33 million voice search applications were in circulation in 2017, with 40 percent of adults using them each day. In reality, compared to when it launched in 2008, Google’s voice search tool received 35 times more search queries in 2016.
Any mobile user can physically ask their phone a question now with Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana. This has also spread to the home, with houses across the world cropping up like Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Check out here how you can Optimize through interactive voice response call center
ComScore has predicted that 50 percent of all searches will be via voice by 2021, and without a screen.
So for SEO, what does this mean? Here we’ll look at ways you can customize your website for voice searches to help you rank extremely.
1. AIM FOR FEATURED SNIPPETS
When answering voice search questions, Google Home and Google Assistant currently read out featured samples, so it makes sense that you are looking for the exclusive “position zero.”
The following works very well as a set of guidelines, and when writing your material, it is worth keeping in mind:
a. Answer specific questions.
b. Answer concisely.
c. Write engaging and interesting copy.
2. PERFECT YOUR LOCAL SEO
Make sure that your Google My Business page is up-to-date, showing the correct address, contact information, and opening hours. After all, you want to make sure you’re in the top spot if a user asks “where’s my nearest hairdresser” (provided, of course, you’re actually a hairdresser!).
Similarly, you want to make sure that the correct information is given if a customer asks what time your store shuts, otherwise, they would be misinformed, and you might miss out on a deal.
Other ways to optimize for local searches include building your online reviews and using structured data markup.
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3. IMPROVE YOUR SITE SPEED
Voice search is almost exclusively used on mobile devices, and it goes without saying that you should customise your website for mobile devices. If you don’t then users just bounce back, which is going to affect the rankings.
As compared to a page that loads in just one second, a page that takes five seconds to load is 90% more likely to suffer from bounce backs.
Google found that smartphone bounce rates are 9.56 percent higher than desktop bounce rates. Mobile users are probably busy, especially those who use voice search.
4. GET INSIDE THE MINDS OF SEARCHERS
Google has announced that it is looking at the inclusion of voice search information in the Search Console, with the intention that these searches are segregated from keyboard queries, just as desktop and mobile search information are currently separated.
The problem with this is that voice searches are naturally longer tail search queries, due to the conversational nature of speaking out loud, and why it has not been introduced earlier. The volume for every particular question is therefore likely to be so poor that it is automatically omitted by the Search Console.
A clear announcement or deadline has not been set for this but it’s definitely something to look out for. You will be able to see which voice search queries drive traffic to your pages once launched, helping you to optimise the content of your site and further climb the rankings.
5. CREATE AN FAQs PAGE
Most voice searches are based on long-tailed keywords which are conversational in nature. People who use voice searches are looking for answers to very specific questions. Hence, the input search query is also in the form of a question.
Having an FAQs page will help the search engine to understand that the question being asked by the user has been answered on your page and hence due to the Panda update of Google, which ranks good quality and relevant content above others, Google will rank your website above others collecting more organic traffic.
Final Thoughts
It’s no secret that SEO games and the industry are evolving rapidly. Those who remain attached to the old SEO mentality that all would struggle to gain more connections and keyword volume. Hence, keeping a close watch on the SEO updates and innovations isn’t enough anymore. Using innovative solutions is the need of the hour. Follow Techidology.com for more SEO blogs.