voice search seo guide

Apr 08 2020

Voice Search SEO for B2B Marketing: A Complete Guide

It’s well-known that voice search is making waves in B2C marketing, especially when it comes to online shopping, navigation, product discovery, and more. It’s improving the quality of customers’ lives and revolutionizing the way companies market their goods and services. The tech is smart, too. As of 2017, Google’s speech recognition was already 95% accurate for the English language.

While voice search is more commonly linked with B2C, its impact on B2B can sometimes get overlooked. You’ve probably heard the popular Comscore figure where half of all internet searches will be done via voice in 2020. Or, you may or may not be aware that usage of voice assistants will triple to 8 billion by 2023.

These various statistics that talk about the rising ownership of smart speakers include business owners as well, which means as a B2B marketer, you should shape your online and SEO strategy to accommodate this portion of your audience.

What B2B Marketers Need to Know About Voice Search

Since B2B buyers are part of the demographic of voice search users, the tech will soon infiltrate and help them in their professional lives as well. Because of the rising popularity of the platform, there’s no doubt that the B2B industry will see voice search as a tool they can leverage in their respective organizations.

As it stands, the tech is evolving, and there’s not always a need for a smart speaker to begin. Figures say more than 50% of consumers already use voice search, with 81% accessing it via their smartphones.

Mobile is incredibly important in the B2B industry. Over 60% of B2B buyers say that mobile did play a role in their purchases. Moreover, it’s estimated that 70% of B2B searches will be made on smartphones by 2020. That’s less than a year away. Why is this tidbit important? You must get to know your audience’s behavior and find the channels they’re using to perform everyday tasks. Knowing their preferred platform is just the first step, which will be touched on again in a bit.

It’s worthy to note that voice search hinges on what already exists online. The tech may be relatively new, but it depends on the information you make available, such as your website. If you truly want to maximize the power that this tool can offer your business, you must have a solid content strategy in place and work closely with your team’s search engine optimization experts. Although voice search SEO for B2B is an entirely different game, a lot of their foundation remains the same.

Voice search is diverse and can be used to your advantage in many ways. Below are tips on how to optimize your content and get your company set up for voice search.

How B2B Companies Can Optimize Their Website for Voice Search

Have a strong presence on mobile

Since mobile is an essential platform for B2B buyers, it only makes sense to boost your efforts in this channel. Get into the frame of mind of your target audience: B2B customers are always on the go, becoming increasingly dependent on mobile devices to perform certain functions in their work.

How do you do this? You have to start by improving your mobile UX and UI. While it’s not explicitly related to voice search only, it does impact your overall SEO strategy. Google prioritizes websites that are optimized for mobile since it’s now a ranking factor. It signals them that this particular website took time to fix its structure to be more helpful for visitors.

First, do a checkup. Google has a free mobile-friendly test that gives suggestions and points out errors on your site. Next, address any issues stated. If all seems to be working fine, do some speed loading tests and see if your website is up to par with customer expectations. Remember: B2B buyers are looking for professionalism and information right at their fingertips. If you keep them waiting long or have a disorganized page, they won’t think twice to look elsewhere.

Build an FAQ page

In line with providing as much information as you can on your website, creating an FAQ page will help ease the worries of your B2B audience and get what they need without having to contact your reps. Anything that can save them time is a great thing. This will shorten the dialogue and decision-making process for them if they want to hire your services or not.

FAQ pages also allow you to mirror the queries that your audience may be asking their voice assistants. The key here is to make sure you’re writing them in the first-person perspective and making them sound as natural as possible as if you’re speaking to a colleague. 70% of voice searches are conversational, which is why this tactic works. Give short, direct answers that provide just the right amount of information you can share, and use internal links to redirect them to in-depth discussions.

Aim to rank for the featured snippet

SEO used to focus so much on getting the first position on search engine results pages, but now, Position Zero is aiming to disrupt that goal. Targeting the featured snippet for your service pages or blog is one of the fastest ways to get your audience to notice you.

Featured snippets are what voice assistants read aloud to a user in response to their query. That’s a big deal and tremendous opportunity. In the voice search universe, you’re not competing with other blue links for your buyer’s attention—it’s all or nothing. If you don’t have the top spot, you risk the reputation and sales of your business.

Ranking for the featured snippet takes time, which is why you have to get right down to optimizing your content as early as now. Here are a few pointers on how to get the coveted spot:

Be specific and answer a query thoroughly. Focus on who, what, and why questions that will allow you to explain the answer with enough context thoroughly. Don’t throw in unnecessarily fillers; stick to the facts.
Format your content properly. Let search engines crawl through your page faster and clue them in that your page has the most complete and organized answer to a specific query.
Always churn out high-quality content. This tip won’t let you down. You can’t come up with thin material or trick your way to getting recognized by Google. Focus on quality rather than quantity.

Target voice search queries

What are your web visitors asking that lead them to your website? Focus on those queries and make sure you have pages or articles that will answer those questions or mention specific keywords that were in the question. You can use your insights as a springboard for future content or promotion so that you can increase your visibility online.

With the proper SEO analysis tools, you’ll be able to uncover the top questions asked about your brand. Voice search queries usually start with “what” or “how,” and contain the words “best” and “top.” Focus on educational pieces and showcase how your services come out to the top. Creating articles with these in your title also works, even if it’s a list that includes yourself and your competitors. The brand recall will be much higher, as they consider you to be the expert of the field.

Prioritize long-tail keywords

Even if people are speaking to (invisible) voice assistants when they make queries, they will be inclined to use natural language instead of shorter keywords they’re used to type. This means complete sentences versus phrases, making the keywords specific to voice search longer.

The good news is, it’s much easier to rank for long tail keywords versus shorter ones. Take the query “voice search,” for instance. At the time of writing, there are over 1.7 billion search results relating to the topic. However, if you narrow it down to “best practices for voice search SEO,” results narrow down to about 16.5 million. Yes, that’s still a lot—but you’ve significantly reduced your competition by focusing on more specific keywords that your voice searching audience would be using more of anyway.

Long-tail keywords make up 70% of all keywords, so make sure to include these longer terms for higher chances in appearing on voice search results.

Use conversational language for your content strategy

Why stop at long-tail keywords? You can adopt the conversational technique across all of your marketing and content channels. As long as it’s on-brand, make it a habit to talk to your B2B audience like a professional colleague, where they can learn from you but not feel too intimidated by the content you’re putting out.

The more you train yourself to churn out content using natural language, the more your website will rank higher in voice search. You might be unintentionally including strong keywords you didn’t know you could be ranking for, as you get deeper into the headspace of a customer who uses voice search to locate your business.

Get your business listed

Google My Business is a great way to help your company appear in the global directory of millions of businesses worldwide. It provides your address, lists your operating hours, and can also include your contact information. When your business is listed, you will earn a snippet in SERPs containing all of that information. If a customer is interested in looking for professional services in a specific location, your company will appear in that shortlist too, maximizing your reach.

Local SEO is an integral part of voice search. Stats show that 46% of voice search users look for local businesses every day. Plus, mobile voice searches are thrice more likely to be local-based than text. If you’re not hooked up on Google My Business, you’re losing a fair amount of money to users who have no idea where you are. Including location information gives your visitors some peace of mind of where you’re operating too, versus some company that can disappear into cyberspace.

If you have a brick and mortar store, local SEO can help point voice search users to your place. This is relevant for shops like restaurants, malls, convenience stores, and the like.

Develop your brand voice

While there’s a lot of suggestions here on how to structure your content and which keywords to focus on, your business won’t fly well if you don’t develop your unique voice. Every company out there will struggle to be original, and that’s a good thing. Imagine a user coming across content written the same way among three different websites—no one wants to read the same thing online.

Users look for your unique selling point (USP), so give them that. Study your competitors, see what’s working for them, but don’t stop there. Take a look at what’s not been done before and aim to see how you can spice things up. Make things uniform, too. It’s crucial to sound consistent across all pages so that your branding looks and sounds solid—bonus points to your audience.

Make Voice Search a Priority Today

Voice search is bound to become an invaluable lead generation tool in the B2B industry. It’s up to your company to learn how to harness its potential and make the necessary steps to get ahead of the game. The voice search craze is not going to happen in the future, as it already exists today. Numbers will continue to grow, users will multiply, and it’s only a matter of time before all searches are done via voice.

If you’re looking for direction on where to start, doing the steps mentioned above will already put you in a better place versus the rest. If you’re aiming for the top, it would be better to tap experts to help you out on this journey. Voice search is a diverse field, and a lot can happen in a short period. The Voice SEO team can help break down the process for you and work with your business to dominate your B2B industry.

Apr 01 2020

A Definitive Content Writing Guide for Voice Search SEO

Voice search is dramatically changing the way users look for information. By 2020, it is estimated that 30% of online sessions will be conducted without a screen as voice search is expected to dominate the market.

For the uninitiated, voice search allows users to do various tasks, including browsing the web, without having to scroll through desktops or mobile. Users will just have to speak into the device installed with voice recognition software, as opposed to typing keywords into a search query. Speech recognition technology, paired with the device’s voice assistant, determines the request and executes it.

Some devices can be optimized for voice search, but brands, platforms, and websites can take advantage of it too. Therefore, it’s imperative for businesses to boost their voice search efforts to improve their search rankings and be seen by their target audience.

However, according to BrightEdge, around 62% of marketers have not considered voice search optimization yet. Whether you’re one of those in the 62% or have already tapped the help of SEO specialists that offer voice search SEO services, it’s high time you realize that voice search is more than a trend. There’s no better time to ensure that your content is ready for voice search than now.

How Voice Search SEO Influences Your Rankings

As smart assistants become smarter every day, searches done through voice are expected to continue growing in number over the next few years. If you want to prepare your site for the future, you should first learn and understand the elements of voice search SEO that can greatly affect page rankings.

Enhanced semantic context

Google’s Hummingbird was perhaps the signal that voice search would be more prevailing, as it brought semantic context into the picture. Semantic context, in layman’s term, is simply Google getting better at understanding the meaning behind what people are asking. The algorithm, paired with natural language processing, has changed to understand the intent of the search to provide them with more accurate answers.

No longer are keywords the only thing to focus on, but also queries structured in sentences or phrases. Aside from keywords, Google also looks at other factors to show better results, such as a user’s previous searches or patterns of searches. For content marketers, this means going beyond using keywords in your content.

Accessibility

The technology behind voice-activated assistants and search is not only beneficial to regular folks but is also especially useful for people with physical limitations. Those with vision impairment can access information, buy online, and contact others just by speaking to their devices.

People with limited dexterity also find it helpful that they don’t need a keyboard or touchscreen. For those with more critical movement issues, smart speakers allow them to control almost every aspect of their homes. It provides disabled users (and possibly the elderly) with a new avenue to be independent and maintain their daily routine.

Whether it’s a personal preference or necessity, accessing online information in various ways should be possible. For marketers, this means ensuring that your content is optimized for voice technology for the sake of those with disabilities as well as those seeking convenience. This can be achieved by following accessibility guidelines, like making sure that the material is machine readable for the search engines to properly index it, making it easier for users to find.

Improved user experience

SEO isn’t just about keywords and link building. To prove that, Google now considers different factors when ranking a site, and elements of user experience (UX) are the most important. UX, in this context, is Google giving the best results to the user, but the site’s interface is another thing altogether.

This means that aside from the relevant information, the site should also have a fast loading time on any device, have a simple architecture that makes it easy for users to find what they need, and be responsive. If your site loads slowly or looks wonky on any device, people will probably just leave, resulting in a high bounce rate. When this happens, your rankings will tank accordingly.

Increased mobile search presence

GlobalWebIndex found that 27% of mobile users globally use their device to do voice search. In addition, Google has set forth standards as to how companies can make their sites more mobile-friendly, prioritizing mobile-friendly pages when they detect that a user is browsing on mobile. These mean that integrating your mobile SEO strategy with voice search only makes sense.

For instance, it’s better to write short and straight-to-the-point sentences when producing content for mobile because people who are on mobile don’t want long sentences and big paragraphs that force them to scroll too often. Similarly, when your mobile assistant reads a search result, it’d be easier for the user to grasp short sentences.

Optimized local SEO

Voice is especially important in local business search. According to a survey, 58% of people have used voice search to find local businesses; and 46% of them do it daily. Technically, consumers look for the best companies depending on their need. And since search engines can identify location or study past searches, they can find a business located closest to the user.

Local SEO also makes directory and review websites essential for businesses. Some voice assistants even use third-party review sites to supplement the information they give, as smart assistants use other databases to answer queries.

How to Optimize Content for Voice Search SEO

Here are a few ways to ensure that your site ranks well for voice search.

1. Cater to micro-moments

Micro-moments, as defined by Google, are instances wherein users instinctively turn to their device “to act on a need to learn, do, discover, watch, or buy something.” These moments are intent-rich, “when decisions are made, and preferences are shaped.” The most likely device to turn to is a smartphone, and from here, you can see the overlap between mobile and voice search.

There are four kinds of micro-moments to take note of:

I-want-to-know, or the basic research
I-want-to-go, or looking for nearby businesses
I-want-to-do, or learning how to do something
I-want-to-buy, or searching for a particular product from a physical or online store

You can tailor the content to produce for these four micro-moments and address the searchers’ need. These are also good indicators of where the user currently is in the buyer’s journey, so you can determine the potential voice search queries they’ll make. You may include keywords for your local business and geo-location in the question to make the content more contextualized.

2. Write the way you speak

Google reported that 70% of queries done through their smart assistants contain natural language rather than common keywords used in web search. This is important because there is a huge difference between how a person speaks typically and how they communicate in writing, and that disparity is something you should be mindful about.

Naturally, in voice search, people use the more natural-sounding language, which might comprise of longer and more precise search terms. But this does not mean disregarding keywords completely; instead, you should focus on creating content that uses conversational language, directly answering questions through voice, and integrating the keywords you want to rank for.

3. Use the same language as your customers to find the products you offer

Every brand has a target audience that they need to appeal to; and when it comes to getting their attention, basic conversational language may not be enough. For instance, if your company is a speakeasy that caters to mid-to-upper class workers, you have to use the kind of words that they can easily relate to or use in their everyday life.

The gravest mistake is to overload your content with buzzwords that your market may not even understand to begin with. Keep in natural and adapt your content to use conversational language that your customers also use.

4. Use interrogative words

Closely related to writing using natural-sounding language is the use of interrogative words, or the what, who, where, why, and how that is typically used in a question. Question-based content is better for voice search and it can also be optimized by using specific keywords and phrases that are commonly found in related search queries.

Then, it’s a matter of integrating the query into the content and answering it too. You can make the content longer to optimize it better, but somewhere, preferably near the introduction, provide the answer to the question, so that search engines will effortlessly pick it up. Using interrogative words also align with the possible queries for each kind of micro-moment.

5. Use long-tail keywords

As mentioned, the terms used in voice and traditional search are different. To guarantee that your content is optimized for voice search, include long-tail keywords that make the search terms sound more natural. You can simply use Google Analytics to know the long-tail keyword phrases you need to gun for, and these usually include question words. From there, you can develop content to target these phrases.

Businesses can also look into customers’ phone calls to uncover the common questions they ask customer support. Test the long-tail keywords and content themes by using them on titles and FAQs page. Include keywords in the metadata, as well, and use structured markup to help search engines understand the material.

6. Localize your writing

According to reports, 22% of voice search queries are location-based or searches meant to find businesses close to the searcher’s location. These voice searches were likely done while on the move, made possible by smartphones and integrated location services. This means that it is now essential that brands invest in local content to have a higher chance of ranking for voice search.

If your business has a physical address, make sure that you are listed on all major online business directories like Google My Business, Yelp, and others. It’s a one-stop page for prospects and customers who may be interested in visiting your store and would like to know your address, business hours, etc.

You may also create location-specific content by using phrases like “near me” or the exact city/town. Encourage positive reviews from customers and be smart about using keywords in product descriptions. Optimizing for local voice search gives you an edge over the competition with help from geotagging, exact and question-based queries, and updated and consistent directory listing.

7. Optimize for featured snippets

Position zero or featured snippet is a highly valuable ranking because this is where smart assistants usually get their response in a voice search. It is essentially a summary of the search query from a web page. In desktop, featured snippets appear in a box below ads and before the organic results.

To optimize your content and get a chance to be a featured snippet, include a summary of your content in under 29 words. You should already rank above the fold, or on page one or among the top 10 of results since over 99% of featured snippets come from these.

Make sure also to use your long-tail keywords in the snippet or the keywords that usually pull up featured snippets when searched like best, recipe, cost, price, and definition. Sectioning with H-tags and using lists and bullet points can also help because they make the content easily readable for Google.

8. Provide short and simple answers

Just as humans don’t always communicate using very long sentences, lengthy phrases and sentences also becoming more difficult to comprehend. As mentioned, featured snippets should not exceed 29 words, so it’s only logical to assume that creating clear and simple responses on voice search queries can help optimize your content.

Answer the query with as few words as possible, or use one sentence to express one thought, and another one to answer one question. It’s also essential to keep phrases short; voice search results should typically be written at a 9th-grade reading level or lower. Try to break down high-level information to make it easy for anyone to comprehend.

9. Break down content with subheadings, bullet points, numbered lists, and quotations

In both traditional and voice search SEO, long-form content still ranks better, despite the focus on short phrases and snippets. Content should ideally still have between 1850 and 2500 words, but do be wary of large blocks of text. The importance of headings and lists has already been pointed out in creating featured snippets, but it’s good practice in content creation across the board.

In addition, since most people are using mobile assistants to do a voice search, it only makes sense to use subheadings, bullets and numbers, and quotations in your content as it helps optimize your layout when viewed on mobile. Don’t forget to break them down into short paragraphs and use plenty of white space.

10. Provide real value

Optimization should be a byproduct of content that delivers value. Content production may be affected if you’re always concerned about optimization, as opposed to just providing answers to users’ queries. If you don’t, they are going to move on. Depending on that interaction, whether they stick around or go somewhere else, there will definitely be an impact on your current rankings.

In addition, you should be optimizing for voice search because you, yourself, find value in it, whether it’s for delivering utility, simplifying business, or providing a kind of entertainment that other channels cannot. It shouldn’t just be because you want to be in voice. Offer a unique value proposition that only voice search can deliver.

11. Don’t overdo it

Despite the expected dominance of voice search in the future, there are still certain types of queries that you cannot speak out loud, especially if you’re on mobile and in a public location. This means that traditional SEO would still matter in the future and that you don’t have to put all of your efforts into techniques that only affect voice search rankings.

You want your content to be optimized for all kinds of searches. As mentioned, offering what your audience is looking for should be the priority, not optimization.

Conclusion

Voice search may sound like a fleeting trend or a party trick when you want to show off your voice assistant’s capabilities. But, as speech recognition technology becomes more powerful every day, there will come a where that you won’t have to swipe and type just to get something done on a device.

Investing in voice SEO can improve brand awareness and revenue. Optimizing today can help you get ahead of the competition. Voice search SEO isn’t rocket science. You only need to be human and produce content like how a human will because, at the end of the day, you want to resonate with your audience, who are human beings.