55% of teens and 41% of adults were found to be using voice search assistance regularly instead of typing a search query on search engines according to a recent study. Voice assistance has been a popular tool available for a while now across every smartphone. The user-friendliness and accessibility it offers make voice search a better option for convenience in the digital era. All the major companies that offer SEO services in Dubai are now upgrading their SEO strategies to optimize their website pages for voice search queries. Let’s see voice search and impact on SEO.
Voice searching might seem like the latest update in the digital realm even though it all started seven decades ago. However, the arrival and increase in the accessibility of devices like smartphones, smart speakers, wearable gadgets, and more took voice search to another level. Most of the credit goes to this shift in the evolution of gadgets and software capabilities of these gadgets into a more user-friendly mode. A webpage that is destined to be a result of any text queries on search page results should also now become a result of voice search queries. That’s where SEO in voice search queries becomes imperative to your website.
What does voice search mean for SEO?
Optimizing webpages and web content for voice search queries is now more important to let voice search users get access to your content. There are some of the major factors that you should take care of when it comes to optimizing your webpage or content voice-search-friendly.
The difference between voice search and text search
Some might think that voice search queries are just another kind of method to input your questions without the use of a keyboard. But it has its way of processing and delivering information. The expectations and behaviors of voice search users are different compared to those who use text search including:
Conversational behavior
Voice search users will use more conversational kind of sentences as queries for the same results. A person who types “best pizza near me” will not be using the same construction of words when it comes to voice search. They might ask ” Which is the best pizza restaurant near me?” or “Where can I get the best pizza in Dammam?”. Most of the voice search queries are more elaborate and more work for those who use text queries in search.
The question nature of voice search
As per the example queries mentioned above for both text search and voice search, voice search queries mostly come with a questioning nature. Voice searchers will use all question words including What, Where, How, When, Which, Why, etc. since they expect a well-curated and specific answer to their queries. Voice searchers will be asking “Who is the president of America? Instead of “President of America” or “American president”.
It’s more local compared to text search queries
People mostly use voice search to know about services and attractions near them. “Where is the nearest gas station?” or “What about the weather today?” are just two examples of voice search queries that people use. The probability of searching for local area needs through text queries is far less compared to voice search with the current smart facilities they have in their smartphones, cars, and other devices.
Results are spoken answers
The basic instinct of using voice search itself is to avoid the wastage of time on unwanted typing and reading of results. They never prefer browsing through pages or clicking through links. Most of the voice search results are simple answers to the questions asked by the user. For example, when a user asks “Who is the president of America” the result will be an answer like “The president of America is Joe Biden”.
Optimize your content for voice search
Business owners, marketers, and website owners need to ensure that their web pages are adapted to the latest changes in the search engine experience. They have to adapt to the best practices to optimize their web pages.
Use natural language and long keywords
As per what we saw above, voice search queries and the results they get are conversational, longer yet simple. You can use simple natural language along with long keywords in a way that people speak. The first thing to make the web content optimized is to make it as humane as possible. You can replace keywords like “digital marketing” with “best digital marketing agency near me”.
Answer the common questions in your sector
You can include FAQ sections in your web pages with commonly asked questions by the users in your industry. This will help you get listed on top of voice search results since most of the voice searches are question-based queries. There are tools like AnswerThePublic and more available for SEO specialists to find the questions people ask about several things. The FAQ section can have multiple questions and answers that will increase the possibilities of becoming an answer to the question asked by the users through voice queries.
Create blog posts to address prominent questions
Like this blog you are reading right now, you should create blog posts that talk about a common issue faced or a common question asked about a topic. This will take your website to the users through that blog when they search for the matter you have written in the blog. In this case, we are answering the question “How does voice search work?”, or “Why is voice search important?”.
Curate content for local searches
Optimizing the content on your web pages for local searches is important when you are trying to reach on top of search results. Including local keywords with local information is the best strategy to optimize the web content for voice searches. Using location-based keywords like the best SEO company in Dubai alongside active participation in collecting online reviews, will help in the long run optimize your web content.
Future of voice search
Some might be too lazy to use voice search to obtain answers on the web. But the actuality of voice search is inevitable and the number of voice searchers will increase in the future. Besides, most of the apps and devices nowadays come with a voice-enabled tool for several of its uses including voice search. SEO experts have to stay updated in the field and should ensure that their web pages and content are ranking well in voice searches along with text searches.
