. Consequently, voice search is used often to look for local businesses or services meaning local businesses should start preparing themselves to answer these queries.
The Secret to Perfect Google My Business Profile
One more crucial factor that affect the ranking of local businesses on voice search is the Google My Business profile. It is also important to ensure that the business name, address, telephone number and business working hours are well stated.
You should also complete the fill in your profile by including photos, reviews and other such details because the voice search results will also be determined by the same. Besides, compel your customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing. It is noteworthy that, apart from increasing confidence, reviews also affect the possibility of including an enterprise in local voice search.
Use Local Keywords
When optimizing for voice search, it’s necessary to use the local keywords on the website to rank for the search. For instance, instead of targeting ‘best pizza,’ you should target ‘best pizza in [your city].’ This way, increase your website’s content, meta descriptions, and headers’ geographical relevance to improve chances of performing well in the local voice searches. For instance, you can use Google Keyword Planner to find out which keywords that are more locality-oriented, thus helping you target voice search.
Add FAQ Sections
Another key point to note is that you should incorporate a Frequently Asked Question (FAQs) page to your website to boost your likelihood of ranking well for a voice search. Both FAQ and voice search answer users’ questions directly, which perfectly matches the way voice search queries are constructed.
It is important to ask questions which the user might ask such as; “Where can I find the best plumber in my locality?” “How do I get to [your business name]? By writing the FAQs in the form of questions, you will improve your chances of getting your content to be always on the voice search especially if you are doing a local search.
Summary
The use of voice search is revolutionizing SEO and any company that incorporates voice into the SEO strategy will have a high lead against the other companies. It is also important to understand the nature of conversational keywords, aim at getting featured snippets, work on the site speed and engage in the correct local SEO strategy.
Therefore, adopting the factors that influence voice detection in your content and SEO methods will assist your business to stay relevant in a world that is increasingly shifting to voice search. Thus, keeping up with the progressive trends such as voice search optimization is the perfect way to build on the website’s SEO ranking and provide more organic traffic.
