How To Use Voice Search Optimization For A Dropshipping Store

Voice recognition technologies are progressing, and today smartphone owners can use them for a variety of purposes including internet search. As a result, voice search optimization is becoming a new trend.

Imagine you have to write down whatever you want to say instead of just saying it aloud. Such a world would be a very slow place as typing or handwriting takes longer than pronouncing words.

The modern voice recognition technologies have made it more convenient to operate your smartphone. And they keep progressing.

More than half of teenagers use voice search every day. Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, Cortana – they are used not only to set an alarm clock or make calls, but to find stuff on the internet, too.

For online businesses, this growth means new challenges as with the development of voice search, companies have to adapt their search optimization. Why? Because queries made with voice are different from those you type.

Why do people use voice search?

People often use voice search instead of typing simply because it’s more convenient in many ways. You could probably say that laziness is the mother of progress. But it would be wrong to think that this technology spoils us.

You know what I mean if you ever needed to google for something simple that just slipped your mind on the smartphone. Personally I do not find mobile devices convenient and can google the same query on a PC much faster. And that’s where voice search gets really useful.

Instead of all this precision work (I have thick fingers!), all I need to do is pronounce a short sentence. Besides, a voice assistant can answer my question with another short sentence, and that’s it!

Of course, it’ll hardly work when you want to learn about the economic reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. But it’s a great solution for short, simple and routine queries.

Moreover, voice search does wonders when both your hands are busy. In 2019, about half of website traffic came from mobile devices. Therefore, voice search optimization will be getting even more important as time passes.

How is voice search different from text search?

Even in natural language, there’s a huge difference between how people speak and how they write. One can discover similar differences between voice and text search, which is mostly what people search for and how.

When you look for a complicated subject, it’s much more convenient to use the old-fashioned way. Voice is usually used for quick search, and the subjects people ask about are mostly very practical in nature. For example, people ask where the nearest post office is or when a football match starts.

As for how people search, first of all, they use less formal queries often phrased as questions. For example, How to make a cup of coffee or What does hakuna matata mean. So, businesses have to adapt to this aspect too.

How to do voice search optimization?

One can optimize a website for voice search with a number of methods from content adaptation to improving the technical parameters of the site.

Make your site mobile friendly

Since most voice queries come from mobile devices, one should make the website mobile-friendly. Fortunately, mobile traffic prevails in many spheres including ecommerce, so businesses have to do it one way or another.

The good news is all AliDropship’s store themes make your site adaptive for all mobile devices. So, your store will look perfect on any smartphone or tablet. In addition, the hosting services we use for clients are specifically optimized for this type of websites.

Low mobile page speed reduces traffic, so do everything in power to improve them.

You can improve the speed of your dropshipping store with SEO Image Optimizer. With just one activation, this add-on will take care of all the images on your site on autopilot.

Optimize for long-tail keywords

Since people phrase queries in a different way compared to text searches, one should optimize content for such queries, namely long-tail keywords and conversational phrases.

Long-tail keywords usually bring less traffic; however, they also feature low competition. Such phrases often look like questions, so check out all keywords starting with what, where, how, which, etc.

Also, such keywords are longer (hence the term ‘long-tail’). In text queries, people try to phrase queries as short as possible. But voice search queries come from typical oral speech when you don’t mind using another word or two. They usually consist of more than four words: best way to learn new language online.

If such queries contain purely conversational elements, they are probably voice searches.

Adapt content

An efficient voice search optimization requires corresponding content which should be structured in a certain way. You ask a question (usually the headline containing a long-tail keyword) and answer it in the next paragraph. This way, users will quickly get their answers.

This method can be used to write texts for home and category pages but will really shine in a blog (if you keep one).

Furthermore, when composing texts (including those for product descriptions), use conversational language. Make sentences short and simple. Avoid numerous and long participial constructions.

In other words, write as if you had to memorize the text for an oral presentation. It’s also a good idea to actually read it out loud to see if it sounds good or too complicated.

Use structured data

Simply speaking, structured data is a code used to ‘tag’ all the elements on a site page to make it easier for search engines to understand what’s where. For example, it’ll allow you to show which element is the phone number, which one is the rating, which is the image, etc. It’s very useful for optimizing product pages, but can be helpful for SEO in general too.

To tag these elements, SEO specialists use schema markup, i.e. vocabularies of tags that can be understood by search engines. Visit Schema.org to learn more or read Google’s guide on structured data. As a result of such optimization, search engines better understand the content of your website and provide users with richer information.

For example, the easiest way to use structured data is to tag certain paragraphs of an article as ‘questions’ and ‘answers’. It’s what people using voiced search usually look for.

Marking up product pages is even more efficient. Search engines will be able to see everything about your goods including their titles, prices, delivery time and cost, rating, material, sizes, etc. It’ll allow you to provide deeper information for users who search for products to buy online.

While it’s hard to tell whether voice entries will completely replace the traditional ones, there’s no doubt voice search optimization will remain a necessity in the nearest future. If you don’t feel like optimizing a website from scratch, check out our Established Dropshipping Stores and get a fully functional business with a proven track record.