Among the more recent trends in the search engine optimization world is that of optimizing your site for voice search. According to SEO guru Neil Patel “Voice search is a way of searching the internet through speech. Using artificial intelligence, a device can recognize your voice and put the query into a search engine.” In the last ten years or so society has gotten used to using tools such as Siri or Google Assistant to make quick, usually “on the go” search queries. “Hey Siri? Where is the nearest gas station?” is probably a phrase everyone is familiar with. So, the question is: how do I optimize my website so that I rank well when someone uses voice search? Be sure to read on to learn how!
Voice Search vs. Typed Search
The first thing that must be understood is that the way in which we type a search query vs how we speak a search query are very different from one another. For example, if you’re looking for restaurants in your area you likely type “restaurants near me,” right? At the same time, we likely wouldn’t say this in a voice search query simply because that’s not the way we as humans speak. Instead, a voice search would likely be “what are some good restaurants in my local area.” Keeping this in mind, you’ll be able to guide yourself through the process of optimizing your site.
Optimize For Your Local Area
Most importantly, if you want to start ranking better via voice search, optimize your site for local search queries. Local queries make up nearly half of all searches on Google and often these take the form of “Siri, where can I find the closest gas station?.” Making sure that your business is set up with Google My Business will seriously help you optimize your site for local searches. At the same time, including keywords that incorporate your local area will help Google recognize you as a player in your city. For example, if you’re a small auto repair business that specializes in Toyotas, a proper keyword would be something like “Toyota Repair Denver.” By including the name of the city, Google will have a better understanding of how to rank you.
Optimize Your Content For Voice Search
There was a time in SEO when all it took to rank well was to “stuff” your pages with keywords. That is, it didn’t really matter if the content that you had was able to be read by a user in a normal way. In recent years, Google and other search engines have cracked down on this practice to help create a more user focused internet experience. Therefore, Google recognizes now if a page is keyword-stuffed. In order to optimize your content for voice search, make sure that it is conversational and concise.
Optimize Your Site For Mobile
Seeing as the vast majority of voice searches are done via mobile devices when people are on the move, optimizing your site to be mobile friendly can play a big role in both generating and maintaining web traffic. Think of it this way, you’ve probably searched on your device for a restaurant or an auto repair shop nearby. When you visited that site it was difficult to navigate because it wasn’t optimized for mobile and therefore you find yourself frequently zooming in and out of content trying to navigate the page. Making sure that your site is optimized for mobile will help ensure that your visitors turn in to leads.
