With the current adoption of voice assistants and smart speakers, optimizing your content for voice search is always a smart choice. Here’s why.
Smart speaker owners in the United States rose by 40 percent in 2018 to reach 66.4 million. According to reports, the adoption of these speakers, among other things, seems to be driving a voice assistant revolution.
Whether it’s Amazon‘s Alexa or Google Assistant, voice technology is fast becoming part of our everyday lives. It’s no wonder that a whopping 91 percent of brands are already making significant investments in voice.
Well, you can do the same.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial that you optimize your content for voice search. In a PWC survey, 71 percent of the respondents said that they would instead use their voice assistant to search for something instead of typing out their queries.
What’s more, 50 percent of all searches will be voice-based by 2020. That’s less than a year from now.
This brings us to the subject of the day: how can you take advantage of the coming voice search revolution?
5 Tips To Help Optimize Your Content For Voice Search
1. Target Featured Snippets
Most voice queries are question-based. For example, a user may ask: “Can I add baking powder to pancake mix?”
To provide an answer to these questions, Google Assistant tends to look at snippets and knowledge graphs. That’s because the search engine considers these websites to be authoritative sources.
Now here’s how you can land a featured snippet spot.
Consider providing quality, actionable content that addresses popular question-based queries. This could take the form of how-tos, FAQs, or guides.
Yes, aiming for a featured snippet can be a challenge. However, the reward is worth the effort.
2. Consider User Intent
User intent refers to the reason people use the query box in the first place.
In such a case, words like “how-to,” “what is,” “buy,” or “price” could indicate intent. Search engines understand this and it digs through several contents to provide the most relevant result.
While user intent is not directly related to voice search, it plays a vital role in ranking for featured snippets, and as a result, voice search.
So, consider user intent when developing your content and provide direct answers.
3. Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are how people interact with the search engine.
They are a set of three-four keyword phrases that are specific to a niche. And yes, they provide an opportunity to optimize your content for voice search.
First, you must figure out what questions your target audience is asking. Thanks to tools like Answer the Public, that’s not nearly as complicated as it may sound.
Also, consider using these queries in H2 headers, then provide a concise answer right below the header. With this, you could rank for as many questions as possible, and this will ultimately enhance your voice search optimization goals.
4. Use Structured Data
The search engine uses structured data to understand your site’s content better. It’s a code added to HTML which will enable Google’s bot to crawl and read your page efficiently.
To find the right structured data for your page, consider using Schema.org. However, the most popular ones for online products are:
- Name
- Aggregate Rating
- Price
- Availability
Adding these schemas to your product page makes it possible for the markup information to pop-up on a featured snippet for a related query.
That way, users can conveniently make inquiries about the price and availability of your product through their voice assistants. Finally, update the markup as regularly as you can.
5. Optimize for Local Search Results
It’s not surprising that 58 percent of consumers use voice search to find local businesses. After all, we tend to use voice search more when we’re walking or driving somewhere.
Not only do we depend on voice technology to find the closest products, but people also use it to find new places too. The question “Ok Google, a coffee shop near me” is not uncommon.
However, for your content to appear among the relevant results, you must have optimized for local search results beforehand. One way of doing this is to fill out your Business Listings Information on Google My Business page.
To Wrap Up
Finally, a solid SEO foundation may be the best way to optimize your content voice search. According to a recent study conducted by SEMRush, over 80 percent of today’s voice search answers are taken from Google SERP‘s top 3 organic results.
Want more? Last year, Google’s John Mueller provided more tips on optimizing content for voice search in a Webmaster Central Hangout on YouTube Live.