Voice Engine Optimization

Voice search optimization refers to the act of optimizing sites to appear on top of search engine results on Google if people do voice searches. Voice searches have become common and as of 2018, there were 2.5 billion voice assistants in use. The number of voice assistants in use is expected to rise to over 6 billion by 2030. Voice searches enable people to multitask, it is quicker in bringing answers compared to typing. For these reasons, lots of people will get voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Assistant. As a retailer or business person, it would be of great benefit if you optimize your site to appear in voice search results. Below are some of the tasks, you can do to make sure you appear on voice searches.

Know-How to Select Keywords

Keywords are the phrases that people type or say on search engine Google to get results. You need to understand that people type and speak differently so the keywords on your content may not be relevant. For example, if someone wants to know the best mobile phones, they will type, ‘best phones 2019’ but if using a voice assistant, they will say, ‘what is the best phone 2019’. Brainstorm on the kind of questions your audience could use to search for things online and be as accurate as possible. People could even as a feature, an example is ‘smartphone with 256GB internal storage’. You can use SEO tools to find popular keywords.

Perfect Content Strategy is Fundamental

Your content should encompass all possible search phrases and aspects of your audience. The content should appear on all voice searches and ensure clients get answers. You can structure your content into sub-categories as listed below.• Cover Customer Awareness-This is targeted for clients who want to know what is in the market. An example is when a client searches, ‘what is the best smartphone in 2019”.
• Cover Customer Interests-Some clients want to know if the product has features, they want. For example, a client can search, ‘does the phone contain NFC’.
• Evaluation, clients also want to know some comparative details about products. For example, between phone A and B which one is better.

Structure your content in a manner that it would cover all client searches so as to make your content relevant to the diverse questions. Try to cover intents like informational, Navigational intent and Transactional intent. To be more prone to voice searches, include FAQ page with very specific answers.

Mobile-Friendly Sites Serve Nicely

It is important to know that most voice searches come from mobile devices. Make your site mobile friendly and if possible, use structured data to make web pages crawl easily. Create a site map and submit to Google Search Console. Utilize schema to structure your data so that Google bots easily find your content and its relevance.

Conclusion

Voice search optimization is worth investing on because it already has billions of users across the globe with Google. Just like SEO, VSO is always evolving so you need to be ready to make relevant updates every now and then to remain on top of search engines. Voice search for Google is one promising strategy for the future.