WordPress and Voice Search: Optimizing Content for Voice Assistants
Voice search has grown in popularity since the introduction of various voice assistants. More and more people are adopting mobile devices to access the internet, and this trend has made it convenient and even necessary to conduct searches by voice rather than typing. Due to this and the ongoing development of AI and voice recognition technology, voice search has become a formidable competitor in search engine optimization.
In 2018, 27% of Google searches made on mobile devices were made utilizing voice search. Furthermore, marketers report that in 2019, 33.8% of all internet users in the United States, or 111.8 million people, have been utilizing a voice assistant at least once monthly. Find the Top Software Development Services in India for your next project.
How does voice search work, and what is it?
Voice search is the process of conducting an online search with verbal commands. It uses a voice-activated search system, such as the ones offered by Google (Google Home and Google Assistant) and Amazon (Alexa). It detects your requests and intentions using machine learning after evaluating, processing, and transcribing your voice into text. Voice Assistants are poised to revolutionize Recruitment Services, offering 24/7 candidate engagement, personalized communication, and AI-powered sourcing and screening. This procedure establishes a connection to the search engine, returning the most relevant results to the user.
It seems simple enough. Things were sometimes different. The older voice search system looked at terms in isolation and had trouble understanding what people were saying. It took a lot of work and ongoing learning for voice search technology to reach the point where it does today. With voice assistant integration, imagine belting out your favorite tunes in Xbox Sing Games without ever touching a microphone! These technologies gradually improved to the issue where they could interpret and recognize speech patterns, the context of uttered words, and ultimately human intent as a result of constant algorithm tweaks and upgrades.
You should pay attention to voice search because it is becoming increasingly popular
It’s highly improbable that voice search would suddenly absorb all existing search volume. If you’re a content provider, you can rest assured that sectors like e-commerce, services, cuisine, local businesses, news, education, and travel will continue to increase their respective consumption rates.
According to a comScore study, by 2024, intelligent assistants will be used in more than half of all queries. This is a considerable sum, even after accounting for significant margins. This piece provides you with practical advice that will help you optimize your content for voice search consumers. Many of these voice search SEO tips are also relevant to your overarching SEO strategy, which is a huge plus.
How to Improve Your WordPress Site’s Rankings in Voice Search
Voice-activated search engines are now mainstream. By 2024, the number of digital voice assistants is expected to quadruple from its current level of 4.2 billion, according to Statista. Some examples are the Amazon Echo smart speaker and mobile devices running Apple’s Siri or Google’s own Assistant on iOS or Android.
Read: Benefits of Using Flutter M-Commerce App for Your eCommerce Business
About a third of all Americans regularly use voice search, and that number rises to half daily. Asking Alexa, “Alexa, what are the best running shoes?” is all that’s needed. And be open to advice. Those using iPhones may ask Siri, “How do I make pesto?” while dicing onions and the phone will immediately begin searching for recipes online.
Perhaps the people in your target market are energetic people who would benefit from having a personal assistant.
1. Make Use Of Data Structure
Search engines like Google need to know precisely what each WordPress feature is. The framework of your website is structured data or schema. Compare it to the tags on a video on YouTube or the product description in your online store. Application modernization services can unlock the power of voice assistants by integrating them into legacy systems, creating a hands-free and intuitive user experience. The results of a voice search are expected very instantly. If you want to get the most out of major search engines like Google, use structured data on your site. How?
The SERP, or search engine results page, does not merely display the top-ranked websites in response to a user’s query. Similar recipes, such as the pesto pasta one up top, will come up when you search for a specific dish. The same holds for a TV show’s cast, an online store’s inventory, or a state’s municipality.
2. Prioritize Your Google My Business Page
Users of voice search also frequently look for local businesses, such as by asking for recommendations for “restaurants near me” or “dentists in [insert city name here].” You might not exist if your company isn’t visible on Google Maps.
Google uses proximity and relevant search data to rank local business results. You get more customers and phone calls when your company is visible on search engine results pages (SERPs).
You need a Google My Business profile if your company has an internet presence. It includes your location, phone number, email, and website, just like a standard phone book entry. There’s much more information there, so don’t discount it.
3. Accelerate the Site
WordPress functionality is impacted by the speed at which pages load. Portent claims that even a one-second delay can reduce conversions by 4.42 percent.
Potential clients would also be lost to competing websites that load in less than 0.01 seconds. There are dozens of competing sites using the same terms you are, so every millisecond counts.
4. Remember the long-tail keywords.
Voice searchers’ tendencies are distinct from those of text-based searches. One reason is that the results are more natural and conversational when people talk to their phones instead of typing. You could rank them by “best vacuums for carpets” or “best vacuums with a long battery life” instead of just “best vacuums.”
These search terms, often long-tail keywords, are used far less frequently than broad queries. Longer keywords have lower competition and a higher search volume than shorter ones.
Is Voice Search Common Practice?
It’s already been proven that many consumers favor using voice search features on their devices; however, let’s examine some additional pertinent facts to emphasize the significance of capitalizing on this trend:
Up from 32% in 2021, 35% of American adults will have their smart speaker by 2022. Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults aged 18 and up use mobile voice assistants. Asking inquiries without having to write them in is one of the top three reasons people desire an intelligent speaker.
Eighty percent of those with intelligent speakers say they use them to learn about new things. At least once a day, voice assistants are used by 57% of their users. It’s clear that the use of smart speakers and voice assistants is on the rise and will continue to do so in the battle for web traffic. And we haven’t even gotten to accessibility and UX (user experience), which are two crucial factors.
Conclusion
Many people raised in an era when technology couldn’t reply to human speech feel uneasy about having conversations with machines rather than humans. Those of a younger generation doesn’t feel “tech-savvy” when utilizing voice search, but they don’t share this reluctance.
We would be remiss to dismiss the growing importance of voice search in the SEO sector. If you want to rank highly in voice searches, you can’t afford to wait any longer. Find the Top Flutter App Development Company in India for your next project.