Speaking to a digital assistant is preferable to typing in queries. Though considered a fad when it started out, voice searches are invaluable. Take Cortana, Siri or Amazon Echo, aren’t these personal assistants lifesavers?
Think of a busy business tax planning advisor on driving down a busy way, isn’t it safer to make requests through personal assistants than it is to drive? Scheduling meetings and creating reminders is becoming easier by the day. More than 33 million voice-first devices in circulation, and voice searches taking the third spot in SEO trends.
What does that mean for you? Well, your digital marketing portfolio will only grow if your clients optimize their sites for voice searches. As a business person, voice search optimization will mean an increase in organic traffic.
So, how do you optimize for voice search?
- Page Speed
How fast or slow a page loads determines user satisfaction. Though it affects voice search indirectly, fast-loading sites rank highly on SERPs.
Page-speed tests are necessary for the determination of the page speed. If you don’t want to take the test yet, though you should take into account your page’s bounce rate and the dwell time.
- The Length of the query
Voice searches will not work for you if you want to share lengthy stories with Siri. Short, simple and concise queries yield better results. An average word-length of 29 words is preferable, especially for Google.
For marketers, the addition of featured-snippet-ready and voice-ready snippets into content for that content to appear on search engine result pages.
Something else – linguistic simplicity. How is to read is your content? To pass the readability test, your content should be written at the level of a nine grader.
- SSL and HTTPS
According to reports by Backlinko, about 70.4 of the Google Home result pages are secured by HTTPS. The HTTPS websites are also seen to dominate Google’s voice searches.
What are HTTPS sites? These are the sites with enabled SSL/ Secure Sockets Layer Technology. SSL encrypts your site’s connection saving your data from interception by hackers. Even though HTTPS isn’t a ranking signal for SERPS, it is an excellent signal for voice over searches.
- Schema Markups
Schema Markup, a powerful, yet an underutilized form of SEO is a code which you input on your website for search engines to return more informative and useful results for its users. In other words, Schema tells the search engines the meaning of your data, not just want the data says.
Even though Schema Markup may not boost your ranking on search engine result pages, it goes above your expectations by helping search engines to understand your published content better. Content optimized for voice searches ranks high.
- Strong Link Authority
Does your website run on an authoritative domain? If not, you are losing clients. The authoritative domains produce significant voice search results in comparison with the non-authoritative domain.
If you ever questioned the need for a reputable name through the creation of an authoritative domain, this is the time to rethink your decision. A high domain authority increases the voice search results significantly. A high domain authority also means that you are giving out accurate information.
Other essential elements of voice search SEO include social sharing and title optimization, as well as featured snippets.
