OK Google! How is Voice Search changing SEO?

It is no surprise that Voice search has become an integral part of our everyday life, especially when it comes to business. There are times when there is a lot of astir- client meetings, conferences, keeping up-to-date with what is going around the world, etc. At such times, multitasking can be a bit overwhelming. With the new era of advanced technology, voice assistants aid you to streamline this whole process. Whether you need to reschedule important conferences and calls, dictate important notes, or set a reminder for an important client meeting, it can all be achieved in an instant. 

When it comes to your consumers, voice search helps in giving the users a better experience as it provides easy navigation through your website and a one-stop, hands-free solution. Moreover, considering that the average typing speed of a person is about 30 words per minute, voice search can transform it to about 90-95 words per minute, making it much more cost-effective and efficient. 

Voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and even Google’s voice search are dominating the voice optimization industry. With just one tap on your smartphone, you can voice out any information you need. These digital apprentices are well known to make your tasks easier and more favorable. Even during the global pandemic, the comprehensive sales of smart speakers were about $4 billion and are expected to increase up to $8 billion by 2040. With an ever-increasing need and demand, implementing voice search SEO has become crucial and inevitable.

What is Voice Search?

Did you know that enables users to speak aloud the phrase or term that they want to search in lieu of typing it about 20% of all Google searches are voice assisted? Voice search is basically a speech recognition technology that enables users to speak aloud the phrase or term that they want to search in lieu of typing it in the search bar. One can make queries about anything and everything, set reminders, call people from their contacts, schedule meetings and much more.

In order for your content to rank higher when a user adopts voice command, Voice Search Optimization has to be implemented in your digital marketing practices. Voice Search Optimization refers to the process of optimizing your pages and overall content to appear in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) when a person uses voice command.

How is Voice Search changing SEO?

You may be astonished to know that voice search generates about $2 billion in sales. This gives us an insight that if you want to generate traffic in order to boost your sales, you need to know how you can apply it in you SEO practices. Before we understand the impact of voice search on SEO, we need to understand how it actually works.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can effectively implement voice search in your SEO practices.

1. Include conversational texts and tones.

First and foremost, you need to add the ‘human touch’. You need to understand that the language or tone used in voice search is discrepant from the language used in a usual or accustomed keyword search. Voice commands or speech technology work using Natural Language Processing. Hence, you should ensure to utilize common, daily language rather than extravagant keywords and vocabulary.

2. Include lengthy keywords and phrases.

Generally, when people type a query or statement, it is usually a specific word or a phrase. For instance, if someone wants to be versed about SEO strategies, he/she would usually type- ‘Best SEO strategies”. Whereas, if he/she would use voice command, it can be presumed that he/she may present a detailed question such as- ‘What are some of the best SEO strategies in Digital Marketing?’ Research suggests that incorporating lengthy keywords are very effective at imitating conversational speech.

3. Include FAQs and interrogatory keywords and phrases.

It can very well be presumed that most voice searches are interrogatory or inquisitive. Ordinarily, when people use voice search, they do not utter specific or selected keywords. Rather, they may ask detailed or thorough questions. Thus, it is essential to amalgamate long-tailed interrogative keywords and questions in your voice SEO practices as it can help in ranking your content higher.

Inculcating interrogative or inquisitive keywords and FAQs not only helps the users to find relevant answers to their queries, but also assists you to rank your content on featured snippets, which may have a highly positive impact on deriving more traffic.

4. Concentrate on local searches.

Majority of the users enquire for local businesses when using voice search. For example, you may frequently ask questions such as ‘Where can I get leather boots near me?’ or ‘What are the best restaurants near me?’ As a result, you can take leverage from such advantageous opportunities by optimizing your SEO accordingly. This can be done by listing your company on Google’s My Business to acquire local traffic.

5. Include Schema Markup.

If you want your content to rank on a featured snippet, you need to include Schema Markup in your SEO practices. It is a search engine language that utilizes unique semantic vocabulary or codes. Which helps to provide more data to the search engine so as to analyze and interpret subject matter and overall content. Only when the search engine understands the content on your website, it will be ranked higher for relevant queries.The probability of your content to rank on a featured snippet also increases.

With voice search, SEO is not just reliant on what people type. Instead, it will focus on what people say. About 70% of the answers for queries are answers that are from the featured snippet. As a result, SEO has become more competitive. When it comes to typing phrases, the keywords have to be altered or changed in order to get the relevant information. On the contrary, when it comes to voice search, the content itself has to be tailored and altered. In such a way that it is relevant to the queries asked through voice commands as voice searches are lengthy. And detailed In such a scenario, you also have to make sure that suitable .SEO practices are implemented to rank your content higher.

With more and more people adopting to voice searches, it has had immense impact on SEO. Now, SEO is not just focusing on keywords but also understanding voice search and its semantics. Companies now have a new way to reach out to their target audience and provide them with needful and accurate information.

Keyword search Vs. Voice Search

When it comes to SEO, we may all be accustomed to the traditional keyword search. But with the growing usage of voice search, the way that content is presented to us is completely changed. “Which one is better?” you may ask, and the answer is quite simple. It all depends upon the kind of information you need.

With traditional keyword search, you may have to type in specific keywords to get relevant results. It will provide with all the information related to the keyword and beyond. You do not need to type in lengthy sentences or phrases to get what you are looking for. Just a couple of the right keywords will provide you with more accurate information or content.

With voice search, you may get more localized information and it takes your location into consideration. Moreover, you can voice out thorough questions or statements. Featured snippets, which is relevant to your voice search, are hand-picked for you which makes your browsing experience easier and more efficient.

Our thoughts

Now that you know about this emerging technology and its impact on SEO, our Digital Marketing team at Valasys Media is here to give you a great SEO experience.

With the promise of “Empowering marketers with Powerful Insights”, our team of professional Digital Marketing Executives, Marketing and Sales Analysts, Data Analysts and Researchers have worked with well-known clients across the globe including Fortune 500 companies to help them grow and prosper.

For more information, feel free to contact us.