In the last post, we talked about how voice technology has changed how we search. Voice searches are, more specific, more conversational, and use more words. We also talked about how to take advantage of these changes by adding phrases and entire questions to the metadata that accompanies our posts, or episodes.
Today, let's talk about the flip side of voice generated searches. The flips side would be the search results. When we use text to search, we are looking at a screen. And when the results appear, we scan them to choose the one we want. When we search by voice, we get one single answer. Your voice platform reads the one answer to your question. In essence, the result of a voice generated search is, "Winner Takes All." Google calls this answer a "Featured Snippet".
So, how can you get the featured snippet? You can get the snippet by anticipating the specific question someone will ask, and then providing a specific answer. This means that, for now, the search result goes to the best question guesser instead of to the highest keyword bidder. If you can guess the question someone will ask, and provide a specific answer, you have a good chance of being chosen for the snippet, for that single search result.
So, how does one guess the right question and provide the specific answer? The easiest and most basic way is providing obvious questions and answers on your website. Do this through a FAQ page or two. Include questions in different forms. Also, put full questions in your metadata, or if you're writing a blog post, include questions and answers in your actual post. The potential of ranking first in the search results for free won't last forever, but until the big companies respond to the way voice is changing how we search, you have a good chance.
And now we experience one of the challenges of voice technology. I would like to link an article that packed in a lot of overview information. But Alexa doesn't verbally link yet. So, if you would like to know more about voice changing how we search, google an article titled "Voice Search Will Be Massive - Here's what you need to know." It's written in a sensational style, but the information is accurate, and there's a lot of it!
