With smart technology finding more uses, voice search SEO needs to figure in your content strategy. Here's how to optimize your content.
There are more than 1.9 billion websites currently active on the internet. Having a website of your own can be discouraging if you can't think of a way to rise above all that competition. Fortunately, voice search SEO can help.
While a lot of people search for websites with their keyboards, a very large percentage also searches for things on the internet through a simple voice search. If your website is already somewhat optimized with regular SEO but not voice search optimization, you may be in trouble.
After all, you're missing out on an entire group of people who prefer to use voice search instead of their keyboards. But where should you start with voice search SEO and how is it any different from regular SEO? Keep reading and learn more about what to do to get started with voice search tactics and optimization.
Use the Right Keywords for Voice Search SEO
Keywords are important no matter what kind of SEO you use. Keywords are usually nothing more than a few words that act to make your content more visible and relevant to search engines and people searching for certain things on the internet. Vague keywords are the last thing you want to use along with short keywords.
For example, the keyword "fashion" won't help you very much in your efforts to boost the popularity of your website. This is because the word is, after all, only one word and much too short. Because it is only one word it is also much too vague and general to be of much help to people or search engines.
After all, this keyword would bring about millions upon millions of search results, which, of course, would not help you very much, especially if your website ranks for that keyword on the 50th page of Google. Instead, using longer and more specific keywords is much more effective.
Long-tail keywords are keywords that are three words or longer and these have been known to be very effective when ranking on search engines like Google. This is because they are much more specific than shorter keywords and can help you rank on Google's first page for more specific searches.
But you will have to experiment a bit more when you use keywords for voice search. While long-tail keywords will still be quite helpful, they likely won't be enough to make your website more prominent to those using voice search. Instead, the best thing to do is optimize your website for voice search by using keywords that consist of entire phrases.
The Details
This isn't usually recommended for regular SEO, but it certainly works for voice search SEO. The keyword phrases should be questions that people might ask often. For example, "How long do cut flowers last?" is a great SEO keyword for voice search since it is a real sentence that someone might ask when doing a voice search.
Of course, you can't just use one keyword to represent your content. If you are unsure where to get more good keywords and phrases, you can always search on Google for yourself. Doing this will give you more relevant keywords and phrases, especially if you look at the "People Also Ask" feature.
The autocomplete feature on Google may also help you come up with more keyword ideas. Also, be sure to not use too many keywords for one piece of content. This is known as overoptimization and it can actually hinder your efforts of making your website more successful.
Instead, try to use a moderate or even small number of very good keywords instead of using a lot of mediocre keywords. As long as you do that, your website will be off to a good start for voice optimization.
Optimize Your Website for Mobile
A large chunk of voice searches come from people using their mobile phones. And, in general, most people use their phones for several hours every day. Most people don't even go anywhere without their phones.
Needless to say, if people, on average, use their phones so much to search for things, you should really make sure that your website is optimized for mobile use. Many people with websites never bother to optimize their sites for mobile, and this is often a big mistake.
The popularity of mobile use is only continuing to grow, and if you don't jump on the bandwagon, your website might not have the chance to grow as much as you want it to. The main problem that traditional websites have is that when a person searches for them on mobile, the website will run very slowly because it is not optimized for that kind of use. Website speed but in general and on mobile is very important.
Most website visitors won't wait around for a website to load even if it only takes a few extra seconds to load compared to other websites. If your website takes too long to load, your online visitors will surely click away and go to another website that loads faster. This, of course, would not be great for your online traffic.
To solve this problem, all you need to do is optimize your website for mobile use. There are ways you can test how fast your website is on mobile. Usually, you can test your website's speed using certain websites.
What You Need to Know
From those tests, you can learn a thing or two about how to speed up your website. Usually, it has to do with getting rid of certain website features that are taking up too much space and energy from your website like large pictures or videos. Once you trim down your website, you should find that it should run much faster on mobile.
Of course, besides increasing the loading speed, there are a few other things you should do to optimize your website for mobile use. In particular, you will want to make sure that the layout of the website looks good on mobile. If your website isn't mobile-friendly, the text that is displayed may look very small or it may be difficult to navigate your website.
This will frustrate your mobile viewers and cause them to leave your site in favor of another. All you need to do to fix this is make sure that your layout is mobile-friendly. That way, it will be a breeze to scroll through your website and navigate its different sections when using a phone.
If you don't know how to make this happen, a good web design service can help you out. Professional web designers will know how to adjust your website and design it so it looks great for both computer and mobile users.
Try Incorporating a Section for FAQs
A section on your website for frequently asked questions can be much more beneficial than you might think. A FAQ list is nothing more than a short list of common questions with some simple answers. Such a list is not very hard to create and it can do wonders for your website's voice search optimization.
But what is so great about FAQs when it comes to your voice search strategy anyway? The main benefit is that these questions are often keywords that people might search for on the internet. As mentioned before, using keywords that are entire phrases for voice search optimization is a great idea.
While these keywords have more words than your average keyword, they can still be effective as long as they are complete questions that people might ask when doing a voice search. More than that FAQs are great for voice searches because they are essentially the foundation of every voice search.
A voice search initially consists of someone asking a question. The second part of the search is the search engine supplying that person with a valid answer. Obviously, FAQs are exactly that: questions and answers.
As you can imagine, this setup would be ideal for optimizing your website for voice searches. Just be sure that the questions you use for your list are conversational and common. If you are having trouble coming up with questions for your list, you can always go to Google and see what comes up with the autocomplete feature.
The Power of FAQ Sections
Once you do that, you can start completing your list. Besides coming up with good questions, you should also have plenty of good answers. FAQ sections usually aren't too lengthy, so try not to make your answers too long or drawn out.
These sections are meant to be brief so that people can easily find the answers they're looking for. And keep in mind that you don't need to overdo it with the FAQs. You don't need to list dozens and dozens of questions on your website and not every piece of content needs to have an FAQ section.
Instead, pick a page to pick the FAQ section on and only use a few important questions relating to your content. That way, your visitors won't be overwhelmed once they reach the FAQ section and they should be able to find their answers right away.
If the FAQ section is too convoluted or too long, your visitors might get annoyed and go somewhere else to get their answers. As mentioned before, short answers are usually best, but this doesn't mean that the answers have to be vague. You can still put plenty of detail into your answers and you don't need to write several paragraphs to provide the answer.
Once you create your FAQ section, your website will be one step closer to becoming perfectly optimized for voice search SEO.
Understand Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is very important if you want your website to go anywhere. If you don't know what your target audience wants or what those people usually do, then your website will likely fall into stagnation and you certainly won't see it become a success any time soon. After all, if you know more about your target audience, how they behave, and what they ask for, it will be much easier for you to cater your content to them.
Voice search, in particular, can tell you a lot about your target audience. Certain data and algorithms can tell you more about what your audience likes to search for, what kind of questions they ask, what they want to buy, and so on. Knowing all of this information can even help you predict the next moves of your potential customers.
This is often what big and successful websites do. They make sure that they understand every little bit of important information regarding their customers. Then, they turn that information into marketing campaigns, strategies, and more.
All of this will make it more likely to connect with your target audience in different ways. So, not only will your target audience be more trusting of your brand and content but they will also be more likely to visit your website in the future. This is especially true if you sell things on your website and always think one step ahead of your customers by offering deals or special welcome bonuses and so on.
In general, being attentive to your target audience will help you a lot with voice search optimization. The main thing you should do is understand who your target audience is. Does your audience mainly consist of millennials or baby boomers?
Consider the Demographic of Your Audience
The age bracket of your audience is more important than you might think. This is because the age of your audience will determine the style and wording of your website. You wouldn't use a bunch of modern slang from TikTok if the majority of your audience consists of baby boomers.
Besides the age of your audience, you should know more about the background of your audience, their average income, what kind of activities they enjoy, what products they tend to buy, and so on. All of this information will tell you what your audience might be willing to buy from you, how much they will be willing to spend, and more.
It will take some time to collect this data, especially if you're website is just starting out. But after some time, this data will start to come together and you will have a much better understanding of your audience. That way, you can not only optimize your website regularly but also optimize it for voice search.
You will be able to hone in on certain questions that your website visitors might ask and you will have all the right answers on your website.
Consider Going Multilingual With Your Website
You may already know that many big and successful websites often have multilingual options available. More often than not, there will be a little button on the corner of a website to switch the content from one language to another. Some big websites even have two or three foreign language options available for their content.
Many smaller websites don't bother with multilingual options, but you will find you will be one step ahead of the competition if you incorporate some multilanguage facets into your website. This is especially true if you know a significant chunk of your audience speaks a different language. Suppose that your website targets a community that regularly speaks both English and Spanish.
Writing everything on your website in English will only end up being so productive. At a certain point, you will lose the interest of those that prefer to view their content in Spanish. Then, they may leave your website in favor of another that has Spanish content.
The main way to fix this is to give your website a multilingual option. Giving the option to your viewers to view your website in English or in another language will make your website far more versatile. It will also reach a much larger group of people than ever before.
After all, while many people speak English, there are millions of people that speak Spanish and other languages, and it is always a good idea to incorporate them into the mix. You might be wondering what the point is if Google Translate can do most of the heavy lifting for you. While Google Translate can be helpful, it often is not very accurate.
Translating Your Content
When a viewer translates your content into a different language, the resulting text is likely going to sound strange and unprofessional. The meaning of some of the words may also not translate properly and the full meaning of your content may be skewed as a result.
The single best way to reach a multilingual audience is to translate your content by yourself or by using a professional. It is usually not recommended to translate the content on your own unless you fully grasp the concepts and grammar of all the languages involved. Otherwise, the resulting translations may sound odd and unprofessional.
More than that, incorrect translations will not rank for voice searches. This, of course, is the most important part of all. For that reason, it will generally be a good idea to hire a professional translator to do the job for you.
A professional translator will make sure that all of your content retains its original meaning in a different language. That way, the translation will be as accurate as possible and it should easily be able to reach an entirely new section of your audience. If you want to translate your content into several languages, this may take a while, but it will certainly help with your voice search optimization and website optimization in general.
Upgrade Your Domain Authority
Your domain authority has to do with where your website ranks on search engines. For example, if your website ranks on the first page of Google for a particular search, then your domain authority would be fantastic. This is because few people ever bother to venture beyond the first page of Google.
After all, the first page already has all of the most relevant information, so it is of little importance to ever go beyond the first page. So, if your website tends to rank on the 12th or 40th page of Google, you obviously won't have very good domain authority and your website will be in trouble.
But how can you improve your domain authority? It all comes back to the basic practices of SEO. Keep in mind that SEO is more than just keywords (although those are very important). Optimizing your website also consists of many other features such as internal and external links.
The Details
For example, internal links are those that link to more content on your website. This can help connect your content and also show search engines that all of your content is related. External links are those that link to other websites.
These links are important for building a good reputation and trustworthiness for your website. In general, Google prefers websites that have both internal and external links. You should also make sure that your content is worded in a way that will make it easy to find with voice searches and keyboard searches.
That way, you will have a better chance of raising your domain authority.
All About Optimizing Voice Search SEO
Voice search SEO is very important to understand because many people search for things using their voices rather than keyboards. To optimize your website for voice search, you need to consider using the right keywords, creating an FAQ section, making your website multilingual, improving your domain authority, and so on.
Professional services can help with all that. Book a call with us here to learn more.