Smartphones put the world at your fingertips. People have questions that need to be answered and services or products they need.
All of these things are just one search, and now, we’ve seen a huge shift to voice search.
Statistically speaking, voice is not something enterprise marketers can ignore because:
Voice optimization at scale is something every business should do. For businesses, the challenge is scale, as they control a wealth of content assets.
In this column, we’ll look at specific tactics and optimizations to support your speech strategy, including schema markup, keyword research, site speed, FAQs, Google actions, and more.
Here’s how to start optimizing for voice search, with an emphasis on businesses.
Speech Optimization 101
Guidelines for creating content and voice search
The marketing team should sit down with the content team or send a guide outlining the importance of voice search optimization, incorporating these keywords and protocols to ensure optimization.
Enterprise should have SEO governance already in place.
However, you will need to modify your existing voice search governance and protocols. In fact, you want to add an entire section that focuses primarily on speech.
Why?
Content creators and teams are bound to make mistakes.
Finding content issues by performing a thorough content inspection depends on your agreement.
Analyze content before publishing should has become part of your process.
If not, you can add:
- Conduct a thorough content review before publishing.
- Optimization Analysis.
- Compare content to research keywords and questions.
Guides are a critical part of every aspect of business marketing, as team members can often come and go.
Redefine your keyword research to include long tail keywords
Long-tail keywords typically have lower search volume and are a lower priority for businesses targeting high-value and high-traffic keywords. However, voice searches are natural and longer than one- or two-word phrases.
Your page needs to answer questions (like Featured Snippet do) and should include:
- How to use XYZ products?
- What is the price of the XYZ product?
- How to solve the XYZ problem?
- Where.
- Who.
- what.
- etc.
People using search are asking questions, and you need to answer those questions. Redefine your keyword research process to include more long-tail and question keywords.
Create processes and procedures for SEO teams (internal and external) to incorporate issues into your current content creation process.
Optimize website speed and mobile experience
Voice search comes primarily from mobile and assistive devices.
Every business has to optimize a lot for mobile:
- Responsive design.
- Website is fast.
Your team should run regularly Google PageSpeed Insights Find out what’s slowing down your website and improve load times.
Look 10 Business Page Speed Optimization and Implementation Tips understand more.
Optimize local search for business growth
Local and regional optimizations are huge For businesses operating locally.
Exceed 50% of people search for local businesses via voice search.
E.g:
- Where is the nearest subway to me?
- Which grocery stores are open nearby?
- Where is the nearest pharmacy?
You need to check Google and other local listings for the business.
Lists should always include Company hours of operation, a brief profile and photos.
A complete listing makes it easier for searchers to reach your business or visit it in person.
Terms may include phrases like “near me” or they can be specific, such as [car manufacturers in Detroit.]
When optimizing for local, one tip that is critical to business success is to consider regional or regional slang.
Your research team should be aware of local slang and dialects that may be used in searches.
E.g, [where can I get the best soda in Boston] will change to [where can I get the best pop in Ohio] Because of regional slang.
Internal teams should help you create these distinctions before entering new markets to help content creation and SEO teams maximize the potential of local voice search.
Main schema markup to add content context
Leverage Architecture It is essential to help search engines understand the content of a business website. Review and incorporate schema markup guidelines to help improve voice search.
Some tips that can help you master the architecture are:
- Get started with Google’s speakable mode (Beta) Best for Google Assistant and the text portion of voice search.
- Use analytics to help understand keywords and phrases the client is using.
- Find snippets that can be read aloud Add schema in old and new content.
- think about your content Context-enhancing dialogue.
When used properly, schema markup can help add context to each site’s content and allow for greater potential for voice search.
Added FAQ section to key pages
Remember how you needed to add questions to your keyword research?
Finding ways to add questions to a page without interrupting the natural flow of content can be challenging.
How can you overcome this? Frequently Asked Questions.
FAQs can add tremendous value to your page and help you start improving your voice search optimization.
One way to start integrating it is:
- execute a full content review on the website.
- Identify pages and blogs that can answer questions.
- Start adding FAQs to your most important pages and pages with the most potential.
Since you’re optimizing for voice search, it’s critical to answer questions in a conversational tone.
Begin the transition to a conversational language
Content creators have heard tone and consistency for decades.
“Speaking the customer’s language” is often repeated across industries.
However, there is a shift towards conversational tone when dealing with voice search.
It turns out that a dull “business tone” isn’t how most people use the Google Assistant or Amazon Echo.
you need to Make sure the content team is involved with these changes.
A quick meeting that enhances the tone of the conversation, perhaps updating the briefing sent to writers, can go a long way.
An excellent way to adapt content to conversation is to:
- Editors review all content.
- Read the content aloud.
Small changes, if you can add colloquialism and slang, can make a world of difference when trying to create more conversational content.
Use Google Actions
Google Action This can be a major perk for anyone trying to optimize for an Android device.
If you build actions for web content, you need to use structured data.
Google has a lot of great tutorials on how to create using actions:
- Frequently Asked Questions.
- Operation guide.
- media.
- information.
- podcast.
- recipe.
Depending on the type of content created, Google recommends adding schemas using themes or plugins.
Teams should learn how to use Google Actions to properly optimize their content.
Actions will help ensure that anyone using an Android device or the Google Assistant can easily find your content.
Voice search is fast becoming the preferred way for people to search.
While there will always be traditional type searches, businesses and marketers should focus on the possibilities that voice search offers.
More resources:
Featured Image: Prostock Studio/Shutterstock
