Will Voice Searches Impact SEO?
FAQ: I keep hearing about voice searches and search engine optimization. Will my ranking be impacted by voice searches?
Great question!
The act of using vocal commands to search the web instead of traditional typing is called Voice Searching. These searches are taking hold and, with the popularity of mobile searches, gaining momentum. In fact, voice searches are increasing at a tremendous rate.
It’s time to ensure that your site’s valuable information is being offered to potential customers with a voice search, and we’ve given you a few steps you can take this week to point you in that direction.
SECURE SITE
As we’ve discussed before, moving your site from an HTTP to a secure HTTPS connection is wise to consider. Backlinko reports that 70.4% of Google Home result pages are secured with HTTPS. That’s not a coincidence. Web security is a concern, and the SSL certificate padlock gives a site user peace of mind.
LOCAL SEARCHABILITY
If you consider how voice searches are used, it’s easy to imagine the emphasis on local SEO:
“Where’s the nearest Starbucks?”
“Find a gas station near me”
“I need a dry cleaner nearby”
Particularly if you own a physical business, it’s wise to optimize your website for these voice queries. A couple of ways to set yourself up in this area is to:
- Build links from business directories that will contain the pertinent information
- Gather positive customer reviews of your business
- Find other sites where you can leave comments or citations with your company’s information, including address and phone number
OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE
Aside from the industry recommendation that every site become mobile-friendly ASAP, you can imagine that most voice queries are done on mobile devices. How can you know if your site is mobile-friendly?
WebCEO’s Mobile Optimization tool is helpful for checking the mobile-friendliness of your site. The helpful tool with grade your site and offer for fixing the critical areas, like:
- Responsive design
- Fast-loading pages
- Negative Space
LOADING SPEED
Voice search likes fast-loading pages. It’s worth your efforts to reduce your page load time. Here are some tried and true ways to tighten this area with relatively little work:
- Optimize your image files! Don’t post a high-resolution, original-sized photo as a thumbnail image. Edit and compress images to maximize quality but also reduce load time.
- Simplify the code on your site, particularly the CSS and JavaScript.
- Decompress! Utilize software applications like gzip for file compression and decompression.
Futuristic technology like voice searches has seamlessly become part of a web-users life. Most individuals have no idea what goes on behind the scenes to give them the desired search results, but they become satisfied customers when they can get their questions answered and be directed to the right information.
Leave us a comment and tell us which steps you’ll take this week to connect your voice-search users to your site.
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