Over the last few years experts have been predicting that a significant amount of Google searches will be made by using voice searches. People have been continuously using smart devices such as Alexa, Google Home, and Siri, voice search is not such a novelty anymore and has become a must-have element for any website.
Voice search has been developed significantly over the past few years. With the advancement of voice recognition technology, and as search platforms require more and more information, users are becoming more confident with their voice searches which will show them the information they are looking for.
If your website is not optimized for Voice searches, you are missing out on a lot of potential traffic. Before optimizing your WordPress site for voice search, however, you need to understand the Technology behind it and how it works.
How does voice search work?
Voice search has now become commonplace. The technology behind it is nothing short of amazing. It took years of research before specialists were able to figure out how to make a machine understand human language and respond with answers which makes sense.
The previous voice search of technology was very inaccurate as it used to work with keywords separately and did not understand the context, they were used in. Subsequent upgrades related to algorithms allowed it to learn context and intent, quite similar to the way people understand questions.
Google takes your voice and makes it into text, after which it uses machine learning in order to detect demands and questions. Once it believes that it has understood your question, it connects to the Google search engine and find the best relevant websites. This process uses a lot of power, but if optimized properly, your website can get a lot of valuable traffic by using voice searches.
Aside from using intent to transfer questions, Google voice search can now answer questions which are asked in sequence. For example, you can ask Google “Who owns Facebook?” and the following result with will be presented:
The technology is called Sequential Semantic Search, and allows voice search assistance so associate questions with your previous searches and show you the relevant results. It very much mirrors a conversation with an actual human.
Why your website needs to be optimized for voice search?
Over 3 billion people now use voice activated search worldwide. What does this mean for website owners? It’s predicted, that by the end of 2022, sales related to voice search will reach $40 billion in the US. Users also look for topics related to news, music, weather forecast, local business information, directions and much more. WordPress website owners can have a huge benefit from voice searches if their website is optimized properly.
Nearly 75% of the top voice search results are the ones which were ranked in the top three results if you made your search from your desktop. If you’re looking to reach your target audience, it makes sense to optimize the content for voice search.
Google is gradually moving from typed in searches to voice searches as a main source of traffic. There seems to be a difference in the way Google ranks voice friendly content as well.
Optimizing your website for the voice search will also rank your website higher. If you wish to use voice searches in reaching your target audience, you need to optimize your website differently.
How to optimize WordPress websites on voice search?
If you’re looking to attract more visitors to your website, you need to optimize it for voice search. It’s not an easy task and takes a lot of time and patience, so the sooner you start, the better.
Some of the changes which we need to make are the following:
Relevant and easy to read context
Average voice search result is below 30 words in length. This implies that Google users prefer using brief answers over longform content. This is related to users not having enough patience to wait for Google to read out entire pages of content.
This doesn’t mean you cannot publish content higher than 2000 words or longer. Long form content is still very important for your SEO performance. It just means that your primary focus should be on paragraphs and sentences which can stand separately on their own and will answer directly the user’s question.
Google also values simple writing. You need to write in conversational tone, and all relevant information needs to be in that text, and not hidden behind images or HTML code.
The most important thing is that the information you provide needs to be related to the keywords you are ranked for.
Adding Long-tail keywords to your content
Google no longer relies on keywords alone to determine the search results. It has a more conversational approach to voice searches, quite similar to the technology used with Google Chrome, Alexa, and Samsung Bixby.
This means that aside from simple keywords, you would also need to use longtailed keyword if you wish your content to rank higher. These keywords provide Google with context in order to connect your words and provide you with the results you‘re looking for. You can provide full sentences and actual questions to the search engine:
Change to a mobile friendly theme
It‘s no secret that the speed of your website influences such results. It plays a major role in voice search results as well. According to analysis of more than 10,000 Google Home voice searches, the typical voice search results loads 52% faster than average pages. This means you need to work on your server response time if you wish to have a better chance of ranking.
Google’s mobile search index takes page speed into consideration. Most voice searches are made by using mobile devices, this is why you need to make sure your website is mobile friendly in order to keep loading times down and boost your ranking position.
It’s also smart to implement changes on your website which will reduce image file size and delete unused HTML code.
Conslusion
While a lot of users still use keyword-based search by typing, voice search results are growing and changing the way we search online. Search queries are getting longer and even resemble natural language speech patterns. Search engines prioritize short and straightforward answer to questions.
