How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search

The way people use to search for information online is changing now-a-days. Voice search is being used by the people on their smart phones, tablets and even by voice assistants for searching information on the internet. Thus voice search optimization has become the hot topic in todays web world. Apple device has Siri, Android device has Google voice search and PCs have Microsoft’s cortana as the best friend for the searchers!

Research shows that nearly 60 percent of the searches are made on a mobile phone. As people use their mobile phones frequently for searching, voice to search becomes easy for them to proceed instead of typing in a tiny screen. This hints us that the SEO (search engine optimization ) professionals should start thinking about the contents and SEO in a different manner.

Voice search is the hottest challenge among the SEO professionals. In 2017, Benu Aggarwal had undergone an important session on the subject regarding the optimization content for voice search and virtual assistants at SMX west. During the session, a great tip has been given by her for the SEOs regarding the thinking and planning of a different type of search strategies for the voice assistants.

A New world for search:

Our lives have been invaded by the mobile phones, smartphones and smart home devices featuring digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, Alexa and google assistant. It’s been made easier than ever for people to ask a question and get information from their devices by these new voice devices and technologies. In this way, a more natural way has been allowed to interact with the machines using a conversational voice. Now, our voice can be used to listen to music, switch on lights, order for a pizza, buy products and get information on everything from A to Z.

The interesting part of voice search technology is the interconnectivity between various devices. For instance, your desktop can even show a google home tip, giving an advice for the best use of google home voice assistant.

The biggest challenge for SEO professionals is on creating a content and SEO strategy for this new way to search.

Optimization of voice search:

Users have learned to efficiently enter keyword phrases to find information on the internet using a PC, as the search engines were first introduced to the mainstream in the mid of 1990. Voice search is more conversational and natural in tone unlike search keyword phrases that we enter into the account. Voice search is even more typically mobile and often locally used.

They are more conversational and the queries are usually longer than keyword of text search queries. It should always be remembered that the overall purpose of these technologies is for the devices to provide a quick and best result for the on-the-go searchers. Thus the devices try to find easy identifying, short and relevant contents to serve back better to the searcher.

What are people searching for?

People are using voice search for a variety of searches, according to the internet trends report, 2016. An estimation shows that 22% are searching for local content and information which local businesses should need to start thinking a strategy for local voice search.

My business listings:

Google my business is a great way for Google to get more information about our business such as the type of business we are in, address, phone number, business hours and much more. As the voice searches are becoming local in nature, having claimed and up-to-date google my business account can help in increased chances of showing up even when the voice search is done pertaining to our details.

Conversational keywords:

The keyword strategy should be more conversational and mimic in nature. It is better to start thinking about the types of questions that the staffs get when costumers call on phone to enquire about the business. Documenting and recording the exacts words used by people will help improve better.

Backlinks

Once your website and pages are optimized for voice search, you're going to want to build backlinks to the pages you want to rank. Many people believe that simply optimizing their pages for voice search will magically make them rank. But that is not the case. Traditional SEO still applies when ranking pages for voice search. I use backlinks to rank my pages and I use the Money Robot SEO software to do it. I have a full tutorial and walk-through showing you how I create the links. 

Three reasons to think on voice search:

• High visibility on featured snippets.
• Best way to meet consumer queries and demands based on context
• Can understand the extent of potential in advertising and optimizing for voice based media.

Conclusion:

Optimization can be done without knowing which queries are voice search queries as we can do mobile optimization without knowing which queries are mobile based. Thus Google and marketers can be helped to do a better job of helping people find exactly what they search by understanding the nuances of voice when they are asking it by voice.