The Voice Search Trend: How to Optimise Your Content For Voice Search Online.

Voice search is the ability to activate the microphone on their device, ask a question, and be given an answer – and this doesn’t just apply to Siri and but also to other virtual assistants!

Voice recognition has come a long way since shouting ‘pay my bill’ down your phone at an automated operator just to try and speak to a customer service rep – in fact, Siri (Apple’s voice assistant) reported a 95% accuracy rate as long ago as 2015. With people using speech to text for a huge range of reasons including multitasking, accessibility, injury prevention (no more RSI from typing!), and avoiding unnecessary touch points in a post-pandemic world – over half of smart device owners now use voice search for simple questions or virtual assistance.

Hands covered in bread dough? “Hey Google, how long do you knead bread for?”

Stepping into the shower and don’t want to be late? “Hey Siri. Set a timer for ten minutes.”

Already running late for your flight? “Alexa, is there a clothes store at the airport?”

Voice activation is not science fiction anymore.

Well, like most technological developments, the increase popularity and reliability of voice search means more Search Engine Optimisation on the list for content creators and website owners – that’s where this list comes in.

Sure can – you need to select one of the various voice assistants available to do so!

Okay but how do I search Google with audio?

Most phones will have a microphone icon on the keyboard somewhere, tap that and speak, when you’re done it will process your sentence and search for you.

The most common way that people search on Google is through voice assistants, though, so optimizing for that is key!

How you turn voice search on for your personal phone or computer will depend on your device – generally you can turn on or off your voice assistant through the settings.

As a content creator though you need to do three things to start out

1. Determine the Business Goal
2. Determine the type of voice assistant or voice search you want to integrate with.
3. Determine a plan so that you can interact with it.

SEO for voice searching is vital – especially if you’re offering a solution to a problem!

When it comes to voice search SEO there are four different types of assistants that will return voice search results and allow you to do voice searches.

Google Assistant
Amazon Alexa
Microsoft Cortana and
Apple’s Siri

We need to understand all the four voice assistants pull information in different ways and from different areas.

The way you make changes and optimise voice searches using Google assistant is using something called Google Actions, and there is a Google Actions Console. Google Actions Console allows you to make changes or store certain kind of information in a kind of app that works with google assistant, so that you can return information from it.

Alexa has something called Alexa Skills, Alexa skills allow you to build an app that works with Alexa.

Microsoft Cortana has a voice-activated assistant that returns information, it actually works with Alexa, So you cannot make anytype of app that works with cortana. The way you do it is by making a skill that works with Alexa.

For Apple Siri, you use Apple shortcuts, in the Apple developer kit.

1. How is voice search SEO different from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO prioritised keyword frequency whereas voice search tends towards answering a specific question in a sentence.
See what we did there?

If you were looking for the name of a famous museum in Paris, you might type “museum Paris” but if you’re asking Cortana (Microsoft’s virtual assistant) you’d be more likely to say, “Hey Cortana – what is the big museum in Paris called?”

While the results may show the same answer – The Louvre – the voice search results are more likely to use a source that answers conversationally.
For example, “The most famous museum in Paris is The Louvre”

2. Why is clarity so important in voice search SEO?

Because users are looking for an answer not a fifteen-minute long read.
Of course, your site still needs to be detailed and complete but by providing clear and concise answers to your searchers questions you are far more likely to be selected.

3. Has voice search killed technical SEO?

Not at all – just because the user interface is more conversational doesn’t mean that the algorithm isn’t paying attention to your schema markup, page structure, short and long tail keywords, load time, or backlink behaviour.

Unlike some advancements like DVD taking over from VHS, voice search isn’t likely to become the primary search method.

Can you imagine sitting in an office where people only voice search? Or a bus full of people voice searching their daily headlines, the weather, their medical symptoms? Can you see yourself making serious decisions like which mortgage to choose based on a one-line response from a virtual assistant?

Not really.

There’s always going to be a place for in depth discussion and detailed information, but that doesn’t mean you should be sleeping on giving people the quick and concise answers they’re (literally!) asking for.