Voice search engine optimization (SEO) can open the doors to more traffic and conversions for your website. According to a report published by Microsoft, over two-thirds of U.S. consumers perform voice searches. They use speech to search the internet. Voice SEO will help you rank higher for voice searches so that your website reaches these consumers.
What Is Voice SEO?
Voice SEO is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on optimizing a website to rank higher for voice searches. Not all search queries are typed directly into a search engine; many of them are now spoken. You can perform on-page and off-page SEO to rank higher for voice searches. Voice SEO includes these tasks.
Google, in particular, is strong in voice search:
Higher rankings for voice searches will attract more consumers to your website. Consumers will remember your website after discovering it from a voice search, and some of them will return to it using a computer. And if your website ranks high for voice searches, it will probably rank high for typed searches.
Also Read: Keeping yourself Relevant in the age of Voice Search and Online Communities
Virtual Assistants and Voice Searches: What You Should Know
Voice searches are performed using a virtual assistant. Devices such as smartphones, smart speakers, and automotive infotainment systems often feature a virtual assistant. Consumers can speak a search query into a virtual assistant-controlled device. The virtual assistant will respond by selecting an excerpt from an indexed organic listing.
Examples of virtual assistants include:
- Google Assistant
- Microsoft Cortana
- Amazon Alexa
- Apple Siri
All virtual assistants use a search engine. Google Assistant and Apple Siri, for instance, use Google to process voice searches, whereas Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa use Bing to process voice searches. Virtual assistants will use their search engine to select an excerpt from an indexed organic listing, which they’ll read aloud.
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1. Aim for Position Zero
You should aim for position zero when performing voice SEO. Position zero refers to a special type of list that’s displayed above all other indexed organic listings in the search results. Also known as a featured snippet, it uses a reversed format. Position zero consists of a description of the page — the description is an excerpt pulled from the page — followed by the page’s title.
According to Backlink, nearly half of all voice searches originate from position zero. If there’s a position zero listing available for a voice search, the virtual assistant may use it. If there’s not a position zero listing available, on the other hand, the virtual assistant will use a standard listing.
Google and Bing both support position zero listings. They may show a single position zero listing for any search query. Virtual assistants will often return position zero listings when processing users’ voice searches. Therefore, aiming for positioning zero will result in better rankings for voice searches.
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2. Chase the Long Tail- Voice Search Engine Optimization
Like all forms of SEO, voice SEO requires keywords. You’ll need to choose the keywords or search queries for which you want to rank before optimizing your website. Keywords can be a short tail or a long tail. For voice SEO, long-tail keywords are recommended.
For this, you can use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs:
Keywords are considered short tail or long tail based on their length. Short-tail keywords typically consist of one or two words. Long-tail keywords are longer phrases with more words.
The length of a voice search may vary. Nonetheless, most voice searches are longer than typed searches. SEMRush, in fact, found that the average length of voice searches performed with Google Assistant was 41 words. Voice searches are easier to perform than typed searches. Even if a user isn’t willing to type a long-tail keyword, the user may be willing to speak it.
Also Read: Voice Search for Website
3. Build Authority- Voice Search Engine Optimization
Building your website’s authority is an essential part of voice SEO. Virtual assistants will only return a single listing when processing users’ voice searches. Granted, users can command virtual assistants to choose a different listing, but most voice searches end after the initial listing. To succeed at voice SEO, you must show virtual assistants, as well as their search engines, that your website is better than all other sites for your keywords.
Backlinks are a measurement of authority. The more backlinks your website has, the more authoritative it will be in the eyes of virtual assistants and search engines. For more backlinks, focus on creating high-quality, shareworthy content. If your website has stellar content, other sites will link to it.
There are some backlink checkers you can use online, like this one from Ahrefs:
Also Read: How To Build the Best Referral Marketing Strategy
4. Answer Your Audience’s Questions
Voice SEO involves answering questions. You should create content on your website that answers common questions asked by your site’s audience. Because they are processed by virtual assistants, voice searches are often formatted as questions. Users will ask their virtual assistants a question, and the virtual assistants will search the internet for an answer.
Check out answerthepublic.com to know what people are asking about:
If your website has answers that are relevant to users’ questions, virtual assistants may choose it. Therefore, answering your audiences’ questions with website content will improve your site’s voice SEO.
Don’t just publish all of the questions and answers on a single page. While a consolidated frequently questions page (FAQ) page may rank for some voice searches, you’ll achieve greater marketing success with multiple pages. Create a single page for each question and answer combination.
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5. Provide Context With Structured Data
You can optimize your website for voice searches by using structured data. Structured data is embedded, hidden code that provides context about a page. In other words, it conveys additional information about the content published on the page.
Search engines will read structured data to understand pages, and they’ll use this additional information to calculate rankings. With structured data, search engines have a deeper and more accurate understanding of your website. Visitors won’t see the structured data, but search engines will encounter it when they crawl your website.
Virtual assistants may select a page for a voice search regardless of whether it has structured data. Page with structured data, however, are more likely to rank in position zero than those without structured data. And because virtual assistants select position zero listings for so many voice searches, ranking for them can improve your website’s voice SEO.
Voice Search Engine Optimization- Bottom Lines
There are many different forms of SEO, one of which is voice. Voice SEO focuses on ranking high for voice searches. You can perform voice SEO by optimizing your website for position zero, targeting long-tail keywords, building authority with backlinks, answering questions, and using structured data.
Author BIO
Darrel Wilson is a content creator that manages more than 400k subscribers on five different youtube channels. His channel mainly focuses on WordPress. He teaches in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, and Portuguese. He currently resides in Phuket, Thailand, and enjoys deep sea fishing and spicy Thai food.
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