How To Optimize Your Website For Voice Search

If you want to know how to optimize your website for voice search I’m gonna show you exactly how to do it in this post. It feels like we’re getting closer and closer to the future every single day and that means that more and more people are performing voice searches.

Whether they’re on the go with their smartphone or if you’re using their smart speakers like an echo or a Google home. These voice searches are definitely on the rise and they’re not slowing down anytime soon.

You’re going to want to be optimized for it and I’m going to throw a few quick stats your way to really hit home these points.

Voice Search Stats

Basically one in two smartphone users use voice search every day and half of all searches are going to be voice based by next year. 72 percent of people who own one of those smart speakers like an echo say that it’s part of their daily routine.You can even see.

People want quick easy answers in one of two categories. The first being they want to know something or they want to know how to do something or they want to go somewhere or buy something.

So we’re going to talk about both of those cases in this post. First we’ll talk about how you can optimize your website and your profiles to be found in those near me searches for people who are looking for a business like yours.

Then I’ll give you some actionable tips about how you can get your content to come up as answers to questions that people may have because when you’re the one to answer that question you have a much better shot at winning that business in the future.

Start Optimizing Your Site For Voice Search

Okay so if you’re a local business it makes a whole lot of sense to want to be found in those near me searches and it doesn’t even have to be a brick-and-mortar location. If you just serve a specific local area this is still going to be great for you.

If you’re more of a national or online business this may be a little less important for you but it still will help you get a little bit more business.

Around Your Area:

To do this your first step is going to be to claim and optimize your Google my business listing which includes choosing the right categories.

You’ll also need to make sure that all the info that’s in your Google my business profile is reflected back on your website itself. You’ll want to include your business name, your address and your phone number on your site exactly as it appears on Google my business.

There are a few extra things you can include on your website as well that are really going to cement you into your geographic area like an embedded google map and links to the neighborhoods or cities that you serve.

Now Siri doesn’t actually use the Google my business listings for their results, instead they use third-party sites like Yelp or Foursquare for those results so you’re going to want to make sure that you have those profiles all optimized and filled out as completely as possible.

You’re probably going to want some good 5-star reviews as well and that’s pretty much all there is to getting found in those near me searches. The number one factor is proximity but you do want to make sure that when people are close to you they’re finding you.

Content Search:

What about if you want to get some of your great content to show up as an answer to questions that people may have so that you can become the go-to guide that they want to work with in the future.

Well of course you’d want to create and optimize that content to be findable in these voice searches. Usually what would be shown in a voice search is the same thing that would otherwise be shown as a featured snippet.

This info box or video is the very first result shown otherwise known as position 0. The first step here is you want to brainstorm and find the actual questions that people are likely to be asking.

Think about the problems your business and services can solve. Think of what people may be trying to figure out how to do on their own.

If you’re an electrician it might be how do I change out a wall plate, if you’re a dog groomer might be how do I trim my dog’s nails and if you’re stuck with finding these questions just start with YouTube.

Learn more about: YouTube Channel Ideas

Type in the keywords how-to and then the general keywords of the topic that you’re trying to figure out and then see what kind of videos pop up. Since Google loves showing a video as the answer to most how-to questions you might want to make one of them yourself.

It’s the best way to build trust and brand recognition with your potential customers so if you make that video make sure that it’s hosted on YouTube because Google owns it and they give preferential treatment.

You’ll want to optimize those video titles with the exact question that people are going to ask it and you’re also going to want to include that question and variants of that question in the tags when you’re uploading your video.

Then you want to write out a really detailed description of that video in the space they provide and of course you’re gonna use that question verbatim in the description as well.

Learn more about: 4 Easy Ways To Get More Views

If you don’t want to do a video you could just write a really detailed article explaining how they can do something from start to finish just include lots of images, headers lists or numbered lists if possible, that’s just the overall structure that Google likes to see.

Also think of questions that aren’t even how to’s, they’re just general knowledge questions like how often do dogs nails need to be trimmed or can I switch my outlet with a USB outlet.

If you’re stuck thinking of these questions there’s a website I like to use called answerthepublic.com. Just type in a keyword related to your field of expertise and it’s gonna show you all the different types of questions that people type into Google about that topic.

Just try to get the ones that are really structured ask questions because that’s gonna be what people are going to verbally search for into their smartphone or smart speaker.

Just make a list of all the questions that you think you can do a good job answering and then create an FAQ page, be sure to structure the question in the exact words that you found it in your research and use that as a headline.

Then make the answer in the body text below it. When you structure it that way Google can detect that it’s a question and an answer.

There’s a few things you need to keep in mind in order to increase your chances of being found as a featured snippet and as a voice search.

The first thing is to make sure your site loads quickly. Go to Google PageSpeed insights and run a test and see if there’s anything they recommend you can use to speed your site up.

Next is you want to make sure your site is authoritative to begin with, that’s going to help all aspects. The way to do that is to start creating high quality relevant consistent content on your site. You’ll also want to start building some high quality backlinks to your site.

How To Optimize Your Website For Voice Search – Conclusion

I want to know if you think that this voice search thing seems like a good opportunity that you want to take advantage of. I believe that if you’re serious about growing your business this is the logical next step in technology.

If you think this post about how to optimize your website for voice search has given you some insight and have any questions just leave it in the comment section below and I’ll look through everything and answer every question I possibly can.