With the advancement in technology, voice search has become a predominant way for internet users to conduct searches online. According to a study, it has been estimated that 50 percent of the searches would be done through voice search by the end of 2020. Thus, if half of the searches are done through voice, your campaign must adapt to these changes to reach such leads.
Voice Recognition and technology linked to its power several applications. It can be seen in cell phones, automobiles, home automation, and so on. Even websites are capable of doing the same, though the solution might not be that simple. The introduction of this new mark-up has some major implications on the future of the search ecosystem.
In this article, we would be talking about what is speakable schema mark-up, how it works, what it means for SEO and how businesses can prepare for it.
What is Speakable Schema Mark-up?
Speakable is the name of the schema mark-up tool by Google. A schema mark-up tool helps the businesses to “mark-up” specific sections of their website content for voice search. In simple words, businesses can choose the information that is the most valuable in their content and present it to their target audience. It is similar to featured snippets on Google. Information that is relevant to the query is picked up in the hope that the voice search devices would read the listing.
As of now, this feature is only in beta and hence, only the news publishers can make use of it. It works only within the United States on Google Assistant and Google Home devices.
How does Speakable Schema Mark-Up Work?
Optimizing the voice searches need significant information fragments to be featured in the SEO campaign. This means that specific sections of the campaign can be optimized for voice search. The speakable schema helps Google to determine how important is the chosen content fragment concerning the specific niche. This helps it to rank higher in the SERP. The relevant content is picked up by Google, Google Home and Google Home devices which streamline the information and find a way to display the content to your target audience.
Google makes use of a sophisticated algorithm to pull up the search engine. The news publishers are responsible for choosing the text fragments that have to feature in Google. Google determines the importance of information and its relation to the voice search queries of the user before voicing it out. The current setup of this speakable schema can only be accessed by new publishers and allows them to highlight some parts of a new feature while optimizing voice search. Even though this technology is in the early stages, it can present accurate answers to a user’s query.
Though in the initial state, the speakable schema of Google is a powerful method of obtaining information about current events and recent news. Several points need to be considered while optimizing the content for the speakable schema. These requirements need to be fulfilled to meet the demands of current as well as possible future inquiries.
- The topic of the content needs to focus on a single subject and storyline. The writing should relevant and understandable.
- The information in the publication should be accurate and the facts should be correct
- The content should not include ad campaigns
- The text cannot have hate speech or vulgar words that are directed towards a particular person or entity
- If you are featuring news, then it should include information about the author, the publication date as well as contact details
Although speakable content is available for businesses that are creating content; however, it is currently limited to only news publications. The above points are the specifications for Google’s new schema mark-up which ensures that all new information is up to the industry standards.
How to Implement Speakable Mark-up?
For using TTS suitability, the speakable schema mark-up, one needs to follow four different requirements set by Google. These requirements are as follows:
- Follow all the guidelines, including the content, technical side, structured data protocol, and webmaster. This is the starting point to enable the audio playback capabilities of the website’s texts.
- Include the speakable structured data semantics by Google into the website’s code.
- Test the chosen structured data and approve it.
- Submit the approved content to check eligibility and move ahead with the onboarding process.
How Speakable Schema Affects SEO?
To accommodate the existing and future demands, the technology industry is continually shaping itself with innovations such as Google’s speakable SEO feature. Since there has been a rise in voice-enabled searches, there has been an impact on the SEO landscape. This has made it all the more important for businesses to improve their website performance.
Since Speakable is still in beta form, there is no effect on the SEO performance of a website currently. However, with the industry adapting to voice searches, it has become a major forefront for a website to rank in Voice Assistant tools. The speakable schema would, thus, have a major impact on how the users search for information on the internet. This can also become a burden for many businesses as they might find it difficult to provide better and updated services to the customers.
While businesses work towards fine-tuning the content on their website, they are looking to adopt Google’s voice-friendly features. This involves restructuring the current content and shifting the market to include voice-search enabled devices and gadgets.
How to Prepare a Business for Speakable Schema Mark-up?
Speakable is in the early stages, hence Google continues to test and enhance the speakable schema mark-up for strengthening its capabilities. Even then, it won’t be long before businesses can start feeling its effects. To get ahead in the SERP race and give your business a better chance for landing top spot on Google, you need to be on par with Google’s latest algorithm demands.
The following are some of the best practices that can be implemented to meet the future SEO demands. You can also hire a digital marketing agency to make your work easier.
- Create conversational and coherent statements on the website that is relevant to the business niche. This will make it easy for the business to determine which information resonates effectively with your target audience.
- Use simple and short sentences that are acceptable to the website visitors. Most of the visitors have an attention span of only a minute so you must capture their attention within that small timeframe.
- Using a conversational voice tone is one of the best ways to reach a greater number of website visitors. Offering a concise, short and simple statement would attract your target audience and keep them glued to your website.
Benefits of Speakable Schema Mark-up
There are several benefits of using Google’s schema mark-up. Currently, the speakable SEO platform is only available for online publishers, however, the future expansions are expected to include every business that has a website. Some of the undeniable benefits are as follows:
- It offers better opportunities for improving the ranking of a website in SERP
- A speakable schema mark-up enhances brand recognition
- The schema mark-up also increases a website’s click-through-rate
- It positions the website for voice search in Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
- There is also an increase in the social media following of a website
Conclusion
The adaption of the new speakable mark-up is highly dependent on how the people would receive it. Adapting to the new schema mark-up would mean expanding the business outside its current scope and including different aspects of the web. Furthermore, acceptance of the new schema in the industry is also dependent on how the schema mark-up is put to use universally.