Do you still focus on optimizing your website for short and written queries? There is no harm in following this approach, but it is becoming obsolete day by day as people shift their focus from writing to voice.
Now most users, regardless of search engines, don’t stress their fingers to write a query. Instead, they simply click the voice assistant and speak to ask whatever they want to learn about.
However, only a number of companies truly realize this shift and take appropriate measures accordingly, from adding long-tail keywords to enhancing crawlability and indexation for better user experience.
Let’s discuss a path every company must follow to optimize voice search to increase online presence for healthy ROI.
Voice Search: 5 Ways to Optimize Your Website
What steps does an enterprise need to follow if it wants to maintain organic traffic in the flood of AI overviews and the continuous evolvement of search engines?
Spoiler Alert!
Nothing hectic or super technical needs to be done!
Long-Tail Keywords Are Essential
The process of content creation without adding long-tail keywords doesn’t bring any juice to the table for any website. Specificity can be a new winner for content creators as people love reading and watching the most relevant things against their queries.
Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference between written queries and voice searches. When a user writes a query, he will most probably type “best AI agency in Lahore”. However, when using voice search, he will ask “What’s the best AI agency in Lahore, Johar Town”.
To improve visibility for long queries, a writer must not ignore the importance of long-tail keywords. Not adding them to your content means you are missing a huge chunk of potential traffic that can visit your website or landing page.
What could be some effective ways to find long-tail keywords? Well, there can be many and you can choose any of them based on your topic or niche.
The first way to find long-tail keywords is to cater to Google Suggestion. For instance, if you are going to write a blog covering the topic “best SEO tools”, copy this keyword to the Google search bar and it will show you a bunch of additional long-tail keywords like “What are some free SEO tools”.
In addition to relying on the Google search bar, you can consider questions appearing in PAA (People Also Ask). There are also some authentic tools that can help you get the most relevant long-tail keywords.
The first tool is “Answer the Public”, which provides comprehensive queries against a topic or keyword. Other tools include Semrush, Ahrefs, and Ubersuggest – all of them give you the opportunity to find the best questions and long-tail keywords related to your topic.
Content Audit
Your website or blog will have hundreds of pages if not thousands. To speak realistically, it hadn’t been possible for you to include long queries in your articles as there wasn’t a rising trend of voice search.
What to do now? We will suggest a comprehensive content audit of your website previously missing the opportunity for long-tail queries.
Use any SEO tools to run a complete audit and find pages and articles that are missing these keywords, headings, and proper structure. Adding long queries to these blogs will be more effective and result-driven as compared to writing new articles.
Optimizing the old pages with new content and strategies always helps you rank high in SERP because they have more PA (Page Authority).
Make a list of articles in the Excel sheet and find appropriate long-tail keywords and queries for them. And also analyze the competitors for the latest knowledge that needs to be updated in these articles.
While updating your previously written articles and blogs, make sure you don’t stuff them with keywords and queries without making any sense. Keyword stuffing is the first thing you need to avoid when you are going to optimize for voice search.
Focus on Local SEO
Ignoring local SEO when focusing on voice search optimization can become a bottleneck for your whole strategy. Many companies don’t realize the importance of local SEO and don’t try to build a strong local presence or profile.
Why do I stress so much on local SEO?
Most people, whether typing a query or asking a voice assistant, tend to opt for local or regional options. If you are going to find the best restaurant in your area, you most probably search the term “best restaurant near me”.
If you don’t have a Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business), you will not show up against this query. And if your competitor is leveraging GBP, it will stay ahead of you.
Make sure the information on your Google Business Profile is updated, whether name, address, or operational hours. Add an easy-to-navigate map to your profile.
In addition to updating information, encourage your customers to leave reviews on your profile. Keep these reviews original and don’t try to trick Google as it somehow knows who has interacted with your company for a service or product.
You can also spread local keywords throughout your website, including home pages, blogs, and service pages. Local keywords usually contain the name of a specific location, whether a town or city.
Speed Optimization Is a Must
Speed optimization falls under the umbrella of technical SEO but doesn’t involve in-depth technical expertise to achieve it. This is basically what we call Core Web Vitals (CWV), a combination of metrics to enhance your website speed.
Here is a quick reminder for you to focus on when optimizing your website for voice search:
- LCP: It should have to be equal to or less than 2.5s.
- CLS: Must be = or < 0.1s.
- FCP: First contentful paint will be equal to or less than 1.8s.
- INP: Interaction to next paint will be = or < 200ms.
All these metrics of Core Web Vitals set by Google can’t be ignored by anyone who is going to optimize a website for voice search. You must be thinking why do we need to bother about them when there are no visible issues?
Most of your website traffic comes from mobile phones and if your website isn’t optimized for such users, they will go back to SERPs without interacting with your product or service. Google will start punishing you for a bad user experience and, eventually a loss in your rankings.
Core web vitals issues are behind-the-curtain problems that require your attention on a regular basis. If you don’t consider a high score of CWV as a part of your strategy, then the chances are high that your efforts for voice search optimization will go in vain.
Keep Your Content
We know content writers always want to show their expertise by penning down their thoughts or compiling a case study and guide. But people don’t want to see your expertise, they want to understand in a simple language.
Therefore, the process of Content Creation should be simple. Keep your paragraphs short and consider their visibility on mobile phones as reading a five-liner paragraph on laptops is easy as compared to mobile phones where two sentences can make a paragraph.
Moreover, don’t rush to cover every topic in a single article or blog. Instead, create pillar pages that direct to a main page, helping you to create domain authority and ranking on SERPs easily.
Answer customers directly without getting distracted by adding extra details. The more your answer is relevant, the more the satisfaction level of a user will be.
Try to add an FAQ section to every piece of content. This will not only help in adding long-tail keywords to your blogs but also answer specific queries.
Conclusion About Website Search Optimization
You must have, so far, a clear understanding of the importance of voice search: how to optimize a website. As user behavior shifts from typing to speaking, a company must adapt to stay relevant and competitive. By focusing on long-tail keywords and conducting comprehensive content audits, you can capture the growing voice search audience. And remember that voice search isn’t only about keeping up with trends, it’s about enhancing user experience.
FAQs
How to optimize for voice search?
Focus on long-tail keywords, improve website speed, prioritize local SEO, create conversational content, and add FAQ sections. Ensure mobile-friendliness and structured data markup for better visibility in voice search results.
What is the voice search optimization?
Voice search optimization involves customizing your website and content to rank for voice-based queries. It includes using natural language, long-tail keywords, and ensuring fast, mobile-friendly experiences to align with voice search user behavior.
Is voice search the future of SEO?
Yes. Voice search is shaping the future of SEO. With the rise of smart devices and voice assistants, optimizing for conversational queries and user intent is crucial for staying competitive in search rankings.
How do I optimize Google Voice?
Optimize for Google Voice by using natural language, targeting question-based queries, and ensuring accurate local business information. Improve site speed, and mobile usability, and add structured data to enhance visibility in voice search results.
What is the purpose of voice search?
Voice search aims to provide quick, hands-free, and accurate answers to user queries. It simplifies search experiences by allowing users to speak naturally, making information access faster and more convenient.
How to implement voice SEO?
Implement voice SEO by targeting long-tail keywords, creating conversational content, optimizing for local search, improving site speed, and using structured data. Focus on mobile optimization and answer user queries directly for better voice search rankings.
