Voice Search Optimisation

1. Research & Target Long-Tail Keywords

Whereas people typically simplify when using a keyboard to find answers, voice assistants are interacted with in a more natural fashion. In other words, when we talk to our devices, we speak more true to real life.

This means that your keyword research will need a fresh approach, and conversational keywords should be the priority. To better optimise for voice search results, aim to target:

• Long-tail keywords – These are highly specific queries. Due to their more limited range of answers, long-tail keywords usually have lower search volumes and attract high-intent traffic. Example: ‘best practices for voice search seo’

• Question keywords – These are phrases that include question-based words like ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, and ‘how’. They signify the user seeking a direct solution to a specific search query. Example: ‘how do I optimise for voice search’

2. Embrace Mobile SEO

With more people on mobile devices than ever before, voice queries have risen at pace. For businesses, voice search optimisation will often call for a mobile seo strategy.

Here’s the thing: When people are on the move, they often find it easier to ask questions out loud rather than fussing over a tiny keyboard. To optimise for mobile voice search then, you’ll need to prioritise content that is both direct and concise.

No one wants to wade through waffle at the best of times, especially when they’re on the move, so addressing user intent is incredibly important here – namely, what exactly is your audience looking for?

Mobile Optimisation for Voice Search Tips

• Prioritise intent-rich micro-moments when keyword mapping
• Ensure your page speed is quick
• Use a mobile-responsive design
• Conduct some UX research on navigation features – e.g. clear and concise menu, buttons are easy to click, etc.
• Eliminate pop-ups or obstacles that hinder the user journey

Time to check how mobile-friendly your website is? Run Google Lighthouse for a performance audit.

3. Optimise for Local Search Intent

As you’d expect, many voice search queries have a local intent. This means that users are looking for a solution that is in a specific location – like ‘seo agency manchester’ – or simply one that’s within the range of wherever they happen to be – for example, ‘seo agency near me’.

Here, we’d recommend dedicating a chunk of your SEO strategy to producing content for location-specific keywords. This will ground what you’re selling within your chosen area, helping you to better scoop in the traffic of those refining their search parameters to what’s nearby.

Voice technology also uses local directories to gather facts for location-based queries. Therefore, two easy tactics for optimising your local SEO include:

• Checking and updating your Google Business Profile: This signals to Google precisely where your business sits on the map, giving it a physical location and, hence, more legitimacy of being seen as a real business.
• Making use of local directories: Whereas the above will primarily optimise your local presence for Google Assistant, other voice assistants – Siri, Alexa, and Cortana – use local directories to get their intel. 

Optimise for both GMB and local directories to ensure you’re not pigeonholing your ranking potential.

Run a brick-and-mortar business that gets most of its football from a local crowd? Local SEO is particularly designed to help stores like yours. 

Contact Embryo today, and our expert SEO team will put a local SEO strategy in place to ensure it’s you that’s leading the pack when customers near you search for the products and services you offer.

4. Don’t Neglect Schema Markup

Schema markup (also called structured data) is another SEO biggie. A must-do for voice search optimisation, schema markup is essentially the code that tells search engines how to interpret your website’s data.

If your schema markup is clear and web crawler bots can digest your site’s information easily, the search engine more readily assumes a human user could do the same – hence, schema markup can help your chances of ranking.

As in the above tactic (#1), voice search favours conversational keywords and question-based queries. Because of this, FAQ schema is one of the main schema types you’ll want to optimise for.

How?

When mapping out the content for a page, research common questions that a user seeking info related to that page’s topic might want to know. From there, you can create a series of FAQs and add a specialised markup – the FAQ schema – to the page’s code, which will prompt Google to generate a rich snippet.