How to optimise for Voice Search (SEO)

Voice search is becoming more popular each year, in­creas­ing the im­port­ance of op­tim­ising it to help your target audience find you more quickly. Discover the latest ad­vance­ments in voice search SEO and explore potential op­tim­isa­tion strategies for your website.

What is voice search SEO?

Voice search, like the one used on smart­phones, sig­ni­fic­antly in­flu­ences Google’s search al­gorithms. Which is why it is advisable to optimise your website for voice search, also known as voice search SEO.

After the iOS voice assistant Siri was first in­tro­duced in 2011, it was followed by Google Assistant, Cortana (Microsoft) and Alexa (Amazon), among others. In line with the two-way com­mu­nic­a­tion model, the aim is to have an authentic con­ver­sa­tion with a device or in other words – the person asks, the machine answers. This in­flu­ences the further de­vel­op­ment of search al­gorithms, changes user search behaviour and has a decisive impact on SEO. According to a survey, Amazon Alexa was the leading smart speaker device in the UK in 2022, holding a 46% market share. Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant had com­par­able shares in the voice re­cog­ni­tion market, at 26% and 24% re­spect­ively. Further surveys predict an increase in use over the next few years. Current surveys on voice search point un­mis­tak­ably to a further increase in use in the coming years. In 2022, De­mand­sage predicted that voice search would be used by 27 percent of the global pop­u­la­tion, while around one billion voice searches would take place every month.

Con­sid­er­ing the growing im­port­ance of voice search, you will need to make sure that your website is optimised for it. This is where it makes sense to consider voice search SEO, as it is becoming in­creas­ingly important for Google and other search engines.

Why is op­tim­ising for voice search so important?

To enhance your website’s voice search op­tim­isa­tion, it’s crucial to un­der­stand how search queries are evolving due to new tech­no­logy. The most sig­ni­fic­ant changes involve the language itself:

• Search requests are moving away from the standard written language and are moving more towards a natural use of language. This means that search requests will be longer. Instead of one to three keywords, which is usually what is typed into a search engine, voice searches consist of two to four keywords with an in­creas­ing trend.
• This also increases the relevance of long-tail keywords: Due to the more natural use of language, keywords are often embedded in questions. For example, if in­form­a­tion on a public figure is required, the voice search performed will probably not be ‘Steve Jobs’, but rather ‘Who is Steve Jobs?’.
• W questions come up time and time again during the voice search so they need to be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion for voice search op­tim­isa­tion. Question words like ‘who’, ‘when’, and ‘where’ are used fre­quently. Voice as­sist­ants are also getting better at un­der­stand­ing pre­pos­i­tions, so that they now return much more ap­pro­pri­ate results for voice search queries such as ‘flight from London to Glasgow’.
• This results in a further de­vel­op­ment that also affects the classic text search: the struc­tur­al shift from keywords to content. Tra­di­tion­al money keywords are seeing a decline in search volume, while the im­port­ance of semantic contexts is on the rise. Eval­u­at­ing natural language requests now focuses mainly on the intent behind the request. Research on user behaviour indicates that voice search is typically used for general in­form­a­tion gathering, with more detailed queries and purchase decisions occurring at a later stage. Con­sequently, content that offers precise in­form­a­tion to address search queries is the key factor that drives voice search traffic to your website, rather than in­di­vidu­al keywords or specific products.

This new search behaviour, in turn, has an impact on the tech­no­logy since its al­gorithms are con­stantly being developed. They are designed to meet the need for direct answers to the W questions. Newer al­gorithms are in­creas­ingly targeting per­son­al­ised content to enable even more in­di­vidu­al search results and tailored ad­vert­ise­ments. For this per­son­al­isa­tion, voice as­sist­ants provide detailed in­form­a­tion as an interface between users, end devices and web search.

What dis­tin­guishes voice search SEO from classic SEO?

The ad­vant­ages of the voice function are obvious: It is direct, fast and con­veni­ent and requires no manual input. It is used for general device functions (calls, composing messages, song selection, etc.) and for online search queries.

Who benefits most from voice SEO? Voice search is par­tic­u­larly popular for mobile search. It is used in par­tic­u­lar to obtain dir­ec­tions or find local stores. This makes it par­tic­u­larly relevant for websites with high mobile traffic and local relevance.

The voice function offers freedom and con­veni­ence, as there is no need for manual input. This is why it is often used in front of the TV, in the car, when cooking, doing DIY or even when bathing - these are typical situ­ations in which the voice function is used. In addition to social networks, cor­res­pond­ing blogs and advice sites (with recipes, repair or building in­struc­tions) could therefore also benefit from voice search SEO.

In general, younger user groups use voice search much more fre­quently than older ones. While teenagers use the function par­tic­u­larly fre­quently when so­cial­ising with friends and for homework help, adults often use it while cooking or dictating texts. Digital natives are more familiar with the new tech­no­logy and the voice function is par­tic­u­larly suited to their user behaviour (keyword second screen. If you want to reach a younger target group in par­tic­u­lar with your website, it is therefore advisable to optimise your website for voice search.

Checklist for voice search SEO

Voice search op­tim­isa­tion is an in­nov­at­ive field aimed at improving your website’s ranking. Here is a checklist of what to bear in mind when op­tim­ising your website for voice search.

Customise keywords

Even if keyword­ing is not the focus of voice search op­tim­isa­tion, there are a few things you can keep in mind. If you want to optimise keywords for voice search, adapt them to the spoken language and place the most important question keywords in a prominent position. In general, your website will be more visible in language searches if you align terms, phrases and sentences more closely with the spoken language.

Ad­di­tion­ally, place a stronger emphasis on op­tim­ising for longtail keywords to be found via voice search. Users often leave out filler words in text searches, but it makes sense to offer them for voice search op­tim­isa­tion. If your keywords cor­res­pond to natural language, the prob­ab­il­ity of appearing in the voice search results increases.

Semantic eval­u­ation instead of money keywords

Semantic cor­rel­a­tions are becoming in­creas­ingly important for suc­cess­ful voice search SEO. This is par­tic­u­larly true when op­tim­ising websites for voice search, as voice search queries are evolving from in­di­vidu­al keywords to se­mantic­ally more complex search phrases. You can improve the semantic read­ab­il­ity of your website by placing value on struc­tured data. Internal links also help search engines to better un­der­stand the context of your content and also lead to better page indexing.

Working with services for struc­tur­ing data

The Schema.org markup language was developed jointly by Google, Bing and Yahoo! in 2011 to stand­ard­ise semantic an­nota­tions of websites. It provides stand­ard­ised schemas for struc­tur­ing data - the basis of the semantic web. This can enhance the machine read­ab­il­ity of semantic re­la­tion­ships more ef­fect­ively. Struc­tured data is often un­der­u­til­ised, so in­cor­por­at­ing Schema.org provides sig­ni­fic­ant potential to dif­fer­en­ti­ate from the com­pet­i­tion.

You can also increase the relevance of your site by covering a wide range of topics. It makes sense to in­cor­por­ate all aspects related to your offerings on your website. Pri­or­it­ising is essential, meaning the most important topics, questions, and answers should be concise yet in­form­at­ive, and include search-relevant terms.

Give answers

Using question words is key to voice search op­tim­isa­tion. In order to comply with the frequent searches using W questions, you should integrate as many questions as possible into your content. Include all of the questions that you think might be asked relating to your offer. Make sure you include all answers on your website – including search terms. The classic FAQ structure can serve as ori­ent­a­tion. One way to determine which questions might arise is to look in forums.

It is also useful to create custom ad groups or campaigns for voice searches that take question-based keywords into account. Note that some question words are used more fre­quently than others. In addition, providing microdata helps voice search users quickly find the right answers to their questions on your website.

As Google continues to provide more direct answers, it is re­com­men­ded to create content that can be in­teg­rated into a knowledge graph. This approach also enhances the chances of being dis­covered through voice search.

Use local ref­er­ences

People primarily use voice search on mobile devices for local inquiries. Therefore, local op­tim­isa­tion is ad­vant­age­ous when op­tim­ising for voice search. Local busi­nesses encounter specific chal­lenges due to these shifts but can also greatly benefit from the rising number of voice searches.

Ratings and customer reviews are crucial for suc­cess­ful local SEO, as well as voice search op­tim­isa­tion. Regularly update your contact in­form­a­tion and opening times on Google or YELP. It’s often worth listing your business in other local dir­ect­or­ies as well.

Customers are always thankful for clear and un­der­stand­able dir­ec­tions. If you mention nearby landmarks, places, or other regional check­points, this is es­pe­cially effective for voice search op­tim­isa­tion. Ex­per­i­ment with other ways to place local features as keywords. Users who want in­form­a­tion about a region or city would then be more likely to come across your website over your com­pet­i­tion’s.

Keep your eye on the ball

Mean­ing­ful voice SEO is only possible if you know the de­vel­op­ments of the relevant tech­no­lo­gies and user behaviour. In par­tic­u­lar, keep an eye on Google tools such as Direct Answers or RankBrain, which are aimed at un­der­stand­ing semantic contexts and in­teg­rat­ing ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence.

The changes in consumer behaviour — such as the trend towards second screen — are also important for voice search op­tim­isa­tion. Op­tim­ising web content for voice search is therefore only possible if the rapidly changing technical con­di­tions are taken into account.

Which are the most popular voice as­sist­ants?

In order to optimise voice search, you need to first deal with current voice as­sist­ants. They are designed to help you navigate and operate the device (app access, music playback, creating messages) and or­gan­ising personal content (calendar, reminders, birthdays, etc.) using speech re­cog­ni­tion. Voice as­sist­ants therefore also serve as answering tools and are used as voice search engines, which have great AI potential. They are often viewed crit­ic­ally in regard to data pro­tec­tion laws, which is why many users still prefer the tra­di­tion­al way of manually searching.

• Apple’s Siri meant that a voice assistant was ac­cess­ible to a wider audience for the first time. The ap­plic­a­tion starts up auto­mat­ic­ally with the words ‘Hey, Siri’ and was created to be a mobile assistant.
• The Amazon Group launched its own voice assistant on the market with Amazon Echo or Alexa. Also designed for home use, Amazon Echo is sold as a stan­dalone device in the form of a loud­speak­er. Using voice commands, it plays music, works as an alarm clock, answers questions and, of course, helps with shopping on Amazon. Alexa is the most fre­quently used voice assistant in the UK.
• OK Google is Google’s voice function and a central component of the Google digital assistant. It can be used for both Android and iOS devices and is the direct coun­ter­part to Siri. The ap­plic­a­tion responds to the words ‘OK Google’.
• Bixby is the Samsung voice assistant that can also do Smart Home. The main functions are Bixby Voice, Vision, Home and Reminder.
• Cortana has been firmly in­teg­rated into Microsoft’s operating system since Windows 10 and is also available for Android and iOS mobile, making it ac­cess­ible to a wider audience.