Search engine optimization (SEO) is complex enough when implemented in a single language, but entering foreign markets and doing international SEO adds further challenges that can make the pursuit prone to missteps.

On April 25, I had the opportunity to moderate a Best of SEJ Summit webinar presented by Bill and Motoko Hunt. The renowned international SEO experts discussed how international SEO disasters can be prevented by identifying the common challenges practitioners often encounter.

Here is a recap of the webinar presentation.

International SEO challenges often involve the following areas:

Language/culture

CMS/site infrastructure

Geotargeting

Organizational

1. Language Challenges Clone & Go

One of the first steps of creating a global website is to translate and localize the website content. While it sounds like a simple process, there are a few challenges that come with it.

One common misconception in creating an international website is simply to clone a site for another market by using an online translator. Don't do it.

Using an online translator ignores grammatical, wording and cultural differences completely and this might create more problems along the way and cost a lot to fix in the future.

If the cost is not an issue, prioritize the languages or the countries that you want to target and then start off with your Tier 1 markets/languages. You don't have to clone your website into hundreds of different languages for different countries at once.

Translate Once, Copy 50

When creating a different version of your website, you surely would want to maximize your investment but don't be tempted to create a bunch of different language sites targeting each and every country.

Just because you now have a French or a Japanese version of your website doesn't mean that you should add those to your Mexican country website. There's no need for a French Mexican nor a Japanese Mexican site.

Having these kinds of translations also adds unnecessary load to your servers and creates duplicate content and targeting issues.

What you can do is map the right language for each country so that you are maximizing your efforts correctly.

Correct vs. Popular Translations

Oftentimes, when people localize a website they tend to prefer a keyword that has the most search volumes – even though that is the worst translation to use for a particular term.

This might seem logical in a way, but if you think about cultural differences, some words could mean multiple ways. Going after the search volume is not a good way to select the right word for a particular content.

When you are translating a European language website into Asian languages, or vice versa, there are huge grammatical and cultural differences.

It would be best to hire native speakers or a local agency that can understand those differences and will be able to pick the right word for the content you have.

Local Site Not Optimized

Many website owners initially invest a lot of money and resources to create and optimize their original or home websites but after developing multiple country/language sites, they fail to keep up with the ongoing optimizations needed for each.

If you decide to go global, you need to be willing to keep investing into each of your global sites – optimizing and updating the content so that they will perform well.

String Translation

To save on translation costs, many sites implement a module (like a translation software) to their CMS to push out global websites.

Similar to the previous examples, one word could have multiple meanings. You might think this option is saving you money, but it will cause you more problems later on.

Sometimes investing a bit upfront to do the right translation and localization job will actually save you money.

2. Geo-Targeting Challenges Language Tags Are Incorrect

When you have the content, then you need to target it to a market. If you only have one version of Spanish or one version of English, then it becomes global.

Once you start setting it for other markets, most people need ways to geotarget it.

For instance, if you're using top-level domains (TLDs) like .co.uk, that's an indicator that it's for the UK. If you're using a .com, this means it's essentially global and could be anywhere.

Some people who are just starting out in international SEO might ask, "Why can't we use our language tags?"

One of the reasons why Google specifically doesn't use these language or country tags in the metadata is because about 90 percent of them are wrong.

Moreso, even various content management systems and plugins get them wrong. This is an even bigger problem when people are using localization tools or some hreflang tools inside of WordPress.

Sometimes WordPress uses incorrect country language codes or often uses country language codes with incorrect syntax. We can't always rely on the system to natively create this.

Rank & Geo Reporting

Are your rank reports giving a true picture?

Rank reports should not only show how many pages are ranking on the first page or in the top positions of the search engine but more importantly if the right pages are ranking in a specific market.

Faulty IP Detection Logic & Aggressive CloudFlare Settings

More websites are using IP detection logic tools that should redirect the user to a page close to him/her or a default/global page.

Most of the time, they work for major markets but there are often fringe cases where they may not work. In some extreme cases, CloudFlare settings are triggered easily causing users to get blocked from the site.

Other Issues:

IP the Location but Content Is Local (i.e., URL changes but the content is adapted based on IP even with the presence of a local page.)

Forced Country Selection

Cookie Settings vs. IP

IP Detect on XML Site Map (i.e, not excluding search engines from IP detection)

Fixing IP Blocked Indexing & hreflang

3. Technical Challenges Multilingual Single URL Websites

There are multilingual single URL websites that have two or more language translations for a particular page but only uses a single URL for all of them. This issue might confuse search engines and searchers.

Multilingual single URL sites pose the following issues:

Inbound links to your URL are diluted.

Cannot use geotargeting techniques.

Which language shown is often up to which local indexer visited last.

Mixed Hreflang Signals

An example of this is putting varying tags in an XML sitemap and the header. Search engines might get confused what you really mean because there's a big difference between assigning a page to a language than assigning it to a country and language.

Confusing Signals

From a development standpoint, interchanging uppercases or lowercases when coding has no value. However, this might be an issue for canonical and hreflang tags (i.e., setting canonical to en-US but using en-us for hreflang.)

Wasting Crawlers' Time

Poor attention to detail, especially when creating an XML sitemap for websites with plenty of pages, can waste crawlers' time.

Some global websites have more errors in the XML sitemap than good URLs. In this case, the engines will ignore these type of information completely.

4. Organizational Challenges Global Dysfunction

Having a global websites means you need to manage multiple websites either by yourself, through an in-house team, or local agencies. And, as you can imagine this will create additional headaches if you don't do it right.

The best way to minimize the challenges is to create standard guidelines for running the websites and implement them to the local team or agencies.

You can make use of templates for consistency. Create one for your main website and implement it across all other location sites.

Tip: Aside from working on a centralized development Adopt a 'Center of Excellence' (COE) to manage shared services. Centralize best practices which have been leveraged to scale search globally resulting in exponential performance improvements.

Key Takeaways

Focus on the searcher. Too many times, when a company goes global they're doing it for their own benefit They're trying to sell more because there's a market they see there. But they often forget that the searcher may different. What works in the U.S., the UK, or in Japan may not work in other markets.

Pay attention to detail. There are plenty of international SEO disasters that stem from IT/dev teams, SEO pros, or webmasters forgetting to consider little details.

Collaborate as a team. A lot of things can go wrong with global SEO deployments when people aren't collaborating or talking to various stakeholders.

Video Recap: Preventing International SEO Disasters

Watch the video recap of the webinar presentation and Q&A below.

You can check out the SlideShare of the presentation, too.

Image CreditsScreenshot taken by author, April 2018

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NAPLES, Fla., May 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The independent authority on Search vendors, topseos.com, has named Digital Marketing Agency (DMA) as the best search engine optimization company for May 2018. Each month the rankings are released, highlighting the leading and top contending digital marketing agencies assisting businesses in having their websites highlight at the top of search results in the major search engines. While there are thousands of companies offering professional SEO services, the rankings focus on highlighting the leading and top contending SEO agencies based on an in-depth evaluation process.

The independent research team at topseos.com performs an analysis of the leading and top contending digital marketing agencies offering search engine optimization services. This is an ongoing process that involves the use of a set of evaluation criteria in addition to client references and testimonials in order to benchmark and compare the leading agencies. The five areas of evaluation used during this process include on page optimization, off page optimization, needs analysis, keyword analysis, and reporting methods.

For a more in-depth analysis, the independent research team connects with client references and testimonials both provided by the leading agencies and with clients of SEO companies that connect directly with topseos.com themselves. Time is spent understanding the experience with the SEO company they signed up with, the results achieved, and how those results compare to similar businesses within their industry. The results of this analysis are used to determine the placement of the SEO companies featured in the rankings.

Due to their exceptional performance during the benchmarking and their exceptional client testimonials topseos.com has featured Digital Marketing Agency (DMA) as the top performing search engine optimization company. Those looking for exceptional SEO services should consider hiring Digital Marketing Agency for their SEO services. Digital Marketing Agency is also featured as the top web design and content marketing agency in addition to listings for other services they offer.

To view the rankings of the best SEO companies visit: https://www.topseos.com/rankings-of-best-seo-companies

About topseos.com

topseos.com is an online provider of independent reviews and ratings. The ratings of the best search engine marketing companies are released monthly to assist businesses in connecting with search engine optimization companies which feature a history of effective solutions. Thousands of search engine marketing companies are put to the test while only the absolute best companies are highlighted in the ratings.

Source: topseos.com

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-marketing-agency-dma-named-as-best-seo-company-by-topseoscom-for-may-2018-300636209.html

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JavaScript utilization can have a astounding impact on SEO. but how? As you likely be aware of, simple internet crawlers are relatively dumb. They just study during the text files associated with your domain, following hyperlinks and trawling through your code. however they can't in fact "see" the site: handiest the code that includes it. consequently, super dense code that doesn't help your web optimization—like extensive JavaScript—can water down in the impact of your advantageous search engine optimization. but with most sites relying heavily on JavaScript to supply a contemporary consumer interface and even serve content, what can you do to increase?

1. Use as little JavaScript as feasible

This should be would becould very well be slightly of a cop-out trick, nevertheless it should be your first step. seem to be to peer in case you can replace animations with HTML5 and CSS3 equivalents. The handle and adaptability accessible is on par with JavaScript. The main downside is that it's no longer as greatly relevant to older browsers, and there aren't always polyfills for older browsers. be certain to determine compatibility before coming near the task. It doesn't work exactly the same become as jQuery, of direction, so you'll should become familiar with the brand new code. but when you get CSS3 to exchange animations on this project, which you can use it on each other venture thereafter. Then your code will present your client superior search engine optimisation alternatives.

JavaScript is additionally slowly beginning to fall out of fashion with guests. As web clients have come to affiliate scripting languages with ad servers and tracking applied sciences, further and further have begun to selectively block JavaScript with extensions like uBlock and NoScript. this can result in even "first rate" JavaScript being blocked as the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. while you would hope buyers don't block your respectable stuff, remember to try to stay away from a place in which patrons can block content material. They could not have in mind what to do, or why your page is breaking: they just blame it on you. no longer your fault, you might say! And that's accurate. but when we are able to avoid a possible issue, we should still are attempting.

2. Externalize your JavaScript

You doubtless already recognize that using a <script> tag to name your JavaScript is stronger than embedding it in the document. It's greater readable, more straightforward to keep and more convenient to code. however it can additionally increase your website positioning ranking. should you name JavaScript with a <script> tag, search engine web page crawlers will quite simply ignore it. this may enable your web page's search engine optimized text to stand out. using a small quantity of in-web page JavaScript received't damage your search engine optimization in any appreciable means, of direction. but if you're the usage of adequate JavaScript to be interested in studying this publish, you'll probably want to call it externally.

3. What about JavaScript-generated content material?

For a very long time, search engine optimisation execs have counseled a "plain text" strategy, advocating for as a whole lot textual content as feasible within the body of the HTML itself. Styling and JavaScript should be sequestered in their personal files, based on these recommendations. despite the fact, this assistance is not any longer principal.

As more sites have begun making JavaScript a big a part of their content technology scheme, foremost search engines like google have caught up. Google, in line with Search Engine Land's examine JavaScript and search engine optimisation, completely crawls, indexes, and ranks content material generated with JavaScript as if it have been HTML. This ability that dynamically generated content material, links and redirects are all appropriately managed by using the hunt engine, correctly indexing the last rendered DOM. So don't be fearful of make JavaScript a core part of your content material era scheme.

part of the purpose this confusion changed into spawn changed into a misunderstanding between the roles of Google's crawling engine (Googlebot) and Google's indexing and rendering engine (Caffeine). The crawler doesn't basically render content. It's simply answerable for finding content on the web to examine. This ended in a frequent misunderstanding that Googlebot couldn't tackle JavaScript. That is right, but additionally inappropriate. The crawler doesn't should handle JavaScript, since it simply finds the content. The index and rendering engine, Caffeine, is the part of the machine that renders pages. And Caffeine is utterly capable of rendering JavaScript pages and handling the DOM, and that's what we care about.

4. control the crawl funds

while Google is totally in a position to rendering your web page's JavaScript, it also takes a comparatively colossal amount of time. Google has something referred to as a "crawl funds": a dimension of the amount of effort they're willing to deplete on a single website. They'll make their highest quality effort to index your web page, but after ages, they'll movement on to the subsequent one, whether or now not yours is "carried out." We may still do our optimum to aid Google out as lots as we can if we desire our sites to be listed thoroughly. That capability the usage of JavaScript the place necessary, however limiting its use.

When your site is according to JavaScript or uses JavaScript appreciably, web page crawling and indexing turns into inefficient and sluggish. This potential the website map must be constantly regenerated as new hyperlinks are found out, potentially leading to link miscategorization or an wrong balance of URL magnitude. respectable web optimization is all about being effective, so its important to minimize inefficiency anyplace viable.

Conclusion

website positioning may also be a large and baffling topic, and it might be difficult to suggest shoppers if you're not an expert yourself. you could consult websites like SearchEngineLand to learn greater, or work with search engine optimisation expert consultants if you'd like website positioning consulting.

You could additionally like right here posts:

the usage of CSS Pseudo-aspects and Pseudo-classes like ::earlier than and ::after 5 equipment that internet developers and Programmers want finest (And Worst) Practices for accumulating email Addresses

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Seo Ji-hyun, a female prosecutor whose sexual harassment allegation triggered the nationwide #MeToo movement, expressed regret, Tuesday, over what she called a "cursory" investigation into her alleged perpetrator, former senior prosecutor Ahn Tae-geun.

bill Hartzer is an unbiased web optimization consultant. He relies on his 20+ years of direct search engine marketing adventure to provide technical SEO audits of internet sites, in addition to technical link audits and link cleanups. bill is customary international for his analysis with regards to search engine marketing and the new gTLD domain names, in addition to Dot manufacturer domain names.

he's a normal speaker and professional discussion panel participant at numerous conferences and routine such because the SMX and Pubcon. he's an reputable manufacturer Ambassador for Majestic and Impactana.com.

invoice writes for functional eCommerce journal, net advertising and marketing nowadays, Search Engine Journal, and a lot of other on-line publications. He maintains a weblog on his web site, www.billhartzer.com, and is among the common founders of the Dallas/fortress price Search Engine marketing affiliation.

Presentation details

during this session, bill will talk about how to function an web optimization audit of your site. With Google's mobile First on the horizon, we need to remember how a cell search engine optimization audit is different than a desktop web optimization audit. reckoning on the category of site visitors you get, you'll want to operate either a cell website positioning audit or a computer search engine marketing audit – or both.

Key Takeaways:

Overview of search engine optimization audits

changes between cell and computing device audits

how to decide which audits to perform

on the end of this session, you're going to consider comfy performing an audit for your personal site, or a shopper's site.

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Tim produksi merilis seperti apa penampilan Park Min young dalam drama baru tvN itu.

"Why, Secretary Kim?" menjadi stok drama tvN selanjutnya usai "My Ajusshi". Drama ini cukup dinantikan lovers lantaran memasangkan Park web optimization Joon dengan Park Min young.

"Why, Secretary Kim?" diangkat dari webtoon populer berjudul sama. Kisahnya tentang Kim Mi So (Park Min younger) yang bekerja sebagai sekretaris Lee younger Joon (Park search engine optimization Joon) selama 9 tahun. Namun ia mendadak mengundurkan diri karena ingin pacaran dan menikah, membuat bosnya syok dan kelabakan.

Jelang tayang, tim produksi merilis seperti apa penampilan Park Min young sebagai Kim Mi So. Dalam foto, ia yang mengenakan setelan kemeja dan rok di atas lutut serba putih tampak berlari seperti sedang buru-buru. Sedangkan di foto lain, ia tersenyum cantik menyapa rekan kerjanya.

Penampilan Park Min young sebagai Kim Mi So rupanya menuai banyak pujian dari netter. Banyak yang memuji aktris kelahiran 1986 itu sangat cantik dan cocok dengan karakter dalam webtoon. Sebaliknya, mereka justru menilai Park search engine optimisation Joon kurang pas memerankan Lee young Joon.

supply: Netizenbuzz

"Dia terlihat oke dengan dandanan pegawai kantor. Sangat cantik," puji netter. "Aku membaca webtoon-nya dan kurasa Park Min young sangat cocok dengan karaker Kim Mi So," tambah netter lain. "Dia terlihat sparkling dan imut," sahut yang lain.

"Sekarang karena teasernya sudah keluar, kurasa Park Min young sangat bagus untuk karakternya. Sedangkan Park SEO Joon tidak begitu cocok," komentar netter. "Aku tidak merasa Park website positioning Joon pas dengan karakter Lee young Joon," pungkas lainnya.

Sementara itu, "Why, Secretary Kim?" juga dibintangi Lee Tae Hwan, Kang Ki younger, Chansung 2PM, Pyo Ye Jin, Kim Hye good enough dan Kim Byung good enough. Drama ini rencananya tayang kisaran Juni mendatang mengisi slot Rabu dan Kamis malam.

Berita Why, Secretary Kim? terkait :• Park search engine optimization Joon Pamer Pose Keren di Lokasi 'Why Secretary Kim', fanatics Histeris• Park search engine optimization Joon Frustasi Mikirin Park Min younger di Teaser 'Why Secretary Kim'• Park SEO Joon - Park Min younger Bikin Ngakak di Sesi Baca Naskah Drama tvN• Ganteng Banget, Siap-Siap Terpesona Park SEO Joon di 'Why Secretary Kim'

"OK Google, tell me where I can go to lunch today."

And just so I don't offend the Apple aficionados:

'Hey Siri, is it going to rain today?"

What do these have in common?

They're classic examples of the rising tide of voice search, and they signal a change in the SEO landscape that you can't afford to ignore.

And if you take a moment to look, you'll find that the voices telling you how to optimize for voice search are many and varied.

But what actually works?

Is there actually a way you can take steps in the right direction to help optimize people who rely on voice searches?

I believe there are, and I want to share them with you.

Before we get started improving your SEO though, I want to show you some overwhelming evidence that voice search is taking over.

What is voice search, and why bother?

The practical applications of voice search are still relatively new, but the feature itself has taken the world by storm.

These days, all you have to do is tell your device what you're looking for, and it will do the searching for you.

Anyone with a smartphone or smart home device no longer has the Internet at their fingertips.

They have it at the tip of their tongue.

And let's be honest, that's just plain cool.

We've reached the "final frontier" of search technology unless telekinesis is discovered (which is highly unlikely).

But more to the point, in a rather illuminating study, Stanford University recently discovered that speech recognition technologies are now three times faster than typing.

So for businesses, this is a matter of user experience and delivering convenience to your customers in a rather innovative way.

And it's already sending waves through the SEO world.

This is partly because these technologies just keep getting better and better with time.

Recent reports by Microsoft tout that their speech recognition has only a 5.1% error rate and works with a vast variety of languages.

If you use Microsoft's Cortana software, that's good news.

But they're not the only ones seeing success.

Google is on par with Microsoft, if not barely edging them out:

That means not only is voice search helpful, but it's also competitive.

And when Google, Microsoft, and other major tech companies start competing, you can pretty much guarantee that you're going to see some amazing changes in the coming years.

The inner workings of voice search are both surprisingly human and technical at the same time.

For the first time, computers can hear our voices and guess our true intentions with a staggering amount of accuracy.

Algorithms like RankBrain, which was confirmed in 2015, are already blowing our expectations out of the water with its ability to predict intent.

But speech recognition isn't the only aspect that's been improving.

Voice search systems are now able to do much more than just give you the top-ranked answer:

So the evolution of speech recognition is just one aspect to consider.

Amazon's Echo devices can now perform over 12,000 different skills, which means they're becoming a much more integral part in how we use the Internet.

And the sales numbers of these smart home systems only serve to drive that point even further.

In 2017 alone, more than 25 million smart home devices were sold and 11 million of those came in the final quarter.

For a technology that's still in its infancy, that's an impressive adoption rate.

Voice search is in our homes, on our phones, and even in our browsers now.

And that means people must be using these features on a regular basis for both work and leisure.

But this also means that if you're not at the top of a search engine's rankings, you probably won't ever see results from voice search.

In fact, even being on the front page might not be good enough anymore.

In essence, this means that the number one spot on Google, Bing, and any other search engine is now more important than ever.

And since almost 40% of voice search users have looked up something online with voice search, you can rest assured that this trend will continue.

2017 saw a staggering growth of 178% in the utilization of voice search, and I'm confident that the coming years will see that figure grow even more.

So what does this mean for your SEO?

Besides needing to rank as the number one page, it means you have a lot of work ahead of you.

And to start things off, it means the basics of SEO are more important now than ever before.

Start with solid SEO

It may surprise you that I start off with the basics, but honestly, it shouldn't.

The honest and hard truth about SEO is that it takes forever.

It took me years to start seeing large amounts of organic traffic for my brand, and I'm just one example.

Many fledgling companies that are leading innovation in their industries are fighting the giant, established corporations whose budgets dwarf theirs.

And because they're newcomers on the playing field, they have to play the long game if they want to win.

This is especially true when it comes to voice search because the climb just got that much steeper.

In an enlightening study, Backlinko did some extensive tests on Google Home's search results.

What they found won't surprise any SEO enthusiast, but they prove the necessity of SEO basics quite emphatically.

For example, one of their findings was that load time affected performance significantly:

The top results of their voice search experiments had an average load time almost half of the top-ranked website on a traditional search.

And that means the already vital aspect of load times just upped the ante on-site owners.

Now, you're not only trying to keep your visitor's attention.

You're also trying to grab the attention of a coveted voice search algorithm.

But that's not all.

Much like with traditional search engine searches, voice search results preferred long-form content by a longshot.

This validates the message that many other marketers and I have been preaching for years.

The longer and more thorough your content is, the more likely you are to start ranking higher.

It may take you more effort, but it's clearly worth it in the case of optimizing for voice search.

What's more, it was also shown that how well your content performs on social media does play a role in your ranking on voice search.

The average for voice search results may seem rather high, but if you're creating and sharing the best content, it's just a matter of time before you see numbers like this.

And the more consistent your efforts, the sooner they can start paying off.

So, we've seen that these three basic elements of SEO do indeed affect your ability to rank for voice search.

Those are just three examples.

The Backlinko study I'm citing goes on to show a dozen more ways that basic SEO features affect your chances of becoming the result of a voice search.

And perhaps more importantly, numerous sources have shown that your overall page rank seems to be the top factor that affects your chances of hitting this coveted spot.

An impressive yet daunting 99.58% of voice results are from the top ten pages in a traditional search.

Which means not ranking in the top ten gives your page a mere 0.42% chance spread out with millions of other search results.

If you win with those odds, you could probably just buy a lottery ticket and retire instead of fight for SEO rankings.

You see my point here.

The basic SEO practices are where you should start, simply because without them you'll have a minuscule chance of being the top voice search result.

So the first and most important step for anyone interesting in cracking the voice search code is to learn and implement the basics of SEO

By starting here, you'll have solid foundations for your brand to grow on.

And once you start to see results, you can implement some of the more specific practices when it comes to optimizing for voice search.

Focus on conversational keywords

Once you've settled in on your basic SEO, you'll want to take a closer look at your keywords to make sure that a voice search can pick them up.

This is because search engines like Google have started the practice of looking for natural language when providing the top results.

While this is a rather technical representation of that process, really what it boils down to is how conversational your content is.

If you can keep your content easy to approach and read, Google will pay more attention to you.

Finding a way to be conversational, even for more serious brands, is a challenge that's unique to voice search.

And this trend is only increasing because as of 2017, the majority of phrases used in voice search were considered "natural or conversational."

Seven out of ten voice searches are made with the type of speech we use today.

That includes contractions, slang, and colloquialisms that may not come naturally to your writing style.

But if they get put into a search engine, that means they have the potential to be a keyword.

So how do you implement these keywords without ending up on r/FellowKids?

Start by conducting some thorough keyword research.

Then, dig into some of the keyword usage and trends of voice search.

For example, look at how most voice searches are actually being phrased as questions.

People using voice search are asking search engines for advice on different elements of their lives.

Questions like "how do you cook a turkey?" or "where is the best burger in town?" are being asked to devices that use voice search.

And as you can see, companies are lagging behind in their effort to create keyword-optimized snippets that seek to answer these questions.

Which means there's plenty of room for your brand to start making up the difference.

And one of the easiest ways to start with this trend is to use trigger words, as more than 20% of voice search results begin with these words.

That might not sound like a lot but think of the vast areas of application even the top trigger word could have for your business.

Let's say you sell shoes.

Here are some examples of posts you could create that might lead to a hit from voice search using just the word "how:"

How to size for shoes without the right tools

How to quickly replace your shoestrings

How to tie your shoes as quickly as possible

Do you see how all of these might come up in a voice search?

All it takes is someone to say "OK Google, teach me how to tie my shoes as quickly as possible" and you have a potential hit.

You get more exposure simply because you emphasized a trigger word in your post.

And these are just a few examples.

There are more studies that provide lists of the popular words used in voice searches, like this one from Ahrefs:

While many of these suggestions are still young, they're a great place to start when considering your keyword usage.

And as voice search continues to evolve, so should your keywords.

SEO is a process that will never end and you have to treat it as such.

As long as you stay vigilant in your efforts to continually optimize for conversational keywords, you'll increase your chances of popping up in a voice search result.

Create content optimized for featured snippets

Once you've mastered your SEO basics and fine-tuned your keywords, it's time to look into the final big element of optimizing for voice search.

Aside from a strong domain and content, you need to create a way for search engines to digest and regurgitate your content easily.

That goal is accomplished by optimizing your content for the featured snippets that often appear in the "rank zero" position above the normal search results.

This is an element that you'd be unwise to ignore because Google has explicitly stated that featured snippets help with mobile and voice search rankings.

In practice, these featured snippets are often used to help users find quick answers to questions, like in this example:

In a regular search, this result would let you quickly skim for your answer and be on your way.

With a voice search, however, the search engine has to give an audible response to the query.

That means these snippets are often the result that's read aloud to the user.

If your content isn't set up to easily fit into a featured snippet, then even a highly-ranked page could be passed up for the next result.

It's also worth noting that these featured snippets have started to display video too, which means your written content isn't the only option.

To put it simply, your goal should be to provide easily digestible and repeatable information that can be evaluated and shared quickly.

This bears up under the microscope of various marketing experiments.

Many SEO blogs have started recommending that content creators start considering length more closely when it comes to optimizing for these featured snippets.

If you're used to writing three to four sentence paragraphs, it's recommended that you change that practice immediately.

Even lists are feeling the burn, with a maximum of only eight items and potentially only 64 words.

If you're used to creating step-by-step guides in a list format, you'll need to change your approach for voice searches.

What's more, the Speech Guidelines that have been published by search engines like Google seem to indicate less than 30 words is best for any piece of content you think could be a snippet.

I count 44 words in that snippet, and Google says that's too long.

Whereas in this example, Google prefers the shorter snippet even though the answer is incorrect:

This result is only ten words, so it's clear why it would be optimized.

It's shorter, more to the point, and thus deemed a better answer by the search engine's algorithms.

And while other factors like authority will factor into the actual answer given by Google, this clearly illustrates the point that succinct is always better.

Now, this trend toward shorter replies might seem odd to some.

After all, the replies are being read aloud.

Why can't they be longer?

You have to remember that usage of voice search is already quite varied.

Most of the searches performed by users are in public or with others present, which means that a short-and-sweet result will provide the smallest amount of interruption.

This is where brands that have stiffer, more professional voices start to suffer.

If you're unable to quickly and clearly address a concern or answer a question, you'll have a harder time ranking in a voice search.

This may mean that you need to reevaluate some of the more foundational elements of your voice in the future.

If you think this trend won't affect your industry, I invite you to think again.

More and more sites are adopting the practice of creating featured snippets that help bolster their ability to reach "rank zero" and provide useful information from a voice search.

In just a few years, interest in featured snippets has tripled.

With its growing popularity, it's quite possible that your competitors are already optimizing for this feature and you should be too.

And aside from simply shortening your content, there's actually one other element you can focus on to try and edge out the other results on a search engine.

That method is to go back and brush up your site's FAQs.

You may not have heard much advice about your FAQs lately, but the importance of this content is making a comeback.

Since they're already designed to be custom-built phrases meant to answer common questions about your products, industry, or brand, it's natural that they would take the limelight when it comes to featured snippets.

It's the best place for your visitor or a search engine to find answers, which means you need ways to anticipate what questions they will ask.

One way to accomplish that is by using a service like Answer the Public.

All you have to do is enter your keyword, and then their system will give you the most searched for questions that center around that word.

While it's marketed as a tool for PR firms, it also has a great application for marketers when it comes to voice search SEO efforts.

Once you get a list of questions to answer from Answer the Public, I also recommend checking out a service like StoryBase to double check for any missed opportunities.

Much like Answer the Public, StoryBase will let you find the sweet spot between your message and what users are actually searching for.

If you optimize your content and FAQs according to these questions, you'll be more likely to land in a featured snippet down the line.

And that means your SEO will be that much better for a voice search.

Conclusion

Voice search may be newer, but it's already playing an important role in the way SEO is accomplished.

With yearly improvements and an astounding adoption rate, this trend is one that you simply can't ignore.

If you want your brand to act as an authoritative source for voice search results, you have to start by implementing basic SEO practices.

Optimize your on-site elements like word count, time to load, and image use to start building your SEO efforts from scratch.

And don't neglect off-site elements like backlinking or social media sharing.

All of these efforts will lay the foundation for a search engine to start ranking you higher.

Then once you get the basics covered, start optimizing your content with conversational keywords.

Since voice search queries are typically conversational in nature, this helps set you up for success as more questions are asked.

Finally, make sure you create content that will fit neatly into a featured snippet.

These "rank zero" results are often the top choice of voice search results, which means they're exactly where you want to be.

Just remember that all SEO takes time.

You won't be a success overnight.

But in a few years, you can dominate your space with ease.

What tips or tricks have helped you rank for voice search?