Most of us still remember the year 2011. Apple's voice assistant "Siri" was launched. The technology was completely new. It was fun to test it out. However, its answers to specific questions were rarely informative.
Hardly anyone could have predicted that this technology would become a digital trend of the future. Voice search has undergone a significant development process since then.
Meanwhile, there are a variety of voice-activated technologies, such as Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa, and Google Assistant. 500 million voice assistants have been sold worldwide.
Voice search offers immense potential, particularly for SEO strategies. To prepare your website for the future, it is important to take a closer look at this digital trend and its impact on how search engines work. This article outlines six specific steps you can take to optimize your website for voice search.
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Tip 1 – Reach position 0
Position 0 is usually at the top of the organic ranking and answers specific questions. Voice assistants use this position on Google to answer specific user questions.
Even though voice search is less common among computer users, reaching position zero offers immense advantages. Once a website has achieved this valuable position, it benefits from both mobile and PC searches:
- a higher CTR
- increased visitor numbers
- greater brand visibility
In principle, all pages on the first search results page can achieve position 0. To do this, an FAQ section with frequently searched questions should be created. In addition, it is recommended to include a heading in the form of "What is + keyword" at the beginning of an article.
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Tip 2 – Voice Search & Local SEO
People often use voice search while driving and ask questions about company locations or business hours. Consequently, companies should be prepared for voice search queries and optimize their website or Google My Business account.
Location-specific information is only part of what users expect from voice assistants. According to a Google survey, users want information about offers and sales, personalized tips, information about upcoming events, customer support, and more. Adding this information to Google My Business makes it easier for voice assistants to access the information.
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Tip 3 – Keyword research for voice search
Semantic differences should be given special consideration in search queries.
For example, if someone wants to use their smartphone's voice search to find a voice assistant for their home, they would phrase their question as follows: "What is the best voice assistant for the home?"
On a computer, the query would look different: "Voice assistants for the home."
Long-tail keywords are particularly relevant for voice search optimization. The SEO difficulty is low, so good rankings with high domain authority can be achieved.
Find long-tail keywords
Answer the Public is a popular tool for finding long-tail keywords. After entering the keyword, frequently searched questions are displayed. Also worth mentioning in this context is the W-question tool from contentbird.
Google Search has a feature that finds similar frequently asked questions from users. When you enter a question, it automatically suggests other related questions. Long-tail keywords can also be found here.
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Tip 4 – Voice search requires customized content
Customized content can increase the relevance of an article and thus improve its organic ranking. It is important to differentiate between the various intentions of a user, such as:
- Awareness: "What is the best voice assistant for the home?"
- Interest: "Can you make phone calls with Google Home?"
- Review: "Who is smarter? Siri or Google?"
- Purchase: "How much does an Amazon Echo cost?"
- Customer support: "Why does Google Home sometimes not respond?"
- Compatibility: "Which products work with Google Home?"
As can be seen, users search with different intentions. The following three article types are suitable for serving these different intentions:
- Informational articles (instructions, etc.)
- Navigation items (branches, services, press releases, customer service information)
- Transactional articles (videos, product information, comparisons, product stories)
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Tip 5 – Voice search requires a page structure
An essential step in voice search optimization is ensuring that your own pages are easy to find. A sitemap, which can be submitted to Google Search Console, serves this purpose.
In addition, schema markups can be used for structured data to help Google bots better understand the content. Markups can be used to highlight the following content:
- products
- people
- organizations
- Events
- recipes
- reviews
- instructions
In addition, adding markups allows voice assistants to access additional information within seconds. Schema markups also increase CTR, as stars and additional highlights attract the reader's attention. If you want to test the implementation of markups, Google Search Console is a good tool to use.
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Tip 6 – Mobile-friendly is also voice search-friendly
Updates to search algorithms have focused search engine marketing primarily on smartphone users in recent years.
It is therefore important to bear in mind that the vast majority of voice search queries are actually made via mobile devices. Many optimizations carried out for voice search also improve the user experience in general. A concrete example is website speed:
Backlinko conducted an analysis of potential ranking factors for voice search and found that voice search results loaded 52% faster than average pages.
Website speed is particularly important in mobile rankings, as users on the go expect not only specific results, but also fast results. Consequently, it is worth optimizing website speed with Google's own tool: Pagespeed Insights.
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What are the advantages of voice search?
As speech recognition technology becomes more accurate and complex, more users are discovering the advantages of voice search and voice commands. According to the latest study results , 41% of young people use voice assistants more than once a day.
According to Google, users of Voice Search benefit from many advantages, including:
- Simpler multitasking
- Faster completion of tasks
- Get answers and information immediately
- General simplification of everyday life
Voice search and voice commands are a great application that many users now find indispensable.
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Conclusion – Voice search is the trend of the future
It is currently impossible to predict whether voice search will one day dominate search queries. There is no doubt that it will have a significant impact on search engine marketing. Incorporating the strategies mentioned above into general optimization efforts will ensure that traffic can also be gained through voice search in the future, provided that the trend continues to grow.
