Optimising for voice search in 2024
‘Hey Siri, got any voice search optimisation tips for us?’
Optimising for voice search has been HUGE in 2024.
As more users rely on software like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, marketers are pivoting their organic strategies towards voice search to get their brands into these spaces.
Let’s go.
Voice search vs typed search
Well, one is spoken, one is typed- but is that all?
While they both use the same Google algorithm, searching with voice has some considerations and nuances. After all, it does use our voices as opposed to the humble keyboard. So voice search can change the keywords you need to optimise for.
As we mention in our top tips below, voice searches tend to use long-tail, conversational keywords. For example, a user might type ‘supermarket near me’ but then use a voice search to say ‘Where can I find the nearest supermarket?’, so this requires SEOs to adjust their target keywords.
A typed search means users normally scroll to find their answers, whereas voice search responses tend to pull answers from featured snippets and top-performing pages.
So the key differences are:
- Voice search is used for more local search
- Voice search uses long-tail keywords as opposed to typed short-tail
- Voice search uses more natural language
How to optimise your website for voice search in 2024
With these quick tips, you’ll find areas of the SERP that your site has yet to cater to. Voice search is increasingly bringing crowds of users, so why not compete for the queries they’re exploring?
Tip 1: Pay attention to how people use voice search assistants
Unlike text searches, people interact with voice assistants like Alexa and Siri more organically. They speak naturally, as if to another human (unless, of course, the voice assistant is a bit of a dud and is struggling to pick up the accent or grasp their meaning).
As a result, question-based content is usually what users are after. It’s either ‘Hey Siri, perform this action’ or ‘Hey Siri, answer this query’.
To create the right content that the user is calling for then, you should include FAQ-type material in your content marketing strategy.
Great tools to find what questions users are searching for:
- Google’s Keyword Planner
- Google’s People Also Ask feature
- Answer the Public
Tip 2: Use natural language in your content
Similar to the above, Google likes to match like for like. If users have more of a conversational tone in how they communicate with the search engine, it will try to deliver a response in a somewhat mirrored tone.
Therefore, you should loosen up a bit in your writing style.
Adopting natural language techniques and avoiding jargon are sure-fire ways to get on the same wavelength as your customer.
Especially with the rise of AI-generated content and tools like ChatGPT in recent years, writing for people is something we’re seeing Google increasingly reward.
Been hit by Google’s tighter restrictions on its spam policy? Our Google Penalty recovery service is designed to get your site back on track.
Tip 3: Run checks to ensure your site has a high ‘mobile-friendliness’ score
As you’d expect, a good chunk of voice traffic comes from mobile devices – 1 in every 4, to be exact, with 27% of mobile users stating that they regularly use their phones for voice search.
Therefore, ensuring your site is mobile-optimised is important here. It’ll both help you appear in text-based rankings, as well as voice.
Test your website’s speed and troubleshoot areas for improvement by using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights – it’s free and easy to use.
Other considerations to boost the mobile-friendliness of your site
- Use a mobile-first, responsive design
- Compress images and include image alt tags
- Deactivate pop-ups and ads where possible
- Ensure buttons are easily clickable
- Test your website across different devices (e.g. Apple iOS and Android)
Tip 4: Implement schema markup
Schema markup, also known as structured data, is code that helps Google understand the content on your site.
This is helpful in the context of voice search.
As voice search is a more restrictive medium, search engines arguably have a higher bar to reach to find suitable content that matches the user intent of longer-tailed, niche queries.
Implementing certain types of schema markup can be a good way of giving the search engine a leg up in classifying and understanding your content.
Here, Google’s own tools will be helpful to you. Check out their Structured Data Markup Helper to get started.
Tip 5: Have a look at local SEO
Focusing some of your strategy on improving local SEO can go a long way for voice search. Quite often, when users make a hands-free voice search, they’re looking for something locally. For example, they could be driving and looking for somewhere to eat, and the nature of voice search provides a quick answer to their query.
To optimise for a local search, you should use local keywords within your content. It’s also vital to keep your GMB (Google My Business) profile up to date with your details. such as name, address, and contact info. That way, people can find your business when looking for a local service.
As a local business, it’s likely you face a lot of competition and sometimes struggle to get yourself out there. These small, but effective, considerations can boost your visibility and attract more customers.
Tip 6: Dedicate a chunk of your strategy to long-tailed keywords
A running theme here, but voice search is conversational. It more frequently caters to users looking for really specific answers to longer-tailed queries.
Therefore, it makes sense to commit a portion of your content to target long-tail keywords.
Example: Whereas you might have had success with more refined, targeted keyword phrases before, such as ‘best places to stay lake district’, you might find as much success with longer extensions of the same search now.
Here, optimising for ‘what are the best places to stay at in the lake district’ might win you a feature. Notice that when you run a search for each, the top-ranking position changes.
That shows there’s heaps of potential to get coverage for more keywords that have greater demand than previously possible.
