For some time now marketing professionals has been talking about how mobile devices searches have increased compared to desktop ones. And, as a result, there has also been an increase in voice searches from these devices. SEO has received the impact of voice recognition services, which have more and more users.
Since Siri (iPhone voice recognition App), the figures have only increased and now we can talk about up to 50% more iPhone users who use these services. And Google Trends also shows significant growth in the number of keywords used for this new type of searches.
So, if users have changed their way of doing their queries, then you also need to change the way you give them answers.
How to position for voice searches
Voice search on mobile devices will change important aspects of SEO positioning. We are no longer talking about phrases made up of keywords that users enter into Google’s search engine, but about 'conversations' these users have with their devices.
We are becoming more used to more natural communications with our mobile devices. That’s why working our SEO with short tail keywords is no longer the best option. This doesn’t mean that the search for keywords has died, on the contrary, but now these keywords should be used within a more natural message, within the conversation.
Google understands that users are entering their questions in search engines via their voice, because they need an immediate and direct response. And, of course, when they ask, Google answer. Now your mission is to be among the results this search engine shows.
Google doesn’t really care about your business. Its objective has always been to return to its users results as close as possible to their search, both in its content and in its form (images, videos...). Google is always based on the user satisfaction.
Some time ago Google made important changes in its algorithm. Keywords stopped being at the top of the SEO pyramid. Repeating them as many times as possible changed from positioning you pages to penalizing them. Actually, Google understood that it should have a conversation with its users and not talked to them as if they were robots.
At that time, companies began to create richer content in both content and vocabulary (Google already recognized synonyms and contexts). And now we must homogenize and further naturalize the web content. Why? Because the users consumption trends ask for it.
Work on SEO based on user queries
It is obvious to think that when some user performs a voice query, he does so by what is known as ‘query search’. This is one of the keys that businesses must take into account when it comes to positioning. Questions that begin with 'what', 'how much', 'where'... are the most common among voice searches, as users often use voice recognition for day-to-day queries.
The old text searches 'best 4 star hotels in Madrid', go to the ‘queries search’: 'What are the best four star hotels in Madrid?' Then your keywords should be based around these types of questions, adapting your content to offer more direct and accurate answers.
Seven word voice searches are the ones that give the best results in terms of clicks and it seems that the searches will be even more specific in the future.
Including questions and answers within your content will be a way for Google to understand that you are the correct result to the user's search. The ideal is to cover both types of searches: the classic by text and the new by voice.
Tailor SEO to content and search format
As you 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 thinking about SEO (and voice search).
For example, if a user verbally asks Google 'Images of luxury hotels in Madrid', the search engine will show him pictures right away. Then if you have correctly worked your SEO positioning for your web images, user should also find you.
The same goes for Google Videos. Have you worked your hotel’s video marketing? A good poorly positioned video has no guarantees. So if you've made the investment, make sure your potential guests will find your video among their searches.
At this point it is very important that you work correctly your SEO on Youtube. Think that this network is part of Google and that if you work your Youtube search optimization, you will also be working it in Google.
Here you will find an SEO Positioning Test you will find an SEO Positioning Test if you want to quickly analyze the success of your content strategy.
