How To Optimize A Website For Voice Search?

Voice search is a new type of human-machine interaction that allows virtual assistants to answer questions posed by people via voice. Voice search analyzes a string of words and responds with sentences that mimic natural language.

Voice search is now integrated into many devices such as smartphones, home assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, and in cars that support smart devices.

Today this technology has four main players:

Voice search technology is developing very rapidly and could change the way we interact with search engines and also have an impact on their algorithms.

Voice Search Is A Growing Trend That You Need To Pay Attention To

A woman speaking into the phone

In 2016, Google said 20% of searches from mobile devices were voice and according to ComScore, voice search will continue to grow, reaching 50% of total searches by 2020.

Previously, voice searches were too imprecise and technology was unable to correctly understand users’ voices, therefore, voice search was inefficient.

Today, however, the accuracy of voice searches has significantly improved (a study indicates it to be 95% accurate).

According to ComScore, half of the users who have a smartphone use voice technology, and one in three use it every day.

As an SEO specialist, you need to have a good understanding of some of the search strategies that can help you position a site for voice search, especially when the volumes of these searches continue to rise.

By understanding these strategies and using them effectively, we can increase your chances of answering questions.

The Basics Of Voice Search Optimization

Voice search optimization and a question mark written on a white paper with a wooden background

To optimize a website for voice searches, it is necessary to know the factors that influence its results the most.

What are the particularities that voice search has to which it is essential to respond appropriately? There are a few key aspects to consider before you start optimizing a website for voice searches:

When optimizing a site for voice search, you need to think about SEO differently. For example, voice search queries are longer than text ones. They tend to contain between three and five (or more) keywords.

This means that SEO consultants must detach themselves from the search for traditional keywords and approach this task differently.

Search queries tend to ask a specific question and typically use keywords like: who, how, what, where, the best, why and when.

Voice Search Ranking Factors

Five stars on the ladder upgrade rating

In February 2018, Backlinko published research that analyzed 10,000 results from Google Home. The purpose of this study was to better understand how Google Voice classification works and, above all, how to optimize a site for voice search.

The research focused on 11 specific positioning factors, and here is a summary of the results.

How Can I Optimize A Website For Voice Search?

UPDATE Button on Computer Keyboard

So, what aspects of your website should you properly optimize for voice searches? Let’s take a look at the factors you should consider for voice search optimization (VEO):

1. Include Conversational Keywords

Your keyword strategy for voice search must be more conversational in nature and imitate the way people speak and ask questions verbally.

You need to start thinking about the types of questions users tend to ask about your business and start documenting and recording the exact words they use when talking to customer service representatives.

For example, it is better to title your article “How to optimize your site for voice search” than “10 things to do to optimize your site for voice search”.

Once you have a list of questions and statements that customers provide over the phone, you can start creating content pages that focus on longer, more conversational search queries.

2. Use Structured Data Markup

Use structured data, through the markup provided by schema.org, to give virtual assistants even more information about your website and its contents.

Structured schema.org markup is essential for your website, as it helps you define more specific information and helps search engines to accurately analyze the content of your website and understand its context.

3. Rich Snippets: Capitalize on Position 0

In most cases, position 0 appears when a question is asked by the Internet user. But it can also pop up when the user searches for a definition.

Featured snippet takes a very important place in voice search also because it gives a brief, clear and precise response to the request. Your SEO strategy for voice search should, therefore, focus on optimizing your content for the featured snippets.

Keep in mind that appearing regularly in position 0 in SERP can boost the reputation of a website.

4. Adopt the FAQ Format

The best way to appear in voice searches is to create pages in the form of FAQs (Questions and Answers).

Specific searches are more and more present in search results, unlike general searches. For example, instead of looking for “best smartphone “, we see searches such as “Which is the best smartphone for photos?”

To have a chance of being quoted by a voice assistant, you must do research to anticipate questions from Internet users. Tools like Ahrefs and Answer the public are useful.

Remember to write quick and relevant responses to give the information as quickly as possible.

It may sound difficult, but creating FAQ pages can not only help your site appear in voice searches but also improve your chances of being in rich snippets.

5. Write Clear And Relevant Answers

Any SEO expert knows how important content is to improve their positioning. The same goes for optimizing voice search.

However, the common technique of selecting the right keywords and using them in your content will not give the best results. You must first study the search intent of your target audience and understand their question to answer it better.

Try to give the best possible answer. If you think your answer is more relevant than that of others, then you are on the right track. The short answers have more chance of being in voice search results.

6. Have A Mobile Friendly Site

We all know that more than 50% of searches come from our mobile devices. In addition, Google has announced that 20% of these searches are carried out by voice command.

These statistics are constantly increasing, hence the importance of optimizing your website to be mobile-friendly. This includes optimizing the design of your website.

Reading habits on phones are different from those on computers. Smartphone users prefer simple and clear content. Sometimes they even browse the article, looking only at the titles and sub-titles.

To improve readability, your mobile pages should, therefore, contain many spaces, shorter sentences, simple words to understand and even more catchy titles.

You can use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool to assess whether your site is up to standard. The tool generates a detailed report describing the specific elements to be improved.

7. Improve the Loading Speed of the Mobile Version of Your Website

One of the essential aspects of optimizing a website for voice searches is very fast loading. Otherwise, the answer will not be provided in a timely manner and the search engine will not show it to the users.

This is where the importance of creating optimized mobile pages comes in. Accelerated mobile pages or AMP are one of the key points to optimize a website for voice searches. By implementing AMP, the loading time of the different pages will be better.

The voice search results page loads on average in 6 seconds (which is 52% faster than the average). Therefore, if you want to rank in voice search, make sure your site loads as quickly as possible.

8. Use Google My business

If you are a local business, you must have a clearly defined strategy to appear in local and voice searches. The first step is to complete your Google My Business listing and improve your local SEO.

Google will determine your location and give you relevant suggestions. Keywords like “near me” or “near” are important keywords that you should keep in mind for your local SEO.

Whenever the two keywords are searched, Google’s algorithm retrieves information from Google My Business listings.

Make sure to fill in your card with your name, address, hours and telephone number so that the assistant can easily access your information. By making this information available, you are helping Google in identifying and broadcasting your business on the web.

9. Switch to HTTPS

In 2014, Google announced that it would favor secure sites, whether you are an e-commerce site or a blog.

To get the HTTPS, you can buy or obtain a free SSL certificate from your host.

The HTTPS protocol gives an additional signal to Google that your site is secure for your visitors (UX). Therefore, it promotes your SEO.

If your competitors are not yet in HTTPS, you have a considerable advantage in search engines and especially in terms of voice searches.

According to Brian Dean, 70% of voice search results come from pages in HTTPS. So, if you are not yet on HTTPS, what are you waiting for?

10. Improve Your Domain Authority

Websites with strong authority tend to rank higher in voice search results. According to a study, the average domain authority of a voice search result is 76.8. This indicates that Google’s voice search algorithm focuses on authoritative trusted domains.

The best way to improve domain authority is to get backlinks from high authority websites. Other factors like content quality, social signals, website structure and user-friendliness of your website are also considered.

11. Implement a Solid Website Structure

The structure and architecture of your site is an essential element of your voice search strategy. By establishing a well thought out structure, you are establishing a good foundation for your SEO strategy. A well-organized site structure should look like a pyramid.

You can make the structure of your website clear by adding breadcrumbs, taxonomies like categories & tags and contextual internal linking.

Final Thoughts

If you want to market for voice search, you need to rethink your content in a more conversational way, trying to anticipate what the user could ask of a search engine or digital assistant.

Optimizing for voice is a big challenge, but with the right keyword and the right strategies, you can master it.

Vaibhav Lall

With more than 12 years of experience in digital marketing and consulting, Vaibhav is passionate about helping businesses grow through the strategic use of digital marketing best practices. When he's not busy advising startups, Vaibhav takes delight in listening to Jazz or John Mayer and Coldplay songs. He is also an avid proponent of the practice of mindfulness and starts his day with a calming meditation session. In his free time, Vaibhav can be found in quite corner, reading a Simon Sinek or Ben Horowitz book.