In the year 2000 who would have predicted that social media will reach at this level and brands will be using it to market their products. We can’t foretell future, but we can predict some trends by analysing the past and how is it going to affect the future. One such trend that is rapidly increasing is voice search which has led to voice search engine optimization. It was started in the year 2011 by Apple in the form of Siri in 4s smartphone generation, followed by Google assistant, Cortana, Alexa and now it is present in every smartphone.

If you are driving and looking for a diner near you, by doing voice search, your smartphone will give you the list of all the restaurants with information including ratings, location and the timings. People use voice search for different reasons but mostly for-

• Multi-tasking
• How to do things
• Setting reminders
• Entertainment purposes
• Finding local information

Why people have started using voice search is a question worth answering to. In this fast pace world when we don’t have patience we want things quickly and easily. Voice search helps you to do that. We are doing so many things at the same time that we all need an assistant, but why to hire one when the smartphone you have, can be the one. Yes, ask your Google assistant to do things for you and then you can shift your focus on more important things.

If we take older people in consideration, they are more comfortable in speaking, rather than typing. Voice search is increasing its efficiency by including different accents and words to make it more convenient to use.

Benefits of voice search optimization

• It is conversational and thus adds a little bit of human touch to it which makes people use it more.
• It’s easy to access and gives you the most appropriate result. Generally, the result it shows is what people were looking for. So, they don’t have to scroll through many sites.
• It is convenient to use.
• Also, people like to random search just to entertain them and pass their time.
• When you don’t know what to type you can easily say it and the results will be there.

Voice search optimization for website

A research predicted that voice search will account for half the searches by the year 2020.  With such expeditious increase; it is going to affect the course of digital marketing. Businesses have to keep up with the pace and will have to include voice search optimisation into their digital strategies. And to do that they will have to optimize their sites accordingly.

SEO optimization for voice search-

1. Long tail keywords- There are difference in the use of keywords when you search by typing and by speaking. Example, you will normally type ‘weather today’ but if you voice search you’ll ask ‘what is the weather today’. When you do a voice search you tend to ask questions or speak longer sentences, which means a brand needs to include long tail keywords making it more conversational and relevant.
2. Featured snippets- There is a direct relation between feature snippets and voice search. Many voice search results come in the form of feature snippets. People generally ask questions when they search verbally, so it is beneficial to keep that in mind and give results accordingly
3. Website speed- The faster your site appears the more there is chances of it being presented to users. A fast loading page will also have impact on WordPress search ratings.
4. Position zero optimization- When you type your query there are many articles to choose from, but when you do a voice search there is only one result which is the zero position. So, if the brand wants to be on the zero position, they have to understand what questions users will mostly ask and create the content with the keywords users will mostly be using.
5. Local SEO- More than 22% of the users use voice search to find the local information. People generally search “things to do near me” and including these in your content will result in more visits to your site. Include keywords that local people use to describe the things around them.
6. Mobile optimization- We can say that voice search is exclusively mobile. Although there is Cortana on desktop but people mostly use voice search on their phones. When 60% of the searches are done on mobile, it is essential to build the website accordingly and be ahead of the competitors.

Conclusion

The busier our lives get, the more we’ll look for faster and easier solutions. As technology evolves and voice assistants become smarter and more accurate, consumers will use them to find information and save their time. And why shouldn’t they? Technology has always given us relief from tedious things to do, making it easier for us at every step.

There is so much potential in voice search optimization. With users always on the go, voice search is only going to continue to dominate the mobile environment. Not only it is easy to use but saves a lot of time with providing the most accurate result in the first time.

Many tech giants like Google and Apple have already optimized for voice search to have edge over the others. Specializing in voice search SEO and monetizing is critical to compete. Therefore, marketers need to take advantage of this soon to be popular trend and make the most out of it.