The Voice Revolution – Voice search optimization 2018 strategies
By now voice search has comfortably passed the threshold to be considered as a definite possibility of future of search engine optimization rather than just a fad. In fact, according to SEO Expert – 41% of adults conduct at least one voice search per day and that number is continuously rising.
Furthermore, experts report that by 2020, voice searches are expected to account for 50% of all online queries – which is a significant increase of 20% in 2016.
Other than smartphone assistants like Cortana and Siri, the introduction of Google Home and Amazon Alexa have undoubtedly given traction to this trend.
So, overall how does this impact SEO? How will it affect the way SEO professionals’ think in regard to content and search engine optimization?
Let’s find out.
Perfecting your Local SEO game
Voice search and local search are two peas in a pod. BrightLocal reports that “an overwhelming majority (97%) of consumers use to search for online reviews of local businesses”– making this ultimate time for you to optimize your local search ranking.
“Remember that voice searches on mobile are three times likelier to be local, so be sure to optimize content on your site for local branches” writes Pageonepower.
Customers don’t search for a specific business generally, they mostly just search for the best (type of business) in (their area). Thus, directories and review websites dominate these searches- SEOs need to consider them as search engines in their own right.
This leads us to conclude that optimizing your Google My Business listing is no longer just an option but a necessity. It is required to survive voice search- especially on Google devices.
Therefore, make sure that your Google My Business page is updated with the contact details, address, and opening hours listed.
The more data available on your listing- like for e.g. photos, positive reviews and owner responses – the more it is likely to show up on the local 3 pack.
Improving your site page speed
“The average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds (which is 52% faster than the worldwide average). Therefore, if you want to rank in voice search, make sure your site loads as quickly as possible” reveals Backlinko study.
The voice search is almost exclusively used by mobile users, so it is obvious that your website must be mobile-optimized. If it is not so, then the users will simply bounce back which is harmful to your site’s ranking.
A site page that takes more than five seconds to load is most likely to end up suffering from bounce backs compared to sites that take just one second.
Google found out that the bounce rates on mobile are higher than on desktops. It is apparent that mobile users- especially those using voice search are more likely to be on-the-go and don’t have time to be patient.
Voice Search favor SSL and HTTPS websites
Research done by Backlinko states “HTTPS might play an even more important role in voice search than in desktop or mobile search”. In fact, they discovered that “70.4% of voice search result URLs have adopted HTTPS (compared to only 50% of Google desktop results)”.
Now, this relationship could be random co-relational. Because, if you take the time to write search engine optimized content, you are most likely are willing to invest funds and time to set up HTTPS.
The counter-argument to this is that voice search results generally use HTTPS significantly more like mentioned above (70.4% vs 50%) than other results on Google’s first page, which are presumably optimized for SEO.
While it is impossible to conclude that HTTPS is more essential in voice search results from data alone, but it can be safely said that to rank in voice search, HTTPS may help.
Aim for the Featured Snippet
Google Assistant and Google Home both currently read out the featured snippet when they answer a particular query- therefore it makes perfect sense that you aim for the position zero to reach the voice search read-out status.
While there is no definitive answer as to how to gain the top spot on the page, but there has been a plenty of research carried out to figure out how.
Here are some of the things you can keep in mind while writing your content, which can work well if you want it to be a voice search answer –
1. Answer a question specifically
You can use Google’s most asked questions feature and find out what users want to know the most about your chosen subject. Then you can use that information as the basis to create your own copy and include the questions as the H2 and answer those questions specifically in the body in the text directly below.
2. Concise answers
Another thing you don’t want to do is use a lot of technical language or jargons that common people wouldn’t know. Google wants to feature the best answer; therefore, it is best to make your answer clear and digestible. To have a higher chance of getting your content to be featured in snippets- create your content in the form of lists.