VSO, which stands for Voice Search Optimization, is a hot topic in the digital marketing world. But why do we think it’s going to be a game-changer? Well, our hunch comes from observing the thousands of people who are now using their mobile phones for voice searches.
So, what exactly is VSO, and how can you get ahead in your marketing efforts through it? In this article, we’ll dive deep and share all the insights you need to stay on the cutting edge.
What Exactly VSO Is?
Learning about Voice Search Optimization (VSO) will be a breeze for you once you grasp the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In simple terms, VSO is like an advanced version of SEO, with a similar goal. Just as SEO aims to enhance a website’s visibility when people enter keywords into Google, VSO works comparably, but it focuses on improving results for voice search and its associated keywords. Generally, the more often a website or business name appears in the SERP in the higher rank, the more traffic it will receive. VSO is applicable in Google, Amazon Siri, and Windows Cortana.
How Does VSO Work?
Before diving deep into the technicalities it is important to understand why users are increasingly choosing Voice Search Feature. Interestingly, 60% of the Google search is performed using mobiles. Not to mention that Voice Search is quicker and easier.
In the USA, a significant portion of the population, spanning various age groups from older adults to teenagers and millennials, has enthusiastically embraced voice search technology. These individuals are utilizing voice search to streamline everyday tasks such as making calls, sending text messages, and accomplishing various quick and efficient activities. Voice search has become a go-to tool for reaching out to friends, searching for products and services while shopping, or even when they’re on the go during travel. It has truly become a versatile and indispensable part of their daily lives.
Voice Search Optimization (VSO) has its unique nuances, calling for a distinct set of strategies and techniques compared to traditional typed searches on phones and desktops. Just as the way we search and interact with devices varies, adapting your approach for VSO is essential due to the specific intricacies involved.
How To Optimize Websites For Voice Search?
To excel at voice search optimization (VSO), focus on finding conversational long-tail keywords, not just short and direct ones. Use Answer The Public for keyword research—it’s free and offers valuable insights. Incorporate these long-tail keywords into detailed content, including questions with filler words.
The top voice search queries are “near me” and questions. For “near me” optimization, use location keywords in your site content, titles, meta descriptions, and links. Mention your city and specific neighbourhood. Consider landmarks and nearby institutions as people may reference them in their voice searches. This boosts your chances of showing up in voice search results, especially for local information.
On-Page VSO Techniques
There are numerous ways to incorporate keywords in your website content to optimize for Voice Search but chiefly there are 3 types of content that will work in your favour.
- Informational intent
- Navigational intent
- Transactional intent
Informational intent starts with phrases like (how to, tips for, guide me for, etc.). Navigational intent phrases start with ( store location, abc service near me, abc food near me, etc.) Transactional intent phrases start with (reviews, product information, comparison, product stories, etc.) So, for creating content for your voice search you should always consider answering questions your customers might ask. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Trends, and Ubersuggest to find keywords and search for relevant questions that people are looking for answers to.
Understand Customer Journey
Understand your customers and their journey. Whether they’re in the awareness stage, interest stage, evaluation stage, purchase stage, customer support, or loyalty stage. Tailoring questions that focus on “what,” “who,” and “where” indicate they’re close to making a purchase.
Use Markup Schema
Markup Schema is a great way to tell Google what your website is actually about. Therefore, we highly recommend it. Improve the way search engines like Google navigate your website. This tool allows you to inform Google about the actual content of your site. By tagging data with specific attributes (e.g., address, email, author), Google can better understand whether it’s related to a person, date, article, and more. This, in turn, helps Google swiftly locate and deliver precise information to users during voice searches.
Use FAQs
Think from the perspective of an actual customer and jot down a list of questions you have regarding your business, product, or service. Add those questions in the form of FAQs on your website pages and let the customers have the convenience of clearing their doubts on their own.
Do A Hygiene Check
Do a thorough hygiene checkup for your website and its pages both on the desktop and mobile. Check whether it is mobile-friendly because most of the search queries come from mobile phones. There are some other things that you can do as well.
- Make sure that pages with restricted data are not unintentionally blocked using methods like robot.txt and other access control measures.
- Use structured data that is easy to understand by machine language.
- Have a good DR or Domain rating
- Improve Website Speed
Off-Page VSO Techniques
Making a correct and well-organized Google My Business Page is the best thing you can do to improve your voice search results. Make sure you have the following things correctly filled in your GMB page.
- Contact Details
- Working hours
- Address
- Business Category
- Introduction field with relevant keywords
Also, do not forget to add good pictures of your business, office site, team, etc. Submit a detailed sitemap to Google if you want to add more navigation pages.
Lastly, experiment with searching various things on Alexa and Google’s Voice Assistant to find out how it works. Create your own Google Actions and Alexa Skills that will help you to understand built-in features and capabilities that allow customers to interact with your content easily. It creates conversation around your brand or business and answers questions in a streamlined way. To learn about VSO, you can study NLP, Natural Language Processing which helps improve your website and also allows Voice Search Programs like Alexa and Sir to process voice queries. NLP improves artificial intelligence and machine learning. As a result, Voice Search will become more precise and hyper-personalized. Gradually, we will be relying more on Voice Search and less on manual searching.
