The Role of Voice Search in SEO – Adapting to Changing Trends
As voice search continues to gain popularity, digital marketers need to adjust their SEO strategies accordingly. Voice searches are different than traditional text-based search queries, and optimizing content for voice search is a unique process.
The goal of voice search optimization is to make your website’s content more relevant to user queries. To do this, it’s important to understand the specific aspects of voice search that differ from text-based queries.
Long-Tail Keywords
As voice searches continue to grow in popularity, it’s important for businesses to start optimizing for them. One of the easiest ways to do this is by targeting long-tail keywords, especially question keywords. These keywords tend to be longer and more conversational than traditional search terms, and they can help you rank higher in the results page. learn more:
It’s also important to consider the intent behind a query when creating your content. According to a study by BrightLocal, people who conduct voice searches on smartphones are most likely looking for local services. This includes restaurants, grocery stores, cafes, and places with takeaway options.
When considering the intent of a voice search, it’s helpful to think about how you would perform such a search yourself. This will help you create content that’s more relevant to the queries of voice search users. By doing so, you’ll be more likely to capture the coveted featured snippet. This will ultimately help you drive more traffic to your website.
Conversational Phrases
Searches through voice assistants often mimic real-life conversations, so marketers need to optimize their content for these queries. This involves using conversational keywords that adhere to the structure of voice searches, which tend to be longer and more precise than text-based queries.
To find conversational keywords, you can use tools like Google Trends and the People Also Ask feature. However, the best way to understand the intent behind queries is to listen to how your customers use your product or service. This can be done by reviewing customer support tickets or questions on social media.
Many voice search users have local intent, so it’s important to optimize your website for local SEO. This includes including location-specific keywords, creating a Google My Business profile, and obtaining positive reviews. In addition, it’s a good idea to implement schema markup, which is used to add structured data to a web page, to help search engines understand and interpret information on your website.
Schema Markup
For voice search optimization, you need to think about the questions that your audience would actually ask in a conversational tone. This requires a flexible SEO strategy that considers your target audience’s demographic and their preferences for different technologies.
It also requires a shift in how you write your content. While it may be tempting to use jargon and technical terms, it’s best to focus on the language that your audience uses in everyday conversation. This approach will help you to develop content that matches the types of queries that people make when using voice search.
A key component of voice search is featured snippets, which appear in top search results. These snippets are often short blurbs that answer the query directly and concisely. According to Backlinko, gaining a spot in a featured snippet can significantly increase your visibility and search traffic. To achieve this, you must optimize your website’s content to include schema markup.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are a type of organic search result that are pulled directly from the top results on a SERP and displayed as an answer to a query. They offer a variety of benefits to both the user and the business, including a higher chance of conversions and a more visible brand. Getting in the featured snippets can help your business increase visibility and traffic if you’re optimizing your content for voice searches.
As with traditional SEO, creating content that answers questions and fulfills user intent will improve your chances of appearing in a Featured Snippet for voice searches. Make sure that your content is readable and avoid using excessive jargon or technical language.
Also, keep in mind that different demographics will use voice search differently. For example, millennials may be more likely to use voice search on their smartphones while Gen Z users will prefer voice searches through smart speakers like Alexa. This means that you need to optimize your content for the platforms that your audience will be using most frequently.