If you aren’t optimizing your website for voice search SEO now, you’re going regret later.
Why?
The way people search online is changing, more than 60% searches on Google performed by mobile.
The number of mobile users is GROWING with massive speed. According to a study, the number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019.
People find easier to perform voice search queries on mobile than typing on it.
To put it another way, it’s time SEO professionals should start thinking about voice search optimization.
But first…
What is Voice Search?
Voice search is a speech recognition technology that lets a user search on Google by speaking the terms they are looking for instead of typing them.
Why Should I Care About Voice Search?
Million dollar question.
Voice search is going to take over the text search in the future.
How can I say that?
Well, people are making voice search as their part of life. It feels them like they are talking to a friend.
Here are some statistics that indicate that voice search isn’t going to anywhere in near future:
- The voice recognition market is estimated to reach $601 million industry by 2019, per Technavio
- In a survey of SEO trends for 2017 and beyond, voice search secured the third place
- Alpine.AI found that there were an estimated one billion voice searches were performed in January 2018
- The number of people using voice-enabled digital assistants will reach by 39.3% in 2019
Here’s the interesting part…
The Hummingbird Update Will Make You Realize Importance of Voice Search
You know about Google’s Hummingbird algorithm, aren’t you?
Well, if you don’t, here is a quick definition:
In 2013, Google rolled out a new update that they named Hummingbird that started focusing on user intent and contextual meaning of queries.
It made many SEO professionals to change their SEO strategy, those who used to do keyword stuffing started finding the pain points to their targeted audience in the content.
Voice search is going to hit the same way again. In fact, it is another step in the way of improving the user experience with semantics.
Difference Between Voice Search and Text Search
Here is an interesting fact:
An average person can type 30-40 words per minute but can speak 110-150 words per minute. It’s 3.75x faster than tying.
Let’s see the key differences between voice search and text search.
1. Voice search queries are longer than text
I’m sure you’re with me on this one…
…people are lazy and when it comes to tying they prefer short phrase to save their time and energy.
On mobile, you talk to a virtual assistant for help in your natural language that often is longer than phrases that you type on the desktop.
Google’s artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day and learns with every search query you ask.
Let’s say you are using a laptop and mobile to find a movie theater, you would type something like “best movie theatre in Delhi.” This is computer language.
But when you want Google voice search results, you would ask a question something like “Which movie theater is running Avenger Affinity War right now?”
As you can see, voice search query is longer than text search.
Don’t get confused with voice search queries with longtail keyword. Voice searches are most likely to have question phrases.
Keyword research tools often miss question phrases while doing keyword research.
But…there is one tool name answer the public can help you some question phrases that people often search on Google.
2. Voice queries contain local search intent
Mobile voice search queries contain 3 times more local intent than text-based searches.
As a matter of fact, two of the cases, when voice searches are mostly performed are asking for direction and looking for a nearby location.
Mobile search for “near me” have grown more than 130% year over year says Google.
Therefore, when you optimizing your website for local SEO make sure you use the address and phone number on it.
Voice search and local SEO are somehow connected and affect your overall
SEO strategy and business.
85% of shoppers will visit shops immediately when they search phrases “where to shop” or “where to buy.”
Needless to say, voice search is going to change SEO, to be in the competition you need to optimize your
website for voice search SEO.
3. Users are impatient
One of the reasons voice search growth is people like using personal assistance.
Whether it’s a teen or an adult, their first choice to making a call and asking directions is voice search.
Moreover, they want voice search results in general information as well as local events without spending much time.
How to Optimize for Voice Search SEO
The number of mobile users are increasing the number of voice search queries increasing also. Voice search is people’s favorite and it’s going to stay.
The thing that differentiates it from text search are:
Voice search is more conversational
When people search on mobile they prefer voice search and use conversational tone rather tying generic keyword phrases on the computer.
Because of conversational tone, voice search questions are often longer than typical text keyword search queries.
Moreover, voice search results usually focus on local intent.
Conversational Keywords
It’s time to change your keyword research strategy. Especially, when you optimizing your content for voice search.
Voice searches are often the conversational keywords that look something like Longtail Keyword +.
The “+” sign you see refers to the conversational words that you need to add in order to voice search SEO.
If you want to rank on voice search result page, you need to consider the factors that affect voice search SEO.
Factors You Need to Consider While Optimizing for Voice Search Result Page
Optimizing your website for voice search SEO is a bit different from optimizing for traditional SEO.
To rank in voice search result page you need to consider these voice search factors:
Page speed will boost your voice search SEO
We know that speed is now an important ranking factor and Google loves sites that load fast.
Brian Dean run a test to uncover the relationship between website loading speed and voice search.
…and here what he found.
The average voice search result page loads in .54 seconds (52% faster than the average page).”
However, PageSpeed might not be a direct factor when it comes to voice search optimization but it’s going to play a major role in mobile search SEO.
HTTPS and SSL is going to help
Google earlier said that HTTPS can provide your website a “slightly boost” in the SERP.
I know what are you think…
Do HTTPS and SSL helps in voice search optimization also?
Well, HTTPS might be even more helpful for desktop or mobile SEO.
As a matter of fact, 70.4% web pages that rank in top 10 have SSL enabled.
Answer length matters
Google wants search results to be short and to the point. When we talk about voice search optimization, it should fall in under 30 characters.
Here is what Backlinko found in their study…
…they saw that average voice search result was 29 characters.
Moreover, keeping short answer helps you get a place in the Featured Snippets in the SERP that will definitely increase your CTR and eventually you’ll get a boost in ranking.
So, if you are optimizing your website for voice search SEO, it better you add voice ready and snippet ready phrases in your content.
Claim your Google My Business listing
Listing your business on Google Business allows Google to find out more information about your business, like the category of business you’re in, your address, phone number, business hours and more.
As you know 22% of voice queries are for local content.
Therefore, having a Google My Business Listing might help you get on the Google voice search results.
Use Structured data markup
When search engine spider comes to your web page it looks more than meta title, heading tags, etc.
In fact, there are other important SEO factors that help search engines to decide a page’s relevance and position in their search results
Schema markup is one of those vital factors. It tells Google what exactly your data mean and how should they appear in SERP.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t help in ranking but showing that extra information, ratings can stand out you from your competitors and increases the CTR that is a ranking factor.
You might be wondering…
How does schema markup relevant to the voice search?
Well, when people do a local search on mobile they don’t actually want to visit the website and want a quick answer like operation time, reviews, contact information, address, directions from highways, etc.
…and schema markup gives them all in no time.
Now it’s your turn!
If you haven’t started optimizing your website for voice search result page, it’s time you should start thinking about it.
Voice search is in the trend and a smart marketer knows how to use the trend to make money.
I guess you’re one of those smart marketers who will start optimizing for voice search SEO.
So, what are you waiting for?
Grab your cup of coffee and refine your SEO strategy for voice search optimization.
Let me know what is your prediction about voice search SEO?
10 thoughts on “Voice Search SEO: How To Optimize Your Website for Higher Ranking”
Absolutely – Voice Search and long-tail keywords go hand in hand: that’s another reason why content producer should get rid of keyword stuffing once and for all, adopting a more natural language instead.
Hi Umesh,
This was the deep walkthrough on Voice search SEO and well researched one, including detailed stastics on the search trend. Voice searches are growinv fast since 2014 and it’s future.
And a webmaster should start optimizing their content according to the tips you have mentioned above…
Thanks for sharing a well refined post..
Have a great day ahead!
Hi Navin,
I’m glad you found it helpful. Voice search is going to change seo forever. One should be ready to his website for voice search engine optimization to get maximum benefit of voice search.
Voice SEO will be a key factor for getting search engine users who uses voice search their smartphones. Google has introduced Google duplex and Dwell time recently, I think duplex will change all the conventional methods of voice search to voice assistant
Awesome Article I like it very much. Thanks for sharing this types of article. keep up it bro
Such a great article for voice search SEO. There are a lot of hot debates happening around. The voice search will definitely maintain the equal ratio as the normal user search. Now, high time to optimize for voice search SEO. Keep sharing!
Voice search also a part of SEO ?
Yes, it is.
Today, voice search SEO is important for higher ranking. Thanks for sharing this types of article.
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