Each year we get closer and closer to the reality depicted in science fiction. Things you once thought were exclusive to science fiction have effortlessly become a part of our lives. This right here is enough to restore our faith in imagination. Whatever you can imagine, can happen in the real world.
This brings me to voice assistants. Earlier, we couldn’t imagine talking to people long-distance... let alone talking to a voice assistant on a phone that talks back and solves your query. Today, if you need something, all you need to do is pick up your phone and say your query and you will have a series of options listed for you to choose from.
Voice search is gaining popularity, it looks like we like talking to our voice assistants Siri, Alexa, and Google. 27% of mobile users use mobile search on their phones. It’s easier, faster, and more convenient to talk than type in your query.
A voice search is different from a regular text search. When we talk, we phrase our queries close to how we speak. For this reason, SEO experts and Marketers had to change their marketing strategies to incorporate this growing group of searches.
As we know SEO is a long game, include voice search into this and you have got yourself an Olympic-level competition to rank on the first page of search results. This is because devices that allow voice search only list the top one to three results for a given query. Marketers need to optimize their content for voice results too.
What is Voice Search Optimization?
Voice search Optimization is a set of SEO techniques that help make your content appear in voice search results. The goal of voice search optimization is to address common verbal queries in your content so that voice search technologies can present your page to users in voice search results.
How is Voice Search Different?
There sure is an overlap between on-page SEO and voice search optimization, there are some fundamental qualities of voice search that are unique from a text search. Voice searches are more like how we talk in real life. Your content needs to be tailored in a way that is also relevant to voice search users.
Best Practices for Voice Search Optimization
Target Question Keywords & Long Tail Keywords
Voice searches are longer, more specific, and are more likely to be full questions than simple keywords. When we speak, we’re used to using full sentences with more detail as it is physically and cognitively less demanding than typing.
To optimize for voice search, one of the best things to do is to target long-tail keywords, especially question keywords, in your content. By doing this you’ll capture traffic from users who submit lengthier, more specific queries.
Long tail keywords contain three or more words and are a major component of keyword optimization in general. These keywords attract more traffic as they are more specific to the user’s intent. You can also make it more specific to your business by targeting keywords like the ‘best restaurant in Hyderabad’, instead of just ‘best restaurant’, which means less competition on the results page.
Trying to pack a bunch of questions and answers on a copy may feel awkward and unnatural, to curb this many websites have a frequently asked questions section. A FAQ section lets you list every common search question related to your website and provide an answer. In this section, you can easily target longtail keyword questions. The best part is this content format is also optimal for Google-featured snippet placement.
Use Conversational Content in Your Copy
Voice searches are conversational, so to meet where your users are, using your conversational language in your copy will be more relevant to voice search. To make your content more conversational use words like (you, me, I, we). Avoid jargon and overly technical language, add touches of humor that support your brand voice, and stick to a more casual tone. Having said that, your content still needs to be valuable and top-quality. Write your content almost as if you were saying it out aloud like a speech.
Prioritize Local SEO
When someone conducts a voice search on their smartphone, they are more likely to be on the go and looking for something nearby, like a restaurant or store. Create and maintain a Google business profile. Your Google business profile is relevant here because voice search results often pull information from these profiles.
Use Schema Markup
Schema Markup typically includes key information about your website’s HTML that helps google understand your website in detail. Schema Markup is essentially code you add to your website’s HTML and typically includes information like hours of business, address, contact information, pricing info, reviews, and more. Schema Markup is invisible to users but helps indexing bots better understand your content, improves visibility and search results, and gets you more clicks.
Over the past decades, voice search has become more popular as search engines have refined their voice assistants for better user experience. These tips will help you capture voice search queries and benefit your site’s overall SEO health.