The impact of voice search on SEO
It’s official: optimizing your content to facilitate voice search is no longer an option. Today, two out of five adults use voice search every day to formulate a query. It is estimated that by now, in 2020, half of us are doing our research in voice mode, via a smartphone or a smart speaker. The stakes are high for the world of digital marketing: how to optimize its pages to improve its natural referencing by taking into account the impact of voice search on SEO? Here are 4 tips to boost your SEO and increase your traffic with voice search.
1. Prioritize long tails in voice search to boost your traffic
Consider search intent rather than keywords
When the Internet user becomes a “voicecast”, he gets a little closer to the human being who lies dormant in him. Concretely, he uses his main natural resource to communicate: his voice. Who says voice, says speak: now, the voicecast formulates real sentences to state his requests and that changes everything! The SEO web editor, anxious to optimize his content with voice search, therefore has every interest in mobilizing his brain to produce conversational content. Now it’s all about focusing on key question-based queries. In other words, do not hesitate to include queries introduced by interrogative words (who, where, how much, etc.).
Feel free to use tools to give your ideas. Answer the Public, for example, is ideal, because it will offer you content ideas in the form of questions. Putting yourself in the user’s shoes becomes an essential posture to adopt: he formulates expectations, you must provide him with answers. For this, the content must be supported, the internal mesh solid and the subdomains rich.
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Offer short and simple answers
voice search humanizes Internet research. Like any human in the 21st century, the Internet user who asks a specific question expects a quick and simple answer. If he wants more precision, he will ask another question or make the effort to look further. It is wise to use the terms of the question asked in your content. For example, if the question is: “How to sterilize a baby bottle?” », the title of the content will use the words used in the question: « 3 tips for properly sterilizing a baby bottle » (I am told in the headset that the sterilization of baby bottles is not a very trendy request… okay! But you have understood the principle.). The sentences must be short, the lexicon simple and above all, the answer to the question must appear at the beginning of the article, just after the title.
Be Vigilant About Google Algorithm Updates
Regularly, Google updates its search algorithm, so it is essential to be vigilant to these changes in order to adapt its content as best as possible for optimal referencing. The 2015 Google update, Rank Brain, incorporates artificial intelligence. Its purpose is to translate the user’s request to the search engine to improve its interpretation. According to Greg Corrado (Google Brain Team) “Rank Brain has become the 3rd most important search ranking factor”. Finally, the latest from Google in the area of algorithm updates (January 2020), BERT analyzes natural language to better understand long queries. Thus, by deciphering the context of the formulated research, BERT also contributes to boost quality traffic.
2. Optimize local SEO to improve SEO with voice search
Geolocated research: a major challenge for the positioning of companies
Geolocated research is a key element in the Voice Search process. A large proportion of consumers using voice search often inquire about businesses located in their immediate vicinity. What you have to understand is that local search is mainly motivated by the idea of performing an action. In general, the Internet user seeks to make an appointment, to eat or to buy something. For example: “Where can I find a best and affordable ghostwriting services?, for those looking for stamps, of course. Local SEO of quality makes it possible to position the site of a company or a business geographically close to the Internet user in the first results of the search page. With the Pigeon update, in 2015 in France, Google wanted to emphasize the relevance of results for local searches.
The importance of the Google My Business listing
It is unquestionably the tool that allows you to obtain the most visibility in the local results. It is therefore essential to fill in the Google My Business file of a company or business as precisely as possible:
- exact address;
- contact details;
- Business hours;
- exceptional openings and closings;
- link to website;
- relevant and eye-catching visuals;
- description with keywords.
Do not forget to repeat in your content the location indicated in the Google My Business listing. The ratings and opinions left on the page are also a criterion to take into account to improve SEO: Internet users rely heavily on this data to make a choice. This is why the responses to the reviews left are useful and their editorial quality is very important.
3. Aim for the zero position in order to increase its traffic
What is position zero or featured snippet?
This is the highlighting of a web page already positioned in the top 10 of Google results on a keyword or query. If a user asks a question directly in the Google search bar or if he formulates his search orally, an answer summary may be displayed above the first search results, just after the Google Ads advertisements (paid referencing). Google distinguishes this result by a characteristic display (outlined insert), the title of the page and its URL. It is sometimes accompanied by an illustration. There are also videos in position 0.
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Here is an example request and response with a site in zero position:
Why is position zero so important for voice search?
Smart speakers (Google Home, Alexa, etc.) and voice control applications (Siri being the best known) respond to a query by reading a result from a single source, the first in the ranking. So, you will have understood, you have to aim for the featured snippet so that your content ranks zero and is chosen to be read. And there, no miracle, you have to be a champion of optimization: each page must respond as fully as possible to a specific question.
However, it is rumored these days that the Featured Snippet would somewhat lose its laurels. Indeed, following the last update, sites referenced in position 0 would no longer benefit from dual display: now, the same page of a site can only be displayed once on the first page of Google. Previously, a 0 position did not prevent the site from remaining positioned in the top 10 results. Be aware though (to take the pressure off a bit) that 75% of voice search responses come from the top 3 of page 1 of Google results.
4. Take care of the user experience for optimal navigation
The choice of redirects
To favor the user experience (more commonly called UX), navigation must be optimized. To learn more about UX and better understand its importance, do not hesitate to read the definition of SXO written by an editor from. Did you know that you only have an average of 10 seconds to hold a user’s attention? For a smooth and pleasant navigation, the redirect chains and loops on your pages must be impeccable so as not to lose visitors. The same goes for crawlers (indexing robots): a page containing more than 3 redirects is considered problematic. Indeed, too many redirects complicate navigation and the page is therefore likely to see its positioning relegated to the confines of the SERP (acronym for Search Engine Results Page, in other words the results page in French). The more links on a page, the longer the loading time to the landing page.
Pay attention to the page size!
The growing use of voice search naturally means that Internet users are using their mobile or tablet more and more. Today, sites have to be “mobile friendly “, therefore very efficient in terms of loading speed. The loading time of a page is considerably slowed down when the page is heavy. Make sure that a page does not exceed 2 MB. To do this, pay attention in priority to images and videos which quickly increase the size of the page. Choose visuals carefully to include only the most relevant.
It is also not very pleasant for the user to be overwhelmed with sometimes useless images. That’s it, you now have all the keys in hand to know how to boost your traffic by taking voice search into account. However, mastering all these parameters requires professional skills: do not hesitate to get help. All the editors of are at your disposal to support you: you can contact them or submit your project to them and form a team adapted to your needs!
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