Why Businesses Need to Start Optimizing Content for Voice Search?

Voice search has been the buzzword of SEO and digital marketing in the past couple of years or so. More and more people are actively using voice search queries. According to Google, 20% of all searches are voice, and by 2020 this number is expected to climb to 50%. 

So, how can digital marketers capitalize on this fact? Is it time we focus on voice SEO? How should we start? Here, we will attempt to answer these questions.

Let us start by discussing a brief history of voice search on Google. 

A Brief History of Voice Search: Google Hummingbird Algorithm

Google released the Hummingbird algorithm update in August 2013. This is a very special algorithm update compared to the previous ones (i.e. Penguin update), changing various core aspects of the algorithm.

The Hummingbird update is especially focused on understanding the searcher’s intent, matching these intents to most relevant results. One of the most important implementations, however, is how now Google is fully equipped to understand natural spoken language, paving the way for voice search.

Hummingbird’s new features like the ability to understand semantically related words and—as mentioned—- understanding user intent, made voice search possible. 

How Are People Using Voice Search Nowadays?

There are two main factors determining the rise of voice search’s popularity. First, more and more people are using mobile devices that—since the popularity of Siri—features a voice assistant. Second, is the sudden rise of smart speakers (i.e. Amazon Echo) and smart home assistants in the past half decade or so. 

Speaking is, after all, more natural for us humans than typing or even writing, a recent study by PWC US suggested that 65% of US customers between 25-49 years old use voice search at least once a day. It is, however, important to understand that most of these queries are those like ‘play music’, or ‘adjust volume’ rather than queries that will point to Google search.

Most of the users who have already adapted to voice search are sophisticated users who already know their way around the internet. Meaning, they can differentiate between when to use a voice search and when to use a regular, type search.

In general, users use voice search when they expect direct information that can be answered quickly. If, for example, they are looking for an in-depth information about a certain topic, generally they will switch into type search.

Thus, there are two main queries that are popular for voice search that marketers can take advantage of:

• “Near me” queries (restaurants near me, gas station near me, etc.). Google will pull results from Google Maps and local review sites for these queries. “Near me” searches are now one of the main ways people find local businesses.
• Answers for specific questions. Think of a F.A.Q. section. For example, a user might just watched a movie and on the way home, they ask about the name of the actor: “who starred as Jack in X movie?”. 

Develop and Optimize Content For Voice Search

So, how can we develop content that is optimized for voice search—or in short, voice search SEO—? 

To answer this, we must first understand how Google pick results for voice search—the ranking factors—. It’s important to note that for voice queries, Google only ‘display’, or rather, speak about, one result, so competition for voice SEO is extremely high.

Here are some key differences between optimizing content for ‘regular’ SEO and voice search:

• Keyword: the queries we use when speaking and typing are significantly different to each other. With voice search, we tend to use full questions (i.e. “what is the best films this year?” instead of “best film 2019”). Including questions in the body of your content, then providing the answer immediately can help. You can use tools like Answer The Public to find these question queries. 
• Structured Data Markup: Google tend to use rich snippet results as an answer for voice queries, and to be eligible as featured snippet, your content must use proper structured data markup. 
• Mobile friendliness: to be eligible as voice search result, your site must be mobile-responsive.
• Fast load speed: a huge factor not only for voice SEO purposes, but also for the general performance of your site. Slow load speed will translate to a high bounce rate.
• Google Actions and Alexa Skills: Actions on Google allows your content to interact (in two-ways) with Google Assistant, allowing more ways for users to reach your content via voice. Similarly, having an Alexa Skills will allow more engagement on Amazon’s Alexa platform.

Mobile-Friendly is Voice Friendly

Above, we have briefly mentioned that mobile-responsiveness is one of the most important ranking factors for voice search. 

Here are some important steps to ensure your site is mobile-friendly:

• First, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to assess whether your site is already mobile friendly. Google will also provide suggestions if that’s not the case. 
• If your site is WordPress-based, simply update to a mobile-responsive theme. Alternatively, you can use various digital marketing tools to help optimize your site. 
• Make sure all important information is easy to find on a small screen. If you use forms, don’t use too many fields and make sure it’s easy enough to type on a mobile device. Also, turn on Autofill for forms.
• Compress your images and CSS, make sure your site is fast enough to load (under 3 seconds on a standard 3G connection). 
• Test on various devices, as many as you can, make sure everything is readable and viewable.
• If you include CTA buttons, make sure they are large enough and easily clickable at all costs.
• Avoid using pop-ups. At the very least, make sure it’s easy enough to find the close (X) button on a mobile screen.

Aim for Featured Snippet

One of the most effective ways to be featured as voice result is to first get your site featured as a rich snippet. 

There are two main things to focus on here:

• Your page must have a better, more relevant content than what’s currently ranking as featured snippet. Ranking above this page organically will also help.
• Your page must have proper structured data markup. This way, Google can have an easier time to fetch data from your site to assess whether your content is an eligible source of featured snippets. 

End Words

While voice search and voice queries are certainly getting more popular, the available opportunities for marketers are still fairly limited. It is also worth noting that Google only feature top-ranking content (at least on the first page) as voice search results. So, keep focusing on traditional SEO and get your content ranked.