voice search optimization

Apr 03 2020

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.

Apr 02 2020

A Complete SEO Guide to Optimizing Websites for Voice Search

In the not-so-distant past, people would conduct a search on the internet by typing their query in the search box, but that has since changed when voice search technology and smart assistants emerged.

Now, digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant make it possible for people to discover content and find answers to queries without physically typing on their keyboard. Instead, users speak into their device to perform a search on the web.

This technological shift presents some major implications for the search engine optimization (SEO) landscape. Check out these quick stats and facts:

In a PWC report, 90% of respondents look at their device’s voice assistant as an easier way of searching online compared with speaking to an agent or typing their queries through their smartphone.
Approximately 33% of the 3.5 billion queries that Google receives every day are voice searches.
Google’s speech recognition supports 119 languages.
By 2020, 50% of online search will be coming from voice search.
Former head of Baidu AI Group/Google Brain Andrew Ng says “As speech-recognition accuracy goes from 95% to 99%, we’ll go from barely using it to using [it] all the time!”

All these data show that voice-activated search is fast becoming the hottest technology that search engines and consumers prefer to use. This only means that optimizing your website content for voice search should now be a major component of your digital marketing strategy. Through voice search SEO, you’re increasing your chances to attract more highly engaged visitors to your site.

What is Voice Search?

Voice search pertains to when people speak into a device to look for something online as opposed to typing keywords into the Google, Bing, or Yahoo search box.

Voice-activated search is possible thanks to advanced speech recognition systems, which help digital devices and assistants understand what users are saying with utmost precision and accuracy.

Why You Should Care About Voice Search Optimization

Programs like Alexa (Amazon), Cortana (Microsoft), Google Assistant, and Siri (Apple) all support voice search. Although they are powered by different technologies, the principle is the same—users ask their device and the smart assistant will provide them with the best answers.

Keeping your website optimized for voice search gives your business a better chance to be part of the top results when these smart assistants receive voice queries. To optimize for voice search means making your content more conversational, natural, contextual, localized, and accessible for mobile users. Remember: people don’t speak in the same manner they type.

Paying attention to voice search SEO can help you reap a number of benefits, including:

Better ranking opportunities. With more and more people taking advantage of voice search capabilities, Google and other search engines are favoring websites that provide information or content quickly and conveniently.
Higher visibility through featured snippets. When your content shows as a featured snippet on Google, it’s an indication that you’ve addressed search queries well enough to be given the top spot in SERP.
Meet query intent based on context. As you’ll learn later, voice search optimization strategies include creating locale-focused content to make it easy for your website to serve timely and relevant responses to users.

Top Voice Search Optimization Strategies

Be sure that your business is ready for the voice search revolution. Follow these strategies to make your business website well-optimized for voice search.

1. Use the right keywords.

The way people process their thoughts through writing is different from how they verbally express what’s in their minds. Similarly, those using a keyboard to type in a search query will phrase it differently than if they used their phone’s voice assistant. One searcher will ask a question using umbrella terms, but another will be including more words that provide context to the search.

In traditional SEO, top-ranking keywords are used. But in voice search SEO, the same keywords are structured as a question, and sometimes even rephrased into relative terms. For instance, a tourist in New York is looking for top restaurants to visit in the city. When using their browser, they may type in “restaurants in New York”. But if they’re using voice search, they will simply say, “What are the restaurants near me?”

How to Optimize for Voice Search

Go for long-tail and conversational keywords in your content, using standard language that people use in real-life situations. This is in contrast to using short keywords that are best suited for desktop search.
Include question phrases, focusing on the types of questions that customers ask when they want to know more about a business, product, or service.
Start question phrases with interrogative pronouns (Who, What, Where, When, How, Which, Whose) to make it easier for you to answer natural language questions.
Use question phrases to determine a user’s search intent. For example, when people start asking “When/Where” questions, it might be a signal that they’re ready to act or buy compared with those asking “What/Who” questions, which might signal that someone is still on the early stage of the buyer’s journey.

2. Create FAQ pages.

Your daily interactions with customers can be a good foundation for creating your website’s frequently asked questions (FAQs) page. Each time a customer contacts you to ask questions, it gives you an opportunity to understand their chief concerns and how they want to conduct business with your company.

Here are specific ways that having an FAQ page can benefit both you and your customers:

It allows you to educate people about your business policies.

Tip: Use the FAQ section to assure customers that you won’t be storing their credit card information after they’ve submitted it for a particular order that they’re trying to place.

It enables visitors to find answers to specific questions they might have about your website, product, or service.

FAQs are a great way to empower customers to solve their questions or concerns on their own without having to go through customer service. This also means your system won’t be flooded by customer support tickets.
It can help you lead customers toward the path to conversion or purchase.

With all their questions answered, you can eliminate any obstacle that may dissuade customers from choosing your business.

How to Use FAQs for Voice Search

Traditional FAQs are those where companies list information about their business in the typical question-and-answer format. This format isn’t effective because it limits the type or amount of information that you provide to customers.

With the emergence of voice search technologies, you have an opportunity to use FAQs to address common customer concerns. This makes it important for you to review your FAQs to make sure they’re comprehensive enough and that they match the way people are seeking information online. These ideas may help you:

Use long-tail phrases to make your FAQ pages sound as natural as possible. This helps search engines distinguish your FAQs from your site’s content when serving search results to users.
Create different FAQ categories by grouping similar questions on the same page. Your categories may be based on a central theme, specific stages in the buyer journey, or relevant keyword phrases. This way, voice search assistants or tools will find it easier to pull the right information for your site’s visitors.
Break down complex pieces of information into more digestible texts. Ideally, content for your FAQ should be written in short paragraphs using simple words, much like how you would write for a 9th-grader.
Expect highly specific searches from voice users. This will help you tailor your FAQ pages’ content to provide more direct answers to customers.

3. Use structured data.

Another way to optimize your website for voice search is by using structured data—a form of metadata that you can embed into your website’s HTML code. Also known as schema markup, this data contains secondary information about your content, helping search engines classify and contextualize your content better.

What are the benefits of using structured data on your website?

You can add structured data on your web pages to help bots understand how your content matches search queries.

For example, a recipe page will add structured data, such as user ratings, calorie content, and cooking time, among others, to help search engines decide if that recipe is relevant to what users are searching for, and therefore, should go to the search results page.

Using these schema markups can also enhance your content’s visual appearance in the search engine results pages (SERPs) or transform your meta descriptions into snippets, making your content look more attractive for users.

In the same manner, structured data helps you set up your web pages for voice search SEO by looking for context clues that match specific queries.

How to add structured data

There are different ways that will allow your webmaster to add specific information about your site and its content using tags or microdata.

Through a plug-in. Your content management platform comes with plugins that allow you to create and add schemas to your web pages.
Through Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. This is a free tool that lets you mark up your content—from blog posts to product pages or reviews and business listings—with different properties to help Google understand your content and offer richer search results to users.
Through schema.org. Tech giants Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex founded this online hub of schema vocabularies that you can use to help your site’s visitors see the different elements of your content when viewing search results.
Through manual addition. This is for when you want to be more specific in creating or generating schema types, which your tools aren’t able to support.

4. Focus on local SEO search intent.

Mobile devices are proving to be useful for people who are conducting an online search, including voice search. Out of voice queries, 22% pertain to local search. This means that people on mobile are asking questions about nearby businesses. “Which pharmacy in Area A closes last?” is a typical example of a local voice search.

One way to make sure that your site’s content is accessible for voice assistants is by implementing geo-targeting keywords (such as the ones listed below) since they can help you address location-based queries.

Phrases that people use to describe the local neighborhood or community
“Near me” phrases in your title tags, meta descriptions, internal links, and anchor texts
Identifiable landmarks around your business location
Names of local institutions that are relevant to your business

Aside from using the right set of keywords, you can also claim your business listing on Google My Business. This strategy involves verifying your contact information so that Google users nearby can locate your business or see your business profile on Google Search or Maps. In addition, by verifying your business, Google lets you track your business’s analytics to help you understand your customers as well as respond to customer reviews on your website.

How to Use Google My Business Listing

Creating your listing on Google My Business takes little time and effort, but it can boost your ranking in the search results when there are voice searches pertaining to locations or local businesses.

Indicate your business name, address, and phone number on Google My Business listing. Make sure the information you provide is accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with other business directories.

Why is this important? Any discrepancy in your contact information can negatively impact the local search results for your business.

Specify a category to describe what your business is, not what you’re selling or offering. If your business is leasing cars, the correct category to use is “Car Rental” and not “Compact cars” or “Sedan cars.”

Why is this important? Although Google will proactively tell you if it’s unable to understand the category you want to be associated with your business, choosing the wrong category can result in your business not showing on the voice search results.

Optimize your business profile by including information about areas you serve, opening and closing hours, special attributes (such as “women-led” or “wheelchair accessible”) as well as photos of your business.

Why is this important? An optimized business profile can bring more traffic to your website and encourage people to visit your physical stores.

5. Make sure your website is fast.

People who use voice search are always on-the-go and want immediate results for their queries. Ideally, your web page should load in 3 seconds or less, or you might suffer from poor ranking in voice search because of speed issues. There’s an exception to this rule though, as Google may still give you a favorable ranking in search results if it finds your content the most relevant from among other slow loading websites.

It’s worthy to note that page speed was used to rank websites only in desktop searches, but Google has decided to apply the page speed criteria for mobile as well, where voice search is usually done.

How to Optimize Page Speed

Check any issues with themes, plugins, or any other integrations on your site, which might prevent your site from being responsive or working well on mobile.
Invest in a good web hosting service that can give you access to high-speed internet connection.
Rid your website of bad source codes—white spaces, new lines, redundant formatting, and the like—to enable you to create smaller web files that load fast.
Determine a good schedule for browser caching. Google recommends a minimum cache time of one week and up to one year for static assets, where changes aren’t that frequent.
Use optimizers or similar tools to make your images and files more compact and lighter.

It’s a New Era for SEO

Trends and technologies are ever-evolving, with voice search slowly but surely reaching the top of the totem pole. This calls for you to match the keywords, language, and tone that voice searchers are using to look for content, as well as implementing mobile-focused strategies to land your business on top of SERPs.

Since voice search SEO is quite different from traditional website SEO, you need to have a thorough understanding of the different methods you can use for your site to rank on voice search. Once you’ve implemented the best practices in voice search optimization, you should keep testing and monitoring your site’s performance as well as anticipate future trends and updates to make sure that your business stays relevant to the times.