When voice search was first invented in the 1960s, no one could have predicted the potential for its application. Fast forward to the 21st century, and it is slowly becoming a part of our everyday lives. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Xiaomi, and Samsung have created versions of voice assistant software. You might have heard of them as Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Bixby, just to name a few.
Voice search queries are becoming more and more common these days, with up to 32% of consumers showing an interest in hands-free technology. You might think only youngsters are using voice searches as they are usually more tech-savvy, but in actuality, the largest demographic for voice-related searches is the over-65 age group, where 75% of respondents use it at least once a day.
Voice searches can be divided into two categories:
- Voice searches are done on a device with a screen, like a cell phone, where the user speaks their search question and the results are shown on the screen, much like a text search.
- Voice-enabled smart devices, like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, are used to do searches. The user tells the device what they want to search for, and the device’s AI assistant tells the user what they found.
With the rising popularity of voice searches, the question is: how do I optimize my site for voice searches while leveraging it for my growth? Well, we’ve gone ahead and prepared a list for you that you can use to optimize your site for voice search.
Get Conversational Using Long Tail Keywords:
Similar to traditional SEO, voice search optimization involves identifying user intent and matching it to a particular query. In voice search, the types of queries are different. Since you can speak faster and more fluently as opposed to writing them, users’ voice queries are treated using natural language and lengthier sentences. In contrast to searching with just keywords, voice searches are conversational, long-tail, and frequently start with a question word, such as “how,” “who,” “what,” “where,” or “why.” By using keyword research tools, you can perform thorough research to best identity which long-tail keywords should be infused into your website’s content to get the best possible results.
Web Essentials:
Whenever it comes to optimizing your website, whether it’s for SEO or voice searches, page speed, and responsiveness matter a lot, Google has released the Core Web Vitals update which introduced Page Experience metrics, Loading, Interactivity, and Stability, which are used to assess and ensure a holistic and complete user experience.
Local SEO:
It makes sense if you stop and think about it. It’s so much easier to just pull out your mobile device while you’re strolling, driving, or busy doing something else and about and need a quick answer to your question. This indicates that it’s crucial to concentrate on the local component of your SEO. And whenever users ask a search query using a “near me” keyword, they are seeking out the best results that fit their requirements: quality, accessibility, and quick access to more information. So optimize your content with relevant geo-tags, schema markup, and other strategies to provide the search engine with all the necessary information about your brand’s needs for local SEO.
Google’s Featured Snippets:
A study conducted recently concluded that over 40% of voice searches pulled answers from the featured snippets section. The best way to get your site ready for featured snippets is to use the right format and structured data to make it easy for Google to figure out that your content is trying to answer a question.
Conclusion:
Team Dymentions provides the best voice search optimization services in the industry, constantly monitoring changes and trends in the search landscape so you don’t have to! Contact us now to see how our team can support your SEO needs if you’re searching for fresh ideas to take advantage of the rising popularity of voice search.
