If your website isn’t optimised for voice search, then you could be missing out on a lot of website traffic. Voice search is growing in popularity because it is so easy to do now.
Technology has progressed so much that not only can people do voice searches on their phones, but they also use smart watches, TV’s and home devices like the Amazon Alexa, to find the information they need.
What Is Voice Search?
Voice search is a function that allows users to search the web using speech, rather than typing.
When conducting a voice search, people will phrase things slightly different to how they would if typing a query.
For example, a typed query might look something like this:
‘Italian restaurants near me’
Whereas, a voice search query would be more like this:
‘What are the best Italian restaurants in my area?’
As you can see, the underlying query is the same, but when we conduct voice searches, they tend to be more conversational.
So, how can you optimise your website so that it’s ready for voice searches?
Google My Business:
One thing that voice search is used for a lot, is local or ‘near me’ searches. This means it is really important to optimise for local SEO, and one of the best ways to do this is with Google My Business. If you don’t already have an account, you can create one for free, and then update your account with accurate business hours, services and more to make your listing as complete as possible. Google My Business listings appear as part of Google Maps results, which is particularly important if you have a brick and mortar store that someone can just pop in to.
Website Loading Speed:
Voice searches need an immediate response, so it is important that you focus on optimising your website loading time. Having a slow website can affect your bounce rate and conversions, and if someone is in a hurry to find something, they won’t want to hang around waiting for your website to load. If your site is slow, they will just go to a competitor’s site instead. Here are some tips on how to make your website faster.
Long-tail Keywords:
Targeting long-tail keywords is a very effective strategy for optimising for voice search. Long-tail keywords are very specific search terms that are a lot longer than typical keywords. They get less search volume than shorter keywords, but long-tail keywords account for the majority of all search queries. Long-tail keywords are more conversational, exactly like people’s voice searches usually are. By targeting these keywords, and answering the questions your audience have, you are more likely to rank in search results.
Mobile Responsiveness:
Most voice searches are done on mobile devices, which means people will be accessing your website on mobile devices too. If your website doesn’t work properly on their device, they’ll leave. Make sure your visitors have a good experience when they use your site, regardless of the type of device they are browsing on. That way you won’t miss out on any traffic because your website isn’t responsive.
Structured Data:
Structured data, or Schema, is a markup language that provides search engines with additional information about the information that is on a website. Now, you may have noticed if you ask your device a question, it will start reading out an answer to you, but where does it pull this information from? Google uses structured data to pull relevant ‘snippets’ of information that it displays at the top of search results. These ‘snippets’ are the bits of information that your device relays to you when you ask a question. There is no certain way to have your website be the one that a ‘snippet’ is taken from, but you do need to be on the first page of search results for that particular query and implementing structured data really increases your chances.
Voice search has changed the way people search for information on the web, which means there are now more things you have to do to rank well and increase your organic traffic, but as long as you provide the right user experience and take note of what your audience is searching for, you can start appearing in voice search results.