With half of all online searches being done without lifting a finger, the landscape for digital marketers is changing. Clearly, searching has become more convenient than ever. For digital marketers, Siri, Alexa, and Google Home are shaping how we approach SEO.
If you’re trying to optimise for voice search using the same strategies as regular SEO, then you’ll want to stick around.
3 SEO Strategies for Voice Search
- Be Concise
When someone asks a home assistant questions, they’re looking for a brief answer, and brief answers have higher chances of ranking for a voice search.
“Hey Alexa, what is SEO?”
For marketers, including a concise answer at the beginning of your content makes it easier for home assistants to find, read and rank.
2. Focus on local
It’s no secret that consumers use “near me” searches, but voice search users are increasingly searching for local results. Within the past year, 58% of consumers have found local businesses using voice search.
If you have a local store, you should optimise your content for local voice searches, use Google My Business and make sure you make answers easy to access online.
3. Natural language and long-tail key words
Consumers using voice search are using conversational language, and these queries are longer than regular text-based searches.
So, for voice search optimisation, you too should focus on natural and conversational tone in your content. Try and put yourself in the consumer’s shoes, if you were looking for a certain answer, how would you phrase the question? This can help elevate your content in rankings.
Will voice search queries overtake text based? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Beth Johnson Marketing 
A little off topic, but the Alexa 2020 Super Bowl ad is really great!
In terms of voice search queries over taking text based, I think it’s definitely heading in that direction! Right now it’s not something that I personally utilise, but the vision for the future is to make everything effortless right? and what’s more effortless than replacing text based searching with just asking the question out loud?
Well done girl!!
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I agree! I do think there will always be certain types of searches that will be done through typing but most interrogative searches definitely seem replaceable by voice search. I hardly ever use voice search on my phone too but can 100% see the appeal.
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Hey there! Really insightful article 🙂 You really showed the power of voice search and unpacked how to effectively use it. Great job!
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Hey! Thank you for your feedback 🙂 glad to hear you found it insightful.
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Interesting post. I just recently made a blog post about smart speakers also. Voice search is going to be huge in the future. Did you know 75% of U.S households are predicted to own a smart speaker by 2025? Incredible.
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Yes I also had a look at yours! Great post. I definitely agree that it’s only going to increase in popularity.
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This is so interesting, I can’t say that I have ever used siri on my phone at all… except for when it thinks I am talking to it!! I suppose it is such a handy tool that people are making the most of, so why not join in!
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I’m the same! I’ve always had an iPhone but hardly use Siri. Researching for this blog made me tempted to get a smart speaker but considering I don’t even use Siri it probably wouldn’t be a wise investment for me haha, just conforming to the hype!
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Great article! I don’t really use voice searches and I have an iPhone but I do think that digital marketers should really consider using voice searches when approaching SEO.
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Agreed! They definitely need to take into account the different sentence structures/wording that voice searchers are using compared to those who type.
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Great post! Voice search nowadays is so powerful. People now mostly own smartphones and sometimes it is a pain to use the small keyboard on the screen and voice search is such a saver. Other than voice search, I found out that virtual search (image search) is really convenient as well!
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Thank you for your feedback! I agree that it’s much more convenient than searching sometimes but I think the reason I don’t really use it that often is because I just forget it exists. Maybe that will change after writing this blog.
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Really great post! I never use siri on my phone and don’t really have an interest in getting a smart speaker but I think voice search is such an interesting topic but I had never considered how the way questions are asked would be different to a regular google search question
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Thanks for your feedback. It’s definitely interesting and the speed that voice searches are growing is certainly something to look out for in the future.
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