8 Strategies to Rank Your Website for Voice Searches

The Internet is evolving at light speed and you need to be constantly innovating in order to survive. One of the advancements that came out as a small concept but is now taking the web by storm is voice search. The idea of voice search, also called voice recognition, originated with telephones and then gradually evolved to smart speakers and then voice assistants.
Google Search and Amazon's Alexa are the most popular voice search tools used worldwide, with Siri being the third. More and more people are using voice search instead of traditional keyboard search so it is time for you to make use of this opportunity and rank your website for voice searches to get traffic

Why Are Voice Searches So Important?

If you are still wondering why voice searches are important or why is there a need to optimize content for voice searches, we have got some stats that are surely going to blow your mind.
Those days are long gone when people used to only rely on typing for their searches, eMarketer suggests that 40% of internet users in the US prefer voice search, that is precisely 122.7 million users using voice search, andthe trend is predicted to grow by 9.5 percent in 2021.
According to Microsoft, more than a quarter of the world's population is using voice search features on their smartphones. Pundits go on to say that we are in the midst of the ‘voice search revolution’ and this claim is fairly backed by stats.
Google says that around 41% of adults and 55% of teens daily use voice search. Furthermore, 20% of all queries using mobile phones are voice searches. An interesting fact is that not only mobile users prefer voice search but also desktop users. Roughly 25% of desktop queries are made using voice search.
These stats clearly show that voice search is actually ‘the big thing’ and not ‘the next big thing’. Let’s dig deeper into how voice search works and how can you make use of it

How Does Voice Search Work?

The voice search technology is mainly built on the concept of speech recognition. The basis of speech recognition is sound packets that we jut out when we speak. For example, if we say ‘cat’, the program recognizes it as three separate phones ‘c’ ‘a’ ‘t’. Phones are basically separate letters and phonemes are the blocks of sound that words are created out of.
This technology combines phones and phonemes to turn what we say into a set of words and letters and then puts it into context. This is precisely what our brain does in milliseconds. However, speech recognition technology uses programs and algorithms to perform this process.
Simply put, voice search works by
Step 1 : First transcribing the speech into text
Step 2: Scanning the text for commands and queries
Step 3: Surfing through sources and finding the relevant data
Step 4: Arranging and displaying the data in a readable manner according to the user’s intent.

What Are the Key Parameters That Google Look for to Rank You on Voice Search?

There are a few key factors in addition to traditional SEO strategies that can play a major role in ranking for voice searches. According to research, the optimum word count preferred by google to answer any voice search query is between 30 to 40 words.
Moreover, it has also been found that search engines prefer the already ranked content to be used as an answer to voice searches as well. If your content is not on the first few pages, it is unlikely to be pulled as an answer to voice searches.
So, if you have been incorporating traditional SEO techniques, it will be easier for you to rank for voice searches using some advanced strategies.
This blog talks about some of the key tips and tricks apart from traditional SEO techniques that you can use to rank your website on voice searches.

1. Use Relevant Keywords

Keywords are an essential part of voice search and using relevant keywords is crucial. You should especially focus on queries related keywords. Voice search requests usually carry a combination of question words like how, what, when, why, where, so adding them can help a lot to appear in the search results.
Moreover, Filler words such as "I, the,on, to, for," etc make your content more engaging and conversational, eventually making it voice search friendly.

2. Restructure Your Content

More and more users are using voice search nowadays and content written in a traditional style struggles to rank because voice-searches are much more informal, concise,and conversational. To tackle this, you have to re-analyze your content and restructure it. The objective here is to provide concise responses to questions to enhance the site’s interface and make it more voice search friendly. Adding frequently asked questions on your website can also enhance the ranking as they contain keywords that people usually search for.

3. Target Long-Tail Keyword Phrases

Long-tail keywords are usually used to answer the searchers' queries. People have indeed been using this technique to rank and you are not supposed to ignore long-tail keywords when optimizing your content for voice searches.
You need to understand that voice searches differ from conventional keyboard searches. It is surely impossible to cater the content exactly according to what the searcher might search. This is where long-tail keywords come in. They allow you to be a bit more flexible while writing content and they are more likely to rank for voice searches.

4. Less Loading Time of The Website

It is actually a no-brainer that people don't like to wait for a web page to load and prefer a webpage that loads in milliseconds. This is exactly the case with voice searches too. The more time a website takes to load, the more the chances of it not appearing in search results.
The website loading time primarily influences the bounce rate, so it should be made a priority to manage website loading time. Using compressed images and videos, and content delivery network can help with this issue.

5. Compatibility with Other Voice Search Devices

People use all sorts of devices nowadays, and your website needs to be compatible with all of them. If a user is using Alexa, the website needs to be compatible with Alexa’s interface. Just like that, numerous devices like laptops, tablets, and mobiles are used for Google voice-search as well.
If a website is not compatible with the device which is being used for voice search, chances are it’s not going to appear in search results so, you need to work on your website’s compatibly to be able to rank.

6. Improving Content Readability

Writing decent and concise content is a simple requirement yet, it's often ignored. Straightforward writing with good readability improves content rating. The key is to avoid unnecessary complex vocabulary and to use clear wording.
The voice-search trend is gaining ground and marketers need to be vigilant to be able to cope up and to fulfil consumer demands. Giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are already in this game and soon we will see more companies jumping on this bandwagon and it becoming acommon thing.

7. Optimize Google My Business for Voice Search

It has been noticed that around 50% of local voice searches are about finding local businesses. Going a bit deeper, 46% of daily voice searches are about local business as well. This shows that people are using voice searches to find businesses. SEMrush also suggests creating a well-structured Google my Business Account to rank for voice searches.
It is a platform that allows you to list your business on google search and google maps. It is time for you to polish your listing and make it available for people who are voice searching to get more visibility.

8. Optimize YouTube Voice Search to Rank Higher on Search Engines

YouTube is the little brother of Google and the same technology that drives google voice search also powers YouTube’s voice search capabilities. So, for example when you say, ‘Hey Google play Hootie and the blowfish on my tv’. Google Home is actually piggybacking on YouTubes voice search indexing capability to display the search result on your tv.
So, if you optimize your videos on your YouTube channel to be accessible for Voice Search, you can literally score two goals with one free-kick. Pardon the generalization, I love football and I just had to make a comparison.

But football aside, optimizing your video content for voice search could massively improve your SERPs on google itself. Test it out , type in ‘’Best SEO agency in UAE or Dubai” and you will find my video ranking #1 in over 29 countries.
As it is said earlier that we are right in the middle of a voice search revolution, it is high time you focused on optimizing your content for voice searches. Use these tips and tricks to stay on top of this growing phenomenon to rank your website and stay relevant. Check out this video if you want to learn how to use voice search to grow your business.
This is it for today. If you have any queries or comments, write to us in the comment section and we will get back to you as soon as possible. If you liked the blog, please share it with others as well.