Strategies to Optimize Your Content for Voice Search
1. Optimize for Rich Answers
A voice search study found that "70% of all answers returned from voice searches occupied a SERP feature (with 60% of those returning a Featured Snippet result)." The odds are most smart devices with voice search capability will give out a similar answer to particular queries, and the answer is principally a rich answer for the question.
We need to brief ourselves with some SEO related terms to understand this better:
Knowledge Graph - Google’s knowledge base, which stores and absorbs all the different facts about people, places, and things.
Knowledge Panel - The information(in a small box) we see in the right of the search results whenever we search for a business on Google. All this information comes from the Knowledge Graph.
Knowledge Box - Similar to Knowledge Panel, this is factual information coming from the Knowledge Graph appearing just like other regular search results.
Featured Snippet - Coming from third-party sources, Google displays this information on top of organic results above the ads with attribution to the original source; this is done to provide users with quick and concise answers.
Rich Answer - Whenever a search result contains any of the above features, it is called a rich answer.
2. Re-Imagine and Restructure Your Content
With voice search being a lot more conversational than traditional searches, we all need to analyze our content and its structure again. The goal should be to include succinct questions and answers to improve the content layout and make it more voice search-friendly.
3. Use Conversational Language for Content
Being conversational is a primary characteristic of a voice search query, and we need to take leverage of this. The more we use robotic language in our content, the fewer chances we have in appearing in voice search results.
We can benefit hugely from using natural language in whatever we write and publish on the web. When there is the use of natural language, there is a lot of scope of matching as a result of verbal questions.
Understanding the searcher’s intent is critical if you want to know how people are asking verbal queries. You need to study and anticipate the query style that people use while using voice search.
- What type of question keywords are people using?
- What is their conversational style?
- What type of questions are being asked the most?
- What type of answers are best suited for these queries?
- What answers are performing well and being displayed as voice search results?
Data-driven insights with answers to the above questions will let you have an idea of what people want when they search verbally.
4. Target Long-Tail Keyword Phrases
Yes, voice searches are longer than searches on a keyboard due to their conversational style. On top of this, we all know that Google is fond of long-form complete content. We cannot prepare content separately for each and every voice search term, but we can surely include all terms in a full-fledged post.
Content creators can use this by developing long-form content including all long-tail keywords which appear in vocal queries.
5. Improve Loading Time of Your Website
Despite being such an essential factor for voice search, this one often goes unnoticed. But that doesn’t lower its significance a bit.
Websites that take longer to load are abandoned very quickly compared to those that load quickly. Website loading speed has a direct impact on bounce rate and hence, should be optimized at all costs.
To add some necessity, Google released its Speed Update, which emphasizes optimizing website load times. When it comes to voice searches, the rules are pretty much the same. Voice searchers need immediate results, and if you have a slow website which takes an eternity to load, your content won't be used to answer verbal queries.
Here is a checklist of the do's and don'ts for good website loading speeds:
- Use compressed images and videos on your site.
- Use “async” and “defer” to reduce JavaScript parsing.
- It is advisable to use CSS3 and HTML5 frameworks given that they load mobile web pages quickly.
- Minify Style Sheets and JavaScript and lessen HTTP requests.
- Reduce redirects and the number of plugins you use.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
All in all, slow page loading speeds can affect both your website’s bounce rate and conversion rate.
Google Page Speed Insights and PingDom are good website speed test tools, and we ought to use these to optimize our site load times.
6. Pay Attention to Mobile
All the big announcements at Google I/O 2019 were either directly related to mobile or tools related to mobile. Google emphasizes mobile experience and vows to make it better day by day.
Mobile easily beats other devices when it comes to voice search queries because most verbal questions are being asked on mobile. You should be well prepared to deliver an amazing mobile user experience.
Creating mobile-friendly content with a mobile-first approach is key, and we need to pay heed to some ways to achieve that:
- Build a mobile-responsive website.
- Run a mobile-friendly test for your website and optimize accordingly.
- Your website should be crawlable to ensure visibility and exposure to your content.
Mobile is the future of search, and that includes vocal queries as well. Being ready with a mobile responsive website is an SEO Best Practice which shouldn’t be ignored.
7. Leverage Google My Business Listings
We are already aware that people use their voice for “near me” searches. The factor that determines whether we rank for these searches is our Google My Business listing.
A Google My Business listing is a way to let Google know that your business is located at a particular place. When someone asks Google to display similar businesses in that area, your business could rank for that query.
Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) must be included in your listing. Moreover, choosing the right business categories and providing area codes is vital. You can also add posts with special deals, news, or updates to make your business stand out.
So if you don’t have a Google Business listing yet, it is high time you do so. Improve your local SEO, and you will see the positive results straight away.
Another way to rank for “near me” searches is to target local keywords and gain higher search rankings. Embedding structured data using Schema.org for better performance in search engines is highly recommended.
8. Bonus: Improve Content Readability
Writing good, readable content is pretty much a basic must, but we still overlook this somehow. Precise writing with a standard reading level helps in ranking our content.
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