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Top 5 Techniques Of Voice Search Optimization
If somebody had asked 10-15 years ago to get hands-on computer learning, we would have considered that a mere suggestion. Now, imagine where they are standing today, those who have taken the suggestion seriously at that time.
Similarly, voice search optimization was just a buzzword a few years ago, but with the advancement of technology, it has become a part of our lives in some way or another. From Hey Siri to Ok Google, you can’t deny you haven’t used voice search.
With the advent of AI, voice control, and much more, we have reached a point where gadgets can understand what we say and respond to it. Technology has made our lives easier and more convenient.
It’s no secret that Google has been using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for years. Google was the first to use artificial intelligence in its core algorithm—the Hummingbird algorithm. The Hummingbird algorithm allowed Google to understand users’ intent, which speed up their results and made them more accurate.
Now, they’ve taken that idea even further with RankBrain. RankBrain is a machine learning system that uses artificial intelligence to process conversational user queries more efficiently than ever before.
With the rise in popularity of voice search, SEO has seen a paradigm shift from text-based searches to audio ones, causing marketers to rethink how they optimize their content for this new medium.
Voice Search Optimization: What Is It?
Voice search optimization is a new way to learn how your customers use the Internet. It is a method of optimizing your website for audio searches.
The main objective behind voice search optimization is to make sure that people looking for what you offer have an easier time finding it using their voice assistants like Siri or ok Google and ordering from you than ever before!
So, if you don’t have your site optimized for voice search, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity!
Why Should You Care About Voice Search Optimization?
There are many reasons why you should care about voice search optimization.
First of all, it’s becoming more and more popular every day. In fact, according to some studies, voice search could already account for up to 20% of all online searches.
Consumers are getting used to talking on their devices. They can ask their smartphones questions like, “Where is the nearest sushi restaurant?” or even place an order for takeout without ever having to type anything out themselves.
If you’re not prepared for this shift in consumer behavior, you could be leaving money on the table.
Top 5 Voice Search Optimization Techniques
Voice search optimization is a new way to learn how your customers use the Internet, and it requires a different approach to SEO. It’s important to optimize your site so that it’s easy for customers to find relevant content when they search with their voice.
#1 Feature Snippet Optimization
The first step to optimising your website for voice search is to ensure that it is eligible for featured snippets.
A “featured snippet” is a piece of text that appears at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) when someone searches for a query. It is also known as the “answer box” and answers a user’s query directly on the search results page.
Featured snippets can help your content appear at position zero, which means you get some of your best traffic from Google.
Featured snippets are important because users often don’t click through to the related content. Instead, they scan the snippet and decide whether to continue reading based on that information alone.
So, getting this snippet is essential for your website’s ranking, as it will help you rank higher in search results, including audio searches.
How can you optimise feature snippets?
- The best way to increase your chances of getting a featured snippet is by writing an answer to the question asked in the search query.
- The text should be short, concise, and well-structured. The content should be written in such a way that it answers all the questions that are being asked in the query.
- You can also improve featured snippets for your site by responding to the search query and executing it before the fold on the page you want to rank, most likely in paragraph one.
So, if your website has optimised featured snippets, it means that you’re answering questions for users in a way that’s helpful to them—and Google rewards you for doing so by pushing your site higher in search results, increasing the click-through rate.
#2 Keyword Research
Keywords for SEO are a hot topic, and there’s no need to explain their importance. However, you may need to realize that keywords used for voice-based searches are different from text-based searches. Research showed that keywords used for voice are longer than those used for typing.
Keyword optimization (KWO) is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO). It helps you increase your website’s visibility on search engine result pages by choosing the right words to go with your site’s content and making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.
But the keywords used for voice-based search differ from those used for text-based search.
Here are our tips for optimising keywords for voice search:
- To optimise your site for voice search engines, focus on using various long-tail keywords. Research shows that keywords used for voice are longer than those used for typing.
- Use conversational keywords. People will mostly search for their queries using their phones and want to feel like they’re talking to a human—not a machine. Using conversational language in your copy will help make your content feel more natural and likable.
- Use words like “who,” “what,” and “where.” These words tend to rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages), so using them in your headlines and descriptions can give you an edge over competitors who don’t use them regularly enough in their content creation strategy.
- For organic ranking, you can also use latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords. LSI keywords are related terms with similar meanings and have been determined by the search engine algorithm based on their popularity over time, so they’re good ones to include in your keyword research tool.
- Avoid keyword stuffing. When writing for voice search, it’s tempting to just throw in as many keywords as possible and hope it will rank well. But this can actually hurt your ranking. If your content is stuffed with keywords, Google might find it too spammy to be relevant.
#3 Mobile-Friendly Website
Optimizing your website for mobile is one of the most important things you can do to ensure it remains relevant in the age of voice search.
Google has placed an emphasis on making the mobile version of its website more friendly to users. With the rise of mobile search, optimising your site for mobile or any small screen like a tablet is more important than ever.
How to optimise your site for mobile devices?
- Use responsive design so that your content will resize itself based on the screen size it is being viewed on, making things easier for users browsing on their phones or tablets.
- Make sure your site loads quickly, with few distractions, and doesn’t crash when someone tries to access it from a phone or tablet. Your site should be designed for easy use on a small screen with minimal scrolling.
If you do this right, you can catch and hold your audience’s attention for longer periods—and for all the right reasons.
#4: Leverage the Power of Content
The rise of voice search has changed how people interact with the Internet. Now, instead of typing queries into a search bar, people are speaking them out loud.
If you’re not optimising your content for voice search, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your customers.
You can improve your website’s voice search rankings by:
- creating conversational content. Voice search queries are often more conversational than text-based searches and require a different approach from traditional SEO practices. To create conversational content, use the tone and language that you would use in a conversation, and to create content with short sentences and short paragraphs that are easy to understand.
- Create long-form content that’s properly formatted and provides in-depth answers so that you can give the reader exactly what they’re looking for—and keep them on your site longer.
You can make your website even more optimised for voice search by using long-tail keywords.
Finally, make sure that your site’s title tag and meta description are optimised for voice search by using relevant keywords in these areas.
- Include a FAQ section at the end of each important page of your website. The FAQ section will be used by Google to generate a knowledge graph for that page and will allow Google to better understand how you want to be found in voice search.
- You can also add additional pages specifically designed for voice searches, such as “how-to” guides or other information that would be useful if a user were looking for it while driving or cooking.
#5: Voice Search and Local SEO
Voice search is a trend that is here to stay. We are all moving towards using voice search technologies over typing. So, even if you are a local business but want to be ahead of your competitors, you must optimise your website for voice search.
For local businesses, this is good news because it means there is a more direct way of reaching their customers through voice searches.
It’s no longer just about having a website, it’s about having one that works well with voice search.
So if you’re looking for a way to get more customers through your door, start thinking about how you’ll ensure your site works well with voice searches and optimise accordingly.
We’ve got some tips to help you get started
- First, list your business on Google. This is an obvious one, but if you still need to list your business, do it now! It doesn’t take long at all.
- Next up, ensure your NAP details (Name, Address, and Phone Number) are marked with schema-structured data in the website’s footer. This will help Google understand what type of business you are and where you are located.
- Thirdly, focus on building consistent NAP citations on authoritative business directories that accept your business location. This will help people find out about your company when they search for it online.
- Next up: use local keywords! Make sure you’re using keywords like “near me” or “local businesses” when people are searching for local businesses like yours, so they can find them easily.
- Finally, include customer reviews on your website so that people can see what others think about their experience with your company before they visit in person or decide to purchase from you online!
Conclusion
In a nutshell, voice search is a trend that is here to stay, and we can focus on it right now to improve our site’s ranking.
If you have not started voice search optimization yet, you should not be left behind. Optimize your content for audio and voice search. It will give you a chance to reach a larger audience.
Here we have shared the top 5 voice search optimization techniques. Bringing them on board could improve your site’s ranking on voice search engines.
Let us know if you are using any of these techniques to improve your site’s ranking on voice search. We’d love to hear from you!
