Voice Search Optimization

More and more people are using digital assistants and doing voice search. But is your website ready to answer the user’s queries?

From Google search of “Best Italian restaurant in New York” to the voice search of “Ok Google, which is the best restaurant for Alfredo Pasta in Times Square”, users have evolved and so has their pattern of search on Internet.

Whether your target audience uses Google, Siri, Alexa or Cortana, you want to be the answer. The sales of Amazon Echo & Google Home are skyrocketing. People are eager to bring in artificial intelligence into their lives.

Voice search is a gold mine and brands need to capitalize on it in order to keep pace with the competition and people’s preferences. Whether it’s a product, service or local businesses, brands need to integrate voice search in their SEO processes to stay a step ahead.

But how voice search optimization can be done? Here are 5 tips to give a head-start in 2019.

1) Make the best use of micro data
For search engines, adding micro-data like locations, contact details, operating hours, pricing, reviews and ratings was crucial. But with the introduction of voice search, micro data has become the need of the hour.

By refreshing the sitemap and making it easily readable with all the detailed micro-data will help digital voice assistants trace the information and give higher organic rankings.

2) Know the language of customers
People aren’t just searching for ‘Best Pizza in Paris’ anymore. They are searching for ’Where to eat best pizza near me?’

The search pattern has evolved and it’s not just about keywords and algorithms anymore. Experts suggest that when it comes to voice search, one has to think like a human.

Small and stiff keywords are making way for dynamic and long-tailed keywords.

3) Think about the questions your customers would search for.
For voice search optimization, it’s not just enough to integrate long-tail keywords and optimize them.

Professional Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) need to preempt the search by their target audience and form a list of questions that their target audience would have.

The keywords need to be made a part of such questions and the content needs to be optimized accordingly. Website pages like FAQs are great for placing such content.

4) Assure that website is mobile-friendly & multi-lingual.
Majority of the voice search is done on mobile. People just pick up their phones, call for digital assistants and feed in their search through voice. Along with being responsive, the website needs to be user-friendly with easy access to call or enquire buttons.

In many countries, prevalence of more than one language is common. Optimizing the website's content in relevant languages for local search "keywords + near me" can be very effective in voice search optimization.

5) Make the most of semantics
Semantics may sound big, but all it tells is ‘why’ behind a particular search. SEO experts need to know why people are searching what they are searching for.

Along with preempting the questions that people would ask through voice, it is also critical to understand why people are asking those questions. A SEO professional can identify the ‘why’ and optimized the website content, keywords & sitemap accordingly, it can give a great boost to the organic rankings. Content will become rich and Google values content that answers reader’s queries.