Introduction
The rise of voice assistants and voice search represents a major shift in how people interact with the internet. Voice-first technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana have rapidly gained adoption and created new user habits centered around voice commands and conversational queries.
According to Microsoft, nearly 20 percent of mobile searches in the US are already voice searches. Comscore predicts that by 2023, nearly 50 percent of all searches will use voice technology. With the growing prevalence of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home, voice search offers huge opportunities for brands to reach potential customers in new ways.
As more people get accustomed to asking for information conversationally using their voice instead of typing text, the way content and websites are optimized for search engines needs to adapt. Voice search optimization presents new challenges compared to standard SEO strategies focused on text-based search. Businesses that don’t optimize for voice search risk losing visibility as voice increasingly becomes the new normal for search behavior.
This guide covers important strategies and best practices for optimizing for voice search. By tailoring SEO efforts to the unique qualities of voice results and conversational queries, brands can connect with the right customers at the right time through voice assistants.
Voice Search vs Text Search Behavior
Voice search has fundamentally changed how people query search engines compared to typing text searches on a computer or phone. Voice search queries tend to be more conversational, informal, and natural language.
For example, instead of typing something like “Mexican restaurants nearby my location,” someone may speak to their device saying “Hey Google, where are some good Mexican restaurants near me?” The voice query is less rigid and feels more like a person casually asking a question in everyday speech.
With voice searches, people also use more natural conversational connectors like prepositions and conjunctions instead of just keywords. For instance, someone may search “can you show me steakhouse restaurants in San Francisco that are open now?” This flows better than text search terms like “San Francisco steakhouse open now.”
In addition, voice queries are typically much longer on average. One study found the average voice search was 5-8 words long compared to 2-3 words for text searches. This allows people to include more context and detail in voice searches.
Understanding these shifts in search behavior is crucial. Optimizing content with the right conversational keywords and answers tailored to long-form, contextual questions can help maximize visibility for voice search results.
Optimizing for Conversational Keywords
Voice search queries are typically longer and use more natural language compared to text search. People speak in conversational language, using full sentences and questions rather than just a few keywords.
To optimize for voice search, focus on longer-tail, conversational queries that will naturally prompt someone to ask a question or give a command. For example:
- “Alexa, can you set a timer for 20 minutes?”
- “Ok Google, how do I make chicken parmesan?”
- “Siri, what’s the weather forecast for this weekend?”
These are the type of queries people actually speak out loud. The keywords are longer and correspond to natural language questions and commands.
Here are some tips for optimizing for conversational queries:
- Identify FAQs, how-to questions, or topics people would likely ask about.
- Analyze search analytics to find spoken questions people are actually asking.
- Optimize pages and content to target these conversational questions.
- Include relevant question and command keywords prominently in titles, headers, meta descriptions.
- Write natural sounding titles and headers using question formats.
By optimizing for real spoken questions, you can help your content get picked up and read aloud in voice search results. Focus on what people are actually likely to ask or say out loud to maximize your visibility.
Local SEO for Voice Search
Voice search often includes location-based queries like “where is the nearest coffee shop” or “find restaurants nearby”. This makes optimizing for local SEO critical for businesses that want to be discovered by voice search users.
To appear for local voice searches, make sure your Google My Business listing is completely filled out and optimized. Include your business name, full address, phone number, website, photos, opening hours, attributes like parking options, and precise category keywords. Monitor reviews and responses.
Verify your business on other sites like Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing, and Alexa. Consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) information builds trust across the web.
Optimize your website for local SEO as well. Prominently display your business name, street address, and contact info on each page. Ensure your GMB listing and website URLs are consistent.
Use local keywords and geography terms throughout your site. Provide detailed information about your location, offerings, and service areas.
Produce locally-focused, FAQ-style content that answers common voice queries. For example, “How late is [business] open near me?” and “What is the menu at [business] in [city]?”
By fully optimizing for local search, businesses can maximize their visibility and engagement for voice searchers looking for nearby options.
Optimizing for Featured Snippets
Voice search presents a major opportunity to rank for featured snippets, the brief answers that appear at the top of Google search results. Since voice queries are often phrased as natural language questions, optimizing content to answer common questions directly can help pages get featured for conversational searches.
There are a few key tips for optimizing for featured snippets in a voice search world:
- Identify the questions your audience is likely asking through voice search related to your business. Think conversationally, like “Hey Google, what time does the movie start tonight?” Rather than keyword-based.
- Create a FAQ page or series of dedicated pages that provide succinct, factual answers to those questions, such as “What time does [movie] start today in [city]?”
- Format content using headings, lists, and emphasis (bolding key words) to make it easy for search engines to parse and pull an exact answer from the page.
- Include structured data like FAQ schema markup to further optimize for pulling a featured snippet.
- Aim to directly answer the question within the first 1-2 sentences at the very top of the page or section, making it easy to pull an answer.
- Use focus keywords in natural language question format in headlines and content. For the movie example, “What time does [movie] start today?”
Optimizing content for conversational featured snippets can help businesses rank directly in voice search results, increasing visibility and discovery. Crafting natural, succinct answers to common questions should be a key focus.
FAQ and How-To Content
Users looking for specific answers or instructions represent a large portion of voice searches. They often phrase questions starting with “How do I…” or “What is the…” and expect a direct, concise response. To optimize for these types of searches, businesses should include relevant FAQ and How-To content on their website.
- Identify the most common questions and problems your customers have. Look at customer support tickets, social media, reviews, and user search data to uncover frequently asked questions.
- Create a specific FAQ page that organizes questions into categories with detailed answers. Include schema markup so search engines can recognize the FAQ structure.
- Write step-by-step how-to guides for complex tasks related to your products or services. Break down instructions into simple, easy to follow steps.
- Make sure FAQ and How-To content is easily discoverable through site navigation and internal links. Don’t bury helpful content pages deeply within your site architecture.
- Optimize these pages with keywords and conversational phrases people use when searching for that information. Ask yourself what wording users will speak or type to find this content.
- Keep answers concise and scannable. Voice searchers often want a quick answer spoken back to them without excessive details.
- Include visual aids like images, infographics, and videos to enhance understanding, especially for how-to instructions.
Crafting FAQ and how-to content tailored to common voice searches gives you an opportunity to be featured in voice search results. Providing quick, useful answers improves the voice search experience and positions your brand as an authoritative source.
Website Structure for Voice Search
With voice search, people increasingly interact with websites through spoken questions and commands rather than browsing page by page. This means website structure should be simplified and optimized for natural language queries.
One strategy is to reduce the number of navigation levels and avoid deep hierarchies. People are more likely to make broad queries rather than drilling down through categories. Ensure important pages are reachable through 1-2 clicks from the home page.
Use descriptive, conversational page titles and headers. For example “How can I contact your customer support?” is better than just “Contact”.
Optimize internal linking to connect related content. This helps search engines understand context and relationships between pages. For example, link relevant FAQ pages from product or service detail pages.
Focus on creating dedicated landing pages around conversational search queries and featured snippets. For example, have a page called “What are your store hours?” rather than weaving that content into a generic “About” page.
Make sure site search isVoice Search-optimized as well, allowing natural language queries and directing searchers to pages tailored to their intent.
Overall, adapt your website structure to match how real people ask questions in voice, not how you would categorize content in a siloed, rigid structure. Support voice search with simplified navigation, clear page titles optimized for questions, and smart internal linking.
Leveraging Structured Data
Structured data markup enables search engines to better understand your content and improve the visibility of your site in voice search results. By adding schema markup, you provide additional information about your pages in a machine-readable format.
One of the key benefits of structured data for voice search is enhancing spoken responses. When a voice assistant provides an answer to a search query, the response is generated based on structured data on the site. The rich results enabled by schema can lead to your site being featured prominently in voice search responses.
Some important schema markup to implement for voice search include:
- FAQPage – Mark up FAQ pages to enable featured snippet responses. The FAQPage schema indicates the page has a list of questions and answers.
- QAPage – QA pages with Q&A pairs can also be marked up to enhance voice search snippets. The QAPage schema is similar to FAQPage.
- HowTo – Mark up steps for procedural how-to guides. The HowTo schema can enable step-by-step instructions in voice results.
- Recipe – Recipes can be marked up with the Recipe schema, which provides info like ingredients, cook time, calories, etc. This enables search engines to read recipes.
- Product – Ecommerce sites should implement Product schema for better voice search presence. This provides product info like price, availability, images and more.
- LocalBusiness – For local businesses, the LocalBusiness schema highlights key local information like address, phone number and opening hours.
By making your content machine readable through structured data, you can significantly enhance your presence in voice search results. Focus on using schema types that are most relevant for voiced responses.
Tracking Voice Search Performance
With voice search making up an ever-increasing share of search queries, it’s critical for businesses to be able to measure performance and optimize accordingly.
There are several key metrics to monitor when it comes to voice search:
- Voice search volume – What percentage of your total search traffic is coming from voice queries? This helps determine the scope of optimization needed. Google Search Console can break down queries by voice vs text.
- Voice search rankings – Where do you rank for key voice search queries? Tools like SEMrush and Moz can reveal keyword rankings specific to voice search for core terms.
- Voice search click-through rate – What percentage of voice search impressions on platforms like Google Assistant result in clicks to your site? This indicates both relevance and voice search optimization success.
- Voice search goal conversion rate – Do visitors from voice search convert as well as other channels? Lower conversion rates may indicate content gaps.
- Voice search user locations – Where are your voice search users located? Focus optimization on areas with significant voice query volume.
- Top-performing voice search queries – Which of your target voice queries bring the most traffic and conversions? Optimize for these money terms.
- Voice search answer impressions – How often do your brand’s answers trigger in voice results? Increased impressions and featured snippet rankings reveal growing voice search prominence.
Analyzing these key metrics through tools like Google Analytics will allow informed decisions about voice search optimization initiatives. Mastering voice search analytics provides a major competitive edge.
Future of Voice Search Optimization
Voice search adoption is expected to continue growing rapidly in the coming years. As more people get comfortable speaking to devices and AI assistants, voice will become a preferred mode of search for many.
Businesses need to prepare now by optimizing for voice search. This means adapting SEO strategies, website structure, content development, and analytics. Companies that optimize early will have a significant advantage as voice search gains critical market share.
Looking ahead, there are a few key trends to expect:
- Voice search market penetration is projected to increase. As smart speakers and other voice-enabled devices proliferate, voice search volume will also grow.
- Local search optimization will become even more crucial. Location-based voice searches are common, so businesses should strengthen their local SEO foundations.
- Featured snippets and structured data will become primary targets, as users seek direct answers rather than website links from voice searches. Optimizing content for rich results will be key.
- Conversational search refined by AI will more closely mimic natural language interactions. Search intent will become clearer and keywords less important compared to today.
- Personalization and contextual search will improve. Voice assistants will understand user preferences and provide results tailored to an individual.
Brands should continue monitoring voice search behavior and fine-tuning strategies. Agility and experimentation will be vital. Companies that master voice search early will gain a strong foothold as voice cements itself as a search platform of the future.