By the year 2021, people will no longer require the use of screens to conduct as much as 40% of their web sessions. That sounds great, doesn’t it?
This can only be possible through voice only search. The magic behind voice only search is that it allows customers to browse the internet and get the information they need without having to do any form of scrolling through websites on their mobile devices or laptops.
And from what we can tell this technology will be successfully adopted by brand in the coming year.
What is voice only search?
As the name implies, voice only search is the opposite of having to type keywords on the internet to search for a thing and then scroll through the results that are displayed.
What voice only search allows you to do, is to speak into the device and get the results that you want.
People are already beginning to use audio technology, and it is a lot easier because it uses speech recognition to understand what a user needs and then interprets it and give results to the user verbally.
Does voice only search sound new to you? Well, it is not a new concept because voice search has been around for some time now.
There are some programs like speech to text and even voice dialing that are already performing the functions.
Also, you probably have heard of Siri or Google assistant. Even Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa make use of voice search capabilities.
Although there are specific devices that can be optimised for voice search only, brands, websites, and platforms can also take advantage of voice search.
For instance, Amazon Alexa can quickly scan through Spotify musical inventory search for things on Wikipedia or even help you shop on Amazon – all you have to do is say the words.
This goes to tell you that brands are very specific when it comes to optimising their content to suit voice search.
How voice search affects SEO rankings?
Voice search can speedily enhance a customer’s experience, and as a result of that by the year 2021 more than half of the searches online will be made via voice search.
Because of the high volume use of voice search, search engines like Google are putting in more work on voice search optimisation.
The truth is the purpose of search engine optimisation is to properly rank websites so that users can get the most relevant information for their search query as fast as possible, which means that users experience is at the apex when it comes to search engine optimisation.
Nevertheless, it is significant to remember that voice search SEO is a lot different from the popular website SEO; therefore, some of the factors that may or may not have an impact on website ranking may not have the same effect on your voice search ranking.
The good news is there are specific tips that may help you balance both your web SEO and your voice search SEO.
These Tactics will help you rank both for the quality of content on your website and for its voice search optimisation.
Ways to help you optimise voice search
When users make use of voice search, what they are generally trying to do is to complete an action or to get some information on a subject.
However, notwithstanding the difference between the two intents, what Google does is to use the same procedure to rank sites.
Regardless of what the goal you are trying to achieve is below are five simple ways you can boost your voice search rankings.
1. Make sure that your website loads very fast
Just like typical search engine optimisation, what Google Voice Search does is to favour websites that load fast because users are usually not so patient with slow websites.
Your site responsiveness is also crucial, see to it that it works effectively on mobile devices as well as on laptops and other devices. It is also essential that the images on your website are optimised and you compress files also.
These two things, and also utilising website caching will all enhance the speed of your page. Your server response time is also very important to make sure that you cut it as much as possible.
2. Just write the same way you speak
Users are in the habit of writing short phrases when they want to search for a content on their mobile phone or on a desktop.
For instance, if a user wants to look for a great web developer, They may type things like “best web development firms in Peru”, and Google will help them fish out the best possible answers.
However, if the same user was to search using voice search he or she would probably say something like “what are the best web design companies in the world?” so from all of this you can see that the rule of thumb is that you must include a long tail keyword that will enhance your content for voice search.
Something else that you should do is to ensure that you keep your phrases short and straightforward.
The results for voice search are generally written at an elementary level, so it is vital that you break down your information in a manner that we make it easy for people to understand.
While we have already pointed out that you’re freezing should be kept short on simple, we have also noticed that long-form content also rank better on voice search and even unconventional search listings.
Make sure that your web page contents are usually between 2500 words and 2700 words.
3. Include featured Snippet
An average voice search results are maximum of 29 words in length nevertheless even though we have pointed out that shorter answers do better there has to be a method that also suggests how the content will be identified by the search engine.
That method is a featured snippet also known as position zero or the answer box.
On laptop or desktop search listings, this particular snippet appears just below the paid adverts but before the regular search listings.
If you want to enhance your content for an identifiable featured snippet, what you must do is to include a brief summary of your primary content formation that summary is below 29 words.
All contents that make use of lists, H tags, and bullet points can easily be read by Google, and that makes them have a higher chance of Performing well.
Also, do not forget to include your long tail keywords within your featured snippet.
4. Focus more on local search
One thing we have been able to understand is that brands that pay more attention to local content are more likely to create voice search contents than brands that do not. As a matter of fact, 22% of the voice searches are basically in search of location-based content.
So the more of these location-based content you have, the more traffic you can drive to your website and the better you will rank. Phrases like “near me” do well on search results.
Voice search is one of the best ways to drive website traffic to a website
At present, there is no evidence to prove that voice search results has a direct role to play in increasing your Google Analytics report. However, it does help to drive traffic to your website
Additionally, you have the opportunity to scroll through the written dictations of search results, and this allows you to direct to your website conventionally as well as increase organic traffic.
Something else that voice search can do for you is to improve all the importance Matrix such as media plays on websites such as Spotify and Pandora and even your online sales.
Is it possible for you to do your search rankings?
The voice search is vital to raising brand awareness and conventions so this is not something that we need to be reminded of.
For this reason, it is crucial for you to know what your voice search ranking looks like so that you can also understand what adjustments you need to make. However, at the time of this article, it is not possible to view your voice search rankings.
A few years ago a digital agency created and automation software that would let this agency run several queries and other reports on its customers.
While this information is based on Hearsay and we are not sure of how perfect the software is, it just might be able to carve a niche for some specific voice search ranking reports very soon.
Till that time comes, the best option is to continue optimising for SEO, and eventually you’ll be able to view tangible reports that show the fruit of your labour and more specific improvements.
The bottom line is technology is improving every day, so if you want to remain relevant in the world of the internet, you also have to move with the trend.
Optimising your website for voice search is one of the ways to follow the pattern, and every business that has found its way to the internet must take advantage of this. Leave a comment below.
