What if you want traffic directly to your website from voice search platforms such as Siri, Bixby, or Alexa?
Voice search is a technology that allows users to perform searches by speaking into a device, including;
- Smartphones - iPhone's Siri, Android's assistant, Bixby, etc.
- Computers - Less common for voice search, but growing in popularity.
- Home assistant devices - Amazon Echo (Alexa), Google Home, Apple HomePod (Siri), etc.
- Cars-based appliances
These devices uses speech recognition to understand spoken commands, search the internet, and then deliver results verbally to the user.
Voice search is most popular in situations where typing a query might be impractical, such as when driving or cooking, or simply for convenience.
SEO Approaches for Voice Search
In general, all SEO will benefit Voice SEO, however you may get added benefit out of these strategies;
- Use Conversational Language: Voice searches are typically more conversational and natural-sounding than typed searches. Try to incorporate more natural, conversational language into your content.
- Focus on Long-Tail Keywords: Voice searches tend to be longer and more specific than text-based searches. Long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific keyword phrases, can help you target these searches.
- Answer Questions: Many voice searches are phrased as questions. Try to identify common questions that users might have about your topic, and answer these questions in your content. The "People also ask" section in Google search results can be a good source of question ideas.
- Optimize for Local Searches: Voice search is often used for local queries, like finding restaurants or shops nearby. Make sure your website is optimized for local search by including your location in your content and meta tags, and by maintaining an up-to-date Google My Business listing.
- Make Use of Structured Data: Structured data, also known as Schema markup, can help search engines understand the content of your pages and provide more informative results. This can be particularly useful for voice search, as it can help your content appear in voice search results.
- Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly: Many voice searches are done on mobile devices, so it's important that your website is mobile-friendly. This includes factors like load speed, responsive design, and easy navigation.
- Create a FAQ Page: A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page can be a great way to answer common questions about your business or industry. This can help your website appear in voice search results for these questions.
Technical Voice SEO
These technical mechanisms may also make your website more accessible and understandable to voice assistants:
Structured Data (Schema Markup):
Structured data such as JSON-LD is an excellent way to expose key information in a way that can be more easily indexed.
There are a number of data schemas you can use;
- LocalBusiness. Describes your business operating hours, location, and contact information.
- FAQPage. Answers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
- SpeakableSpecification. Indicates sections of a Web page that are particularly 'speakable' in the sense of being highlighted as being especially appropriate for text-to-speech conversion. This appears to be primarily used by Google Assistant and Google News.
When choosing where to invest your time, it will help to make a list of the questions that a customer may ask, which relate to your products, services, or business. You want to think of these as question-answer pairs, in the same way as you'd design a FAQ section.
For certain sites, other schemas may be useful, such as recipes, products, books or events.
Platform-Specific Mechanisms
Some voice-search platforms have specific mechanisms that support more interactive experiences. These function like apps for the voice assistants, and they can provide custom functionality beyond what's available on a typical website.
However, like apps, they'll involve a lot more technical work to develop.
Two platforms that have these types of mechanisms are;
- Alexa Skills
- Google Actions
Resources
More detailed information about JSON-LD and Schema.org;
- JSON-LD Official Website: This is the official website for JSON-LD. It provides a detailed introduction to the format, as well as links to the specification and other resources.
- Schema.org: This is the official website for Schema.org, which provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to structure their data in ways that can be understood by the major search engines.
- Google's Structured Data Guide: This guide from Google provides an introduction to structured data, as well as specific guidelines for how to structure your data to be understood by Google's search engine.
- Google's Structured Data Testing Tool: This tool allows you to test your structured data to make sure it's correctly formatted and can be understood by Google's search engine.
- Schema.org's LocalBusiness Documentation: This page provides detailed information about the LocalBusiness schema, including a list of properties that can be used with this schema.
