As marketers, many of us tend to have an interesting case of “shiny new object” syndrome from time to time. In the SEO world, voice search has certainly been that shiny new object over the past couple years.
When looking at generalized statistics on the matter, it’s easy to jump to conclusions.
For example, studies have found that half of all searches will be voice search by 2020. Additionally, 65% of adults aged 25 to 49 use voice search at least once a day.
These objective numbers definitely make it seem like you must prioritize voice search, or be left in the dust.
Truth be told, sinking tons of time and effort into voice search is not absolutely critical for every business.
While it definitely holds more weight in some industries than others, you need to take a close look into your own operations and see exactly how voice search factors in.
Here are a few critical questions to ask yourself before diving head first into voice search optimization.
Are You Covering the Basics?
In the process of optimizing for voice search, it’s easy to get caught up in key tasks like pinpointing long-tail keywords, common questions, and semantically-related keywords relevant to what you offer.
While these are certainly critical to rank on voice searches, you cannot prioritize them over key SEO components (e.g., loading speed, mobile friendliness, indexability, AMP, structured data).
Failing to take care of the foundational SEO elements is going to derail any voice strategy, no matter how good it might seem.
It’s important to note that the entire concept of voice search is closely tied to mobile. Moreover, with Google’s Speed Update in 2018, the wiggle room for slow-loading sites on mobile searches has become even smaller. […]
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