How Voice Search Transformed Content Marketing Strategy

Ever hear of voice search? Maybe not, but you likely use it all the time. In fact, studies show that over a quarter of all consumers in the US and UK use a voice assistant daily, while 27% of smartphone users worldwide utilize voice search on a daily basis. Voice search involves using a voice assistant, such as Google Home, Apple’s Siri, or Amazon Alexa, to speak rather than type a query. While search has evolved from entering a single word to using a phrase, and then to writing a question, creators have had to adapt their content to conform to these changes if they still want to rank well for a query. Voice search transformed content marketing yet again, so today’s post discusses the changes you must make if you still want to rank well.

If you don’t understand why SEO is critical for your success, check out some posts on this website. Voice search transformed how creators tailor their content to answer spoken queries better, supplementing the SEO best practices they already employ to ensure they rank well when a user searches for related information. This enables websites to attract more search traffic, which accounts for approximately 53% of all website visits, improve local visibility, and increase reach beyond the brand’s existing customer base.

Key ways voice search transformed SEO

If you’re already doing a great job with SEO, you only need to tweak your strategy to accommodate voice search. Primarily, we’re talking about using longer keywords, often referred to as long-tail keywords, that align with user intent and the device being used.

Long-tailed keywords

When users enter a text query, they’re often lazy. They type the minimum number of words they hope will provide a list of web pages that address their informational needs. Voice searches are more conversational and, as a result, tend to be longer. One study found that the average voice search query was 29 words. Keywords that conform to voice search typically start with question words, such as “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, and “how”, because users speaking into a device tend to ask complete questions. As a content creator, you need to do the same by using keywords that are fully formed questions, such as “Which is the best marketing channel for reaching Gen Z males?” rather than best marketing channel. You’ll also find the answers are more specific to your readers’ problems. Unfortunately, many SEO plugins for WordPress will flag these longer keywords as a poor SEO strategy, potentially lowering your SEO score, since they haven’t been updated to meet the new demands of voice search. Hence, ignore this aspect of your SEO grade.

User intent

Users search for answers to their questions on the internet by using a query that they hope will deliver the most salient results to help them plan, make decisions, or find solutions to their problems. We call this user intent and it’s reflected by the words used to formulate the query, whether they use text or voice. Question discovery tools like AnswerThePublic and AlsoAsked can help you uncover common questions users ask by aggregating autocomplete data to show popular queries and permutations used to formulate questions.

User intent is often reflected by implicit keywords that aren’t used in constructing the query. This involves optimizing for synonyms and related terms to the query, utilizing latent semantic indexing (LSI), filler words such as articles, and context-specific keywords, like “small business.” By understanding user intent when creating content, you not only rank better in search results for related content, but you also build trust and community with your target market.

Device matters

While users on all devices utilize voice search, mobile users tend to dominate in terms of daily usage. By optimizing for the types of information commonly requested on mobile devices, you appear higher in the search results. For instance, mobile users are commonly on the go, so they want information such as their location (hopefully linked to a map they can click for navigation), a phone number (with one-click dialing), hours of operation, menus, and filters for nearby locations.

Voice search transformed content structure and snippets

Optimizing for voice search goes beyond keywords, however. You must structure your content so that it directly answers questions, allowing the voice assistant to interpret it easily. Remember, it’s not like a little person is sitting around waiting to deliver content that addresses a user’s question. Among the transformations you can make to your content to appeal to voice assistants are:

• Provide clear and concise answers that accurately address user intent.
• Aim for brief, one to three-sentence answers to a question. Crafting content in this way can also increase exposure by displaying as a featured snippet, also known as position 0, because it appears before all other links.
• Use conversational language free of jargon, formal wording, and lengthy paragraphs, as these can be difficult for visitors to understand. Bullet points and headings can also aid understanding, although this advice predates the rise of voice search.
• Consider adding an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section to summarize the advice shared in a post.

Schema markup and other technical SEO issues

This section is not for the novice and attempting to do some of these things without a thorough understanding of technical issues like HTML and coding can cause severe damage. Feel free to skip this section. Implementing other advice will help your SEO in the era of voice search without attempting to implement the advice in this section.

Schema markup is a fancy word for structured data. It is a carryover from text SEO; however, voice search transformed the importance of well-structured information. You can do this by adopting the advice from earlier on using an FAQ section or a Q&A format for your content or by adding schema markup to your site’s HTML (this is beyond the capability of many content creators, so don’t worry if you don’t understand how to do this). This helps search engines understand your content more thoroughly because the engine can more easily extract content that matches the query. Since some voice assistants provide verbal results, schema markup enhances the likelihood that your content will be featured in voice search results.

Google introduced a type of schema, known as a speakable schema, explicitly designed for voice playback. While still in Beta testing, Speakable schema lets you designate portions of your webpage as content suitable for text-to-speech. There is also a LocalBusiness schema designed to address common queries where users want information about local businesses, such as restaurants and retailers, by prioritizing local user needs, including address, phone number, and hours. A HowTo and Recipe schema is just what it sounds like. A user might receive step-by-step instructions for baking brownies or installing a Ring doorbell. Additionally, incorporating schema markup for products, events, and articles can enhance your overall SEO.

In terms of other technical issues page speed and mobile-friendliness have been SEO ranking factors for years. However, voice search transformed the need to improve your load speed and use a responsive design that shows up great on mobile devices, making these factors more important.

Companies that mastered the voice search transformation

If you want some ideas, here are some companies that seem to be succeeding in the world voice search transformed.

1. Domino’s Pizza offers users the option to order pizza via voice. By saying “Alexa, order a pizza from Domino’s” or simply “order a pizza,” the assistant connects the user to Domino’s ordering system. Their voice assistant, Dom, took over half a million orders in a short time, which boosted sales and strengthened Domino’s brand image as a convenient, tech-savvy company [source].
2. Nestlé created value-added content for voice search users in the kitchen by utilizing schema to deliver recipes from its library using a voice app. Hence, a user can ask Alexa or Siri to provide a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which will provide step-by-step recipe instructions and a shopping list via text-to-speech.

Emerging trends in voice search

AI and voice search

Like seemingly everything else in the world, AI (artificial intelligence) integrates with voice assistants to create interactive dialogues with users rather than simply responding to questions with an answer. Users can modify their questions to get more nuanced results that better address their needs. The AI is conversational, allowing it to ask the user for more information to provide more accurate answers. For instance, I requested that ChatGPT provide a draft of this post to ensure I didn’t miss any key aspects necessary for my small business marketers attempting to respond to the way voice search transformed their content marketing strategy. The AI requested clarification regarding my target readers and the specific aspect of voice search that interested me the most. AI can also provide content that’s more context-aware.

By integrating voice and AI into your content marketing strategy, you’ll appeal to users who employ a voice assistant to access information. This puts even more emphasis on using schema markup effectively. Similarly, integrating AI chatbots with voice offers more precise information that better meets user needs in a conversational style that appeals to them.

Voice commerce

Voice commerce enables users to utilize voice assistants for shopping, resulting in a 33% increase in conversion rates for companies employing this tactic. Some experts predict voice commerce will exceed $80 billion within a few years and grow to $150 billion by the mid-50s (2050, that is). For instance, Alexa constantly offers to add products to my shopping cart when it appears it’s time to reorder or suggests similar products for my consideration.

Accessibility

Voice search transformed the world for visually impaired consumers. Today, one in three of them uses a voice assistant on a weekly basis. This places more emphasis on content marketing strategies already in place to aid the visually impaired, such as using alt text to describe images for those who can’t see them. I expect that we’ll soon see alt texts that exceed today’s norms, which is to use only a few words. In the future, alt texts will likely expand to provide a richer understanding of the image, including discussions of charts or other data visualizations. You’ll also see transcripts for videos that not only adapt to those with visual impairments to expand your reach, but also make your content more discoverable via voice search.

More voice assistants

We’ll see more voice assistants to the point where someone will always listen to you, whether in your car, at home, using devices such as the Echo Show that combine voice search with visual content, and wearables. Of course, that brings up the thorny question of privacy. Currently, there is a lawsuit against Apple for allegedly listening to and recording private conversations when the user didn’t activate the device using the wake-up word, such as Alexa or Siri. Device manufacturers argue that this listening is done to provide more personalized and contextual results, but device owners disagree. I know I disconnected a device because it always listened to conversations when I didn’t ask it to.

Conclusion

Voice search transformed the way you create content if you want to rank well with search engines. In this post, we discussed an approach that involves changes to adapt to this transformation. Obviously, some changes are more technical and complex, such as schema markup, while others, like mobile-friendliness and snippet-worthy echo advice, existed prior to the advent of voice search. As a small business, it’s not likely that you can adopt all the tactics mentioned in this post. However, by implementing them sequentially, adding new tactics as you begin to master the ones already in use, you’ll find your content dominating SEO in the world of voice search.

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Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services.