Voice Search Optimization: How to Get Siri and Alexa To Notice You
One of my favorite new terms is Voice Search Optimization. Seems a strange term to make that particular list, but I have a good reason.
Recently, my son and I were watching a game on NBA TV and we got curious. How tall is Kevin Durant?. That was all we needed to begin yet another game of “My Voice Assistant is Better Than Your Voice Assistant.”
I have an iPhone and he has a Google Pixel. I asked Siri and he asked Google Assistant. We like to ask for the same piece of information to see who could get to the answer fastest. For some reason Google Assistant seems to be a little faster more often than I prefer.
We have playing this game. One day I mentioned to him that we are now in an age when the only thing you need to do a web search is your voice.
Long gone are the days of actually needing to walk over to your desktop or open up your laptop to get to the internet. With the advent of smart speakers, if you want to do a search, all you need to do to is speak out loud.
How to Avoid Voice Search Scams
Note: Everything from this point forward is pretty geeky. If you're curious as to how prepared you are for voice search but don't want to dig into the weeds that much, give me a call at (702) 582-6708.
Voice Search Optimization
So as the online landscape shifts yet again, website owners need to shift with it. Schema Markup is one of those important steps to take to get ready. Schema Markup isn't new but the average website owner may not be familiar with it.
Schema.org Markup
Schema.org (often called Schema) is a semantic vocabulary of tags (or microdata) that you can add to your HTML to improve the way search engines read and represent your page in SERPs.
What is Schema.org Structured Data?
Schema.org is the result of collaboration between Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo! to help you provide the information their search engines need to understand your content and provide the best search results possible at this time.
Adding Schema markup to your HTML improves the way your page displays in SERPs by enhancing the rich snippets that are displayed beneath the page title.
If you created your website, then you already know whether or not you need to add structured data. If you're not sure, a nifty way to find out is with the Google Structured Data Testing Tool
Simply insert your website's URL into the box and click Run test. The program will quickly scan the page and list any Structured Markup code that it detects. It will also display any errors or warnings that need to be addressed.
If you have a WordPress website, there are quite a few stand alone plugins available to assist with Structured Data. However, most popular SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO have Structured Data capabilities built in.
In this case the need for another plugin should be minimal. And the fewer plugins in use on your website, the better.
As digital assistant use become more common, it's safe to say that a sizable portion of the visitors to your site will use their voice to get there. Using Schema Markup to help with voice search optimization is one of the more important steps t make to make sure you're not behind the times and missing out.
