Voice Search Optimization – How it Could Affect Google Ranking in 2018?

We saw a remarkable change in the previous year, as Google came up with its significant changes to the organic search algorithms. The huge heaps of content and dynamic media spread over the vast World Wide Web started polishing and customizing itself to be in the Google’s shoes. The truth is – only a few succeeded in completely getting their feet inside the glass door. But for now, things have again changed with the new technology of voice search. Intelligent machine learning devices like Google Alexa and Amazon Tap and Amazon Echo claim to provide a better user experience. All you need is an intelligent device and answers will follow.

Users are excited about these updates but the truth is – content platforms are fighting neck to neck and have no idea ‘how they could stay ahead and still grab a place when voice search SEO will be applied in 2018?” After a word with SEO and AI experts, we came up with few interesting key findings. In this article, we will discuss Voice Search Optimization and its consequences in 2018.

According to a data research report revealed by Fuzzseo, there are 55 percent teenagers using voice search on a daily basis, while this percentage drops to only 44 percent among adults. The picture below will show an increasing number of devices offering voice searching experience by the year 2050.

If we completely agree with the recent reports, SEO experts are gearing to improve the user experience. They are targeting quality content and making it suitable for the artificial learning devices to read and comprehend. The scope of less meaningful and ambiguous information is over. There are inviting scenarios for the content writing to become better, information-oriented, crisp and entertaining for users at the receiving end.

So, here are some long-lasting impacts that would for sure lead to changes or ups and downs in Google ranking in the year 2018.

Table of Contents

The implications of Voice Search Optimization:-

1 Speed –

The first and foremost feature that would be crucial in maintaining a good ranking is the ability to download it within four to five seconds. According to expert, voice search algorithms would pick the web pages that download faster, leaving behind the ones who are slow and lazy. Pages that appear in a voice search load 55% times faster than the ordinary ones. The advice is to design light, presentable web pages with crisp content copies that provide relevant information and don’t disappoint users.

2 Do you have HTTPS Web Address?

Industry veterans believe that those with https in the web address will be picked first by the intelligent answering machines. At the moment, Google’s organic search results are filled prominently with web pages having https inside. Out of all search pages flocking, 70.4% of Google’s search result is from the https address.

3 It’s time for the quirky content –

We have read short-form content and we have lost ourselves in the long form copy when Google came up with Panda and Penguin updates for strengthening user search experience. With more pressure on the search engine to deliver its promise of worthy and applicable information, the quirky and very short content would be preferred. Those having a ‘say’ in the industry claim – “an ideal content copy would be somewhere around 29 words”. So, gear up for writing concise yet information oriented copy.

4 Websites with authority Rule the scene –

All of us are quite aware of the strong authority that provides a domain on the World Wide Web. To rank first, a website should come from renowned sources, should have great information and genuine place when it comes to domain ranking and page ranking. Pages that have a quality domain rating of 76 percent or more score well in voice searches, according to a survey. However, these pages had a shocking page authority percentile of merely 21 percent. This factually describes the fact that Google might be giving priority to pages with sound domain authority and giving it priority over page authority.

5 Embrace Social sharing and Rank Better –

Voice search ranking patterns studied over a time period suggest that Google gives preference to the web pages or websites with better-shared content. The more your content flows across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Instagram, better are its chances of peeping through the voice search window. So, content developers and those dealing with content curation should focus on developing shareable information, along with the focus on building strong social media presence over time.

6 The Simpler, The Better –

It has always been Google’s priority to offer comprehensible information for those searching through its search engine. According to recent news reports released by Google, the content written in a simple language will be given the topmost priority. That doesn’t mean, it will compromise on the information front. The challenge for content curators is to write simple, clear and concise copy that could be understood without any support from visual characteristics. Three major qualities of content should be –

Simpler words, easy to pronounce by Google,
Ease of comprehension without visual reference support,
No place for complex and ambiguous words or phrases.

7 No Emphasis on Keywords –

To rank in Google’s organic search for the exact keywords, a sound keyword placement strategy might help. But that is not the case with Voice search optimization. Researchers show that merely 1.71 percent of web pages possessing exact keyword searched in the query was captured by Google. So, let’s not worry more about the keywords, and keep things simpler.

As per a recent report published by ComScore, out of all the Google searches made, 20 percent are voice searches; however, this figure will further rise up to 50 percent by the year 2020.

8 It’s time for longer and better content copy –

Although Google picks up the query answers from brief pages when it comes to offering better details, it will look into the long form body of the content published over several web pages. An experiment done through voice search by BacklinkO confirms that Google will pick up data buried inside the main body of long content. The average length of such content was approx. 2312 words. Industry experts highly recommend having an FAQ page for capturing a ‘bright spot’ when it comes to appearing in voice searches.

9 Higher Ranking helps in Better Voice Search appearance –

This is one of the most obvious reasons for ranking amongst few worthy competitors. If your keywords appear among the top three searches made by an individual via a voice search, there are increased chances of your web page getting crawled and maintaining its position in the voice search results. To make this happen, SEO experts are recommended to focus on ‘white hat’ practices that could bring better ranking on the world’s most popular search engine Google.

In total, about 74.9 percent of voice search results are from pages that have top three ranks in the Google desktop search results for a specific keyword.

10 Snippets could help too –

You might have noticed a small excerpt of content that often comes when we search any query in the Google, that is known as a ‘featured snippet’. Studies indicate that such content would be given priority over the normal one when it comes to finding a spot in the voice search results. Out of all the voice searches, around 40.7 percent answers are usually picked up from featured snippets that are probably information sources provided by authoritative and high domain ranking websites.

Conclusion –
To conclude the information related to the Voice Search Optimization is that it will for sure pave a new way for the great content, reduce spam or unworthy information and help users come up with genuine information. Instead of browsing through one complete web page, voice search would bring back most accurate answers to the questions being asked by users. It’s high time that search engine optimization professionals and intelligent device makers collaborate like pals to bring a new era of question and answer; revolutionizing the way information is accessed and perceived throughout the world. Adhering to the new ways of building online presence could come as a big reward and also as a challenge for web page owners as they would be struggling to customize their content and web specifics for desktop, mobiles and voice search modules.

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Voice Search Optimization – How it Could Affect Google Ranking in 2018?