Over the past two years, the way people search for information online has changed dramatically. People are increasingly using voice searches through tablets, smartphones, or voice assistants such as Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft), Alexa (Google) to find what they are looking for online.
According to Hitwise, nearly 59% of searches are now performed on mobile devices, many of which are done through voice search functions to find local restaurants, get directions, order products, learn about the weather, and more. In fact, according to ComScore data, around 50% of all searches will be voice searches.
Let’s see some tips that you can use to optimize for voice search.
UNDERSTAND THE WAYS PEOPLE USE VOICE SEARCH
The key is to understand how users conduct voice searches, which is essential because it allows us to understand how users interact with these technologies.
Although most of the answers you read may not be relevant to your business, others may give you ideas to optimize your site for voice search.
FOCUS ON YOUR KEYWORDS
To achieve this, you must think about how your customers speak. How would they ask specific questions? Or what kind of questions can make others to visit your website?
It is more about real speech than keyword variations. You need to understand and target as many changes as possible.
Take advantage of Google Search Console to determine the actual queries that bring people to your website. Currently, it is impossible to differentiate which queries come from voice search or text-based search, but Google may change that in the future.
MAKE YOUR CONTENT SCANNABLE
People searching the Internet on mobile devices are looking for content optimized for their devices. Ensure your content is easy to read, scannable, and free of any annoying pop-ups or advertisements that may prevent them from getting the information they need.
Use simple sentences, short paragraphs, and bold headings to make your content stand out as much as possible.
MAKE USE OF GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
If you are not using your Google My Business list, now is the time! Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business list, this is a great way to provide Google with additional information about your business, such as industry, phone number, address, business hours, etc. Keeping this attribute up to date increases the chance of appearing in the search engine results when performing relevant voice searches.
IMPROVE YOUR MICRODATA
Let Google crawl your site and understand its content as easily as possible. That will increase the chance of search engines using your content to answer voice search queries.
In addition to adding Google My Business information, you also need to submit a sitemap to Google, which includes the following information: price, the route to your actual location, business hours, and your address and phone number.
Next, use microdata to help Google understand the meaning of the information.
USE YOUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS PAGE
You want search engines to have the chance to get answers/information from your website, so foresee direct long-tail questions. At the beginning of each content, you should also add some quick answers to meet Google’s rich summary requirements.
That may seem like an extenuating task, but creating these separate pages and content excerpts around specific semantic issues can not only help your website appear in voice search results. Still, they can also be featured as excerpts in all text-based searches appear.
CONCLUSION
Consumers will continue to use voice to control their smartphones, connected devices at home, and car functions. And that’s because the technology is already good, and with the time it will only get better.
Follow the tips in this article, and you will be ahead of your competitors in voice search.
Optimal Websites has a great team of experienced developers that know how to tailor optimization for your unique needs. Contact us or browse our website for more information.