How to Optimize Your Content for Voice Search (15 most asked questions)

Voice search is having a massive impact on how consumers and businesses interact. Now it’s easier than ever to quickly get relevant information about local prices, products, and businesses.

If your business is having trouble with this new marketing avenue, you’ll really want to learn how this new technology works, how consumers are taking advantage of this new method of searching, and how to optimize for voice search.

So, let’s get started!

1. What is Voice Search?

Instead of having to use a computer or phone keyboard to interface with a search engine, voice search allows you to simply ask your device a question. This voice-powered interface has revolutionary potential for businesses, giving them a whole new way to reach potential customers.

The top platforms for voice search include:

• Apple’s Siri
• Google Assistant
• Microsoft’s Cortana
• Amazon’s Alexa
• Samsung’s Bixby

Smart speakers aren’t just for playing music and setting alarms. Now, they offer a powerful way for users to find relevant businesses, products, and websites.

So it’s time for your business to take advantage of this powerful new technology.

2. What Devices Conduct Voice Search?

Nearly everyone has used their Android or iPhone virtual assistant to conduct a voice search ever since the introduction of Apple’s Siri back in 2011. Now, there are even more options, with smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo, Apple HomePod, and Google Home and Hub.

3. Why Should I Optimize for Voice Search?

Voice search is such a powerful tool, and it’s being rapidly embraced by users.

Here are some facts about voice-powered search queries that show just how important it is to do Voice SEO.

4. How Are People Using Voice Search?

The key difference between voice and traditional search is that you get a handful of actionable results.

For example, if someone lives in LA and searches “web designer near me,” he or she will get suggestions for a few local web designer in the Los Angeles area instead of web design related articles.

This makes it easier than ever to search for information, and make a decision based off of the result.

Again, let’s look at a few facts:

5. How Do I Show Up in A Voice Search?

When you’re trying to compete with other businesses to show up in that top spot, you want to know what phrases people are searching for.

Users tend to ask full questions to conduct a voice-powered query. So make sure you’re using those longer, more conversational keyphrases in your content.

One powerful way to find out what people are asking is to check out the featured snippets or Google Answer Box.

This is the box above the rest of the links that usually have a detailed answer to a question.

Also, look for the “people also ask” box. See what people are looking for, and how they’re searching for it.

These 2 search features give you great insight into what local users are searching for.

6. How Do I Optimize My Content For Voice Search?

Just like you do Organic SEO you should also invest in Voice SEO and optimize your content to show up when people search using Siri and other voice assistant devices.

Answers from smart speakers and virtual assistants tend to be short, so embrace bite-sized content like FAQ sections.

Search engines also prioritize mobile-friendly content and video search.

And lastly, you want to make sure to include nearby locations. Keyword + City.

Example:

Web designer in Los Angeles

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you create content:

1. Create FAQ pages and give your readers valuable information.
2. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and has a good user experience.
3. Structured data is a must!
4. Create video content.
5. Use local information like your city and nearby landmarks.
6. Make sure your website loads fast and uses HTTPS. (more about this below)

7. How Fast Should My Page Load?

If you want to get that coveted voice search spot, you need to make sure that your site is loading quickly. If your page is bloated with unnecessary images, video, and poor code, you’ll see longer load times, and 75% of people will leave your site if the page does not load quickly.

Speed has always been a huge factor in search rankings, so consult with your web designer to find out what you can do to make your page load faster.

Here are a few speed factors analyzed by Backlinko.

Time First Byte

Time to Load Page

75% of people will leave your site if the page does not load quickly.

8. Is HTTPS or SSL Important for Voice SEO?

Google really values secured sites when ranking pages. Almost 80% of voice search results are from encrypted HTTPS sites, showing how important it is to have your website’s scheme be secured.

If you aren’t sure what this all means, it’s okay. It’s a pretty technical part of optimizing your content, so work with your web designer to make sure you have a secure site.

Almost 80% of voice search results are from encrypted HTTPS sites.

9. Why Should I Give My Business Information to Google?

When you search for a local business on Google, you’ll notice that Google provides useful information like the business’s phone number, website, hours of operation, and average customer rating. These are called Google Knowledge Graph Cards.

To create a Knowledge Graph for your business, you’ll need to create a Google My Business account. From here, you can put in all of the vital information that you want customers to know.

This information, as well as a 4-star rating or higher, is necessary if you want to show up in a local voice search.

10. What Can I Do To Show Up In Local Voice Search?

If you want to have the top result in a local voice search, you need to curate your content to be relevant to the community and seriously invest in Voice SEO.

A car dealership in Los Angeles will want to create pages and content that cover different districts, landmarks, and other community fixtures to better rank for local searches.

11. Can I Run a National Voice Search Campaign?

National businesses will have a much tougher time getting that top search result spot. There’s so much more competition, and you have to rank for many more keywords.

Instead of having an entire campaign dedicated to national voice search, incorporate it as a single part of a broader search engine optimization campaign.

Create engaging, compelling, and relevant content. Find out what your customers are searching for, and what questions they ask, and then target those queries.

Try to find less competitive, long-tail keywords and find your niche.

12. What is the Future of Voice Search?

Technology is always changing, and the major brands behind search and voice search are embracing this change. Evolving behavior and voice recognition capabilities are pushing us towards a 1-result world, so here are some guesses for what to expect in the future.

• Smart Speakers will overtake smartphones for voice search.
• Improved speech recognition will push more users to voice-powered search.
• Virtual voice assistants will offer more options and features for search results.
• The majority of queries will pull a single result.

13. How Will AI Affect My Business?

If you’ve been keeping up, you know that AI is going to be a major disruption in the marketing field. Google’s Duplex is an AI-powered assistant that can actually hold conversations over the phone, placing calls to make reservations and appointments. It’s not here yet, but you want to make sure that your business is ready to interact with AI assistants.

Here is how it works!

14. Are There Voice Search Ads?

If you use a Pay-Per-Click strategy for your search engine marketing, you’ll really want to start voice-optimizing your ads. It isn’t here yet, but you should expect Google to start running ads on voice search.

Start tailoring your advertisements to be speech-friendly. Incorporate full questions into your keywords, and embrace location-driven advertising.

That way your business will already be ready when we start to see monetized voice search.

15. How is Voice Search Changing SEO?

Voice search is undoubtedly having a huge impact on SEO, especially Local SEO. While traditional/organic strategies are still important to make sure you show up in a voice-powered query, you need to make sure to embrace these key components of Voice SEO:

1. Short, direct answers.
2. Site loading time.
3. Local information.
4. Conversational keywords like full questions.