As you’re probably aware, voice search technology is currently experiencing a period of exponential growth, as most people are now using it on their smartphones or in their homes through devices like Google Home and Amazon Echo.

This trend isn’t likely to fade out any time soon either, as voice search is on pace to completely revolutionise the way we search for products and services online.

According to PWC, 65% of 25-49-year olds speak to a voice-enabled device at least once a day.

Additionally, half of all online searches are set to be carried out via voice search technology by next year, according to Wordstream.

Therefore, it’s critically important for marketers and businesses, particularly SME’s, to pay close attention to voice search SEO. However, voice search is still very much an unknown quantity when it comes to digital marketing, so where do you start?

Here are some of the things you should look to do to optimise your website and content for voice search.

Keywords & Questions

Firstly, when we search for things online by typing them into our keyboards, we tend to use short, choppy phrases and keywords to get our results quickly.

Alternatively, when using voice search technology, we act as if we are talking to a person, so we use longer phrases and questions. For example, when we are looking to find a local pizza restaurant on Google, we typically type something along the lines of ‘pizza restaurant Birmingham’ or ‘pizza restaurant near me’. When we use voice search for the same enquiry, we are likely to ask a question like ‘Ok Google, what is the best pizza restaurant in Birmingham?’. Notice the difference?

So, to be successful in the age of voice search, you must use more long-tail keywords and conversational phrases in your content. In addition to this, you should also pay more consideration to what kind of questions your customers are likely to ask about you and your services.

Local SEO

Another important factor to consider is that most voice searches are performed whilst on the move, more specifically when the user is running or driving.

Why is this important? Well, when people are searching for information on the go, they are generally trying to discover something in the local area. ‘Near me’ searches are significantly popular in the world of voice search, which means you must get your keywords right to acquire more business.

While it’s not necessarily the best practice to include the phrase ‘near me’ in your content, you could look to improve your local voice search SEO strategy by doing the following:

• Use phrases to describe the area where your business is located, focusing on local institutions, well-known landmarks and words people often use to describe the area.
• Add ‘near me’ in your title tags, meta descriptions and internal links.
• Optimise your Google My Business listing to include accurate and up to date information, such as your brand name, address and opening hours.

Page Speed

Now, given the fact that voice search is predominantly used whilst on the move, it’s vital that your website doesn’t keep users waiting or they will move on to a competitor.

It’s also worth noting that most voice searches will only produce one result for users, and that result is heavily dependent on SEO and page speed.

Page speed is a key component of good SEO regardless of how the search is conducted, so page speed optimisation should be one of your top SEO priorities moving forward.

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