Does Your Website Still Matter in the Age of Voice Search?

A website primed for voice searches will rank higher than those that have not yet been optimized to embrace the of importance of voice search in 2020 and beyond.

Why Must a Website Rank for Voice Search?

That’s where we’re headed, that’s why. There are more than 3.5 billion searches performed on Google, and a third of these are voice searches. The younger demographic has seamlessly moved on to voice, and its easier to issue an oral search command on a smartphone rather than type it out. Smart speakers and other smart devices are playing their part into getting people accustomed to voice searches.

Voice searches are driving business. Google delivers accurate results for voice-based queries, and the top one or two results garner almost all the clicks. That’s a very strong reason to optimize a website for voice search, and implement the best practices given below.

In fact, Google Search Assistant, on occasions, reads out the featured snippet in response to queries. If the snippet happens to be from your website, you can hope for some very targeted traffic.

Ecommerce websites and websites offering informational content are best-placed to benefit from voice.

SEO to Rank for Voice Searches in 2020

People access the internet through their mobile phones. For a website to rank for voice-based queries, it must load quickly on mobile devices. This means that images must be optimized, files must be compressed, and web pages must render fast through swift server response times and web caching.

Voice-based search terms are intuitively spoken, and are more detailed than typed searches. This is an opportunity to rank for long-tail keywords, and build a repertoire of such keywords that can drive sustained traffic to your business. Long-form content naturally yields itself to descriptive content. Websites must make judicious use of such copy to attract traffic.

Product descriptions must carry the extent of detail that matches a search intent, and in simple language. There isn’t any rocket science to it. Ecommerce webmasters are already doing it. It’s just that with voice-based search, the scope and opportunity to capture the top spot for products and services has increased.

Run an inventory check, and see if there are any high-ticket items that you have a good chance to rank for…especially for local searches. Voice-based searches are very intent driven. The desire for fulfillment and gratification is high, and this invariably leads to location-based searches.

You may not rank for “cheap XYZ in Manhattan” with a text search but you may well rank for “cheapest XYZ in Manhattan” for a voice-based query.

Claim your “Google My Business” listing. With your business location on Google Maps and its details listed, you are giving your enterprise the best chance to appear for location-specific voice queries.

Voice-based search is also influenced by backlinks. An effective long-term strategy to generate awareness, a steady stream of traffic, and backlinks is to post good content on social media. Maintain a healthy social media presence. It will help your website rank higher for both – web and text-based searches.