Voice Search Optimization: What It Is and the Best Practices

A few decades ago, we didn’t think of talking to robots. Today, we have voice search tools that allow us to interact with technology in a conversational manner, get answers, recommendations, and much more. 

According to a report by Yagura, approximately 71% of consumers prefer voice queries over typing. As the use of voice search increases, it is important to optimize websites to enhance online visibility.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss voice search optimization and the best ways you can use to optimize your website to improve voice search rankings. 

What is Voice Search Optimization?

Voice search optimization refers to the process of optimizing your webpages in such a way that they appear in the top results for voice search queries. It ensures your content is readily available when users perform a voice search. 

Voice Search vs. Text Search

The basic difference between voice search and text search lies in how we phrase our queries.

In text search, users type short keyword-based queries, while in voice search they ask long and conversational questions.

For instance, if you are searching for pizza places in New York City, the text search maybe “best pizza NYC”. Your voice search query can be like: “What is the best pizza place in New York City?”

Best Practices for Optimizing Your Website for Voice Search 

Now that you’ve understood the importance of voice search optimization,  let’s discuss the best practices you must follow to optimize your websites for voice search. 

1. Optimize your content for conversational queries

Voice searches vary in context, intent, and query length. Since they are conversational in nature, you need to optimize your content with a conversational tone to answer their queries. 

Avoid using formal or technical language and include conversational words such as “How do I…”, “Where can I find…”, and “What’s the best way to…”. Write in a casual style as if you’re speaking directly to your audience, including valuable information. 

Pro-tip: Think of the questions that your audience might ask for a specific topic. For example, if people were searching for gardening tips, they might ask: 

• How do I start a garden?
• What are the best plants for beginners?
• What tools do I need for gardening?

There are some questions you’ll want to consider and optimize in your search strategy. You can also check the People Also Ask section to find related queries. 

2. Identify related keywords

Identify and target specific keywords for voice search to ensure they appear in the search results. You can use long-tail keywords, question keywords, and conversational keywords to optimize your content.

Use keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner to find good keywords for voice search.

Enter the primary keyword (a specific topic), select country, and click Search. The tool will display a list of related keywords along with their monthly search volume, SEO difficulty, and content ideas. You can export these keywords in .CSV and .XLSX format and include them in the content. 

3. Conduct a content audit and optimize

Before you begin optimizing the website for voice search, conduct a content audit to determine how you can optimize your existing content for specific keywords that you want to include in voice search. Analyze and evaluate the content carefully to determine how you can optimize it.

For example, if you have a blog post on “How to optimize email marketing”, you can optimize it for related keywords such as “ways to optimize email marketing,” “email marketing optimization tips,” or “optimize email campaigns.”

You can use tools such as SEOptimer, Ahrefs, and SE Ranking to conduct a content audit. You’ll get information about the current content performance including traffic, keywords and other insights.

What are the best ways to optimize content?

• Write concise and clear answers to increase the chances of appearing in the search engine page results.
• Create a FAQ section at the bottom of the page where you can use voice search keywords to answer commonly asked questions by people.
• Include voice search keywords in the headers and body in a natural way; avoid stuffing.
• Write in a natural language, increasing the chances of your content being shared by voice assistants.
• Add schema markup, which is structured data that enables search engines understand your website better. This provides more context and increases the chances of appearing in the top search engine page results for voice.

4. Implement local SEO

Local SEO improves the visibility of local businesses in the search engine page results. Optimizing local SEO helps businesses target potential customers in the neighborhood and surrounding areas. 

When someone uses voice search to find a nearby pharmacy shop on his phone, you can improve local SEO by creating and maintaining a Google Business Profile. GBP is a tool that helps businesses maintain their online presence and appear on Google Maps and Search. It is available free of cost and highlights all the important information (phone number, hours, address, etc.) about your business.

Here’s an example of how a business appears in local search results. 

So, when you search for a coffee place near you using voice search, Google Business profile extracts information from these profiles. This maintains an accurate listing increases the chances of your business ranking for local voice searches. 

5. Optimize technical SEO of your website 

Technical SEO refers to optimizing to ensure it is easily crawled and indexed by search engines, thereby increasing its online visibility and traffic. 

Improving the technical SEO of your website enhances user experience and there are more chances of your content to be read aloud by voice assistants. Here are some of the best ways you can implement: 

• Page load speed determines how quickly a webpage loads. Faster loading web pages have a high chance of ranking in the top results. You can compress images, reduce HTTP requests, and use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve the page load speed.
• Design mobile-friendly websites. You can include legible fonts, use meta viewport tags, and put appropriate spacing around buttons. 
• Design responsive websites such that they render seamlessly across different devices offering a great user experience. 
• Create SEO-friendly website architecture to ensure website crawlers can locate your website easily. 

Source 

6. Get Google featured snippets

Featured snippets include brief content that is displayed as a paragraph or bulleted list on search engine page results of Google. They are extracted from high-ranking web page for a specific query and boost significant traffic. 

This is important for voice search because if a featured snippet is available for a search query, a virtual assistant will likely read it as an answer. Therefore, you must make efforts to get a featured snippet:

• Focus on question-based queries.
• Include step-by-step solutions when relevant.
• Don’t emphasize backlinks. 
• Structure your pages with relevant headings and paragraph tags.
• Update your content regularly to ensure its relevance. 
• Target long-tail keywords and phrases that are used in voice search. 

What is the future of voice search optimization for digital marketers?

“The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all”. – Arvo Part

With increasing advancements in AI and technology, voice search holds a bright future. It will make our lives easy by offering quick, relevant, and personalized answers to our queries. 

As voice search integrates into customer behaviour, businesses need to figure out ways to adapt to digital interaction and communication. Digital marketers need to compare voice searches with text searches and understand their construction and composition.

This will help them create content that is valuable and resonates with readers, improving visibility in the SERPs. They need to modify their SEO strategies to cope up with the conversational tone of voice search and stay relevant in the age of voice search. 

Conclusion

As voice search becomes more common, businesses must understand how people use this technology to remain competitive. By implementing voice search optimization, you increase the chances that your website will appear more often in search results. Use this opportunity to get a head start.

Learn about other effective SEO strategies