Voice Search

Voice Search is increasing in use for internet searches.  With the rise of digital assistance such as “Siri” or “Hey Google” as well as the advent of smart speakers, voice search will obviously continue to increase in its usage.  ComScore recently estimated that 50 percent of all searches will be voice based by the year 2020.

Why, you ask?  Well not only are there increasing amounts of voice activation products entering homes, but voice recognition has also been significantly refined.  It was not that long ago that when you used a voice technology software only about 30% of what you said came back correct.  Today Microsoft’s voice recognition software only has a failure rate of 5.1 percent.

In today’s post we are going to talk about how to get your site in the voice search realm.

Google Voice Search

In the on-line search world Google is king.  However, in voice search world Amazon’s “Alexa” is currently the dominant platform with Google’s voice recognition packages being second.  However, on both platforms voice search is similar in technique and both need to be added to your website.  Google’s voice search was first introduced in 2010.  For Google we all know about their different algorithms that make the news.  They are a big deal because advertisers have to change clients’ web positions to be able to fit into Google’s new criteria.  A few years ago, Google launched their Hummingbird search update.  This update was huge because of its emphasis on semantic search or implied meaning of a search query. Google’s ability to determine intent behind relatively ambiguous searches, provided users with an even better experience. To be able to decipher different queries Google created the RankBrain Machine Learning System within Hummingbird. The key with this system is that it allows Google to personalize your search experience through deciphering different types of queries.

 

How to apply voice search capabilities to your website

The first thing to do in considering implementation of voice search is to determine how it is to be used.  Generally, a voice search query is more conversational and longer than typed text.  The idea of the search is to provide the most relatable content to the user.  Search algorithms try to find the shortest and most relatable content.

Google My Buisness

The Google My Business app is one step to take to help with voice searches.  Most voice searches are centered around a business location, hours and contact information. Google My Business collects local business data in a method that Google understands and can easily regurgitate. This is a great location to store such data.

Keywords

The second thing to consider is more conversational keywords.  These would be keywords or as I call them “key phrases” that sound like a question you would ask a person.  This allows you to build keywords for your website in a more conversational manner. You need to build content pages for both text search keywords and conversational phrases.  In that regard you must anticipate more direct questions from searchers. Searches like “best digital camera” will start to disappear, and hyper-specific searches will become more popular. Example: “Alexa, where can I find a waterproof video camera that works with Facebook Live?” Your goal is to offer quick, succinct answers to questions that voice searchers are asking.

FAQ

Some pages that can help you with conversational questions are FAQ pages.  These are pages where you can put answers to natural sounding questions. You can group these kind of questions on a page. To provide voice search on specified topics may seem like a daunting task. However, creating these individual pages and snippets of content centered around specific semantic questions that people are asking can not only help your site show up in voice search results, it can also increase your chances of appearing in a Google “Featured Snippet.”

Schema

Last but not least, do not forget schema.  Schema is a structured language that defines more specific information and makes it easier for search engines to accurately parse your content and understand its context. To learn more about schema coding, please visit my previous article.

If you are interested in getting your website optimized for voice search give us a call today.  Site Ascension is ready to help you rank in voice search results to achieve more visibility and much better results.