Voice search is becoming a popular trend in SEO optimization. Therefore, we have translated a guide for you on how to optimize your site for voice search.
From the article you will learn:
Voice Search Revolution
According to Google in 2014:
41% of adults and 55% of teens use voice search daily.
20% of all Google mobile searches are voice calls.
According to Branded3 statistics in 2016:
People search for 25% of their desktop data in Windows 10 using voice
According to statistics from Comscore:
By 2020, 50% of all requests will be voice.
We can’t say whether the Comscore forecast for 2020 will come true. But in any case, we already see today that voice requests begin to compete with text.
Why voice search is developing so fast
According to the search agency BingSearch by voice 3.7 times faster than typing: You can say 110-150 words per minute, and type – 38-40
And this is a trend that is already affecting SEO optimization. Therefore, website optimization for voice search is already becoming necessary.
SEO optimization in the world of voice search
Voice search changes the way people search for something in two ways:
Voice calls are longer.
Voice prompts are similar to phrases from spoken language.
Bing engineers noticed that voice search keywords are much longer than text queries: Text queries usually consist of 1-3 words. Voice calls longer – about 7 words Regarding conversational voice calls: According to Google, 70% of searches in Google Assistant sound like natural speech.
For example, you want to make cold capsule coffee at home. If this is a text query, most likely you will enter such text into the search engine – prepare cold capsule coffee.
But when you look for the same thing by voice, your request will be completely different: for example, “I want to make capsule coffee at home. How can I do it?”
Your search will be longer.
You will use more natural speech.
The voice changes where people seek information
Voice search is being used more and more often and in more resources than before.
According to Google statistics, search queries like “____ near me” grew by about 150% over the last 2 years.
Google statistics on the growth of requests like “____ near me” for the period 2013-2017 As for the places of using voice search: people have become much more likely to use voice search in public places – restaurants, gyms, cafes.
Google statistics on the use of voice search in public places
Voice changes the way people get search results
Google is slowly turning from a search engine to a response system.
Organic clicks fell 37%. This is because you do not need to go to the site to see the answer. You see a short description of the result in the search results. This short description is called a snippet: A search snippet is issued – a short description of the page, or a short answer to the question Google uses the same answer-based technology to provide voice search results.
How to search for keys by voice queries
Search for spoken word keywords
As we wrote above, voice queries use more natural speech. They sound more like a conversation – unlike text queries.
Therefore, keywords such as “protein shake”, “gym” are gradually being replaced by the query “which protein shakes will work.” When you rate keywords in 2018, you need to keep that in mind.
For example, take this result set from Google Planner:
Most people evaluate a list of keywords based only on:
Search volume
Cost per click
Seasonal Trends
But besides this, you also now need to check whether the key is used in everyday speech.
In other words, naturally-sounding keys will receive a large increase in the search volume when the voice search picks up more speed.
Do not avoid very long keys.
Very few people enter long queries into a search engine. Therefore, most webmasters do not use such keys.
But as people increasingly search by voice, the “normal” length of keywords is getting longer. Therefore, do not be afraid to optimize your content around 5+ keys.
This does not mean that you need to optimize the entire page for long keys. Instead, distribute the long keys across your content.
If Google finds a keyword in the content, it uses it in the search results for voice search.
Target by keyword keywords
Mainly due to voice search, the popularity of keywords-questions is growing: The annual increase in the use of the keywords “what”, “why”, “where”, “when”, “how”, “who” in search engines A few years ago, if you wanted to get higher positions on Google, you would have typed the query “SEO” and would have the following result: But if you are looking for voice, most likely you will not get a smartphone and do not say: “Hey Google … SEO.”
Instead, you ask the question: “How do I get higher positions on Google?” You can already see question keywords in any keyword search tool:
But for this you need to rummage well.
If you want to speed up the process, use the services Answer the Public and BuzzSumo’s Question Analyzer.
Optimize your site for mobile devices
Optimization for mobile devices is an integral part of an SEO strategy. This is due to the fact that more and more people access the Internet from the phone. Mobile traffic has long stepped over desktop and continues to grow. Therefore, since 2016, Google has been testing a new primary indexing algorithm for mobile devices. Since July 2018, Google has been giving priority to websites optimized for mobile devices.
The first thing you should do is check that the site is going through test Google Mobile Friendly.
Use the Google Search Console
Check for any possible indexing errors by selecting the Mobile tab under Indexing Errors.
Check the mobile usability report to see which pages have issues.
Do I need to make a separate mobile site map
If your site uses responsive design, you may not have to provide a separate site map for mobile devices.
If you have two separate versions of the site — one for desktop devices and one for mobile — you should provide a separate XML site map. Also check that redirects work correctly.
Responsive design is the most effective in terms of a pleasant user experience and SEO optimization.
Speed up your site
Website speed on mobile devices is critical.
First check the site in Google’s PageSpeed Insights – Google will give you a list of recommendations on how to improve speed on mobile devices.
In addition, you can install the plug-in accelerated mobile pages – AMP. Learn more about AMP Improve your design and user experience.
Make navigation easy and intuitive.
Check the contents of the first screen on mobile devices – make sure that there are all the most important elements there, and they are not cropped.
Remove all Flash from the site – it often slows down loading on mobile devices.
Make the video responsive – so that the screen adapts to the size of the phone. Use an HTML5 video player.
Make sure the mobile and desktop designs are similar.
Test on any devices – iPhone, on iOS and Android, on different tablets. Cover as many different types, sizes of devices and browsers as possible to provide a pleasant experience to all categories of users.
Optimize content for voice search
You do not need to completely redraw the site. You can optimize it for voice SEO with a few simple tricks.
Include short and concise answers in your content
This year Backlinko Conducts The Largest Voice Optimization Study.
One of the most interesting finds: Google usually responds to voice searches with short 29-word results.
For example, here’s what the Google Home homepage returns for “are figs good for you”: Therefore, it is important that the content meets the query in 30 or less words.
Therefore:
Create FAQ Pages
The pages with the most common questions are ideal for voice search, as they have question words and short answers.
Therefore, the results of voice queries are 1.7 times more likely to be displayed on pages with frequently asked questions.
For example, if you are looking for “how do car insurance claims work” in your voice, here is the answer you get: Google got this answer from the FAQ page:
Optimize your pages for quick answers
40.7% of responses to voice queries people receive from snippets.
For example, if you search “Is ice water bad for dogs?” Using the Google app on your iPhone, you get the following answer: On the query “is it possible to give ice water to dogs”, Google gives an answer from the snippet If you look at the search results, you will see that Google read the answer from the snippet: For example, the author of the article searched “do post offices accept credit cards” with his voice. The result pulled from the page that answered the question almost at the end of the article: But since the answer was short and on the topic, Google decided that this is the best result for the request.
Advanced Lifehacks and Strategies
Write at the ninth grader level or lower
On average, voice search results include ninth-grade vocabulary. This means that you should avoid jargon and complex words in the content.
For example, write “buy” instead of “purchase.”
Increase Domain Authority
Sites with a large number of links are more often ranked in voice search. And unlike traditional SEO-optimization, page authority does not play an important role for ranking in voice search.
Backlinko’s theory about this: most voice search results typically display one result. This result is a snippet. Google needs to know that it gives an answer from a trusted source – an authoritative domain. Therefore, preference is given to the authority of the domain, rather than the page.
For example, Google voice search results:
The answer is displayed from an authoritative domain – speedtest.net, although the page authority is low – 13th place.
Therefore, if you want to be ranked in voice search, focus on building a domain authority.
More about domain authority and page
Longer content = more traffic from voice search
The average number of words from the first page of Google SERPs is approximately 1900.
Pages from voice search results can be even longer – 2300 words.
Most likely, a page with a lot of content is more likely to appear in the search results because it has more words. Which means she has a better chance of matching a keyword.
Optimize pages with the key “___ near me”
According to a Google study in 2014, 55% of teens and 41% of adults use voice search at least once a day. 38% of teens and 40% of adults use voice search to find a local business.
Voice search is important for local search when:
Urgently need to find something
“Find me a good Thai restaurant,” “Is there a good hairdresser near me?” Users who create these queries are looking for instant, practical information — they need an answer right now.
User driving
If a person drives a car, he will prefer voice search to a text query.
Need a quick answer
A local search needs precise answers: “Where can I eat the best pizza in town?”
Local search used to mean a city and a country. Today, if you want to find dry cleaning in New York, you will look for something like: Therefore, if you have a local business, you need to optimize the site around the terms that people use in voice search.
Optimize your video for voice search
Google has already rolled out video snippets on the English Internet. They are not yet available with us, but things are just around the corner. You can read for educational purposes :] For example, you want to rank by video on YouTube. So you are looking for some SEO tips in the video.
Your text request could be: YouTube SEO.
Of course, the videos will be in the results. But they are only on the 5th place in the issue: Now we’ll try to search for the same thing using a key phrase from a natural speech: “how do I rank a video on my YouTube channel”. In the results we get a video snippet.
Therefore, video is a large part of Google’s strategy for responding to voice requests.
Cheat sheet: how to optimize the site for voice search
Search for spoken word keywords
Use long keys
Target by keyword keywords
Include short and concise answers in the content
Create FAQ with keys for voice search
Optimize your pages for quick answers
Embed Long Tail Keywords in Long Reads
Include prepositions, pronouns in interrogative queries
Write at the ninth grader level or lower – do not use jargon and compound words Increase website speed
Increase Domain Authority
Optimize pages with the key “___ near me”
Optimize your video for voice search