Voice search SEO on Google: techniques and challenges

Google voice search, which appeared in 2002, is being used more and more. While it is increasingly successful today, that hasn’t always been the case. Its use stalled due to various factors such as a lack of user adoption and technological limitations.

But what does this imply? In this article, we’ll look at how voice search fits into your SEO strategy and how it interacts with other forms of search technology. What SEO techniques can you use to take advantage of Google voice search, and what are the new challenges of this technology? Find out in this article!

Google voice search

Voice search comes from speech recognition technology that lets users run searches by saying terms out loud instead of typing them into a search bar. The proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices has sparked interest in this type of search.

Voice search applications are used, in particular, to:

• Run queries in search engines,
• Ask for specific information, such as the weather or a sports score,
• Launch programs and/or applications,
• Search for content such as audio or video files,
• Dial a phone number…

SEO and voice search

Voice SEO is about optimizing your organic search by taking voice searches into account and treating voice search intent as an important ranking factor. Organic search must therefore be based on spoken queries and no longer solely on queries typed into Google.

With voice SEO, it’s not about using new optimization methods, but about prioritizing and optimizing long-tail queries. Indeed, with the rise of voice assistance, users’ searches take more conversational approaches (longer queries) as well as the principle of questioning (How, Where, What to do, When, etc.). Let’s remember that Google is no longer a search or results engine but an answer engine, and for that reason, it favors the content that best answers users’ requests.

What would change for SEO today?

“Ok Google, call Mom”, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather like today?”.

These days, we’re used to hearing these phrases in the street, at the office, and even at home.

With 33 million voice assistants in circulation in 2017, all the major technology providers, and not just Google, are investing in these virtual assistants. Google has Google Assistant, Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, Samsung has its new Bixby, and Yandex has launched Alice – the first voice assistant for the Russian market.

These voice assistants have a few subtleties in the way they work:

• Google Assistant: As you might expect, it finds results through Google search. Generally, the answers given will be among the top results on the SERP, whether it’s a featured snippet, a local result, or a traditional website. Google Home often reads answers out loud, but can also send links to the associated app on your smartphone or device.
• Siri relies on Apple Maps for local results. Until recently, other queries were handled using information from Bing, but in September 2017, Siri switched to Google. The important thing to remember here is that it’s essential for your business to also appear in Apple Maps for local searches.
• Samsung’s Bixby doesn’t have the ability to search for information the way its competitors do. Once this feature is added, we’ll have to figure out where this voice assistant will find its data source.
• Alexa isn’t as good as Google Home when it comes to answering complicated questions. It mainly uses its own knowledge base, but also relies on Bing to answer questions.
• Finally, Cortana’s information is powered by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. While many users reject Bing (and therefore Cortana), it’s always better to regularly check your results on both Google and Bing. Depending on your website and/or your niche, a good portion of the traffic could come from Bing, and therefore from Cortana.

Although virtual assistants have been around for a few years, this phenomenon is still only in its early days. Their rise requires SEO optimization of websites for voice search. The goal is for those websites to benefit from effective and optimal organic search right now.

It’s hard to say exactly how many queries are voice-based. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t publish this information regularly. We know that the general trend is upward, and that soon, voice search will account for the majority of all searches. According to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report in 2016, voice searches grew by more than 35 times between 2008 and 2016. According to Location World, more than 40% of adults use voice search daily in 2016. Finally, according to a Comscore study, voice searches will account for 50% of all searches on Google in 2020.

Why this shift?

In particular, thanks to the increased sophistication of voice recognition systems. For example, Microsoft’s software now has an error rate of 5.1%, equal to that of its human counterparts. Digital assistants also make the search process easier (speed, convenience), prompting more and more people to use this system. The interconnection between these assistants and other devices also plays an important role in the evolution of their use.

For example, being able to connect your television or phone to your voice assistant saves time and boosts efficiency. Users will prefer to dictate their needs out loud while continuing their tasks rather than writing them out. As more and more people start using this search method and it becomes more “normal,” the percentage of the population using voice search also increases.

Voice search trend: toward voice-only searches?

It’s clear that from now on, questions are no longer typed on a keyboard but asked out loud. This implies changes in the world of organic search.

Since search engines appeared in the mid-1990s, users have learned to concisely enter key phrases to find information on the Internet using a computer.

Why the enthusiasm for voice search in France?

Because it’s much simpler to dictate our requests than to type them. Isn’t it? Even the fastest of us type more slowly than we speak. On average, humans can say 150 words per minute. It would take them the same amount of time to type 40. The choice is easy: speaking is almost 4 times faster than writing.

Unlike the keywords you usually type into your computer during a written query, voice search is more conversational and natural.

It is also generally mobile and often locally focused.

For example, when you go to Lyon for a conference, your smartphone knows where you physically are. If you search for a restaurant, your phone knows where you are. The search results for restaurants will automatically be in Lyon, and not in Paris or Marseille.

Internet users don’t run queries the same way in writing and out loud on Google. Spoken queries are more conversational. Out loud, we’re more likely to say “Where can I find a women’s hairdresser in Lyon?” rather than “Hairdresser Lyon.” SEO experts will no longer need to rank on generic keywords (as is the case today for 90% of market players), but on long-tail keywords.

Voice search also creates “funnel queries,” which makes navigation much easier. Let’s take an example:

• query no. 1: How many players make up the current French team?
• then, query no. 2: Who are the forwards?

Query no. 2 gives no detail about the type of sport or the nationality of the team. Yet Google knows it’s about the current French team. Not bad, right?

An example with voice search in real estate

Voice search opens up new horizons for real estate agencies. Widely used across the Atlantic, real estate voice search makes it possible to position the perfect property at no. 1 on Google. This industry lends itself perfectly to how voice search works, in the sense that many criteria come into play: location, square footage, amenities, rental price, energy rating, etc.

We can imagine a query like: “I’m looking for an 80 m² apartment in Lyon, in the Hôtel-de-Ville area, with a bathtub and two bedrooms for a maximum price of €1,300 including charges.”

It’s important to remember that the goal of these new technologies is for the device to provide the best results for people on the go. To do this, devices try to find easily identifiable, short, and relevant pieces of content to answer the user. Here are a few tips that can help you optimize your site for voice search.

How to optimize your site for Google voice search

People use voice search for different types of searches. With an estimated 22% of searches being for local content and information, local businesses need to start developing strategies for local voice search.

It’s crucially important to think about voice search when writing content. Write and format your content in the most natural tone possible, close to conversation. The way we naturally speak is completely different from the way we write. Voice searches therefore don’t have the same format as written queries on Google.

According to a Backlinko study: “Google prefers brief and concise answers for voice search queries. The typical voice search result is only 29 words.” This point addresses the user issue mentioned earlier: the user wants a quick answer.

In addition, these searches are informational long-tail searches and phrases, unlike traditional searches, which are more generic.

Another tip: find the most searched user questions around your keyword. To do this, don’t hesitate to use tools like Answer The Public.

Another benefit of developing short answers: You have a better chance of getting your content to position zero if the content is fairly short.

How to write your content for voice search

Build your content around questions, always with a conversational approach. Research the questions users ask most around the topic you want to talk about, using tools like Answer The Public, and make sure your content answers that question.

You can also click on the “People also ask” section on Google. When you click on one of the suggested questions, more questions appear. It’s a real gold mine for finding topic ideas that users are interested in.

Structured data

Structured data is the precise characteristics of a site, defined in specific tags. For example, for the Allociné site, the structured data would be: “The film’s title,” “the author,” “the release date,” “the director,” etc.

It’s an essential element for providing information to Google. It will help Google identify your content to give relevant answers to voice searches. Structured Data is a standard format that provides information about a page to search engines. It marks up all elements such as products, services, reviews, etc.

Structured data is crucial for your site, because it defines more specific information and makes it easier for search engines to precisely analyze the content and understand its context.

It’s important to note that structured data isn’t exclusive to Google. Indeed, Google, Bing, and Yahoo all use it, as do Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms.

SEO fundamentals

Despite the different approach to searching, voice search results are no different from an organic result.

For example, in the case of a search with a specific location, local SEO is very important to meet users’ local purchase intent. Make sure the information on the contact page includes details such as: GPS coordinates, the nearest landmark, and opening hours.

When it comes to voice searches, it’s important to take good care of your local SEO. Indeed, we’ve seen the importance of mobile devices in our societies, so users will have more opportunities to use them on the go, for immediate searches (finding a street, a restaurant, a shop, etc.).

Optimizing your Google My Business page

If you haven’t yet claimed your Google My Business listing, it’s time to do so.

Optimizing Google My Business for SEO is a good way for Google to find more information about your business, such as the business category, address, phone number, opening hours, etc. Since many voice searches are local in nature, having your Google My Business listing up to date is important. It can help rank your business when a voice search related to your activity is performed.

Don’t “over-optimize”

It’s important to adapt and optimize your content so that it works seamlessly with Google Assistant; as a result, over-optimizing for voice searches will have a negative impact on content quality. Creating short content solely to answer voice searches is a sign of a low-quality website in Google’s eyes. So instead, take a “balanced” approach.

Create a FAQ page

An effective way to avoid over-optimization is to create a FAQ page that answers your customers’ most frequent questions. By creating a FAQ page, or by adding a FAQ section under each category of your website, you’ll help both users and search engines understand your website.

Try to make the content more conversational to help Google extract information. Anticipate users’ more direct questions. Searches like “best digital camera” will start to disappear, and very specific searches will become more popular. Example: “Alexa, where can I find a waterproof video camera that works with Facebook Live?” Offer quick and concise answers to the questions users ask out loud.

This may seem like long and tedious work, but creating these pages centered on specific semantic questions that people ask can not only help your site appear in voice search results, but also increase your chances of appearing in position zero. To help you see things more clearly, don’t hesitate to carry out a semantic analysis.

Avoid excessive use of tables or external links

As we mentioned earlier, your content should be as natural or conversational as possible. Excessive use of tables and the inclusion of external links make it harder for Google Assistant to crawl and present the information. Data from tables or charts wouldn’t be understandable in an audible format via Google Assistant, so it can’t read them. In addition, Google Assistant can’t click on external links if you insert too many of them on your page.

Optimizing for Google’s position zero

Position zero is the result highlighted on the SERP and placed between the organic results and the sponsored links. Set apart in a box, it answers the user’s query clearly and precisely and is considered by Google to be a premium result.

During a voice search, Google Assistant will read this snippet out loud, which is why reaching this position is so important.

How do you reach this position 0? There’s no magic recipe here: you have to offer THE best content. By “best,” we mean content that is:

• more relevant than your competitors’;
• considered useful by both internet users and Google.

To identify your audience’s needs, the topics to cover, and so on, a solution like Semji can be very useful! Depending on the targeted keyword, our platform shows you all the writing recommendations to follow to achieve such a position. Request your personalized demo right now!

Mobile fast and friendly

Today, more than 7 in 10 French people own a mobile phone, and with the emergence of voice search, the smartphone takes up even more space in our lives. Mobile search accounts for more than half of all searches, and many of these searches are carried out using a virtual assistant.

What do you do when you try to load a website on your phone and it takes more than a few seconds? Close the window or go back to the search results to load another page… This impacts your search results because your bounce rate increases (a user engagement factor). A high bounce rate and little time spent on a web page tell Google that your web page doesn’t provide a relevant answer to the user’s query.

In addition, your site won’t appear in searches made via voice search if your site is neither mobile-responsive nor fast.

Google has already started rolling out mobile-first indexing and claims that it only impacts mobile sites. Even so, sites that aren’t mobile-first still received a notification from Google Search Console. And don’t forget that when it comes to Mobile First, page speed is becoming increasingly important.

Not sure whether your website is optimized for mobile? Try the Google Mobile-Friendly test to see if it’s deemed acceptable by the search engine.

Social media

Content with a high level of social engagement tends to perform well in voice searches. This is simply a correlation. Indeed, Google doesn’t use social shares as ranking factors; however, content that’s widely shared on social media necessarily has a higher click-through percentage, which significantly increases its visibility with Google.

How to prepare your SEO strategy for voice searches

Despite the still limited information about voice searches and what they involve, we can already put SEO strategies in place.

Know your audience

As part of your keyword research strategy for voice search, your business needs to understand how someone searches for your product or service when using voice search.

Remember that voice searches are more conversation-focused and tend to concentrate on questions rather than two- or three-word queries.

As part of your research, create a list of voice searches that you think users are using. Brainstorm with your team. Read social media, look at forums. Make sure you put yourself in your prospects’ shoes so that you have a relevant list of searches.

Keep an eye on your results

It’s worth running voice searches yourself on your brand, products, or services to see whether they appear and how they’re displayed.

Most businesses don’t take the time to search for their products or services on a device using voice search. But thanks to the previous step, you have a list of relevant keywords to let you see what your prospects see.

Once you run this real-time voice query search, if you notice that your website doesn’t appear, then your web pages and their content need to be optimized.

Identify competitors

As part of your SEO strategy, you need to know who is already present on your voice search queries. If it’s not you in first place, identify your competitors, that is, those who rank above you on the SERP.

For each keyword or key phrase, carry out a page-by-page analysis of the top 10 rankings. Identifying the content of the first-page results can help you build a semantic cocoon for your own content, in order to outperform your competitors.

In conclusion, if you’re not yet taking voice search seriously, you’d better start considering it. The phenomenon will grow even faster than the arrival of mobile devices on the market. Not including voice SEO in your organic search as well as in your marketing plan could prove harmful in the coming months and years, since you’ll likely lose a lot of traffic in the long run.

Google, Amazon, and Apple are the main players in voice search at the time of writing, and Google and Amazon are clearly the leaders. If you’ve already used the services of one of these voice search giants, then their potential must seem obvious to you.

In addition, you can be sure that social platforms such as Facebook or Twitter will add voice search features in the future.

Toward a voice search engine…

The only real question is when you’ll have to start considering voice SEO as part of your content marketing strategy. And the answer is: now.

For now, no one can say for certain what the real impact of voice search on SEO will be. What’s certain is that it’s evolving at an incredible pace and already has consequences for local search and SEO. Another certainty: there will no longer be 10 results on the SERP during a search via a virtual assistant, but only one. So you’ll no longer be competing to be present on the first page, but to be number one on that page. Good news: Semji helps you become THE most relevant answer for each of your target queries! To learn more about our solution, request your personalized demo without further delay!