According to Google reports, over 50% of searches will be voice-based by 2020. Why not begin to capture the possibilities Voice search SEO brings to the digital space.

Before Google launched its Voice Search product for Mobile and Desktop users in 2002, search engine optimization has mostly been dominated by text-based optimizations and searches.

However, despite being launched 16 years ago, many SEO and digital marketers have fallen short of annexing the simplicity Google Voice Search brings to search engine optimization and how it improves user experience.

In this post, we investigate the uniqueness of Google voice search, its functionality and how you can optimize your website henceforth to align with this new technology.

Also, we’ll be looking at how digital marketers can develop content, ad campaigns, and strategies with voice search in mind while also delving into what the future holds for text-based optimization in the face of the increasing dominance of voice search SEO.

Let’s Go!

Ok, Google. What is Voice Search?

Google Voice Search which was initially named Voice Action at inception is a Google search function or application that allow searchers to carry out a search by giving voice commands to an internet enabled mobile device or desktop.

The voice search apk currently accommodates over 60 different spoken languages some of which are; Afrikaans, English, Finnish, French, Polish, Russian, Swahili, Swedish amongst others.

Practically, users initiate a voice search by using the phrase ‘’Wake’’ which authorizes the search engine to process the voice commands and the word ‘OK’ to terminate the command after the best ‘voice results’ related to the query has been listened to by the searcher.

Google Labs and Voice Search.

The historical background to the invention of Google voice search is traced back to the innovation factory of most Google product and services known as the ‘’Google Labs’’.

The Google Labs otherwise called Google X Lab was created by Google to test run series of new tech projects and has rightly described by Google, ‘’it is a playground where more adventurous users can play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them’’.

This lab became a solid ground for tech innovators and is responsible for the birth of other google product like Mail, Google Maps, Google Calendar and Google Wave.

Sadly, the operation of this Google idea factory was shut down after Google announced its closure in July 2011, invariably leading to the abandonment of other ideas being incubated.

Google Voice Search and Hummingbird Algorithm Update

The introduction of the Hummingbird algorithm in 2013 greatly impacted voice search SEO.

The Hummingbird algorithm which was introduced in September 26, 2013 greatly underline the use of natural language queries which has contextual meaning over individual vague keywords.

Meaning that the Hummingbird algorithm takes a closer assessment of the content on each webpage published on a website, so as to lead searchers directly to the most appropriate page rather than just a website's landing page.

The interesting feature of Google’s hummingbird algorithm is its ability to interpret human search interactions especially conversations and voice commands.

This new digital revolution has changed the method of keyword stuffing previously adopted by some web developers and writers to get ranked on the SERPs after many websites were hit by Google penalty and many URLs blacklisted.

Therefore, keeping in mind the increasing significance of voice search, most digital users are now optimizing their website contents using human languages which get easily crawled and indexed by the Googlebot.

Google Voice Search and Apple’s Siri

Like the Google voice search model explained earlier, Apple’s Siri which was developed by SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center is a voice technology found on Apple products like the Apple Inc.'s iOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS operating systems.

Like Apple, Google Voice assistant designed to function on all Microsoft PCs, Android tablets or Mobile phones also use voice queries and a natural-language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Internet services.

Therefore, a major similarity between these two digital technologies is their voice recognition ability to provide web results to all voice queries while adopting the use of a natural human language coding.

The duo virtual assistant is designed to easily grasp and interpret human languages which are used by searchers during any voice search query.

OK Google, How Do I Optimize for Voice Search?

Having established the significance of optimizing for voice search, you might be curious to know how you can optimize your blog posts for this revolutionary SEO trend henceforth.

PS: These underlisted voice SEO optimization processes are designed using WordPress features because it manages a larger percentage of web contents globally.

#1. Optimize Meta Descriptions.
#2. Page Speed.
#3. Use Long-Tail Keywords.
#4. Get Enlisted on Google My Business.
#5. Be Mobile-Friendly.
#6. Create a FAQs Page.
#7. Get Secured with SSL.
#8. Keep your Snippets Concise.

Now, let’s take a deeper look into how you can do Voice SEO using these guidelines.

#1. Optimize Meta Descriptions.

By now, I believe you have activated Yoast SEO or All-in-One SEO plugin into your WordPress dashboard because these SEO plugins readily provide WordPress users with a template for inserting your posts meta description or snippets and generally guide you through in optimizing your blog posts for SEO in an appropriate manner.

What is a Meta Description?

The meta description is a brief tag in HTML usually limited to 155 characters which summarize a page's content.

Usually, when a searcher enters a query into the search engine, the meta description is the introductory phrase that shows up directly beneath the Page title.

Therefore, to optimize your content for Voice SEO, you must provide a summary that directly address the query sent in by a search and don’t forget to include your target keyword in the snippet.

#2. Page Speed.

For you to maximize the increasing usage of voice search by search engine users, the response time of your page speed cannot be over-emphasized.

No one really wants to wait a ‘decade’ to get a quick response to an urgent query. It can be a turn-off for your new visitor or even a returning user to wait more than 3secs before gaining access to the contents on your webpage.

Therefore, you must ensure that you perform a page speed test or evaluation on your website.

To do this, Google Pagespeed Insight tool or Pingdom is popular website speed test tools which give detailed insights into the speed rate or response-time of a specific website.

As shown in the Pingdom Website Speed Test Dashboard, you can get more insight into how your page responds to users from different countries in Europe, United States of America and Scandinavian regions.

The Pingdom web speed tool grades the performance of a website based on percentage, the load time of the landing page on a website as well as the Page size.

Your website is of good performance if graded above 70% and showcase a user-friendly load time if it responds between 1 sec-3 secs.

To quickly fix a poor page speed performance, you need to check if your web host service provider has an excellent customer support that quickly address technical issues as well as having a steady uptime period.

To check this, you can check for the online reviews of previous users of the host service.

Personally, if you discover that your webhost provider falls short of these qualities, it is advisable to change to a more reliable hosting service.

Bluehost and WP-Engine hosting service are highly recommended for you if you decide to switch.

Another important factor you should check is the size of images featured on your website.

Usually, if images on your web pages are above 600×400px, you need to consider resizing the image on your blog posts.

#3. Use Long-Tail Keywords.

According to Google reports, most voice searches carried out in 2017 was initiated using Long-tail keywords.

Remember, long-tail keywords have low volume searches even though it has a high conversion rate.

Long-tail keywords are often three and four keyword phrases which are very specific to whatever you are selling or marketing online.

Examples include;

How to install Google Map on WordPress.

How to integrate E-mail Marketing Service on WordPress.

Where to buy a Blue Khaki Jacket.

Looking at the nature of these keywords, you will discover that they are a combination of three to four italic keywords.

You can find relevant long-tail Keywords using Keyword tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google Ads Planner and Ubersuggests.

Ensure to include in your Post-title the long-tail keyword while seeing that you optimize the permalink to reflect long-tail keyword as featured on the content title.

It is important to avoid any stop words in the permalink box as Google crawling robot ‘Googlebot’ to easily understand what the page is really talking about.

#4. Get Enlisted on Google My Business.

One veritable way of increasing your brand visibility on the search engine is to optimize your website for Local SEO because according to case study report given by Brian Dean, over 45% of global searches are local searches.

Therefore, to cover the population of local searchers for Voice search, it is desirable that you make it easy for your waiting audience to easily find you through the search engine.

One of the ways is to get your business registered on online business listings and most importantly, Google my business.

For many internet users, they might be interested in getting quick information regarding your Business Name, Address and Phone contacts [NAP].

Hence, it is important that for your business to get enlisted on Google my business in order to properly syndicate your NAP details for voice searches.

#5. Be Mobile-Friendly

In recent times, the increasing use of Android mobile phones and tablet devices has greatly increased the volume of mobile searches globally.

Therefore, it is very important your website function properly for mobile, tablet and desktop internet users.

A quick way to ascertain if your website supports user-friendly is to check if your web theme properly fits for mobile phones, tablets, and desktop users.

In case your website falls short of this important feature, you need to change your web theme to a more responsive one that supports all device mentioned.

#6. Create a FAQs Page

The need for a Frequently asked questions [FAQs] page on your website is very important because as earlier affirmed, most voice searches are question-related using long-term keywords.

Frequently asked questions page helps your potential customers get quick answers to important questions often asked about your product or service.

Therefore, if your website is not featuring a FAQs page until now, you might re-consider creating one that features relevant questions mostly asked by your clients or customers.

#7. Get Secured with SSL.

According to Google, having a site security lock on your website is important for SEO whether Voice SEO or Text SEO.

Therefore, to get your website to align with SEO best practices in 2018, you need to get an SSL certificate and integrate it on WordPress.

Wondering how to get an HTTPs signal for your website, you could check for one through your web-hosting service and make a purchase.

After purchase, transfer your website from HTTP to HTTPs.

Peradventure your hosting package comes with SSL certificate, you easily get it activated using a plugin called ‘’Really Simple SSL’’ plugin.
Taking this action will upgrade your search engine authority and page rank moving forward.

It will equally increase users trust to carry out the secured transaction through your website without the fear of their credit cards being sabotaged by hackers and internet fraudsters.

#8. Keep your Snippets Concise.

To get increase the CTR [Click-Through-Rates] and conversions of your webpage on the SERPs, very important is optimizing your meta description or snippets concisely.

I advise you keep snippets short using between 20-28 characters while giving a clickable preview or summary of the page content.

Avoid giving a vague meta description rather, ensure that searchers easily find a clue to the main purpose of your webpage.

As stated in the opening paragraph of this article, Yoast SEO and All-in-One SEO plugins provide an already designed template to get your meta-descriptions properly optimized.


Source: www.seofingers.com/voice-search-seo