Voice search, Trend implementation strategy for 2020

As voice assistants become more popular, knowing how to optimize your SEO to rank first in voice search can help keep you at the top. Currently traditional SEO and voice SEO are ranked using the same algorithm in Google’s search engine. Therefore, to develop an SEO voice strategy, you must have an existing traditional search strategy and website, as new voice search strategy elements develop on existing content. It’s also key your site content is always up to date otherwise no matter how high you rank no one will be interested.

Step 1: Longtail Keywords Instead of developing short keywords, for voice search longtail keywords have more impact.

In 2017 Google Data shows that 70% of all searches on the Google Assistant are in natural language. - Forbes Voice search has more human conversations than traditional search and it is more likely to contain question phrases and longer sentences, since it’s easier to speak in full phrases than typing where we keep it shorthand. This is a strategic element to remember when developing content for voice search to drive traffic.

Typical long tail keywords range up to 5/6 words in length compared to typing which typically ranges up to 3.

Voice searches are 76.1% longer than text bases searches – SEO expert

How to add longtail keywords into your strategy: Make your keywords more specific: Common keywords make it harder for your content to rank high in SEO so finding unique keywords can help you rank higher above competitors:

Think about: Updating product descriptions: For example: Women’s dress is unlikely to rank high as other ecommerce websites will likely have the same keyword, But ‘red lace women’s dress’ is more likely to rank higher.

Emphasising products E.G how they feel, how comfortable they are, to sensory words can help connect potential buyers and help you rank higher when they search using voice. (These descriptions will turn into long tail keywords on your site).

You can also expand your keywords into your product descriptions by predicting potential questions buyers might have about the product and developing them into key product descriptions

Unsure of what keywords to use?

If your unsure of what keywords will work best for you and rank high there are multiple software’s that can help you out.

Answer the Public: Answer the public is a web program that allows you to enter a keyword and returns questions the user may ask in relation to that specific keyword allowing you to see what questions would be useful to answer to rank higher in voice SEO.

Google Trends: Google Trends displays key trends in graph form and can be useful to predict what keywords are up and coming and that can give you an edge by building them into your site. So when a trend is in you can get ahead by adding relevant keywords and when the key trends are searched more frequently your site will rank high higher. *This is useful for fashion where trends come and go frequently

Google Analytics: By setting up a Google Analytics account you can track your keywords and see how they are performing. It’s a great way to see what keywords are working and which ones potentially need changing. It can also show you the keywords people use to find your content. *Google ads also provides similar features

Step 2: Business Listing 39% of voice search users are looking for business information (wordstream) so optimizing for local SEO is important for your Voice SEO strategy. Moreover, with voice search compared to text more likely to be used for local search. Developing content for ‘near me’ searches by uploading up to date business information to your site can help boost voice ranking.

Today with smartphones and connected devices they already know your location so when the user of the device uses the voice assistant for a local search, they know they don’t need to include their location. For example they may say ‘Dress shops near me’ and this is where Google turns to business listings to find the correct results.

22% of voice queries are for local content – Neil Patel

To Claim your listing all you have to do is: Add correct details such as phone number address, brand name and your business domain.

You then get the option to associate your listing with relevant categories so choosing the right categories is crucial as when someone searches that category that is the one your business will likely appear in.

To finish off the listing add a few high-quality images that will help persuade the searcher to visit your store and help them locate it once they have finished their local search.

Step 3: FAQs: Leading on from long tail keywords people using voice search are likely to ask question to find quick and easy answers. Identifying key questions your customers are asking can help you discover additional long-tail keywords that you can optimise to your site.

To rank higher in voice search and to be the company that accurately answers their queries. Creating a dedicated FAQ page for the content around the customer’s queries can add value to your site.

How to know what questions to answer: Listen to the words people use when talking about your business and collect them to create common questions and phrases asked about your brand. E.G What are the shipping costs?

Constantly ask what you are frequently asked and keep updating your FAQ page accordingly to what the customers are wanting to know.

To make your FAQ page effective by always phrase questions in first person and keep answers short and informative.

Step 4: Featured Snippets Currently how voice search works is when the user asks the assistant a query it will read out one answer in the ‘featured snippet’ section on the search engine. On a desktop, these appear after paid ads but before regular search listings. However, there’s still no exact answer to make sure you are the featured snippet that is read out. But to give your company the best chance, optimizing each area of your strategy can help your voice SEO ranking.

Top tips: -Answer all customer questions well ( FAQ page) -Don’t use Jargon people won’t understand, Google wants the best answers -Make your site content easy to read and in digestible pieces -Make sure your site it well optimized. On mobile voice search offers the opportunity to view the website the result came from. So our company needs to be optimized for that use.

-Content should be engaging and all enternal pages linked for navigation -You should include a concise summary of your website content in under 29 words (an about page is great for this).

Step 5: Mobile Optimization Although voice assistants like Amazon Alexa are on the increase most voice search still happens on mobile devices. With mobile voice search after the query is asked and when the result is read back to them the user also has the option to view that webpage and see more information. So to continue their experience with your brand website it must be optimized for mobile.

Google has shared, over 60% of all searches come from mobile devices, 20% are voice search (solution built) How to optimize: Google Pagespeed:

Google offers a site called Pagespeed where you can input your site URL and test its loading speed as well as see results on how to optimize it further to increase loading speed.

With short attention spans your site needs to load fast as a page that takes more than 5 seconds to load is 90% more likely to receive a bounce back and as a result of a lost customer and harmed ratings. (Wordstream)

Google found bounce rates on mobile are 9.56% higher than on desktops. Wordstream Other software includes webpagetest.org which shows you exact elements are slowing down your site.

Common features that often need optimizing: Text:

SenoMotoric Instruments conducted a study on iPhone reading they found that just 5% of people read text.(Neil Patel) This indicates that there is changing reading habits on mobile and that content needs optimizing for potential reading on these devices.

Often chucks of text aren’t read and headings are used as orientation throughout a site so having headings helps guide your user. If these were to also include your keywords is can boost your ranking on voice as it can answer common queries around your content.

Once you’re headings are optimized, if text is needed keep sentences short and paragraphs small with simple words.

Images:

Images are integral part to any website as imagery can be used to present yourself and can be a great form of visual communication. Especially for mobile users that use voice search on the go and don’t have time to read lots of information.

Images with big file sizes can slow down loading speed so optimizing them can increase loading time significantly. This is beneficial if your content is heavily reliant on imagery.

To optimize your images, pick the optimal dimensions as the images width and height shouldn’t be more than needed depending on where its going on your site. A general rule is that the file size shouldn’t be over 20MB. Lastly always check the format your images are saved in before uploading, JPEGS= large images, PNG = small images

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