Voice search is no longer a novelty of the future; it is an integral part of our everyday lives. It has quickly become an important part of our digital lives and how we interact with technology. It has the potential to revolutionize how users access information and services and has become an essential part of marketing strategies.
However, while voice search is increasingly popular and widely used, many website owners have yet to optimize their websites for voice search fully. This means potential customers may need help finding your website when they use voice search.
That’s why ensuring your website is optimized for voice search is essential. In this blog post, we’ll look at 7 helpful ways to optimize your website for voice search and why it’s so important.
1. Use Long-Tail Keywords
One helpful way to optimize a website for voice search is to use long-tail keywords. When users voice a query, the answer they receive often differs from the first result on Google. Long-tail keywords can help websites be the answer users hear when doing a voice search.
Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific, and more targeted than short-tail keywords. They typically consist of three or more words and are designed to match the natural language queries that people use when conducting voice searches.
To find long-tail keywords, you can use tools like AnswerThePublic. This tool populates a list of various search engine queries that came through for specific keywords. Incorporating these long-tail keywords into your website’s content and metadata can improve your chances of appearing in voice search results.
2. Transform Queries into Questions
Another helpful way to optimize a website for voice search is to transform queries into questions. When conducting a voice search, users typically ask a question in a natural, conversational tone. Therefore, using language that matches how people speak is important when optimizing your website for voice search.
Instead of short, generic keywords like “burger,” consider using longer, more specific phrases that mirror the questions people ask during voice searches. For example, rather than “burger” as a keyword, you could use phrases like “Where can I find a burger near me?” This type of language is more likely to match the natural language queries that people use when conducting voice searches.
By incorporating these types of question-based keywords into your website’s content and metadata, you can increase the likelihood that your website will be the answer users hear when asking a question through voice search.
3. Provide Context with Schema Markup
Suppose you need to become more familiar with schema markup. Schema markup involves using HTML code to mark your content and tell search engines what your site is about.
Using schema markup, you can help search engines understand the context of your content, improving your ranking in typical searches and making your website more relevant in specific queries made through voice search. Google uses schema markup to understand language. Incorporating it into your website can be a great way to add more information to help you answer questions through voice search.
Incorporating schema markup into your website can be technical, but various tools and resources are available online to help you get started. By implementing schema markup correctly, you can provide additional context to search engines about your content and increase your chances of appearing in voice search results. Recently, I saw Testen (a driving theory exam practice platform) increase traffic by adding and optimizing the website’s schema.
4. Design for Mobile
We are shifting towards a mobile-first world where devices and people are constantly on the move. As a result, it’s important to remember that mobile and local go hand in hand, especially regarding voice search.
Mobile devices allow users to perform on-the-go local queries, and voice search enables users to ask hyper-local questions. Therefore, ensuring your website is designed with mobile users in mind is important.
To optimize your website for mobile, ensure that directions to brick-and-mortar locations and XML sitemaps are readable to visitors and search engines. Additionally, consider creating different experiences for desktop and mobile users, and optimize for “near me” type searches on mobile devices.
Lastly, ensuring that your mobile strategy is sound and focused on improving page speed and load times is important. By designing your website with mobile in mind, you can improve your chances of appearing in voice search results and provide a better user experience for mobile users.
5. Focus on Conversational Keywords
Short-tail keywords still have their place in search engine optimization. They must be more relevant when considering the natural phrases used in voice searches.
Voice search queries are typically longer and more conversational. As a result, marketers need to focus on conversational long-tail keywords that better match how people speak when conducting voice searches.
Using conversational keywords in your website’s content and metadata increases the chances that your website will be the answer users hear when asking a question through voice search. This can also improve the overall relevance of your website’s content for voice and text-based search queries.
Therefore, it’s important to do thorough research to identify the conversational long-tail keywords relevant to your business and incorporate them into your website’s content and metadata. By doing so, you can improve your chances of appearing in voice search results and connect with your target audience in a more natural, conversational way.
6. Optimizing for Future Snippets
A Google snippet is the box that appears just under the search bar, providing quick-hitting information pulled from a relevant website. For example, if you search for the top 15 burger restaurants in Chicago, the Google snippets box would likely include a numbered list of the restaurants.
To optimize for snippets, it’s important to identify specific queries likely to trigger a snippet and optimize your website’s content accordingly. According to STAT Search Analytics, 70% of Google snippets don’t come from the first organic result, meaning it’s possible to become a snippet without dominating SEO rankings.
To optimize for future snippets, consider using keyword tools to help identify popular and relevant keyword phrases to target. By incorporating these phrases into your website’s content, you can increase the chances of your website being featured in a future snippet and improve the overall visibility of your brand in search engine results.
Optimizing for snippets can also improve the user experience by providing quick, relevant information in a concise format. Therefore, optimizing for future snippets is important as part of your overall voice search optimization strategy. To optimize a website for rich snippets, hire a professional freelancer or agency such marketin.no in Norway.
7. Polish Your Google My Business Profile
This is especially important for local businesses, as most voice searches are for local businesses, such as people searching for the nearest gym or food court.
An updated Google My Business profile that includes your business name, hours, street address, and other relevant information can help increase your brand’s search ranking and traffic. This is because Google uses information from your Google My Business profile to provide users with relevant information in response to their voice search queries.
In addition to ensuring that your Google My Business profile is complete and up-to-date, consider adding high-quality photos and encouraging customer reviews. These elements can further improve your search ranking and increase the visibility of your small business in local search results.
Optimizing your Google My Business profile is an essential part of optimizing your website for voice search, especially for local businesses that rely on local search traffic to drive business.
Voice search will only grow in popularity, and with the increasing popularity of voice search, your website’s ranking on search engines and traffic levels can decrease if you don’t optimize your website. So, if you want your website to succeed, it’s important to ensure it is optimized for voice search.
Thank you for reading – I hope you found this post useful!
