Digital Marketing has predicted the rise of Voice search to over 50% of all smartphone searches by 2020. With the rise of voice-automated virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alex and Google Home the current SEO strategies and trend can longer be sufficient. With the constant improvement of Voice search in handling inquiries made through mobiles, businesses need to start looking to expand their SEO strategies to include voice search.
However, websites now can rank better in voice search as well as regular search. Brands need to get ahead of any trend and optimize their website to include users who search through voice search. SEO guidelines for voice search are somewhat similar to those of regular search.
Voice search unlike regular search relies on only the first result. Users usually sift through a few results before getting to the one that suits them, but with voice search, only the first ranked result is read by the virtual assistant, and usually, it is the only one selected.
Optimizing for Speech rather than text
Voice search uses a specific search query to find results. Users usually type out less text than what they speak into their virtual assistants. Users usually give more context on their search intent. Using long-tail keywords to adapt to the way users search is beneficial to your ranking.
When using voice search the same way they speak for example “where is the nearest dry cleaning” or “how many stores are open now in my area” as opposed to the regular text search “dry cleaning near me” or “stores open near me”
Adding full sentences as targeted keywords in your search strategy can impact the SEO and ranking of your site.
Focusing on Position Zero
Voice Assistants only read the first snippet found on the top of the google page which is referred to as Page Zero. This means businesses should invest in their SEO. Users would need immediate answers to their questions so expanding the language used by brands online can benefit them.
For example, asking about the weather of a city that you are not currently in at a specific time of the year might give you a small snippet of the weather from a high ranking blog or article. Content which answers questions directly can be expected to reach position zero.
Optimizing local SEO
Local SEO helps local businesses to be found online. 55% of users look for a business (a restaurant, dry cleaning, maintenance service …) when they are within the proximity of that business.
Making sure your business listing is completely by setting up Google my Business, checking Google reviews, linking any social media pages can help with finding your business faster. It is essential to have content that answers questions directly both for regular SEO and Voice Search.
Voice Search will become the top way to set to put a business website on top of the digital marketing game. Users are requesting more information and expect to receive it quick. Incorporating voice search in your SEO strategy would enable
