Voice Search Optimization | 5 Tactics for SEO Success
As the number of people using this technology grows, obviously, optimizing your website for voice search becomes more important. It can bring you even more exposure and traffic, give you a competitive edge, as well as help you meet the changing needs of your prospects, thus, improving user experience.
Although the modern variation of voice assistants has been around for over a decade now, this technology is still in full swing today. Compared to 3.5 billion such assistants used in 2019, this year, their amount peaks at 8.4 billion, which is a significant increase.
Now that this technology is integrated into nearly every smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, computer, and smart home system, people are actively using them to simplify their day-to-day tasks. And one of the most popular ways to use it is for quickly exploring the needed information on the web.
This fact led to the rise of voice search SEO. Due to the increasing popularity of speech recognition technology, optimizing your site for such queries has become pivotal for business success.
In this guide, we’ll tell you how to handle this optimization with ease and dominate the web!
What Is Voice Search Optimization?
Voice search SEO is the process of optimizing your content and site pages to match speech-based queries. The purpose of this optimization is to increase the likelihood of ranking high in results and, eventually, drive more traffic to your site.
The process consists of multiple elements. First of all, it includes targeting new, longer keywords and adjusting your content to be more conversational. However, it can also include technical and local optimization, site speed improvement, and other tactics depending on your current site performance.
The Importance of Voice Search Optimization for SEO
The importance of SEO has been out of the question for many years. Now, when many customer journeys begin on the web, SEO serves as the key to brand awareness and visibility. By leveraging it, businesses can grow trust, provide outstanding user experience, and gain lots of cost-effective organic traffic that has the potential to convert into sales.
As for voice search SEO, it also plays a pivotal role today. Now, when we talk about speech-based web browsing, we can think of nearly any device. And it’s convenient, which is why more and more people use it daily.
5 Tips to Improve Your Voice Search Optimization
1. Find Effective Keywords
To rank in voice search SEO results, you need to optimize your content with keywords your target audience uses when performing web requests via speech recognition.
Unlike typed requests that tend to be snappy and short, speech-based queries are typically longer and more natural. They frequently come in the form of questions and begin with the Five Ws and How which is natural for a conversation. Alternatively, they may look like long-tail (3+ words) keywords.
Here’s an example:
- Typed - “Women's shoe brands”;
- Speech-based - “Hey Siri, What are some good women’s shoe brands?”.
The easiest way to find voice search queries for your strategy is to use a trusted keyword tool. For example, the Keyword Suggestion Tool by SE Ranking can help you explore all kinds of queries relevant to your business, including short-tail, long-tail, and question keywords. All you need is to insert your primary keyword into the box, and the tool will generate a comprehensive list of potential queries with their search volumes, difficulty, and other specs.
After reviewing suggested queries, pick the long-tail and question-based voice search queries with the highest potential. Focus on terms with medium to high volumes and lower competition, as these are the easiest to rank for. Then, organize your options into clusters by topic and user intent (transactional, commercial, navigational, and informational).
2. Optimize Long-Form Content For Voice Search Results
Once you have target keywords, you can start optimizing your content to make it visible for speech-based requests. The reason why you want to optimize long-form content in the first place is that it gives you more opportunities to integrate keywords and rank higher in results. There are two primary tactics that you should use here:
When creating long-form content, focus on natural, conversation-like language. Ask questions and provide answers to create a sense of dialog. Write in simple sentences and use contractions as in speech.
Insert question-based and long-tail keywords into your content’s body and in answers to questions, in particular. But keep the amount of keywords appropriate. Craft content for humans instead of bots.
Last, but not least, try to keep your content concise despite its long-form nature. Remember that speech-based results are typically short, around 30 words. So be sure to eliminate the unnecessary fluff and filler content to enhance the likelihood of getting ranked.
3. Add FAQ Pages
Since speech-based queries frequently come in the form of questions, FAQs play a special role in voice search optimization. Whether we are talking about dedicated FAQ pages or smaller FAQ sections inside your long-form content, they both have the potential to be picked up by voice assistants.
As was mentioned earlier, speech-based requests frequently begin with the five Ws and How:
- Who;
- When;
- What;
- Why;
- How
Queries that start with these question words typically imply urgency and an immediate need for an answer. Hence, you should consider integrating questions that start with these words into your FAQs.
To find question ideas for your FAQs, you can analyze your top-performing competitors. Check their sites to see which questions they answer and draw inspiration. Additionally, you can use Google’s “People also ask” section in SERPs to reveal related questions.
When giving answers to FAQs, embrace brevity and clarity. Get straight to the point and answer users’ questions in the most helpful manner. And don’t hesitate to integrate relevant keywords into your answers for maximum impact.
4. Improve Your Site’s Technical SEO
The technical performance of your site affects how well bots can understand and rank your website. They also affect the quality of user experience, thus, signaling your trustworthiness. Together, all these factors affect how high you appear in regular search results, whereas your rankings may affect whether or not you will be featured in the results for speech-based queries. Most often, sites that pop up in response to speech-based queries are somewhere in the top SERP results.
To handle the technical side of the matter, leverage specialized tools like Google Search Console to assess the current technical performance of your site. The tool will give you a detailed report on the possible technical issues on your website, including low loading time, security problems, and others.
Based on the outcomes of the technical audit, develop a plan for improvements. The primary technical optimization elements to focus on should include page speed, mobile SEO, and responsive design.
5. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
A big part of speech-based queries are performed on the go. Local (“near me”) requests performed with the help of speech recognition make up as much as 76% of all queries. Due to this reason, we should emphasize the huge importance of local optimization for getting featured in voice search results.
When processing requests with local intent, Google Assistant relies on the information from Google Business Profile. Hence, the first thing you should focus on in terms of local SEO is creating and optimizing your Google Business Profile.
First of all, create an account for your business if you don’t have one yet. Fill it in with relevant and up-to-date info about your business, including the current address, valid contact details, etc. Then, find popular local keywords and insert them into your business description along with long-tail queries you target for voice search optimization.
Lastly, encourage your customers to leave reviews and share their experiences with your business to build up trust and boost the likelihood of being featured in results for speech-based queries.
Summary
Without any doubt, speech recognition is the future of search. It’s a relatively new, convenient way to find information on the web quickly and easily, especially when on the go.
Needless to say, as more and more people embrace speech-based web operations, the way we approach SEO changes. These queries work somewhat differently compared to what we’re used to, they use different keywords and require much more natural-sounding content. However, if you master the art of optimizing your site for them, you can multiply the amount of traffic and get ahead of the competition.
After reading this article, you have 5 practical tips to include in your voice search strategy. Start using them now to gain a competitive edge and ensure business growth!