Guide to Voice Search Optimization: 7 strategic actions

If you have ever turned to one of the many virtual assistants available to you, such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, I imagine you have some idea of how voice search works.

Ask a question or give a command, and the devices will comply by answering you or performing the requested action-all using only voice instead of keys.

While talking practically to a robot might have seemed like science fiction until a few decades ago, today we have no problem asking computers for advice.

From smartphones to smart speakers to smart TVs, searching the web with a virtual assistant is now a very normal thing to do. In many cases it is faster, more convenient and easier than typing a query.

And so, the people who use voice to find information are very many indeed--we are talking about billions of voice assistants in use around the world.

But have you ever thought that this may affect the strategies of SEO e content marketing?

In fact, a typical voice search is not the same thing as a text search: when we talk to our devices, we express our questions differently, more like how we talk in real life.

Voice searches therefore tend to be more "conversational" than typed searches-this means that your content must be optimized to answer specific questions and provide clear, concise information.

So if you want to be competitive in today's digital landscape, you need to rethink your online presence and your digital marketing strategy: and you can do just that by optimizing for voice search (Voice Search Optimization).

The latter represents a huge opportunity: it increases your chances of reaching potential customers who use their voice assistants to find information.

So, if you are not already doing so, you should start taking it seriously.

To help you, in this article I will explain everything in detail: what Voice Search Optimization is, how it differs from text search, why it is important for SEO, and most importantly, the best strategies to implement it effectively.

What is Voice Search Optimization

Voice Search Optimization is the process of optimizing all your digital content in order to improve your visibility and ranking in voice search results.

Thus, the main goal is to be selected and/or read aloud by voice assistants when users perform a query by voice, rather than by keyboard.

It's an SEO strategy in its own right-with more and more people using voice assistants to search for information on the go, it's critical to having an impactful online presence.

This is also, and especially, because voice search is very different from traditional text-based search: if you think about it, we all talk to voice assistants as if we were talking to real people.

How is voice search different from text search?

If you routinely work on the Web, whether you're a marketer or you have your own site, or whatever, you probably know and are familiar with general SEO techniques to help you rank higher in search results.

Therefore, as you read this article, you may be wondering why voice search needs a separate category regarding its optimization.

I must first tell you that yes, there is indeed an overlap between on-page search optimization and Voice Search Optimization; however, there are also fundamental qualities of the latter that make it unique from text search.

For example, if you're looking for a spa near the vacation home you're in, you'll probably type "best spas near me" into Google. But if you were to ask Siri, you're more likely to say, "Hey Siri, can you find me a good spa nearby?"

The main difference is all in the style: voice searches are longer and more colloquial.

Although these slight nuances may seem insignificant, they make a huge difference in SEO, especially for competitive search terms; understanding them is essential for tailoring your SEO strategies to meet user expectations.

Specifically, here are the main aspects why voice searches are inherently different from typed queries:

#1 Structure

Voice searches tend to be more conversational and natural than text searches, which are often concise and keyword-focused. For example, you might type "weather forecast" in a text search, but say "what's the weather today?" in a voice search.

#2 Length of keywords

Voice searches typically involve longer and more detailed queries, where users often ask complete questions or provide more context.

#3 Search Engine Results

Voice search output is unique in that voice assistants often provide a single answer, rather than a list of search results. This means that appearing as first is critical for visibility.

#4 Emphasis on local

In voice searches, people often search for nearby businesses or services.

#5 Platform preferences

Different devices with different voice search software may prioritize certain sources or formats for their answers: specific optimization of content based on the voice assistant can help improve visibility in the results.

Why are voice search queries on the rise?

Voice search has become increasingly popular in recent years: for many people, voice-activated devices are now part of the daily routine and seem to be gaining more and more space and importance.

But why?

Here are the most significant reasons:

Convenience: voice search offers an efficient, hands-free way to find what you're looking for; with a simple command like "Hey Siri" or "OK Google," you can instantly access information from the Web, even when typing may be inconvenient or impossible;
Ease of use: We all use voice to communicate with other people, so doing so even with a voice assistant is quite easy and instinctive for us;
Improved user experience: voice search gives you a more intuitive and conversational experience; you can ask questions naturally, getting more personalized and relevant results;
Faster results: did you know? Voice searches often yield faster results than text searches because they rely on language processing algorithms that better understand user intentions than keyword matching alone.

Add to this the fact that improvements in speech recognition technology, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence have made voice assistants more accurate and capable of understanding complex queries, and it is easy to think that the adoption of voice search will only become more widespread in the future as well.

Why Voice Search Optimization is important for SEO

If you're still not quite convinced so far how much Voice Search Optimization can impact your online ranking, here are some numbers about it.

Statista predicted that by 2024 the number of voice assistants worldwide would reach the 8 billion units (that is, more than the inhabitants of the planet!); moreover, in the United States alone, the number of users using voice assistants in 2026 is expected to be about 160 million.

Those are incredible numbers, don't you think?

This is why it is not worth ignoring the importance of Voice Search Optimitazion for your SEO.

To increase your chances of appearing for voice search queries, you must in fact implement tactics that will also benefit your overall SEO. These include prioritizing the loading speed of your website, targeting voice search keywords in your content, and making sure your website works well on mobile devices.

Snippets, for example, also play a crucial role: they contain the title, link and brief description of what users search for in the SERP and are therefore the first thing they see the very moment they initiate a query.

Lo and behold, voice assistants also often read aloud foreground snippets: optimizing the content to be displayed in that part of the text thus increases the chances of being selected as an answer to voice search queries.

Voice search optimization is essential if you want to improve your SEO performance and keep up with the competition in a world where voice is number one.

By optimizing voice search, you can reach a wider audience, improve user experience, and take advantage of the growing popularity of voice-activated devices and virtual assistants.

The Benefits of Voice Search Optimization

So far, we get it: improving your online presence for voice search extends the benefits of traditional SEO to help you achieve your goals.

More specifically, voice search optimization can help you to:

Gain more visibility: sharing your content by voice assistants increases the brand awareness, especially locally; by appearing among the top results, you can attract more organic traffic and potential customers.
Building trust in your target audience: Providing useful and valuable information through voice search positions your company as a authoritative and reliable.
Improving the user experience: making changes to optimize voice search involves improving technical SEO elements, leading to a better user experience; through creating more conversational and natural-sounding content and offering relevant and concise answers to voice queries, you increase user satisfaction and engagement.
Increasing competitive advantage: As voice search continues to grow in popularity, if you stay ahead of the curve and optimize for emerging search trends, you can stand out from the competition and attract more traffic.
Increase conversion rates: voice search users often have a high purchase intention, which makes them lead valuable; by optimizing voice search and providing relevant information about products and services, you can increase the chances of converting voice search users into customers.
Increase brand authority and trust: appearing among the top results for voice queries helps you build authority and brand trust; by providing accurate and reliable information through voice search optimization, you can establish yourself as a trusted source in your industry.

Overall, by investing in Voice Search Optimization, you can improve your SEO performance and achieve long-term success in an increasingly voice-centric world.

Voice Search Optimization: best practices and key strategies

Okay, so far we have understood how voice search is now at the center of new trends and how consequently an optimization in this sense is essential in any self-respecting web marketing strategy.

But how is this done concretely?

What does it mean, in practice, to optimize for voice search?

Below are some tips that will enable you to create content that aligns with user intentions and responds to the most common voice search queries.

#1 Choose the right keywords

As I mentioned, voice searches tend to be worded differently than text searches. They are longer, more specific, and more likely to be complete queries than simple keywords.

When we speak, we are used to using complete sentences with more details than when we write.

This also makes sense when we think about the cost of interaction: for most people, it takes more time and effort to type a query than to say it out loud. Therefore, voice search queries are longer because speaking is less physically and cognitively demanding than typing.

That's why, to optimize voice search, one of the best things you can do is to work on keywords, preferring not only long-tail ones, but also and especially phrases and questions.

In general, you know, short and vague keywords are the enemy of SEO, so mid-tail and long-tail keywords are much more effective: the more specific they are, the more likely they are to capture traffic and bring you customers.

But in voice search optimization we also need to take an extra step, which is to use complete sentences and questions that are normally used in conversations between human beings.

One suggestion in this regard is to think about questions that begin with "who," "what," "when," "where," and "how," include them in the text of your pages (as in an H2) and give them a concise and satisfying answer later. You can also go into more detail in the body of the content after the initial response.

Alternatively, you can also draw inspiration from the "related searches" or "people also ask" sections of the Google results page to see what questions your audience asks most-or search forums, such as Quota or Reddit, or sites such as Answer The Public.

#2 Use colloquial language in your content

The key to effective voice search optimization is, as with SEO in general, the creation of valuable, high-quality content that effectively answers user questions.

Producing useful, searchable content can help you become an expert in your field and improve your ranking.

In Voice Search Optimization, however, there is one key aspect that you cannot overlook: voice searches are conversational.

This means that you should give your content a colloquial and less formal tone, appearing more authentic and easier to read, imagining that you are addressing someone with whom you are familiar and to whom you are speaking in a very simple and intuitive way.

All, of course, without reducing the intrinsic quality and value of your content.

#3 Apply Local SEO

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence to increase local traffic, visibility and brand awareness.

Why is this relevant to voice search?

Because many voice searches have local intent. This means that people often use voice search to find nearby businesses or services.

Applying local SEO therefore means improving the chances that your content will show up in search results for location-specific queries.

There are several ways to do this; here are some suggestions you can implement:

Optimize your business profile on Google: is a free tool that allows you to influence the way your business is displayed for Google Search, Google Shopping and Google Maps.
Leverage other local directories: These are Web sites that list businesses and related information based on their geographic location. This simplifies your display in local search results.
Targeting for local keywords: are words or phrases that people use to find businesses, products, and services in their areas. By targeting local keywords, you can increase the chances of your business being ranked in local results.

#4 Get featured snippet

Featured snippets, also called position zero, are short pieces of content displayed on the Google results page above the organic search results.

Getting the featured snippet is essential for voice search SEO, as voice assistants draw answers from these when people perform searches using voice commands.

Some suggestions for getting the featured snippet include:

Implement schema markup (I'll tell you about that in a very short time);
Using a summary;
Use keywords based on questions;
Create the best content on the topic;
Ensure proper use of headings and subheadings.

In addition to helping you stand out in voice search SEO, placing the snippet in the foreground also increases search traffic and organic click-through rates (CTR), as well as the ROI Of your content marketing .

#5 Optimizes for mobile devices

Many voice searches are done on smartphones, and having a Web site optimized for mobile devices is therefore essential for voice search optimization.

Google considers the mobile user experience an integral part of a good Web site and includes it in its rankings. To get results for both text and voice search, it is important to make your website optimized for mobile devices.

Some ways to do this include:

Improve page speed;
Use responsive design so that content fits appropriately regardless of screen size;
Reduce file sizes for faster loading times;
Ensure easy navigation with large clickable areas (no one likes pressing buttons that are too small);
Format pages and content so that they are easy to read on small screens.

#6 Use structured data markup

Schema markup is another technique that benefits your site's on-page SEO in general, not just voice search SEO.

Schema markup is a type of structured data-essentially, it's the code you add to your website's HTML, which helps Google and other search engines deliver more detailed results. It typically includes key information about your business, including hours, address, contact information, pricing information, reviews and more.

It is invisible to human users, but it helps indexing bots better understand your content, improving visibility in search results and getting more clicks. Since search engines will see your site as more relevant, it also means your site has a better chance of getting into voice search results.

#7 Insert FAQ pages

Trying to include a series of questions and answers in the copy of your page may sometimes seem irrelevant, which is why many Web sites include an FAQ section or a dedicated page.

An FAQ section allows you to list all the common search questions related to your Web site and provide an answer that can compete for a place in voice search results. This content format is also optimal for Google's featured snippet placement, which I have already told you about.

Creating FAQ pages that answer common questions related to your business or industry can therefore increase the likelihood of being selected as a voice search result.

Conclusion

Change is the only constant in this digital world of ours.

Do you agree?

This means that it always pays to embrace and take advantage of any developments in order to stay in step and achieve the desired success.

Understanding the impact of voice search optimization in determining who emerges and who does not is critical.

Voice Search Optimization is no longer a "near future" of SEO: it's already here and it's a race among marketers to see who can master it best, becoming an integral part of any company's digital strategy.

That's why I recommend you start optimizing for voice search now if you want to be relevant in the future.

But tell me, did you already know about this opportunity?