How Voice Search is Transforming SEO

Voice search is changing the way people search online. More than 20 billion voice searches are made each month on Google, with more than 50% of these queries coming from mobile devices. The percentage of voice searches is only going to rise. In this blog post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about how Voice Search is transforming SEO and what you can do as an SEO specialist to make sure your site is ready for voice search.

What is Voice Search?

Voice search is the process of searching for information using voice commands, either via a text-to-speech (TTS) system, or by using a virtual assistant like Google Assistant or Siri. Let’s say you’re looking for a nearby Mexican restaurant. You could open your browser, type “Mexican restaurants,” click on the first link (which might be a review site, like Yelp or TripAdvisor), and then click on the “nearby” tab to look for restaurants near you. Or, you could open your phone’s map app, say “Mexican restaurants nearby,” and then look at nearby Mexican restaurants on a map. The second option is an example of voice search.

How Voice Search Works

There are two types of voice search: Voice-to-text (VTT) and natural language (NLP): VTT uses an automated speech recognition (ASR) system to analyze the human voice and create written text from it. Natural language processing (NLP) uses VTT to search for specific terms in the written text. You can understand the difference between VTT and NLP with this example: Let’s say you’re searching for “a Mexican restaurant nearby.” VTT will turn this into written text as “a Mexican restaurant nearby.” NLP will look for the word “Mexican” and “restaurant” and come up with Mexican restaurants as a result.

The Pros of Voice Search for SEO

• Voice search is more natural-searchers are more likely to use their natural language when speaking to a robot than when typing out a query. This means that voice search is rather straightforward. No need to stuff keywords or write content for clickbait headlines.
• Voice search is more accurate-speaking your search terms aloud is bound to be more accurate than typing them out. There’s no risk of spelling errors, or typos-even if the system recognizes the wrong thing, the user can correct it by repeating the search.
• Voice search is more hands-free-which means more people are likely to use it in situations where typing is impractical. This is good news for your site, since more people can potentially find your site.

The Cons of Voice Search for SEO

• Voice search is more unpredictable-you don’t know what keywords the person is going to say. This means you can’t optimize for exact keyword phrases. You can, however, still optimize for long-tail keywords.
• Voice search is more fragmented-people don’t stay on one site. They bounce around between different sites and apps, often using a mix of voice and text search. This means that you need to be able to rank on multiple platforms.
• Voice search is more competitive-with more people using voice search, the competition for voice-based results is likely to be fierce.

Tips for Optimizing Your Site for Voice Search

1. Use long-tail keywords - Long-tail keywords are niche, highly-targeted keywords that are longer than three words. For example, instead of using the generic term “business fashion,” use “business clothing for women who travel.”
2. Use natural language - Give your site a voice by writing in a friendly, natural language. Include plenty of subheadings and bullet points, use simple language, write as though you’re talking to a friend.
3. Make your website mobile friendly - With more people using voice search on mobile devices, you need to make sure that your site is optimized for mobile. According to Mobile Marketer, 68% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
4. Optimize for Google Assistant - The Google Assistant is the most popular voice search tool. You can optimize your site for the Assistant by following all of the above.
5. Use Google’s Featured Snippets - Google has a Featured Snippet feature where it will show your site’s title, and a short paragraph of text directly below the search result. This is a great way to grab the attention of potential customers. You can get Featured Snippets by optimizing your site with long-tail keywords, and writing engaging content.

Conclusion

Voice search is here to stay, and it’s only going to get bigger. The best way to prepare for this transition is to optimize your site for long-tail keywords and natural language. When done properly, voice search can be a great source of traffic for your site. If you’re not prepared, however, it can be a huge source of frustration. Follow these tips, and you’ll be ready to take advantage of the rise of voice search. Now that you're familiar with how Voice Search is transforming SEO and what you can do to prepare for it, it's time to dive into the basics of SEO and learn how to optimize your site for SEO!

Our team of creative digital marketing experts can help! At Tommy House Studios, we offer small businesses in Montgomery leading-edge SEO solutions to increase their visibility to their targeted audience and help them develop potential sales leads. If you want to harness the full power of SEO, call us at (334) 310-2915 or contact us online.