Voice search has been on a steady incline for a number of years but with the introduction of AI summary search it has never been more important. Voice search goes beyond basic keyword targeting and involves a new set of optimization tactics in standards. Marketing professionals looking to future-proof their SEO efforts need to be thinking about voice search. AI has introduced a new era of how people get information. With more people using their voice to find valuable information, the faster we need to adapt.
Future-Proof Your SEO Efforts with Voice Search Optimization
Voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa are becoming more integrated into everyday life causing their popularity to rapidly explode. This creates a new challenge for businesses and website owners looking to get in front of their customers as search Behavior changes. If you’re looking for ways on how to stand out when it comes to voice search and the use of structured data, stick around to find out everything you need to know about what voice search is, how to optimize for it, and what the future holds.
What is Voice Search Optimization?
Voice search optimization is the practice of keyword adjustments, leveraging structured data, and reverse engineering user intent to improve visibility invoice search results. Keyword adjustments and aligning to user intent means making your content more conversational and using natural language throughout. this means that there isn’t a normal structure to adhere to, your content should assume the structure in which the user expects to digest the information
Importance of Voice Search
Voice search is, and has been rapidly growing for a long time. Voice search offers a convenience that traditional text search does not. Voice search in the use of mobile devices has grown almost in parallel and as people become more dependent on these devices voice search will inherently grow alongside it.
Voice search also plays a pivotal role in improving user experience. Voice search can be critical as it provides quick, Direct answers, which enhance user engagement, retention and follow-up searches.
Voice Search Statistics
- 125.2M voice searches were conducted in 2023
- 50% of adults worldwide use voice search every day
- 1B voice searches are conducted every month
- 40% of voice search results on based on featured snippets
- Source: Yaguara
Voice Search Vs Text Search
The way people search is far different from the way people search by voice than by text. When users are performing a text-based search they are typically entering short, fragmented keywords instead of long-tailed variations we commonly see in voice searches. For example, someone searching via text might search for something like the “best gaming headset”. on a voice search platform the same user might use a more conversational sentence such as “what is the best gaming headset for streaming?”.
User Intent & Query Structure
Well user intent in query structure is valuable for both texts and voice searches, it is far more important when a search is conducted via voice. Voice searches are often more specific and localized. The expectations are also different, users who use text-based searches are conditioned to do some form of follow-up research or clicking through to a site or two before finding what they need.
Voice search, users expect instant relevant answers to their questions. This has made it difficult for marketers to wrap their heads around because content has traditionally been long-form and covers a wide range of topics. Voice assistants crave simplicity and clarity. they want your information to only include what’s necessary, leaving out all of the nuanced information and Industry jargon.
Conversational Language
Conversational language has been a part of Google’s push for higher quality content but it hasn’t been adopted by everyone. Voice search mimics our natural conversations and is more apt to repurpose your content in their answers if it’s easy to understand and already in line with natural language usage.
Addressing who, what, where, when, and how questions in your content increases your chances of being featured in a voice search result. It goes without saying that your content has to be both conversational and aligned with the user intent. You might write like you speak but if you’re not addressing the root of the problem, your content will be deprioritized.
How To Optimize for Voice Search
There are a lot of posts that break down what they believe to be the best path forward for optimizing for voice search. While there are a lot of things that contribute to voice search rankings (like having natural language, prioritizing local SEO, and core web vitals) this list is solely focused on providing you with the real tactics you should be focused on. Sometimes less is more, especially when trying to pivot your content to voice searches.
Aim to make small changes upfront and pay close attention to your analytics and reporting. You’ll know if something you’re doing right when the data is speaking to you. Let’s cut out the noise and get down to brass-tax.
1. Utilize Long-Tail Keywords & Featured Snippets
Long-tail keywords are much more specific and are more closely related to how users use voice assistants. They also trigger a featured snippet more frequently, which is often used as the voice search answer for that particular keyword.
Instead of building your content around generic, top-level keywords, focus on the longer, secondary keywords that users are more likely to speak rather than type. You might notice that some longer variations of keywords uncover a more clear through-line to the user’s intent.
2. Optimize For Feature Snippets
Featured snippets make up 40% of all voice search results, so why not optimize for those locations? The first thing you should do is understand what content you have already that is just outside of the featured snippet location, ranking 2-5.
Once you tackle the first sets of page optimizations, you can move onto the pages ranking in the 5-10 slots and so on. Starting in this way gives you the shortest path to seeing improvement. But how do you identify these pages?
There’s a bunch of different ways to find the places where you’re just outside the featured snippet, my favorite way of doing this is using Ahrefs.
If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see the “Site Explorer” tool from Ahrefs. I’ve entered a domain and navigated to the “Organic Keywords” tab and added a “SERP Feature” filter for keywords that trigger a featured snippet. This will give me a pretty good view of where I have keywords just outside of the featured snippet location.
If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see the “Site Explorer” tool from ahrefs. I’ve entered a domain and navigated to the “Organic Keywords” tab and added a “SERP Feature” filter for keywords that trigger a featured snippet. This will give me a pretty good view of where I have keywords just outside of the featured snippet location.
To get even more granular, you can use the “Position” filter to find keywords that are closer to the top ranking spot so you know which path is best for low-hanging fruit.
3. Voice Search Structured Data
While structured data is for more than just voice search optimization, it is a big part of how to optimize your content for search. By creating clear pathways for search engines to scan and understand your content, you’re making it easier for them and your users to understand and retain the information.
1. FAQ Schema
Long-form questions are clearly a part of a well-structured voice search optimization plan, so it makes sense that FAQ schema would be an accompanying tactic. Voice queries are frequently phrased as questions and if you’re specifically targeting these variations and have the structured data to make it clear, your chances of being populated as an answer just went up. This structured data makes it easier for search engines to lift your content and repurpose it verbally or on a smart device.
2. HowTo Schema
HowTo Schema is great to add to content that provides a step-by-step walk through. Voice assistants need that clear structure to understand your content quickly and accurately. Implementing how-to schema helps ensure that your instructions are clear and can be delivered verbally by a voice assistant.
3. Local Business Schema
Local Business Schema helps provide context about your businesses location, hours, and services. This assists in the local search side of voice search and will make it easy for assistants to understand the basic information about your location and be able to properly inform its users on when and where they can find you.
4. Speakable Schema
Speakable schema is still in beta but is used to “properly identify sections within an article or webpage that are best suited for audio playback using text-to-speech (TTS).” The usability of this is limited and is only available for users in the US on English-speaking devices. This type of structured data is also heavily used in the news space but communicates areas of content that can and should be used for voice results.
Hey Google, how do I optimize for voice search?
Optimizing for voice search can be a daunting task but with a well-structured plan, anything is possible. You likely already have things on your website that can be used for voice search results with a little more focus and small optimization tweaks. From there it is all about filling the gaps. Find the areas where there are featured snippets available and create content that focuses on longer-form questions.
Even if a featured snippet isn’t available, make sure your content is approachable, remove any industry jargon and focus on what the user wants. Even though there isn’t a featured snippet available, you might find that you’re content gets used more frequently if it’s properly formatted and written for real humans. If you ever need advice or looking for a partner to future proof your SEO, we’re NoGood for that! Find out how our team of SEO experts can help you today.
