The way users are interacting with search engines has been rapidly changing through voice search. As the use of smart assistants (Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, etc.) continues to rise, businesses need to have a clear strategy for optimizing their websites for voice queries. For this reason, it’s particularly important for local SEO, because a huge proportion of voice searches are locational, for example, “best coffee shop near me.
In this guide, we’ll show you what you can do to improve your voice search performance, and local SEO performance by using effective strategies.
Interactive audio search has become the newest search trend, where a user quickly uses voice for hands-free searching and this leads to voice search data usage growing exponentially. Here’s the reason why optimizing for the voice search is important for local businesses:
Growth in Mobile Searches: A significant share of voice queries are initiated by mobile users in search of quick answers.
Local Search: Voice searches have a local intent in over 50% of cases, that means that businesses with a physical location can benefit from this trend.
Improved User Experience: Voice search delivers fast and relevant results, leading to better satisfaction and engagement from the customers.
Increased Competitive Advantage: Instead of relying solely on traditional SEO, businesses that optimize for voice search can stay ahead of their competitors.
1.Focus on Contextual Keywords
They tend to be longer and more conversational than typed queries. Instead of searching for “best pizza NYC,” users may search for “where do I find the best pizza in New York City.”
How to optimize:
2.Optimize Your Google My Business (GMB) Listing
And because many voice searches are local, having an optimized Google My Business profile is key.
Steps to enhance GMB for voice search:
3.Use Featured Snippets
Voice search assistants will often pull answers from featured snippets, also referred to as “position zero” on Google.
How to rank for snippets:
4.Focus on Localized Content
Localized content improves voice searches business ranking.
Content optimization tips:
Voice search users want answers in a flash, so speed is a crucial ranking factor.
How to improve your performance on the site:
Schema markup (structured data), which helps search engines understand your content better, can improve your chances of appearing in voice search results.
Schema types you need to know about when it comes to voice search:
The majority of voice queries are “near me,” which plays significantly into local SEO.
Ways to optimize:
A great user experience (UX) helps with search ranking and better visibility in voice search.
UX optimization tips:
FAQs
Voice queries tend to be more conversational, longer, and presented in question form. They provide direct answers rather than keyword-based search results.
Use tools like Google’s “People Also Ask,” AnswerThePublic, and long-tail keyword generators to find out what people are commonly asking for this information in voice queries.
Properly configuring the Google My Business listing helps businesses show up on local voice-search results by showing accurate details along with business reviews.
Businesses in hospitality, retail, healthcare, legal services, and home services can often benefit greatly from voice search as users are looking for an immediate local solution.
Depending on competition, website authority, and optimization efforts, so while it can take a few months to see improvements in rankings, it should not take longer than that.
Optimizing your website according to voice searches is important to avoid any lag in the success of your local SEO in the future. So, these four reasons alone are why I think voice search is part of this new normal, and it will soon be the way to go. Start implementing these strategies today to optimize local searches and gain more customers via voice today!
