The age of voice search is upon us, with voice assistants in our phones and smart devices at home, ”hands-free” searching is the new way to find information.

But, A new method of search means new requirements for your website. This guide will help you to discover how best to optimize your site to suit the needs of searches made with voices as well as fingers.

Why voice search matter?

Voice is becoming a serious contender for search.

1. 50% of all searches will be voice searches in 2020.
2. Voice commerce is predicted to be worth 40billion $=28,53,20,00,00,000.00INR by 2022.
3. In the last three months of 2017, Amazon echo’s installed base grew from 20to 30 million devices.

1.Speed Up Your Website

“For voice search, it’s even more important than before to have a site that loads quickly”.

Having oversized images on your website means that each page will take longer to load, badly affecting your SEO ranking.

2.Optimize Image

-Check site images to ensure no image is larger than 100kb.

-Use an online tool like pixel or image software like Photoshop to reduce the pixel dimensions of any images larger than 192081080.

-Use an online tool like cesium or source forge to compress all image.

3.Minify Files

The more complicated and messy your HTML code, the longer it takes a web browser to load it, so you need to keep it tidy”.

-Use Google Chrome’s Developer Tools to see how many HTTP requests your site makes.

-Use a google approved tool like HTML Minifier, CSS Nano or uglifyJS to remove code comments, formatting, and unused code.

-You can use Google’s page speed module which integrates with an Apache or Nginx web server to automatically minify your code.

4. Leverages Browser Caching

A cache is how browsers store information to help speed up repeat visits to your website, so you need to help make this process work well.

1. A) Use a tool like ‘Yslow” to see if you already have an expiration date set for your cache.
2. B) Set your “expires” header for how long you want that information to be cached.

Note: Google recommended a minimum cache time of one week and up to one year for static assets or assets that change infrequently.

5.Improve Server Response Time

Your site is hosted on a server, so another loading hold-up can come from how long that server takes to deliver the information.

A)Use webpage test to measure your sites’ “time to the first byte”.

This should be under 500ms.

B)Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Akamai, Amazon, cloud front, or cloud flare to speed up your site for visitors wherever they are in the world.

C)Ensure your site is not hosted on a shared server as its speed will be affected by other sites on that server.

6.Enable Compression

a)Use a tool le of like “Gzip” to reduce the size of your CSS, HTML, and javascript files that are larger than 150 bytes.

1. b) You can use “checkgzipcompression.com” to see if your has Gzip enabled already.

Note: Don’t use Compression for images, always optimize them instead.

7.Secure Your Sites

1. a) Check that your site has its own IP address by going to your control panel on the hosting company’s website. You Can’t secure your site on shared IP.
2. b) Purchase a certificate from trusted brands like:

• Verisign
• Geo trust
• Thawte
• Comodo
• Let’s Encrypt(free)
• SmartSSL(free)

c)Go into your host’s control panel to generate a certificate signing request (CSR), which will generate a code called a signing request.

1. Copy the signing request and paste it into the website where you bought the certificate. You will be asked for a domain contact email for them to send the certificate to.
2. Copy the .crt file and paste into your site via the Cpanel’s install an SSL certificate Page.
3. Update the link within your site to new Https links using a 301 redirect. Then, Crawl with the tool like “Screaming frog” to double check the links is redirected.

Note: Update any standard links in External tools like emails and social media.

8.Create An FAQ page

Voice search is about people asking the question in a natural style of speaking, and so the search engine will be looking to supply natural’s answers.

The best way is to take advantage of this with a properly optimized FAQ page.

Here’s what you need to do:

Use natural language by adopting a conversational tone.

• Almost 70% of requests to the google assistant are expressed in natural language.
• Try to make your answers sound like a spoken response to the question, you can test this by reading it out loud.
• b)Write No more than 30 words for an answer
• a)The Typical voice search result is only 29 words in length.
• b)Use the active voice wherever possible as the passive voice requires more words.
• Be a comprehensive resources
• The average word count is 2,312 words. Ensure you are offering an extensive, high-quality FAQ page, while not forgetting to be concise too.
• Use Simple Language

The average Google voice search result is written at a 9th-grade level. If you have to include technical or legal jargon, have a brief explanation to follow the word or phrase.

9.Optimize For Snippets

53% Of Google voice searches return a featured snippet – highlighted search results – so hers’s how you can get your content to appear there.

Best 5 Tips to get your content Featured as a snippet

1.Aim for low Hanging fruit

According to Ahrefs,99.58% of featured pages already rank in the top 10 of Google, so target key phrases you already rank highly for.

2.Structure your content well

According to MOZ, Google loves structured content, like lists, numbers, and steps when it comes to featured snippets.

3. Use H2 and H3 tags to define List Content.

A Hubspot study found that using h2 and h3 tags in list posts improved the rate of being picked for featured snippets from 0-5% to 10-15%.

 4. Answer more than one question per page:

Ahref found that once a page has been used for a featured snippet, it is more likely to be featured for similar queries.

5. Write Concisely

The average length of  Google’s snippet is:

1. Paragraphs (45-97 words)
2. Lists(4-8 items)
3. Tables(3-9 rows, 2-3 columns)

10. Markup You’re Data

Structuring your content with schema markup – an enhanced snippet that appears in search results – can help it be more easily identified as relevant for a voice search.

1. Go to Google’s structured data markup helper.
2. Select the relevant data type for your page from the list.
3. a) Paste the URL of the page into the box and click start tagging.
4. b) Highlight each area of text you want to markup and select the type.
5. When you have added all the items you want to mark up, click on create HTML.
6. Add the new code to your website by downloading the HTML file and pasting it into your source code.
7. Use the structured data testing tool to test how Google will display your schema markup.

11.Claim Your Business Listing

58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the last 12 months, so if you rely on local customers, you need to make sure they can find you.

1. Go to google.com/business and click start now.
2. Enter the name of your business.
3. Enter your business address and specify whether your customers come to you or you deliver to them.
4. Select your business
5. Add your phone number and website.
6. Select how you want to verify your ownership.
7. When your business is verified, select info on your dashboard.
8. Add in as much additional information as your customers need to know about your business.
9. Add good quality photographs (at least 720*720 pixels ) as well as profile and cover photos.

Conclusion: Already being ranked highly in Google searches is the main contributing factors to ranking highly in voice searches.

However, using the above guide to optimize your site will not only increase but will also increase your chances of ranking higher in google.

“So, Why not give these tips a try and get your site ready for voice search”…

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