For some time now, there has been talk of a higher percentage of searches from mobile devices compared to desktop. And, consequently, an increase in voice searches from these devices. SEO has been impacted by voice recognition services, which have more and more users.
Since the appearance of Siri (iPhone voice recognition), the numbers have only increased and we can now speak of up to 50% more iPhone users using these services. And Google Trends also shows an important growth in the number of keywords used for this new type of searches.
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So, if users have changed the way they make queries, the way we give them answers must also change.
How to position for voice search
Voice search on mobile devices will change important aspects of SEO positioning. We are no longer talking about keyword phrases that users enter into Google’s search engine, but about ‘conversations’ that users have with their devices.
We are becoming more and more accustomed to communicating in a more natural way with our mobile devices. Therefore, working our SEO with short-tail-keywords is no longer the best option. This does not mean that keyword search is dead, on the contrary, but now these keywords should be used within a more natural message, within the conversation.
Google understands that users search by voice because they need an immediate and direct response. And, of course, Google gives it to you. Now your mission is to be among those results.
Google doesn’t mind giving you headaches. Its goal has always been to return to its users results as close as possible to the search, both in terms of content and form (images, videos…). Google is always based on the satisfaction of its users.
Some time ago Google made important changes to its algorithm. Keywords are no longer at the top of the SEO pyramid. Repeating the keyword as many times as possible went from positioning to penalizing: Google had already understood that it had to maintain a conversation with its users and not talk to them as if they were robots.
At that time, companies began to create content that was richer in both wording and vocabulary (Google already recognized synonyms and contexts). And now web content must be homogenized and naturalized even more. Why? Because users have.
Work on SEO based on user queries
It is logical to think that when a user performs a voice query, he or she does so by means of what are known as ‘question searches’. This is one of the keys that companies must take into account when positioning themselves. Questions starting with ‘what’, ‘how much’, ‘where’… are the most common among voice searches, as users tend to use voice recognition for everyday queries.
The old text searches ‘best 4 star hotels Madrid’, move to ‘search queries’: ‘What are the best 4 star hotels in Madrid’, so your keywords should be based around these types of questions, adapting the content to offer more direct and concise answers.
Seven-word voice searches are the top performers in terms of clicks, and it appears that searches will become even more targeted in the future.
Including questions and their answers within your content will be a way for Google to understand that you are the right result to the user’s search. Ideally, both types of searches should be covered: the classic text searches and the new voice searches.
Adapt SEO to the content and format of the search engine.
As you may already know, Google not only offers web results (or text), but also images, videos… That’s why it’s important that you also work on this other type of content with SEO (and voice search) in mind.
For example, if a user verbally asks Google ‘Images of luxury hotels in Madrid’, the search engine will directly display photographs. You should also be there if you have worked correctly on your SEO positioning for the images on your website.
The same is true for Google Videos. Have you worked with
video marketing
for your hotel? A good video poorly positioned is no guarantee of anything. So if you’ve made the investment, make sure your potential guests will find your video in their searches.
At this point it is very important that you work correctly your SEO on Youtube. Think that this network is already part of Google and that if you are well positioned internally on YouTube, you will also be well positioned on Google.
In this link you will find a
SEO Positioning Test
in case you want to quickly analyze the success of your content strategy.
