Voice search optimization is one of the latest valuable SEO strategies, especially while we’re all forced into more online interaction during COVID-19. Businesses and influencers need to know how to leverage voice search so that people can find their content easily and efficiently.
Here are some helpful hints, guidelines, and tips to optimize your site for voice search.
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The Origins and Popularity of Voice Search
Although voice search started primarily as a smartphone feature, the concept has blossomed across modes of communication. If you have a voice assistant or smart speaker, you know how essential voice search is for a busy person.
Almost everyone benefits from the ease of voice search. Busy parents (who may now be homeschooling their kids), dynamic professionals, and people who work with their hands value quick information access. The ability to continue the task at hand is crucial for many people, at home, and at work.
People cite the quickness and ease of voice search as the top reason they prefer this method. They also like that they can use this mode of searching while driving.
Projections of voice assistant use estimate 3.25 billion voice assistants in 2019 will grow to 8 billion by 2023. The UN estimates the world population will reach 8 billion in 2023, so that’s one voice assistant per person worldwide.
It may be an exaggeration, but only slightly: voice search optimization opens your website to the whole world.
Get Started with Voice Search Optimization
How Are People Using Voice Search?
To begin with, you may find it helpful to know on which devices users most commonly perform voice searches. People make over half of all voice searches on their mobile devices. Users also prefer to use their mobile devices for traditional searches, as well.
What Kind of Keywords Do Users Prefer When Doing a Voice Search?
Keywords are the essential factor when it comes to SEO. The same is true when you are optimizing your website for voice search.
Voice search optimization requires businesses to know how people are conducting their voice searches. Businesses need to answer one primary question: what kind of words are potential clients using to find what they need?
Keep It Conversational
The key difference when it comes to voice search is its conversationality. People tend to be more casual and use more natural syntax when they conduct a voice search.
The conversational nature of voice searches means that people tend to use longer phrases. As a consequence, voice search phrases will necessarily be longer than desktop or mobile phrases that users might type.
Bottom line: voice search optimization means longer keywords.
For an illustrative example, consider the way someone might search for a winery. Someone might type, “wineries near me,” if they are typing on a desktop or mobile device.
On the other hand, consider someone who is with a group of friends looking for a place to go out. They want everyone in the group to know the available options. A voice search is more social than hunching over your screen and tapping out letters on a tiny keyboard.
Instead of typing, “wineries near me,” into their phone, then, that person will conduct a voice search. “Hey, Siri,” they might say, “Tell me if there are any wineries near here.”
Local Listings Are Key for Voice Search Optimization.
The example of a person searching for local amenities is instructive, and a sign of hope for when we can enjoy our local businesses fully again.
Local listings are a primary driver of voice searches. A large volume of voice searches consist of “near me” requests.
When businesses know that voice searches tend to be for places, they can better optimize their website for searches. If someone wants to know if something is nearby, they also likely want to know when it is open. They may also want to call ahead, which makes contact information valuable, as well.
Let us return to the example of the person looking for a place to go out with their friends. (Because don’t we all miss that!)
That person was already with a group of their friends, which is a fairly typical context for a voice search. People tend to conduct voice searches in public places, and their searches tend to be for and about local businesses.
We’ll definitely get back to that again here in the US eventually, especially as other countries show signs of public gathering resurgence, or resuming “normal” life.
Make Voice Search Optimization Work for You
Make Conversational Language Your First Language
Your website content needs to be conversational if your business is going to appear in people’s voice search results. Conduct and use analytics to determine what language people are using to find your website. Ask if any keywords are showing up, and how the people talk who look for your business.
Find out which questions people are asking the most frequently to find your business. Then, formulate which answers will suit those questions best. Track how those answers perform; find out if they display as voice search results.
Leverage Long Form Content
Google preferences long form content over other varieties of content. You should bolster your long form content to ensure your website shows up in voice searches.
As part of your emphasis on long form content, utilize long tail keywords to increase your sight views. Long tail keywords are longer, more conversational keywords that tend to enjoy higher click-through rates.
Utilize Location Extensions
Location extensions will help your business show up in “near me” searches. Location extensions are a way of posting your address in your ads to show up in those searches.
Romain Berg to for Voice Search Optimization and Content Assistance
Romain Berg’s services include SEO, content writing, website design, and digital consulting. Your friends at Romain Berg can provide you with high-quality content that will elevate the online presence of your business. Well-done SEO content can expand your business’s reach with natural-sounding long tail keywords.
Romain Berg’s skilled content writers provide your business with engaging long form copy designed to show up in searches. If you’re ready to show up in more traditional and voice searches, you need to reach out to Romain Berg.
Partner with them and they can help you meet and exceed your business goals, whatever they are. Contact Romain Berg to discuss your business, your strategy, and your needs.
