What You Need to Know for Voice Search SEO

Voice search is the natural extension of voice technologies like Google Home and Alexa. Many people already have devices in their homes that can access digital information, like Amazon Echo and Google Home. These virtual assistants make it easier than ever to find information from your favorite services, such as a personal newsfeed, calendar app, or music service. Even if you don’t have access to these devices today, they are only going to become more common. According to eMarketer, by 2021 more than half of all U.S. adults will use voice search regularly on smartphones and other mobile devices. That’s why it’s more important than ever to optimize your site for voice search in order to be found by users searching through their voices.

What is voice search?

Voice search is the natural extension of voice technologies like Google Home and Alexa. People already have devices in their homes that can access digital information, like Amazon Echo and Google Home. These virtual assistants make it easier than ever to find information from your favorite services, such as a personal newsfeed, calendar app, or music service. Even if you don’t have access to these devices today, they are only going to become more common. According to eMarketer, by 2021 more than half of all U.S. adults will use voice search regularly on smartphones and other mobile devices. That’s why it’s more important than ever to optimize your site for voice search in order to be found by users searching through their voices.

Voice Search SEO Tips

• Use voice-specific terms - Voice search will be most helpful for sites that use voice-specific search terms. The Google Home application and Alexa device both use their own proprietary language. These devices are not searching for a general term like “dog toy” like a human would. Instead, they are looking for a specific term, like “review dog toys.”
• Optimize your Content - If you try to optimize your site for a general term like “dog toy,” you will be much less likely to be found by voice users. This is especially important for e-commerce stores that sell an array of products for all kinds of pets.

To check if you’re using voice-specific terms, try searching for a broad term and see if your results change to include specific results.

Write for Voice Searches

The writing on your site needs to be more voice-friendly than it is for regular search engines. Voice users get results from your site in the same way that a person reading from your site would read them. Thus, you will want to follow the same rules of writing as you would if you were reading your text to a person. This means that you will want to write in a conversational tone and make your sentences short. You also want to avoid including unnecessary jargon or complex words.

Optimize for Long-Tail Keywords

Google continues to use a focus around the term “long tail” to describe voice search. However, this doesn’t mean that you should forget about your top-ranking core keywords. Remember that the Google Home speaker is asking for specific information, not just broad terms. Therefore, you will want to optimize for the specific information that each voice user will be searching for.

Establish an Answer for Each Query

If you’re wondering how to optimize for voice search, it’s best to start with how you will answer the questions being asked by voice users. If you can answer the questions that voice users will ask, you will be much more likely to be found by them from your site. This means that you will want to consider how you will answer each query that a voice user will ask on your site.

For example, if a voice user asks for a recipe, you will want to include one. If they ask for news, you will want to provide some, and so on. This is especially important for e-commerce stores. If a voice user asks to buy a particular item, you will want to have an answer that they can hear so that they can choose and complete the purchase.

Rank High in the Search Results

Google has published a lot of information about how they rank the search results for voice users. Key among these efforts is the fact that Google is working to include information about the author of content in their voices. This means that you will want to include a link to your author page at the end of each result. For example, if a voice user asks for a recipe, you will want to include a link to the author’s recipe page. This will give voice users a chance to see who created the content so that they can consider how trustworthy it is before clicking on the result.

Google has also announced that they are working to provide information about the popularity of a result in the voice results. This will be helpful for finding out which authors and publishers are popular, which will help you rank high for those types of websites.

Do the Right Thing!

Do right... As tempting as it may be to rank higher by pushing ads and misleading consumers, you will want to avoid this at all costs. This is especially true for Google Home users. You will want to avoid including any confusing or deceptive wording in your voice results, or you will likely be penalized.

Google has published a list of prohibited violations, which is a good place to start if you’re wondering what is and isn’t allowed. It’s likely that any violations of these rules will result in a penalty or severe reduction in your voice SERPs. You will want to avoid any violations that could negatively impact your voice SERPs.

To Sum Up

Now that you know what voice search is and how to optimize your site for it, you're ready to start ranking higher in the voice search results. From keyword research to on-page optimization, you'll learn how to improve your rankings in this article for voice search SEO.

Do you have plenty of other things on your plate? Need help to develop a stellar SEO strategy?

Our team of creative digital marketing experts can help! At Tommy House Studios, we offer small businesses in Montgomery leading-edge SEO solutions to increase their visibility to their targeted audience and help them develop potential sales leads. If you want to harness the full power of SEO, call us at (334) 310-2915 or contact us online.