If your website isn’t optimized for voice search, you will be missing out on a lot of quality traffic in the nearest future. To help publishers and other business owners like you navigate voice search SEO in 2022 and beyond, we’ve put together several voice search optimization strategies for more traffic via Siri, Google, and Alexa users. Hopefully, these tips will also become important pillars of your overall SEO and moneymaking strategy that you will Apply later as Adsterra publisher 😉
What is voice search?
Voice search allows users to search the internet, a website, or an app using voice commands. It’s a hand-free method of using speech to search the internet. A user says Hey Siri! Or Hey Google!, and their smartphones or smart home device responds via the voice assistant AI to reply to the user. For publishers, this means you’ll have to fight for high-quality traffic not only in classic search results but also in voice results. And while it is not so difficult to emerge as a winner, it’s important to start now before voice search overtakes classic searching methods. Five years ago, this technology was confined to the elite, but today everyone with a high-end to medium smartphone has voice assistants, and of course, they do a lot of voice search queries.
Voice recognition has been around since the early 1950s, but it wasn’t until IBM’s Watson came out in 2011 that it became practical in the real world.
To Contents ↑Why is voice search getting bigger?
There are lots of situations and examples where voice search overtakes ordinary text entries in our daily lives. Here are some of the major reasons why voice search is getting bigger all over the world:
It is faster and easier
Voice search is undoubtedly faster than traditional searching methods, such as going to a website or using an app to type in your query. It also comes in handy when you can’t use your smartphone, such as cooking or driving.
More appropriate and convenient
No one wants to type a long query. People tend to choose the easier path when their answer is only a sentence away and can be read out to them. We’d all choose to ask, “What’s the tallest building in the world” rather than typing it out in a search bar. It’s also more convenient for people with disabilities.
With voice-driven traffic or not, you can still earn with Adsterra. Sign up as a publisher and discover how you can make the most money from your website!
To Contents ↑How voice search differs from traditional search in terms of SEO
Searching with our voices is a unique experience, unlike typing a query on a desktop. Here’s why:
Keywords are longer and conversational
When we talk to a smart device and ask questions, we usually ask the entire question rather than just a few keywords. We might type “removing ink from clothing” on our desktop versus using voice asking, “Hey Alexa, how do I remove an ink stain at home?” The length of the keywords in both searches is different, with our voice query being longer and more conversational.
Local listings search are a priority in voice search
The majority of voice search queries are for “near me” queries, which confirms two points:
- People use voice search to look for places to visit, hotels to stay in, and restaurants to eat, gyms, etc;
- People require information about time and things in addition to locations.
Voice search results are prompt and to the point
The results of our voice searches are mostly the same as the results of traditional searches. To answer voice queries, Google heavily relies on knowledge graphs and rich snippets.
Google understands users want quick and immediate results. The same for voice search, where direct answers are preferred.
These direct responses are read back to the questioner to provide immediate results.
When someone searches with voice, the rich snippet result is usually returned; this creates instantaneous results, a well-known feature of voice search results.
How does voice search affect SEO?
The way we type queries into Google differs significantly from how we converse with our voice assistants. If you’re looking for a local restaurant to eat at, for example, your searches might go something like this:
- typed “Restaurants near me.”;
- voice “What are some good restaurants in my neighborhood?”.
We use very keyword-based searches when we type, but our searches become much more conversational when using voice search. As a result, search engines have had to become highly adept at semantics (understanding the meaning of the words).
It’s difficult to understand how we use language, and machines have difficulty deciphering what we’re saying. So voice search has forced search engines to improve dramatically in this area, with Google leading the way with key updates like Hummingbird. Like others before it, this update has changed SEO by emphasizing user experience.
To Contents ↑Six strategies for voice search optimization success
- Recognize your website visitors and device behavior
Just as voice search algorithms rely on data, location, and various other data points to understand the context of a search, you must dig deeper to understand your customers.
Real-time data and consumer insights research can assist in understanding how different people use voice search and what type of voice-enabled device they use.
Here’s how you can do quick and cheap consumer insight research. You can go to Quora or Reddit and search for voice search topics. You can also create a topic asking, “How would you search for ” free stock photos”? Consider surveying your website users. For example, ask them the question, “How often do you use voice search, and when?”.
- Concentrate on conversational keywords
When considering natural phrases used in voice searches, short tail keywords are becoming far less relevant. Publishers must now, more than ever, pay attention to conversational long-tail keywords in their headers and FAQ section.
- Produce persona-based content
When it comes to optimizing for voice search, context, brevity, and relevance are vital. What sets this strategy apart from others is that you must now pay special attention to:
- Developing detailed responses to frequently asked questions and answering simple questions clearly and succinctly;
- Create rich, engaging content that addresses your users’ most pressing concerns and alleviates their problems.
A good strategy that many websites have successfully implemented is to:
- Write a headline for a piece of content or a webpage that asks a common question;
- Provide a complete answer or definition to the question immediately after the headline;
- Use the rest of the page to provide more information on the subject.
The vital aspect of this strategy is that the rich, robust webpage appeals to Google’s ranking algorithm. At the same time, the top of the page’s short-and-sweet information is optimized for voice search and may even become a featured snippet.
- Use schema markup to add context
Use schema to mark up your content and inform search engines about the purpose of your site.
This HTML attribute helps search engines decipher the context of your content, which improves your ranking in general searches and makes you more relevant for specific voice search queries.
- Create pages that answer FAQs
When voice searchers pose a question, they frequently begin with the words “Who,” “What,” “When,” “Where,” “Why,” and “How.” They’re looking for immediate solutions to immediate problems.
Create a FAQ section in your most popular blog posts and begin each question with these words to address these inquiries. Then respond to them conversationally to appeal to voice search.
- Think mobile and think local
We are rapidly starting to shift to a mobile-first world, and you should remember that mobile and voice search go hand in hand.
Mobile devices enable users to conduct local searches while on the go. In turn, voice search enables users to ask hyper-local queries. Make sure that your website’s visitors and search engines can read things like your physical address. If you don’t have one, invent one! It’ll come in handy for your Google My Business.
Finally, make sure your mobile strategy is sound and that you concentrate on improving page speed and load times.
To Contents ↑Keyword research for voice search
Here are three practical strategies for locating voice search keywords.
Look for “natural language” keywords
Voice searches, as was mentioned above, are more natural and conversational than text-based searches. As the popularity of voice search grows, natural-sounding “every day” keywords will see a big boost in search volume. On the other hand, if a keyword sounds robotic, expect fewer people to search for it in the coming years.
Don’t avoid insanely-long keywords
Because very few people type long keywords, most publishers avoid them. However, as more people use voice search, “normal” keyword length is increasing, so don’t be afraid to optimize your content for 5+ word terms.
However, you should not optimize an entire page in extremely long terms. Instead, you should sprinkle these long keywords throughout your content, as Google will use them as a voice search result if they are found anywhere in the content.
Target “Question keywords”
Use keyword research tools like Answer The Public and BuzzSumo’s Content Discovery to discover what people ask. You can also use them to find question keywords.
Embed long-tail keywords into long-form content
Even though voice searches take much longer than keyboard searches, you don’t need to create 100 pages optimized for 100 different voice search terms.
Even if the answer is only a small part of the content, Google will pull it from the page if it is succinct and to the point.
Claim your Google My Business listing
Local SEO and voice search rely heavily on your Google My Business listing.
Because voice searches are frequently used to find important information about your business, such as your address, hours of operation, and phone number, Google needs to have accurate information on these details.
Your website and structured data go a long way toward ensuring that Google has the correct information about your company. Still, Google wants to be 100% accurate, so it looks at your Google My Business listing to do so.
This will provide Google with all of the information it requires to understand what your company does, who it serves, when it opens, and where it is located, among other things. This is the exact information that voice searches require, so it’s a quick way to get precise answers to people’s queries.
To Contents ↑Improve your site speed
Websites that take a long time to load are quickly abandoned in favor of those that load quickly. Bounce rate is directly influenced by site speed, so it should be optimized at all costs.
The rules are pretty much the same when it comes to voice searches. Voice searchers expect instant results, and if your website is slow and takes an eternity to load, your content will not be used to respond to voice search queries, negatively impacting your growth rate and conversion rate.
Conclusion
People’s search habits have shifted due to voice search, and search engines have updated their algorithms to reflect this shift. You can also respond, and by matching searcher intent and providing the best user experience, you will be able to attract more quality, organic traffic via voice search.
You should aim to rank well for voice searches if you want to increase your organic traffic. Not only are there a lot of voice searches every day, but the techniques you use to optimize for them are also an important part of modern SEO.
