Top tips on optimising for voice-enabled assistants like Amazon Echo & Google Home

Voice search is more than just a fad; it is something being used by millions of households worldwide, and the numbers are only going to continue growing as home-based smart assistants get smarter and more affordable. Using our voices to browse the internet is getting more common as Amazon Alexa, Google Home and others have taken pride of place in our homes. If you haven’t yet incorporated voice search into your overall SEO strategy, then you need to get right to it.

Natural language processing and voice search are being improved all the time and as more people begin to use it for general internet browsing, it should be your number one priority to get your website optimised for it. Voice search is completely changing the game and has even modified the way Google handles search queries, and this has an impact on everything, from Ecommerce to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and everything in between.

 

A Brief History of Voice Search

Initially introduced in 2010 by Google, voice search could be used by dialling a phone number and saying some keywords, and Google would then return some webpages which best related to these keywords. Although this admittedly wasn’t the best voice search solution, it enabled Google to develop the voice search and speech recognition technology which is used today.

There are many devices, products and services used by millions of people all around the world on a daily basis which can be used for voice search and, as more people utilise voice search for its convenience, this number is going to keep growing as the technologies get more intelligent and voice search becomes a more intuitive way to browse the web.

What is Voice Search Used For?

There has been plenty of research done into what exactly voice search is used for, and this can help you optimise your website and fill it with relevant content. Although the specific figures vary, voice-based search is generally used for the following in relatively equal measure by searchers –

•    Local information
•    Fun and entertainment
•    Personal assistance
•    General information

There are plenty of ways you can optimise the content on your website to fall within these categories, especially if you are a local business or operate premises within a local area… more on this later.

As voice search begins to be more widely used, exactly what it is used for will begin to change and we are likely to see it being used for more specialist and specific searches.

 

Preparing for Voice Search

Unfortunately, you cannot just sit around and ignore voice search; if you don’t get your website and its pages optimised now, the growth of voice search will have a hugely detrimental impact on your web traffic. There are a few key ways you can get yourself ready for voice search –

1.  Prioritise local search

“Near me” searches are one of the most common uses of voice search, for example where the end-user is searching for something near them such as a café or restaurant. If you are operating a business which owns a brick-and-mortar location, you should be tailoring your site for this purpose. Make sure that your Google My Business information is updated and correct and add location-specific pages to your website if you operate multiple physical locations.

2.  Write casual copy

You should be writing your web copy in a way which sounds like how somebody speaks: conversational and natural. Copy which is more casual in tone instead of being corporate and official will help catch voice-based searches. When you are writing your web copy, think about how you would talk with your friends about the subject in a casual setting and try to convey that tone on the page. Voice search carefully analyses the end-user’s speech to carry out the search, and your copy needs to somewhat mirror that.

3.  Use long-tail keywords

Targeting long-tail keywords is a good idea as they are more specific; long-tail keywords are longer than a typical search query and many sites overlook them and use shorter ones. This is a good thing for your website – using long-tail words helps you remain competitive. Because voice searches are generally conversational, long-tail keywords places you in a much better position and higher up in search results.

4.  Answer questions on your site

Most voice-based searches are carried out in question form, so it is important that your website specifically answers questions frequently asked by your visitors and customers. This can be done either through your general content or as a dedicated FAQs page and it helps your overall SEO as well as your SEO for voice search. It’s always a good idea to do this regardless.

5.  Be optimised for mobile devices

Your website needs to be optimised for use on mobile devices and it is something which you should already have done. If you haven’t yet, you really need to – voice search brings with it an increased need for mobile optimisation because voice assistants fall under the “mobile” device category. Google have announced their “mobile-first search index” and you simply won’t rank in search results if your website is not optimised for mobile devices.

Voice Search is the Future

Even though there is still much to learn about voice search, it is certainly the future. It is going to continue growing at a fast rate as it becomes more accurate, responsive and viable for day-to-day use. Because of this, you need to get your website optimised and fully ready for voice search sooner rather than later if you want to get well ahead of your competition and continue to rank highly in search results.

It’s key that both your website design and its content are fully optimised for voice searches and mobile devices. Content which is more casual, user-friendly and scannable is likely to bring in voice-based searches as opposed to long-winded content which is formal and harder to read. Although getting your website ready for the rise of voice-based search is going to take time and effort, it is necessary.

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