How to Do Voice Search Optimization: 6 Audience-Growing Tips

Voice search optimization is the practice of tweaking your website content with long-tail keywords, a conversational tone, and direct answers that appeal to voice assistants. Here’s how to do it right.

With half of the global population reportedly using the technology daily, voice search optimization offers access to a growing audience with a (typically) very high intent.

While standard search engine optimization (SEO) practices can help your web pages rank, voice search optimization requires a little extra strategy.

Matt Smith, associate director of SEO at HawkSEM, guides us through the process.

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What is voice search optimization?

Voice search optimization is the method of improving website content to better match the intent of voice queries or voice commands conducted through virtual assistants (like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Google Assistant).

What makes voice search different from typed search?

We don’t speak the way we type. While typed search queries typically include the highlights, voice search queries use more natural language with complete sentences.

For example, a typed search might look something like “vegetarian taco recipe beans.”

A voice search, on the other hand, might be “What’s a good vegetarian taco recipe that has beans in it?”

The targeted keywords look different, although they tackle the same topic. While standard search uses short keywords, content that appeals to voice search will target longer-tail keywords but answer the query quickly and clearly so a digital assistant is more inclined to read the excerpt out loud.

Finally, while the search engine results page (SERP) provides a whole page of results for people to comb through, voice search delivers only one answer: the first. This makes the top spot more important than ever.

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How to optimize for voice search: 6 tips

In many ways, voice search optimization strategies follow traditional SEO best practices — with a few extra requirements. Here’s how to get that top spot:.

1. Understand your audience’s search intent

For starters, think about which segments of your target audience leverage voice search technology.

Generally speaking, people who use voice search are on the go. From parents to professionals, voice searches are conducted when the user needs a quick answer or directions without taking the extra time (or free hands) to type.

This means that the ideal answer for these voice searchers would be clear and to the point.

While sometimes, even fragmented searches have obvious user intent, like “pizza delivery East Atlanta,” it can also be ambiguous for complete questions, like “What does a carpenter make?”

This could be about what a carpenter builds or what they earn. Targeting specific keywords with clear search intent helps the right people find your content.

With all that in mind, “don’t just target a ‘voice search’ audience,” explains Smith. Take what you know about the voice search audience (they want quick and clear answers for longer-tail keywords) and apply it to search intent.

At the end of the day, “the content I produce isn’t optimized for voice, it’s optimized for search intent,” says Smith.

This guide walks you through how to determine your audience’s search intent to inform your content.

2. Prioritize long-tail, conversational keywords

“An effective content marketing and SEO strategy is informed by understanding voice search,” says Smith. To do this, “target long-tail keywords and keep your content concise.”

Use those natural-sounding, long-tail keywords as your title and offer a direct answer to the query to satisfy voice search users who want a straightforward response.

From there, go into more detail or provide additional context through question-based content, all with a more conversational tone.

3. Use question-based content that addresses immediate needs

Including a frequently asked questions (FAQ) format helps provide quick answers to related questions, which are preferred by digital assistants.

Often, someone who conducts a voice search will ask a quick question like, “Hey, Google, what’s a good vegetarian taco recipe that uses beans?” and follow that question up with, “What other ingredients will I need?” or “How long does this recipe take?”

Not sure where to start? Consider the who, what, where, when, and how questions related to the content topic. What are common questions your target audience has? When in doubt, search the target keyword on Google and review the “People also ask” section.

4. Add structured data and optimize for snippets

Voice assistants typically select snippets to be read out loud as the answer for voice searches.

As Moz explains, the best way to optimize for a featured snippet is to:

• Answer the search query directly
• Avoid writing in the first person and using brand names, as voice assistants opt for more neutral language
• Use subheaders to organize a structured hierarchy of content
• Add related questions to your content
• Check out existing featured snippets to get an idea of what optimizations to make

Adding schema markup to your site also increases your likelihood of ranking in those top spots by helping search engines understand your content well enough to rank and display it properly.

5. Prioritize mobile-first indexing and design

20% of searches in the Google App are done by voice. And many voice search users leverage mobile devices to ask questions on the go.

With so many voice searches being done on a mobile device, it’s extra important that your site prioritizes mobile-first indexing and functionality.

Often, when an answer is read out loud by a digital assistant, the user will click on the website for more information. If your site is slow or poorly designed for mobile, people are likely to bounce quickly.

Beyond that, search engines (thus digital assistants) prioritize mobile-friendly sites in their rankings, so it’s in your best interest to optimize your site for mobile in order to reach that top spot.

Our guide to building a mobile-friendly site is here, which includes steps to:

• Test mobile responsiveness
• Analyze page load speed
• Review mobile user experience
• Review mobile content and landing page SEO
• Evaluate local SEO citations and other elements
• Assess technical SEO
• Check YouTube SEO
• Analyze configuration
• Identify possible redirects
• Check for intrusive pop-ups
• Examine internal and external linking
• Evaluate relevant backlinks and profile
• Monitor mobile keyword performance
• Check for secure browsing
• Analyze competitor strategies
• Review mobile traffic

6. Local businesses: Optimize for “near me” searches and Google Business listings

Most people use voice search to find local places or services, like “pizza near me” or “closest grocery store.”

If you are a local business, optimizing your website for local searches increases the likelihood of appearing when people nearby ask their digital assistant for recommendations. And typically, these people are ready to convert or take action.

To optimize your website for local results, you’ll need to:

• Create and manage your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)
• Develop individual location pages for each location
• Optimize each location’s Google Business Profile
• Create listings on other third-party sites
• Post content regularly
• Encourage customers to leave reviews
• Keep contact information like phone number and email address visible and easy to access

This guide walks you through local SEO best practices and advanced strategies for Google search and voice search alike.

Tools for voice search optimization

Voice search optimization is an extension of standard SEO, which requires a few key tools:

• Keyword research to find relevant keywords, like AnswerThePublic, Semrush, Ahrefs, or Google’s Keyword Planner
• Google Business for local businesses
• Schema markup tools to add code to your site, like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
• Site speed testing tools to test your site performance, like Google PageSpeed Insights

This ultimate guide explains the ins and outs of SEO, including which tools to consider along the way.

Why optimize for voice search?

Voice search has exploded in the last few years.

There are more than 125 million voice search users, and 76% of smart speaker users perform local voice searches (at least) weekly.

In other words, there is a large (and growing) audience that relies on voice search.

Broadening your SEO strategy to include voice search SEO helps expand your reach, and snagging that top result is a massive opportunity for local businesses, especially.

In fact, over one-quarter of consumers use voice search to find local business information.

“Searchers using voice are often ready to act upon the knowledge they are searching for,” says Smith, “as they’re typically using a mobile device or initiating a conversation with a smart home device.”

With 46% of users performing voice searches to look for information on local businesses each day, optimizing your content for voice search results can directly impact foot traffic and phone calls for local businesses.

But voice search doesn’t only benefit local businesses. It is also impacting online shopping and ecommerce businesses everywhere.

How does voice search impact SEO?

Smith explains that voice search impacts the SEM industry in several ways:

While it increases the amount of new and long-tail searches, it also “amplifies our understanding of searchers who are in a heightened state of emotion,” says Smith.

“Conversely, those who are searching by typing are in a more logical, methodical state of mind.”

While your audience might be the same, those who use voice search over standard search are in a different mental state.

“When developing a strategy,” says Smith, “I keep in mind the following:

• Low-volume, longtail keyword variations will probably increase over time due to voice, so I should prioritize those
• I should keep answers to search queries short and to the point, as mobile users don’t want long, drawn-out answers
• In some cases, it is appropriate to include a specific CTA within my copy, as voice searchers are more likely to act upon their query

The future of voice search

“I believe voice search will continue to grow into the future as society increases its usage of smart devices,” says Smith. “This will increase the trends I mentioned above.”

And while voice search is on the rise, “I would never optimize explicitly for voice, in the same way that I would never optimize for ‘AI,’ or mobile, or any other abstract lens,” Smith clarifies.

“My job is to optimize for queries that match my target audience — this will never change.”

The takeaway

Including voice search optimization in your digital marketing strategy is an effective way to boost your brand’s visibility.

Optimizing your site for voice-activated searches not only increases your reach to a larger audience with a high intent, it also enhances your overall online presence.

If you need an extra hand with voice search optimization, we’re here for you.

This article has been updated and was originally published in February 2021.