The question of ‘searching with your voice’ is no longer one which brings about disbelief, rather the medium of voice based searches have garnered a hefty following by Smartphone users and digital assistant users alike. Voice search has evolved in the recent years as a result of the rise of users’ need to utilise effective and quick search options with sophisticated technology providing the foundation for its usage. The general trend of voice search being utilised as a medium for searches has been on the rise in the recent years, with ComScore estimating more than fifty percent of searches to be voice based by the year 2020.

Its convenience in usage has allowed for users to rely upon the medium of voice search to answer their queries with AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistants including the likes of Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and others, utilising machine learning and natural language processing to further the scope of voice based searches. Though, a question which may arise is that what exactly does this mean for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), that is, how can you optimise your website to rank higher for voice based searches?

Natural Speech Patterns

In order to rank higher on searches, you ought to tailor your content to that of voice searches replicating natural speaking patterns, whereby natural speech is incorporated within your content, opting for a more conversational tone. Rank Tracker is a voice query research tool which can be utilised via typing in keywords with wildcards to aid you in developing language which reflects the patterns of voice based searches.

Featured Snippets

When answering voice search queries, Google Home and Google Assistant respond with the featured snippet which is present at the top of the search engine result page.  In order to ensure your website obtains the top spot when it comes to searches, make sure your content is engaging, the internal and external link building strong along with optimised meta data.

Long Tail Keywords

Similar to the point of natural speech patterns, as voice search is becoming more popular, it has become a need for marketers to utilise long tail keywords to invoke a conversational tone, thereby boosting their SEO. Hence, instead of one particular word/keyword describing your product, you can use longer and specific keyword phrases which describe your product/service benefits and features in detail (including phrases and sentences).

Mobile Friendly Website

The emergence of voice search has undoubtedly tapped into the popularity of mobile devices, whereby marketers are now focusing upon voice searches carried out via these devices to boost their SEO. Since voice based searches are predominantly utilised by individuals on-the-go, therefore it has become of the utmost importance for your content to be optimised for mobile devices, in order to rank higher on voice based search rankings. In order to do so, you ought to avoid Flash as it is not supported by mobile browsers, compress your images to further optimise your load time and make sure all your resources are crawlable. Hence, allowing for your site to be top ranked when relevant content is searched for via a Smartphone using a voice based search.