The popularity of voice search is becoming apparent thanks to innovation and improvement in voice recognition technology, as well as a higher smartphone penetration rate. In 2018 alone, 35% of the website searches are conducted via voice search applications. Around 40 million adults use voice searches every day and this figure is expected to grow by 10% annually. Today, the most popular voice search applications are Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s service Google Now, driven by popularity of iOS and Android operating system.
Voice searches are not just limited to just smartphone users. Modern homes today are starting to indulge into fantasy of Hollywood science fiction movies. This is achieved through integrating smart gadgets and devices with Google Home and Amazon Echo, allowing consumers to control certain aspect of their homes through voice (such as thermostat temperature, blinds, grocery ordering, etc).
With evidence of these phenomenal growth, how can businesses equip themselves to stay relevant on this upcoming trend? How will voice search affect SEO practices in general? Whether you’re doing SEO yourself or working with an SEO agency in Singapore, here are some methods you can adopt into your SEO strategy:
Style of Communication
One way to improve your ranking for voice search with Google is to change the style of writing your content. Rather than statements, your content style should be more oriented towards conversational language. Keywords that drives sales and brand awareness are usually conversing in nature. For example, instead of choosing to rank for “4k Display laptops”, the better keyword would be “Laptops with best displays”.
Short and Precise Answers
Voice search utilises short answers for most questions. In answer to rank for voice search, make sure your content answer questions in a short and precise manner. Anything that is 3 sentences or longer are less likely to rank for voice search. Most companies tried to rank for voice search by providing an excerpt for an article or a well written FAQ questions.
Detailed Content
While voice search depends on snippets and excerpts to judge and provide an answer, you shouldn’t neglect the content and write short paragraphs. Google often rewards quality content with high rankings in search results. This is because the better the contents, the higher the domain authority. When you create contents that are relevant, people naturally like your contents and link to your site. The more links you get, the higher your domain authority. With this method, you are also less likely to get penalised when Google updates their algorithm.
You shouldn’t dwell into the area of black-hat SEO by buying links and link them to your website. Eventually Google will caught into this and penalised your site. If you’re working with an SEO agency in Singapore, you should check how they derive their backlinks from. Responsible SEO agency in Singapore will be transparent and let you into their internal outreach process.
SEO Localisation
People using voice search often use it to search for something that is available locally and nearby. It can be products or services. For example, people searching for good food often begin by “Restaurants Nearby Me” or “Food Near Me”.
For businesses in the service industry such as food and beverage, this can be an important asset. Having your restaurant ranked top means getting more impressions and eventually visits to your outlet. Hence, it is essential to optimise your business for local SEO. This can be done through setting up Google My Business Page for your business. If you have a lot of branches, set up a page individually for each branch. Google will crawl over these information to provide an answer to all the search queries.
Conclusion
Keeping up to date with the SEO industry trend is an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. Voice search is an upcoming trend that business need to be aware of. Fortunately, it is easy to implement and optimise contents in your website for voice search. There are a number of SEO agency in Singapore that are familiar with content optimisation. If you’re currently working with one, you should check out with them about the strategy for voice search optimisation. Voice search is coming. Is your business ready for it?