Introduction
Despite its humble beginnings, voice search has grown to become one of the most crucial issues in the internet sector. Voice assistant is the most user-friendly method of searching, and people adore it.
With the advent of smartphones, the idea of voice search optimization swiftly spread to voice assistants and smart speakers in every country. As a result, almost every demographic has embraced voice control in the voice recognition renaissance we are currently witnessing.
So over recent years, there has been a substantial shift in how individuals seek data online. To locate whatever they’re seeking digitally, more individuals use voice commands on their smartphones, tablet, or smart speakers such as Amazon Echo or Google Home.
According to the voice search stats by thrivemyway, 71% consumers choose to inquire about voice activated search questions instead of typing them.
Why Voice Search Optimization Important?
Voice queries that are location-based make up a significant share of all queries to increase ranking of voice search. That being the case, you should ensure that your site is searchable, user-friendly, and mobile responsive in case one uses their mobile device to search for anything nearby. Here are certain aspects which determine the importance optimization
1. Growth of Voice Recognition & Voice Control
These virtual assistants speed up and simplify routine activities, from live performances to controlling your home’s linked devices to respond to voice activation. As a result, despite the pandemic’s adverse effects on every business in 2020, revenues from voice technology worldwide surpassed all previous records.
In 2020, there were around 4.20 billion voice assistants in use globally; by 2040, that figure to increase to 8.40 billion. Therefore, it would help if you executed voice search optimization to render the content voice search friendly. Voice SEO is essential when voice assistants are fast rising in popularity.
2. Enhances Localized Website Traffic
Begin by optimizing your content for voice recognition, including placing your company for localized voice search SEO if you want to increase the core audience. It will boost the company’s local foot traffic, boost sales, and assist you in distinguishing yourself from the competition.
3. Gain Supremacy Over Search Engine Results
Individuals can hear the correct response without switching between search engine results. The tough match with voice activation is that it presents only one outcome. Therefore, you can’t manage to score second or higher. It needs to be optimized to rank first and have the search tool read aloud.
How does Voice Search Differ from Text Search?
We must all be aware of a critical distinction regarding voice recognition. Here is some emphasis on the fine line that separates these two main categories of searching and shows you how to prepare your site for text and voice search optimization easily.
Voice Search Has a Regional Focus
Most sites are primarily focused on the specific community when using voice search. While webpages are accessible to a global clientele, voice assistant focuses on a local region. As a result, people that use voice assistants to browse the internet are frequently more precise in their internet searches.
Location Is Critical for Voice Recognition
Voice recognition is far more location dependent than search query. Most voice search SEO has evolved to a standard response for queries of a similar nature. They frequently respond more spontaneously to inquiries.
Voice Recognition Uses Extended Queries
The typical text query will contain 1-3 words. The majority of individuals are aware that searching online doesn’t always require them to write lengthy terms or coherent sentences. But that only applies to queries that use the word. When using voice commands, people frequently employ long sentences. In other words, they seek to use more than seven consecutive terms in ranking for voice search.
Reasons To Optimize Website for Voice Search
Before learning about the ways by which you can optimize your website for voice search, let’s first check out the reasons why you should do so. So, the following are the reasons why voice search optimization of your website for voice search is extremely important.
Voice Search is Growing
In the last year, voice search trends have increased by 78% in India. Google predicts that 20% of all searches on Google App are now done by voice.
Can be more Conversational
You don’t need to be precise when you use it because it understands natural speech patterns and colloquialisms.
Voice Search is Fast
A customer can ask any question verbally in person and get an answer immediately! This means less time spent searching for answers on your website or elsewhere online, saving your customer’s time and yours.
Feel more Personal
Users are likely to ask questions in a conversational tone that they wouldn’t ask if they were typing. This makes them feel like they’re talking directly with you, which can increase customer loyalty.
More Convenient than Typing
You can use voice commands to quickly find the information you need whether it’s a local business or a dinner recipe tonight! Voice search is more accurate. Google has said that voice recognition accuracy is now around 94% and they expect it to improve further over time.
Best Practices to Optimize Website for Voice Search
If you want your site to rank higher on Google search results, you need to optimize it for voice search SEO. Voice search is a new way of searching the internet that people are starting to use more and more every day. This method will allow users to speak a question or phrase out loud rather than typing it into their phone/tablet screens.
Optimizing your website for voice search is crucial to any SEO strategy. However, there are some best practices that you need to follow for voice search optimization of your website. Here’s what you should do.
1. Target Question and LSI Keywords
Target Question Keywords
These are the words that users would typically ask a search engine to get the information they want. For instance, if you are selling shoes online, people would use the word “shoes” in their searches. The more times this word is present on your website; the higher it appears in Google’s voice search results. So, make sure you strategically place them on every page of your site.
Use LSI Keywords
LSI keywords are related words to target keywords and they help users find what they need faster by using their own language rather than relying solely on keywords or phrases. In other words, LSI means Latent Semantic Indexing. This means that Google can understand the relationship between terms used together even if those terms don’t appear together on any page within our site’s content.
2. Induce a Conversational Tone
SEO agency advertising banner with question Why we are best. Promotion poster of search engine optimization service with people work with laptop and hold magnifier, vector flat illustration
To optimize your website for voice search SEO, you need to ensure that it sounds like a conversation, not just a string of words on a page.
The best way to do this is to use short paragraphs, sentences, and short words. When you do this, users can easily understand what you’re saying. This is because there won’t be any complicated sentences or words that they have to decode before they can understand what’s being said.
You should also make sure that your content sounds natural when spoken out loud. Using active voice instead of passive voice will help with this. And using a question-and-answer format rather than just stating facts. Finally, conversational elements such as contractions will make it feel less robotic.
3. Local SEO Priority
You should be optimizing your website for local SEO. Local search results are a great way to drive new customers to your business and increase revenue.
Local SEO is crucial because it helps people find you locally or in their area. By optimizing your site for local search, you can rank higher in the SERPs (search engine result pages) so that when people search for something related to what you offer, whether a product or service, they will find you more easily.
4. Use Schema Markup
Schema markup is the process of adding code to your website so that search engines understand how to display your content. It helps search engines like Google and Bing provide more relevant results. This also makes it easier for users to find what they’re looking for on your site.
For example, if you have a local business, you can use schema markup to tell Google that your business has a location and hours of operation. This will help ensure those things are included in the SERPs when people search for businesses like yours nearby.
Schema markup is currently used by many large companies like Amazon, Netflix and Zillow who have already adopted this practice into their online marketing strategy.
In order to use schema markup correctly according to Google’s guidelines, first identify what type of information about each page should be included in meta descriptions or taxonomies within. Consider what questions people might ask before coming across any specific page on your website. These would also make good keywords.
5. Optimize to Rank in Featured Snippet
The next step is optimizing your content to rank it in the featured snippet. The first step is to understand what a featured snippet looks like.
A featured snippet is a box that appears at the top of search results when you type in a question or phrase that has been deemed relevant by Google’s algorithms. If you want your website to appear in this box, you need to ensure that it has the most relevant and helpful info. This should be done so that it can be picked up by Google’s algorithms and displayed as part of its results.
To do this, we recommend creating unique text for each page of your site based on what users might be searching for. You should also include these keywords within tags so they’re emphasized within their respective pages. This will help ensure that users find exactly what they’re looking for faster than if they had searched elsewhere online before landing on your site.
6. Optimize Website for Mobile
If you have a website, most of your traffic will likely come from mobile devices. Optimizing your website for voice search SEO on mobile is just as important as optimizing it for desktop.
The following steps can help optimize your website:
Use Responsive Design
Responsive web design (RWD) allows you to create one site that fits all screen sizes using CSS media queries. Your main goal is to make sure that your content and navigation are accessible wherever users are searching or browsing.
Reduce Page Load Time
Slow sites rank lower in search results, so fast loading times are essential if you want to rank well in SERPs. Page speed also impacts user experience. A slow page takes much longer to load than a fast one. This can result in visitors leaving before they ever see anything but error messages.
Reduce Number of Redirects
Redirects can cause a lot of problems, and spammers often use them to mask their identity. Redirects can also hurt your ranking for voice search because Google considers them when calculating page load speed and mobile friendliness.
7. Increase Website Loading Speed
Another essential factor to consider is website loading speed. You don’t want your user to wait for more than three seconds for a web page to load. This can be incredibly frustrating for voice search SEO users who have no choice but to wait until the page loads before they can start giving commands. If a user has an issue with your site being slow or if it loads within three seconds, they may never come back again.
Fortunately, there are many ways you can optimize your website so that it’s fast enough for voice searches and other devices. Other devices include smart watches or wearable tech products that rely on internet connectivity. Some of such ways by which you can increase loading speed are:
- Make sure images are optimized (file size should be under 100KB)
- Remove unnecessary plugins from the website code, such as analytics scripts like Google Analytics
- Use smaller font sizes and fewer colors (keep them under 10KB)
- Use fewer Javascript files. This is because these can slow down your site Use CSS sprites to reduce the number of HTTP requests
- Make sure your website has a mobile version to load quickly on all devices.
- Use an SEO-friendly URL structure and make sure that the title tag is descriptive of the content.
8. Build FAQ Section with Content Relevant FAQs
You can also optimize your website for voice search optimization by adding FAQ sections. Potential customers often use voice search to find answers to common questions and concerns about products, services, and topics of interest.
Ensure that the content in these FAQ sections is relevant to the most common searches performed on your site. If the queries people are searching for have been answered in your FAQ section, this will help ensure that they find what they’re looking for quickly.
FAQs should be created with the end user in mind. This is important so that they can be read easily by people using them. Remember: Content is still king even when it comes to voice search SEO.
9. Go Multilingual
Cartoon tiny people having international communication online. Flat vector illustration. People sitting on giant speech bubbles and chatting in different languages. Online, globalization concept
You can also use machine translation services to translate your content. However, this method is not recommended because it will not be as accurate as a human translator. Translating the whole website by yourself is another option. But again, it would take time and effort that could be spent on other aspects of your business.
Combining both methods for optimal results is best. Translate some parts of your content using machine translation. And then use professional translators for other sections. It’s also important not to translate every word on your website. Instead, focus on translating keywords that are vital for users searching in their native language. And that will help you rank higher on search engines.
10. Update Complete Details on Google My Business
As you’ve probably heard, Google uses local business listings as a ranking for voice search factor. Are you unfamiliar with the Google My Business (GMB) concept? If so, here’s a quick rundown: – A GMB account lets you claim your business page and add it to search results. You can use this information to tell people more about your company, including its location and hours of operation.
Keeping this information updated is essential because it helps search users find your business when they need it most. Do you rely on word-of-mouth referrals or cold calls for new customers? If that’s the case, then keeping your GMB profile current is essential. This will help ensure that potential clients see your offer accurately before investing in your services.
Conclusion
The future of the internet is voice search and optimizing your website for this makes sense. You’ll have the edge over competitors who fail to adapt. Plus, you’ll be able to offer a better user experience that encourages more people to stay on your site longer and spend more time there.
In conclusion, voice search optimization technology will continue growing in popularity as users get used to using their voice instead of typing out keywords on their keyboards.
Your website can be optimized. So, it’s easier for people to find what they’re looking for without going through multiple steps or pages before arriving at their destination. And with the help of these tips and resources listed above, we hope that this article has helped shed some light on how the best practice SEO techniques can help grow your website.
