Our future will be driven by ‘voice searches’ as we gradually start accepting more and more devices powered by voice AI. Currently, smart speakers have only invaded the living rooms that enable us to listen to music, order things online, call someone, and some other basic things. Besides, voice search functionality allows users to search for things online using the internet connection to access a search engine through their spoken voice.
Users have to say a certain ‘wake phrase’ followed by the ‘voice command’ that specifies what users are looking for online.
The gradual rise of voice search
The immense development and improvement in voice searches in the last decade resulted from AI’s development. The very first voice search came with a bundle of less than a hundred voice commands. The voice search here showed people a search engine results page in response to their query. It was a simple approach where searching by voice helped develop a relevant search result page instantly.
The primary issue here was the lack of speech recognition, which meant that this voice search wasn’t working fairly. However, this feature did give millions a taste of what voice search can do in the future. With more advancement in the technology and subsequent rise of AI-enabled firms, they can train their search engines and digital assistants to recognize a wider vocal range.
Backed with powerful voice AI, today’s voice searches can easily offer results that are either accurate or shows something which intended to be done. Artificial intelligence has been trained in the last decade to decipher the command, understand different voice ascents, and offer near accurate results even for badly given ‘voice commands.’
Smart ways to perform voice search optimization
Here are a few smart ways to perform ‘voice search’ optimization for your content.
Providing rich answers smartly
It is worth considering that almost all the search engines offer very similar answers for any given voice search query. The reason behind it is that search engines effectively look for such answers which are rich in content and offer a wholesome answer for the said voice search query. A rich answer offers different facts about the thing in question, factual information, or gets picked in the featured snippet.
Once a content satisfies all these quadrants and offers an answer that takes all the information into account for the said voice search, such content is preferred by the search engines. So building content that offers rich answers should be prioritized by the SEO specialist to get their sites picked by the voice AI.
Make essential changes in your content
As stated earlier, voice searches are relatively informal, and hence they don’t follow the rules of the traditional search query. Focus here should be made to make the content’ voice search’ friendly by changing the content layout to showcase the question-answer splendidly.
Search engines usually give preference to concise answers, which can provide answers for queries straightforwardly. Make use of pointers whenever possible to give a natural break in your lengthy content. Opting for the Frequently Asked Questions style content will further in getting fetched search engines frequently. So start creating, which has these structures relevant to the ‘voice search’ based results.
Website load-time factor is crucial
A slow-loading website is good for nothing when it comes to being featured in the search engine page results. Even for the voice searches, the search will never pick a website, which takes longer to load up. A slow-loading website is also plagued with a high bounce rate, resulting in financial impact in terms of customers and revenue loss.
Therefore, due effort should be given towards optimizing the website to load up the necessary content quickly. Voice search needs to show quick results, and a fast loading website is more likely to picked up the search engine to showcase quick results.
Give due attention to the mobile
Voice search optimization can never be complete without due attention to the mobile as a large percentage of interaction will happen on mobile devices. The mobile devices made digital assistants unpopular and trained them to offer better results for voice searches.
Smart voice AI over the years helped in bringing the digital assistants on other Internet of Things devices. So the importance of optimizing content for the mobile devices based voice searches can’t be overlooked. Users are more comfortable in using the smartphone for performing voice searches on the go. Optimizing the voice searches for mobile devices will help in further advancing the overall user experience.
Smart SEO strategies for voice search success
You must keep in mind that people don’t just use the voice command but come up with longer keywords conversational in nature. When we are typing, we generally use direct keywords related to query like ‘hot pasta recipe,’ but while using voice search, a query is said as ‘how do I make hot pasta at home.’
So it has become vital for the content marketers to infuse their keywords with long tail and conversation keywords. Thus, their content gets picked by the search engine much frequently.
Focus on featured snippets in the content
Google nowadays relies on the featured snippets to show highly relevant and useful information in just bits of text. It is an excellent tool for driving huge attention and focuses on the website in an instant. The best way to get your content featured in the featured snippet is to provide in-depth and direct answers to the user’s questions.
When a query related to that question asked, your website will be featured prominently and promptly in search engine page results. Thus, content had to be tailored in such a way that it helps in answering the user’s questions quickly.
Secondly, you should know what questions your readers or target audience are going to ask. You should make a list of all the relevant questions related to your product or service that can be asked by the users in the voice searches. Featured snippet usually pops up for the inquires on how to, what is, how, and how to type voice searches.
So it is best if you work towards populating your website with such content, which provides answers to the questions right away.
Informative and authoritative content is the key
Informative content has solid structures, offers rich content, and provides concise answers for its queries. Content is written in such a way that drives users to the answer to their queries. Also, offers them insightful data and information, thereby helping them in their respective task. Such content adds value to the user and website and has the chance of getting pulled by search engines more.
Moreover, websites with high traffic or content with high traffic volume help build the website’s authority among its contemporaries on the search engine page results.
A thorough SEO audit of the website should be done to increase the website domain authority. The website which has negligible SEO limitation is considered as search engine ready website, and it usually gets preference in getting over other website in the voice searches.
Perform local SEO for home assistant devices
The key to success in voice search is to opt for a local SEO strategy for home devices. This will ensure that your website is picked up instantly whenever a user sends a local service or product in a query. It should be noted that the search engines give priority to the local business operating in the area when providing answers for such location-specific voice searches.
Thus, having a good fast loading website, ranking high on the respective industry review platform ensures that your content is instantly featured in the search results.
Final thoughts
The rise of voice searches in the recent past is not only due to its advancement & voice AI but also due to its ability to make the daily life of the user easier. It enables users to get things done efficiently and multitask on the go without touching any device. Building content tailored for the voice search is the need of the hour as the future lies in the voice searches.
Following the above-mentioned tips, you can make the most of the voice search capabilities and enhance your product and service to offer a more personalized experience on the go.
Alice Mackenzie is the content writer at https://www.jetson.ai/. She enjoys writing about SEO and loves to explore advancements in technology. She writes about voice assistants, technology, and a variety of topics.
Voice search stock photo by Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
