Voice search capacity is one of the new additions to SEO, helping your website rank faster on Google’s SERP.
According to research, 30% of all website searches will be done without using a screen by 2020 and beyond.
The emergence of smartphones and handheld devices makes such manifestations feasible, considering most people own one or the other.
If you are someone who is looking for a Digital Marketing Agency that can give you more insights into the importance of voice search optimization, this is the resource that you were looking for.
What is Voice Search?
Voice search has gained traction in today’s technological world because of the viability of the industry. The technology has evolved over a few short years, coming from the confines of science concepts and sci-fi movie molds.
Today's smart devices come with advanced features, including voice search, which simplifies data gathering and information acquisition.
Google has even announced that voice technology is one of the fastest forms of SE searches. With almost half of search engine users using voice commanded searches, the importance of voice search optimization is more than ever.
The most notable voice search assistants include Google Now, Cortana, Microsoft Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon Alexa.
More and more tech giants are investing millions of dollars in their digital assistant technology because of the potential of voice search.
The unforeseeable benefits of voice searches can be seen with how it positively impacts user experience, eliminating error rates using voice search results.
For any business, one crucial aspect is understanding the need of the target audience in order to adopt new technologies that can improve the usability and website performance.
Using the latest innovations and discoveries in SEO will help your website from toppling over your results ranking.
How Voice Search Impacts SEO Rankings
Voice searches are becoming popular amongst the younger generation because they like to stay connected all through. Search engines, including Google, have placed voice search optimization into their algorithm, making it one of the qualifiers for ranking.
From a standpoint, UX or user experience still accounts for achieving better ranking results in Google. One of the pervading concepts in the digital world is the impact of UX on a website's ranking.
Some SEO agencies preach that 94% of your website's performance is rated based on the overall quality of the user experience it gives.
It offers Google indirect signals that are used to rank the page on organic search results. It is also essential to identify the differences between traditional SEO and voice search SEO as they do not follow the same principle always.
Strategies You Should Adapt to Benefit from Voice Search
Voice-enabled searches are relatively new strategies to optimize your website ranking and attract customers.
Here are some of the strategies you should adapt to benefit from voice search technology:
- Optimize your website’s rich answers. Most of the searches happening on the web are from the smart devices equipped with voice search capabilities. In a conventional way that regular searches provide you with the right search results, using voice searches will provide you with answers more than just results.
- Restructure your blogs and web content. Voice searches are more conversational compared to traditional keyed lookups. So, in essence, improving blogs and campaign content to make it more conversational and voice search-friendly will give your website better chances of ranking on the SERP.
- Use long-tail keyword phrases. Because of the conversational style queries, voice searches tend to have long-tailed keyword phrases. Include long-tail keywords when writing content as they tend to make your website more visible.
- Don't forget to make your website mobile-friendly. The recent Google I/O 2019 concluded with an emphasis on mobile technology. Advancements, particularly in the mobile-first style of content, are one of the keys to achieving higher click-through rates and your website’s crawlable performance.
- Improve Your Google My Business Listings Page. One of the critical factors to drive search engine ranking is improving your Google My Business Listing profile. GMB makes your business visible by presenting your visitors with cues related to their voice searches.
- Improve your website’s Flesch-Kincaid Grade level. Content readability is not only beneficial to your audience but Google as well. The search engine much more prefers explicit and understandable content compared to keyword-stuffed articles and hard to read the content.
The Implications of Voice Search for SEO
The essence of voice search is seen with the shift of language use, making it more natural and understandable. The impact of this search technique is essential for any business because of the improved capacity of devices to return precise search results.
The improved natural language is fast becoming relevant in today's tech environment, paving the way for better user experience. Apart from that, new search techniques are being employed veering away from the conventional search phrases of typed Google searches.
Question words are one of the queries used by most voice-enabled searches, generating precise answers from Google's algorithm.
The use of human voice to key-in queries is not only impacting businesses but also forces new technologies to emerge.
Keyword Research for Voice Search
In all fronts, voice search is continuously changing how SEO is done. The advent of mobile technology made this SE feature possible, and we have been quick to adopt it into our lives.
Digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant are readily able to assist our searches with just a callout.
Keyword research for voice search queries is manageable and does not require you to revamp your SEO strategies.
Keyword research can be obtained in four quick steps.
- Create a voice search keyword list of your past and current campaigns using an analytics lens. It would put every keyword into perspective and allow you to see which voice queries work best.
- Build a new keyword list from the foundation you have accomplished. Expanding your current directory and flesh out the old keywords by comparing them with your competitors. Use tools like Wordtracker’s Scout and Google's autocomplete features to gain a better insight into the keywords most people use.
- Generate a negative keywords list to trim down on what you do not need to include in your website or ad campaigns. You can do this by looking over your existing keywords preferences and singling out the queries that do not relate to what your brand offers.
- Reviewing the steps and repeating them will help round up your research strategy. A step back will allow you to discuss your gathered data and gauge whether they capture VS traffic.
Does Voice Search Drive Website Traffic To My Website?
Optimizing your website to be compatible with voice searches can have a significant impact on its performance. With most mobile phone users finding voice searches convenient, investing in this new algorithm will deliver the right results for your business.
Voice search does not only improve user experience, but it catapults your site by having Google prioritize your website during a user’s information search.
Research estimates that 50% of your potential customers will not see your campaigns unless your website is powered with voice-enabled schema markup and structured data.
In all sense, being at par with Google's algorithm will help your website rank better than most of your competitors with lagging SEO pre-set.
The only way to have a buffer is continuously updating your schema strategies, so Google recognizes your website and puts it on top of the SERP.
Can I View My Voice Search Ranking?
Although Google and most search engines have already incorporated voice-driven technology into their systems, results for voice search rankings are not yet viewable on any search engine tool or settings.
Nonetheless, improvements are on the way, and this would allow your website strategists to find a way to harness the power of voice search even more.
As of January 2018, Roast, a digital agency, created an automation software that allows the running of various reports for their clients. This includes voice search rankings, though it is also reported that the system is not yet perfect.
And considering that we still cannot view our voice search rankings, it is always industry advice to follow the best practices of optimizing the full capacity of your SEO campaigns.
Eventually, the industry will come up with various tools that will allow you to get comprehensive reports on your voice search SEO campaigns.
How is Voice Search Different from Traditional Search?
Voice searches are powered by AI technology found in most modern gadgets and devices, while a regular search requires you to use a keyboard to type in your queries.
More importantly, voice searches play a considerable part in local SEO, with almost 50% of American internet users using the voice prompt to find local companies and businesses.
Voice search also uses long-tail keywords, unlike the frequent use of typing searches with two or three words.
Using long-tail keywords improves conversion rates because people are inclined to show more purchasing intent. Besides, Google SERP provides users with a straightforward answer to their queries, delivering better ROI for your business.
Conclusion
The real power that drives a website comes from continually updating our SEO campaigns to meet the latest algorithm requirements. Voice Search Optimization is not a far-fetched technology that we see in movies but a reality making our lives more convenient.
Investing in VSO (Voice Search Optimization) has proven its mark by driving improvements in brand awareness. It increases your sales and brings your business to better profits. Additionally, optimizing your website for voice search capacity will increase your lead over your competitors, helping grow your business and brand for the long-term.
Guest post courtesy of Emily Browne