Optimising your website and blog for “Voice Search” or “voice seo” is still something of a dark art.
It’s no surprise that as 52% of us have voice-activated speakers in our living room, and a further 22% in our bedrooms (Google) that Voice Search is growing part of any SEO strategy.
With stats like this and a clear prference to use these as part of a routine to not just access information they would online but act upon it, its clear that voice assitants as with mobile voice search, have the power to change the way users are engaged with.
So how do you make the most of voice speakers? and how do you reach the audiences of voice assistants?
Last year Backlinko studied over 10000 voice searches to understand what went into the ranking factors of voice search, and whilst there were many factors… here are the most common and interesting factors:
How To Rank Number 1 In Voice Search
- Ensure You Have Quality Content
Googles E-A-T principles are at play in Voice Search. They are looking for content which is over 1500 words generally and shows Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. In essence, write content which is well detailed and understandable to your target audience.
- Speed Is Paramount
Its very rare a page with a load speed over 3 seconds will appear as a result on mobile search results, and certainly as a result for any voice results. Remember too that most voice results, read back, are 29 words or less – so snippets are key in your content too.
- Always Use SSL
Voice Search is dominated by SSL, HTTPS. 70.9 percent of voice searches were found to be SSL. This is a clear indication that search engines favour secure websites.
- Step Up Your Social Engagement
If you want your post to be in voice search, you can increase the chances by getting it more shares on social media. The study found that on average if you had over 1K facebook shares you were more likely to be found as voice search.
- A 9th Grader Can Read It
On average a 9th Grader could read what you have written, thats the test the study found, and it pretty much means spell check your work! Remember the EAT guidelines apply.
Now youre ready to hit the big time with voice search, but here is a quick erminder about voice SEO and and other SEO… its not a quick win game and it may take a while before you see results. Voice Search in particular is a new game in comparsion to other search and a result one day may not be there another, keep trying out new techniques and see what sticks.
