VoiceSEO

seo audit

Top 7 Skills to Upgrade for the Voice Search Revolution

Voice search SEO skills

The Voice Search Revolution

Remember when Siri first came out and no one took her seriously? We’d ask questions like “Hey Siri! Do you love me?” or “Hey Siri, what is the meaning of life?” hoping for a funny answer to come along. Things have changed A LOT since then.

When voice search first arrived, not everyone could truly value its potential. But now, speaking to an inanimate object isn’t so bad after all! With recent developments in technology, the current trends suggest that the evolution of voice search will cause the digital industry to shift in its direction.

By 2020 it is estimated that 50% of online searches will be coming from voice search. The convenience that voice assistants such as Siri and Cortana provide works both ways. Not only does it make life easier for users by providing quick and concise results for their inquiries, but it also makes it easier for marketers to get their brands out there.

As advanced and stable as voice search may seem, it will always be in the development stage. Preparing for these changes are crucial for optimization. With an ever-changing digital marketing landscape, keeping up with the change will allow you to remain ahead of the curve.

How Does Voice Search Change the Way People Gather Information?

When one uses a text-based search, the tendency is that the words inputted in the search engine are often unspecified, vague, and robotic. Let’s say you want to know more about the piano by typing the word “piano info” in the search engine. The results are out, but did you get the information you were looking for? What about pianos are you looking for exactly? Is it just a picture of a piano, a list of piano prices, or a piano tutorial? Typed searches often lack keywords, making it difficult for search engines to provide you with the right information.

Before we dive deeper into voice search, we need to ask the question: Why do people use voice search in the first place? Simple! Everyone needs an assistant to lighten up the load. Voice search changes the way we gather information. Speaking to your mobile device or gadget is a quicker way to help you find your answer, and it also requires less effort.

It is reported that 70% of searches on Google Assistant use natural language. Voice search keywords are significantly longer than text-based searches because it causes us to be more specific. In voice search, the user will ask, “What are the best pianos to buy this year?” Instead of just typing in two to three words, using voice search unconsciously alters our behavior by causing us to use natural language and longer queries.

With voice search, the context and intent of the queries are clearer. Thus, it becomes easier for search engines to understand and provide the most relevant results.

Location and Intent

Let’s say you were walking around the city one afternoon and you suddenly wanted to try a new restaurant near you. You take out your phone and use voice search to help you out. Your assistant (may it be Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, or Alexa) will automatically use your location and perhaps even the weather to help you navigate. In just a minute, you were able to find restaurants near you, all with the information you need, such as the address, contact number, and operating hours.

Google reports that “near me now” searches have grown by 150% over the last two years. More than just providing your current whereabouts, the phrase “near me” is a crucial bit of information for businesses because it expresses one’s intention. Note that this is not only limited to services such as restaurants, hotels, or gas stations.

Searchers are starting to become more specific with the things they want to buy. Whether someone’s looking for a cute dress or a nice pair of boots, marketers need to take advantage of these micro-moments when the intent to purchase is strong. Make sure that the content you are producing is optimized for queries expressing high purchasing intent, such as “near me” voice search.

Maximizing Results

Compared to before, simple and mediocre content doesn’t come up as easily as it used to. Google’s algorithms are getting smarter and smarter, and at the same time, the competition is getting tighter than ever before. Sadly, the first page of the results section won’t get any bigger despite the growing number of competitors. You wouldn’t want your site to get moved to page 2.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page) features such as Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets (also known as Position Zero) has affected the number of organic clicks websites, which has dropped by 37%. SERP features remove the need to visit a page to get your answer. By inputting the right keywords, you can find your answer immediately in the search results.

While this dip in click-through rate may seem discouraging, take it as an indication that Google’s answer-focused technology has truly advanced so much in terms of accuracy and relevancy. This builds searchers’ trust in search engine; the same trust will trickle down to your brand’s content if it appears as a Featured Snippet. The more you rank for Position Zero, the more searchers trust and rely on your content for answers.

Optimizing for voice search SEO requires you to create reliable content that is readily available. By providing timely and relevant answers through your content, trust between you and your target audience will get stronger. Regardless of what industry your business is in, acquiring high-quality SEO services will help keep your website on top of the results page.

Skills to Improve for Voice Search

By now you should know that voice search isn’t just a fad. If you haven’t incorporated it into your company’s SEO strategy, DO IT NOW. If you’ve already done so, then good for you. However, you should continuously learn about current trends to prepare for the changes to come. Here are some key areas you can improve on to acquire optimal voice search SEO results.

Voice Keyword Research

Research for high performing keywords. As mentioned previously, compared to text-based searches, voice searches provide better results by providing answers that use natural language. Keywords such as “best” and “beaches” will slowly get replaced with long and natural keywords such as “best beaches in Asia to go to for the month of April.” In a nutshell, natural sounding keywords are going to get a boost in volume as voice search grows.

Let’s not get off the wrong foot here. Bigger doesn’t always mean better. This is not to say that you should only optimize your page around long keywords; you can get creative and find ways to spread them out in the content you are creating. Regardless of where your keyword is placed, once Google finds it, they’ll immediately use it as a voice search result.

Considering how the changes in keywords affect how search engines operate, always take the time to update your keyword research and analysis skill. Additionally, explore tools that can help you perform keyword research!

Local SEO

“Near me” searches are at an all-time high. As such, it’s also high time you reassess and refresh your Local SEO know-how. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to get your business out there.

Don’t ignore the importance of a well-crafted My Business Page. Make sure that your Google My Business Page is up to date with the right address, store hours, and contact number.

Creating your own Google My Business page will make it easier for your customers to reach you. Not only do you provide your rankings, location, and contact details, you immediately make a good first impression.

SEO Audit Specifically on Site Speed

Page speed has always been a crucial factor in SEO, but with voice search, it is even more important now more than ever. Users of voice search are always on the go and don’t have the time to waste. If your site speed isn’t optimized, they won’t hesitate to leave and look for answers elsewhere.

Indeed, the loading speed of a voice search result is 3.8x faster than the average website speed. Learn how to use and analyze your current website speed with PageSpeed Insights and other SEO audit tools. Knowing how to audit your themes, plugins, and other site integrations that may be affecting your site speed is a key skill to develop for voice SEO.

Various tools tell you whether your site’s current loading time and give recommendations on how to make it even faster. However, tools are only as good as the user. Fully understanding what kind of data you’re getting makes all the difference in optimizing your site speed.

Content Optimization

Producing Voice Search FAQ Pages

In a previous study by Backlinko, one of their findings suggested that Google tends to answer queries with 29-word results. An example used in“Near me” searches“Near me” searches their study would be the results for the query “Are figs good for you?” Google responded with: “Figs are high in fiber and a good source of several essential minerals, including magnesium, manganese, calcium, copper, and potassium, as well as vitamins, principally K and B6.” The result ended up with only 28 words.

When addressing questions by consumers, the results of the study implies that we should always try to answer queries in 30 words or less. Google prefers giving short answers; this is probably the reason why voice search results are more likely to come from FAQ pages.

For the record, this doesn’t mean that you should only write 30-word blog posts. Aligned with the skills mentioned above, the voice search revolution should encourage you to re-hone your writing skills to be short and sweet.

Almost half (40.7%) of voice search results come from the featured snippet. Nowadays, consumers don’t necessarily have to dive in the bottom of the article just to get the answers they want. Optimizing for featured snippets provides convenience for voice search users because they immediately have their answers and follow up questions in the first page.

Note that for Google Home and Alexa, search results will only give you one answer, making it more crucial to get in the featured snippet. To get your content in a featured snippet, you must learn how to create “snippable” content. For starters, practice producing content that directly answers your chosen keyword phrase and formatting it into either a paragraph, list, or table.

Writing Content with Natural Language

When searching for information via your phone’s voice assistant, people speak as if they’re talking to a normal human. Just like the Piano example above, voice searches are more natural and organic as compared to keyboard searches. When someone asks a question like, “Is feeding chicken bones to dogs safe?” Google will immediately look for a match in a site’s content. Natural questions require natural answers.

Study the conversationally-phrased queries your target audience is using and exercise writing your content using natural, and casual language.

Embedding Long Tail Keywords Into Long Form Content

Voice searches are significantly longer than keyboard searches. Using long tail keywords & questions is a good practice for both traditional and voice search SEO. Long key phrases have less competition and provide an opportunity for your site to gain higher rankings.

Content that answers explicit questions like who, what, how, where, and why have featured snippets. Thus, choose the right questions you want to address and add them to pages around your site.

Learn how to gauge which long-tail keyword has the most potential and incorporate these in the headers; then provide answers for the main question and other related questions in the body.

Video SEO

Aside from featured snippets, Google has recently developed what they would call “Video Featured Snippets.” It’s a quick video result, but instead of linking a whole YouTube video, Google only shows you the clip that is relevant to your needs. Often, these types of videos tend to pop up more for natural language queries.

Let’s say someone would like to find out how to increase your views on YouTube. The regular desktop searcher would type something like “YouTube SEO” as compared to the voice search user that will say, “How do I rank my YouTube videos?”

Video is one of the ways that Google answers voice search queries. When inquiring about something, most people would rather watch a video than read an article. Assess if your existing videos are optimized and add web video optimization to your list of skills to update. If you have yet to create video content, get to it!

Sites with lots of links appear more often in voice searches. Voice search results are just a single result, so Google wants to make sure that they’re giving you the information you need from a trusted source. This causes them to lean towards domain authority over page authority. When you focus on building up your Domain Authority, Google will want to use different pages of your site as a source.

Like citing references on a research paper, having different links on your site is a way to assure Google that the information your page provides is well researched and valid. Having a lot of high authority sites linking to your page is a signal that you are a trusted source of information.

Aside from assessing the backlinks you’ve earned, evaluate your current link building arsenal. Are your tactics up to date? You’ll know that you need to update it if your outreach emails are no longer getting opened and you’re no longer getting new backlinks; tell-tale signs that you need to explore new link building tactics!

Schema markup

You can control how search engines provide information about your brand. The content on your website will most likely get indexed in the results, but with schema markup, you can decide on what content gets indexed.

Let’s say your site name appears on an article. By optimizing with schema markup, you’re already telling Google what your site is all about making it easier for relevant and related information to be linked to your site. Having structured data give your pages a higher chance to appear in featured snippets and voice search results.

That said, learning how to add structured data to your page will pay off generously. Structuring your data with schema markup will make the process a whole lot easier for users and search engines to understand your site.

Conclusion

The digital industry is taking steps towards the direction voice search is heading. With its development in recent years, we can already expect that more improvements and changes are to be made. With the number of voice search users increasing constantly, marketers need to understand how their audience is using this technology and what they can do to utilize it.

The best way to secure your business’ future is to learn about the trends and methods that will help your site boost its traditional and voice search SEO. The best way to be prepared for the future is to never stop learning. Constantly improving your skill set is the best way to maintain your position at the head of the curve. Hopefully, our tips were able to help you take the next step in developing your site’s voice search SEO.

The Ultimate SEO Audit Checklist for Voice Search SEO

The Ultimate SEO Audit Checklist for Voice Search SEO

Digital assistants have changed the way people search. It’s evident in the way consumers have adapted to AI’s accessibility on mobile and home devices. You see it in the form of different names such as Siri, Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, and Google Assistant. They make life easier by minimizing the need to type queries and by providing answers more efficiently . 

Voice search essentially changes the game for SEO and digital marketers. According to a 2018 local business study in the US, 58% of consumers use voice search to find local businesses on a near-regular basis. ComScore predicts that by 2020, voice search will contribute to 50% of all search engine queries. That’s a significantly sizeable amount of users who you won’t want to miss visiting your website.

What does this mean for optimization? Because searchers are increasingly using more conversational phrases when interacting with digital assistants, the construction of queries have also changed. Gone is the need to skimp out on keywords as a means to lessen the effort in typing. 

A question can be asked as candidly and as long as desired because the more specific they are, the better the chance of getting a relevant answer. In effect, SERPs now also feature richer results ranging from Featured Snippets, Knowledge Graphs, video carousels, and many more—making it even more challenging to stand out in search results.

The rapidly growing presence of voice search only makes things like mobile-friendly pages, site speed, and linking structures crucial aspects to optimization. A thorough SEO audit will allow you to see where your site currently stands and how much you’ll need to prepare for voice search optimization. It might seem overwhelming with all that needs to be considered, but with the right audit checklist, it’ll be a cinch nailing everything you need.

Below is a foolproof list every SEO and digital marketer needs to include during an SEO audit prior to optimizing for voice search, to hit better rankings and engagement.

SEO Audit Checklist for Voice Search

1. Check your Organic Traffic

The first and most important task in starting your audit is taking a look at your organic traffic. From here, you’ll have a good idea of where you’re currently at in terms of your optimization success and how you can drive it even further. This point of reference will be able to help you identify your plan of action based on what to improve and how best to enhance the different parts of your website.

When checking your organic traffic on Google Analytics, make sure to set the right filters on your results. You’ll want to remove the irrelevant data, which includes yourself and your coworkers. Your best bet for this is to use IP address filters. 

Ideally, your traffic within half a year or more should be going in an upward trend. Don’t worry if it’s flat or declining as there’s been a 37% drop in organic clicks because of richer results on both text and voice search. The good news is, you can always optimize through a variety of means to improve your site’s success.

Some key metrics you’ll be able to look further into from organic traffic analysis on Google Analytics:

  • Devices. It’s a good way to measure what percent of your visitors are on desktop or mobile, so you know if you need to adjust your strategies.
  • User location. Identify where the concentration of your traffic comes from. From here, you can also see if there’s potential to expand your business to other locations.
  • User site navigation. You’ll be able to know if their behavior is going as planned and then determine if you need to adjust.

2. Asses if your site is mobile-friendly

Almost 60% of queries on Google are made via mobile devices. It was also found that smartphones are the most used device for voice search. 

If that isn’t enough to strengthen the need to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, Google has also started implementing mobile-first indexing. This effort is primarily made to address the growing rate of mobile searches, surfacing pages that’s ready with mobile-friendly content. 

Assess your site’s mobile friendliness with these tools:

  • Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. It views your site just like Googlebot and gives you a straightforward answer as to whether or not you need to make improvements on your site. 
  • HubSpot’s Website Grader. It conducts a thorough check of your website, showing your page on mobile view and determines if it’s responsive enough.
  • BrowserStack. It allows you to view how your website looks on different kinds of mobile devices.

3. Evaluate your site speed, then find and fix indexing problems

In 2018, Google announced that page speed would be included in the ranking algorithm for mobile searches. This implies the necessity to double check your site speed and boost its performance by fixing any indexing problems. You can do this a number of ways. 

  • A free and recommended platform for checking your site speed is Google PageSpeed Insights. Through it, you’ll be able to identify your page performance directly with a general score and get actionable tips to improve your current position.
  • Run speed tests with tools like GTMetrix and Webpagetest.org. You’ll be able to identify what exactly is slowing down your page.
  • Run crawling programs like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, DeepCrawl, and Ahrefs to see if you’re accidentally blocking pages you don’t want to be blocked with robots.txt file. 

4. Improve on-page SEO

Beefing up your on-page SEO is good practice for boosting relevant traffic on your site. Luckily, you don’t necessarily have to apply on-page SEO to all your pages. Choosing a handful of key pages will be able to do the trick. 

Ideas for selecting pages to improve:

  • Pages that rank well but hold potential for bigger success
  • Pages that target specific keywords
  • Pages that get significantly less traffic than other pages on your site

Some key points to kickstart this part of your audit:

  1. Are you maximizing your keywords? Implement your keywords well. They should be on on your URLs, title tag, headline tag, and description?
  2. Are you using modifiers to your titles? Add modifiers on your headlines. This helps your site rank for long tail keywords.
  3. Are you applying LSI keywords to your content? Use Latent Semantic Indexing keywords on your page. These keywords help Google identify the main topic and attribute it to the relevance and legitimacy of your site.
  4. How is your site’s link profile? Add internal and external links to your content. This strengthens your pages’ relevance as well as your own website’s relevance to other sites.

5. Set Up Keyword Rank Tracking

Monitor how your pages are performing for a variety of keywords. Once you know which pages aren’t performing well, you’ll be able to look into keyword targeting and improve the credibility of your page as needed.

SEMrush is a handy tool for getting the job done. It finds keywords your site ranks for. It’s a great way to figure out if you should refresh your keywords with new additions or drop any old ones. 

6. Analyze Your Backlinks

Google’s top 3 search ranking factors include links. In a Google Search results analysis by Backlinko, it was found that backlinks do play a significant role in rankings. These external links, after all, are basically other sites vouching for your website’s authority and relevance to related content. The more websites there are that “vote” for you by linking to your pages, the better your ranking will be. 

This, however, doesn’t mean that just any link from any other site will work. These external links still need to come from quality sources, which is why you still need to analyze your backlinks. Here’s what you can do:

  • Run a quick analysis with backlink tools. Some great tools are Ahrefs or Moz.
  • Monitor your domain authority. This tells you whether your site is credible based on the amount and quality of your backlinks.
  • Check for quality links. Are anchor texts valid and relevant to your domain, or are they simply spam keywords? Do these come from real websites that have content related to yours, or is it irrelevant?
  • Disavow links that you see unfit. 

7. Check for and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are generally bad for your site. If a user clicks on a link to your site and sees an Error 404, you lose a visitor and essentially prompt them to look for an answer elsewhere. When search engines crawl your website and come across a broken link, it can stop the spiders from indexing. You, therefore, lose both ranking potential and site visitors who could’ve become paying clients. 

Find broken links on your site with tools like Broken Link Check or Ahrefs. These can help you determine which pages are broken. If there are pages you want to rank that are affected, get around to fixing them ASAP. 

8. Optimize For UX Signals

UX affects the way a user finds value in your website. When a page is created with a user’s experience in mind, they’ll be able to see content relevant to their direct concern as well as intuitively find related content on your other pages.

Some UX signals you must optimize for:

  • Organic CTR. Make sure that your title tags, descriptions, and URLs employ your targeted keywords.
  • Dwell time. Enrich your page with content such as text, videos, and images that are relevant to the user’s intent.
  • Intent Optimization. It’s important to match your content based on your target audience’s intent. Review your main and long tail keywords to see that your content answers users’ questions.

9. Check and Fix Internal Linking Structure

Having a solid internal linking structure can set you up for success. Through it, you’ll be able to help both visitors and search engines better understand the relevance and relationships of your pages as well as their value. You can build up your internal linking structure a number of ways:

  • Link to cornerstone content. When your content mentions related terms that are fully explained in other pages (cornerstone content), take it as an opportunity to link to them.
  • Mention related posts. Similar to linking cornerstone content, having a list of related posts below your page content would also be able to let users find more value in your site. This will let them find useful resources they can also refer to.
  • Add navigation links. Strengthen your cornerstone content with direct links to them from your navigation bar or homepage.

10. Use a Site Audit Tool

Check the overall health of your website with SEO audit tools. They give you a more thorough look at what you might be missing in your own checks. You’ll also get a list of recommendations to optimize your site better, which proves tremendously helpful when there are frequent algorithm updates you need to be cautious of. Neil Patel recommends full SEO audits every quarter with mini-audits at least once a month.

Some good site audit tools are Seobility and SEMrush. With these, you’ll get a full sweep of your site and figure out actionable plans to improve your pages. Remember that while tools provide a wide variety of functions that can help you audit and optimize your SEO strategies for voice search, tools are only as good as its user.

11. Content Audit, Content Gap Analysis

Conducting a content audit and analysis evaluates the quality of your pages, accounting for the indexed content on your website. It focuses on which pages perform best, which topics are missing key supplementary articles, which needs updating, retention, and removal. This ultimately helps you better strategize the way you manage and produce your content to build value and authority for your site.

Perform Content Audits for Effective Voice SEO

With the entrance of voice search in the form of digital assistants seen mostly on mobile devices, the way people search on platforms like Google has changed. Factors like longer searches, colloquial terms used in search, and location make optimizing a bit more of a challenge. Add to the fact that search engine algorithms go through a motion of frequent changes, the importance of conducting regular SEO audits comes to light in an effort to keep abreast of everything.

An SEO audit gives you the rundown of your website’s overall performance. It’s an essential part of optimization that lets you see if everything is running smoothly or if there are things on your site that are affecting your ranking and user satisfaction. These are things you can only find with a thorough analysis of your site’s organic traffic, mobile adaptability, user path, content, architectural structure, and internal and external linking. 

Insights from an audit also give you a better understanding of how best to approach your SEO strategy to build your site up for success. You may find the need to retarget with your keywords, adjust your site navigation, or do some kind of overhaul to boost authority, traffic, engagement, and eventually a strong following.

Likewise, an SEO audit serves as a great point of reference for your website’s current status, which will help in the long run. The benchmark will allow you to see just how much change there needs to be before you adapt to voice search optimization, which is likely where the future of search is headed.

How to Hire the Right Voice Search SEO Agency

How to Hire the Right Voice Search SEO Agency

They may not be as sophisticated as J.A.R.V.I.S. or F.R.I.D.A.Y. (yet) but voice-operated machines have come a long way since we were introduced to SIRI. No longer fumbling in word recognition, voice search has evolved from just knowing the words to knowing the intent of the user asking.

In a recent study some 53 million people now own at least one smart speaker in their household. This phenomenal growth of voice-activated gadgetry is reshaping consumer behavior by the daily.

Voice search is essentially speech recognition technology. You literally talk to your phone or smart speakers and ask it whatever question itches your mind and you get an answer! According to ComScore, searches are more likely voice generated than typed by 2020.

These items are now the center of the household and consumers prefer talking to their voice-activated virtual assistants instead of having to type in their searches or inquiries. Consumers are also more akin to this new technology as it makes life easier and it makes it seem that you’re only talking to a friend.

This new “relationship” of human and machine is a doorway for brands to step in as part of the experience. You would want to optimize for local searches and use structured data so Google would rank you high. But how?

To do this, it is best to hire a voice search optimization company who can ensure better traffic for your website and making sure you appear on the top search results for these voice search inquiries. We have listed a couple of ways on how voice search optimization can help you.

How Voice Search Optimization Can Help Your Business

They Do the Digging

Like any other business, you have to be wary of your competitors. By having a good voice search optimization company in hand, you have a specific group who would do just that for you. They can research on what keywords your competitors use to get to top search results and develop a plan on how to eclipse them. Overtime, by knowing your competitors, your voice search optimization company can better construct campaigns that are sure to deliver the best results for your company.

They Study You Too

A little introspection goes a long way. A good agency knows that it is imperative that they research on the company they are working for to develop tailored strategies. A voice search optimization agency will want to know historical data on how you have run your company’s marketing approach in the past and your goals for the future in order to create the apt campaign that will ultimately be beneficial for your company.

They Know the Words

Specifically, keywords. The most important factor in creating an effective voice search optimization campaign is knowing the top keywords that will land you on the top results. A good voice search SEO agency will research not only keywords but phrases that are most likely spoken by voice search users. Developments in speech recognition have been astronomical that it has become an integral part of life by a huge chunk of the population (millennials). An agency should be adept in this field because using the proper key phrases drives traffic to your site and create potential clients for your business.

They Know How to Use Those Words

In line with knowing key phrases, any voice search optimization agency knows that creating content around keywords will rank you to better search result standing. A voice SEO agency will create valuable content around the topic using key phrases to rank higher in Google search result.

They Will Optimize Content

Another crucial task that a voice SEO agency can do for you is optimizing content that’s already there. Typed inquiries may yield different results from spoken questions and by having an agency who can tailor the content you already have to pop up in voice-search results is going to be good for your business.

They Will Enhance Your Pages

It’s in the name, a voice search optimization company’s general task is to optimize your site. This means creating content that will land you on position zero in a voice search result through carefully crafted campaigns backed by extensive research.

Why Hire a Voice Search SEO Agency?

Online presence is one important facet of running a business in this day and age—and a huge important facet at that. Having someone who can professionally handle all things online for you gets a chunk of the work off your plate and lets you focus on other aspects of your business.

Aside from what a voice SEO firm can do for you, there are also other benefits you might not have thought of in hiring one. Above, we have listed the things that a good voice search SEO agency will do for you, with those in mind, here are the benefits you get when you find and hire the best voice SEO company for you:

You Get Time Back

Imagine having to learn algorithms and analytics on top of running a business, daunting, right? But by hiring a reliable voice search SEO services relieves you of all that technicalities. You can use the time you would use in crafting content, scouring competitors’ strategies and keywords, and learning a whole new element of running a business to actually running your business. Another plus side, you can use that time for your personal life!

Your Online Presence is Taken Cared for

With more and more people relying on the internet for just about everything, your online presence is of utmost importance. Your site needs to have a good user interface, your multiple social media accounts must be updated and go with what’s trending, and overall, your presence needs to be relatable and optimized—all of which you can get by hiring a reputable voice search optimization agency who knows their stuff. Imaging doing this by yourself!

Your Rankings Will Rise

Increased site traffic translates to, ultimately, potential revenue. Working with a voice SEO agency helps you rank better, if not, the best, in voice search results which equates to higher chances of landing would-be clients for your business. With tons of competition, a voice optimized site gives you a significant lead.

What Makes a Great Voice Search SEO Agency?

Say you’re sold on the idea of hiring a voice search optimization agency, you know what they do and what they can do for you—but what makes a great voice SEO agency? Should they have shiny voice SEO proposal promising you overnight success? Should they use state-of-the-art marketing pitches to solidify themselves as the best agency to do your digital needs for you? Should a great voice search SEO agency come in cheap? Are you supposed to get the one nearest to you?

If these questions bother you then fret not. We’ve gathered several qualities you should look for before signing a partnership.

They keep it real.

Have you ever met agencies hauling in flashy presentations and then falling flat on their promise? Well, a great voice SEO agency will give you no peacocking, no overpromising, and just setting you up with realistic goals followed with achievable results.

They do a complete voice SEO audit for your business website.

A great voice search SEO agency will do their homework without having to ask them to. They are expected to do an audit to better understand your current standing in voice search results.

They take time to know you.

Aside from your online semantics, they also take the time to learn about your business and industry, your customers, and your sales strategy.

They take time to know your competition.

What makes a great voice search SEO agency is the same as what they will do for your company. One of their most important jobs is to know your competition and devise a strategy on how to outrank them with results.

They provide you with different on-page voice SEO recommendations.

This refers to all the things you can do on your website to help you rank better in searches. It can be Meta Descriptions, Meta Tags, Body Tags, URL structure, and the likes. A good voice search agency can and will do this for you.

They don’t jump to highly competitive keywords with long tail keywords.

A good agency knows that there’s a need to find relevant and less competitive long-tail keywords on a specific topic in order to appear organically on voice searches.

They have good history.

There is a certain authority that comes with age. As with a good voice search optimization agency, you would want someone who knows the ins and outs of the industry. Client retention rate is important because it tells you that the agency has been working pretty well. It is also notable that even when you find a few bad reviews online targeting an agency you’re already set in hiring, don’t let it be a deterrent. Just remember to give your hunt for the best agency due diligence by researching.

They communicate well.

It only makes sense that you should go for an agency who communicates well since their primary role in your business is communicating with users via content. Reputable voice SEO agencies respond timely when you shoot them an inquiry whether via their website’s contact form, phone, or email. One more thing to look for is how well an agency communicates their pricing. If a voice SEO agency can comfortable lay out their pricing means they’re not hiding surprise fees for you.

How Do You Find the Voice Search SEO Agency Fit for You?

Do a quick Google search and you’ll find a multitude of voice search optimization agencies offering different kinds of services claiming to be beneficial to your company—but it’s not always the case. There are some good SEO agencies who haven’t yet adopted voice search optimization in their services. There are also agencies that have a wide array of services that they’ve spread themselves too thin. So like Goldilocks, you need to find the porridge that’s just right.

It needs to be reiterated that you shouldn’t just jump right into signing a contact with the first agency you see. We highly recommend following these steps on how to find the voice search SEO agency that’s best for your company.

Know what you need

It’s best to know what you need before finding someone to hire. Whether it be for just one campaign, a social media promotion, voice search SEO services, or a total website overhaul, knowing what you need and clearly setting your goals tailor fits what you will find. If you don’t know which area you need help on, you can get a digital marketing analysis done for you and a good agency would determine it for you.

List the data you want to track

Research, again, plays a big role in finding the best voice SEO agency for your business. Be sure to ask if the agency you’re talking to can track measurable data such as phone calls, site visits, click throughs, and many more. This means that the solutions they will concoct for you have basis and uniquely yours. You wouldn’t want a baseless strategy pulled from thin air.

Back-check on a prospective voice SEO agency

If you have honed in on a couple of agencies already, and you’re ready to sift through the options, a great way to get unbiased thoughts about them is by looking through reviews and testimonials online. A simple online search will let you stumble upon valuable critique from their previous clients. Another avenue you can take for reviews is by asking the agency itself to submit case studies and/or by requesting reference that will vouch for their capacity as a voice search optimization agency.

Stay away from “black hat” agencies

Black hat voice SEO agencies are firms that cheat the system. They buy a ton of links from useless websites, they use bots to generate views, they steal content from other sites, and use other dirty tactics to generate traffic. All of these methods get you a one-way ticket to getting a Google penalty.

Never trust anything that promises overnight success. The rule of thumb is, if they insist on retaining copyrights on all materials created for you—stay away. If you agree to this, they can easily destroy your online presence content, design, and strategy-wise.

Take them for a test run

Before signing anything, it is best to schedule a consultation whether online or in person with your shortlisted agency. The important thing is that you get a feel of how the voice SEO firm will handle your request.

Are they thoughtful enough that they conducted a respectable amount of research on your company? How do they come across to you? Do you think you will be able to work with this agency for the long haul? Important questions you can get a bearing on if you get a feel on how they work without cashing anything out just yet.

Set your voice search SEO budget

As with any venture, setting a budget aside is a must. Keeping in mind all these tips lets you know what you’re paying for but you should also define, and be clear early on, how much you are willing to pay. Refer back to the first tip in creating your budget—what is the amount you can and are willing to set to achieve your goal. Now of course, that doesn’t automatically mean splurging.

Many voice SEO agencies have packaged deals and price ranges you can always choose from. You can also check if they have a pay-per-month scheme that you can avail.

Voice Search is a Game Changer

It’s a cliché, but change really is constant. The way users search for answers has rapidly evolved from typing to speaking and businesses should keep up. Appearing on position zero is no longer achievable by just using a bunch of popular keywords and hoping it will land. Carefully understanding key phrases, much like how a person will phrase a question is needed to rank better in search results.

Your business’ significance in this day and age heavily relies on your online presence and relatability to the majority of consumers. Ergo, finding the best voice search optimization agency that will provide you with the correct campaign backed by research is definitely going to be beneficial to your company in the long run.

Optimizing your content to cater to voice searches means that there’s a higher chance that your site is where a voice-operated assistant will lead the user. Research shows that ranking high gets you a high bump in traffic which translates to increased potential revenues!

With so many agencies adopting this new service, it’s not uncommon to be confused on who to get for your business. Just keep in mind these tips and tricks and you should be all set.

38 Powerful SEO Tools for Voice Search Optimization

SEO tools for voice search optimization

In the digital age, there is no such thing as too much change. In fact, change is perhaps one of the very few constant things you can expect in technology. One of the more recent developments that search optimization has seen—and evidently must adapt to—in the last few years is voice recognition. It’s evolved so much since the emergence of Apple’s Siri that it’s become embedded into today’s culture; now allowing for instant commands such as voice search.

Back in 2016, Google claimed that 20% of mobile queries will be made through voice search. Their survey last year found that 72% of people with voice-activated speakers use it in their everyday lives. Not only does the considerably new technology make it much easier to multitask, but the development also takes convenience up a notch with faster actions and data retrieval—you don’t spend time reaching for a device, opening it, and keying in your needed task. On top of that, people also use voice search to find brand details like promos, tips, and events. This adoption now provides a new opportunity for digital marketers to up the game in content optimization.

Here comes the new challenge: optimizing for voice search. It’s a different game when you factor in things like understanding speech, mapping out a user’s journey, providing clear-cut keywords ready for one-answer results, and ultimately fine-tuning content to work with the likes of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. Add this to the fact that voice search is more commonly used on mobile devices; your website should be mobile friendly too.

The answer to the new tech, therefore, lies in the tools you use. Not only will they help make optimizing a faster, more efficient process, you’ll also be able to hit all the sweet spots you simply can’t hit with the regular SEO protocol.

There are tons of handy SEO tools out there and finding the right ones may be challenging. It might seem tempting to invest in premium tools considering they offer you the state of the art features, but before you do that weigh your options first. Ask yourself some of these questions:

  • Does the tool provide features and actionable data you need?
  • How does this paid tool fit into your budget?
  • Is this identified free alternative something other marketers already trust?
  • Is there another alternative that could provide you the same if not better results?

Below is a list of 39 tools that provide powerful SEO services for voice searches. Take a moment to look through each of them and choose what works best for you.

Voice Search Keyword Tools

The most jarring difference between typing a query and saying it out loud is the fact that there’s less time to think about phrasing. When users ask the search engine a question, they use conversational language as if they’re speaking to a friend. Semantics is key in addressing voice searches. What colloquial terms might a person say instead of formal ones? Is the result pulled by the search engine within context? These tools can help:

Free

Answer the Public

Get a generous list of keyword predictions to map out any query—be it in the form of a question or phrase that may be said in normal conversation. It’s also a cool hack for content creation.

Google Keyword Planner

Aside from being a tool to support Adwords (which you need to be able to use this), you’ll be able to look into keyword data drawn directly from Google searches. It’s a great source for keyword research considering Google has also incorporated voice search into its system.

Keyworddit

Gain insight on keywords from Reddit threads or categories. It’s the perfect tool for looking into information on trends and specific interests that Redditors might use in voice search.

Google Correlate

There’s no better source for data than from Google itself. This tool shows you what keywords are mostly searched together with other keywords. Not only will you get more insight on what content you produce, you learn about the kind of queries that are searched.

Wordstream

While this tool is built for paid research, Wordstream has a Keyword Niche Finder. This enables you to get terms used by your target audience that other generators normally wouldn’t suggest.

Paid

ClearScope

Find top performing content based on an entered keyword and latent semantic indexing (LSI) terms. You’ll be able to see relevant terms, readability, content type, and more.

Hit Tail

See what keywords reel in the traffic for your website and get a fresh set of keywords not normally generated on most tools—long tail keywords included.

Long Tail Pro

Filter your own keyword research and see the specific voice search keywords you need.

Power Suggest Pro

Get keyword ideas from a variety of search engines. You’ll be able to see relevant and descriptive phrases and terms that users are searching.

Term Explorer

This tool provides you more than just ideas. You’ll be able to obtain a massive keyword listing as well as actionable information on your competitors.

Content Development

Identifying a user’s journey is key to building a strong strategy and compelling content. Consider how voice search keywords have significantly longer terms than text-based searches. In 2017 it was also identified that 70% of queries on Google Assistant used natural language. This implies the need to adjust accordingly when it comes to the information your pages offer. Ramp up your content to cater directly to any kind of need from a spoken query.

Free

Word2CleanHTML

Clean up any kind of content made on software like Microsoft Office and get a clean HTML version that’s safe for use in web pages and eBooks.

Blog Topic Generator

Running out of content topic ideas? Take your everyday terms, put it in a search bar and get a list of handy ideas for your website’s new content.

Headline Analyzer

Create headlines that compel your target audience to read your content. Get a fresh pair of eyes on your opening statements to ensure that your headlines immediately capture your reader’s attention.

Paid

Ahrefs

This tool that can help you learn from the performance of your site and that of your competitors’. It has a huge index that’s always updated with actionable data like the traffic and referring domains any piece of content earns.

Buzzsumo

Monitor content performance across social media channels and get insight on your pages and your competitors. You can also use this tool to gauge whether a topic you have in mind has potential.

Clear Voice

Tap into this all-in-one tool to amp up your content production. It integrates content creation tools, content management systems, and other functionalities that can help you produce content efficiently.

ClickFlow

Run a test on your site to identify which pagesb have the biggest potential for growth. It’s a great way to make sure you’re covering untapped resources.

MarketMuse

Evaluate your content and compare it with your competitors. You’ll be able to find content gaps or improve what you already have—or suggest content ideas for other pages!

Page Speed Tools

The speed at which any page in your website loads is crucial to holding any potential clients interested in your content. Not only that, but loading speed also plays a part in your ranking on Google. Thanks to SERP features like Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets, the number of organic clicks dropped by 37%. Users no longer need to visit a site to see information, it’s already in the search results. This makes it imperative that you keep your pages seen on results and pull all the stops to making your page speed optimal for user consumption once it’s clicked on.

Free

Google PageSpeed Insights

Identify your page performance straight from Google. Find out your site’s general score and take away actionable answers to improve your current position.

Paid

GTmetrix

Measure your site’s speed accurately with actual load time and a full analysis that combines Google PageSpeed Insights and YSlow data. You’ll also get helpful recommendations on how to boost your speed!

Varvy Pagespeed Optimization

Get a speed test with Varvy and receive helpful information on speed issues that’s easy to understand even for beginners.

Pingdom

This tool offers you a grade and load time similar to GTmetrix. You get to monitor your site’s performance regularly on a premium subscription.

SEO Audit

With organic clicks gradually dropping as stated in the last section, boosting your ranking becomes an even bigger priority to keep your pages visible on search results. There’s nothing quite like a good audit tool to assess if your website is optimized for voice search. These tools offer a convenient boost of efficiency to your work without the extra effort.

Free

Plugin SEO

Take a quick look at what might be up with your website. The tool reports back with some actionable information to help you fix any issues you might have.

Website Grader

Aside from grading your website and checking its load speed, you get an analysis of your SEO and how you can improve it.

Zadroweb SEO Auditor

Get a good look at how your site’s SEO is faring with performance and what kind of changes you can do to boost optimization.

Paid

Seobility

A no-frills site auditor that looks thoroughly into your website structure, including the clicks that may not be indexed. Get feedback on how to improve your optimization as well.

SEO Site Checkup

Receive a detailed SEO analysis on your website. Backlink checks, uptime reports, speed recommendations, and a full error list included.

Whitespark

A cool tool to have as it can help you optimize much better for locale. Find where to list your business, check out your competitors’ performance, and see how you’re performing against it all.

Site Condor

An in-depth analysis tool to nip problems right in the bud. Their recommendations tell you how you can address an issue. You’ll also be able to view what your site’s structure looks like with their Site Graph feature. From there you can gauge whether your website is due for a restructure or some small tweaking.

Technical SEO

The last section of SEO tools in the list is for the website and server optimizations. Get a clear page structure that will make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site. The easier to map out, the better—especially for something as tricky as voice search.

Free

Google Search Console

Take optimizing to new heights with a collection of tools from Google. This can help you keep track of your site in all kinds of ways.

Google Mobile-Friendly Test

Considering how a large number of voice search users are on mobile devices, your site’s pages should ideally be mobile-friendly. This tool gives you a straightforward answer of whether or not your site is mobile-friendly or not.

Google Analytics

Track your site performance to the very last number—be it for impressions, click through rates, bounce rates, and so on. While it doesn’t tell you exactly what to do, you’ll be able to analyze the activity on your site to see how you can improve it further.

Structured Data Markup Helper

Build your Schema markup without the struggle with this hassle-free Google tool. Save time and effort in whipping up the proper markups.

Woorank

This free Chrome extension checks your site’s standard SEO stats like mobile optimization, page speed, and more. You can look at your competitor’s stats as well. Good to have if you want to keep your brand one step ahead of the rest.

Paid

Schema App

Boost the chances of your content surfacing on voice search. This tool connects your data so search engines can understand your site better. This will also help you re-purpose your data for use with Knowledge Graphs, Chatbots, etc.

WebCEO

This is an all-around SEO tool; you can perform keyword research, monitor ranking, and do technical audits—including but not limited to detailed reports and suggestions on changes to your HTML code and Schema markup.

LinkPatrol

This convenient web plugin cuts your work time drastically when you need to double-check outgoing links on your site. LinkPatrol can spot the bad links and provide you with options on how to proceed, ultimately keeping your site in good shape.

OnCrawl

Aside from giving you the standard auditing features, this tool helps you scan for any duplicate content on your pages. This minimizes the chances of your site getting knocked off search results.

When it comes to addressing this new way of sending through queries, at its heart, voice search is the same as search has always been. A user simply wants answers. The main difference is the more personal aspect of how it’s done.

Because voice search speaks directly to the search engine, there’s less concern over the brevity to cut time and effort in typing and more room to provide longer and more specific searches—not to mention the rising frequency of natural language terms. Location importance has also equally grown in value with a much larger volume of users now looking for products and services in a “near me” mindset.

In response to the new way to search is a new way to find answers. Google’s already started incorporating instant answers in results for voice searches. Thus, you need to consider these three important things when optimizing: colloquial terms used, user thought processes, and the platform by which these answers are accessed.

The range of tools listed above provides a wide variety of functions that can help you optimize your SEO strategies for voice search. While some of them may cost you, it’s equally important to remember that these are only as good as its user. Fully understanding what kind of data you’re getting makes all the difference in optimizing your content and improving it further.

About Us

At Voice SEO, we make it a point to study industry trends and update our strategies each and every time we notice a change in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Links

Contact Us

5800 S. Eastern Ave.
Suite 500,
Commerce,
California, 90040

Phone:
+1 503-388-9172

Email:
[email protected]

FAQ’s

How to Optimize Your Voice SEO for the Google Local Three-Pack
If you have a business in a particular community, being part of the Google Local Three-Pack can boost your overall online presence. Also called Map or Snack Pack, the local pack is the section that..

Should You Outsource Voice Search SEO Services or Build an In-house Team?
Without a doubt, the way we interact with technology has shifted over the years. Before, people only use their phone for sending text messages or calling someone. Today, you can now pick up your.. ...phone and ask your voice assistant to call a specific person or send them a message. They can also find you the answer to any question you have.