We have become too snug and we love the law of minimum effort. This behavior is reflected in our daily habits and in the way, we use new technologies.

“People do not read”, “consumers prefer audiovisual content”, how many times have you heard this? Surely, hundreds of times. But today comfort goes further because virtual assistants come already installed by default in smartphones thus, allowing voice searches. Siri, Cortana or Google Now have become the perfect tool for this, especially for teenagers. To make matters worse, last Christmas we tired of seeing ads about new physical assistants (Google Home or Amazon Echo), designed for a more adult audience.

For this reason, when considering the positioning strategy of your brand, it is important that you consider voice searches, investigate what language is used and what kind of inquiries are made.

5 guidelines to integrate voice searches in your SEO strategy

1. Consider the syntax

The first thing you should know is that voice searches are prepared so that the questions are completely formulated, without deleting articles or conjunctions, because people talk to Google as if they were talking to a friend. We give you an example so that you see it much clearer:

If we wanted to find a place to buy organic food, we would do it like this

• Written search: to buy organic food
• Voice search: Where can I buy organic food?

Therefore, you must elaborate content answering to common questions such as: where…, when…, how… ?, etc.

2. Optimize the loading speed

It seems obvious and the truth is that you always must try to make the loading speed as fast as possible, but in the voice search this is still more acute. Returning to the previous example, if a green food store appears first after the search, but it takes a long time to load, it is most likely that users will go back and consult the following result.

With voice searches, users want faster because they are often used for a spontaneous need that must be resolved as soon as possible.

3. Update Google My Business

Having a Google My Business token is also vital for written searches, but it is even more critical for voice searches. Add good quality images and include all kinds of relevant information.

As you might guess, SEO for voice searches and local SEO go hand in hand.

4. Optimise microdata

The most frequent questions are usually related to the location of any business. Make sure you have your business address well identified for the search engines.

Bring more semantic information to Google, and you will give much more relevant information in this type of searches.

5. Test with your own data

Yes, in the end, the best way to understand how SEO works with the voice searches that your business may have is to do them yourself as if you were just any user. It is the best way to understand how search engines react to the type of inquiries your business may receive.

In conclusion, although it seems voice searches are more related to local businesses, it is a trend that is booming and whatever your business model is essential to consider.