Digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant have made it easier for people to find information, complete tasks, and make purchases using voice search. If your business isn’t showing up on voice search, you’re missing out on major visibility.
1 billion voice searches occur each month via mobile and voice search devices. Voice search is gaining popularity due to its convenience, accessibility, and technological advancements. Voice search optimization is very helpful for local businesses with nearly 50% of voice searches having local intent.
Why Voice Search Optimization is Important?
Voice search optimization is important as it helps businesses reach a wider audience and improve their visibility in voice search results. It is predicted that there will be 8 billion voice-enabled digital assistants in 2024. Most consumers prefer using a voice assistant than typing to search for something online.
Tips For Voice Search Optimization
You have to develop a voice search optimization strategy to help you capture every voice search query related to your product or topic. Let’s dive into some important tips to help your website rank higher in voice searches:
- Research Keywords for Voice Search: Like any SEO strategy, choose the right keywords. Choose relevant keywords, so you can obtain valuable leads. When researching keywords for voice search, it’s a good idea to focus on long-tail, question or conversational keywords.
- Local SEO: More than 50% of the consumers choose a voice search in order to find local businesses. Many people tend to search where they are headed locally while driving. A lot of people conduct voice searches where they use the phrase “near me”. Voice optimize the content for local searches.
- Mobile Optimization for Voice Search: With the rise of usage in mobile devices, there is an increase in voice queries, too. By optimizing for mobile, the user will remain in the page after they conduct their voice search. It’s a valuable way to earn more leads for your business.
- Optimize for Featured Snippets: Featured snippets are special boxes where the format of a regular search result is reversed, showing the descriptive snippet first. Google reads back featured snippets when users perform voice queries on mobile or Google Home devices. Focus on creating high-quality content that answers a query in list, table or paragraph.
- Incorporate Schema Markup: Use schema to mark up your content and tell search engines what your site’s about. Schema markup is a code in the form of structured data that communicates the meaning of your page, elements.
- Create an FAQ page: Voice searchers are looking for answers that fulfill an immediate need. An FAQ page is a quick way for you to provide your audience with valuable information and answer their questions. FAQ pages are great medium to answer them conversationally.
Conclusion: Improving Your Website’s Voice Search Optimization
Optimization is not a one-time thing. It should be a continuous process. It is clear that voice commands will continue to have a strong impact on search marketing. So optimize your website for voice search by regularly auditing according to changing search trends. Monitor your efforts, and stay competitive in SERPs.