The Rise of Voice Search and Its Impact on SEO Strategies
Introduction
Voice searches are becoming one of the major contributors to search queries in recent times. Reports say that it accounts for 40 percent of searches in the United States of America. This percentage of increase in voice searches is greatly due to the invention of smart devices, smart televisions, and smart speakers. People instead of typing just take the help of voice search assistance which saves time and effort. This is one of the great tool for people who do not know how to type, for instance children and senior citizens. Now before moving further let’s understand what voice search SEO is.
Voice search SEO
Voice search SEO is a technique used to increase traffic on your website by making your website appear in voice search results. If you are not able to divert enough traffic to your website then you must use a voice search SEO strategy to increase traffic on your website. Various devices use different assistance for voice search.
Impact on SEO Strategies
The increasing number of Voice searches has significantly changed traditional SEO strategies. One of the significant changes is the use of keywords. People using voice searches usually search in a conversational language. They prefer to ask questions and for that reason, greater emphasis is laid on long-tailed keywords in comparison to the trend of short keywords in old times. It gave new dimensions to SEO strategies that lay greater importance on local business directories, snippets, etc.
To be eligible for voice searches your website should have a high rank in search engines as search engines display only top websites in voice searches. Smart devices such as Alexa or Siri generate only the top three voice search results. You should adopt the best voice search SEO practices to have high ranks.
Best practices for optimizing website content for Voice Search
Use the following checklist to ensure that your website performs well in voice search results.
Setting goals
This is the first step that everyone should take to achieve success. Set and define your goals to achieve your target. This is one of the important steps to ensure that you are directed towards goals that are progressive for your website or company. Setting a goal will also help you to measure your performance, whether you have achieved your set target or not. It also helps us to create reports and measure from previously available data.
Optimizing Keywords
Optimizing your keywords plays a crucial role in your voice search SEO.
People usually prefer to type two to three words in search engines but they speak complete phrases or questions in voice searches. For example to search the meaning of a word they would simply tend to write the meaning of SEO but while using voice search they would ask a complete question i.e., what is the meaning of SEO?
So make sure to add long-tailed keywords and phrases to increase traffic on your website. Also, make sure to target question keywords. Include question words such as “who”, “what”, “when”, “how” and “where”.
Always conduct keyword research before adding any keywords. You can use various free keyword research tools to find the best keywords that suit your websites.
Make relevant content
Your content should be relevant and should answer questions that visitors want. Google will discover and index your content based on relevancy. Do not focus on using only keywords in your content but make sure to answer visitors satisfactorily. According to the hummingbird algorithm which was launched by Google in the year 2013, more emphasis is laid on relevancy rather than keywords.
Understand Various Voice Search Assistance
Properly understand all the various smart devices and their assistance to be eligible for voice search. Different devices and search engines work on different algorithms. Make sure to understand these algorithms to be effective and efficient.
Optimize your website for rich results
Rich results refer to results that are visually enhanced and provide a better user experience. This could include the use of structured data, images, links, business listings, and many more. Try to make your website eligible for these rich results because these rich results are placed high in search engines and voice searches which are made using smart devices like Alexa or Siri tend to display only the top three websites.
Create a list of Frequently Asked Questions
Try to create a list of frequently asked questions on your websites this will lead to answering questions more effectively.
Use Snippets
Snippets refer to a short piece of information that appears on the top of search results. Customize your websites to appear on these snippets. Make sure to provide the information or to answer any question in starting two to three lines to be eligible for the snippet.
Mobile Optimization
The current number of mobile users including both smartphones and feature phones accounts for 7.33 billion in the world which is likely to increase to 7.49 billion in 2025. With the vast number of mobile users, most of the traffic is generated from mobiles, so don’t miss this important factor to boost traffic. Make sure that your website is optimized for mobiles. Make sure to ensure that loading speed is low, there are not too many pop-ups or advertisements. Always perform a check that how your website appears on different devices including mobiles.
Conclusion
The scope of voice search is devastating. With the increasing number of smart devices and voice assistance, people are using this feature more as compared to typing their search queries. Voice searches are faster than people typing.
Optimize your website with voice search now and divert more traffic to your website with Digileap Marketing Services. Connect with us at +91 9980160264 / +44 07384021657 or email at growth@digileapservices.com
