The evolution of intelligent assistants and voice search is gradually transforming consumer behaviour, which has prompted marketers around the globe to fine-tune their strategies for a speech-focused environment. More than 4 billion voice assistants are already in use – and by the end of 2024, this figure is anticipated to double. In light of the considerable surge in voice-activated smart devices, including speakers, businesses need to boost their content and SEO, accordingly, to stay competitive. Here, we explore the nuances of voice search optimisation, while discussing critical insights that will set your business up for the rising voice search trends in SEO.
What Do You Need to Know About Voice Search?
Voice search is basically the use of voice-based commands to perform web searches. Voice search is not just restricted to smartphones. Rather, any voice-enabled connected devices, including smart speakers are part of the growing voice search trends. Typically, these are longer, conversational and more particular, compared to text search.
Owing to better accuracy and convenience, voice recognition technology has resulted in a surge in the use of voice search. A report by PwC depicted that over 70% of internet users choose voice search over text search, indicating the importance of voice search optimisation for today’s businesses..
What Is Voice Search Optimisation?
Voice search optimisation involves optimising a website’s pages, so that they appear at the top of voice search results. Voice search optimisation is important to make sure that your web pages get displayed to people using voice assistants. Put simply, voice search optimisation helps boost your brand’s online presence, enabling your website to appear for voice-based search queries. The main objective of voice search optimisation is to get your website picked and read aloud by voice assistants whenever an internet user performs voice search.
Impact of Voice Search on SEO
Here’s how voice search affects SEO:
- Modified Search Patterns: Results of voice search are generally different from those for text search. Failure to optimise your content for voice search may cause you to miss out on a substantial chunk of your potential audience.
- Impact on Local SEO: Voice searches are usually performed for local queries. People typically make use of voice search to find services and businesses in their local area, which makes optimising local SEO for voice search extremely important.
- Optimisation for Mobile-Friendliness: Since the bulk of voice searches are performed on mobile devices, it is crucial to make your website optimised for mobile devices.
Optimising Content for Voice Queries
Businesses can optimise their website content for voice search by:
- Focusing on Conversational Keywords: Voice searches are comparatively natural and conversational. Therefore, focusing on phrases and long-tail keywords that imitate how real human users ask questions and communicate, might help.
- Enhancing Website Load Speed: Voice search devices – particularly mobile devices – give preference to the websites that load fast. Hence, make sure to improve your website’s load speed.
- Creating FAQ Pages: Voice searches generally include questions. Hence, adding an FAQ section or a dedicated FAQ page to your website may help with voice search optimisation. Consider answering most common questions specific to your business or products/services in a conversational and natural tone.
- Optimising Website Pages for Local Search: It is important to have your business listed on Google My Business for local search queries. In your GMB profile, make sure to provide correct information about your business, services, location and hours.
- Using Structured Data: Structured data aids search engines in understanding the content on your website in a better way. So, when a voice search is performed, structured data makes it easier for search engines to show relevant information.
- Crafting Content to Answer Particular Questions: Create content to provide straightforward answers to particular questions that are commonly asked through a voice search. Consider using tools, such as Answer the Public to find most common questions within your target market.
- Ensuring Mobile Responsiveness: As the majority of voice searches are performed on mobile devices, it makes sense to have a mobile-friendly website. So, make sure to optimise your website for smart devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Boosting Domain Authority: The higher your website’s domain authority, the higher your chance to rank in voice search results. Try creating informative content and high-quality backlinks to enhance your domain authority.
- Using Local Keywords: If you own a local business, consider adding local keywords to your content. Phrases, such as "in [Area Name]" or "near me" might aid you in getting higher rankings in local voice searches.
- Testing and Refining Strategies: Testing your website’s performance in voice search and subsequently, refining your strategy, accordingly, will go a long way towards boosting your voice search rankings. Also, consider staying on top of the latest voice search trends to stay ahead of the curve.
Tools and Technologies for Voice Search Optimisation
For voice search optimisation, a number of tools are available today to help you with content optimisation and keyword analysis so as to rank higher in voice search results. Here are some top tools that are worth considering:
- Answer the Public: For voice search optimisation, this is one tool that can assist you with keyword idea generation, competitor analysis and much more. This is also a great tool to find out the frequent questions asked by users that are related to your business keywords.
- Google Keyword Planner: This popular tool aids you in finding the related keywords, along with their search volumes. It also works great when it comes to recognising natural language queries and long-tail keywords as well as targeting them – a crucial aspect of voice search.
- SEMrush: It offers a bundle of tools for voice search optimisation. A tool offered by SEMrush that is worth mentioning is the Listing Management tool that helps manage local business listings and optimise them for voice search. Additionally, SEMrush offers key insights into competitor analysis, keyword rankings and site audits.
- Yoast SEO: If you have a WordPress website, the Yoast SEO plugin can offer suggestions for SEO and readability that may help with the voice search optimisation of your content.
- Moz Local: Moz Local is particularly beneficial for local businesses as it helps make sure that your business-specific information is correct and consistent across different directories available online, making it crucial for local business-related voice searches.
- Google My Business: An optimised GMB profile is important for local voice search. Make sure that your business-related information on GMB – which includes your phone number, address and business hours – is always up to date.
- Speakable Markup Testing Tool: The structured data tool from Google helps businesses by pointing out sections in their content that support voice search. Schema markup aids search engines in better understanding the website content. Hence, using it for local businesses websites, FAQs and other key information may increase your likelihood of ranking higher in voice search results.
- Chatbot Platforms: Platforms, such as Microsoft Bot Framework and Dialogflow allows you to develop chatbots that are capable of understanding and responding to voice search queries. You can integrate them into your website and other platforms to rank better in voice search results.
To Conclude
With technological advancements, the accuracy and use of voice search will continue to rise. Businesses that are keen on optimising their content for voice search are more likely to get a competitive advantage.
Unarguably, voice search optimisation is a critical component of today’s SEO strategies and it is all set to dominate the SEO scene in the near future. By enhancing your understanding of voice search queries and optimising your content accordingly, you can ensure a strong online presence for your business in the era of voice-enabled search.
