By Dan Duke – As the popularity of voice search grows, so does the value of voice search optimization. But there’s one caveat: SEO techniques for typed search queries aren’t enough to boost voice search results. It takes a different strategy.

‍

Here’s the great news. Digital content marketers and businesses can gain on their competition by implementing new strategies and stepping up their voice search game.

What is voice search optimization?

Voice search optimization is the practice of making sure your website is as responsive as possible to voice searches. It means arranging your site so that when someone says “Hey, Google …” the voice answers with information from you.

‍

One key to effective voice search optimization is understanding that people search differently when they use voice commands versus typing. With a hands-free voice search:

‍

• Search phrases are longer
• Searches are more conversational

‍

For example, someone planning to order takeout food might type: “Thai food Main Street.” Someone driving their car and looking for something to eat might say: “Find the best Thai restaurant near me.” Or, “Where is the closest Thai restaurant?”

‍

Voice search queries use more command words, like “Find” and “Show,” and more asking words, like “Where” and “When.” Basic SEO factors remain vital, but businesses need to research these differences and adjust their strategies accordingly.

9 steps for optimizing content for voice search

Basic search engine optimization techniques impact your search results, like including your target keyword in the page title. A tech-savvy business will stay SEO-sharp while adding voice search optimization features to its site. At Rellify, we use these techniques to ensure content is up to our highest standards for voice search optimization.

‍

Here are 9 steps you can take to boost your search results from voice inquiries.

Think mobile first

Even without factoring in voice search, mobile-friendliness is a must for a business website. A site optimized for mobile devices will be fast, and voice search users place a high premium on speed. Naturally, Google does too. It wants to answer questions instantly, and any hitch in a website can hurt a site’s discoverability.

‍

Use one of the many available tools to test your site’s speed. Check to see if it gets a passing grade from Core Web Vitals. Does your site pass Google’s mobile-friendly test? If not, get to work. The test will point out weak spots, like improperly sized photos, that you can fix.

Think hyper-local

Local businesses stand to gain as much as any other sector, if not the most, from voice search. That’s because voice search results can be hyper-local.

‍

Many steps in optimizing for local searches (including voice) are free and relatively easy. Google has made the first step simple: claim your My Business listing. This will place you on Google’s Local Pack, Google Maps, and Google Local Finder.

‍

Make sure to provide all possible information. Even basics like name, address, and phone number are critical. A call following a voice search has an excellent chance of leading to a sale, often at the brick-and-mortar site.

‍

For these listings, write the blurb about your business as if it were your desired answer to a voice-enabled search.

‍

Voice search: “Where is the best fabric store in downtown Rochester?”

‍

The blurb for your fabric store: “Jenni’s Place is the best fabric store in downtown Rochester. It provides the finest fabrics and sewing material at the lowest prices.”

‍

Make sure to update the listing regularly with information like store hours and posts announcing sales, specials, and events. Use photos to show off your place.

Solicit reviews

Google gives higher rankings to listings with reviews. Businesses also should take advantage of similar opportunities with Apple Maps, Bing, and Yelp. Ask your favorite customers to write reviews on these sites. And monitor those sites so you can respond to reviewers.

Seed your site with keywords

Once you have claimed your local listing, integrate locally relevant keywords and keyword phrases into your site. Keywords like “fried chicken restaurant in Los Angeles” and “fried chicken in LA” are locally relevant keywords. Phrases like these can help drive more leads to your business.

Write the way people (your customers) talk

As you begin any SEO strategy, you should consider your customers’ interests and needs. Draw up a clear picture of the customer journey. Imagine the questions they ask about your products, services, and user experience.

‍

The difference with voice search is that the customer will speak more clearly and in a more conversational tone. Customers will respond best to answers that are clear and direct. In fact, with voice search, that’s the only sort of answer that’s given. Will the answer come from you or a competitor’s site?

‍

The example given for writing a My Business blurb shows the value of placing clear, plain answers to typical voice search questions on your website. A bakery shop, for example, should have content elements that say “best cake shop in east Atlanta,” “top bakery shop in Atlanta,” and other variations.

‍

Businesses also should present concise, easy-to-read content — which is easy for search engines to find and deliver as results. Save flowery language and jargon for another time. It can’t impress readers or listeners if search engines never present it to them.

Answer FAQs

Good voice search optimization involves content that answers “why,” “who,” “what,” “where,” and “how” questions. Presenting that content on an FAQ page is like serving up a series of easy-to-find voice search answers.

‍

This also provides an excellent spot to cover the entire customer journey. Answer questions that people have from when they start thinking about fulfilling a need to when they’ve made the purchase and are using the product. A good FAQ also allows businesses to address pain points and clear away stumbling blocks.

‍

If your site doesn’t have an FAQ section, add one. If you already have one, review it and update it as needed.

Use “ready to buy” words

People regularly use voice search to buy, rather than just shop. Review the content on your web pages and make sure your product descriptions appeal to searchers in the buying phase.

‍

The search intent in this phase is called “transactional,” and voice searches tend to use certain keywords at this point. Words like “buy,” “deals,” “sale,” “order,” “reserve,” “clearance,” “special,” and “discount” are often spoken by people ready to do business.

‍

E-commerce sites should use transactional keywords as part of their content. They can answer voice searches like: “Who is having a sale on refrigerators in El Paso?”

Use long-tail keywords

If businesses and site owners create content that reflects the way people talk, they will probably use long-tail keywords. In doing so, they also will be employing voice search optimization.

‍

Long-tail keywords are more specific and usually longer than other keywords. They don’t command as much search volume as broader terms. However, they tend to have a higher conversion rate because they are so specific.

‍

In content marketing, as in all marketing, it’s important to understand your target audience. That understanding should lead you to the long-tail keywords that potential customers may use when searching for your solutions. The way that someone would describe your business probably contains excellent long-tail keywords.

‍

Make your content keyword-rich, using them in your My Business listing blurb and blog posts. In fact, targeting long-tail keywords should improve your search results in any form.

Use schema markup

The power of well-chosen words drives voice SEO, but technical details can make a big difference, too.

‍

Schema markup is coding, or structured data, that you add to items on your website to help search engines assess it and present it in search results. On a website that doesn’t use this, search engines need more time to determine the relevance of content. Thus, schema markup can boost your search engine results as well as improve the chances that your content will be used as the featured snippet in voice search queries.

‍

Schema markup requires technical expertise, so if you can manage it or hire someone to take care of that, it can give you an edge in the competition for top SERP rankings.

Voice search optimization and SEO

Now that you know how to improve voice search results, let’s look at why it’s worth the effort. If you’re a business, particularly one in food service, hospitality, or retail, you likely can benefit from voice searches to draw customers.

‍

Here are some voice search statistics to indicate its reach and growth:

‍

• 149 million Americans are expected to use voice search at least once a month in 2024. That number is expected to reach 162 million by 2027. (eMarketer)
• 13.6% of the people with smart speakers use them to shop and 29% use them to buy items. (eMarketer)
• The speech and voice recognition market will be worth $53.94 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 24.4% over the forecast period (2023-2030). (SkyQuest)

Voice-enabled search makes it easy to multitask. It also benefits people with certain disabilities who have trouble typing queries on a keyboard and reading the answers. People enjoy getting useful information instantly on mobile, easy-to-use devices.

‍

The rise of smartphones, other mobile devices, smart speakers, apps, and hands-free automobile systems all contribute to its growth.

‍

It’s true that a great deal of this activity is not worth chasing. Commands like “Alexa, play a Bruno Mars song,” common questions like “What’s the weather forecast tomorrow?” and argument settlers like “Who was the 15th president of the United States?” are not opportunities for SEO success. (By the way, it was James Buchanan.)

‍

Even so, businesses need to be where the searchers are. The way that voice search functions give us clues for SEO strategy.

How does voice search work?

When you speak to a virtual voice assistant, an automatic speech recognition system (ASR) transforms your speech to text. Then, the search engine uses the text as a standard search query to find the best answer or answers.

‍

Voice assistants like Alexa and Siri make the human-computer interaction seem natural, but complex artificial intelligence applications — such as computational linguistics — are at work.

‍

These systems require audio processing to capture the voice search, then perform speech analysis to render sound waves into text so search engines can handle the query. This involves sound recognition, language recognition and even accent recognition!

‍

When you do a voice search, you might get a written answer or a spoken answer. For the latter, systems require text-to-speech capabilities to create the audio response. AI algorithms perform speech synthesis to give voice to your smart speaker or smartphone.

‍

Over time, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) enhancements have improved speech processing and voice search. In 2022, Google released cutting-edge speech recognition technology for better voice user interface. Its API uses deep learning and artificial neural networks to improve speech recognition accuracy.

‍

Speech recognition APIs now provide a wide range of services, and some of these applications are free. Google, OpenAI, IBM, AssemblyAI and many other companies offer tools to power voice search, chatbots, translations, and other services.

The power of voice search optimization

As we have seen, two critical factors in voice search optimization are relevance and artificial intelligence. Rellify, the content performance platform, has expertise to offer in both areas to help clients develop content that naturally ranks high in internet searches.

‍

With the Relliverse™ you get a will customized AI subject matter expert that shows your team the best content opportunities. It will lead you the keywords you need to create relevant content and help you:

‍

• Better understand your company, topics and content
• See your competitors like never before
• Accurately quantify content market share and visibility
• Identify and address strategic issues
• Create complex prompts to create highly relevant content
• Create more relevant content with ease

‍

Our use of deep machine learning gives clients an edge in both voice search optimization and overall SEO marketing. Contact Rellify today to find out how our services can help your company.