Voice Search – And how to optimize a site for voice search

When someone talks about voice search, the first thing that often comes to people’s minds is smart speakers like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana.

1. When users use voice commands instead of entering a Google search in writing, it is a Google voice search.
2. When users use voice commands to receive responses, also by voice, it is something totally different.

Optimize your website for voice search

Why is this voice search relevant? This is because mobile voice search users seek immediate results on the go. The best moment should have been less than 3 seconds.

If you’re not ranked well in mobile search due to speed issues, this could affect your voice search opportunities.

What are the characteristics of voice searches?

According to the experts, voice searches are mostly carried out from a mobile device and, therefore, are in a pure context.

This leads us to draw several conclusions about this type of search and the results offered by search engines through their virtual assistants:

• They are generally geolocated searches so they reveal very important information about the location in which they are carried out.
• They are searches that are carried out from personal use devices and, therefore, are not usually shared with other people. So that in a way they are a clear reflection of the needs and tastes of the individual as a user-consumer of a product or service, a brand, etc.
• They are searches carried out within a temporal context, an aspect that largely determines the type of information required. In this sense, the immediacy and adaptation of the response offered in this context must be previously analyzed and studied.

If we analyze the context in which voice searches are carried out, it can be concluded that the mobile device will offer us certain information as a response based on the previous search history, the location, and the time in which it is carried out the same.

What are the main ranking factors for voice search?

Some of the factors that activate the pages that are currently being positioned when making a voice query fulfill the following:

• Google prefers web pages that make short and concise responses to the user’s query.
• The loading speed seems to play an important role when it comes to positioning.
• Google prefers to show websites that have the HTTPS protocol implemented.
• Domain authority plays an important role in favor of voice search.
• These words who, how, what, where, the best, why, and when, who, the new … are widely used in voice consultations.

If we want to go out on voice searches we will need to implement the necessary changes in the internal content such as searching for keywords made up of more than 3 words, having a very understandable text, and answering specific questions.

Importance of voice search

Undoubtedly, voice search is a trend that will impact the way in which users search for information. Below are some benefits of Voice search.

• Local strategy: This search system is a great advantage for local businesses. As I mentioned, search engines offer direct answers to certain questions that pose a problem, for this reason, direct search, being a resource that is used in our day to day, can help users in questions related to geolocation.
• Know what kind of questions your users ask: The most commonly used words to start a voice search are usually questions that start with: what, who, how, when, and why. The increase in this type of query is the natural evolution of simplified searches. Somehow, for users, it is more comfortable to ask the complete question by voice than to write a generic keyword that may show results that the user does not want

Why Voice Search is the Future of website

More and more devices are integrating this tool as an advantage to give value to users and, as we have seen, more than half of them already use it on a regular basis. It is a matter of time before it becomes the main form of a search for users.

It is a comfortable tool available to almost everyone that offers direct answers to specific questions and makes the task easier.

Steps to add voice search in WordPress website

To do this, go to the Plugins section of your WordPress back office and select the Add New option. On the Add New plugin page, search for the plugin that we want to install using the search field located in the upper right part of the page.

Type the name of the plugin (which as we have indicated is “Voice Search”) and press ENTER to start the search. If you followed the steps to the letter, this plugin should appear as the first search result. 

Once activated, the plugin will work out of the box, that is, it does not need any configuration on our part.

All you need to do is to the Appearance> Widgets section of the WordPress back office. Once you are inside, add the search engine widget that WordPress brings by default to the sidebar that you have designated for it.

Now, just visit the public part of your WordPress-developed website and you’ll see a microphone icon in the WordPress search box.

This means that the voice search function is already enabled in our search engine. When the user clicks on the microphone icon, a text of “Start Talking” will be displayed and they can dictate the words they want to search for on the website.

How does the plugin for voice search in WordPress work?

Unfortunately, the plugin currently only works in Safari and Chrome web browsers for smartphones and desktops. Firefox is expected to implement web speech relatively soon.

The plugin modifies the default WordPress search form and assigns the JavaScript necessary for voice input to the search that WordPress usually performs. This means that if you are using any plugin to modify WordPress searches like Google Search for WP or Search WP, this plugin will not work as it is not supported.

Conclusion

The world of SEO and digital marketing never stops changing. On the contrary, they evolve every day and with more speed. Making work almost impossible for us.

And it’s funny because when you ask an SEO what they like best about their job, they are probably going to tell you that “it’s always changing and evolving.”

So, it’s hard to stay up-to-date in this world of digital marketing, but there are changes you have to adapt to or risk disappearing. Voice search is a clear example of that.

If you improve the speed of your website and if it looks good on mobile devices, you will already have a large part won. If you add to that a strong presence in local search engines and content that speaks directly to the needs of your client, you will have the secret formula for success in this new world of voice searches.