Like what was discussed on our search snippet article a while back, at this point we can all agree that this type of feature by Google is immensely beneficial for optimising websites. SEO strategists and agencies all over the globe know this. For what would be the point of a well-oiled and well-known digital marketing agency if they weren’t into this?
However, like what we’ve all been seeing, technology is quickly advancing and developing quicker than Tony Stark being able to swipe all the Infinity Stones from Thanos. (Spoilers) One of these really cool advancements in tech is Voice Search.
Thanks to this development, we can all now pretend to be some super rich billionaire with an A.I. assistant. But there is definitely more to it than that.
A little history, back in the day, it was the people that adapted to machines and therefore, search engines. We would end up typing things that had no articles in it like “the”, “of” and “and”. So search queries ended up being spelled like robotic language.
A few of these examples include:
Search Engine Optimization Singapore
Food Delivery Thailand
and so on.
But, as time went by, (not much time really) search engines quickly gained more intelligence. This helped them understand the human language more closely. This is all because of Google Hummingbird coming out on 2013. So search queries also evolved.
Search Engine Optimization in Singapore
Where to find Search Engine Optimization services in Singapore
Food delivery services near Thailand
Thailand’s Food Delivery Services
etc.
But it all didn’t stop there thankfully.
Back in March 11 2009, Google introduced one of its babies aptly named, “Google Voice”. Creative naming jokes aside, this was made to be a telephone service that helps with call forwarding and voicemails.
As you would expect, this tech would not last long as it is. With the rise of mobile technology, voice activated services were adopted for search as well. This makes sense since the search engine (Google) already understands how the natural human language works. Or at least has a more concrete idea on how language works.
Naturally, this new function will be adopted for search as well.
However this would naturally mean that the form of language that content will have to be made with should be completely natural sounding. Meaning content out there on the web that is still made for search engines rather than people will have a harder time coming up the ranks.
Since voice search is based on natural language, it will only serve search results that have content that contains naturally written language.
The same goes for featured snippets.
Search results that come up on voice searches would be the ones that answer questions spoken in natural language, not single robotic keywords and phrases.
Optimising your content for this sort of feature on Google is incredibly easy. But it might take you a while if you’ve conditioned yourself to optimise things online like a machine and for machines for a really long time. So here’s how you do it:
Use Long Tailed Keywords
The number one main difference with voice search is that the search terms that are being used to get results are long keywords and almost whole phrases. So logically speaking, the kinds of keywords you will have to use are long tailed ones.
Think of informational types of keywords. Long tailed informational keywords. These are the types of queries that are more conversational and are mainly asking for information.
Content Optimization
One you’ve identified these types of search terms or keywords, you will have to lace them into your content. The types of content you will be creating from here on out would need a purpose. And that purpose is that these should be able to answer the types of questions the keywords are asking.
Featured snippets are basically answers to questions that are being asked by web searchers. To be featured in some of them, these kinds of changes must be applied.
