You might not even realize how much voice search has taken over here in Tucson. Some people have always preferred to talk into their phones, rather than typing. It saves time and allows them to go hands free. Other people are voice searching simply out of convenience, because they have a smart home device (like Google Home, Amazon Echo, or one of their mini counterparts) or a computer with a built in voice service (like Cortana or Siri).
Voice search is adding an entirely new layer to SEO. It’s more than just the occasional search now – it’s replacing a lot of traditional web or mobile searches and you need to be prepared to cater to it.
Voice Search Is Quickly Becoming The New Norm
With smart devices becoming increasingly prevalent, people are embracing the convenience. Why bother taking out your phone, unlocking it, and typing out a search when you can simply ask something out loud without having to stop what you’re doing?
Voice search is an innovation that’s proven useful to its alternative and it isn’t going anywhere. About 20% of searches currently come from voice search, and that number is growing on a daily basis. The sooner you optimize for voice search, the better off you’ll be.
How You Talk Versus How You Type
Voice searches will typically contain more words than text based searches. If you’re looking to find out more information about the Falcon Heavy, you’re likely to type something akin to “falcon heavy” or “falcon space”. When you’re asking the question, you’re more likely to speak the whole phrase, like “What is the Falcon Heavy?” or “Who invented Tesla cars?”
This means voice searches need to satisfy the maximum amount of keywords and variations. There’s no shorthand in speech and your optimization needs to reflect that. People ask their voice assistants questions in the same form they would use when asking a friend. This means that the who, what, when, where, why, and how will inevitably become an important part of your strategy.
Providing Askers With The Right Answer
Voice search results will return the contents of a snippet or an answer box that the search engine (usually Google) will automatically generate based on the content of your page. You need to have the perfect content to answer the question. It’s also worth noting that your content needs to be above the content of your competitors if you want your askers to hear it read to them by their smart device.
Following the previous example, merely mentioning the Falcon Heavy on your page won’t be enough. You need something useful, such as “The Falcon Heavy is a space shuttle with reusable components invented and produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.” That snippet is clear and informative. It will touch on the things that Google assumes the asker wants to know.
The Complexity Of Voice Search Optimization
Voice search is a small part of an overall SEO strategy. Optimizing for voice search alone won’t have any affect on your ability to become the top result. You’ll need to practice other SEO strategies as well. Getting into the top three results for your keywords in the only way a voice assistant will choose your content as an answer.
You need to have quick loading times, a mobile optimized site, reviews and links all over the place, a secure website, and authority in order for your efforts to make a difference. A great SEO strategy requires continuous maintenance and growth to help your website maintain its good standing and high ranking. Even if you have the top voice result now, you may lose it if you fail to keep on top of things.
Using Schema Markup To Your Advantage
Schema markup might look intimidating, but it’s SEO’s best friend in the entire world. They’re practically married. If you use Google’s preferred schema markup in your content, you’re already optimized for voice search. The code satisfies a variety of long tail and short tail keyword based questions, whether or not you’ve used the exact phrases in your text. Schema is a giant safety net, and it’s ready to catch you.
Since Google automatically incorporates all of the information obtained via Schema markup, you’re ready to go as soon as you start using it. Devices that enable voice search will be able to find it just as easily as people performing text searches. Using Schema is a no-brainer.
This Sure Sounds Complicated
If you need a lot of SEO work to optimize for voice search, we know how to handle it for you. We can help you with Schema markup, too. We know your website is already a full time job. Let us do the hard stuff. Contact Tucson SEO Pros today so we can help you outrank your competitors in voice search and on Google.