In the past few years, search engines have witnessed quite a revolution with updates from big players such as Google creating better engines that assist users to get better results. These series of updates not only boost search results but also help adapt and accommodate new technologies such as Voice Search.

Since Google has started embracing it, Voice Search is here to stay. What’s more, considering that the SEO world begins and ends with Google, Voice Search just became more important and relevant for businesses than ever.

Besides the fact that Google embraces, why should you care? What optimization strategies can you use for your website or business in general? 

Let’s dig deeper:

Why you should care about Voice Search revolution

As compared to traditional search, optimizing your Voice Search is entirely different. According to a past Advanced Web Ranking study, the first organic search on Google’s SERP receives up to 35% of clicks. On the contrary, there is a very small window on voices search.

There is only one result for smart speakers and the top three results for mobile. This implies that ranking at the top is everything. If your business or service isn’t on top with its keyword ranking, there are high chances that it won’t be picked. In other words, it is ‘a winner takes it all’ situation. If your page isn’t picked or cannot be read by the voice assistant, your business will be invisible on the Voice Search.

 It’s expected that in 2020, up to 50%of all search activities will be done by Voice Search. This implies one thing: in the next 1 to 2 years, there will be fierce competition when it comes to Voice Search. Just imagine over 50% of all searches showing only a single result. To get ahead of the game, therefore, you must begin to think about how you’ll optimize for Voice Search.

Points to note before embarking on Voice Search optimization

Optimization for Voice Search is different from organic search optimization in a number of ways. Here are a few things that you need to remember before embarking on the process:

• Queries Are Different: When users type, they tend to use a few words as possible. A potential client will type “pizza near me” instead of “where can I find a good pizza around Florida?” With Voice Search, the same client will do the opposite. Voice Search users talk to the robots like they are talking to a colleague or a neighbor. This changes the keyword semantics drastically. Experts believe that 70% of all Voice Search queries are in a natural language format.
• You won’t find Voice Search keywords from Google Console: This simply implies that it is not very clear what queries people use when searching for products or information on Voice Search. So, you can only rely on the best practices suggested by Voice Search gurus and improvise.
• Voice assistants reach out for Featured Snippet answers first, leaving other top pages behind. In most cases, if the query is structured in question form (for instance, how to install Windows 10 OS?), the SERP will most probably have an instant answer—a featured snippet box answer. The voice assistant will read the answer to the user.

Ways to optimize Voice Search

Here are some few methods that you can use to optimize Voice Search.

• Use Question Phrases

When it comes to using Voice Search, it’s very important to create search terms that users can utter. With that said, you need to keep them simple and short to get the best results. The most common search terms on Voice Search are question phrases like how, what, why, when who, and which among others.

• Create A Question And Answer Format Content

 It’s also best to create a question and answer format content. Since Google prefer pages that already have answers, answering a question or addressing a need is among the best ways to generate traffic on both Voice Search queries and web-based queries. What’s more, having content that will take care of the needs of your audience will significantly improve your traffic.

• Know the Search Intent

One of the most important things to know is why people are doing a Voice Search on certain keywords. It’s important to check out the statistical data to establish the purpose of these voices searches. By doing this, you’ll be much better placed to optimize your Voice Search.

• Have a mobile and user-friendly site

With mobile users dominating the searches and user experience being a priority, having a responsive website can significantly help you rank for Voice Search. Mobile users are always looking for sites that are easy to navigate, loads fast, and are easily accessible. So, if your website is not ranking on SERPs because of user experience and mobile responsive issues, it might negatively impact your Voice Search tanking opportunities.  

• Use long tail keyword

Voice Search queries are longer than the text ones. So, it is OK to use key phrases that are ridiculously long, provided that they look natural. When you have a list of long-tail keywords to use, you don’t need to optimize a separate page for every keyword. You only need to create content with long tail keywords. Additionally, remember that Google doesn’t need to see them in H-tags to use them as Voice Search answers—it will pick them from any part of the content.

There are a number of online tools that you can use to pick long-tail keywords for Voice Search. Alternatively, hire an SEO expert who understands how to pick long-tail keywords that can give you results. For instance, you can partner with one of the top gurus in Philadelphia SEO: Premier SEO Ninjas.

Conclusion: Since very few SEO changes genuinely transform the business landscape overnight, it’s important to make incremental changes in our approach.  If you are looking for new ways to engage your customers, you need to prepare a very flexible foundation for Voice Search. Although people talk about being able to type 150 words per minute, they only manage around 40 words. This means if we want to search for information and interact with your surroundings, speaking is probably the best way. Brands must, therefore, shift their strategy to Voice Search if they want to increase and maintain their market share.