Top 10 Tips for Voice Search Optimization

posted byPatrick Chemoul1/19/2023

Do you consider voice search optimization while optimizing for SEO?

If not, then maybe you should!

Yes, voice search optimization is an important aspect of SEO.

Voice search queries tend to be longer and more natural-sounding than typed queries, so it's important to optimize for long-tail keywords and conversational phrases.

Additionally, it's important to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly, as many voice searches are conducted on mobile devices.

Optimizing for local search and structured data can also improve visibility for voice search.

Voice search has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many people using it to find information, products, and services online. As a result, businesses need to optimize their websites for voice search in order to stay competitive.

In this article, we will explore the top 10 tips for voice search optimization for SEO.

Voice search optimization is the process of optimizing your website and content to be easily found and understood by voice search engines.

With the increasing popularity of voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home, more and more people are turning to voice search to find the information they need.

This means that businesses and website owners need to be aware of the impact that voice search can have on their SEO and take steps to optimize their content for it.

One of the biggest impacts that voice search has on SEO is the way that people search. With traditional text-based search, people tend to use more specific keywords and phrases to find what they're looking for.

With voice search, however, people tend to use more natural language, asking questions and making statements as if they were talking to a person.

This means that businesses need to optimize their content for natural language keywords and phrases, rather than just specific keywords.

Another impact that voice search has on SEO is the way that search engines interpret and understand the content on your website.

Voice search engines like Google Home and Alexa use natural language processing (NLP) to understand the content on your website and match it to the user's query.

This means that your website needs to be structured and written in a way that is easy for NLP algorithms to understand.

This includes things like using proper headings, formatting, and using schema markup to provide additional context to the search engine.

To optimize your website for voice search, there are several things that you can do.

One of the most important is to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly.

This is because many voice search queries are made on mobile devices, and a website that is not mobile-friendly will not be easily found by voice search engines.

You should also make sure that your website is fast and easy to navigate, as this will help voice search engines understand the content on your website.

Another important step is to optimize your content for natural language keywords and phrases.

This means using long-tail keywords and phrases that are more likely to be used in a natural conversation.

This can include things like "What is the best way to cook chicken?" or "Where can I find a good Italian restaurant near me?".

Finally, you should use schema markup to provide additional context to the search engine.

Schema markup is a way to add metadata to your website that provides additional information about your content.

This can include things like reviews, ratings, and the names of the people or organizations that created the content.

1. Make Sure Your Site is HTTPs Compatible

You’ve heard the term, right? Not sure what https really is?

Hypertext Transport Protocol Security (HTTPS) secures your site and the personal information of your clients.

Now, that must’ve already convinced you to make your site https compatible.

But why is it so important when it comes to voice search optimization?

I’ve got the answer to that too!

According to SEO experts, https sites tend to generate more traffic when it comes to voice search.

Brian Dean, in one of his research studies confirmed that 70.4% of voice search results on Google are secured with https.

This is because the recent Google algorithm updates supports sites that are SSL certified.

So, if you want to be at top on the Google Home page, making your site https should unquestionably be your first step.

2. Be Authoritative Within Your Domain

Becoming an authoritative domain within your niche is the second big step.

Because sites with strong visibility tend to rank higher in voice searches on Google.

So, if your goal is to increase your visibility rate and become an authority, follow the steps below:

  • Increase your number of backlinks
  • Create quality content to earn links from other authoritative domains.

    Try to ensure that your content is unique, creative, informative, well-written, and worthy of getting linked on other sites.

  • Add more quality content
  • Want to do voice search optimization?

    Make content your king!

    If you’ve got high-quality content, your site would earn more backlinks, more social shares, and hence, generate more traffic.

    Other than creating more informative content, you should also consider improving what you’ve already got.

    Consider optimizing your content for Google’s search engine, because SEO can significantly increase your domain authority.

    So, make it readable, relevant, and useful!

  • Earn more social shares
  • It’s the era of social apps!

    Which is why, sharing links to your content on social media platforms is one great way of attracting more visitors to your site.

    Other than boosting organic traffic on your site, social media activities and shares also tend to make your site more authoritative.

  • Provide amazing user experience
  • To be the leader in your niche, do your best to provide good user experience.

    This would drive more traffic to your site, which is one of the major requirements for becoming an authoritative domain.

In case you don’t have time enough for all of this, you can always hire an affordable SEO expert!

3. A Fast Loading Website is What You Need

Did you know that voice search results load up to 52% faster than an average page?

Well, shouldn’t you be doing something about the speed rate of your site then?

Of course, you should!

Why is it necessary?

Because since your users are choosing a time-saving method for input, they must be looking for quick results as well!

So, make sure you’re doing everything to provide online searchers with immediate results.

With a fast loading site, you can accomplish this goal, and hence be able to generate more traffic using voice search.

Moreover, since a speed update has been officially introduced by Google, page speed is now enabled in mobile search ranking.

So, if you have a good position in mobile search ranking, your chances of increased voice search traffic automatically expand.

You can analyze your website’s current speed with PageSpeed Insights.

4. Focus on Featured Snippets

Once you’ve become an authoritative domain and fixed your site’s speed, you can now move on to getting your content featured.

In case you’re not familiar with a featured snippet and why it’s crucial for voice search optimization, there’s some information:

Featured snippets provide the searchers with a straightforward and concise answer to their questions.

So, when doing voice search optimization, your focus should be directly answering the user’s question.

And getting in featured snippets are a way of doing just that!

Another factor behind the importance of featured snippets is the increased use of voice assistants.

Why?

Because when voice searches are conducted from devices like Alexa and Google Assistant, only one answer is provided.

And this one answer is always a featured snippet.

So, if you don’t rank on featured snippets, you’re as good as invisible on voice assistants, even if you’ve got great content.

5. Think Like a Searcher

Voice search queries tend to be quite different semantically from queries that are typed.

Why?

Because people speak in an entirely different manner than they type.

So, what you need to do is develop an insight into the kind of questions that online searchers ask.

In other words, you can brainstorm questions that are related to your target keyword.

How?

One of the great ways of doing this is by looking into the “People Also Ask” feature in Google search results.

Here, you’d come across different sorts of queries that could be made via voice searches.

After you’ve got a list of commonly asked questions related to your keyword, you can move on to adding these phrases into your content.

How would this help?

Well, it would maximize the voice search capabilities of your site, enabling it to generate more voice search traffic.

To find out the kind of questions that your audience might ask, you can also use tools such as Serpstat Search Questions and Answer the Public.

6. Keep Adding Short Answers in Your Content

Since voice searchers are looking for quick answers to their queries, their attention spans are considerably short.

Which is why, instead of a long description, they need an immediate solution.

And since you’re working on voice search optimization, you might as well consider your searchers’ requirements.

So, what should be your next step after brainstorming voice search queries?

Providing informative responses, indeed.

How?

By directly answering voice search queries related to your title keyword.

You can include the question within your content, and answer it concisely.

While answering, try not using jargons, because those could be difficult to understand.

And if you want Google to feature your answer, make it as clear and straightforward as it could be.

Plus, ensure that your answer is not more than 30 words.

Also, creating a list for an answer sure goes a long way!

7. Use a Conversational Tone

Like I just mentioned, clear writing, or writing at a 9th grade reading level can help with voice search optimization.

So, while answering voice search queries, you want to write as you speak.

Why?

Because when searchers type a question, they use short phrases.

But when they’re using voice search, it would be more like a conversation with their virtual assistant.

For instance, when you search for daycares by typing, you’d only type a short, robotic phrase like “best daycares near me”.

On the other hand, when you’re using voice search, the question might go like: “What are the best daycare centers near me?”.

Thus, to improve your voice search optimization, use a natural tone and keep adding long-tail keywords.

However, make sure the keywords don’t seem “stuffed”.

For this, try to create long-form content, and then add as many answers as you can.

Because the longer the content, the more the keywords, the higher the ranking!

Nevertheless, while embedding all those long-tail keywords, don’t forget to include question keywords as well.

8. Don’t Forget to Optimize for Your Local SEO

In most cases, voice searches are conducted for finding local information.

Well, this doesn’t come as a surprise since most voice search users are on the go when they make queries.

Which is why you can maximize on local customers with voice search optimization.

In addition to this, if you invest in local content, you’d have a higher chance of better ranking in voice searches.

So, if you own a local business in LA, then better include the name of your city when optimizing keywords.

You might also want to consider optimizing for searches that have a “near me” keyword.

All in all, when optimizing for local SEO, getting the keywords right is the key!

So, when it comes to search optimization for local content, SEO experts suggest incorporating these keywords:

  • Phrases that are commonly used by people to describe the neighborhood in which you’re located
  • “Near me” keywords in your anchor text, title tags, meta description, and internal links
  • Landmarks near your business location
  • Titles of local institutes that might be relevant to your business

Doing so would definitely help with your voice search optimization!

9. Become Mobile-Friendly

If you want to make your site voice-friendly, aim to become mobile-friendly!

Why?

Because most of the time, people use voice search on mobile devices or voice assistants.

Moreover, the recent updates in Google’s algorithm have transformed digital marketing into a mobile-first environment.

Plus, all that you do to optimize your site for mobile searches, would also help with voice search optimization.

Wondering how you can make your site mobile friendly?

Carry out the instructions below:

  • If you haven’t already, improve your site speed
  • Use structured data and AMP in order to improve your voice search optimization
  • Don’t forget to optimize for your local SEO by creating content that provides answers to location-based questions

10. Answer Your Customers via Blog Posts

As we’ve already discussed, voice search queries differ from the ones typed in search engines.

So, to answer the most commonly made queries about your products, you need to find the keywords that people use when talking about you.

You can make a list of common questions and then create content to provide answers.

While most companies prefer creating an FAQ page, I’d suggest you to create blog posts.

These blog posts should be based on your customers’ queries.

How would they help?

With these dedicated blog post, you won’t be just answering your customers, but also optimizing for voice search at the same time!

In addition to this, content marketing is also profitable.

How?

Well, answering you customers’ queries significantly improves your voice search rankings.

Hence, allowing you to generate more traffic and increase your sales!

So, start doing voice search optimization now in order to generate more search traffic.

Or, you can hire an affordable SEO expert to do it for you!

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