In the digital age, voice search seo has emerged as a game-changer. With the increasing use of voice-activated devices and virtual assistants, it is crucial for businesses to extend their reach through this medium. It not only improves visibility but enhances user experience as well.
This strategy will connect with the growing number of voice search users and stay competitive in the online landscape. Here, you will discover various aspects of voice search seo and effective strategies to improve your website’s performance.
What is Voice Search SEO?
Voice search SEO is the process of optimising your website or content through a set of SEO techniques. It enhances your content’s visibility and ranking on the SERP (search engine result page). Voice Search Technology enables users to use voice commands while conducting a search on the internet.
Therefore, voice search optimisation aims to address verbal queries through content employing voice search technologies. As a result, virtual assistance presents the optimised content to the users in the form of voice search results.
How do Users Perform Voice Searches?
As voice search technology becomes popular, various devices receive and interpret spoken commands. They depend on search engines for their search results. When an individual commands a voice search with a query or statement like "restaurants near me", the device responds with a spoken answer or displays the top results on the screen.
Like search intent keyword usage, Google voice search SEO differs for different smart-assistant-enabled technologies. You can frame your content for each type of technology you want to reach focusing on how they work.
Therefore, different ways people use voice search on smart devices include:
- Smartphones: People use quick voice searches when they need an instant solution for an immediate problem on their smartphones like “good spas near me”.
- Smart Speakers: Individuals often use smart speakers for large or in-depth knowledge voice searches, such as “Best Home Plants that Flower”.
- Car Speakers: Car speakers are also highly useful for consumer needs like asking for locations, directions, nearby petrol pumps, etc.
What is the Importance of Voice Search Optimisation in Digital Marketing?
Voice search optimisations in digital marketing can attract more organic search traffic for any industry than optimising just for text-based searches alone. With the increasing use of digital voice assistance, you can access those users who rely on smartphones or smart speakers by optimising voice search. Many people use them to find and purchase products or businesses.
Besides, targeting voice search keywords in your content also improves your website's overall SEO and ranking. As a result, your website will earn more authority and higher spots on the SERP. Additionally, every voice search SEO tactic makes sure your website’s content is mobile-friendly.
What are the Benefits of Voice Search Optimisation?
Enhancing your online presence for voice search will directly improve your website's traffic, and eventually rank higher in the search engines. Thus, the benefits of optimising voice search include:
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Increasing Visibility in Voice Search Results
Optimising content for voice searches improves the search appearance of your content. This increases brand awareness and attracts potential customers which eventually drives more sales and revenues.
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Improving User Satisfaction
Optimising content for voice search involves several content personalisation techniques leading to a better user experience. User satisfaction is a key factor in measuring how efficiently your online presence meets the expectations of your target audience. Furthermore, it impacts your brand reputation, customer loyalty, and conversion rates.
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Building Trust with the Target Audience
Helpful and valuable data answering voice search queries builds trust and authority for your website. Consumers are cautious about which brands they engage with and purchase products. Therefore, building trust fosters strong connections with their target audience.
Which Type of Keywords Performs Well in Voice Search?
As voice searches are like a conversation with another person, the keywords for voice searches are longer and more conversational. In addition, voice searches favour local listings like "near me" questions and are designed to get quick results like easy-to-read snippets with valuable information.
Therefore, optimising voice search in content requires understanding which types of keywords people tend to use to search with their voice and why. To build your keyword strategy, you can consider:
- Long-tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that people use in voice searches like “Chinese restaurants near me".
- Question Keywords: Question keyword means search queries containing interrogative words like how, who, what, when, where or why.
- Filler Words and Phrases: Filler words and phrases are like I, of the, on the, for, to, etc. when people conduct a Google search.
These keywords contribute to the structure of voice searches, making them like a natural conversation rather than a basic text-based search. Hence, you must think about what you would ask about your services and products to get an idea of what your customers may search for.
Effective Voice Search Optimisation Strategies
Here are some helpful tips to optimise content for voice search ensuring your website is ready for the voice-searching audience:
Focus on Question Keywords and Long-tail Keywords
For most people, keyboard searches involve more effort and time than saying it out loud, for which voice search optimisation becomes imperative for improved website performance. However, when we interact with others, we use full sentences with more detail than when we type.
Therefore, in order to optimise your content for voice search, you should target long-tail Keywords and question keywords in your content. This strategy will capture organic traffic from users who search for specific queries.
Long-tail and question-based keywords attract high-intent traffic as they are more specific to the user’s intent. To find these keywords on a particular topic, you can consider the “related searches” or the “people also ask” sections of Google.
Use Conversational Tone
As voice searches are conversational, you should incorporate conversational language with easier-to-read information. For blog posts, you can use conversational words like I, me, we or you, add personal touches to support your points, and refrain from using jargon or technical language.
Furthermore, you should avoid a formal writing style and keep a more casual tone while interacting through your content. On the other hand, you must ensure your content provides value to your target audience.
Target Local SEO
Local SEO focuses on improving search engine visibility for local businesses targeting potential customers in nearby areas. It is one of the best voice search optimisation strategies for businesses. Think about what people would look for while opting for your services in your nearby areas.
The most important thing to improve your local SEO is to create and maintain a Google Business Profile. It tells your potential customers about your location, contact details, directions, opening hours, and other related information.
Optimise Content for Google's Featured Snippet
Featured snippets are small pieces of information displayed on the Google SERP above organic search results. These are captured from a web page that ranks higher for the query and can boost effective traffic. They could appear as a numbered or bulleted list, a paragraph, or other format.
Featured snippets are relevant for voice search optimisation because if a featured snippet appears for a query, a virtual assistant can probably read that as its answer. Therefore, you have to capture the featured snippet to bring your customers to your page first.
Enable Mobile Optimisation
Mobile devices capture over half of the global internet traffic for any queries and 27% of people are using voice search on their smartphones as of 2023. Therefore, Google prioritises mobile-friendly user experience to provide higher rankings. This boosts your website’s traffic and engagement along with other competitive advantages.
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup is a type of structured data that is invisible to human visitors. It is a code you add to your website’s HTML that helps search engines provide more detailed results. This includes information about your business like address, contact info, reviews, hours pricing, and so on.
In addition, it helps indexing bots understand your content, improving visibility on the SERP and attracting more clicks. This is because search engines will find your site more relevant, providing a better chance of landing in voice search results.
Speed Up Your Website
Apart from mobile optimisation, page load time is another crucial factor that can impact your voice search appearance on the SERP. To foster a greater user experience, your website page must load within 2 seconds of opening. All that Google wants, is a fast and user-friendly website that makes people happy.
There are many places for improvement when it comes to speeding up your website. You must use a speed-checking tool to find out your website’s current speed and incorporate the required performance optimisation steps to make a difference in its performance.
Conclusion
To conclude, voice search seo is more than just a trend, it is a necessity. As voice assistance is evolving, content optimisation for voice search is essential for businesses. It ensures they remain accessible to a growing audience while staying competitive in the evolving online landscape. Therefore, aligning with voice search SEO tactics is beyond an option, it is indispensable for success and relevance in this digital era.
