Brian Dean recently published an article on his blog at Backlinko about voice search. There are numerous statistics which indicate that 41% of adults and 55% of adolescents use a voice search engine every day. It is therefore possible to answer the question “Is voice search the future?” in the affirmative.
What percentage of Google searches are voice? Search Engine Land reports that around 59% of total search volume today is voice. Experts therefore confirm that the trend towards voice search is already well established and that the question of optimizing sites for voice queries is becoming extremely relevant.
Outside of statistics, there aren't many answers to the question “How to optimize content for Google search queries.” This article addresses this question in detail.
Everyone knows what happens when you say “OK Google” or “Hey Siri”. Siri is a voice search veteran. Susan Bennett worked on the dubbing, and her voice was recorded in 2005 for the company Scansoft. For Siri, the voice was used without the announcer's knowledge. October 4, 2011 is the birthday of the oldest search assistant Siri.
Google Assistant is an intelligent voice search assistant. If Siri was released in 2005, then a voice assistant for the Android 4.1 platform appeared in 2012, but development began in 2004. Thus, 8 years were devoted to the development of artificial intelligence. This time is enough to develop a true polymath. The speed at which voice assistant learns now in 2021 will amaze everyone.
And this is not surprising because Google Corporation took into account all the errors of Siri and released its product calculating many moves in advance. At the moment, Google Assistant doesn't always recognize speech correctly and doesn't perceive diminutive words, but the responses are still excellent.
What is the difference between voice and text queries?
The main thing is search speed. A person can speak 110-150 words per minute and visit unblocked websites, while he can only write 38-40 words in the same time. Hence the conclusion that the user does not need to reduce his request to theses. You can phrase your question as it would in a normal conversation.
So, a person wants to get the most accurate answer and uses the dialogue with a search engine for this. The queries used in voice search are much longer than the keywords we are used to using in writing and, more often than not, they are common questions. Google statistics show that 70% of voice queries are in natural language. Another point goes in this direction. There are no clues in voice search, so a person constructs a phrase at their own discretion.
Research geography
Your phone always knows where you are. Using voice search, you don't need to specify that you are looking for a restaurant in New York. When you do a voice search, Top 1 is usually the first site that lists the best restaurants in New York.
However, with a text query, the necessary site can be found approximately in position 5-6 in line. Please note that even with a voice request it is not always possible to visit unblocked websites. This may be due to geographic content restrictions, which are easily resolved today with VeePN. This site unblocker hides your data on the network, encrypts the IP address, and therefore opens access to any content. Try the trial today. It is available free of charge to everyone.
Location-based technologies allow you to get to the top much faster and easier because there is less competition than in global search. Google My Business will optimize the Google listing and correctly indicate the location of your business.
If the user is not looking for a specific location but uses a voice search by business type, then the search results will change depending on where they are located. First of all, the voice assistant will offer nearby options, indicate the distance of the object and show a map, according to which one can quickly navigate to get there. Add opening hours, contact details and necessarily photos for Google Maps with a geolocation that corresponds to the real address of your office.
Difference in SERPs
In the case of text queries, it is not so much important to reach the first position as to be among the top 10 on the first page of search results. In the case of voice search, you absolutely must aim for the Top 1 because this is the answer that the search assistant will read, and generally, this answer is enough for the user. So, the basis of the voice search promotion strategy should be the study of trending questions and the search for SERP pages, where the question is disclosed incorrectly or incompletely. This is the quickest way to get to the top.
If you inherit from competitors, there is a high degree of probability that you will always be left behind. But if you only apply an experimental or innovative approach – you will be at the long-awaited peak. Don’t be afraid to take the time to experiment. Almost all SEO strategies that get results were discovered by accident.
Google Snippet
Many users are satisfied with the extended snippet in search. The rest of the search results will also be presented on the page, but the user will not be able to reach them.
It is recommended to use schema.org and open graph micro-markup for different types of content: videos, recipes, products, photos, contacts, reviews, events, books. Even if the answer in voice search is always short, you still have to write a lot and often. There is a very simple logic, the more you write an article and the more you reveal the subject, the more likely it is that at least one of the proposals will satisfy someone's voice request.
Personalization
In his work, an SEO specialist mainly pays attention to issuing queries in Incognito mode. That is, in the absence of any personalized user, browser or session settings. In the age of voice search, this approach becomes irrelevant since search assistants are created to speed up search as much as possible.
To optimize content for search queries, you should use:
- Voice search itself;
- Analyze the question;
- Pay attention to search clues;
- Test the final result.
What to do if you persist in not arriving in the TOP 1 of search results?
This is usually direct evidence that you are doing something wrong. To understand the strategy used by competitors, it is necessary to analyze the top voice queries leading to unrestricted websites. Developing your own strategy will take years and a lot of experimentation.
Tools to optimize content for Google searches
The leading voice search optimization tool is always free and comes to you with unlimited access – it’s brainstorm. You will definitely get the best ideas, but you still have to work with the tools.
Here is a minimal set of tools that will make your job much easier:
Voice Query Promotion Checklist
Take a look at the promotion checklist for voice queries:
- Check the uniqueness of the content and the absence of spam;
- Use as keywords: questions and answers, long tail keywords;
- Regularly update and expand content;
- Track and improve user session duration;
- Monitor and improve pages with a high bounce rate;
- Use the SSL protocol;
- Regularly audit the site and correct all critical errors;
- Mobile-first in everything from font to page loading speed;
- Optimize the size of images and videos;
- Optimize page loading speed, minimize JS;
- Configuring caching;
- Close indexing of service pages of unblocked websites;
- Update the sitemap regularly;
- Use video content on unrestricted websites, create a Youtube channel;
- Regularly publish content on social networks Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and create a link to your site;
- Use a VPN site unblocker;
- Create content, not for the convenience of the outreach team, but for the user.
Conclusion
Optimization for Google search queries is an excellent place to experiment and develop new promotion strategies. It is promising to invest money and time in optimizing for voice queries, because in the era of mobile technologies this trend will always be relevant.