Is your website not getting enough traffic? Could you make out any reason for it? The most probable reason that you would think of is that people are not searching the way you think they are. Well, the search behavior of the users has changed overtime. Voice search is the reality of today. So if your website is not optimized for voice search, you will miss out on traffic. In today’s article, I’m going to talk about some ideal SEO strategies and resources for voice search that will not only help you get more traffic from people using Voice Assistants like Siri and Alexa, but they will also become vital pillars of your entire SEO strategy.
Let’s jump right in
What is voice search?
Voice search is a method of searching the Internet through speech or by speaking. A device can recognize your voice using artificial intelligence and put the question or query into a search engine. Voice search is everywhere these days. Majority of the Internet users all over the world uses voice search. There are many popular voice search devices and search engines that we can see these days. The reason behind voice search being so popular is the technology is in almost every device we use, making it super easy to access.
Some of the most popular voice search devices and the search engines are-
Google Home-Google, Amazon Alexa-Bing, IPhone Siri-Safari, Google Assistant-Google, Microsoft Cortana-Bing, Android phones and devices-Google. So regardless of the device you use, a phone, TV, speaker or any other device, it has the ability to search the Internet through speech.
Methods to optimize your website for voice search
Wherever you look, there are voice search-enabled devices, and the percentage of voice searches as a share of total searches continues to grow. But don’t worry, you don’t have to tear up your existing SEO strategy to optimize for voice search. Voice search is all about the overall trend of matching user intent and providing the best possible user experience.
Here are some methods you can use to optimize your website for voice search which will definitely benefit your SEO in general.
✅ Local search optimization
It has been found in many studies that many voice searches are for local information. These voice searches are three times more likely to be local searches then text searches. I mean this is very obvious because let’s say, if you are out and you want to look for the nearest restaurant, what will you prefer? To type “which is the nearest restaurant to me” or just speak “which is the nearest restaurant to me.” Obviously, the latter one.
It is easy to get out your mobile device and ask a question. So it becomes important for you to focus on the local element of your effort. Local SEO is a fundamental part of many business’ digital marketing strategy. According to an online study, local searches make up around 46% of total searches, and these are extremely engaged customers. Local customers are the people who will just come to your store and make a purchase there, this means showing up in the local search pack is crucial.
How can you optimize for local search?
- By creating content that is relevant to your local area
- By integrating local keywords into your copy
- Mentioning landmarks around your business location
- Including “Near me” in your title tags, internal links, Meta description and anchor text.
✅ Create conversational but ‘to-the-point’ content
Those days when marketers used to stuff the content with keywords in order to please crawlers are no longer there. In order to make your SEO strategy successful, you have to be authentic, you have to use natural language and offer high quality content as well. Natural language is important because voice search symbolizes this when people search through speech. They talk in a more natural way than they do when they are typing a question into the search engine. So it is important that your content matches the conversational way people ask questions to their voice assistants, but not just for voice search reasons.
What I mean here is, the rankings that we are seeing today are user experience focused. The pages that answer user’s questions in the best way while sharing the best experience, will get to the top of the rankings. In order to do this, you have to give people quick access to the information they need. That is in short and to the point and do it in a natural way. By doing this, you’re matching the language people have used in their voice search and along with that you are driving engagement through your authentic brand voice.
✅ Google My business listing
Google My Business listing is a crucial part of local SEO and voice search. As we know that, voice searches are commonly used to find out crucial details about your business. Such as your contact number, address, opening and closing hours. So, Google must have accurate information regarding these details. Here, Google My Business is the best tool to present all of this important information.
With Google My Business listing, you can provide important details about your business like what your business does, what are some popular products. When it opens, where it is located, and so on and so forth. This is important because this is what you’re voice searches are asking for.
✅ Website must be mobile friendly
It is evident that most of the voice searches are made through mobile devices. Hence, you have to offer a good mobile experience. And now we know that this is also a key part of Google’s algorithms, but there are still some websites out there that are not optimized for mobile. So you should not do this mistake.
Your website should be well optimized for mobile. Because if it isn’t then, this is a sign for Google that your page is not worthy of ranking. So, it’s going to hurt you for both voice search and conventional queries. Current SEO is all about user experience and with the majority of traffic and potentially all voice traffic coming from mobile devices, this is something you should master.
✅ Put out answers for your audiences FAQs
People generally use questions when making voice searches. And the best thing about this is Google also gives you a great insight into the questions users are frequently asking. What you can do is you can type a question that is related to your website, and then take a look at the results. The odds are, you will see a box titled “people also ask.” The FAQ feature shows many queries, and it shows you the questions your target audience is frequently asking. When you have a clear picture of the questions people are frequently asking to search for information, you can start creating great content that answers those questions.
As I emphasized many times before, the main thing is user experience, and the first thing you need in order to give someone the right experience is high-quality content. So, answer peoples FAQs, provide them solution for their pain points. If you can do this, you will definitely going to see an improvement in your traffic, conversions, and ultimately ranking.
The bottom line
One of the best ways to grow your organic traffic is by aiming to rank well for voice searches. As we know there are a huge number of voice searches happening every day. But the tactics and techniques you use to optimize for these voice searches are an essential part of modern SEO. The way of searching for information has changed now. Voice search is one of the most used methods today. And search engines have responded with updates to their algorithms accordingly. Hence, you need to respond as well, and by matching user intent and giving the appropriate user experience, you can ensure that you are getting more organic traffic through voice search.
Not sure how to optimize your website for voice search? Hire digital marketing agency in Dubai.
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