Best tips for voice search optimization to boost website ranking – Part 1

The definition of voice search is as simple as it sounds. Voice search simply means using voice commands (instead of typing) for a search query. However, the impact of voice search is increasing at such a fast rate that you cannot neglect its role if you really want to enjoy or maintain good search engine rankings! You have to be proactive to gain maximum benefit out of this trend. How can you do that? You need to optimize your site for the voice search queries so that you can enjoy better opportunities to rank higher during such queries.

According to a study in 2016, more than 20% of voice search queries are used by users looking for local businesses. The reason is simple. People take mobile phones wherever they go and it keeps them entertained, engaged and well-informed. Along with that, the mobile also works as a digital assistant that tells them the frequently needed information due to its utilities like time, calculator and calendar. The mobile also helps the people in navigating a new locality or discovering new places. They tend to consult their trusted assistant (the mobile) for discovering a nearby salon, restaurant or a shop!

However, not too many people have optimized their website for voice search queries. So by optimizing your site for voice search queries, you can actually enjoy early bird benefits over your closest competitors. Now the major question is how to optimize your website for voice search queries? Here are the best voice search optimization tips in 2019 that can offer the needed SEO boost to make your site rank better in relevant search queries:

1. Optimize your site for Local Search queries

As told above, many people use voice search queries on their mobile to find the local businesses and in many cases, they are looking to take a quick decision. Think about a hungry person in his car looking for a cheap fast food center nearby, or a person who just broke his car and is looking for car repairing facilities in the vicinity. Such people would simply take out their mobile phone and ask about the nearest businesses (restaurant or car repairing centers) that can cater to their immediate needs. By optimizing your site for such voice commands you can enhance your conversion opportunities and it can also impact your SEO rankings in the long run:

• As mobiles as intelligent enough to know the current location of the user, many people use the phrase “near me”. So use these 2 words in all the major places of your website like title tags, anchor text, and meta description
• Make sure that your address doesn’t only include the street and shop number but also includes 2-3 popular landmarks as the lack of landmarks in your address can prevent the users from reaching you.
• Most of the customers have intent to visit you immediately and many of them are on the midway already. So make sure that your opening and closing hours are correct and updated.
• Regularly update the days on which your business will be closed (like Sundays, festivals or public holidays)
• People have a mentality to check the reviews of any new shop or restaurant that they are visiting for the first time. So you can encourage your satisfied clients to leave a good review on your Google business page.
• Many users would love to reconfirm the digital information by making a phone call. So make sure that you should have an updated telephone number. Try to add multiple numbers so that they can contact an alternative number if your primary number is busy or is not working.

2. Keep key information in the first fold

Many people who use voice search commands are mobile users on the go. So they lack the time or patience to go through the entire website. Hence, it is very important that they should get the information they want almost instantly else they will click the back button and visit another site.

• The key information and content related to your business should be easily visible and legible. Read your site content and identify the key information that plays the vital role in buying decision
• Tweak and reshuffle the content wisely so that all the key information should appear in the first 2 paragraphs. To be more precise, the entire customer friendly information should appear on your homepage
• Mobile users on-the-go seldom like to scroll below the first fold. So all the crucial information related to your business should appear in the first fold
• Use specific color and style for every important word/phrase related directly to your business like location, areas of expertise, portfolio related keywords and other such information.