About 10-20 years ago, people never thought they’d be using voice commands to use the internet, let alone use it around the house. What seems to be nothing but a concept in science fiction is now one of the most effective ways to search. This just means that the way people search the internet is changing. Voice search has already played a big part in this change, and it will continue to gain momentum.
Now that voice search has been introduced, it is now more important than ever for businesses to optimize their websites in order to gain more visibility. By optimizing your website, you improve your ranking on search engines and increase your click-through rate. But how do you make your website voice search friendly? Here is a list of tips that you can use to optimize your website and give it a much-needed boost.
1. Create Content And Voice Search Guidelines
Content is still king when it comes to SEO, but optimizing your content for voice search takes it to another level. You might already have a good amount of content, but you have to make sure it follows a set of guidelines that will be helpful when people use their voices to search the Internet.
Optimizing your content for voice search will not only improve the rank of your content but will also increase traffic from voice search. Hence, it is necessary to create a set of guidelines for the content writers of your business.
2. Get Your Website Ready For Voice Search
You might be wondering why you need to do it when voice search is still new. Well, you should start optimizing your website right now in order to be ready when voice search becomes more popular. The most important thing to do is properly maintain your website’s crawlability. This way, you will be ready for voice search and increase your website’s ranking on the search engine. You can achieve this by doing the following:
Create a Site Map
Add Meta Description
Write a Compelling Title for Every Page
Create a Sitemap for Your Website
If you are doing an online business, make sure your website is mobile-friendly. This way, you’ll be able to earn more from voice search.
3. Incorporate Long-Tail Keywords in Your Content
Keywords are still useful even with the introduction of voice search. Voice search has opened up a new way of using keywords, allowing businesses to use long-tail keywords to their advantage. Long-tail keywords are created by using a combination of 2 or more keywords. With these types of keywords, competition is much lower, and it is easier to rank.
4. Optimize For Site Speed And Mobile Experience
If your site does not load fast, you can count your business out of the race for natural voice search. Most people don’t like to wait too long for a website to load. Keep in mind that people search using voice when in their car, on the bus, or even at home. You want to be sure the load speed is fast enough, or else your website may be overlooked.
There are plenty of ways to optimize your website for speed. For example, make sure you compress your image and use static assets, use content delivery networks, and remove all unnecessary code to improve the load speed of your website.
5. Format your Content for Featured Snippets
Featured Snippets are a new way of providing users with information. These are the boxes that appear beneath the website names when people do a search. The box contains a small summary of the site and a few lines of text about the site. The snippet can be a summary, a few factual lines, or even a question. Google looks for clear and rich answers to questions.
Using voice search, people will likely use this box to look for information. The snippet may appear for any keyword, so you have to be specific. You can do this by using the answer to the question in the heading and providing the details afterward. The search engine will take a look at the preview text, the title, and the potential answer to decide whether the page is useful or not.
Conclusion
Overall, voice search will now play an essential role in how people look for information. As mentioned above, businesses have to be prepared for this change and ensure that their websites are optimized for voice search. If you follow the tips mentioned in this article, you will easily be able to improve your website’s ranking on the top search engines and increase traffic from voice search.
If you’re wondering how to optimize for voice search, you’re going to need the help of an industry expert like Local SEO Pro. At Local SEO Pro, we’ll help you create a strong and well-maintained local SEO strategy built around voice search and make your business more visible online. Contact us today to get started!