Table of Contents
Introduction
Top eCommerce platforms like Magento are known for their frequent upgrades to support innovative technology. Voice search is one such technology. This move is in a bid to provide better usage for merchants and a smoother shopping experience for their customers.
Magento is setting the pace on this note, notably with the release of Magento 2, an upgrade to Magento 1, which offers rich, extensive features and functionalities.
Magento 2 has been built to deliver scalable eCommerce solutions for businesses of different types and sizes. For a Magento developer or expert, Magento 2 migration is a relatively easy and straightforward process.
If you do not have any expertise or experience in the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2, you will need to hire a Magento developer or find a Certified Magento Development Agency for assistance with Magento 2 store migration services.
By doing so, you can enjoy all the benefits therein and optimize your Magento website for voice search.
Voice search is a search method that allows users to search the Internet, a website, or an app using a voice command instead of typing.
Voice search is increasingly becoming popular and a game-changer in the search industry.
This rising popularity is primarily due to its ease of use and the integration of voice search tech in emerging products and smart devices. All of this, along with the increase in mobile device usage and virtual assistant AI technology like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, etc., is going to change how users search for information on websites, the Internet, and mobile applications completely.
This, among many other reasons, is why multiple websites and store owners are scrambling to optimize their website for voice search.
In this article, we will discuss some expert insights and actionable tips on how to optimize your Magento 2 website for voice search.
5 Tips on Magento 2 Website Optimization for Voice Search
Advice #1. Proper Keyword Research
Keywords are an essential centerpiece between what people are searching for and the content you create to answer those searches.
This makes keywords a critical component in your website optimization for search engine result pages and also voice search. It would be best if you carried out a proper research, particularly on long-tail keywords that are highly specific and have lower competition than high volume search terms.
The strategy for proper keyword research lies in understanding your target market and searching for services, products, and content. It involves thinking about what your potential customers are searching for and then using that information to create in-depth, informative content that matches those search queries. There are several free and premium online tools you can use to find the relevant search terms for your site and their search volumes.
Afterward, you should identify and prioritize the high volume keywords your competitors are not ranking for, and use it to create content that answers Information requests related to your products. Doing this will optimize your Magento website for search engine result pages (SERP’s) and voice search.
Advice #2. Use Natural Language
According to Google, 70% of voice requests to Google Assistant are conveyed in natural language, and not the typical search terms used in a traditional web search. This data is a solid indication that you need to identify those long-tail and conversational search queries that your potential customers are using during a voice search.
Afterward, you must use the relevant keywords and phrases to create content that is best suited for longer voice search queries and provides more specific information. Doing this is critical because many people who use voice-enabled technology are most likely to voice out longer search queries similar to how they speak in real life.
A great starting point for this analysis is to study how people ask questions in online forums or social media groups related to your business niche. This will give you an idea of how they are most likely to search for a product or service you provide on your Magento website. Focusing and incorporating natural and conversational language in your content can increase its ranking for voice-based results.
Advice # 3. Ensure Your Website is Mobile Friendly
A high volume of voice search queries by users is being done using smartphones and portable devices. Data from a 2020 voice search report supports this. The stats show that 20% of searches on a mobile device are voice-based, and 25% of the queries on Android devices are also voice-based. It means that your Magento website must be friendly for mobile commerce and accessible on all devices.
These include using adaptive and responsive web design, ensuring faster page load times, optimizing your images, videos amongst other key processes to increase your page ranking for voice search queries. After doing the needful to make your Magento site mobile-friendly, you can use online tools like Google page speed insights and Webpage test, to check the mobile performance of your webpages.
These tools will provide you with a detailed report on your site’s performance and suggest how you can improve its performance on both mobile and desktop devices.
Advice #4. Focus on Local Search
Research on general voice search statistics reveals that mobile device users are three times more likely to conduct a location-specific voice search. It means more customers typically perform search queries for service providers nearby or close to them.
To increase the chances of your site showing up to customers when they do a voice search for services close to them, you need to optimize your Magento site for your local market. This requires you to develop a comprehensive local SEO strategy that usually involves updating and adding your correct and complete business information to your Google My Business listing, verifying your locations, keeping your business hours accurate and up-to-date, managing, and responding to reviews, adding high-quality photos and optimizing your store locator pages for local search.
Doing all of these does not just optimize your Magento site for local search but also increases its chances of being presented to someone who performs a localized voice search query related to the products and services you provide.
Advice #5. Aim for Featured Snippet
A featured snippet or quick answer box is a direct answer to a search query that appears on the top of the Google search result page above other result listings. It is pulled from one of the top-ranking search results for that search query and contains the site’s page title and URL. Featured snippets have a tremendous impact on SEO for both regular text-based and voice search. Google places the snippet in position zero (0) or zero rank above other search result listings, making it critical to voice-based searches as they feed voice search responses.
This means that if there is a snippet related to a voice search query, the voice software will read the snippet along with the site where the result came from to the searcher. According to a study, half of all search queries will be performed by voice search in 2020. This means that It is crucial for you to aim for and attain Google’s coveted featured snippet box.
Here are some best practices you can follow to optimize your Magento website for featured snippets:
— Search for the query you want to try to rank for and see the featured snippet type Google is already showing. Depending on if it is a paragraph, list, or table featured snippet, you probably want to create content that matches that query and is geared towards ranking to that specific snippet type.
— Create captivating meta descriptions and title tags.
— A study revealed that featured snippets are pulled from sites ranking in the top ten positions of Google’s search engine result page. With this in mind, try and stick to the best practices for content optimization for your webpage to rank on the first-page search results. — Format your content using clean code, and be sure to use the proper tags for lists, tables, and headings. Place the query incorporated in your content in an H2 or H3 tag and include the appropriate answer directly below the headings. Answers should be enclosed in paragraphs tags and be between 54 – 58 words long. Ensure you signal where relevant in your post that an answer is expected by using phrases such as “start with”, “here are”, “follow these steps” etc.
— Publish, track, and monitor the performance of your webpages and their contents. If you do not see results over time, then you need to make a few small adjustments. To do this, track the content type Google is surfacing, and align your content directly to that.