6 Voice Search SEO Strategies
Voice search has been in play for quite a while but it was not really a big deal, not until recently when it started gaining a lot of attention thanks to millennials who are constantly looking for simpler ways to find what they are looking for online.
The era of voice search is still going through a revolution. We are going to be seeing more tech brands exploring the possibilities of this tool. Meanwhile, a lot of brands are already preparing themselves for the peculiar nature of voice search which is quite different from the regular search method. Doing this prepares them ahead of the algorithms that would be guiding how voice searches would be used to rank websites on search engines. There has been a prediction that voice search will dominate search engine optimization this year.
Why Voice Search?
According to Econsultancy, by next year, more than 30% of all searches would be done by voice alone. With this, more users are less likely to look at their smartphone screen to find things online. This implies that brands have to find ways to better position themselves for voice search SEO so that they can increase their chances of being found through voice search.
If you would like to understand how voice search would impact your SEO positioning, it would be useful to contact a content marketing agency for guidance. As SEO plays a major role in helping brands benefit from voice search, here are 6 voice search SEO strategies to consider.
1. Improve website speed
The speed of any website is always very important for ranking high on search engines, that would never be negotiable. Brands need to ensure that their websites open very fast, almost as fast as you can snap your fingers. Reason being that search engines will always prioritize websites with incredible opening speed higher than the ones that don’t, even if they have very good content.
If you have spent a good amount of time creating contents that will fully answer their questions and help them make a better buying decision, then you also have to ensure that you put in more effort to create a very fast website opening speed.
2. Use long tail keywords
Brands need to start thinking beyond how to market to their target audience and try to get into the minds of their target audience to understand how they are likely to search for something that they are looking for. If you were looking to get a power bank for your mobile devices, how would you ask a voice search tool to find that relevant information for you? These are some of the things you can ask to get a more relevant search result: What are the best power banks for my Samsung phone? Where can I get the best power bank for my Lenovo tablet in London? Thinking this way will help the brand get into the mind of their target audience, and draw up very detailed contents that can fully answer such questions.
In addition to this, the overall content of the website must be written with the aim of getting featured on Google’s snippet. Look at the way other websites that are displayed on Google’s snippet are written. Always ensure that content pushed out are structured in such a way that it is very clear and self-explanatory as well as engaging enough. Remember that these voice search tools are going to be reading it to the user, so write like you are talking to someone.
3. Focus on local SEO
Local SEO is probably the most underutilized search engine optimization technique. But with voice search taking a more prominent role in the world or search engine, local SEO would be more relevant to the survival of any brand online more than ever before. When people are using voice search to find things online, they are mostly looking for search results that are peculiar to their location.
According to Branded3, over 39% of voice search users are looking for information on things they need for their everyday life, like coffee, salon, auto repair shop, flower shop and so on. So, businesses need to properly optimize their brands for local SEO to rank well on local search results. Brands can take advantage of Google My Business service that is free to use. This can help you easily rank well on local search results. Ensure that all details displayed are there, especially your contact details so that users can easily find the business’ address, send an email or call (through voice search command that allows users to call a business).
4. Take advantage of meta descriptions
Content written in the meta description always end up in the search engine results page. Make use of it to beef up additional information about the content so that the user can quickly have an idea about what to expect in that content, rather than leave them guessing. This can also boost the brand’s chances of getting seen on the snippet feature on Google search result page too.
5. Create a mobile-friendly website
Even though voice search users are less likely to look at their screen when doing this, it is also important that brands ensure that their website remains mobile-friendly. This is a major SEO technique for boosting rank on search engines.
6. Make use of structured data
Using structured data helps the web crawlers of search engines to understand what the website is about and properly index it, making it easier for web crawlers to crawl the website very often and with ease. Structured data, like schema markup, can boost the chances of appearing on Google’s snippet feature.
Since there’s no specific rule governing this amazing feature that most website owners are racing for (just Google’s algorithms are responsible for this), it is always best to make use of structured data. This ensures that web crawlers responsible for indexing content on a website can do that with ease.
While all these strategies are great to incorporate quickly, brands should also test all these strategies to see that they are actually working. Since most voice searches are done with mobile phones and other types of home assistants. Test how well your website is performing when using these devices.