People use their voice to communicate and engage in conversation. It’s been like that forever. In doing so, we make no difference whether we are talking to another person or interacting with a technical device: our minds guide us to apply the same rules as in an everyday conversation. Therefore, we expect from our counterpart, whether human or machine, that this both remember past conversations and understands the context of subsequent requests.

To understand and answer natural language searches – this challenge has now been accepted by search engines like Google. The Internet of Voice and digital assistants allow marketers to look to the future with hope: What’s the trend?

Ok Google: What is the voice search?

If you ask Google, the search engine plays the Featured Snippet:

Voice Search – Voice Search. The actual voice search is a service developed by Google in 2011, which allows searches by voice (“Ok Google …”). Other popular voice searches are Siri from Apple and Microsoft Cortana.

Speech searches – that is, users can make a search query on the Internet by verbalizing their question and, for example, speaking to a smartphone or a computer instead of typing their query into the search bar as usual. The majority of users are still using classic text search, but the wildest predictions about the future of language search are already circulating: By 2020, 50% of online searches will be made via voice search. How is that possible? And what does that mean for search engine optimization, as we know it?

How does voice search affect the SEO ranking?

The voice search changes and improves the user experience, the hobby of search engine optimization. Finally, the goal is to rank websites according to user queries to deliver the best information as quickly as possible. Thus, user satisfaction is more than ever in the focus of search engine optimization, as we explain in a detailed blog article.

However, it should be noted that voice search SEO and classic website SEO are very different. Some factors that have a positive effect on website SEO may not have the same effect on voice search – and vice versa. To understand this, we first explain what the two strategies essentially differ from each other.

What are the differences between classic text search and voice search?

The length of the request

Searches by voice search are on average 76.1% longer than those by text search and include 3-5 keywords. Because we unconsciously change our search behavior when we use voice search. If users search for content by text, they usually use short phrases. If a user z. For example, if a restaurant is nearby, he types in a restaurant in Stuttgart. When searching for a voice, he would rather ask “Where are the best restaurants in Stuttgart?”

The Chatterbox

Over the last 20 years, we have learned to express our questions, problems, and needs in very few words in search engines. Voice search now opens up new dimensions of immediacy, comfort, and intimacy that pure text search could never offer. We tend to ask whole questions in the sense of a real conversation, of course, in the expectation that in a matter of seconds suitable answers will be played out. The length of the voice search allows marketers to gain a deeper insight into the users’ search intent and provides precise information about the stage in which the customer journey is currently taking place. The focus on a local search

Compared to text search, voice search is three times more site-specific for local purposes. Location signals are thus developing into crucial aspects of search engine optimization for companies. The focus, therefore, moves even more towards the mobile search in our everyday lives.

How to optimize your own website for voice search?

The Google Voice Search Guidelines state that the results of the voice search should be kept rather short and made as concise as possible. Therefore, content that is easy to read and understand improves voice search. What does that mean for you?

Look for matching long-tail keywords

Keywords have always been crucial to SEO. This is no different from voice search, but the length and type of keywords change. Why is that the case? Think about how to phrase a query when you type something. If you, for example, want to know the opening hours of a restaurant, enter: “Opening hours [name of the restaurant]”. However, when talking, it’s more natural to say, “What are the opening hours for [name of the restaurant]?” To optimize your voice search content, you should include long-tail keywords that sound more natural than the short keywords work well for text input.

Think best about keywords that interest your users and whether your site can answer them. Be sure to keep your answers in short, simple sentences. Because the typical results of the Voice Search are no longer than 29 words and mostly written at the level of the ninth grade. Nevertheless, even though the sentences themselves should be short and easy to understand, so does long-form content still better, even in the voice search. Therefore, your landing page should have a total of at least 1850 to 2500 words.

Create FAQs for your page

FAQs are an easy way to tap questions from users and answer them in a few sentences. Come in and think about what questions you might have about your business, products or services. Or use W-question tools such as B.answer  the public. You’ve probably heard and answered these questions countless times, but as a FAQ, they can be useful. This allows you to identify additional long-tail keywords from your theme world that is picked up on your website and answered with high-quality, informative content.

Write content for Featured Snippets

40.7% of all voice search results come from a featured snippet. Also called position 0, this plays the answer to the query in the form of an infobox. The box contains a small section of the content of a website and appears above the organic search results ( SERP ). To optimize your content for Featured Snippets, you should include on your page a short, meaningful summary of the core content that contains fewer than 29 words. Be sure to include the most important long-tail keywords, and it’s best to use bullet points. So nothing stands in the way of your passage to the top of the search results.