How to optimise your content for voice search

Voice search has been steadily growing over the past couple of years, and with an estimated 50% of all households forecasted to own a Smart Speaker in by next year it’s time to make sure your content is ready for the change in search. Previously if your content was fully optimised for traditional search methods that was all you needed. However, with more and more people searching via home assistant devices and general voice technology we now need to optimise and adapt.

When you think of smart speakers you may instantly think oh home assistant devices such as Amazon’s Alexa or the Google home mini. But the reality is voice technology is growing at an exponential rate, to the point new cars now have built-in hands-free voice assistants! A recent study completed in America reports that 90.1 million adults use the voice assistants integrated on their phones. 77.1 million use the assistants in their cars and 45.7 million on smart speakers.

How do I optimise my content for voice search?

One of the most effective ways to optimise for voice search is to use long-tail keywords in your strategy. If you’re not sure about long-tail keywords or want to learn more, we have a blog post that will help you add them in to your SEO content strategy: How long tail keywords can increase your search traffic.

It is important to think about the differences between traditional Google searches typed out on a computer to saying the search out loud. When it comes to traditional searches we are often lazy, typing the minimal amount we think is required to produce accurate results. For example, if you wanted to find the local cinema times you may simply search – ‘Cinema Hours’. Websites and pages that are properly optimised will appear and show the nearest cinemas and the show times for that day. However, if you were to ask the same query to your phone via Siri you are more likely to say – ‘Hey Siri what are todays showtimes at Vue, Bristol?’ We can instantly see a huge difference between these 2 search terms. By adding long-tail keywords you will cover voice searches more accurately.

How can I appear on the first page of Google?

It is always desirable to appear on the first page of a Google search but even more so for mobile. In a society where we want the answer as quick as possible, fewer people click through to the following pages than on desktop. Quite often when you complete a voice search, Google will bring up a snippet of information from the Google answer box! For your best chance to get in that box you should make sure your content is fully optimised with the following:

• Short paragraphs
• Long-tail Keywords
• Ranks well organically
• Includes answers to questions

What else can I do?

The third and final suggestion from us it to ensure your Google Local listing is updated. When users are searching for a service or shop local to them they are 3 times more likely to complete this via a voice search. Because of this it is essential to make sure you include vital keywords such as ‘near me’. This will ensure you don’t miss any local searches.