Table of Contents
Introduction to Voice Search
Voice search permits users to explore what they are looking for, by just using their voice. This varies from smart phones and computers to home assistant gadgets, like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, etc. Google voice searches have skyrocketed from couple of years, so integrating voice search in your SEO strategy is a must for you. This technology has great significance for digital marketers. It challenges them to adapt and optimize our strategies to meet the needs of voice search users. Thus, it is a voice recognition technology that allows someone with supported devices, such as a smartphone to search by speaking directly what they are looking for.
The digital platform is constantly emerging and evolving, and voice search technology is at the forefront of this process. Whether you’re building your website yourself from the ground up or working with a website design company, ensure that you optimize it for voice search. This invention is not only alternating the method of users engaging with search engines but is also creating new opportunities as well as challenges for Search Engine Optimization. From requesting Alexa for any news update to asking Siri to play any song, voice search has evolved from a technical wonder to an everyday tool. The fast advancement of voice search is an unavoidable tendency that companies must adapt to in order to stay competitive in the market.
The Rise of Voice Search in the Digital World
This technology initially debuted with smartphones, now, with the help of IoT devices and advanced technologies such as voice assistants; it is well-developed and even more widespread. The development in voice search and speech recognition has replaced the search bar. When search engines face any keyword, it makes the best guess and delivers suitable results. It improves the users’ experience when using search engines. The advancement and emergence of AI (artificial intelligence) and its learning capabilities have increased the use of voice search. The search engine uses an interpretation model that considers various aspects like keyphrases, location, and personalization, which determine the searcher’s interest and what he is looking for.
It is evident that the fast consumer acceptance of voice search played a big part in the rise of voice search. A wide range of people use it because it offers quick results, ease, and a great user experience. This technology is not limited to personal use but also industries use voice search and recognition technology to deliver efficient and accurate customer service. Thus, the benefits of voice search attract both the consumer as well as industries. As voice search became the best utility tool among consumers and businesses, the opportunity for voice search digital marketing also increased. Therefore, it changes the way companies optimize their websites and digital platforms.
What are the impacts of voice search on SEO?
Voice search is different from traditional typed search queries. People do not speak the same as they type. With the increase in voice search ratio, search engine optimization is not only about optimizing your website for typed queries. You need to provide accommodation for a new type of search manner. This means that you must add voice search queries to your SEO strategy.
For voice search optimization, businesses need to rethink their keyword strategy. The conversational searches include long-tail keywords and key phrases that align with natural speech. When users do voice searches, they tend to ask questions. For instance, a user might type “SEO services India” in a text search, but they conduct a verbal search by asking “Who is the best SEO services provider in India?” or “Where can I get the best SEO services in India?” Thus, the keyword strategy for businesses should include conversational phrases and questions.
You can also optimize your webpage content to answer frequently asked questions related to your business, which can significantly increase the opportunities for your site to appear in voice search results. And it can be achieved by creating blog posts answering the common questions, leveraging FAQ pages, or adding questions in Meta descriptions and headers.
Users talk to voice assistant devices as if they are talking to another person, so websites must add conversational phrases and tones which people may use when speaking. Most importantly, voice search requires you to optimize your SEO strategy to focus on how users tend to verbally search, what keywords or phrases they use, and what information they are looking for and providing them with the best results.
The Significance of Mobile Optimization for Voice Search
A large number of voice searches are performed on mobile devices, so it is important that your website should perform well on both computers and smartphones, for that reason having a mobile-optimized website is more significant. Mobile optimization provides a great experience to the visitors and also improves the website’s visibility on the voice search result pages.
A mobile-friendly website should feature various aspects, such as a responsive design, readable content, less loading times, and easy navigation. Mobile-friendly test tool of Google can help to evaluate how your website performs on smartphones. As many voice searches are location-based searches, which means if a person is using the phone to find something local, you must ensure that your site is easy to navigate, easily accessible, and mobile-responsive. You must follow the below-mentioned steps to make your website optimized for voice search:
- Create and design a mobile-responsive website.
- Ensure that your site’s content is easily readable and has an appealing look.
- Conduct tests to evaluate the mobile-friendliness of your website, if any areas require changes, fix them immediately.
- Keep updating your website with the required changes to make it more responsive and relevant.
Best Practices for Voice Search Optimization
1. Target long-tail and question keywords
As we have mentioned above, voice searches are different than text searches. They are more specific, longer, and full questions rather than a simple keyword. Because when we speak, we say full sentences instead of using phrases. To optimize for voice search, you must add long-tail and question keywords in your content; by doing this you can capture more traffic, who are searching with lengthier and specific queries. The more intentional and specific your content is, the more you are able to include long-tail keywords in a single phrase.
2. Use conversational language
Google and other search engines function in terms of quantity and commonality; they focus more on common data, demographics, commonly-used words, and current location to help trace and recognize the perspective of the user’s question. Voice recognition technology is based on the simple and natural form of language. Thus, using accessible language with a conversational tone is more likely to attract a new customer to your site as well as help maintain your customers.
3. Create FAQ sections
When people conduct voice searches, they ask specific questions for relevant answers. Thus, by creating FAQ pages or sections on your website, you can drive more traffic by providing answers to those frequently asked questions. Moreover, creating FAQ page is a great strategy to get your information featured in snippets by answering common questions related to your products, services, and business. Therefore, it is a beneficial plan to help your business get valuable leads.
4. Optimize for local SEO
Local SEO also works the same as the normal principle but it shows you as a local business to the audience. It increases the flow of visitors to your site because when they search for any local business, using “near me” your website shows up in the recommendations. Here are some tips for optimizing your site for local SEO: Include words that describe your localities, use the famous institution name around you, use terms such as in city name, in area name, near me within your heading, and Meta tags.
5. Use schema markup
Schema markup is another strategy that benefits your site’s on-page SEO along with voice search SEO. Schema markup includes key details about your business such as contact info, hours, address, reviews, pricing, and many more. It is invisible to visitors, but it helps the indexing bot to understand your content and improve your site’s visibility. Thus, using the right schema markup will benefit your site’s visibility and a better chance of landing in voice search results.
6. Optimize for mobile and keep fast load time
Mobile optimization and page load time are important factor that affects the ranking of your website in voice search results. Half of all the global traffic is generated by mobile devices and many mobile users use voice search on their smartphones. Google wants to show results, which makes users happy and nobody wants a slow website. It is agreed that the page must load in two seconds, for a good user experience. Thus, to rank in both text and voice search, make your website mobile-friendly, create a responsive design, and make it load faster.
Conclusion
Voice search optimization is essential for any type of business as it helps businesses reach wider and more genuine users and improve their website visibility in voice search result pages. Voice search will continue to grow more in the future as smartphones and other assistant devices get more sophisticated. Many businesses engage with Vinayak InfoSoft, the best company providing SEO services in Ahmedabad, to ensure that their website ranks at the top on search engine result pages and reaches the targeted audience. Thus, you must keep changing your business strategies with the changing technology; you must optimize your website for voice search. If you are searching for a company that drives results, look no further than Vinayak InfoSoft. We have a team of experts that will help you adapt and optimize your website to perform well in voice searches. If you are ready to start optimizing your business’ website for voice search, contact us today to get the best strategies.