Is your website optimized for Google voice search? I’m going to share some expert opinions, and some solid data with you to help you decide the best way to go when it comes to optimizing your website.
Backlinko has analysed 10,000 Google Home search engine results, I’m going to run you through what they found and I’m also going to tell you what the HubSpot SEO experts have said about the findings.
And they might not necessarily agree with Backlinko’s research.
Table of Contents:
How to you do Optimise for Google Voice Search?
So how do you optimize your website for Google Voice Search?
I’m going to simplify this, so you only get the info that you need to know when it comes to SEO for voice search.
You see, there are very few clear black and white answers. SEO is a fairly murky area, and two identical pages might get wildly different results depending on over 200 different factors.
Here’s what Backlinko have found, and what HubSpot think about those findings.
Page Speed
Backlinko claim to have found that page speed is important for voice search.
They found that on average voice search results load 52% faster than the average web page, and load within an average of 4.6 seconds.
Now interestingly HubSpot disagrees that page speed is a factor of voice search.
They argue that sites that have good user experience will naturally rank higher.
So personally, I think that optimizing your website for page speed is a good idea because it’s not gonna do any harm.
Fast loading pages provide a good user experience, so cover your bases either way.
HTTPS
Then they found that HTTPS / Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is also important.
Backlinko found that 70% of all voice SERPs have an SSL cert, but again HubSpot disagrees.
They argue that if HTTPS is an actual signal that Google uses to rank voice search results pages then it would be higher than 70%.
Personally I think it’s important – irrespective of voice search or not, so make sure your website HTTPS and invest in a secure socket layer.
Google will appreciate it, and it will rank your website higher.
And now a lot of hosting companies will actually give you an SSL cert for free.
So you really have no excuse to not use SSL on your site.
Short Answers
Another thing that Backlinko has found is that short answers win.
The typical voice search result comes in just 29 words.
And HubSpot agrees, so that seems to be important another signal.
Backlinko claims to have found that authoritative domains are important.
Now, this is something else that Backlinko and HubSpot both agree on.
They both say that Google will try to provide the best and most accurate answer so therefore it will look towards the highest authority domain.
Another signal Backlinko claims to have discovered is social sharing.
They claim that the average voice search result has 1,199 Facebook shares, and an average of 44 tweets.
But HubSpot disagrees and they say that Google does not use sharing to determine authority.
This has been in debate for a number of years but maybe the high number of shares is a byproduct of awesome content – which naturally gets shared anyway.
Linguistic Simplicity
Backlinko also found that linguistic simplicity is important.
The average Google voice search result is written at a 9th grade reading level.
And HubSpot agrees with this.
It really comes down to making content that is conversational and easy to understand.
Long-form Content
Another signal that Backlinko have found, and I think this is really interesting is long-form content.
They have found that the average word count of a voice search result page is 2,312 words per article.
And HubSpot agrees.
So this tells us our content has to be fleshed out, and in depth.
Great Content
And in the same vein as long-form content, Backlinko have also found that great content outranks mediocre content.
This is so painfully obvious, I’m not entirely sure why they included in their findings.
They have found that approximately 75% of voice search engine results also appear in the top three results for the same query on the desktop SERPs.
That means you should write content for the desktop search engine results pages first.
And obviously HubSpot agrees.
Featured Snippets
And then finally Backlinko has found that 40% of all voice search answers came from featured snippets.
Of course HubSpot agrees.
So there you go, I’ve run you through all the main points that you need to consider if you want to rank your website high in voice search.
I’ve just removed all the stuff that you don’t need to know, and just focused on the actionable stuff you can do.
If you’ve found this useful then share it with the other people in your network who need to know about it.