The Rise of Voice Search Trend: How it will affect the SEO in 2017?

The CEO of Google, Sunder Pichai, recently announced that “ 20 percent of mobile queries are voice searches.” This percentage clearly states that more and more people are using their smartphones and iPhones for voice searches.

In fact, a survey by Search Engine Watch recorded that 30 % of mobile users found voice searches and commands faster than using text. And that this the reason why SEO experts believe that voice search will affect the entire SEO world in the coming years.

The optimization of websites for search engines will definitely change because of the rise of voice search trends.

As more and more mobile users are searching for keywords/businesses/products/services via voice search, you will need to tweak the entire SEO campaign.

Here in this article, we will explore how voice search trend will affect the SEO in 2017 and go through some of the key implications that every SEO marketer should overview for generating better SEO results:

1. The dominance of mobile-first indexing

Since 20 % of voice queries are coming from smartphones, it becomes essential for website owners and SEO experts to consider the mobile-first indexing while optimizing their site for getting higher SEO ranking. This means mobile-first design should be preferred before desktop version when it comes to optimizing the site for voice searches.

Being a website owner or SEO marketer, you should first run a Google's mobile-friendly test to know whether your site is optimized for mobile devices or not. After that, you can trail the following tips while optimizing your mobile site for better SEO ranking:

(a) Improve page load speed

More than 40 percent of mobile users abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. So, make sure you optimize your databases, compress images, JS and CSS files, and don't forget to enhance mobile UX of your site.

(b)Give rich crawling experience

Ensure that your mobile website doesn't block images, CSS, JavaScript and other files while a mobile visitor crawling or scrolling your site.

Tip: Keep these things in mind while doing mobile SEO for your website.

2. Creating conversational content

The rise of voice search trend in SEO industry is encouraging website owners to create conversational content or keyword phrase for their websites.

Therefore, it is important to understand the conversational speed of your customers. Since voice searchers use more casual and direct words or phrases to find products/services/brand, it becomes imperative for you to create a conversational content for your mobile visitors.

Plus, voice searchers have more urgent needs while searching for the results, make sure you give them quick answers and instant solutions on your blog, and FAQ pages.

3. An innovative approach towards keyword research

Since people use natural and casual phrases, sounds and questions in voice searches, make sure you do a proper research while selecting the keyword phrases for voice queries. Instead of using long or odd query language, you should focus on keywords that are more relevant to the business or website.

Tip: Use Rank Tracker to find the most appropriate sets of keyword phrases for voice searches. You can use keywords like 'how to', 'why' or 'what – as most of the people asks questions in voice searches.

4. Location

Location plays a key role when it comes to voice searches on Google and other search engines. Since voice searches are more specified to locations than typed queries, ensure that your site is well optimized for local search. Consider the few tips while optimizing your site for local search:

• You should register you site with Google My Business to leverage your SEO ranking in voice searches. Make sure you add updated information, description and images of your business.

• In order to rank higher on Google's location search, make sure you add authentic reviews into your site. Adding customer reviews can improve your web visibility with ease.

• Don't forget to add high-quality images on your business page to let Google crawl your site quickly and easily.

Conclusion

Voice searches have been gaining a lot of popularity when it comes to searching brands/products/ services via mobile devices. This simply clarifies that voice search trend has changed the way we perform SEO practices.

Author Bio:

Priya Kapoor is an experienced Technical Writer at SEO Service Delhi, which is a specialized SEO Company in Delhi and providing top-notch SEO services to help businesses get higher ranking on search engines. She is enthusiastic about writing quality and interactive articles/blog posts related to online business promotion.