frequently asked questions

Apr 01 2020

Ask Yourself These Questions Before Getting Started with Voice Search SEO

What is my goal for doing voice search SEO?

A crucial step to setting up for optimization is determining your goal for doing voice search SEO. To find this, it’s ideal to get a full evaluation of your website. Look into the current status of where you currently are, where you should be, and what you need to do to get there. Finding the direction you need to be going will be able to shape what your goals are for integrating voice search SEO into your site.

The purpose of voice search SEO is to provide users with direct answers to questions they may have. Here are some great goals to aim for with voice search SEO:

Drive better website traffic with compelling content
Boost site engagement with mobile-friendly pages
Stay a beat above competitors in SERPs

Am I patient?

There is no one clear path to seeing significant changes in your voice search SEO performance. There are many factors that contribute to your ranking, and each of them can bring in varying effects to your position in search engines. Even then, there is no guaranteed amount of time for your optimization efforts to come to fruition.

At the center of it all, to hit your voice search SEO goals and ultimately gain fantastic rankings, it matters that you do the necessary keyword research, strategizing, optimizing, and analysis. This becomes the cycle at which you can positively impact your website.

Who is my target audience?

In order to market your product, service or website properly, you need to establish who your target audience is. It’s one thing to churn out pages, and it’s another thing to be able to make an impact on the people you want to engage, after all.

Recognizing your target audience lets you dig deeper into what their interests are so you better understand what kind of content would and wouldn’t work with them. This, in turn, enables you to create better-targeted voice search SEO strategies that capture what they need to see and what else they might want to see, at the same time learning to filter out what wouldn’t work.

These can affect two very crucial points in creating content:

Keyword research

When you know who exactly you’re trying to engage, you’ll be able to get in some pretty specific research. For example, when your target audience is mothers balancing their career with parenting, you’ll be able to set up the appropriate research that finds the kinds of terms they use.

You can research a number of ways—through keyword research tools, social media trends, focus groups, and surveys.

Content Strategy

Based on the insight collected from your keyword research you’ll be able to better plan the content you need to create. Following the target audience of mothers balancing work with parenting, let’s say top searches include easy kids meal prep, time management, and quick home organizing hacks. You’ll now know to prioritize information on these subjects in particular to better cater to their interests.

If your content isn’t meeting your target audience’s needs, then you may be sacrificing more than just a couple of missed marks in exchange for faster content production.

Who are my competitors? And what’s their voice search SEO strategy?

Your SEO competitors don’t have to be in the same field or business as you. So long as you target the same keywords, regardless of niche, you’re all gunning for that same top spot in the SERP.

The good news is that it’s easy to monitor their strategy. Try searching for a keyword you use and see what content others are providing right off the results. Check out their pages to see if what they’re producing is something you can use or if their site structure is something you can take inspirational cues from.

With the help of a competitive analysis tool like Ahrefs and SEMRush, you’ll be able to do even more. You can deep dive into their domain strength, content, backlinking, and more. The information you find can serve as the benchmark for changes you need to make to your site and see how to build on them.

What are the metrics and KPI?

There are many ways to measure success in SEO. With regards to voice search SEO however, there are a few specific metrics and KPIs you’ll want to keep an eye out for considering the implementation of Rankbrain in page evaluation.

Here are some metrics worth tracking for voice search SEO:

Ranking

It’s important to keep track of rankings primarily because this is what drives organic search. Having a good position in search results boosts the clicks to your content. It should be noted, however, that tracking rankings matters the most when you factor in other metrics such as CTRs and organic traffic.

Organic Search Traffic

Organic search traffic is a crucial metric to keep an eye on for voice search SEO. Seeing the number of people on your page gives you an idea of how much potential there is to turn visits into conversions.

Organic Bounce Rate

It’s not enough that you’re aware of the number of visits. Recognize the length of time users are on your page. Are they there long enough to look at your content or do they navigate out of it too soon?

Organic Conversion Rate

This refers to the percentage of visitors acting upon a goal you’ve set for them to pursue. It could be to sign up for an account or newsletter or simply purchase something from your site. Tracking this allows you to see how performance fairs on a page compared to other pages on your website. You’ll be able to better understand where to focus efforts on when improving pages and content.

Do I have a keyword list?

As mentioned earlier, determining your target audience affects the way you create content. Using the question of who you’re speaking with, you can then determine what you’ll be talking about.

A monthly keyword research should suffice in keeping you on top of current trends and relevant searches at the same time, ensuring that what you’ll be producing is well-targeted and will bring in the right visitors that will turn into customers. This additionally helps make content strategizing a much easier task as you’ll be able to immediately recognize which topics you can build on and which to reconsider deprioritizing.

Do I have quality content?

Content plays a key factor in voice search SEO. It’s the very reason any user would click on your website from SERPs and the same reason they would stay on your site and eventually explore. But of course, it isn’t enough to just have a block of keyword-stuffed text sitting on a page of your website. It needs to hold a standard of quality that users would come back to.

Circling back to your audience and every search engine’s inevitable core of putting user experience first, your content needs to be of value. Quality content means what’s on your page matches the user’s intent with the information they’re looking for and the language they actually use. Present it in a way that keeps them engaged without missing a beat on being informative.

For businesses that market products and services, FAQ pages are great for ranking. It’s a platform where you can address all the questions about your business in one compact landscape. Not only will you be able to nail a question, but you also gain more trust from your user and directly establish how you’re able to help them. To make sure that users stay on your FAQ page you should make sure that each question has its own page with succinct answers.

Here are other types of content you can consider creating:

Viral content, which can come in the form of text, images, or videos
Guides to a subject related to your website
Product reviews you can pull from your client pool
Infographics for a more informal approach

Am I a local business or an enterprise?

Voice search is used because of its convenience and speed in providing answers to queries. A quick search of a target keyword will pull up results that show you who your competitors are. Regardless of whether or not you’re in the same industry or subject specialty, everyone included in that SERP is considered a competitor.

Forty-six percent of voice search users look for local businesses which they can visit easily. That’s a considerably big chunk of people who are looking for locations within the vicinity, which is good news for local businesses. The best way to compete against big enterprises with multiple branches, as well as other unrelated competitors, is to establish authority in your industry.

For enterprises, on the other hand, if you’re looking to compete against local businesses, you’re going to want to focus on localizing your content in a similar way. Think of growing at ground level, asserting that you are locally available, offering the kind of products or services that a user might be looking for.

This means when optimizing, you need to make sure you’re getting your business on the map. To do this you need to:

Be aware of your local competitors. Knowing who you’re up against in the market gives you the advantage of planning better location-specific strategies.
Filter your competitor accuracy. Look out for who may be providing outdated information. This is the perfect opportunity to boost your business.
Get your business on the map. Part of establishing authority in your industry is getting a business listing, adding your location address, implementing star ratings and customer reviews. You can do this with Googl e My Business.
Be active on social media. Showing your audience that you’re active and easy to contact makes your business a better prospect to visit. Google has also confirmed that this will get you better rankings in local searches.

Do I have a link building strategy?

Link building is important in SEO for two main reasons:

Boosted rankings

Links contribute to the ranking of a site on SERPs. Each website that links to your page counts as a “vote” for relevance and credibility, so long as the page linking to you is one that has an equally if not more credible setup. The more quality links you have, the better chances of your domain authority will improve.

Relevant subject discovery

Sites who have linked to you potentially offer traffic from their page to yours. The more links you have, the better chances there are of more users coming in to view your site aside from accessing it through results pages.

To realize your site’s potential, you can implement your link building strategy with outreach:

You can interact with influential personalities or businesses that can help promote your website.
You can also offer to contribute a guest post to their blog, which will contain a link to your website.

After successfully getting a link from their own page, the exposure follows. These referral links are great for gathering more curious potential customers, underscoring the need to create engaging content on your page.

How much will it cost me to do voice search SEO?

As a responsible SEO or digital marketer, you should be financially aware of how much you’ll be shelling out to optimize your website for voice search. Your budget would, of course, be dependent on what process you choose to go with. Will you be hiring an agency or are you building your own team?

Pricing varies depending on the kind of service you’ll be availing or the agency you’re considering. Building your own team, on the other hand, would have a different cost since you’ll be hiring instead of outsourcing.

Your basic SEO team roles would require a project manager, data analyst, content creator, link builder, and web development. It’s considerably more expensive since this would be a continuous expense than outsourcing. However, you can also choose to upskill existing employees to cut through the hiring process.

Conclusion

Digital assistants have made a significant impact on the way search. Voice search has enabled a stronger culture of multitasking and a bigger demand for efficiency on both offline and online habits.

From an SEO and digital marketer’s perspective, its influence is something that can’t be missed primarily because of the way algorithms have changed and adjusted to suit the new tech. Many factors now play key roles in better rankings. Mobile-friendly pages, faster page load, more complex keywords, improved UX, and linking are just a few things to keep on the list of priorities.

Taking a quick assessment of your website’s current status and your business’s goals is imperative to see whether or not you’re in the right position to be optimizing for voice search. Asking yourself the right questions with the full scope of what you’re getting into should make the decision-making process an easier one.

If you’ve decided to start optimizing for voice search, you can get in touch with Voice SEO. You’ll be well on your way to seeing your site rise through the ranks in no time.

Mar 31 2020

How to Write an Optimized FAQ Page to Rank for Voice Search

While robot assistants aren’t in mass circulation yet, voice assistants probably come close to fulfilling that spot today. Uttering commands to a speaker or mobile phone is now considered natural, and these devices have now become multi-functional gadgets that spew out information that you wish: call your co-worker, play your favorite song, or find the best Italian restaurant in your neighborhood.

Even if you’re not an avid user of the tech now, chances are you know someone who is. In a few years, this may become the new norm, with more gadgets like cars, pens, and watches able to answer you in a second. Truly, voice search is creating an impact on the way people live their lives and digest content, and more changes are set to unfold in the future.

For instance, Gartner predicted that around 30% of all web browsing would be voice-activated. We’re almost there, and this couldn’t be far from possible. After all, there was a recorded 2.5 billion voice assistants in use by the end of 2018, and this number will likely triple in just a few years.

Realistically speaking, it’s a bit of a stretch to see all keyboard users vanish and use voice-enabled search every chance they get, as there’s a time, place, and specific use for voice search. However, the growing number of people who do use it is getting hard to ignore, which could make you opt to consider tapping experts for voice search optimization services.

SEO and keyword research has seen changes as people use more long-tail and conversational keywords to find what they’re looking for on the internet. This makes sense, as one would probably say, “Where’s the best Italian restaurant near me?” out loud vs. “best Italian restaurant LA.” This is one of the most compelling reasons why FAQ pages can help attract your voice-searching audience to your business.

What is an FAQ page?

Short for Frequently Asked Questions, FAQ pages usually contain the top queries your customers have had about your business. However, you can also strategically include topics you want them to be familiar with on this page. Being the first point of contact with your customers, FAQs deal with the details and answers to specific questions about your product or service in a straightforward manner.

Here’s why it’s so effective:

■ It can lessen inquiries directed to customer service by providing public information on a particular topic.

■ It’s good for SEO, which can boost rankings and offer better user experience (navigation, content).

■ It demonstrates professionalism and creativity by giving your audience a taste of what it’s like to do business with you.

■ It can provide more information about your company, products, or services that were not initially addressed by the product page copy.

■ It can help your company earn the trust of new visitors as they learn more information about your company.

Keep in mind that the only way to reap the full benefits of this is if your FAQ page is fully optimized.

Tips on Writing and Optimizing an FAQ Page for Voice Search

Here are some actionable and valuable tips on how to improve your existing FAQ page or build one from scratch, with voice search in mind.

1. Know your target audience

Understanding your web visitors is the first step to creating the backbone of your FAQ content. What are they asking? What keywords or phrases are they using that lead them to your site? What questions are they sending your customer service reps or social channels?

There are a few ways to go about this:

■ Anticipate the needs of your customers and include answers to questions that they might not even have thought of yet. Put yourself in the position of your target audience and see what information you would want more of.

■ Engage with your current customers through your business’ most effective touchpoint. Whether it’s through social media, email, or face time with clients in-store, ask them what’s on their mind and how you can serve them better.

■ Perform competitor analysis and see what types of FAQs your industry rivals are answering.

■ Do a keyword research study on the most frequently used terms your visitors have entered to find your website.

Putting yourself in the shoes of your customers makes them more at reach. You’ll be able to relate to them and provide services and information that can better suit their needs. Allow them to be your guidepost.

2. Frame questions using the first-person perspective

There are plenty of ways to structure an FAQ page. While it’s a good idea to be direct, it’s not that enticing to place short, clipped sentences that barely provide details. Adding some character and personalization in your FAQs will keep your audience engaged.

Furthermore, using the first-person perspective in speech is the most effective way to go. It matches the way the question is formed on the user’s mind and therefore relates to them more. Here’s an example:

Example 1: What is your return policy?

Example 2: How can I return my purchase?

While the first example doesn’t sound bad, it doesn’t reflect the thinking pattern of most web guests. Going with the first-person approach is kinder and customer-centric, which visitors often appreciate more. This is also how a person using voice search would ask their question. Using the words “I” and “my” can help fix the structure of any FAQ sentence.

3. Use interrogative sentences

Your FAQs should read like questions instead of statements. This format is what a user typically expects. However, it’s common for other websites not to follow this format and opt for direct sentences and explanations instead, or worse, a combo of statements and questions.

If you’re one of the websites that don’t use the question format, it’s time to make a switch. This makes your FAQs look confusing and stiff. Here’s an example:

Statement: Delivery time frames and serviced areas.

Question: How long will the package get to my address?

FAQs are not blogs, so your points for discussion should look less like headers and more like questions flowing out of the users’ minds. After all, when they do a voice search, there’s always a question mark at the end of their queries.

4. Be direct and transparent with your answers

While concise answers may sound unappealing, no user would want to read huge blocks of text to find the answer to their question. Avoid overcomplicating things with your desire to help your consumers. Keep it at just the right length.

If you need to elaborate a lot on your explanations, it’s a good idea to use bullets, emphasize specific keywords through formatting, and break up your paragraphs every three lines. This will make your content easily digestible rather than overwhelming. Search engines will also be able to comb through properly-formatted texts as well, which is better for SEO.

Remember, your FAQ is present to bring comfort and answers to your user, not confuse them even more. Proofread your answers and check over and over how much you can simplify a word, shorten a sentence, edit unnecessary information out, and so on.

5. Organize and structure your FAQs properly

This step is critical if you have a library of questions that needs answering. Just imagine the frustration of the user when they come across your FAQ, and they can’t seem to find the portion that the search engine showed at the results page.

Here are some ideas on how to structure your FAQ page:

■ Group your questions per category. Your customers will not just have questions about your product or service. They might want to know about payment information, data security, the step-by-step process of managing their account, and so much more. It will be easier to find a question under a specific category when fixed this way.

■ List the items chronologically. Follow the natural journey of the user on your website and order your questions in that manner. For instance, you would prioritize questions about payments before delivery, followed by returns, and so on.

■ Sort them by your audience, if applicable. This is applicable for companies with free and premium services. There may be complex FAQs for premium members that non-paying customers may not necessarily experience. Highlight the segregation and make sure your audience can easily spot them.

6. Add links to your blog posts

Blogs are critical for online presence and content marketing efforts. You can combine the efforts of your blog posts with your FAQ page.

If you want to tackle complex topics to questions such as, “Which [product or service] is right for me?” A blog post is the best place to discuss it. It will serve a larger audience in that platform than an FAQ. You can add links to these pieces of content on your FAQ so that you can give further information to your web visitor. This also clues them in that you have a library of existing articles that could help them out further. It’s also an excellent way to help your users stay in your website longer since they will be navigating within the site rather than exiting and looking for other answers elsewhere.

7. Don’t forget your CTAs

Call-to-action buttons are an essential ingredient for conversions. While your visitors are in the FAQ page, they could come across information that satisfies them or puts them to a much closer position of doing business with you than moments ago. This is the perfect opportunity to gently motivate them to sign up, buy now, or learn more.

You can include a CTA in one of two ways:

■ Have a general CTA button visible on all pages of your FAQ site, preferably in stark contrast to your website’s colors so that it can be seen easily.

■ Include links and CTA lines in some of the answers to your FAQs so your readers can easily take the next step without having to go to another page.

Take advantage of this secret weapon as not all FAQs would typically have this!

8. Use social proof to establish credibility

Last but not least is social proof. Your audience goes to your FAQs for some reassurance, so they know that they’re giving their money to the right business. They’ll be keen to know about your product, but also about the way your company deals with issues and crises like billing, refund policies, and more.

Since your goal is to calm the anxiety and doubts of your web visitors, adding social proof in your FAQs is the cherry on top. You don’t have to insert quotes unnaturally at every answer, but instead, add a section at the bottom of the page where they can visibly see the reviews other people have written publicly about you. You can put logos of social networking sites or blogs where you’ve been featured before.

The goal here is to use the credibility of other sites and reviewers so that they can give you that same trust.

Best FAQ Page Examples

To get a clearer idea of these tips put into action, here are some examples of useful FAQ pages.

Microsoft

The tech mogul’s FAQ page is written in the first-person POV and separates their Windows and Office users’ concerns for straightforward navigation.

Nintendo

Nintendo offers an easy-to-read and direct approach when answering questions but still does so in an engaging manner. They also have a CTA of their login/signup button in red at the top corner of the page, which is hard to miss!

United By Blue

The apparel brand made use of internal linking techniques to discuss an extensive topic in-depth.

Days Out Guide

This site features a keyword cloud at the top of their page which redirects users to their concern. They also use formatting to emphasize certain parts of their answer since it’s a bit long, offering a balance between text, imagery, and interactive features.

Get Started on Writing an Excellent FAQ Page

Writing an FAQ page is theoretically straightforward, however, paying attention to the details is what separates you from optimizing your website both for its content and navigation. You won’t just be serving your voice searching audience, but you would have executed all the right steps to attract them to your page in the first place. In the era of voice search, writing an excellent FAQ page is a weapon you would want to utilize.

Having experts guide and review your efforts is another step in ensuring you’re going down the right path in business. Voice SEO can help show you the ropes in FAQ page optimization, as well as your other voice search needs.