Voice search: managing its impact on SEO

Over the years, voice-enabled interfaces are helping to change our information consumption behaviors.

Indeed, through this technology, users tend more and more to dictate their request to their smartphone or their voice assistant than to take the time to type it. However, a user will not dictate his request in the same way orally as in writing and this is how a major problem arises when natural search engine optimisation.

So what is the impact of voice search on the SEO ranking of our websites?

What is voice search?

Voice search (or Voice Search) designates all the requests made orally by web users to a voice assistant. The purpose of this request is to obtain satisfaction as quickly as possible without manually intervening on your smartphone or computer through voice recognition.

Voice-activated assistants have multiplied in recent years and are now everywhere around us. They are present in every smartphone, in connected watches, televisions or even tablets.

Among the most popular assistants, we find at the top of the list that of the American giant Google with the Google Assistant, that of Amazon with Alexa, Siri from the Californian giant at the apple, Cortana from Microsoft and more recently, Bixby which accompanies the devices connected Samsung.

Why optimize your site for voice search?

Internet users, using voice search to respond to their request, do not formulate this request in the same way as in writing. Most of it comes in the form of questions, especially if the search is "local", for example: "What time does my film start?" or "what is the nearest restaurant?" ".

Also, these queries are in the form of a complete sentence and not in the form of a keyword. By typing on the keyboard, users tend to erase the superfluous of their request such as determiners or pronouns.

Orally, these requests become real sentences like: “Ok Google, give me the weather forecast for tomorrow morning. or "Alexa, how many states are in the United States?" ".

Queries are getting longer and more complex. However, voice search also helps remove any possible misspellings! This is beneficial for targeting the SEO of your web pages.

However, a problem remains. Your assistant will only give you one answer to your question. This is how SEO optimization becomes very important to be THE result of the search engine in question.

6 key optimizations for voice search

Position zero corresponds to the boxed result that is displayed on the Google search engine page. This is the result displayed above the first organic results of this search. A golden position that is, of course, difficult to achieve.

However, it is not necessary to correctly position yourself for voice search. In fact, 80% of responses from a voice assistant come from the organic results podium.

To hope to be the answer taken into account by the Google Assistant or Alexa, some techniques are to be put in place to improve this type of referencing.

UX and responsive design

Your site must be optimized in UX design and must be adapted for mobiles with a responsive design. The more your site will be ergonomic and adapted to mobile use, the more its organic referencing will increase.

Loading time

Your site should load quickly. Google is not patient and will go to whoever provides the answer as soon as possible. Remember to compress your visuals and host your data on suitable servers.

The structure and the tags

Your site and your pages must be structured. Remember to optimize your Hn markup to make it easier for the search engine to find information. Remember, Google is impatient! Taking care of your meta tags gives it a common thread to follow and allows you to quickly find key information. Build your internal network wisely. The internal links of your site are very important for the little robots of Google.

The contents

Your site’s copywriting should have matching question sentences for users’ search intent. If you are already asking the question for them, you increase your chances of answering it through voice assistants. Also offer longer and semantically richer content to increase your visibility. Never neglect the quality of the content on your web pages.

Keywords

Use long tail keywords. Remember that voice queries are longer than written ones.

Think local

You need to optimize your local SEO! Proximity searches are the most common in the use of voice searches. Remember to take care of your company's Google My Business listing in order to gain visibility.

Find and identify useful questions

To optimize voice search SEO, it is necessary to understand the intentions of users and therefore the questions they ask their assistant. Depending on your sector of activity, these searches can be more or less targeted and it is important to know the terms.

Several tools are at your disposal to help you identify these formulations and therefore allow you to use them in your content.

The AnswerThePublic site, for example, is a great help in knowing the searches associated with a keyword. It generates different graphs giving you all the most asked questions on the web using this term.

Of course, you cannot exploit them all and you have to sort through all this data. Consider setting up an FAQ page to take into account the main questions that revolve around your activity.

Voice search is increasingly present on the web. Optimizing it increases your chances of visibility and therefore of conversion! Don't forget that voice search is a way to communicate differently with your customers, your consumers. It's a more personal and effective way to engage and retain them.

Want the sweet voice of Siri to speak your business name or domain name? So, start now to rethink the structure of your website and your digital marketing strategy!