How to Optimize Written Content for Voice Search

How to Optimize Written Content for Voice Search

In Blog by A. Lee Judge

Optimizing written content for voice search is quickly becoming a priority among marketing specialists around the world. With smart homes becoming an ever more common occurrence, voice assistants such as Alexa or Google Assistant, among others, are estimated to exceed 275 million by 2023. That’s over a 1,000% increase from 2018 when there were roughly 25 million such devices in homes across the US.

Voice search does have some disruptive effects on how companies come in contact with their audience. There are, however, some techniques which will allow your content to be more readily available in voice search results.

Written content optimization should, thus, take center stage in your content marketing strategy, as voice assistants will soon become a favorite way of searching the internet in the coming years.

To help you achieve this task, we’ve compiled a short rundown of some of the most effective ways to optimize written content for voice search.

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Who, When, What, Where, and How Keywords

Keywords play an important part in digital marketing as they help potential customers discover your content via their search engines. The correct use of keywords can make the difference between a page that sees a lot of traffic and one that doesn’t. Use them in such a way that they meet the consumer’s intended query or demand.

When it comes to voice search, the principle of keywords is the same, but the actual keywords may be different. Keywords based around Who, When, What, Where, How, etc., are more commonly used in speech than in writing. Long-tail, contextual keywords centered around these words (i.e., Where can I find a medical practice in my area? or What financial institutions are open today?) Keep in mind that voice search long-tail keywords are usually longer than three or four words and are more conversational, in nature. 

Featured Snippets

Voice search optimized written content is all about context, summarizations, and readability. To that end, some types of content may benefit from being summarized into a featured snippet. Also known as answer boxes, these snippets are summaries pulled from Google’s first-page results that answer the user’s question. 

The key for such a featured snippet to work well with voice search is for it to make sense when read aloud. However, this technique may not be useful for all types of content. So, if the answer to a user’s possible question is too long, in the form of a list, or a table, a voice snippet may not be useful or required.  

Empathize With the Customer

Like we said in the beginning, voice search disrupts the traditional way that companies engage with their customers. That said, messaging with “marketing language” is not something that users actively search. To optimize your written content, you need to empathize with your customers, get into their heads, and anticipate their needs as well as their queries. 

What kind of content provides them with the right type of value that will satisfy their needs and address pain points? By focusing more of your efforts on this type of service and less on a sales type of content, voice search optimization will happen organically. 

Conclusion

Experts estimate that by 2020, half of all internet searches will be voice-based. Preparing yourself and your written content for this inevitability now will spare you a lot of digital marketing headaches in just a couple of years. Want to learn more? Talk to a professional Content Monsta!