If it seems like you’ve been hearing a lot about voice search from SEO experts and digital marketing agencies, there is good reason for it. Voice search has officially embedded itself in the way we do things online. As an SEO agency in Salt Lake City, we take voice search pretty seriously on behalf of our clients.
Voice search was introduced to our collective consciousness by way of smart assistants (on our phones) and household smart speakers. Its ability to help us find things online has been further enhanced by generative AI. Any SEO or digital marketing agency not paying attention to voice search in the 2020s is leaving a lot on the table.
Everyone Is Doing It
So, how popular is voice search? Research from NPR and Edison Research demonstrates that 35% of American adults owned a smart speaker in 2022. That number has undoubtedly grown in the years since. But that’s not all. The data also shows that:
- 62% use a voice assistant on any device.
- 57% of voice command users utilize the technology daily.
- The average number of voice-assisted tasks completed each week is 12.4.
That’s all well and good as far as smart speakers and phone-based smart assistants are concerned, but what about actual voice search? What does the data say about that? Check out the following statistics:
- 58% of adults 25-34 use voice search every day.
- 43% of adults 55+ use voice search weekly.
- 39% of voice search users have been using the technology for 1-2 years.
That last statistic should be a wakeup call. Voice search users are not novices. The average user has been conducting voice searches for at least a year or two. They know how to do it. They also know what works and what doesn’t. That is the part that should concern every digital marketing and SEO agency.
Voice Search Is Conversational
The title of this post invites you to power up your SEO and digital marketing efforts with voice search. How do you do that? The first step is understanding that voice search is conversational. As an SEO agency in Salt Lake City, we would expect potential clients looking for local SEO service providers to have actual conversations with their devices.
That’s how voice search works.
The searcher asks their device a question. In our case, a potential customer might ask his phone-based assistant something like, “Where can I find SEO services in Salt Lake City?” He might ask about specific services like PPC ad campaigns, Google ad management, local SEO, etc.
All of this points to the practice of optimizing conversational keywords. Remember that keywords still drive the net. Search engines still rely on them to figure out how to match queries with results. But in the age of generative AI, searchers get better results when they use conversational keywords.
Basic Principles
Conversational keywords are so named because they reflect the conversations people have in their day-to-day lives. They are the words and phrases people actually use in their normal conversations. Interestingly, the way we converse is usually different from the way we write. It is true even when using a search engine. Typing one or two keywords into a search bar is far different than asking someone a question.
Here are some key characteristics of conversational keywords:
- They reflect natural language.
- They are more likely to be framed as questions.
- They tend to be longtail (multiple words and complete phrases).
- They tend to start with qualifiers like ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘how.’
The hardest thing about utilizing conversational keywords is figuring out context and intent. But as with just about anything else in SEO and digital marketing, time and experience are very good teachers.
Use Content to Answer Questions
Once you understand the basic concepts of conversational keywords, a new principle for creating content should become apparent. That principle is as follows: use content to answer questions. After all, your target audience is using voice search by asking their smart speakers or phones questions like, “Where can I find an SEO agency in Salt Lake City?”
Thinking of content as a way to answer questions can help you better understand the types of questions your target audience might ask. You can answer a question by explaining how to do something. You can also explain how something works, what something means, why something is the way it is, etc.
Note that content doesn’t necessarily have to ask the question in either the title or body. But titles can still reflect those same qualifying words. This post is a good example. It explains how to do something – specifically, making better use of voice search for SEO and digital marketing.
Structured Data and Schema Markup
Under the hood, improving a website’s structured data and schema markup can help search engines better understand not only content, but also context and intent. Note that context and intent are the source of the real magic in voice search.
Search engines are relying heavily on natural language processing (NLP) and AI to improve voice search. Both technologies have come a long way. However, they are not perfect. You can enhance their capabilities with context and intent – and match voice searches to your website – by improving your structured data and schema markup.
Be Vigilant About Local
Finally, voice search is especially good for local searches. Therefore, be vigilant about local SEO if your organization depends mainly on a local or regional audience. Make use of the ‘near me’ keyword phrase, use local references in your content, and so forth.
As an SEO agency in Salt Lake City, we are acutely aware of the rise of voice search over the last couple of years. It is something we pay a lot of attention to as we seek to help our clients perform better online. If you want to stay ahead of the game, it’s time for you to power up your SEO and digital marketing efforts with voice search, too.
