25 Nov Voice Search: The Future of SEO To Achieve Higher Rankings
Do you know that 50% of the searches will be voice-based till 2022? Also, 2 out of 5 people perform a voice search at least once a day. Yes, these stats clarify that the insane rise of voice searches has created the demand for upgrades in the SEO industry.
The revolution started with the use of mobile voice searches and quickly expanded to smart voice assistants. The recent statistics have confirmed that we are about to hit a voice search revolution in the industry.
To stay ahead of the crowd and keep up with the upcoming revolution, it is critical to optimize your content for voice search generation. This might sound scary, but I am here to remove your burnouts by explaining the in-depth concept of voice searches to achieve higher rankings.
What is Voice Search?
Voice search is also considered voice-based or voice-enabled search, which allows the user to search any piece of information on the web through voice command. The command is fulfilled by any voice-enabled device such as smartphones, Siri, Amazon Echo, and other smart speakers.
The purpose of these voice-based searches is to minimize the user’s search time and effort. The purpose of these voice searches is to find the accurate and best possible answer to the user.
What is Voice Search SEO?
Voice search SEO refers to the practice of optimizing any piece of content so that voice-based assistants like Siri and Alexa can discover your website and refer it to the users whenever they make a specific query. `
Now, why is upgrading your Local SEO technique to voice search crucial, and how can this help grow your business?
Let me explain.
Have you ever done any voice search asking questions like, “Best restaurants for candlelight dinner near me” Or “Restaurants to have a romantic dinner” Or “Restaurants near me”?
What was the answer? Were you satisfied with the results? Most probably, the answer must be yes.
The voice assistants are smart enough to list out the best based on your search, location, and history.
Now, if someone performs the voice search appropriately, their restaurant will be suggested by your voice assistant. As a result, their restaurant will get more visitors leading to the expansion of their business.
Why is Voice Search Getting Bigger?
Imagine that you are gardening with your hands covered under gloves. You have a variety of seeds in front of you, and you want to plant roses. Unfortunately, you forget which seed was the rose plant.
Now I don’t think you want to take off your gloves and type in your phone to find how the seed of a rose plant looks. What can you do to tackle this situation? Of course, you can use your smart voice assistant.
There are tons of everyday examples that you can think of. In a nutshell, voice search makes people’s lives easy and effective. Hence, the voice search market is getting bigger.
Voice Search is Apt for Mobile
The statistics of BrightLocal states that nearly 56% of the total voice searches in the world are done through smartphones. Now I think this statistic is enough to describe the importance of Smartphones even in the voice search industry. It is similar to traditional searches.
Even in traditional search methods, mobile is the most vastly used device to perform searches. Also, smartphones give a path for voice assistants to rise in recent times. The use of voice searches was started and spread with smartphones.
How is Voice Search Different from Traditional Search
Typing your query and roaming around the articles to find the appropriate answer is way different from talking to a smart device that will find the best possible answers for your query. Below are the key differences between voice search and traditional search.
- Voice Search is Faster and Easier.
- Voice searches give you more appropriate answers.
- Voice searches are conversation-based.
- Listing as per location is a priority in voice search.
Let’s dive in deep to each point for better understanding.
Voice Search is Faster and Easier
None can deny that voice searches are far better than our traditional search methods because voice searches are fast and to the point. Also, anyone can perform a voice search while doing other tasks.
Voice Search is More Appropriate and Convenient (Voice Search Results Are Prompt and To the Point)
Life is moving fast, and everyone wants to be faster because time is the ultimate master. When everything is going fast in the digital era, who would you like to go through a list of articles when you have an option to perform a voice search and get to the point answer?
Especially when you need a one-line answer, typing your query is not convenient.
Voice Search Keywords are Longer and Conversational
Now that is pretty obvious. If you talk to a device, you will go for the conversational tone and longer words instead of choosing fragments of keywords.
Here is an example;
Typing search: Chocolate cake recipe, Make chocolate cake at home, Easy chocolate cake recipe, etc.
Voice search: Making chocolate cake at home in simple steps, simple and easy steps to make chocolate cake at home by myself, etc.
Can you observe the difference? If you have tried these searches, then you will notice the differences in your everyday life.
Professionals analyze these data. Purna Virji, the senior manager and PPC Expert of Microsoft, states that voice searches are longer than traditional searches.
Local Listings Search Are a Priority for Voice
The results from Google Trends have confirmed that maximum voice searches are done to find “near me” things. Also, the result of Google concludes two major information;
- Voice searches are performed to find things near people like parks, hotels, restaurants, etc.
- People search for information for things surrounding them.
Voice search SEO Strategies
Voice Search Optimization (VSO) is the future of the SEO Industry. Hence, anyone running a website should start optimizing their content for ranking on voice searches.
Below her some of the proven voice search SEO strategies to apply:
#1 Offer Rich Answers to the User
It’s been found in a study from shameless that the results of voice search are mostly (70%) based on SERP features. So the answer to a particular query will nearly be the same, but with a rich flavour.
Now, what are the rich flavours?
Let’s introduce some simple SEO terms for better understanding:
- Knowledge Graph: It is Google’s knowledge database with a set of information about people, places (based on history and location), and things.
- Knowledge Panel: A small set of elevation on the right side of our computer screen that appears in a small box whenever we search for something is known as a knowledge panel. Google represents this knowledge panel based on the information provided by the knowledge graph.
- Knowledge Box: The information in the knowledge panel when featured as normal search results is known as the knowledge box.
- Featured Snippet: The information Google presents on top of the organic search results (even above the Ads) by providing credit to the source.
Rich Content: The terms mentioned above are the rich flavours, and whenever your content has any of these, it is known as Rich Content.
#2 Be Precise and More conversational
Try to redesign all the content on your website in a conversational tone. This will make your content voice friendly. Try to keep it short and to the point because Google prefers concise and pinpointed answers.
#3 Try to Merge Frequently Asked Questions Enter Your Content
No doubt most of the voice searches are done in question format. So when you will add FAQs in your content, the ranking chance increases.
#4 Target Long-Phrase Keywords
As mentioned earlier in the post, the statistics showed that voice search has long-phrase keywords. Also, you can not include all the keywords in a single piece of content, but you can try it when you target all the information regarding a topic in a single piece of content.
#5 Make Your Site Faster
This is an essential SEO part that you have to enhance. Paying attention to your loading time is extremely important when targeting voice searches because Google will never go for a website that takes longer to process information.
#6 Mobile User Friendly
Since 2019 Google prefers a mobile-friendly experience over other devices. Again this one is basic SEO. So try to optimise your website and make it mobile-friendly.
#7 Google My Business
As mentioned earlier, the Google voice search is based on local searches. So to appear in your business profile on local searches you need to update your information on Google My Business.
By doing so, you will inform Google about the accessibility of your service location, opening hours and other valuable information.
Afterwards, to make your business profile more compiling to the readers make sure to add high-quality images of your services and location along with your logo.
Lastly, Make sure to keep your information updated. For example, if you change your location or phone number, make sure to edit the information on Google my business page without any delay.
Final Credits
I have discussed the crucial points of voice search optimization. Now it’s your job to take these steps and prepare your website for the future of SEO. The top companies and ranking websites have already implemented these strategies for improving their rankings. Now it’s your turn.
– Neyox
