How Does Voice Search Affect SEO?

We’ve come a long way from the days of rotary dial phones. With our smartphones, we can text and call anyone from anywhere, but even more revolutionary is the facility to search for real-time business information. You can find store hours, if a new book is in, and even order food with the press of a button. Now, we’re entering a new age of mobile-connected and search engine optimized world-wide-web thanks to voice search.

Small businesses especially everywhere are starting to integrate voice search optimization in local SEO practices to prepare themselves for the near future where 50 percent of all searches on Google will be voice-based.

People are using voice search functionality more every year as leading mobile devices increasingly develop exclusive voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant on Androids phones. The opportunity voice search optimization provides in overall SEO is incredible for driving traffic to brick-and-mortar stores. Now you know why Amazon is opening physical stores - from booksellers to grocery pickup locations to cashier-less convenience stores.

Voice search optimization is your best bet as a small business owner to take on giants like Amazon by leveraging mobile voice search feature to create the most convenient and intuitive local SEO strategy that drives traffic to your store.

Voice search optimization facts:

• According to a tech firm, there were more than 30 million voice-first devices in circulation
• Another report said that one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches
• Teenagers are savvy users of voice search, but a survey found that people in all age groups use mobile personal assistants
• The shipping trend of voice-first devices year-on-year is on rising
• “near me” searches have grown significantly YoY as per a study
• Recent data from the research shows that more than 15% of Americans now own a smart speaker
• More than 70 percent of smart speaker owners perform searches for local businesses on a weekly basis, and more than 50 percent say they perform these searches every day, according to data

What is voice search?

“Hey Google, what’s the best Bengali restaurant near me?”

Voice search lets you be conversational with your search engines and contextual with the information your small business has included on its Google My Business listing. Location, store details, and business hours are just some of the information Google will quickly crawl and index to provide the most relevant answer to a user’s search query. The algorithm will also take into account reputation in terms of Google reviews your business listing has received. This is done by analyzing star ratings and comments posts in order to provide credibility for voice search optimizations that include keywords like “best”.

Voice search utilizes the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Algorithms like Google’s RankBrain can decipher the nuances in your speech-based command in addition to the user’s search history and device location to find the most relevant answer. Since its AI, it also becomes smarter and intelligent with every conversation.

You might optimize your pages to rank for keywords like “hardware store Kolkata” or “cheap clothes for sale Pune” but with voice search, you need to optimize the content appropriately to sound conversational. That is the fundamental difference between typed searches and voice search - usually five words or more (a very long tail keyword), which plays a decisive role in user intent.

To create the optimal online presence, here is what the ideal local business should:

• Have good and growing review ratings
• Regularly get online mentions linking to their websites
• Get talked about on social media platforms
• Have listings in local directories

How to mix voice search optimization in local SEO?

Voice search optimization, in the beginning, was about including answers to frequently asked questions by users about your business. The effectiveness of your voice search depends on how easily Google and other reputed search engines can crawl and index your content so optimized rich snippets can appear in ”position zero” on SERP. That way, it’s come to providing the obvious answer for voice search both on mobile devices and on at-home devices like Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa.

1. Structured Data Markup

By applying the correct schema markup, search engines can better understand your site and its content. Use Schema.org to find and use the crucial markups for your site, because beyond keyword-optimized content, you need to provide search engines context too.

2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Your FAQs section within the site can be used for more than a reference for people on your site. Use FAQs to drive voice and type-based organic search traffic by providing better solutions to solve users’ queries. Tools like answerthepublic.com are great for compiling exact keyword match questions that you can markup with the schema to answer for voice search queries. Be sure your answer to each question is precise and clear. You may also need to create several FAQs in order for Google search algorithms crawling for voice search queries to better pull information from your site.

3. Rich Snippets

In order to create a powerful impact like being cited in the answer for a voice search query or get featured in the “People also ask” section on Google SERPs, you must add structured data that put your page in position zero (also known as rich snippets or rich results) on SERP. Optimize for long tail queries to include keywords like “store hours”, “near me”, and “price” so that you can take advantage of a mobile user’s GPS to drive traffic in form of in-store visits.

Remember that, using structured data doesn’t guarantee appearance in and as a rich snippet on Google SERPs all the time.

Mobile Optimization

Most digital marketers aware that mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches which is why it’s more important than ever to be optimized for handheld devices. This means creating super-fast pages with fine user interface (UI) design that provide a seamless mobile user experience (UX). If a page is too slow to load, a user will bounce and adversely affect your keyword rankings and may lose your rich snippet in position zero.

You should also keep in mind Google’s E-A-T (stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) from search quality rater guidelines. Grossly, it means the credibility of your site is based both on the credentials of the content. Factors that influence your rankings include reviews and ratings, the accuracy of NAP (business name, address, and phone number) information, and a naturally growing backlink profile. All of which can influence your success in voice search in an SEO program.

If you would like to learn more about what cutting-edge SEO and CRO can do for your small business, then call Tenet today at +91 9748776969 or contact us here.