Optimizing for Voice Search: Techniques for Enhanced Visibility

‍With the help of voice commands, we quickly get an answer to a question, build routes, find goods, or order a taxi. It is especially relevant for people who prefer using a smartphone rather than a desktop computer. Every significant digital ecosystem integrated assistance services, allowing customers to use voice queries.

‍Let’s talk about how voice search optimization changes the process of optimizing web pages and how to prepare for the popularization of voice queries so as not to lose positions in search results.

‍People formulate questions more accurately orally than in writing. The wording turns out to be detailed, so search engines produce better results. It is easier for people to communicate using words rather than expressing thoughts in the form of text. Therefore, verbal requests are more natural.

‍Voice input is available not only in close proximity to the device. You can quickly get the necessary information, even while driving or when your hands are full. If a user is in a hurry to run errands, it is more convenient to say a few phrases with his voice than to stop and type text.

‍This option is convenient for people with vision problems. There is no need to set up a huge keyboard on your devices: voice assistants will answer any verbal request. This greatly facilitates integration with the global world for people with disabilities.

‍The peculiarity of voice search is that people often ask where to find some service near them. There is a peculiarity: for requests like “grocery store near me,” the devices will display only the stores closest to the user. Even if there is a supermarket a little further away with low prices, a large selection and a convenient location.

‍Therefore, first of all, promotion in voice search SEO is helpful for local businesses where location connection is essential. For example:

• Offline stores and services. A voice assistant will speed up the search process if a person urgently needs to buy a specific product or get a service. Users do not need to go to the site, as they need information about contact details and addresses;
• Cafes and restaurants. Especially in tourist areas. If a person urgently needs a snack, then the choice will fall on the nearest establishment;
• Delivery services. Speed is important here, too. People need everything at once, so they look for the nearest company that will quickly deliver restaurant food, groceries, packages, etc.;
• Taxi. To call a taxi, you only need contact information. Therefore, getting on the first page of search results is beneficial after the user has made a voice input.

‍Voice search is also useful for online stores. Voice assistants can add items to carts, check out purchases, and recommend other products to customers based on their purchase history (like Amazon’s Alexa). Speed and personalization win over users who save time. Information portals will also benefit from this optimization. Dictation makes it easier to quickly find news, various data, and answers to questions. Voice optimization of blogs, media, and other web resources also benefits businesses.

‍Because people search differently by voice and text. The text forced people to change their habits and sentence structure when searching the Internet. And voice search returns users to more natural speech. SEO specialists must also adapt to the “new old” rules.

‍Below are techniques suggested by marketers and SEO specialists worldwide. This voice SEO will help you begin optimizing your website and application for the new search realities step-by-step.

1. Pay Attention to Geolocation

‍SEO specialists from Ai Media Group recommend focusing primarily on queries tied to the user’s geolocation. A high percentage of requests are “What hours is [the establishment] open until?” “Where can I order beer and a burger?” and so on.

‍Therefore, websites and applications (like any other manifestation of business on the Internet) need to be adapted to voice requests. Webmasters recommend at least adding information to your business profile on Google Maps so that your company’s data is displayed in the search engine’s snippets.

‍After this, you can rethink existing content so that it responds to geolocation queries or add new content that solves the same problems. Mentioning the cities where services are provided is suitable for this purpose. It’s also worth telling how long you work, whether there are breaks, etc.

2. Use Long Keywords

‍Nowadays, in SEO circles, it is customary to use relatively short words and phrases for which content is optimized. Longer expressions are left as an option and are rarely used. Copywriters preparing articles for the resource concentrate on frequent use of keys that are not too long. This approach is true for classic search queries because people don’t like to type a lot, and their search queries have become shorter. Users have no time to write down all their thoughts and wishes.

‍Voice search makes typing queries easier, but people are back to providing more details, telling the search engine what they want to find. So, SEO specialists again need to rethink the terms of reference and not throw “long-tailed” keys into the background.

3. Write Simply and Clearly

‍People have adapted to search engines, and search engines have adapted to people. The Internet has taught us to formulate simpler queries, and questions familiar to human speech, such as “Configure Webpack to work with React and TailwindCSS,” have become “Webpack React TailwindCSS.”

‍This approach has become natural for the traditional (that is, through the keyboard) method of communicating with search engines, but such a speech structure is alien to the voice. When communicating with Google Assistant, we use organic structures, just like when communicating with a living person.

‍This leads to another requirement for optimizing sites for voice search – introducing not just long keywords but understandable phrases instead of shortened and illogical keys adopted in an unspoken pact between search engines, users, and copywriters.

4. Tackle FAQ Page Structure

‍The FAQ item conveniently follows the previous one because it is a direct hint on where to start optimizing the content on the site for SEO voice search queries.

‍If you look at the frequently asked questions section on any website, almost everywhere, you see a structure that resembles a human dialogue. By creating such a page, we ask a question on behalf of the user and answer it immediately. There is a high probability that the user himself asks questions in the same way and without your help, using voice assistants and a special interface in browsers for voice control. If you don’t have an FAQ section yet, then it’s time to create one and fill it with easy questions and answers for mere mortals to understand.

5. Prepare Answers to the Questions “Who?”, “What?”, “How?” and Where?”

‍Users often begin voice queries with pronominal adverbs. This works both with searching for general information and with searching for places, companies, and events.

‍On your part, you need to predict which questions with pronominal adverbs at the beginning of a phrase can lead the user to your resource and optimize the content for them in advance. “Where” you can buy your product, “How” it works, “Who” makes it, and “What” you can do with it.

‍Ideally, you should prepare answers to all the most popular questions regarding your brand, divided into four types, at once.

6. Highlight Priority Issues

‍The trend for optimization for voice search will only grow (and competition along with it), so you need to become a proactive SEO specialist who anticipates clients’ habits and style of communication with the search engine.

‍It will not be possible to close all the gaps in an SEO project at once, so first, you need to find the main keys that bring the most traffic. The strategy here is the same as in the case of traditional search – you need to find out which voice queries will bring people to your site more often.

‍There is no need to transform all the content at once and adapt it to the new search paradigm. Focus on the important things because the queries that work now won’t necessarily work for voice search, even if you put them on the page in an expanded form that sounds more like human speech.

7. Don’t Overload the Site with Information

‍This point is important for two reasons:

• Users don’t like too much information. To capture a person’s attention, you need to correctly distribute all the text on the page, use large fonts, and convey the main ideas without going into detail (unless it’s a manual or documentation, of course).
• There is a possibility of incorrect perception of lengthy sentences as keys in voice queries. To avoid overspam (voice) and erroneous keys, you should be more attentive to the questions on the site’s pages.

‍We profess minimalism and extract the most important things from any text. We try to outline this important thing briefly. We leave too detailed information for separate pages with extended documentation, instructions, etc.

8. Communicate Thoughts Easier

‍We need to attack in two directions:

• users,
• computers.

‍In the case of the former, we return to the general desire for simplicity. Mobile devices and the modern Internet have revolutionized information consumption and taught people how to read large texts. People need to digest short data and draw conclusions based on it quickly.

‍In the latter, voice assistants’ imperfection interferes. Even if you adapt the content on your website to long key queries and optimize for voice search, the computer will not adapt to them. Some users use voice search through voice assistants in the spirit of Siri, and they sometimes make mistakes, incorrectly recognize speech, and get lost in too-long questions.

‍Therefore, it is better not to overdo it with details in the keys, leaving everything within common sense limits. Avoid redundant keys like “how to cook lasagna according to an Italian recipe, using the ingredients: pepper, minced meat” and focus only on the simpler and more predictable “how to cook lasagna in Italian.”

9. Remember Idioms, Euphemisms, and Slang

‍If you know that your clients have a special name for certain things, this is important to consider. Society loves using euphemisms, especially when discussing personal care products or other intimate products.

‍Users may use fixed expressions when forming voice search queries, use words in figurative senses, or change the order of words to a more natural one for speech rather than for writing.

10. Think Again About Brand and Product Names

‍Given the expansion of voice search rankings and the constant increase in its popularity, an awkward name can become a problem for businesses. The easier it is to pronounce and read, the better.

‍The name of a company, product, or service should not drive the user into a stupor. The idea of voice search is not to waste time thinking, and an unclear name will definitely make you pause.

11. Don’t Forget about the Traditional Search Option

‍It is necessary to consider trends, but while chasing them, we must not forget that most search queries are still carried out in text, and completely rewriting the content on the site to adapt to voice queries is already overkill. Take measures gradually, step by step, to optimize sites for the new generation of key queries, but do not give up on familiar and already working SEO practices.

‍Voice search is a technology that is changing our world right now. Its popularity will continue to gain momentum in the near future. Traditional SEO isn’t going away just yet, but you must be prepared for search without SERPs, the rise of simple AI-readable content, and much more. Use the voice search tips from this article to prepare your resources for the future.