7 ways to optimize your SEO for voice search

7 ways to optimize your SEO for voice search https://www.digitaldevotee.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/digitaldevotee_magnifying-glass_1004x300.png 1004 300 digital devotee digital devotee https://www.digitaldevotee.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/digitaldevotee_magnifying-glass_1004x300.png 28 July 2018 27 November 2018

Hopefully you are already paying attention to your site’s on-page SEO and PR. What’s next though isn’t just about typing, it’s voice. OK Google, Hey Siri, Alexa are changing the way we search as natural language interactions with our devices get more accurate and useful.

Here are some stats for some classic voice search phrases in Google Trends…

Look at that increase after iPhone and Google voice search was released in 2008!

MOBILE VOICE USAGE BY MARKET

% who have used voice search or voice command tools on their mobile in the past month

GlobalWebIndex Insight Report 2018

1. Write How People Actually Speak

Create question-and-answer pages (FAQs) and write individual articles answering customer questions
Add questions to product pages
Use Answer the Public (free and has great website design!), Question Samurai (signup required) and StoryBase (paid) to find popular questions related to your product / topic.

2. Optimize for Local Queries

Claim your Google My Business listing
Write descriptions to show up in the local knowledge panel
Add “near me” phrasing to your pages

Compare how big “near me” is to the “call home” above!

3. Try to Get Your Site a Featured Snippet

Use structured data like recipe, products, articles

4. Be Mobile-friendly

Improve your site speed for mobile as most voice results are from very fast pages
Use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tools

5. Write Long-form Content

Show that you know what you’re talking about while adding fuel for search engines
Voice search results are generally 29 words; however Google sources voice results from long-form content

6. HTTPS Site Security is Critical

A while ago we mentioned browsers would soon start to mark HTTP insecure sites and punish those who don’t move to SSL secured sites…and now it’s happened. Just do it for everyone’s benefit.

7. Advanced Bonus: Create Google Actions

Extend Google Assistant by helping people get things done with Google Actions
If you have access to custom developing consider thinking of ways you can create software to extend the functionality of the Google Assistant across more than 500 million devices, including smart speakers, phones, cars, TVs, headphones, watches, and more. As Gwerzman says “Humans are lazy. But they LOVE to talk.”

7 ways to optimize your SEO for voice search