What is Google Voice Search?
Google voice search, voice Google search, or voice search Google is a product of Google which enables a Google user to search by voice instead of typing anything. It is a simple process. This feature is named as ‘OK Google’. All you have to do is open Google Chrome, click on the mic icon and speak the keywords you want to see results for and let Google search by voice do the rest.
As per Google’s policies and further observation, it is noted that the search result pages show the same result for Google voice search over mobile or desktop. Also, the result remains to be same for a typed search as well.
How does Voice Google Search work?
The voice search feature of Google has had a long history. The development took place over time and it has developed to that level that it has made the searches so easy for us. Until a decade ago, a layman wouldn’t even have ever thought that doing a search would become so easy. As easy as a click and speak what you want to search. And yep, that is it.
We are not going to get into technicalities here, obviously not! in fact, why should we? when Google itself has made everything so easy for us. All we need to do is understand the basic functioning and we are good to go.
The voice search feature of Google aims at keeping its users at ease since the convenience of users is of utmost priority to the world’s most popular search engine. All the developments and alterations are aimed at improving the user experience.
How to optimize your website for voice search Google?
Many businesses are now looking forward to infusing this feature in their websites in order to improve the customer experience. Let us now understand how individual businesses can adopt this feature for their business websites. Google search by voice has been a part of Google’s virtual assistant, Google Now, for long enough now. The combination of Google’s search algorithms and Natural Language Processing (NLP) makes it so accurate and empowers to deliver better customer experience. There are more similar virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana but none of them has been able to beat ‘Google Now’ in accuracy and providing better user experience.
Coming back to our primary question, that is how to optimize your site for Google search by voice. Read on and follow the steps. However, I would like to warn you in advance that if you have not been already conducting SEO optimization for your site, this is going to be hard for you. So, let’s begin.
Understand what the user is looking for!
It is very important that you have an understanding of what a user is searching for and accordingly optimize your site so that the user does not feel misled when your site pops up.
Also, the basic information regarding your business must be easily available to the users when your site pops up. Information like the name, address, Phone number (NAP) is the primary information about any business that must pop-up as soon as your company’s name is searched.
In order to understand what a user is looking for all you need to do is focus on the products and services sold by you. Provide answers to the anticipated questions, the answers to which a user might be seeking. The company operators and staff know all about the company but the potential customers do not. Thus, the company website must be informative enough to serve the intent of a potential customer.
Should you optimize your website for a specific search engine other than Google?
Now, here let’s consider this point wisely with the presence of mind. It is known to all that iPhone is the most sold phone in the world with an approximate share of about 83% for the first quarter of 2017, which is a huge market share. Apple’s Siri uses Bing to drive its search results. It does look like a must do option at first but what about Siri’s search accuracy? Is it as reliable as Google? Well, definitely not! And a user who is making a search is looking for a reliable source of Information.
But is it advisable to optimize your website specifically for Bing? No! it will only be a waste of time and money. Google is the widest and most popular search engine network. Even the Apple users turn to Google as a reliable source. Thus, it is highly recommended that you need not put in the extra to optimize your site for a specific search engine when Google is all you need.
Apart from being a popular search engine, Google search by voice is another popular feature of Google – ‘Ok Google’ which is widely used with navigation, basic search engine results, etc. Stick to Google to easily optimize your site for Google search by voice .
Deploy Schema metadata
You can simply understand metadata as the data which better explains the content on your website. The metadata is the data related to the data on the site which is inserted to help the search engines better understand what kind of content is available on your website. Thus, deploying metadata in your site will help the search engine to read your data more accurately. It is implicit that if the website is able to read your data more accurately, your website will be shown for more accurate search results.
Long tail keywords can do wonders for you
The SEO best practices have always argued in favor of long tail keywords. These are phrases that contain a relatively higher number of keywords than short tail keywords. There are a variety of reasons why long tail keywords are preferred over short keywords. The specific approach of long tail keywords makes it easy to rank for. They are less competitive but that does not imply they are not important. Long tail keywords are regarded as a key to rank higher by the SEO specialists in the industry.
Update your business on Google Local Listing
If you have already updated your business on Google local listing, it is still advisable that you update it from time to time. The more accurate and up-to-date the information is, the more beneficial it will be for your business. Little details are attractive enough for your potential customers. Updates of facilities like valet parking, offers and discounts, etc. could be extensively alluring to a user finding places through the ‘near me’ feature.
An updated listing will help the Google search by voice feature to acknowledge the latest facilities offered by your business and rank you according to the search features. You can multiply the impact by inserting images and customer reviews.
Integrate Google Adwords – ‘Near Me’ searches
If you are using Google Adwords for your business make sure you optimize it for ‘Near Me’ searches because there is a huge number of people who make searches with the near me keywords. To not miss a chance on serving an additional step must be undertaken to cater to them. Optimizing Adwords for the ‘Near me’ is beneficial from both the perspectives: text searches and Google voice search online.
Make use of the AdWords location extensions
The Adwords locations extensions enable a business to display their address, Phone Number and operating hours in the ad. This feature helps the advertiser to have an automated call for action. A potential customer who is being targeted with the ‘near me’ feature can instantly act upon it.
Place Ads on Google Local maps
The Google local maps are an effective place to place ads for your local businesses. It gets easy to target the local customers in the area with the help of the ads placed on Google local maps. These ads will be displayed to the local users who are searching for something relevant to your business.
The ads placed on this channel is the ad updated most appropriately in the right place. They are placed right above the organic searches. Thus, it can be increasingly beneficial to increase the traffic with Google voice search or Google text search.
Now, I want you to accept the fact that once you have successfully applied all the above-mentioned points on your website, you are bound to get a notable traffic on your website. No matter how the search is being conducted, by voice or text, if you have employed the right SEO tactics you are sure to get a good search ranking.
The difference between Google voice search online and Google voice search offline
The Google voice search enables a user to make a search on the world’s most popular search engine – Google. To make a search, all one has to do is press the mic icon on Google or simply say Ok Google to get started. This feature of Google is infused into almost all Google applications. Google has been constantly improving its system to make it more and more convenient for their users. The Google search by voice is a feature of Google, introduced with the same intent i.e. make it convenient for the users. Imagine what could be more convenient than speaking out something and having it searched for you automatically.
The convenience feature of Google search by voice is available online and offline, both.
Google Voice Search Online:
The Google voice search which is conducted over the internet is referred to as Google voice search Online. It uses the Google web to provide appropriate search results for the voice query generated by the user. Thus, it is termed accordingly.
Google Voice Search Offline
The voice search Google feature also operates offline i.e. without the internet. However, the tasks get limited to only a few. Like the internal features in the device that do not need to be operated with the help of internet. To name a few- play music, turn on the torch, turn on the wifi, make a phone call etc.
The major difference between the two is that Google voice search online works with the help of internet and Google voice Search offline functions without the internet. However, the number of tasks get limited.
What is Google voice search translate?
We all turn to Google to find translations for certain words from Hindi to English or vice versa. This is done with the help Google translator. However, now we also have an app of a Google voice search translate app. We are well aware of the Google’s policy of laying extra emphasis on the quality of user experience. This feature proves it.
The Google’s voice search translate is a feature of Google that helps the users to translate from one language to the other as is implied by the phrase itself. The Google voice search translate functions with a voice command that lets you find the meaning and term used for a word in other languages. There are many people who use this feature of Google to translate English words to Hindi.
Also, you can use Google voice in Hindi to see result pages which show you English content. The voice search in Hindi is quite convenient to the Indian users at times and this is why the Google search by voice uses it to conduct search and display search results.
By now I have already explained you well enough about what exactly is google voice search, it functions, its types and much more. Also, I’m quite sure that you must be looking forward to begin using it if you are not already using it. And if by any chance, you are not yet convinced, let me give you some more good reason to start using it.
Why should you use Google search by voice?
Easy to use
I know I have already mentioned this point quite a many times, and here we are yet again. Well, its true and we know it well. I don’t think any of us could have thought it could actually happen some day. We could have only wished for it but Google has made it possible. It is the reality of Google search by voice that we are now able to speak and search. As simple as that. What could have been a more convenient option? Possibly think and Google searches it for you- Duh! (Pun intended)
Hands-free
Open Google voice search and keep your phone in front of you. Speak whatever you want Google to search for you and within seconds you have the result in front of you. You actually do not have to do anything apart from speaking. This feature is especially helpful when you are already occupied with some other work. Like when you are driving and are unable to use your you can simply switch to the Google voice search for directions and go hands-free.
In-case you don’t know the spellings
We have all been there, where we are puzzled with the spelling of a particular word or phrase we heard somewhere. In such a case where you don’t know the spellings but you know the pronunciation, you can simple speak it out and let Google search by voice make the search for you.
Accurate results
The user while making a search through the Google voice search may conduct a search in a conversational phrase. However, Google follows the practice of showing results with the help of keywords. Thus, the most suitable search pages are shown according to the keywords by Google search. Since the search was made by voice and the phrase was not distracted by the Google suggestions, the answer that is shown is also accurate to the user intent.
To Conclude
To sum it up, I would like to present you in a crux everything that is mentioned above. So, we know now that Google search by voice makes it extremely convenient to conduct searches on the world’s most popular search engine i.e. Google. The Voice search feature is available on all devices irrespective of their operating system allowing the users to make searches by simply speaking their queries on Google Now. The command with which the app activates is ‘Ok Google’. With further advancements, more such commands are being developed to easy many more common tasks or queries conducted on Google Now.
Over the past years, Search Engine Optimization has made a remarkable position in the Digital Marketing landscape and proved its worth by delivering the desired results in the form of higher rank in the SERP. To get an in-depth understanding of Search Engine Optimization, join our Search Engine Optimization Course.
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