Voice Search SEO Continues to Grow, Here’s How You Can Adapt

The majority of marketers online used to believe that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for mobile devices would be a catalyst for a lot of changes needed. It turned out that the strategies that were applied to desktop SEO can work quite the same on mobile, albeit with a few tweaks.

However, the same cannot be said for voice search. Some say that it is a different animal and that if one needs to understand how the queries behind this kind of search works can they bring in more traffic to their page.

For this article, let us understand why we need to start thinking about voice search, why big changes come with it and how we can optimize our websites to fit its needs

Why Do I Have to Think About Voice Search?

If you search for the top trends in SEO for 2018 or for the past year, you will most likely find voice search as one of the things listed there. The reason behind this is because searching by means of voice input is not a fad that will simply fade away. It’s already past the adoption stage, and since almost half of the population in the world owning a smartphone, a growing number of users will begin to realize just how convenient searching by voice is.

Then you can also find trends of consumers that are buying smart speakers more. This means that searching with voice will be a lot easier for the years to come. You don’t have to type when you can simply use a nifty speaker that will improve the process of voice searching.

Using voice search is easier than typing, that is a guarantee. People can use it while staying at home, travelling to work or when they’re out with their buddies. You can even use it as soon as you hop off the shower to get food for lunch.

The Impact of Voice Search

If you’ve had a look at the rankings of keywords lately, the mobile and desktop SEO parts aren’t that different from each other. The changes that have impacted them lately have not been big enough to be called a game changer. It is different with voice search because it uses a different context including the means of which it is achieved.

Let’s say that you are at home sitting in front of your computer and you want to order a burger from your favorite fast-food chain. You would then type any inquiry you have through the search engine to find what you’re looking for.

With voice, you’d have to say something like “Google, tell me what time does my favorite fast food chain close.” The phrase that you will be using is different, which then significantly affects how a company will optimize their pages moving forward.

So how exactly can you optimize when people are using voice search nowadays?

1. Start By Being Conversational

If you thing you’re great with conversations, then this is the time you have to prove it. Typing a query in our favorite search engine, we can be quite careless with the choice of words we use since the engine would usually find the gaps for us.

To be more compatible with voice search, you will need to start using superlatives such as “What is best..”, “Where is the best..”, “Where is the cheapest..” and so on. You should also answer both the positive and negative inquiries such as “Why would my device stop working?”

Finally, there’s nothing better than to listen to how people talk and apply what you observe in your search parameters.

2. Apply Question Phrases

The mobile devices that we have can be our own virtual assistant in a pocket. When we’re in a new place, and we’re feeling the pangs of hunger, we’d like to turn to our assistant and ask them where they can find us the best place to eat.

Since this is how people are starting to use mobile voice search nowadays, it is an excellent idea to know what questions people ask and start optimizing from there. Figure out which keywords they’d potentially use and analyze them for your search engine optimization.

3. Enhance Your Business Listing

You’ve got your business ranked on search engines, but can people find them easily via voice?

Nearly ¼ of the voice searches today are done for content found locally. This makes sense since people who do this often are on the move and are looking for assistance from their phones.

One of the things you can do is to claim your own My Business listing on Google. This is an important aspect for businesses since it helps mobile users find businesses near them. If you don’t have your brand listed in Google My Business, you won’t likely be displayed in the search results of Google as well.